Alma points out that there are more ways than one to achieve humility. One may be compelled to humility, or a confession of powerlessness, when some outside source thwarts a great desire. It is more difficult to recognize that oneself may be blocking fulfillment of the desire. For these poor, their access to Yahweh, as they thought, was being blocked by elites who saw unworthiness in their lower economic status. But that very situation made them willing to learn a different way to Yahweh. In Jesus’s New Testament examples of the rich men who could not enter the kingdom of God, the hindrance was not external but rather the person’s relationship to his own riches (Matt. 19:23–24, Mark 10:23–24, Luke 18:24–25). The rich young man who left sorrowing after Jesus told him to give all his wealth to the poor had a desire to follow the Savior, but his wealth was the greater desire (Luke 18:21–23).
Alma points out that those who voluntarily humble themselves are more blessed, not because the result is different but because the effort to achieve humility is much more difficult. If the rich man who can “hardly [i.e., with difficulty]… enter into the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:23) becomes poor, he might turn to Yahweh in the aftermath. The removal of his riches might remove his obstacle to Yahweh; yet even with riches, he might be able to school his soul and become humble enough to change. There have been, and are, wealthy people who are tremendously faithful in the gospel. They have been able to humble themselves to place their riches in the proper perspective with God. These are then more blessed, according to Alma, because they have overcome the obstacle on their own.