Alma’s careful remembrance of the captivity of the Nephites goes far beyond being a good student of history. Alma was specifically instructed to remember the great way in which the Lord preserved his father’s small band of saints and the people of Limhi. The angel who had appeared to Alma to correct him from his evil ways emphatically stated, remember how great things he has done for them (thy fathers); for they were in bondage, and he has delivered them. And now I say unto thee, Alma, go thy way, and seek to destroy the church no more (Mosiah 27:16).
This charge from the angel had served Alma well and should do the same for the people of Zarahemla. In fact, every student of the gospel should remember the mercy of the Lord to those who have been in captivity. One of the most quoted events in religious history is the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt. The message of these many captivities is clear. If the people will trust in the Lord, he will deliver them from their afflictions and visit them in their trials. He will be the power by which they are freed from bondage, both physically and spiritually.
Neal A. Maxwell
“Remembering and counting our many blessings can humble us by reminding us of all the reasons we have to be thankful to God-not just today’s reasons, but those relating to all our yesterdays…If we fail to stir remembrance of blessings received, the human tendency is to say, in effect, whether to one‘s God or to one’s fellows, ’What have you done for me lately?’ Indeed, prophets of the Lord have asked directly whether their people had ‘sufficiently retained in remembrance’ His deliverances and blessings (Alma 5:6-7). It is best to cultivate our ‘remembering’ capacity now and to be guided accordingly, since at judgment day we will have ‘perfect remembrance’ (Alma 5:18). The important theme of remembrance occurs in one form or another in the Old Testament well over two hundred times. It appears in the Book of Mormon dozens of times, too. This parallelism is to be expected, since the Israelites in Palestine observed the law of Moses and the Nephites kept it ‘strictly’ for many years (see Mosiah 13:30; Alma 30:3). Wherever the gospel is, there too is the call to remembrance.” (A Wonderful Flood of Light, p. 51)