If I could use only one verse to teach someone about God, I’d use Moses 7:28. And I actually only need the first line of the verse:
“And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept.”
In this verse, all the righteous people have been lifted to heaven. God looks at everyone who is left behind—everyone who will have to face the consequences of being rebellious. God looks at them and doesn’t use the scene as an opportunity to lecture. He does not turn away in frustration or annoyance.
He weeps.
“That single, riveting scene does more to teach the true nature of God than any theological treatise could ever convey,” the late President Jeffrey R. Holland taught.
To me, that verse teaches that God really is a loving father. He is not a businessman set on sorting out the universe as efficiently as possible. He’s not a foreman simply intent on finishing this Earth project on a deadline. He’s not a coach determined to weed out the weak.
He is a loving Father who feels, who cares deeply about each of His children. And He and the Savior want us to know that truth about His nature.
President Holland says, “In all that Jesus came to say and do, including and especially in His atoning suffering and sacrifice, He was showing us who and what God, our Eternal Father, is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation.”
Why Moses 7 Matters So Much
Why is it so important to know that God loves us enough to weep for us? Because feeling how much God loves you makes it very easy to love Him. And feeling genuine love for God will change, in the most beautiful ways, how you live. You’ll want more goodness and have the motivation to seek it.
Consider a story from a recent issue of the Liahona and tell me you don’t feel motivated to share and receive God’s love.
The author of the article is a man named Rob Simpson. He writes that a friend of his was hired to play Santa Claus at a mall and asked if Rob could cover one of his shifts. Rob gladly said yes.
During the shift, a woman walked up with a small boy who just wanted to say hello.
“I invited him to sit on my lap, but she declined, explaining that he didn’t speak English,” Rob writes. The boy only spoke French. Rob was excited to hear this because he had served a French-speaking mission. The boy beamed when “Santa” began speaking to him in French.
When they were done talking, the woman took the boy a few steps away and then came back with tears in her eyes. She explained that she was the boy’s aunt and that his parents had been killed in a car crash. As the boy’s only living relative, she had brought him from Belgium a few days ago to begin living with her in the US. They’d come to the mall that day just to look at the Christmas decorations and try to feel some magic during a hard holiday season. Rob writes what the woman said next:
“My nephew saw you and said that he had to come see you. I told him, ‘No, honey, Santa won’t be able to understand you.’ But he said, ‘Yes, he will. I need to talk to him.’ And he literally pulled me to you.”
She looked at me again and said, “I don’t know how this happened, but thank you.”
God’s love is how that happened. I believe God wept when the little boy’s parents died. And because He is completely devoted to that boy, God found and will continue to find ways to love and help him.
The same love is working in all of our lives—it just sometimes takes us a little while to understand it. As Joseph Smith wrote, “Our heavenly Father is more … boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive.”
But through precious scriptures like Moses 7:28, we can become a little more ready to believe and a little more ready to receive the truly awe-inspiring love of our Heavenly Father.
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