The Lord God Will Help Me

In the first recorded message that we have from Jacob to the Nephites, he quoted Isaiah 50 which includes these words: “For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded…. For the Lord God will help me. And all they who shall condemn me, behold, all they shall wax old as a garment, and the moth shall eat them up” (2 Nephi 7:7-9).  Jacob, who was filled with anxiety for his people, was witnessing that God will help us in our trials and troubles.  He had certainly passed through many trials in which he needed the Lord’s help, for as his father had summarized, “In thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow” (2 Nephi 2:1).  He even summed up his own life suggesting that he and his people “did mourn out our days” (Jacob 7:26).  And yet, his witness was that the Lord will help us as Isaiah promised.  Jacob referenced the idea of the Lord’s help when he had to teach hard things to his people, telling them he had “the help of the all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth” to know what was happening with his people (Jacob 2:5).  When Jacob faced the difficulty of Sherem, he witnessed again that the Lord did indeed help him: “But behold, the Lord God poured in his Spirit into my soul, insomuch that I did confound him in all his words.”  He recorded after the whole incident was over: “I had requested it of my Father who was in heaven; for he had heard my cry and answered my prayer” (Jacob 7:8).  Jacob’s witness was that Isaiah’s words are true: the Lord God will help us.

               Several other passages in the words of Isaiah also testify that it is the Lord to whom we should go for help.  The prophet wrote, “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 41:13).  He also recorded, “Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant” (Isaiah 44:2).  The Lord also testified that He will help us, “In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people” (Isaiah 49:8).  We will not find help outside the Lord; Isaiah questioned the wicked: “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?” (Isaiah 10:3)  He prophesied to the people of Egypt in their wickedness that they would cry out, “Whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?” (Isaiah 20:6)  In another passage He also warned the Israelites against seeking the Egyptians for help instead of the Lord: “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord!” (Isaiah 31:1)  He condemned those who looked for help from man but not from the Lord.  Isaiah’s witness was that the Lord will be our helper, and we should not look for another among men.  He and Jacob wanted us to understand that we can go to the Lord for help and strength.  Jacob invited us to do so in these words: “Come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not…. And behold how great the covenants of the Lord, and how great his condescensions unto the children of men; and because of his greatness, and his grace and mercy” (2 Nephi 9:51-53).  If we come unto the Lord we can trust in His power and grace to help us in all our difficulties.