Faith Precedes a Miracle ~ Zarahemla

 God's timing is different from our timing, but it is always the perfect timing.  After Alma's people were forbidden to pray aloud, they all poured out their hearts to go in silent prayer.  God heard their prayers, saw their faith and their patience.  He spoke to Alma and said, "Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage . . . Thou shalt go before this people, and I will go with thee and deliver this people out of bondage." (Mosiah 24: 16, 18) Thus God hears and answers the faithful prayers of His children.

Alma went to his people, quietly and a few at a time.  He told them that the Lord had spoken to him and was ready to deliver them.  He outlined the plan: as soon as it was dark, they should quietly get together their grain and household belonging, just that as would be necessary for a trip into the wilderness.  I'm sure they must have had to travel light.  When it was very dark, they were to gather their flocks.

Then, in the early hours of the morning, while it was still dark, God caused a deep sleep to come upon the guards and taskmasters Amulon and King Laman had set over them.  Very quietly, they took up their burdens and, with their flocks and families, crept out of the village and into the wilderness.  They traveled all day until they reached the Valley of Alma, where they pitched their tents for the night.  The first thing they did was to thank God for their deliverance.  The Book of Mormon tells us: Yea, and in the valley of Alma they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their burdens, and had delivered them out of bondage; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God. And they gave thanks to God, yea, all their men and all their women and all their children that could speak lifted their voices in the praises of their God. (Mosiah 24: 21, 22)  I wonder if we ever pray fervently for deliverance from trial and then forget to thank God when we have been delivered?

The Lamanites slept late into the morning and awoke to find Alma's people had fled.  They began to search for them.  Alma was warned by God to take his people and flee from the Valley of Alma, for the Lamanites were not far behind them.  They took up the belongings and traveled twelve days through the wilderness.

On the twelfth day, they arrived in Zarahemla.  King Mosiah welcomed them with open arms.  Alma later became the prophet and spiritual leader in Zarahemla and a good friend of the King as they often counseled together for the benefit of the Nephite peoples.

Why did the Lamanites stop following Alma? Geography.

 

Sorensen stated: The geographical arrangement that seems the most logical puts Helam in the well-watered Rio Blanca Valley, and the Valley of Alma around Huehuetenango.  Beyond that point, travelers bound northward and westward [the direction Alma travel toward Zarahemla] like the Lamanite army chasing Alma, clearly pass a threshold - a literal watershed - separating the highland that look toward the Valley of Guatemala/Nephi from the terrain that starts to drop toward the Grijalva River drainage of Chiapas/Zarahemla. (* p. 180)  The yellow line on this map shows the watershed of the mountain range of which Sorensen speaks.

 

Tomorrow, we shift our focus and look at a reoccurring theme in Book of Mormon.

 

*An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, John L. Sorensen, F.A.R.M.S., Deseret Book, 1985

 

Text copyright August 2013, Gebara Education

 

Pictures from www.lds.org

Map from www.bookofmormonresources.blogspot.com