Latest / Scripture Central / 2 Nephi 6-10 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited

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2 Nephi 6-10 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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So let's first begin talking about covenants.
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We've talked about the covenant path several times.
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And just as a brief reminder, there's two major covenants.
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There's the Abrahamic covenant, and that's what God's duties are
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to provide us pathways for salvation.
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And then there's a Mosaic covenant, and that's our duties
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and our loyalty back to God. And what God has asked of us has
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been revealed at Mount Sinai. So you'll see these covenants
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actually playing out throughout the Book of Mormon.
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In fact, they're very much on display in second Nephi chapter
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six through 10. And Isaiah spends a lot of time
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on these two covenants. So if you can remember these two
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covenants, what God does for us, that's the Abrahamic promises
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and covenant and what we should be doing for God and for his
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children. That's the Mosaic covenants.
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Well, if you look for those things as you're reading, you'll
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see the covenants of the fathers that are often discussed in
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scriptures. Now let's actually talk about
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the fathers for a minute. These people matter.
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If you want to understand the scriptures, you got to
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understand the patriarchs. First we have Abraham and then
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his son Isaac. And then Isaac had a son named
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Jacob. Then Jacob had twelve sons and
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those sons are called the 12 sons of Israel.
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Why Israel? Jacob's name gets changed to
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Israel during this nighttime encounter with God that he has
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where he wrestles with God and God gives him this new name.
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It's almost like this temple experience.
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And so we know Jacob also to be the same person to be is Israel.
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And so his sons become the 12 sons of Israel or the 12 tribes
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of Israel and it's the descendants of the 12 tribes of
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Israel or the House of Israel or the Israelites.
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All these things refer to the same group that they're taken in
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a bondage and God send Moses to save them.
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Actually, God saves them and He gives them the Mosaic covenant
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of Mount Sinai, and he delivers that to the 12 tribes of Israel.
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And then later there are a number of prophets who continue
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to call upon the memory of what God has asked the people to
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covenantally do at Sinai and as descendants of the House of
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Israel. Or if you've been adopted in we
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all are covenantally bound to show our loyalty to God based on
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the commandments He's revealed to the prophets.
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And if we do, we receive all the Abrahamic promises.
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So that's the covenant path, that is, that Marks and shows
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the way to Jesus, what God does for us under Abrahamic covenant,
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and what we do because of the commandments that God has
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revealed through his prophets. So with that background, let's
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now transition into the overview of second Nephi chapter six
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through 10, and also spend some time talking about who Isaiah
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is, why he wrote, and how that actually helps us understand the
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Book of Mormon. So yeah, let's wipe that off.
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As we as we jump in here on both sides of these these covenants,
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obviously a covenant is a two way promise and so I love what
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Taylor's talking about with the Abrahamic covenant.
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The thing that is getting emphasized is God's faithfulness
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and with the Mosaic covenant are these these commandments and
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these these things that people have to do.
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One phrase to watch for as you read the scriptures and this is
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in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon,
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the for me, the essence of all covenant because covenant is is
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this connection with God between US and Him.
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Watch for the phrase, I'll just draw it like a nutshell because
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this is the nutshell definition of all these covenants that we
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make. It's where he says I will be
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your God and you will be my people.
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That's that's the essence of the covenant of any covenant is this
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God in heaven saying, look, I I will take care of you.
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I will treat you like a God treats his people.
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But you have to treat me like your God.
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You have to love me, You have to have faith in me.
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You have to come to me and rely on me.
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And that is the only safety is in that covenant.
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Consequently, you'll hear other scriptures be used scripture
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such as wickedness never was happiness.
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That's simply a statement of truth.
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Wickedness never was happiness. Why?
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It's because you've no longer said I want you to be my God.
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You've said I want something else that this world has to
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offer to be my God. And none of those things can
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treat you like God can treat you.
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They There's no happiness, there's no enduring joy that can
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flow from anything that the world offers you as a
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counterfeit to the true covenant connection in the safety of of
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being with God as His people. What happens is people will come
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to the Book of Mormon if you, if you stop and think about this
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for a minute, what are the sections in the Book of Mormon
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that people most often either skip or glaze over and just kind
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of blah blah blah blah blah blah.
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I'll get to the end. OK, let's pick up the story.
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Which sections? I know, I know.
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Which sections? Isaiah.
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It's Isaiah or where Jesus is giving a speech about the House
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of Israel and 3rd Nephi or zenith is giving a long allegory
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about the House of Israel and the covenant connection.
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It's interesting because wherever the scriptures start
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talking about covenant and the House of Israel, if we're not
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careful we zone out when in reality it's God setting up the
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terms of this connection that we have with him.
