Many Afflictions

One of the most difficult things for me to understand in the scriptures is the destruction and suffering that the Lord sends down upon the wicked.  We read verses that speak about the Lord’s enemies of whom He says, “I will pour out my wrath without measure in mine own time” and for me it gives pause to wonder (D&C 103:2).  Doesn’t the Lord love all of His children?  Why would He act in “wrath” and “anger” and cause great suffering to come upon them?  How do we reconcile that image of a God who says “my fury and mine anger was poured forth” with one who promises “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee”? (Jeremiah 44:6, Isaiah 54:10)  There are many scriptures that speak of the great goodness of God, but there are also many that speak of the great anger of the Lord that is sent down upon the wicked.  How can we understand these two seemingly opposite attributes? 

                There is certainly much to say on this topic, and I don’t have all the answers, but I do think that Helaman 11 can help us get some perspective on this.  Based on Nephi’s pleadings, the Lord sent a “great famine upon the land” and “the work of destruction… became sore by famine….  The earth was smitten that it was dry, and did not yield forth grain in the season of grain; and the whole earth was smitten, even among the Lamanites as well as among the Nephites, so that they were smitten that they did perish by thousands in the more wicked parts of the land.”  What was the Lord’s (and Nephi’s) motivation for this famine?  It was purely out of love so that, as Nephi said, “perhaps they will repent and turn unto thee” (Helaman 11:4-5).  The famine brought the people to repent, and that was the ultimate goal.  Even though the punishment may seem harsh, from the gospel perspective the famine was a great act of mercy for the people because the Lord was giving them another chance to repent when they had exhausted all of the chances to do so without suffering.  As I think about someone in my own life who drastically needs repentance and yet cannot be persuaded by any amount of preaching of the word, I’m led to hope like Nephi that some kind of great suffering might come that repentance might finally be sought for.  It’s not out of hate that I hope for suffering but out of a kind of desperation that Nephi had that the difficulties from the Lord might “perhaps” bring about enough pain to bring sorrow for sin.  This is I believe behind much of the suffering that the Lord sends down upon the wicked—he knows that for some there is no other voice they will listen to. 

                After telling us this story of the famine, the people’s subsequent repentance, and then their fall back into wickedness, Mormon summed up what he had learned in these words, “And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him” (Helaman 12:3).  I think I understand now a little better now.  As I have nothing left to hope for in terms of a repentance without being “compelled to be humble” for the person I love, I find myself wishing for those “many afflictions” to come that real change might have a chance.  So, I think I’m beginning to realize, the Lord’s great tribulations that are sent forth upon the wicked are indeed not in spite of His love but rather a great evidence for it.