An angel told Alma to remember the captivity of his fathers (Mosiah 27:16), specifically mentioning Alma’s New World fathers in the land of Helam and Nephi; but Alma clearly extended “fathers” to include Israel’s Egyptian captivity as well. Why should these captivities be so important that an angel would remind Alma of them and that he would continue to expand the concept?
The captivity of the fathers was physical, but the captivity of his brethren was no less real for being spiritual. Yahweh delivered the fathers from their physical captivity—an obvious metaphor for Yahweh’s ability to also deliver individuals from spiritual captivity. The angel recalled for Alma the captivity of the fathers to model how Yahweh saves his children from spiritual captivity.