Helaman 5--Wow

Helaman 5...this chapter is amazing!  It feels like this is the first time I have read it because there are so many details I have never paid attention to before.  This time an answer to a prayer was in the details so I really noticed a lot more than usual.

This is the chapter where Nephi and Lehi (the sons of Helaman) are thrown in prison and eventually surrounded by a pillar of fire.  But what I didn't notice before was that the Nephites were in a very bad place politically speaking.  Their country was going to pot even with Nephi sitting in the judgment-seat.  It says in verse 2:

"For as their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people, and they who chose evil were more numerous then they who chose good, therefore they were ripening for destruction..."

So what does Nephi do?  He delivers "up the judgment-seat." Huh?

It seems so illogical for him to do that when things are going so poorly that the Nephites have lost half their land to the Lamanites and they had abandoned their design to get it back.  But Nephi gives up the judgment-seat (I'm sure to someone he trusts and feels will rule righteously) and goes, taking Lehi with him, from city to city preaching the word of God.  It says in verse 18:

"...for they had power and authority given unto them that they might speak, and they also had what they should speak given unto them-"

Through their obedience many Nephite dissenters along with 8,000 Lamanites were baptized.  Why don't I remember all of this?  It is pretty huge.  Anyway, the part of the chapter that has always stuck with me now comes into play, Nephi and Lehi are in prison and about to be put to death by the Lamanites when a pillar of fire surrounds them.  A voice speaks to their captors.  Not a thunderous voice, but "a still voice of perfect mildness."  About 300 people experience this and they go and "minister unto the people."  The chapter ends with the Lamanites laying down their weapons of war and GIVING the Nephites back their land!

It is just another example to me how important revelation is in our lives.  The last time the Lamanites were wreaking this much havoc, Captain Moroni fought with the sword to gain back their lands.  Captain Moroni was right.  Nephi was right.  And yet, they handled things differently based on the revelation they received.