All the Things that Won’t Save You: Numbers and the Lord

by Greg Christiansen

“There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.” – 1 Samuel 14:6

One might easily argue that Mormon was the mightiest warrior among all the Nephites, as he was made the captain of their armies when he was only sixteen. Yet what stands out to me most concerning Mormon is his understanding that his people’s preservation from the Lamanites had nothing to do with the strength of their armies. Instead, their preservation had everything to do with their covenant with God, and the national promise which was upon the land. If they served God, they would prosper. If they did not, then they would be swept off the land when they reached a fullness of iniquity (Ether 2:9-12).

It seems that one of the symptoms of a wicked society is that they look to their own strength for their preservation. This was true for the Nephites before their destruction, who had some early successes in their battles with the Lamanites. “They began to boast in their own strength, and began to swear before the heavens that they would avenge themselves of the blood of their brethren who had been slain by their enemies” (Mormon 3:9). Then on a later occasion Mormon made note of the same thing. He recorded, “And when the Nephites saw that they had driven the Lamanites they did again boast of their own strength” (Mormon 4:8).

We tend to have this same attitude about our own prosperity individually and as a nation. In the world, it sometimes seems that strength and numbers are everything, especially in a world that is increasingly devoid of a moral compass. Might makes right and the fittest survive. The most money buys the biggest house. Sports championships are won by the teams in the biggest markets, because they can afford the best players. More horsepower means a faster car. Longer passwords are more secure. More votes get you elected. More gigabytes give you better storage.

Yet the reality is that when it comes to the preservation of our nation from all of its many problems, there is only one number that matters. The number of repentant souls. We will not be saved by the number of votes our favorite political candidate receives. We will not be saved by the number of dollars we throw at each problem. The Lord is mighty above all, and biblical history teaches us that the strength of the world’s armies and their financial prowess are all meaningless to Him. Ancient Egypt was the wealthiest kingdom in the world, with the mightiest army. Yet the only number that the Lord cared about in that situation was the number of Hebrews crying to Him for deliverance. The Lord exercised His might over the powers of the world by sending a lone outcast to deliver His people. Moses went forth in the strength of the Lord, wielding no weapon but His faith in God’s power to deliver, and the mighty hosts of the Egyptians ended up buried in the Red Sea. The modern Jews will be delivered in a similar way from the Armageddon army, except the Lord Himself will come and part the Mount of Olives just as Moses parted the sea.

The Savior demonstrated to the Jews another way in which numbers could not prevent Him from doing His work. He did not need thousands of loaves and thousands of fish to feed the five thousand men (and their families) which followed Him into the wilderness. He made do with five loaves and two fishes, and it was not only enough, but His disciples would gather together twelve baskets full of the leftover fragments.

Similarly, the Lord has said that in the last days “the weak shall confound the wise,” and He then prophesied that “two shall put their tens of thousands to flight” (D&C 133:58). That prophecy spoken by the mouth of Joseph Smith presents the image of two people standing in defiance of an army of tens of thousands. It demonstrates the principle that the Lord can do His work and fulfill His covenants with the smallest handful of willing servants in His employ. The Lord employed Enoch for such a work in the days before Noah, commanding him to preach repentance to a wicked people who were ripening for destruction. Enoch’s response informs us that he was among the weak things of the earth. He said, “Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?” (Moses 6:31).

The Lord’s response to Enoch teaches us that the Lord can make the weak things as mighty as He is, if they humbly and willingly obey Him, to go forth and do the work which He has given them. He said to Enoch, “Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good. Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you. Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me.” There are four specific promises that the Lord made here to Enoch. 1. He would have protection from his enemies. 2. He would be given the words to speak. 3. He would have the power to command the elements, and to prophesy and see it fulfilled. 4. The Lord would abide in Him.

The Lord did not send Enoch out alone, but He said to Enoch “walk with me.” We will go out together, and as one we will warn this people, He might have said. With the Lord as his companion, Enoch founded Zion and led the people to such great righteousness that their whole city was taken into heaven. Enoch’s strength was completely reliant upon this companionship with the Lord. With the Lord as His ally, he was an unstoppable force for good.

I am sure many of us have had those moments in our lives where we have felt the companionship of the Lord making us much greater than we really are. I remember when I was a very green missionary in Peru. I spoke the language poorly at that time, and could not understand what the people were saying most of the time, as I had only been in the country for a handful of weeks. One afternoon, my Peruvian companion needed to organize a missionary night at the room we were renting for a chapel, so he sent me with a young member off to a small farm where we had an appointment to teach a discussion to a man named Gregorio Huatay. I remember the long walk along a creek towards the farm, and how I was pouring my heart out to Father that He would help me, because I was terrified. It was the second discussion, which included the challenge to be baptized, which had me terrified all the more. How would I teach him, when my Spanish was so poor and I struggled to understand what people were saying? Yet, I went to do what I had been charged to do, with that plea for help in my heart. What happened next amazed me, because as I sat down with Gregorio Huatay my Spanish was suddenly fluent, and I understood every word he spoke to me, and we even set a date for baptism. When my member friend and I left and started walking back, he expressed his astonishment. He could not believe how well I had spoken, and as we departed it was quickly obvious that my Spanish was back to its broken state. We both knew that something had happened. In my mind it was the fulfillment of a promise one of my MTC instructors, Sister Davis, had made. She told us that if we gave everything we had and left the rest to the Lord, He would make up the difference.

