The Requirement to Go Back

There is a common occurrence in the Book of Mormon where a righteous person was required by the Lord to return to a dangerous situation that he had left in order to accomplish God’s designs.  We see this first in the story of Nephi seeking to obtain the plates of brass.  He and his brothers attempted to purchase them from Laban, but then “fled into the wilderness” to escape the servants of Laban who were trying to kill them (1 Nephi 3:27).  They knew then that their lives would certainly be at risk if they tried to go back to Laban, and yet the Lord asked them to go back: “Behold ye shall go up to Jerusalem again, and the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands” (1 Nephi 3:29).  Nephi trusted the Lord, and at the peril of his life he went back and obtained the plates.  In the Lord’s wisdom He chose not to let Nephi obtain the plates on his first try, but He required him to have the faith and courage to go back a second time. 

               Several other prophets in the Book of Mormon showed their courage by going back to where the Lord asked, despite the dangers.  Abinadi was one of those.  After he first delivered his message to King Noah and his people, Noah was angry saying, “I command you to bring Abinadi hither, that I may slay him.”  But when they “sought to take away his life… the Lord delivered him out of their hands” (Mosiah 11:26, 28).  If I were Abinadi, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to go back to the people of King Noah.  But the Lord required just that, and he went: “And it came to pass that after the space of two years that Abinadi came among them in disguise, that they knew him not, and began to prophesy among them” (Mosiah 12:1).  Ultimately he gave up his life in order to fulfill the Lord’s request of him to go back.  In another story, Alma the Younger did something similar in Ammonihah.  His first visit there was not a success, for the people “withstood all his words, and reviled him, and spit upon him, and caused that he should be cast out of their city” (Alma 8:13).  And yet, as he was journeying away from the city, an angel came to him saying, “I am sent to command thee that thou return to the city of Ammonihah, and preach again unto the people of the city” (Alma 8:16).  Like Nephi and Abinadi, the Lord required him to go back into danger in order to fulfill His purposes.  Samuel the Lamanite was another missionary who was required to return to a dangerous field of labor.  On his first visit to Zarahemla, he preached to the people and “they did cast him out, and he was about to return to his own land” (Helaman 11:2).  But again the Lord needed him to return: “behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, that he should return again, and prophesy unto the people whatsoever things should come into his heart” (Helaman 13:3).  Despite the dangers that awaited him, Samuel was faithful and did indeed return to the city despite those who would seek to kill him.   

               I think these stories teach us a couple of lessons.  First, even when we are doing what is right, the Lord may not make us successful on our first attempt.  We have to trust His timing when we are on His errand.  Second, we learn that the Lord will require difficult, even dangerous, tasks of His servants.  Surely the natural man in these four faithful men did not want to return to the city where they were unwelcome, but each did return and trusted in the Lord’s help in their labors.  Whatever difficulties are in our lives, we must trust that the Lord will always help us accomplish those things He asks us to do.  But, He may not always make it easy—we may need to go back and try a second time.