Mosiah 23

After God warned Alma to flee from King Noah, he had taken the people of his church and fled into the wilderness with their livestock and provisions. After eight days, they came to a beautiful place where the water was pure and King Noah wouldn’t find them. They settled, and began diligently building a community in which to live.

Although the people wanted Alma as king, he declined. “I doubt the wisdom of having a king,” he said. “God doesn’t want one man putting himself above others. As you’ve seen with King Noah and his priests, kings can become corrupt and forgetful of God’s laws. I, myself, was caught in the trap and did many things as his priest that I now regret. Fortunately, God heard my cries and answered my prayers. He made me an instrument to bring you to his knowledge and truth. I neither want nor deserve any glory.

“As subjects of King Noah, you were caught and dragged down into the oppression of the kingdom. Now that you’ve been freed by the power of God, do you really want another king to rule over you? I want you to stay free, and trust no one as king. Likewise, you shouldn’t trust anyone to be your teacher or priest unless he is a man of God who dutifully follows his commandments himself.”

Alma taught that if each person would love each other as he loved himself, there wouldn’t be conflicts. As the founder of their church, Alma decreed that only God could convey the authority of any man to become a priest or minister to the people. Accordingly, only men of God were ordained by him as ministers. As the people were spiritually nourished, they prospered and flourished. They built a city in the wilderness and named it Helam.

As God scolded them and tested them from time to time with hardships and trials, they grew stronger in their faith. The people of Alma’s church were keenly aware that only the power of God could have delivered them and led them to this place. In this, they rejoiced.

One day, while the people were out tending their fields, an army of Lamanites unexpectedly appeared. The people fled the fields in fear and gathered together in the city of Helam. Alma stood before them like a rock and reminded them to call on God for deliverance from danger. In response to his certainty, the people quieted their fear and prayed to God, asking him to send out his compassion to the Lamanite army. They prayed for the lives of themselves, their wives, and their children.

God conferred upon the Lamanites the compassion that Alma’s people had prayed for. Alma and his people went forward and delivered their city of Helam and themselves into the hands of the Lamanite army.

This was the same army of Lamanites who had gotten lost, chasing after King Limhi’s people after their exodus from the land of Nephi. Before stumbling onto the city of Helam, they had also discovered the land of Amulon, where King Noah’s priests had settled with the Lamanite women they’d kidnapped earlier.

Amulon and his fellow priests had married the Lamanite women whom they had abducted. These wives of theirs now pled with the Lamanite army not to destroy their husbands. Because of the women’s intercession, the Lamanites spared their husbands and allowed them all to join their lost army.

It was this entire lost group who discovered the city of Helam and Alma’s people. The Lamanites promised Alma that if he could lead them back to their homeland, his people’s lives would be spared and they would be given their freedom. In trust and faith, Alma did as he was asked. But the Lamanites then decided to dishonor their promise. They set guards around Helam to insure that Alma’s people didn’t escape. The Lamanite king then gave Amulon the title of King over Helam as long as he obeyed the will of the Lamanites.