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It's really, really important. But it's not on a silver platter
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for us. It's you have to dig, you have
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to pay attention. You have to do more than just
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read black words on a white page.
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If you take the book of Isaiah, there's a simple way to divide
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out Isaiah. You can just divide it into half
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chapters one through 39 is the first segment of Isaiah and
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chapter 40 through 66 is the second segment of Isaiah.
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This this whole opening segment is God speaking to Israel in
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sometime around between the seven 7:40 and 7:00 O1 BC, so
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100 to 140 years before Lehigh comes into the story.
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Israel has gone through this pattern so many times, The pride
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cycle, if you will, from the book Mormon, where they've
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they've suffered, they've been humble.
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They repented. God has blessed them,
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reestablished the covenant. They're like, OK, yeah, we're
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we're yours. We'll worship you now and.
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Then they forget. And then they forget.
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Or they get prosperous and and willingly go after other gods
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and they leave the covenant. You'll notice God's never the
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one leaving the covenant. He's spending a lot of time
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going around finding them to reestablish the covenant, but
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he's never leaving it. They're the ones who leave it.
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So they do this over and over and over and over again.
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And finally you get to Isaiah and the 1st 39 chapters are 39
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chapters of consequences of. This is what happens when you
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repeatedly break my my connection with you when you
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treat me as if I'm not your God and.
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What's interesting about this is that when we don't show our
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loyalty to God, he is covenantally obligated to bring
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forth, well, the opposite of blessings.
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And let me just give a just a brief metaphor about this.
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If you rent A home or you have a mortgage, you have made an
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agreement with the landlord. So if you're a renter, there's a
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landlord who owns the property. If it's a mortgage, the bank
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actually owns the property. So there's a landlord and
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there's certain obligations that you are required to fulfill.
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And if you actually decide to break those expectations that
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the landlord has placed on the land or on the home or on the on
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the bank note for the mortgage, what do you think is going to
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happen if you are consistently breaking the agreement that you
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made with the landlord or the bank?
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Eventually they will kick you out of the house and off the
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land. And what happens to the people
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of Israel? They don't show loyalty to God.
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Remember, God revealed the instructions for loyalty.
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It's the 10 commandments, like love God, love your neighbor,
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and if you don't do those things, you're off the land.
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And why do the 12 tribes or something, the 10 tribes get
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taken into captivity. They broke the covenant.
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They're off the land. And they were warned and warned
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and warned and they they refused.
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They refused to come back to the covenant.
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So understand that the book of Isaiah is way more complex than
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this. This is a really, really simple
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look to separate it out, to make it a little easier to digest.
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The fascinating thing is the second-half shows God's mercy,
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His love, his compassion, his long-suffering.
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So this is the the all of these chapters are messages of hope
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and deliverance. Even though these people don't
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deserve it, they don't. They don't deserve deliverance.
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They don't deserve love, but they get it anyway because God
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made a promise to Abraham. And that's his grace and his
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mercy and that Abrahamic covenant.
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God promised to always offer grace and love to his people.
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And if we turn away from it, the grace doesn't go away, the love
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doesn't go away. We just walked away from it.
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And he's just saying, hey everybody, it's still here.
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Come back to me and I will give you all these things that's
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freely available. Now some of you are probably
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wondering at this point, why are you spending so much time on
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this? I thought our scripture block
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was second Ephah chapter six through 10.
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The reality is, is you you can't really understand what's going
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on in chapter 678 and then Jacob's commentary in nine and
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10 unless you understand the context of why Jacob's using
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Isaiah and what he's trying to do with Isaiah to convince his
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people, his people are struggling.
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They're not. They're they're they're
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wandering and he's trying to pull them back into the covenant
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and he's going to quote to them Chapters 5051 and 1st 2 verses
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of chapter 52 here in a minute, which is the leading up to the
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center point of this hope and deliverance of God keeping these
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covenants. The fascinating thing is the
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hope and the deliverance comes it.
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It culminates in chapters 52 through 54 where you get these,
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these allusions to this suffering servant who's going to
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come and be punished and take upon him all of our
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transgressions, all of our breakages of the law to allow it
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so that that covenant can be reestablished.
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It's all about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which if we don't
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understand that, then again, all we're going to be doing is
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reading black words on a white page when we come to to 2nd E56
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through 10. Let me show you one other thing
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here. One reason among many why people
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struggle with Isaiah is they'll read him in the Book of Mormon
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in isolation. So we often get into the habit.
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Because of the the way the book is laid out, we'll read a
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chapter a day or we'll we'll focus on one chapter at a time.
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And when we do that, we miss some of the, the overarching
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beauty of how the book was put together.
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Because when Jacob or Nephi or Alma or Healman when they wrote
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the book and when Mormon put it together and abridged it, he
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didn't use chapters and verses the way we have them.
