For the Benefit of the World

It can be challenging to understand how God would permit, condone, or even command certain things in the past. Happenings in church history such as plural marriage and restrictions on the priesthood are a stumbling block for many people. Why would God ask or approve such a thing? Other accounts in the scriptures such as Abraham being commanded to slay Isaac or the children of Israel being asked to destroy certain wicked cities can also be difficult to accept. As one of my children put it to me, “If God commanded you to kill me, would you do it?” My answer was, “He wouldn’t ever ask me to do that,” which I believe, but it does make the story of Abraham and Isaac difficult to swallow. As I thought about this, the scripture that came to mind was this one: “He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation” (2 Nephi 26:24). Though we certainly cannot understand everything that God does here in mortality, we can trust that His only motive in whatever He commands or has done or has permitted is “for the benefit of the world.” And the Savior proved that for us by laying down His own life for each one of us.

               Several other scriptures encourage us to trust in the superior knowledge and love and capacity of God when we want to question His actions (or inaction). As Nephi put it in another scripture, “I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things” (1 Nephi 11:17). Though we inevitably will not know or understand everything in mortality, we can still know that He loves us. This well-known passage from Isaiah encourages us to trust in His superior wisdom: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). When we are tempted to say to Him, “That is not just. You should not have done this or allowed that,” we can remember that His thoughts and His ways are higher than ours. We are not His judges; He is ours. Paul put it this way, “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Romans 9:20-21) He is our Potter and we are the clay; and can trust that He does always that which is for the benefit of the world, even if we cannot possibly see how. His perfect love for all of His children was made clear in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ where the Father let His beloved Son suffer, and where the Son willingly endured that suffering for us. I love how Moroni put it: “And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men. And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity” (Ether 12:33-34). Ammon also bore this witness about God’s love for all mankind: “Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever” (Alma 26:37). Acknowledging that there are things we do not understand, we can also declare that God’s mercy is over all the earth and that He is mindful of every people.

               I love these lyrics of the song Sometime We’ll Understand by Rob Gardner which captures the attitude we should have here as we work through things we do not now understand: 

Not now, but in the coming years

It may not be when we demand

We'll read the meaning of our tears

And there, sometime, we'll understand 

Why what we long for most of all

Eludes our open, pleading hand

Why ever silence meets our call

Somewhere, sometime, we'll understand 

Sometime, we'll fall on bended knee

And feel there graven on His hand

Sometime with tearless eyes we'll see

What here we could not understand 

So trust in God through all the days

Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand

Though dark thy way still sing and praise

Sometime, sometime we'll understand 

Indeed, we can still “sing and praise” in mortality as we learn to feel His love and know of His goodness, even while there are things we do not understand. And we can trust that sometime, someday we will eventually understand. But for now, can walk with faith knowing that He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world.