The Lord of Hosts Hath Purposed

Faith in God means trusting that He really is in charge. He allows bad things to happen for reasons that we don’t always understand, but He constrains their breadth and duration, and He will ultimately make everything right.

After prophesying about two of the most cataclysmic events in the history of His people—the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities—then seeing beyond those painful events to the destruction of Assyria and Babylon, Isaiah draws the following bold conclusion:

The Lord of Hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand…

For the Lord of Hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

2 Nephi 24:24, 27, Isaiah 14:24, 27

Lehi expressed the same conviction in his final words to his son Jacob:

All things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

2 Nephi 2:24, italics added

That may be hard to accept when we are in the middle of a difficult situation or when we see something that is infuriatingly unfair. “Why won’t God stop this?” we might be tempted to ask. “This isn’t right. If He has the power to intervene, and if He really loves us, why doesn’t He do something?”

The hard truth is that we don’t always understand, particularly in the short run. But we can take comfort in the conviction that God intervenes at the appropriate time and in the appropriate ways to accomplish His ultimate purpose, which is our eternal joy. (See 2 Nephi 2:25.)

Listen to these two testimonies, both of which were delivered during times of turmoil. The first comes from John A. Widtsoe, in April 1942:

Above the roar of cannon and airplane, the maneuvers and plans of men, the Lord always determines the tide of battle. So far and no farther does He permit the evil one to go in his career to create human misery. The Lord is ever victorious; He is the Master to whose will Satan is subject. Though all hell may rage, and men may follow evil, the purposes of the Lord will not fail.

Conference Report, April 1942, 34

The second is from Marion G. Romney two decades later, in October 1966:

Naturally, believing Christians, even those who have a mature faith in the gospel, are concerned and disturbed by the lowering clouds on the horizon. But they need not be surprised or frantic about their portent, for, as has already been said, at the very beginning of this last dispensation the Lord made it abundantly clear that through the tribulations and calamity that he foresaw and foretold and that we now see coming upon us, there would be a people who, through acceptance and obedience to the gospel, would be able to recognize and resist the powers of evil, build up the promised Zion, and prepare to meet the Christ and be with him in the blessed millennium. And we know further that it is possible for every one of us, who will, to have a place among those people. It is this assurance and this expectation that gives us understanding of the Lord’s admonition, “be not troubled.” 

Conference Report, October 1966, 53-54

Today, I will trust in God’s supremacy and in His perfect love. I will remember that bad things have boundaries and that God will ultimately resolve everything that is not right.