Save the Children

I think that Isaiah 49 offers hope to parents who struggle with wayward children.  I’m not sure I understand the context very well of this chapter, but taken simply at face value we read of “children which thou shalt have” which will say, “The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.”  To this the parent laments, “Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate” (v. 20-21).  To me this represents the cry of a faithful parent whose child has found the path of discipleship too constricting and has ventured off away from the covenants.  But the Lord’s response is one of hope and promise.  First, He spoke of the Gentiles saying, “They shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders” (v. 22).  I’m sure that I don’t understand the full import of this famous description, but it does portray that God and others will take care of those children when those mourning parents can do nothing else. 

But that’s not where it ends.  After making the promise about the Gentiles, the Lord asks the question, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty?” (v.24)  Perhaps the prey here are those youth who have strayed, and the mighty mentioned here may refer to the things and people that have taken the youth away from living the principles of the gospel.  Parents may feel that there is no way to get back their children who have fallen prey to the things of the world.  And yet the Lord answers His own question this way: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children” (v. 25).  What a promise from the Lord!  Those captors of our children that seem like they could never give up their prey, so to speak, will eventually be forced by the Lord to do just that.  The Lord will help fight our battles and He pledges to “save thy children” who are mired in sin and the ways of the world.  I’m not sure exactly what is meant here, but I believe that this promise is for those parents who are sealed through the temple and seeking diligently to keep the covenants.  The Lord will save our children as parents do what they can to fully live the gospel.

It may be that the sense of this promise in Isaiah is the same as that of the famous quote on wayward children from the Prophet Joseph as quoted by Orson F. Whitney, “Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God” (see here).  Ultimately I’m sure we understand very little of the overall plan of heaven for us and our family, but we can hold on to these promises of the Prophet Joseph and Isaiah 49 and trust that in His own way and time, if we do all we can to live righteously, then He will save  our children.