Mountains and a Threshing Instrument

In perhaps one of the most famous verses of the New Testament the Savior said, “I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matt. 17:20).  The Book of Mormon confirms that this is at least in some sense literal, for we know that “the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove—and it was removed.  And if he had not had faith it would not have moved” (Ether 12:30).  Also we know that for Enoch, “so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command” (Moses 7:13).  These examples, though, are instances where they really needed mountains to be moved.  Both of these prophets needed to physically pass through areas with their people and the mountains were in the way, so by their faith they moved the mountains.  Most of us, though, don’t need physical mountains moved—we need to move problems that seem like insurmountable mountains in front of us but which are every bit as real as those moved by the ancient prophets.  And like them we can indeed move them with God’s help. 

                The Lord told us through Isaiah about getting through these mountains, and I think the analogy helps us to see how we actually “move” the seemingly insurmountable challenges in front of us.  He wrote, “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.  Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.  Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 41:13-16).  So the Lord gives us a “sharp threshing instrument having teeth” that one would use to thresh grain, and then with that we are to “thresh the mountains”.  To me that means that it is not a one-time “abra cadabra” and the mountain is moved; rather, the Lord gives us the power and we start threshing and beating the mountain bit by bit until it is “small” and the hills are “as chaff”.  To paraphrase how I heard one leader describe it many years ago: “How do you move mountains?  You get a shovel and start digging, one shovelful at a time, until you turn around and the mountain is behind you.”  Likewise I think the message of this passage in Isaiah is that with faith in Him the Lord will give us the tools and empower us, but we have to use all of our energy to thresh the mountain before us.  Without His help we could get nowhere, but with His help we can indeed find our way through the mountain of challenges before us if we will indeed roll up our sleeves and go to work.  And perhaps that’s a process that literally takes years, but there is no promise of speed in the Lord’s words that with faith we can “remove hence to yonder place” our mountains.  I love the words of Paul put to the Hebrews: “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.  So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:5-6).  The Lord is indeed our Helper as we put all our might into moving whatever mountains lie before us.