Application: When this verse suggests that the Lamanites lay down their weapons, we have the immediate picture of arrows, swords, and other weapons which inflict physical wounds. However, there is another way in which we may read this verse, perhaps justified by the phrase that “they did not fight against God any more.” Surely physical weapons would not be part of a fight against God. In what way might we see this verse in light of a war against God?
These are their weapons of rebellion, not only their weapons of war. We, too, have our weapons of rebellion against God, and those weapons vary from person to person, and perhaps time to time. One who is secretly disobeying the Word of Wisdom may have that habit as a personal weapon of rebellion. One who dresses in styles inappropriate to the worship of God may have a weapon of rebellion. One who justifies neglect of his family by appeal to the requirements of a profession just might have a weapon of rebellion against God.
A weapon of rebellion can be anything that we use in our lives to combat the transformation the spirit is pushing us toward. We may know precisely what the Spirit wants us to do to improve our spirituality, and we fend off that understanding with our favorite weapon of rebellion. When we, like the Lamanites, come to see clearly the offer of the peace of the Lord compared with the life we are currently accepting, we become willing to accept that peace by laying down our personal weapons of rebellion, our personal ways of resisting the transformation that the Spirit is urging upon us.