Alma 46:21-27

Made with

• Midjourney

August 17, 2024

As I was reading these verses for Sunday School, I was struck by how much symbolism is packed into their covenant.

Moroni tears his coat to make the Title of Liberty, and in response, "the people came running together with their armor girded about their loins, rending their garments in token, or as a covenant, that they would not forsake the Lord their God," and that if they did, "the Lord should rend them even as they had rent their garments."¹

I found that to be a very powerful dual image. It serves both as a reminder of the Title of Liberty, which itself symbolized the things they were fighting to protect, and as a representation of the penalty for violating their covenant.

And then they added another layer to it:

23 Moroni said unto them: Behold, we are a remnant of the seed of Jacob; yea, we are a remnant of the seed of Joseph, whose coat was rent by his brethren into many pieces; yea, and now behold, let us remember to keep the commandments of God, or our garments shall be rent by our brethren, and we be cast into prison, or be sold, or be slain.

24 Yea, let us preserve our liberty as a remnant of Joseph; yea, let us remember the words of Jacob, before his death, for behold, he saw that a part of the remnant of the coat of Joseph was preserved and had not decayed. And he said—Even as this remnant of garment of my son hath been preserved, so shall a remnant of the seed of my son be preserved by the hand of God, and be taken unto himself, while the remainder of the seed of Joseph shall perish, even as the remnant of his garment.

27 And now who knoweth but what the remnant of the seed of Joseph, which shall perish as his garment, are those who have dissented from us? Yea, and even it shall be ourselves if we do not stand fast in the faith of Christ.

Moroni reminded them of their ancestry and of Jacob's prophecy: just as a remnant of Joseph’s torn coat was preserved, so would a remnant of Joseph’s seed be preserved. Part of Moroni’s coat was preserved and made into the Title of Liberty, and those who fought for liberty, for their God, religion, freedom, peace, wives, and children² were also preserved miraculously—just as Joseph was miraculously preserved in Egypt and played a part in the miraculous preservation of his family and all of Egypt during the great famine.

To illustrate these symbols, I worked with Midjourney to create this piece: Remnant of the Seed of Joseph. Pictured is a remnant of the coat of many colors. Much of its symbolism has already been explained above as part of our covenant relationship with God. The branch represents the scattering of Israel, hearkening to the branches of the olive tree taken from the mother tree and planted in the nethermost parts of the vineyard³; in this case, specifically, the Nephites who were a preserved part of the tribe of Joseph (through Manasseh), "a fruitful bough... whose branches run over the wall"⁴. The wheat represents both the vision Joseph had, where his brothers’ sheaves bowed to his own⁵, and the miraculous preservation of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's covenant seed during the great famine⁶. The cup represents the silver cup that Joseph placed in Benjamin’s sack, reminding us of the brothers’ reunion⁷, and of the future day when Christ will gather Israel and reign over them and the whole Earth during the Millennium.