As I was reading Alma 36 I read about how God released the people from bondage "from time to time." I wondered if that meant "from one time to the next" or "every now and then"? Did God consistently release His people from bondage, or was it dependent on certain actions on their part?
In Alma 36:28-29, Alma says to his son Helaman (regarding God), "And I know that he will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; yea, and I will praise him forever, for he has brought our fathers out of Egypt, and he has swallowed up the Egyptians in the Red Sea; and he led them by his power into the promised land; yea, and he has delivered them out of bondage and captivity from time to time. Yea, and he has also brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem; and he has also, by his everlasting power, delivered them out of bondage and captivity, from time to time even down to the present day; and I have always retained in remembrance their captivity; yea, and ye also ought to retain in remembrance, as I have done, their captivity."
As I studied further I noticed something important in verse 30: "But behold, my son, this is not all; for ye ought to know as I do know, that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land; and ye ought to know also, that inasmuch as ye will not keep the commandments of God ye shall be cut off from his presence. Now this is according to his word."
It seems to me that these scriptures are saying that God's mercy comes with our faith and obedience to His commandments. So "from time to time" would reflect how often His people choose to keep the commandments. Verse 28 could be interpreted to say, "he has delivered them out of bondage and captivity when they choose to follow his commandments." Verse 30 illustrates the principle that obedience leads to prosperity, and disobedience leads to being cut off from God. It seems, then, that God's deliverance is conditional upon our faithfulness.
Richard Lyman Bushman, in Believing History: Latter-day Saint Essays, illustrates a pattern of God's deliverances in the Book of Mormon: "Book of Mormon prophets saw the major events of their own past as comprising a series of deliverances beginning with the archetypal flight of the Israelites from Egypt. Alma the Younger pictured the Exodus from Egypt and Lehi's journey from Jerusalem as the first of a number of bondages and escapes. . . . Among those bondages reaching 'down to the present day' were those of his father and Limhi, who, like their illustrious predecessors, were 'delivered out of the hands of the people of king Noah, by the mercy and power of God. And behold, after that, they were brought into bondage by the hands of the Lamanites in the wilderness . . . and again the Lord did deliver them out of bondage' (Alma 5:4-5)." He writes of the benefits of understanding God's deliverances because "they illustrated so perfectly the familiar ways of God with his people. Events took on religious meaning and form as they followed the established pattern of divine intervention." Understanding God's patterns of deliverance in the past can help us predict the consequences of future events.
My biggest takeaway from these scriptures is that God's deliverance from our bondage is conditional upon our faithfulness to His commandments. When we are obedient, we reap the benefits of His mercy, and He delivers us.
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