In Bondage at Helam

In his recent general conference talk, Bishop Waddell spoke about the trials of Alma and his people at Helam when the Lamanites came and put them in bondage as recorded in Mosiah 23-24.  He commented, “Alma and his people had done nothing to deserve their new condition.”  Elder Ellis made a similar remark concerning this people in the Book of Mormon in the next session of general conference, “Few have suffered more undeservedly than the people of Alma. They fled from wicked King Noah, only to become slaves to the Lamanites!”  The message of both was the need to trust in the Lord no matter what happens and to realize, as Mormon taught us, that the Lord will try our “patience and [our] faith” through the trials we go through.  This group had chosen to follow the Lord, made covenants at the water of baptism, fled from the wickedness of King Noah and his priest, and were building up a righteous city to the Lord under the principle that “every man should love his neighbor as himself, and there should be no contention among them” (Mosiah 23:15).  Certainly they were much more righteous than Amulon and the Lamanites who came upon them and put them under bondage, and the injustice of it must have been a hard thing to swallow for this people who were trying to do what was right. 

               And yet, at the same time, I would amend the statement that they had “done nothing to deserve” their bondage to the Lamanites to “they had done nothing recently” to deserve their fate.  They had been among the people of King Noah when Abinadi came among them saying, “Wo be unto this people, for I have seen their abominations…. And except they repent and turn to the Lord their God, behold, I will deliver them into the hands of their enemies; yea, and they shall be brought into bondage; and they shall be afflicted by the hand of their enemies” (Mosiah 11:21).  The people did not repent from Abinadi’s words, but continued in wickedness, and when the prophet came back two years later his message was this, “Thus saith the Lord, it shall come to pass that this generation, because of their iniquities, shall be brought into bondage, and shall be smitten on the cheek….  And it shall come to pass that except they repent I will utterly destroy them from off the face of the earth” (Mosiah 12:2, 8).  When Abinadi came the first time, the message was, “Repent or you will be put in bondage.”  When he came the second time the message was, “You have not repented so you will be put in bondage—repent now or you will be completely destroyed.”  The portion of the people that did not go with Alma but remained under King Limhi were indeed put under bondage to the Lamanites and eventually were delivered by the Lord through their faith and repentance when Ammon arrived.  But this group who left under Alma were, it seems to me, still under the burden of this prophecy from Abinadi.  The fact that they came under bondage to the Lamanites (likely many years later) was, I believe, ultimately a fulfillment of Abinadi’s promise for their lack of repentance initially.

               Either way, though, the point of both of these brethren in general conference was that the situation appeared totally unjust for Alma and his people—they were trying to do what was right and were suffering nonetheless.  The message for all of us is that at times the righteous will suffer even as the wicked appear to be “happy” and “set up” as Malachi put it (Malachi 3:15).  Whether we have really caused our own suffering or whether it is purely the Lord trying to refine us—or perhaps both—we won’t always know.  What is important is that we turn to the Lord in our challenges, and He promises that He will come to us.  And then we can declare as this people did, that we “know of a surety that… the Lord God [does] visit [his] people in their afflictions” (Mosiah 24:14).