Great and Marvelous are Thy Works

Admittedly, I’m a novice. But the more experiences I have with the Book of Mormon, the more stunning I find the examples of faith contained in its pages. As I become familiar with the characters in the record – protagonists and antagonists alike – I realize that these were real people who were not so different from me. Though they lived in another time and place, they had the same kinds of challenges, hopes, failures and successes that I have. That is why their message is so powerful. The Book of Mormon isn’t just great wisdom literature, and it isn’t just gospel doctrine. It is a concrete account of real lives – it is testimony of “what great things the Lord hath done for [our] fathers”. That is one way it convinces us that we “are not cast off forever,” and “that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God,” and that he manifests Himself to all of us in ways that are both powerful and intimate.¹

This testimony comes through page after page after page. From the first chapter – indeed, from the opening verse – we are taught of the favors of the Lord that come even in the midst of “many afflictions.”² It is this overwhelming feeling of gratitude for blessings in trial that is so moving for me, and it is at the core of the Book of Mormon’s testimony of Christ. When Lehi heard the prophets testify that Jerusalem’s fall was imminent, his response was to pray “unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people.”³ He knew that the people of Jerusalem would not repent. He knew that they had cast the prophets into prison and stoned and killed them. And surely he must have known the very real danger for himself. Yet despite the obvious cost, he turned outward to pray and to testify.

I often wonder how I can have the faith to reach out to save others and to testify of the mercy of the Redeemer when my own redemption seems so very far away. For Lehi, the answer was in what happened next. As he prayed, “there came a pillar of fire and dwelt upon a rock before him; and he saw and heard much; and because of the things which he saw and heard he did quake and tremble exceedingly.”⁴ He saw the judgments of God and they were overwhelming. He barely made it back home to collapse in bed.

Then the vision returned, and Lehi “saw the heavens open, and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God.”⁵

Lehi had just been shown a terrible destruction. He saw the loss of his home and his livelihood. The Lord had not yet promised that He would lead Lehi’s family out of Jerusalem, and Lehi must have worried about what would happen to them. Perhaps he wondered, just for a moment, what in all of this there was to sing about and praise. I know I would have. And without reference to the rest of the vision, it would have seemed a cruel mockery. However, after Lehi saw Christ and the twelve come down and go forth upon the earth, and after he had “had read and seen many great and marvelous things,” he joined the angels in exclaiming “many things unto the Lord; such as: Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! Thy throne is high in the heavens, and thy power, and goodness, and mercy are over all the inhabitants of the earth.”⁶

Lehi understood why the angels praise God even, and perhaps especially, during terrible trial: “Because thou art merciful, thou wilt not suffer those who come unto thee that they shall perish!”⁷ This is the message of the Book of Mormon, and it is powerfully taught from the very first verses. Lehi sees destruction, and he testifies of the mercies of God. He doesn’t know what will happen to him, his family and everything he loves, but he feels to rejoice because he knows that through it all he will come unto Christ. “And after this manner was the language of my father in the praising of his God; for his soul did rejoice, and his whole heart was filled, because of the things which he had seen, yea, which the Lord had shown unto him.”⁸

Nephi closes this introductory chapter of the Book of Mormon with his own testimony. He explains that when his father testified to the Jews of their wickedness and the promise of redemption through the Messiah, “they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out, and stoned, and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.”⁹

For me, this is the enduring testimony of the Book of Mormon. There will be no end to the challenges we face in life as we try to live righteously. Indeed, it often seems that the harder we try, the more difficult things become. However, if we have faith in Christ, those challenges will lead us to know His mercies personally and intimately. The warnings and commandments become manifestations of these mercies as they provide the only path to safety and abundance, even as we are tried to our limits.

1. Book of Mormon, title page [↩]
2. 1 Ne 1:1 [↩]
3. 1 Nephi 1:5 [↩]
4. 1 Nephi 1:6 [↩]
5. 1 Nephi 1:8 [↩]
6. 1 Nephi 1:14 [↩]
7. 1 Nephi 1:14 [↩]
8. 1 Nephi 1:15 [↩]
9. 1 Nephi 1:20 [↩]