Monday, April 21, 2014

Helaman Ch5

Just like Alma did so long ago when he quit his job to full time preach, Nephi and Lehi do the same in this chapter and preach about Christ to the people. They convert many but also suffer trials such as being imprisoned and encircled by fire, but are saved because a voice tells the people to repent and the fire encircles everyone in the multitude.
This year 62 was pretty important because this whole chapter is devoted to it, but it's true because Nephi gives up his job as the chief judge to Cezoram to be a full time church leader because the people were starting to be majorly wicked (v1-2). Which means that the majority of the people would rather choose evil than righteous, and this caused Nephi to worry about the welfare of the entire Nephite people and take up the task of preaching with his brother Lehi (v3-5). They are inspired by the words of their father, Helaman, to remember their Lord in v6-12, and that goes a little something like this:
     "My dearest sons, I want you to remember to keep the commandments and declare his words to our people. I named you after our ancestors who came out of Jerusalem because I want you to remember what they have done for us in bringing us here and keep records of the miracles. Please though, do not boast of yourselves for these things, but think only of doing so to bring yourself eternal happiness which does not fade away. Do you remember King Benjamin? He spoke of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ who shall come and redeem the world, which is the only way to be saved.
      "There was also the words of Amulek that spoke of the redeeming of sins by the power of the Lord with power given to him by the Father. These words that have been recorded are written for us so that we may remember them always and know that we must repent so the Redeemer can lead our souls to salvation. He is our rock and we must build our foundation on Him so it is sturdy through the storms and mighty winds that are sent by satan during life."
Of course this wasn't all Helaman taught his sons, but others weren't written, but these teachings helped Nephi and Lehi to remember to keep the commandments and desire to preach to the people in Bountiful, Gid, Mulek, and many more cities (v13-16). As they went, even among the Lamanites, they preached with power and confounded many dissenters who saw the error of their ways and repented, as well as converting 8,000 Lamanites who were inhabiting Zarahemla before moving on the land of Nephi (v17-20). They were captured by some Lamanites and put into prison which had once held previous missionaries, you might remember, Ammon and his brethren (v21).
They suffered in the prison for a while but as the Lamanites came to slay them, Nephi and Lehi were surrounded by a protection of fire that prevented them from being hurt or even burned (v22-23). This pillar of fire gave them the opportunity to preach to their captors and testify of the reality of God who is showing his power through fire and then an earthquake that brought darkness (v24-28). Then the Lord's voice came through the darkness to tell everyone to repent, stop trying to kill His servants, and to go tell everyone about it (v29). This voice had not yelled or been loud, but it pierced even to the very soul and the earth continued to shake as He said again to repent and work to help the kingdom of heaven, then spoke a third time things that we don't even know (v30-33).
The Lamanites couldn't flee because it was still pretty dark and they were pretty scared, but one guy who had once been a Nephite said he saw the faces of Nephi and Lehi shining like angels through the darkness talking to some unseen being (v34-36). Aminadab was his name, and he told everyone else to look and witness the same and said that they are conversing with the angels of God (v37-39). The group of Lamanites asks what they should do, and the only logically answer to that is to repent and have faith, so they all started praying for forgiveness until the darkness left (v37-42).
When the darkness cleared, they saw that the fire around them remained but they were still not hurt which symbolizes their being cleansed which allowed the gift of the Holy Spirit to enter into their hearts telling them to have peace (v43-47). Then the group of 300 had the chance to visit with angels from heaven and told to go forth to tell the world the message they had received into their hearts (v48-50). All of the laid down their weapons of war, gave the land back to the Nephites, and preached the truths they had learned through this experience (v51-52).

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