I love the description of the voice these people heard: “[I]t was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul” (Helaman 5:30).
This is a wonderful effort by someone trying to describe a unique spiritual experience. This person heard the voice and tried everything he could to reproduce the experience—recounting the nature of the voice that was heard and felt. Ancient people, of course, did not have iPhones where they could record the voice by simply pushing a button. They tried to record the experience in words. Even though the voice was heard and understood by a large number of people, it affected them personally, for “it did pierce even to the very soul.”
Perhaps the experience was memorable because of the contrast between the rumbling and the shaking of the earth and the voice. The Lamanites were terrified and they knew that they had been wicked. At this point, they realized that the sky was falling in on them, and instead of the judgments of God coming down upon them, what were they given? They received a very soft, sweet, invitation. It was intimate. Even though there were 300 people there, the text says that it pierced each one of them. It got through to their hearts. What an experience!
The voice of God is not always a great booming voice. The voice heard by the people in this narrative in Helaman is similar to the description of the voice of the Father introducing his Son to the crowd gathered around the temple in Bountiful in 3 Nephi 11.
The apostle John spoke of the quietness of the Spirit: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
The ancient Old Testament prophet Elijah also gave a similar description of the voice of the Lord:
And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kings 19:11–12)
Let us think about whispering. If you want your children or grandchildren to pay attention to you, does it work better to yell at them or to whisper? Sometimes the Lord yells at us, sometimes he whispers in a still, small voice. Why, on this occasion do you think it was a whisper? Whomever you are speaking to, it is important to be sure that they hear your message in the way that they should. The Lord knew how and what he needed to say to these people to get their attention.