The relationships we have with our earthly parents are often a type and a shadow of our coming relationships with our Father in Heaven. Our first lessons of both love and discipline are centered in the home. As far as I can recall, the only time my father displayed anger with me as a child was on one occasion where, through an insensitive oversight, I had shown ingratitude following a day-long family outing. As I look back on it, my father’s disciplinary response at that time was but a reflection of the essence of the famous passage from the 59th section of the Doctrine and Covenants: “And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments” (verse 21). When the remnants of Israel in America experienced the wrath of a just God through the foretold geophysical upheavals at the time of the Savior’s death, they understood, though in many cases too late, the grave consequences of disobedience and ingratitude. Even then, the Lord’s severe chastening was rooted in love: “yea, in the days of their iniquities hath he chastened them because he loveth them” (Helaman 15:3). In the Savior’s continental pronouncements to the fallen people, He would emphasize not once, but three times, His fatherly desire to gather the favored people and nourish them “as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings” (3 Nephi 10:4, 5, 6). Clearly He yearns to favor His children through divine charity and grace.
The Lord’s favor toward His children is a theme that runs through the Book of Mormon, beginning with Nephi’s opening words about “having been highly favored of the Lord” (1 Nephi 1:1). The word “favor,” including its derivatives, is used in thirty-seven verses in the standard works, thirty of them in the Book of Mormon. We learn from the Book of Mormon the simple steps for gaining the favor of the Lord: by not murmuring (see 1 Nephi 3:6), by speaking the words of the Lord (see 1 Nephi 7:4), by being righteous (see 1 Nephi 17:35) and obedient (see 2 Nephi 1:19; Mosiah 1:13), through prayer (see Mosiah 10:13), through faith (see Alma 9:20), by responding to the “glad tidings” of the gospel (Alma 13:23), by being “zealous” in the spiritual sense (Alma 27:30), through humility (see Alma 48:20), through valor and courage (see Alma 56:19), and by remembering the Lord from day to day in strict conformity with His commandments, as did the stripling warriors (see Alma 58:40–41).
Mormon sounds the theme of favor once more in reference to the Savior’s visit to America following His resurrection: “And it came to pass that in the ending of the thirty and fourth year, behold, I will show unto you that the people of Nephi who were spared, and also those who had been called Lamanites, who had been spared, did have great favors shown unto them, and great blessings poured out upon their heads, insomuch that soon after the ascension of Christ into heaven he did truly manifest himself unto them” (3 Nephi 10:18). The reason for such favor is made clear: “And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints, who were spared” (3 Nephi 10:12). From this we can derive one of the principal lessons of the Book of Mormon concerning the favor of the Lord: Receive His prophets. Just as Samuel of old warned the people in lucid and frank terms to repent and become a righteous people, we today have the extraordinary benefit of hearing the voice of God’s prophets directly. Because of this opportunity, we can gain the favor of God through obedience and righteousness and thereby prepare ourselves for the “tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29) in the not-too-distant future when the Lord will return again “in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). (Richard J. Allen)