Both Esther and Alma made decisions that affected large numbers of people. But when they were warned about the dangers of their decisions, the impact was framed in individual, not collective terms.
Esther was in a position to save her people from a terrible decree which would have resulted in all of them being killed on a certain day. When she protested to her cousin and guardian, Mordecai, that approaching the king was too dangerous, he replied that she should not consider herself safe from this decree. Then, he described the consequences of her inaction with optimism for the group but pessimism for her personally:
If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Esther 4:14
Mordecai didn’t specify the source of the deliverance or of Esther’s destruction, but he made it clear that the primary issue was not the salvation of the Jews but the salvation of Esther herself. God could find another way to save the group, but Esther’s intentional inaction would have profound consequences for her personally.
Alma was in a different position. He and some of his friends were actively attempting to destroy the church of God by persuading people to break God’s commandments and turning people against one another (Mosiah 27:8, 10; Alma 36:6). But like Mordecai, the angel who appeared to him assured him that the church would survive but warned him that he was severely harming himself:
Why persecutest thou the church of God? For the Lord hath said: This is my church, and I will establish it; and nothing shall overthrow it, save it is the transgression of my people. …
Mosiah 27:13, 16
And now I say unto thee, Alma, go thy way, and seek to destroy the church no more, … and this even if thou wilt of thyself be cast off.
When Alma later related this experience to his son Helaman, he remembered the angel’s words more concisely: “If thou wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the church of God” (Alma 36:9). Those words stopped him in his tracks. “The angel spake more things unto me, which were heard by my brethren,” he explained, “but I did not hear them; for when I heard the words—If thou wilt be destroyed of thyself, seek no more to destroy the church of God—I was struck with such great fear and amazement lest perhaps I should be destroyed, that I fell to the earth and I did hear no more” (Alma 36:11). He had apparently been so focused on his objective — the destruction of the church — that he had not considered the damage he was doing to himself.
Our decisions may not ultimately change outcomes ordained by God, but they will change us.
Joseph Smith learned this principle during the translation of the Book of Mormon. After the first 116 manuscript pages were lost, he received the following rebuke and assurance by revelation:
The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught.
Doctrine and Covenants 3:1-3
For God doth not walk in crooked paths, neither doth he turn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round.
Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men.
God is committed to respecting our agency, even when we make terrible choices (see Moses 7:32). But so many things in this world are beyond our control and within His. It follows that we cannot thwart His plans, whether through action or inaction, but that those decisions do impact us personally.
Today, I will consider how my decisions are shaping me. Although God’s work in the world is far beyond my comprehension, I will trust that my contribution to it will allow Him to bless me and deliver me.
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