In the last installment, we observed that many of the Test problems are prepared by the Teacher to bless and exalt and try us. But there are other kinds of problems, myriads of them, which the Teacher does not organize nor inspire, but which He permits. He is only responsible for creating a place where they can occur.
Immediately after Jesus fed the five thousand with two tiny fish and five loaves of barley bread and filled twelve baskets with the leftovers, some of the Jews determined to “take him by force, to make him a king” (John 6:15). He would have made a great king! He could feed the starving, heal the sick, raise the dead, pay taxes with money from the mouth of a fish; certainly He could defeat and expel the Romans. He could with a wave of his hand resolve every social problem faced by the Jewish nation. But the problems the Jews needed to solve were neither social nor political. They were spiritual. And until the Jews resolved their spiritual dilemma, they could not expect the Lord to help them solve other problems.
“Take away the serpents from us,” they pled. But apparently the Lord did not, even when Moses prayed about it, because the serpents were not the problem. The real problem was lack of faith and an attitude that caused the Israelites to complain constantly, and to blame God and Moses for every difficulty. If the Israelites had gone to Moses and said, “Pray unto the Lord, that He might take away our rotten attitudes from us,” this story might have a different ending. But to them, bad attitude was not the problem. Snakes were the problem. The Lord’s response was to have Moses make a brass snake and place it on a pole where people could find it and look at it. With the sculpted serpent came the promise: “Everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” (Numbers 21:8.) The number of fiery serpents did not diminish at all. They remained in all their poisonous plenty to remind Israel about the genuine issue. As we would expect, the Lord’s response dealt with the real problem, and attempted to teach trust, faith, and gratitude, in much the same way as His response to the question of the brother of Jared about light in the barges.
As these dangerous and even life-threatening problems occurred which were not prepared by the Teacher, He acted to ensure that they did not frustrate His plans for the Testing Center and those within. In fact, He transformed them into blessings for Nephi, increasing his faith, expanding his trust, and enlarging his experience. There are no guarantees, of course. The Instructor will not always douse the flames or send an angel or speak with a voice that shakes the Testing Center. The innocents of Ammonihah perished. But they went on to their glory. It is hard to imagine that they complained at the way the problem turned out. Their pain and agony carried them to their exaltation. Clearly, the experience worked for their good.