Helaman 3-4

Helaman 3

Mormon skims over 10 years of Nephite history in one chapter. Helaman is the author of most of the book of Helaman, but remember that Mormon compiles a summary of all the Nephite records, so this chapter is an insertion (written a couple hundred years down the road) in his voice. And he lets us know that “a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people, yea, the account of the Lamanites and of the Nephites, and their wars, and contentions, and dissensions, and their preaching, and their prophecies, and their shipping and their building of ships, and their building of temples, and of synagogues and their sanctuaries, and their righteousness, and their wickedness, and their murders, and their robbings, and their plundering, and all manner of abominations and whoredoms, cannot be contained in this work.” (vs. 14)

Mormon tells us that the people of Nephi are multiplying and spreading across the land. They have some years of pride and contention amongst themselves and even in the church, and some years of great prosperity and peace. One of the themes of the Book of Mormon is warning against the “Pride Cycle.” The Price Cycle looks like this:

The Nephites demonstrate this cycle over and over again in the Book of Mormon, and they even go through a mini-cycle during the 10 years covered in Helaman 3. The way to break the pride cycle is to remain humble and obedient to the Lord even when you are prosperous and richly blessed. Most people aren’t very good at that.

I love a short passage in this chapter that talks about the goodness of a small portion of the church, who humbly respond to the pride and persecutions of the rich people in the church who are turning rotten:

33 And in the fifty and first year of the reign of the judges there was peace also, save it were the pride which began to enter into the church—not into the church of God, but into the hearts of the people who professed to belong to the church of God—

 34 And they were lifted up in pride, even to the persecution of many of their brethren. Now this was a great evil, which did cause the more humble part of the people to suffer great persecutions, and to wade through much affliction.

 35 Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.

I learn a deep lesson from these humble people. In the middle of unfair persecution from people who knew better (their own brethren/sisters in the church!), they could have turned bitter…

Instead they chose to be humble and to pray more.

As a result, their faith in Christ became firmer and firmer.

As a result of firmer faith, their souls were filled with joy and consolation.

The joy and consolation purified and sanctified their hearts.

And ultimately this beautiful transformation in the midst of persecution and sorrow occurred because the people chose to yield their hearts to God, rather than turn bitter, angry, or prideful themselves.

Helaman 4

Mormon is brief in his summary of big events. The Nephites are becoming more and more wicked, and drifting further and further from God. The worst of the Nephites rebel, fleeing to the Lamanites, and convincing them to attack the Nephites. The Nephites are nearly completely taken over by the Lamanites and Nephite-dissenters, and it is only through a few righteous leaders who encourage repentance and humility and that little ground is re-gained:

14 But behold, Moronihah did preach many things unto the people because of their iniquity, and also Nephi and Lehi, who were the sons of Helaman, did preach many things unto the people, yea, and did prophesy many things unto them concerning their iniquities, and what should come unto them if they did not repent of their sins.

 15 And it came to pass that they did repent, and inasmuch as they did repent they did begin to prosper.

 16 For when Moronihah saw that they did repent he did venture to lead them forth from place to place, and from city to city, even until they had regained the one-half of their property and the one-half of all their lands.

Notice how Moronihah waited to fight back to regain their land until he had witnessed some repentance among his people. He knew they would not be successful otherwise, because they would not have the help of the Lord. As Mormon goes on to summarize, the people begin to realize that without the Lord, they are not strong enough to survive against their enemies.

24 And they saw that they had become weak, like unto their brethren, the Lamanites, and that the Spirit of the Lord did no more preserve them; yea, it had withdrawn from them because the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy temples—

25 Therefore the Lord did cease to preserve them by his miraculous and matchless power, for they had fallen into a state of unbelief and awful wickedness; and they saw that the Lamanites were exceedingly more numerous than they, and except they should cleave unto the Lord their God they must unavoidably perish.

 26 For behold, they saw that the strength of the Lamanites was as great as their strength, even man for man. And thus had they fallen into this great transgression; yea, thus had they become weak, because of their transgression, in the space of not many years.

I think the most important lesson from this chapter comes from applying it to our normal-life battles, not just a time when our nation is at war. It certainly applies in war-time that we need the strength of God, but I have needed the strength of God in my daily battles at work, at school, at home, and in helping family and friends with their personal battles. If I had to face my battles “man for man” with only my own strength to rely on, that prospect terrifies me. I need the Lord. 

One more thought: sometimes people think that bad things happen as a result of God punishing us. Most of the time, I think the case is that God has simply withdrawn his support and protection, which He doesn't want to do but has to because He can't be with people who are not living as they know they should (see verse 24 above). And when God's protection is withdrawn, harmful forces or even the consequences of our own bad choices have full access to attack us, and we now stand without protection.  It was our own choice.