Much of Alma’s sermon has focused on the unrepentant and the eternal consequences of arriving at the final judgment unrepentant. Now, Alma ends with hope. There is a call to repent, and there are blessings that flow from repentance, through the atonement of the coming Messiah:
The righteous will be separated from the unrighteous, implying that they will not share their fate.
The names of the righteous are written in the book of life, meaning they will have eternal life. Eternal life signifies the quality of life in the kingdom of heaven.
The righteous have the protection of the promise of the land, here stated as protection from the wolf that would devour the sheep.
All of these blessings come if those in the congregation heed the call of the Spirit and the Good Shepherd, who is the coming Messiah.
A subtle point in this important sermon is that the imagery of the Good Shepherd, the sheep, and the wolves, are probably present due to the translation rather than the Nephite original. Particularly, if the setting is Mesoamerica, there were no sheep, therefore, no shepherds. Even if the location were anywhere else, there was no sheep husbandry. The original plates must have had an image that invoked the same thoughts, but the specifics of this language come from the New Testament’s Old World heritage.