Rejoicing in the Savior's Coming

When the Savior was speaking to the scribes and Pharisees he made this statement about Abraham: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56).  This is a significant statement telling us that Abraham specifically rejoiced in the face that the Messiah would come in the meridian of time.  Nephi also confirmed this statement in his words to the people at Zarahemla, saying, “Abraham saw of his coming, and was filled with gladness and did rejoice” (Helaman 8:17).  I don’t believe we have a specific account of Abraham rejoicing about this knowledge of the Messiah, though we do know that he had a knowledge of the premortal council when the Father said, “Whom shall I send?” and the Savior responded, “Here am I, send me” (Abraham 3:27).  It is clear that Abraham—who lived approximately 2000 BC—knew of the coming of Christ and looked forward to that day with gladness.         

               We also see this same anticipation for the coming of the Savior in the Book of Mormon.  Lehi looked forward to the birth of Jesus with a very specific timeline: “Yea, even six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem, a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jews—even a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world” (1 Nephi 10:4).  Nephi had his own vision of the coming of the Savior into mortality with a guided tour from an angel, and together they also rejoiced in what that meant, declaring after viewing Mary and the Babe’s arrival that God’s love “sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men” (1 Nephi 11:22).  The later Nephi summarized Nephi and Lehi’s anticipation this way: “Our father Lehi was driven out of Jerusalem because he testified of these things. Nephi also testified of these things, and also almost all of our fathers, even down to this time; yea, they have testified of the coming of Christ, and have looked forward, and have rejoiced in his day which is to come” (Helaman 8:22).  Like Abraham, they rejoiced in the Savior’s coming well before He came. 

               Alma also looked forward to the coming of the Savior.  He told the people of Gideon, “For behold, I say unto you there be many things to come; and behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than they all—for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people” (Alma 7:7).  To the people of Ammonihah he added, “And now we only wait to hear the joyful news declared unto us by the mouth of angels, of his coming; for the time cometh, we know not how soon. Would to God that it might be in my day; but let it be sooner or later, in it I will rejoice” (Alma 13:25).  He rejoiced in the knowledge of the coming of the Lord which would happen soon after his life.  Abinadi confirmed that this rejoicing was common to all of the prophets, “And the Lord God hath sent his holy prophets among all the children of men, to declare these things to every kindred, nation, and tongue, that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them” (Mosiah 3:13).  An understanding of the Savior’s coming brought “exceedingly great joy” to the prophets who lived before Him as they looked forward to His day. Like them, we too can rejoiced not only in the fact that He came, but in the knowledge that He will come again.