A Way For Our Escape

As Jacob taught about the “merciful plan of the great Creator,” he exclaimed, “O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit” (2 Nephi 9:6, 10). I love that promise of the Lord: He prepares a way for our escape, both from the death of the body and the death of the spirit. The apostle Paul wrote that this promise of escape is not just for the next life: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). God has promised us that He prepares a way for us to escape from temptation—and surely all other difficulties—if we will take it. The Lord suggested that He has prepared a way for us to escape all of Satan’s efforts to bring us down: “Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work” (Doctrine and Covenants 10:5). One of the Lord’s covenants to Israel is that He has prepared a way for our escape from death, hell, temptation, and all of Satan’s attacks upon us.

Isaiah wrote of the millennial day: “In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the earth excellent and comely to them that are escaped of Israel” (2 Nephi 14:2). He also wrote this about how we escape: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth” (2 Nephi 20:20). If we “stay upon the Lord” then we can be part of that group which is “escaped of Israel.” His promise to covenant Israel, those which truly have Him to be their God, is that they shall be of those who escape. This was seen in a dramatic way in the story of the attack of the Assyrians on Jerusalem. Isaiah declared in this context to their enemies who thought they were going to annihilate the city: “And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward: For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.” And Israel at that time did miraculously escape this attack of the army of Sennacherib when “the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand” (Isaiah 37:31-32, 36). We too can stay ourselves upon the Lord and escape the attack of the world upon us. The Lord said in our dispensation, “I have sworn in my wrath, and decreed wars upon the face of the earth, and the wicked shall slay the wicked, and fear shall come upon every man; And the saints also shall hardly escape; nevertheless, I, the Lord, am with them, and will come down in heaven from the presence of my Father and consume the wicked with unquenchable fire” (Doctrine and Covenants 63:33-34). Though it may be a bit harrowing in the last days, the Saints will escape the wrath of God and the Lord will be with them. He similarly said in another revelation, “Prepare the saints for the hour of judgment which is to come; That their souls may escape the wrath of God, the desolation of abomination which awaits the wicked, both in this world and in the world to come” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:84-85). As we pray always and seek to stay ourselves upon the Lord and not the world, we can be of “the escaped of Israel.” Whether our problems are large or small, the Lord’s covenant to Israel is that He has prepared a way for our escape from all of them.