IN TRIBULATION AND CAPTIVITY

 

The winter of 1838-39 would have been the crucible of Joseph Smith’s life. It was the coldest winter on record in the state of Missouri and Joseph and four other Church leaders found themselves in a hell hole of Liberty Jail ‘surrounded with demons….where they were compelled to hear nothing but blasphemous oaths, and witness a scene of blasphemy, and drunkenness and hypocrisy, and debaucheries of every description’ (History of the Church 3:290). In his letter to Emma on 21 March 1839, Joseph told her that “pen, or tongue, or angels” could not adequately describe “the malice of hell” that he suffered there (Personal Writings, 463, 464).

Liberty Jail was an inescapable prison with four feet thick walls.  It was a two-storey establishment with a rope and a bucket as the only link between the dungeon and the upper floor. It was in this dungeon of rough bare stones for a floor, covered by a bit of loose, dirty straw that Joseph and four others spent the cruelest winter of their lives. It was also through this depth of despair that the Lord gave us three of the most valuable sections of the Doctrine and Covenants: 121, 122, 123. Out of his extreme aloneness, when he felt the furthest away from heaven’s door, Joseph received glorious answers to his most heart-wrenching petition. Into the pit of hell known as Liberty Jail, where he knew not how long he would languish, came the most loving voice of God, addressing him in the most tender manner, as someone who knew the very depths of his soul: “My son, peace be unto thy soul…..” (D&C 121:7-8).

I wonder if Joseph ever reflected on another servant of God with a similar experience of tribulation in captivity, the man whose very experience he translated from the gold plates. Alma, and his convert and missionary companion, Amulek, found themselves in captivity in the most wicked city where they sat in a dungeon naked, suffering hunger, thirst, and physical abuse by their captors (Alma 14:18-23)….and having witnessed the catastrophe of Ammonihah in which the wives and children of the newly fresh converts were consumed by fire (Alma 14:8). Being constrained by the Spirit to prevent this tragedy was excruciating to Amulek who would have known these people of his city well (v 10,11). Amulek had many friends and kindreds in Ammonihah and was a rich man (Alma 10:4). He had an extensive household with wives and children (10:11). It is not clear from the record whether these children were young or grown and whether his family also perished in the fire. One thing we do know is that Amulek was left without family and possessions. Following their prison break-out, Mormon recorded that Alma took him back to Zarahemla to live with him and his family and ‘administered unto him in his tribulations, and strengthened him in the Lord’ (Alma 15:18). Amulek had undergone the most traumatic  change in his life. The painful effects of such on body and mind would have been extreme.

In the extremity of his captivity, Alma also, like Joseph, offered the most heart-wrenching petition to God when he asked: “How long shall we suffer these great afflictions, O Lord?” (Alma 14:26). One would wonder why the Lord would allow his most chosen servants to suffer so unjustly. The same for us who are striving so hard to be righteous and who inevitably come to face a crucible of our own lives. We often feel that we do not deserve it…..except there is an explanation. If we would be followers of Jesus Christ we must follow where He leads. Salvation and especially exaltation, comes at a price, and that price invariably leads to Gethsemane. If Christ himself did not suffer there, our trials and tribulations would be ever so much worse. He suffered the blow so that we wouldn’t but has given us a glorious promise through Joseph, our beloved prophet: “thy God shall be with you forever and ever” (D&C 122:4,9) and then the ultimate: “All thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, shall be revealed and set forth upon all who have endured valiantly for the gospel of Jesus Christ” (D&C 121:29).

-        CATHRYNE ALLEN

(I highly recommend the BYU talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland titled “Lessons from Liberty Jail” at speeches.byu.edu)

(ART: Replica of  Joseph Smith at Liberty Jail by Val Brinkerhoff)