On the Morrow

At some point after the people of Alma were well established in the land of Helam, they were taken over by the Lamanites and given task-masters who controlled and persecuted them. They were commanded not to pray, and so they could only plead in their hearts to God for relief from their burdens and deliverance from their afflictions.  Surely they were praying fervently day after day for the Lord to deliver them out of their very difficult situation.  When the Lord first answered their prayers it was to bring them comfort and help, but not yet deliverance: “Lift up your heads and be of good comfort….  And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage.”  We don’t know how long they were in that situation, but eventually after countless supplications to the Lord, and after showing their faith and patience, the Lord said this to them, “Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage” (Mosiah 24:13-16).  What is interesting to me is that He didn’t tell them initially when He was going to deliver them; He could have told them months or weeks or even days in advance so that they could rest assured and look forward to that specific day when their deliverance was coming.  Instead He simply told them the day before they were to be freed.  In our own difficulties we sometimes seek for specific knowledge of when He will deliver us or when a specific struggle will be resolved.  Sometimes, though, we must be like the people of Alma and wait patiently with His assurances but without the full timeline of when the Lord will act.  And only when that deliverance is figuratively on the morrow do we know for sure that the Lord has indeed come to our aid.      

               We see this same pattern in the Book of Mormon at the time of the Savior’s birth.  After Samuel the Lamanite prophesied, the righteous Nephites looked forward to promised signs.  But when the major sign of a day and night and day without darkness didn’t come as expected, the wicked rejoiced and plotted the death of the believers.  The Lord’s people were surely praying and pleading day after day for the sign to come and to know when that would be, but He didn’t tell them until the day before.  He finally said to Nephi, “Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets” (3 Nephi 1:13).  He could have told them when that date would be days or weeks or months in advance, but in His wisdom the Lord only saw fit to tell them the day before.  Thus like the people of Alma their faith and patience were tried as they waited upon the Lord. 

               In the travels of Lehi’s family we see a similar pattern.  After leaving Jerusalem they spent some time in the wilderness not far from their home preparing for the real departure into the desert.  We don’t know how long they were there, but surely they were wondering when the Lord would have them continue on their journey.  After they had obtained the plates, brought Ishmael’s family, and they were married, they were finally ready: “And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord spake unto my father by night, and commanded him that on the morrow he should take his journey into the wilderness” (1 Nephi 16:9).  Again they were only given one day’s notice—they were to depart the next day.  The same thing happened when they were in Bountiful waiting to depart in the ship.  We don’t know how long they were there at the oceanside, but while they were there it appears that they didn’t know when their departure would be.  Some time after the ship was completed, “The voice of the Lord came unto my father, that we should arise and go down into the ship. And it came to pass that on the morrow, after we had prepared all things, much fruits and meat from the wilderness, and honey in abundance, and provisions according to that which the Lord had commanded us, we did go down into the ship” (1 Nephi 18:5-6).  Again the pattern was the same—the Lord waited until the day before to give them their specific instructions to go ahead and move forward.  While sometimes the Lord may reveal detailed instructions and timelines to us about our future, I believe this pattern is more often used: He guides us and gives us assurances and points us in the right direction, but it may not be until the day before that we get the specific revelation that we are looking for.