It is one

of my favorites in all of the Book of Helaman. Nephi and Lehi are remembering back to their father's advice. Their father is the second Helaman. They are children of Helaman, who is of Helaman who is children of Alma. And we see their mission.

Where do they go on a mission?

You know, they go all over the land. They start out on the northeast side and they go from Bountiful all the way down. And as they go down though, they see this sad state. This is verse 2, the voice of the people chose evil. So knew they were ripening for destruction. But Jack, I keep asking myself, how can so many... How can they be having such missionary success when the people are evil?

Don't you think it's the contrast? Yeah,

it's got to be the opposition again.

And as we've said, most of the dissenters in the opposition, these are secret people, these are, you know, dissenters, but I think the majority of the population has recognized the goodness that has come to them. They have seen the benefits of this. Well, the challenge

here in verse two is it sounds like the voice of the people. So I don't know if that's the majority, but they are here choosing evil in chapter five.

Let me suggest that the problem here, when the voice of the people is the problem, that what they've done is they've elected poorly. They've elected people who were good campaigners or who had influenced people and had parties of influence and support, and they haven't chosen wisely.

Honesty is not what they're looking for. They're looking for smoother. Or maybe

they Maybe they can't tell the difference, you know, maybe they're being deceived in some ways But they are ripe for destruction when they don't exercise that voting right, which has been given to them under the reign of judges I mean that was the essential part Now they don't get to vote the way we kind of do but they do confirm who will be the judge and the judges. It

says the voice of the people. That's

a very important part of participating in keeping the government righteous. And

that's why he becomes so fed up that he follows the example of his grandfather and he leaves the judgment seat just like Alma did, or great grandfather. It says in verse four, because of their iniquity, he yielded up the judgment seat and took it upon him to preach the Word of God all the remainder of his days and his brother Lehi. Before they go on their mission, though, they recite this beautiful message from their father. And this is verse 6 through 12 in chapter 5. And 13 times, remember, is mentioned. And if you look at the whole chapter, it's actually 15 times. But do you remember back? I didn't mean to use that word. But when Alma the Younger is telling his son in chapter 37, oh, remember, remember my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth. And

who's he quoting?

He's quoting King Benjamin. These people really knew their scriptures.

Remember, remember, O man, and perish not.

Nephi is quoting this again, verse 6, When you remember your names, ye may remember them, and when you remember them, you may remember their works, and when you remember their works, that they were good, and he just keeps going on her in a skipping head to verse 8, lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, that ye may have precious gift of eternal life, which we have reason to suppose has been given to our fathers. Now, I assume he's referring to great-grandpa's too, because I went back and looked, because this precious gift of eternal life, Jack, I think is exaltation. And so I looked back at the record, and it looks like in Mosiah 26, Alma the Elder was told by an angel, thou art my servant, or maybe it was the Lord who said it, and I covenant with thee, that thou shalt have eternal life. But

Alma is the one who teaches this. Yes. Alma the Elder. And so this is just a part of the heritage of this lineage of Alma's descendants.

He continues on in verse 9 here. This is again, Helaman talking to his sons, Lehi and Nephi. Oh, remember, remember my sons, the words which King Benjamin spake, yea, remember that there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, who shall come to redeem the world. And now the whole message turns to Christ. What we're supposed to be remembering is not just remembering your grandpa's, but it's remembering the Lord. To me, this sounds like a baptismal or a sacrament prayer.

I think you're right. And why would Mormon have put this into the Book of Helaman? Remember, remember, remember that Mormon is telling us that this book is helping us to prepare for the coming of Christ.

Yes, yes.

So he's now putting these factors into the story. We're

not hearing about the wars, we're hearing about the sermons and the fatherly advice.

And by the way, that word remember, as Lou Midgley did a lot of research on the Hebrew word zakor does not mean just to intellectually remember, to recall. Have a thought,

okay. But

to remember means to, in English actually, to put the parts back together, the member, you re-member something when you reassemble something. So when things have become scattered or have become confused, you remember them as you put the pieces back together again.

So to me it actually refers to repentance.

It does. And to return and come back. Remembering as a part of that.

And Helaman really knows his scriptures. He goes back now and quotes, do you remember in Alma chapter 5 when Amulek and Alma are on that Zoramite mission? He starts quoting that one here in verse 10, the Lord should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins. And that was a point that they were teaching Ziesrem. And then at the end of this wonderful message to his sons, verse 12 reads, My sons, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation, that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, and we know this verse well, I'm going to skip ahead a little bit, it shall have no power. Why? He says up ahead a little bit. Because of the rock upon which he are built, which is a sure foundation. For me, remembering Christ, I love that idea of putting it back together. Because for me, remembering always helps me repent, because repentance is returning. This is really great to see how these words all fit together.

And you return to the rock. Remember Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount, and we'll see this at the Sermon of the Temple as well, that the wise man builds his house upon not a rock as you and most people say.

That's right. It's a thaw.

Build your house upon the rock. And I think that's terribly important. And when you go into the Psalms, the Lord is my rock, the salvation, this is a common way in which people spoken of the holiness of God, because where is the rock that you build upon? Physically, of course, Jesus is our spiritual rock, but the dome of the rock in Jerusalem is upon the rock, the temple mount, which was referred to as the Rock of the Lord. And so it's not just a matter of building abstractly upon Jesus, but following His commandments, being holy as He is, going to the Temple, worshiping. It's all a part of building on that rock. And if you don't, the storms will come and the winds will blow and great will be the collapse of that.