Day 311 & 312 - God's Hands and Rejection

311 - Mormon 5:23 - In the Hands of God

 

Chapter 5 starts out feeling a little yuck right?  Is there any hope left?
As I read this I ponder and wonder, try to imagine the scene at the time...
Do you wonder about the wife of Mormon?  He was righteous so we assume he had a wife... he has Moroni for a son. 
I wonder what she was like.  Did she dwindle in unbelief?  Did she believe as her husband did?  Was she captured and sacrificed?  Was Mormon the only believer in his family?  We don't have that record,  it is part of his personal story, which we don't always get... but sometimes I wonder. 

I wonder... were there others who still believed, just not in the area that these people lived and were keeping records?   I'd like to become more familiar with world history so I can see what is happening everywhere at this time. 

I wonder about the scattering, about people of Lamanite descent being the only ones standing after all the fighting.  I think about new people inhabiting this land, the future plans all being played out.  I think about a prophet of old prophesying about this very book I'm reading... right here in my hands.

In the Hands of God... 
“Hands are one of the symbolically expressive parts of the body. In Hebrew, yad, the most common word for hand, is also used metaphorically to mean power, strength, and might (see William Wilson, Old Testament Word Studies [1978], 205). Thus, hands signify power and strength. …
“To be in the hands of God would suggest that we are not only under His watchful care but also that we are guarded and protected by His wondrous power.

I see it!  I see His power used to bring forth His work.  Some turn away, seeing a God that has left them, or never existed, or doesn't step in to rescue and help when other's have used their agency to do awful things. 
I see more than that.  I see purpose, opportunities, open arms, a plan, protection and love... so that even those who can't or don't see what I see, still can have all that He has.

312 - Mormon 6: 16 - 22 - Don't reject the open arms of Christ

 

I can't imagine what it would be like to be in a battle.  People that I love and respect go to war.  The calamity Mormon speaks of is so great and extreme... 24 survivors left and a ground covered with your people.

I'm sure the emotions of surviving that enhance the 'anguish'.

 

It is hard to see the ones you love turn from the God you believe in, the one they once believed in.  I know this, I have lived this. 

To see the prophecy fulfilled, to see a whole nation destroyed because everyone chose that same path... devastating to witness I'm sure.  Mormon abridged the plates, he saw this prophecy, then watched it fulfill.

 

He realizes his sorrow can't change anything and he leaves it up to the Lord.  He will judge, he will determine.  Sometimes that is all you can do.

 

We see a sad story, though of a nation that doesn't believe in God anymore.  Only anger and evil, vengeance and killing consume all of these people, both the Nephites and the Lamanites... that is what got them all to this end. 

 

The joy of life is found through Jesus Christ.

 



President James E. Faust explained:

“We long for the ultimate blessing of the Atonement—to become one with Him, to be in His divine presence, to be called individually by name as He warmly welcomes us home with a radiant smile, beckoning us with open arms to be enfolded in His boundless love. How gloriously sublime this experience will be if we can feel worthy enough to be in His presence! The free gift of His great atoning sacrifice for each of us is the only way we can be exalted enough to stand before Him and see Him face-to-face. The overwhelming message of the Atonement is the perfect love the Savior has for each and all of us. It is a love which is full of mercy, patience, grace, equity, long-suffering, and, above all, forgiving.

“The evil influence of Satan would destroy any hope we have in overcoming our mistakes. He would have us feel that we are lost and that there is no hope. In contrast, Jesus reaches down to us to lift us up. Through our repentance and the gift of the Atonement, we can prepare to be worthy to stand in His presence” (in Conference Report, Oct. 2001, 22; or Ensign, Nov. 2001, 20).