King Lamoni awoke from his 3-day swoon and found his faithful wife watching over him.  As he attempted to explain what he’d experienced, “his heart was swollen within him, and he sunk again with joy; and the queen also sunk down, being overpowered by the spirit.”  (Alma 19:13).

The sleeping man had a larger audience than just the queen.  Ammon then “fell upon his knees, and began to pour out his soul in prayer and thanksgiving to God for what he had done” (verse 14), and was the next one to fall.  The servants of the king followed Ammon’s example and fell over like dominoes.

This wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened in the Book of Mormon, nor was it the last.  It happened over and over again.  Sometimes the dominoes fell because of great joy.  Sometimes they fell because of great fear.  Sometimes it occurred because God smote them.  (A listing of such occurrences includes Jacob 7:21; Mosiah 27:12, 27:18; Alma 14:27, 18:42, 19:13-16, 22:18, 27:17, 36:7 and 10; Helaman 9:4; 3 Ne. 1:16-17, 11:12; Ether 3:6, 15:32).

If we haven’t experienced such joy or fear it might be difficult to understand.  My young son experienced such an event, so perhaps he can understand.

I put my hay up in big, round bales.  I brought them all into the stack yard, and laid them out in a giant maze.  Each Halloween I sponsored a well-attended party for the youth which featured the maze, a bonfire, cider and doughnuts, and a spook alley in our old barn after dark.

My own children enjoyed the maze as well.  They continually worked at solving it during its ever-changing construction.  Each day they’d find yesterday’s solution blocked off, and would have to work out the new route.  Matt was perhaps 10 years old.  By the time Halloween arrived he could run through the maze with his eyes closed.  And run through it he did.  He was younger than everyone else, but he could do it fastest.  He was the first in, and would be the first out.

What Matt didn’t know was that there was a gorilla in the maze.  It gave the man in the gorilla costume great pleasure to see Matt’s reaction when he encountered him in the dark.  A car’s headlights were trained over the maze to give just enough light for the youth to find their way through the maze and to recognize the surprises that they’d encounter along the way.  The gorilla delightedly reported that when Matt ran into him, all strength went out of Matt’s legs, and he simply sank to the ground.

That’s probably what happened to the chief judge, the lawyers, and the priests who bravely smote upon Alma and Amulek as they were bound in the prison at Ammonihah.  When Alma prayed, he and Amulek “broke the cords with which they were bound,” and the fear of destruction came upon their tormentors.  “So great was their fear that they fell to the earth, and did not obtain the outer door of the prison; and the earth shook mightily, and the walls of the prison were rent in twain, so that they fell to the earth; and the chief judge, and the lawyers, and priests, and teachers, who smote upon Alma and Amulek, were slain by the fall thereof.”  (Alma 14:25-27).

There are not so many accounts of falling dominoes in the Bible, but I’d like to mention one that’s very noteworthy.  The account is in 2 Kings, chapter 19.  Sennacherib, the king of Assyria—brutal Assyria, which had already depopulated many cities and kingdoms—had brought his numerous army to Jerusalem for the purpose of destroying it.  Every soul within the walls of Jerusalem but one was terrified about the prospects of the morrow.  The one calm individual was the prophet Isaiah.  He had prophesied to king Hezekiah that:

“thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria.  He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

“By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.

“For I will defend this city, to save it...

“And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand:  and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses.

“So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned and dwelt at Ninevah” where he was forthwith assassinated.  (2 Kings 19:32-37).

Just imagine, 185,000 dead men!  The wording here is interesting:  “And when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses.”

Who is “they” who arose early in the morning—Sennacherib, the Jews inside the city, or the 185,000 who awoke to find their eternal spirits on the other side of the veil?  Surely it was all of the above.

The subdued, head-shaking, humiliated Sennacherib would have immediately headed for home before the Jews could learn of his extreme vulnerability.  The Jews were left with a mess of epic proportions to clean up.  However would you dispose of 185,000 dead bodies, and no heavy equipment with which to do it?  Surely the cleaning up of the camp and the burying of the bodies required the prolonged efforts of every grateful inhabitant of Jerusalem.

A miracle had been wrought, and a great lesson learned.  The lesson is that the Lord will fight the battles of the faithful and of those who patiently wait.  Alma and Amulek had to patiently endure great affliction before their miracle came.  Lamoni’s queen patiently and faithfully waited by her husband’s bed for that time on the morrow when Ammon said that Lamoni would arise.  The miracle came.

As a result of king Benjamin’s speech in which he delivered the words of the angel of the Lord, his subjects all fell to the earth “for the fear of the Lord had come upon them.”  (Mosiah 4:1).  With one voice they cried out for mercy, and their miracle came.  “The Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience.”  (Mosiah 4:2-3).

I have never experienced fear or joy to the extreme that all strength has gone out of my legs, but I have experienced feelings of gratitude that are nearly overwhelming.  I know that miracles happen.  I’ve been the recipient of many, many miracles.

I know that the Lord lives, that He knows me, and that He desires to bless me.  I know that He fights my battles.  I know that He requires my devotion and my patience.  I know that He will try me.  I know that I must show my worthiness through tribulation, through patience, and through steadfastness.  I know that if I am faithful the day will come when I will fall down before the Lord and worship Him with expressions of great gratitude for unfathomable blessings that I have not earned.

I thank Him for His grace.  I thank Him for the gift of repentance.  I thank Him for my redemption from death and hell and the adversary.  I thank Him for making Himself known to me.  I wish that all men could understand what I know.

The day will come when every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess Him.  May it be that they will fall down before Him at that time out of gratitude rather than out of fear.