3 Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how many of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.
Ammon answers his own rhetorical question. He rejoices that their brothers, the Lamanites, has been snatched out of a dark abyss into the marvelous light of God. Not just brought out of darkness, but a dark abyss. What is the difference? Obviously a dark abyss is worse than darkness.
ABYSS', noun [Gr. bottomless, from a priv. and bottom, Ion. See Bottom.]
1. A bottomless gulf; used also for a deep mass of waters, supposed by some to have encompassed the earth before the flood.
Darkness was upon the face of the deep, or abyss as it is in the Septuagint. Genesis 1:2.
The word is also used for an immense cavern in the earth, in which God is supposed to have collected all the waters on the third day of the creation. It is used also for hell, Erebus.
2. That which is immeasurable; that in which any thing is lost.
Thy throne is darkness, in the abyss of light.
An abyss is basically a bottomless pit. So far down that there is seemingly no bottom. So the Lamanites weren’t just in darkness, but in a dark, bottomless pit. That is how far from the light they, their brethren, had fallen.
Notice that Ammon, as so many in the Book of Mormon, refers to their enemy, the Lamanites, as their brethren. And indeed they were. The two groups were all cousins, every single one. Even those who were the seed of Ishmael intermarried from the beginning, and were all blood relatives. How tender that they would refer to their lost and fallen enemies as their brothers.
And what is Ammon and his brethren’s great blessing? That they were instruments in God’s hands in bringing souls unto Christ. In spite of everything they suffered, they felt blessed. Even blessed beyond measure. And not for something they had received, but for something they had given! Surely, it is more blessed to give than receive! And surely we find ourselves when we lose ourselves in the service of others!
For would they have felt such great joy and rejoicing if they just stayed home and did their home teaching??? Would they have felt such joy if they had sat there basking in the light they had been given without bringing others into the life-giving, soul warming light? No. They would have been sitting in the shade.
They had been snatched out of the dark abyss themselves, and could not bear the thought of their brethren suffering likewise. They had, like Lehi in his dream, partaken of that fruit which is most white and most sweet, and immediately wanted to share it with others.
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