Second Chances

My wife and I often tell our children things like, “If you get your jobs done, you can watch a movie.”  Sometimes they fail to complete their end of the deal, and eventually we tell them that they have not earned their reward.  Usually when this happens they will beg, “Just one more chance! We promise we’ll do it, please!  Give us one more chance!”  In that scenario we have to decide whether we should show mercy and let them have a second chance to perform their duties, or whether we should help them learn that they need to obey the first time and refuse the reward in this instance.  We might ask ourselves, well, what does the Lord do in the scriptures when His people want a second opportunity to repent?  We know the Lord is both merciful and just, so how many chances does He give us to repent and follow Him? 

               One scriptural account that shows the Lord’s willingness to forgive even repeated rebellion is the story of Alma and the sons of Mosiah.  They did go about “to destroy the church of God” and did “lead astray the people of the Lord, contrary to the commandments of God” (Mosiah 27:10).  Alma later recalled his actions in these words, “I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments.  Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction” (Alma 36:13-14).  He and the sons of Mosiah were in a state of serious rebellion against the Lord, despite the inspired and persistent teaching they must have received from their righteous parents.  It’s likely that this behavior continued for a long time, and yet the Lord still offered them mercy if they would repent.  Ammon recognized that the Lord had shown this mercy to him and his brothers: “Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state?...  Oh then, why did he not consign us to an awful destruction, yea, why did he not let the sword of his justice fall upon us, and doom us to eternal despair?... Behold, he did not exercise his justice upon us, but in his great mercy hath brought us over that everlasting gulf of death and misery, even to the salvation of our souls” (Alma 26:17-20).  Even though they had been given many chances previously and refused to repent, they were given yet one more with the visit of this angel.  The Lord could have said simply they were ripe in iniquity and needed to be destroyed, but He offered them yet another opportunity to repent, and of course they did and partook of His great mercy. 

               Many other scriptures similarly show the Lord’s willingness to get us many chances to do right and choose His way.  He told the prophet Joseph, “But remember, God is merciful; therefore, repent of that which thou hast done which is contrary to the commandment which I gave you, and thou art still chosen, and art again called to the work” (Doctrine and Covenants 3:10).  We see another instance of the Lord’s willingness to give a second chance in the Book of Mormon in the days of Nephi, son of Helaman.  The people had become very wicked, with many Gadianton robbers among them, to the point that the prophet believed the Lord might destroy them according to His word.  He pleaded, “O Lord, do not suffer that this people shall be destroyed by the sword; but O Lord, rather let there be a famine in the land, to stir them up in remembrance of the Lord their God, and perhaps they will repent and turn unto thee.”  The Lord did just that, and these increased trials for the people did indeed bring them to repentance, so that Nephi pled with the Lord, “And now, O Lord, wilt thou turn away thine anger, and try again if they will serve thee? And if so, O Lord, thou canst bless them according to thy words which thou hast said” (Helaman 11:4, 16).  The Lord did indeed end the famine and blessed them as they sought again to follow Him.  The brother of Jared also received a second chance after he had been less than diligent in remembering the Lord when they “dwelt in tents upon the seashore for the space of four years.”  The Lord “chastened him” and when the brother of Jared repented he was told, “I will forgive thee and thy brethren of their sins; but thou shalt not sin any more, for ye shall remember that my Spirit will not always strive with man” (Ether 2:13, 15).  The Lord gave them another chance to try to keep His commandments and serve Him, but He also warned that our opportunities to repent are not unlimited.  The Lord “is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy,” we cannot sin endlessly and always expect more chances for forgiveness (Psalms 103:8).  Eventually they will come to an end.