Knowing that the time is coming, and is well-nigh at hand, when the Lord “will hasten my work” (Doctrine & Covenants 88:73)—when “he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness” (Romans 9:28; cf. Doctrine & Covenants 52:11; 84:97)—what do we suppose are the dynamics behind such an extraordinary event? If God is the same yesterday, today, and forever and is no respecter of persons, wouldn’t all he does conform to universal principles and laws?
As by scriptural definition the “work” is the “great and marvelous work” of restoring the end-time house of Israel—Jews, Ten Tribes, and Lamanites—how will it be “hastened”? Says Isaiah, “Your entire people shall be righteous; they shall inherit the earth forever—they are the branch I have planted, the work of my hands, in which I am glorified. The least of them shall become a clan, the youngest a mighty nation. I Jehovah will hasten it in its time” (Isaiah 60:21–22).
If the Lord is going to compress time as it were and extend an extraordinary measure of grace to reconstitute Israel’s natural lineages, who is it that merits such an act of benevolence? Jesus alone, whose merits purchased humanity’s spiritual salvation? Rather, scriptural evidence points primarily to the merits of Israel’s end-time saviors, the spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles who call upon the Lord day and night for the restoration of his people of the house of Israel:
“I have appointed watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, who shall not be silent day or night. You who call upon Jehovah, let not up nor give him respite till he reestablishes Jerusalem and makes it renowned in the earth” (Isaiah 62:6). “Hark! Your watchmen lift up their voice; as one they cry out for joy: for they shall see eye to eye when Jehovah reestablishes Zion” (Isaiah 52:8). Contrast these with the blind watchmen who are “unaware” of impending events (Isaiah 56:10).
It was Abraham’s merits that accrued to Lot, when Abraham interceded for the righteous in Sodom, and “God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow” at the time he destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by a hail of fire and brimstone (Genesis 18:20–33; 19:29). It was Moses’ merits that saved Israel at the time it worshiped the golden calf, when Moses interceded by offering his own soul that they might live (Exodus 32:11–13, 30–33).
It was King Hezekiah’s intercession for his people that merited the destruction of a besieging Assyrian host (Isaiah 37:4, 14–20). It was Alma the elder’s intercession for his son that merited his conversion (Mosiah 27:14). All of these accounts cite God’s intervention by holy angels, indicating the intersection of different realms of time and space. Or, in an end-time context, the transition from telestial to terrestrial time that is merited by saviors who are living a higher law.
In this, they emulate the Lord and his servant: “He shall see the toil of his soul and be satisfied; because of his knowledge, and by bearing their iniquities, shall my servant, the righteous one, vindicate many. I will assign him an inheritance among the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the mighty, because he poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered with criminals—he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:11–12).
It is called the “work of the Father” because, even while these proxy saviors operate under their own covenants with him—by interceding with him on behalf of the house of Israel—they fulfil his covenants with the house of Israel: “For in that day, for my sake shall the Father work a work, which shall be a great and a marvelous work among them; and there shall be among them those who will not believe it, although a man shall declare it unto them” (3 Nephi 21:9).
Even when the blind people and their leaders “will not believe it,” it is these servants’ merits that open the way: “Then shall the work of the Father commence at that day, even when this gospel shall be preached among the remnant of this people. Verily I say unto you, at that day shall the work of the Father commence among all the dispersed of my people, yea, even the tribes which have been lost, which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem” (3 Nephi 21:26).
