Visited in Prison

In one of His teachings during the final week of His life the Savior commended specifically those who would care for prisoners saying, “I was in prison, and ye came unto me” (Matt. 25:36).  He suggested that if we would do this to “one of the least of these my brethren” it would be as if we had done it to Him.  I think we see that the Savior Himself lived by this principle in that He visited and took care of His servants who were imprisoned.  For example, we see this in the book of Acts as Peter and the other apostles went forth to preach the gospel to Jew and Gentile.  When Peter and some of the apostles were preaching in Jerusalem, the high priest and others “laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.”  But the Lord took care of them: “The angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth” (Acts 5:18-19).  Later after having killed James, Herod “proceeded further to take Peter” and “he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him.”  But the Lord took care of His servants in prison again: “And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands” (Acts 12:3-4, 7).  Peter was led out of the prison miraculously and saved again by the Lord.  When Peter was in prison, the Lord came unto him just as He had commended us to do. 

               We see other examples in the scriptures of those who were visited by the Lord in prison.  For example, Paul and Silas were cast into prison “into the inner prison” and put in stocks.  In the middle of the night “there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed” (Acts 16:24, 26).  The missionary prisoners were taken care of and ultimately freed.  On another occasion when Paul was imprisoned again, “the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome” (Acts 23:11).  Again the Lord visited His servant in prison who was on His errand.  We see the same pattern as well in the Book of Mormon.  After Alma and Amulek had been shut up several days in the prison in Ammonihah, they prayed in great faith and “the earth shook mightily, and the walls of the prison were rent in twain, so that they fell to the earth.”  Their wicked oppressors were killed, but Alma and Amulek “came forth out of the prison” like “two lions” (Alma 14:27-29).  On another occasion Nephi and Lehi were “cast into prison” by the Lamanites, and after they had been there for many days, they “were encircled about as if by fire” and their captors “durst not lay their hands upon them for fear lest they should be burned” (Helaman 5:21-23).  They were miraculously preserved by the hand of the Lord and there were many who were converted because of it.  These and other scriptural accounts show that the Lord meant to live by His own teaching to visit and remember those in prison.  Whatever type of “prison” we may find ourselves in, whether physical or emotional or represented by some other kind of difficulty, the Lord will remember us.  He may not always bring the prison walls down, but to those who seek Him, He will figuratively stand by us as He has done for so many others.