The Day of Our Visitation

Isaiah spoke of those who “turn away the needy” and “take away the right from the poor of my people,” harming both widow and fatherless.  He asked this question to them: “And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?”  The immediate context was “a hypocritical nation” to whom the Lord would send the Assyrians, “the rod of mine anger,” meaning that the Lord would use the Assyrians to punish the northern tribes of Israel (2 Nephi 20:2-5).  So the “day of visitation” literally would have been when the Assyrians visited the 10 tribes and carried them away captive into Assyria around 721 BC: “The king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria” (2 Kings 17:5-6).  Certainly that was a fearful day indeed when the children of Israel would have wished that they had followed Jehovah and that they had not turned away the needy or rejected the poor and the widow.  The Assyrians were known for their brutality, and this “day of visitation” from these terrible enemies was one in which the Israelites surely desperately wished they could have escaped.          

               Modern scriptures also affirm that a “day of visitation” will be coming soon for us as well when destruction will come upon the earth in the last days and at the time of the Second Coming.  The Lord told His Saints to call upon the nations of the earth “that they may be left also without excuse.”  He then warned, “And that I may visit them in the day of visitation, when I shall unveil the face of my covering, to appoint the portion of the oppressor among hypocrites….  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 124:8, 10)  In another revelation He warned, “Hearken, O ye people who profess my name, saith the Lord your God; for behold, mine anger is kindled against the rebellious, and they shall know mine arm and mine indignation, in the day of visitation and of wrath upon the nations.”  The day of visitation for the world is when the Lord will in the last days bring His wrath upon the wickedness of the earth.  If we do not “take up [our] cross and follow [Christ] and keep [His] commandments,” then it will surely be for us a day like the visitation of the Assyrians to the northern tribes (D&C 56:1-2).    

               Moroni used this same language from Isaiah to speak about a slightly different day of visitation in a warning to us in our day.  He wrote, “And now, I speak also concerning those who do not believe in Christ. Behold, will ye believe in the day of your visitation—behold, when the Lord shall come, yea, even that great day when the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, yea, in that great day when ye shall be brought to stand before the Lamb of God—then will ye say that there is no God?” (Mormon 9:1-2) This day of our visitation is not when physical devastation will come upon us, but when we must go to stand before the Lord to be judged of our works.  Each of us will have to literally “visit” the Lord and make an accounting for our lives in a day of judgment.  For the wicked Moroni suggested that the day will entail the same kind of fear as the other days of visitation by destruction: “Ye shall be brought to see your nakedness before God, and also the glory of God, and the holiness of Jesus Christ, it will kindle a flame of unquenchable fire upon you.”  To avoid that kind of day of visitation, we must heed Moroni’s plea to us: “O then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day” (Mormon 9:5-6).  Our protection in these days of visitation comes only in crying unto the Lord and becoming purified through Christ.