A Place of Refuge

The Lord asked this question a revelation in 1841: “For the day of my visitation cometh speedily, in an hour when ye think not of; and where shall be the safety of my people, and refuge for those who shall be left of them?” (D&C 124:10) The answer I think is mentioned in the verse before and after: He spoke of “the lifting up of Zion” and “the house of the daughters of Zion.”  One of the themes that we see in Restoration scripture is that Zion in the last days will be a place of safety and security and refuge from the wickedness and destruction foretold before His coming. 

               Nephi taught that the Lord will ensure that those who fight against Zion will fail.  “And he that fighteth against Zion shall perish, saith God” (2 Nephi 10:13).  Those “nations that fight against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision”—even though they dream of eating or drinking, in reality they will have nothing except empty souls (2 Nephi 27:3).  Nephi also wrote that “the time surely must come that all they who fight against Zion shall be cut off” (1 Nephi 22:19).  In the words of Isaiah that Nephi quoted, the Lord said this: “O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian… for yet a little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction” (2 Nephi 20:24).  The Lord will not always immediately punish those who fight against His people in Zion, but after “a little while” they will most certainly see His justice and the people in Zion will be protected.  Indeed, “the glory of Zion shall be a defence” (2 Nephi 14:5).

                That Zion will be a place of safety and refuge is repeated in several sections of the Doctrine and Covenants.  The Lord said that the New Jerusalem will be “a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the saints of the Most High God” (D&C 45:66).  He also said that “it is ordained that in Zion, and in her stakes, and in Jerusalem” are to be placed that “I have appointed for refuge” (D&C 124:36).  The Lord further described the reason for the gathering that was to take place: “The gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth” (D&C 115:6).  When something is “poured out without mixture” it means that it is strong and undiluted, and surely we will not want to be those who are of the world when we see this in the last days.  Apparently the wickedness and war will be so bad that “every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor must needs flee unto Zion for safety” (D&C 45:68).  Zion will at some point be the only real place of safety. 

                In the time of Enoch the Lord gathered His people together to Zion to set them apart from the rampant wickedness that surrounded them.  They became so strong in their righteousness that He eventually took them to heaven, while the rest of the wicked world was killed in the flood.  Surely in our day we have a type of these things: the Lord is gathering those who will hear His voice to provide protection and security to them whereas the wicked will ultimately be burned at His Coming.  As Enoch wrote in his day: “Surely Zion shall dwell in safety forever” (Moses 7:20).  That’s why building up and establishing Zion must be a most pressing goal for us in these last days.