I have seen this promise fulfilled over and over again in my life. I have so often found myself in a situation that seemed way too big for me, and yet whenever I have humbled myself and put my trust in the Lord, miracles have happened. To the contrary, I have also gone into situations that seemed routine, where I had confidence in my own ability to do well, only to see myself stumble and struggle, and wonder why everything went so poorly. I was like the Nephite armies, who had been given success over the Lamanites, and took it as evidence of their own strength rather than the Lord’s mercy.

Any time we boast in our own strength, we are doomed to fall and to fail. The Lord has instructed us that such is true even for those who have done the great works of Moses or of Enoch. He said, “Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men; For although a man may have many revelations, and have power to do many mighty works, yet if he boasts in his own strength, and sets at naught the counsels of God, and follows after the dictates of his own will and carnal desires, he must fall and incur the vengeance of a just God upon him” (D&C 3:4). In other words, if we are humbly engaged in the Lord’s work, then we cannot fail. Yet if we are engaged in our own work, relying upon our own strength, having our own personal ambitions, we will ultimately fail. Why? Perhaps because we are God’s work, and when we are at odds with Him we are at odds with ourselves. When we put ourselves above God, we become a creation which is in defiance of its creator. How can such a creation prosper? As Isaiah put it, “Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood” (Isaiah 10:15).

We are the number that matters to God. For Him, numbers are not about the ability to do His work, but rather the numbers are the work. “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). It is a work that is so great that the numbers of worlds and of men are without end, worlds past, present, and future. Moses described the numbers of just this earth, saying, “their numbers were great, even numberless as the sand upon the sea shore.” This description matches one of the promises made to Abraham. The Lord said to him, “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore” (Genesis 22:17). Surely, the comparison to stars and to granules of sand is not random, but meaningful. Stars are advanced and glorified creations, while sand is among the smallest and simplest particles of creation that are visible to the naked eye. Perhaps this promise made to Abraham was that his seed would include both countless advanced godlike beings in the heavens, and numberless children formed newly of the dust of the earth, and everywhere in between. He would have the endless work of helping granules of sand progress to become stars in the heavens.

The Lord’s feelings about numbers and their importance might be best summarized in a few verses. To Israel He said, “How oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not” (3 Nephi 10:5). Here we see that He cares about the number which are gathered, and He wants those numbers to be great. Another verse informs us that He knows all of His creations, and each one of them matters to Him. “For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them” (Moses 1:35).

To me there is great depth of meaning contained in the words, “for they are mine and I know them.” Those words are full of love. The Lord knows you, and you matter to Him, and He has sent out a warning voice to call each of us to repentance, that we may be gathered in. Yet as America ripens for destruction, we might safely say that the grand majority of its people are looking for deliverance from its problems in the wrong places. Certainly, to believe that we will be saved by the wisdom of our politicians, or by the research of our medical doctors, or by elections, or by government programs, or by vaccines, and so forth is as futile as the Nephites’ belief that they would be saved by the strength of their armies. As the Lord has decreed, “Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm” (2 Nephi 4:34). In a single day, the Nephite army went from 230,000 soldiers to just 24.

America was once a land protected and prospered by the divine hand of God. To me, this divine promise of protection might best be symbolized by the sycamore tree which was planted next to St. Paul’s Chapel in New York, the place where George Washington covenanted that the United States of America would be a nation that would serve God. Sycamores are traditionally believed to symbolize protection, divinity, eternity, and strength. That sycamore tree in New York was located at ground zero, and was uprooted by the destruction of 9/11/2001, and was credited with shielding the chapel from being destroyed by debris.

It is my belief that the uprooting of this sycamore was a symbol that the Lord’s divine protection had been removed from the land,[1] just as the Nephites were left to their own strength about thirty to forty years prior to their complete destruction. As Mormon described at that time, “nevertheless the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea, we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak like unto our brethren” (Mormon 2:26). Having witnessed his own people’s destruction, he would then have this warning for us: “O ye Gentiles, how can ye stand before the power of God, except ye shall repent and turn from your evil ways? Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God? Know ye not that he hath all power, and at his great command the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll? Therefore, repent ye, and humble yourselves before him, lest he shall come out in justice against you—lest a remnant of the seed of Jacob shall go forth among you as a lion, and tear you in pieces, and there is none to deliver” (Mormon 5:22-24).

Ultimately, the message is this. All the devices and genius ideas of the world cannot save us. Salvation is of the Lord. Let us each look to our hearts and align them with the Lord, and with His truths, and with His righteousness, calling upon Him for our deliverance. Whether we are few or many who come unto Him, He is the one who will prevail.

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[1] Before the nation of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians anciently, an Assyrian army attacked the Israelite capital in Samaria and cut down their sycamore trees. The Israelites responded in their hearts by saying, “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars” (Isaiah 9:10). This was an attitude of looking to the arm of flesh for their preservation, rather than looking to the Lord. Coincidentally, the sycamore at Ground Zero in New York was replaced by a cedar. Isaiah’s response to Israel’s defiance is recorded in Isaiah 9:11, “Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together.” I would recommend reading The Harbinger, by Johnathan Cahn, for more on this topic.