When Ammon and his fellow missionaries saw and realized that any plan of theirs to deliver their brethren from the hands of their enemies was beforehand doomed to failure, they, after much tribulation and searching of their souls, decided to place their problem directly before the Lord. They knew that He was wiser and more powerful than them all, and that He would not forsake them nor leave them in their grief. Confident that He would hear and answer their supplications, Ammon, in the strength of his faith, cried unto his brethren and to the king: "I will go and inquire of the Lord."
Ammon's solemn proposal found immediate acceptance in the king's heart. What before had appeared as an utterly unanswerable and dark mystery now became illumined with light and hope from Above. Despair gave way to gladness; the king saw triumph in the Lord; together with Ammon he affirmed the joyful prospect, "Yea, if the Lord saith unto us go, we will go down unto our brethren, and we will be their slaves until we repair unto them the many murders and sins which we have committed against them,"
Ammon thereupon explained another of the great Christian ideals to the king. It had been the habit of the Lamanites for many generations to make slaves of any Nephites who fell into their hands, this or slay them. But with the Nephites it was different. The Nephites, being of the House of Israel, could not observe the Law of Moses and enslave their brethren. (See Mosiah 2:13) Also according to the Code of Mosiah which was the supreme law of the Nephites it was unlawful to make slaves of human beings. Ammon knowing the hearts and the desires of the Nephites, their willingness to forgive and their anxiety to extend the Gospel of Christ unto all men, answered the king: "therefore let us go down and rely upon the mercies of our brethren."
The king, now more than ever, was anxious to rely on the wisdom of the Lord. Again he bade Ammon: "Inquire of the Lord, and if He saith unto us Go, we will go; otherwise we will perish in the land." With no thought of abandoning his new belief in Christ and His Gospel to gain respite from earthly tribulations, Anti-Nephi-Lehi was ready to obey the counsels of God, and in the event that the Lord said No, he was ready to pay the cost of his recently discovered faith with the sacrifice of his life.