A friend and I shared a meal together early last year. Not long before our meeting, we had each taken steps to follow President Nelson’s call to learn about “all that the Lord has promised He will do for covenant Israel,” ponder these promises, and then discuss “them with your family and friends.” [1] Our hearts were moved as we marvelled together at the Lord’s promises. She confided that until she studied for herself, she had “wanted to scream” when she heard the term “covenant path” in Church talks and lessons. The words made little sense. Then, with effort and focus, annoyance melted as understanding and joy grew up in its place.
Our own study of covenant Israel (a name that can be read to mean “let God prevail”) may teach us that the Lord’s promises take root amid—and not in the absence of—everyday worries and concerns. [2] Like anyone, Abram and Sarai (who become Abraham and Sarah), their son Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and their grandson Jacob (who becomes Israel) and his family all had to get dwellings, food, water, family, a nation, peace, and identity both then and for future people. [3] We know the feeling.
But the Lord gives them a bold solution: do not pursue these in the usual, human way, trying feverishly to secure them for yourselves. Instead, God says, relate yourselves to Me first, act on the words I will give, and then I will relate you to those around you, show you, provide for you, protect you, give you posterity, and name you. [4]
This exchange with God might feel uncomfortable at first because it cuts against natural instincts. Our gut says: we get when we put getting first, right? Instead, the Lord invites us to embrace a tension: ease our feverish embrace of certainty now to secure a certain future. [5] This is what Moses teaches the Israelites as the Lord uses him to recreate Israel’s covenant identity after more than four centuries of Egyptian slavery: “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, … that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” [6
We hear Jesus echo this same truth at the outset of His ministry. Where Israel’s 40-year wilderness sojourn rebuilt its covenant awareness, Jesus’ extended wilderness fast sees His divine covenant identity called into question: “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” [7] The words of covenant living are so deep in Jesus and He inhabits them so fully that they form His natural response in the moment when His identity and covenant commitment come under attack.
Not long after, Jesus reinforces this teaching: “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? … for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” [8]
With this in view, we better understand one of President Nelson’s final challenges: “Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority. … It is neither too early nor too late for you to become a devout disciple of Jesus Christ.” [9] Truly, as President Nelson encouraged us: “The covenant path is open to all. We plead with everyone to walk that path with us. No other work is so universally inclusive.” [10]
Footnotes
- President Russell M. Nelson, “Let God Prevail,” General Conference October 2020, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/10/46nelson
- Nelson, “Let God Prevail.” In this talk, President Nelson remarks: “With the help of two Hebrew scholars, I learned that one of the Hebraic meanings of the word Israel is ‘let God prevail.’ Thus the very name of Israel refers to a person who is willing to let God prevail in his or her life. That concept stirs my soul!”
- See, e.g., Gen. 12:1–4; 13:2–9; 17:6–20; 21:24–31; 24:11–14.
- See Gen. 12:1–3, 7; 13:14–18; 15:1–4; 17:1–22; 18:13–33; 20:17–18; 21:12–13; 22:1–2; 26:2–5, 24; 28:12–15; 31:3, 11–13; 32:24–30; 35:1, 9–13; 39: 2, 21; 46: 2–4; 48:3–
- Examples of this dynamic in scripture are too numerous to count, but prominent examples include Jesus’ exchange with the young man who asks about eternal life in Mark 10 (10:17–27) and the Lord’s encouragement to Joseph Smith in Doctrine & Covenants 123 (123:13–17).
- Deut. 8:3. The time of the Hebrew/Israelite sojourn in Egypt is given in Ex. 12:40–41.
- Matt. 4:2–4 (emphasis added).
- Matt. 6:31–33.
- President Russell M. Nelson, “The Lord Jesus Christ Will Come Again,” General Conference October 2024, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/10/57nelson
- President Russell M. Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant,” Liahona, October 2022 (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/10/04-the-everlasting-covenant) (emphasis added).