Here Alma reminds the people of
Zarahemla of what the Lord did for their fathers:
And
behold, after that, they were brought into bondage by the hands of the
Lamanites in the wilderness; yea, I say unto you, they were in captivity, and
again the Lord did deliver them out of bondage by the power of his word; and we
were brought into this land, and here we began to establish the church of God
throughout this land also. (Alma 5:5)
What strikes me as neat in
this verse is this—“the Lord did deliver them out of bondage by the power of his word” (emphasis
added). It was simply by telling them “tomorrow you will be delivered” that the
Lord was able to save them. The spent the whole night gathering their flocks
together to prepare for this (and may have completely worn out their taskmasters
who couldn’t keep going) and then when their taskmasters went into a deep
sleep, they left and kept going as far and as fast as they could. Because they
prepared for the Lord’s promise, they were ready to go. If they hadn’t
prepared, they would have had to stay there.
It seems to me that so many
of the Lord’s commandments deliver us out of bondage by the power of His word.
Tithing delivers us from a bondage to our goods. Chastity delivers us from bondage
to our carnal desires. Repentance delivers us from bondage to all sin. Fasting
delivers us from bondage to our appetites for food. Service, charity, and families
deliver us from bondage to selfishness and self-centeredness. Prayer delivers
us from a bondage of emotional separation from God. Are there any commandments
that don’t in some way deliver us
from some sort of bondage?
I’m so thankful for the
freedom that comes from the Lord’s words.
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