Prepareth a Way For Our Escape

As Nephi struggled with his feelings towards his brothers who sought to take his life, he prayed, “O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies! Wilt thou make my path straight before me!” (2 Nephi 4:33) The Lord did just that, providing a way for him to escape from his brothers as he left with the rest of the faithful among his family and established their own city as recorded in 2 Nephi 5. Later Nephi quoted the words of Jacob who also spoke about how the Lord prepares a way for our escape in a much broader sense: “O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit” (2 Nephi 9:10). The Lord has prepared the way for us to escape death and sin through His great atoning sacrifice and resurrection. In our dispensation the Lord used the same language, saying to the Saints: “I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which I have told you. Go, therefore, and I make a way for your escape, as I accepted the offering of Abraham of his son Isaac” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:50). Just as He spared Abraham from having to go through with the sacrifice of Isaac, He will prepare a way for our escape from very difficult situations as we are obedient to Him. This language is similar to Paul’s when he spoke of overcoming temptation: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). The Lord will make a way for our escape from temptation; we will be able to resist and stay strong through His help as we seek to be faithful. I believe that this promise is for all who believe in the Savior: He will prepare the way for our escape from whatever troubles and trials we are in through faith in Him.

                There are countless examples in the scriptures of how the Lord prepared a way for the righteous to escape. In the Book of Mormon, Laban was delivered into Nephi’s hands by the Lord so he could obtain the plates and not be slain by Laban. His family was empowered to escape Jerusalem and travel the desert and the ocean to arrive in the promised land. The righteous Nephites at the time of the first Mosiah were likewise empowered to escape through the hand of the Lord. Amaleki recorded what happened in these words: “He being warned of the Lord that he should flee out of the land of Nephi, and as many as would hearken unto the voice of the Lord should also depart out of the land with him, into the wilderness…. And they were admonished continually by the word of God; and they were led by the power of his arm, through the wilderness until they came down into the land which is called the land of Zarahemla” (Omni 1:12-13). Following that counsel saved them from being destroyed by the Lamanites and the Nephite people were preserved by the power of His arm. Later the Lord prepared the way for the escape of the peoples of both Limhi and Alma, who joined the Nephites in Zarahemla. Later during the great war between the Nephites and Lamanites the Lord prepared a way for Helaman and his stripling warriors to escape the far more numerous enemy armies. The Lord prepared an escape for many other prophets, such as when Alma and Amulek were freed from the prison of Ammonihah, when Nephi and Lehi were saved in the prison among the Lamanites, and when Samuel the Lamanite escaped the arrows of the Nephites after delivering his message to the people. In the New Testament the Lord miraculously prepared the way for Peter to escape from prison as He sent an angel to open the doors to the chief apostle: “When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him” (Acts 12:10). These and many other scriptural stories highlight that the Lord will prepare a way for the escape of His people who are in trouble. Not only did He prepare The Way to escape from sin and death in His great eternal plan, but on earth He will prepare a way individually for us to make it through our difficulties and escape trouble. As Alma put it to his son Shiblon, “I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 38:5).