19 Now the joy of Alma in meeting his brethren was truly great, and also the joy of Aaron, of Omner, and Himni; but behold their joy was not that to exceed their strength.
Now, what can we learn from this little verse? And why was it included bing he record? There must be something we can glean, or Mormon would not have included it in the record. Especially since it could be interpreted as a slight against Aaron, Omner and Himni.
Why was their joy (although surely great!) not as great as Ammons? Did Ammon and Alma have an especially close friendship compared to the others? Ammon Aaron Omner and Himni were all brothers— sons of Mosiah. So there was no special blood relation between Alma and Ammon.
In addition, I’m reminded of “Ammon’s Boasting” in the Lord. The time when Ammon was rejoicing and exalting in the Lord over being instruments in his hands in bringing thousands of Lamanites to Christ, and his brother Aaron rebuked him.
In previous verses, it has been illustrated that those who receive joy to the level that they would fall to the earth because their joy would exhaust their physical strength only comes to none “ ...save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness.”
Now we have two examples of Ammon rejoicing to a greater degree than his brothers. This seems to indicate that his overjoy over meeting Alma did not exceed his brothers joy simply because Ammon had a closer relationship with Alma.
It seems that there are degrees of happiness and joy for all of us at any given time (many mansions), and that Ammon simply appears to have qualified for a greater degree of joy because, perhaps, he was more penitent and more humble and was a greater “seeker of happiness.” than his brothers. The fact that Aaron had previously rebuked his brother Ammon when he was doing nothing but rejoicing in God seems to indicate he MAY have been a little less humble than Ammon. Perhaps a tiny bit prideful or perhaps even a little envious of his brother. After all, his brother Ammon seemed to be the catalyst to more miracles among them, and that could easily be used by Satan to cause feelings of jealousy.
Now, once again, this is all speculation and not meant to bash these brothers who risked their lives to share the joy of their redemption with their mortal enemies! But, is it not true that they as well as we all suffer from the weaknesses of the flesh? I am reminded of this little gem from Brother Joseph:
“I never told you I was perfect; but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught. Must I, then, be thrown away as a thing of naught?”
“Although I do wrong, I do not the wrongs that I am charged with doing: the wrong that I do is through the frailty of human nature, like other men. No man lives without fault. Do you think that even Jesus, if He were here, would be without fault in your eyes? His enemies said all manner of evil against Him—they all watched for iniquity in Him.”
We are all different, with differing degrees of righteous desires and strengths and weaknesses. It seems like Ammon simply was a slightly more “truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness” than his brothers.
The lesson for us is that we receive a reward commensurate to our righteous desires and our works. And, apparently, the sky is the limit, and our joy can exceed that which we think.
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