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He didn't do that. He did have chapters, no verses.
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But those chapters are much bigger.
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And it would be worth some effort for for you, if you want
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to look into that, to look at the original 1830 edition, how
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the chapters were broken out and you'll find out.
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Oh, this author intended for all of our current chapters to be
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read together as one unit or one whole.
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It'll change the way you look at some of these chapters.
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One other overview perspective here, and then we'll we're going
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to dive in. There is a there's a big
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difference between a Hebrew worldview and and a perspective
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of who we are and identity and a Greek perspective.
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The Hebrew people, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, the House
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of Israel, all of them Moses, all of that group all the way
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down into Jesus time. The Hebrew people instinctively
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identify themselves at the group level or at the family level.
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There's a high sense of identity attached to my family, my tribe.
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My My identity comes because I am of the House of Israel.
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In this larger world. The Greeks come along and take
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over the world and they flip that on its head.
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For the Greeks, it's all about democracy.
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It's all about every man for himself, Everybody.
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Everybody is an individual identity.
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And so they find their identity more so at the individual, local
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level, regardless of what's going on out there.
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When you read scriptures, notice that the Old Testament and the
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New Testament and much of the Book of Mormon is written from
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this perspective where your identity comes by being by
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coming into the House of Israel, coming into the covenant family.
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Being a child of Abraham. Child of Abraham, we live now in
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the 21st century in a Greek dominated world.
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We can thank the Greeks. I mean, without them we wouldn't
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have all the freedoms and all of the opportunities, politically
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and business and culturally and with the arts and and learning.
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We have a lot of things to thank them for.
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So when you read your scriptures, notice that it's
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written from this perspective, but you can feel free to take
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them personally. So while we're talking about
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Isaiah referring to the House of Israel and the family and this
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group identity, that's good and we're not taking that away.
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We would never want to take that away because that's how it was
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given in its original context. I guess our point is, don't
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forget that you can take that one step to liken all scriptures
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unto yourself. Bring them down off of the
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umbrella, the higher umbrella level.
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Bring them down to the eye level if you will.
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They're easier to see there and to relate to you, your family or
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situation. In your immediate situation,
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yeah, circumstances. So what we're gonna do is talk
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about the structure of second Nephi six through 10 so you can
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see what's going on here. Yeah.
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Because once again, if we're not careful, what we'll do is we'll
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just read one chapter in isolation today and then be
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confused, put it on the shelf, come back tomorrow, read another
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one, be confused, and then come back the next day and we might
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come across, oh, OK, now I understand this one.
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But we haven't benefited from looking at them the way the
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original prophet put them down as one whole.
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So here's what happens. Whenever you get Isaiah quoted
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in the Book of Mormon, try not to get into the trap of just
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reading it completely in isolation, because the prophets
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never, never package Isaiah in isolation.
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They put a nice little border around him.
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So you always watch for what they say as an introduction.
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They're going to give you a rationale, a reason.
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They're not just riding along or teaching the people and all of a
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sudden say, OK, pause and then pull out Isaiah and start
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reading it to them. They don't do that.
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There's a reason they're going to Isaiah, and they usually tell
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you why they're doing that here in the chapter or chapters right
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before SO. As a parenting technique, if I
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actually gave my kids an introduction of why I'm
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lecturing them with Isaiah, they would receive it better.
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But I'm just jumping right in. There you go.
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Especially if at the end, you give them your prophetic or
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parental commentary. So when prophets quote prophets,
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whether in a general conference setting in our day or in a
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scriptural setting, they have some authority from the Lord to
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tell you what they got out of those chapters.
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Well, that's exactly what you get here in this Come Follow Me
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section for this week we get chapter 6.
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This is all in Second Nephi chapter 6.
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Jacob is going to introduce why he why he wants to go to Isaiah
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and why Nephi asked him to read these particular chapters.
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Jacob's on assignment from his presiding authority in this
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case, and he tells you that. So he's going to give you some
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some heads up here, some look for this.
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Then he gives you the Isaiah chapters that he's going to
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quote, which are 5051 and the 1st 2 verses of chapter 52.
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Then he gives you his commentary.
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So if you struggle reading chapters 7:00 and 8:00, just pay
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attention to some of these and you're going to say, oh, that
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helps me unlock some of the meaning of these more difficult
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to understand words and phrases and passages and.
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We've talked about the covenants, the House of Israel.
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These are all major and crucial themes for understanding why
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Jacob, Why Nephi? Well, first of all, why Isaiah
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preached these things and then why Jacob and Nephi repeated the
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words of Isaiah and then explained them to their people.
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And I want to go back to somebody said a little bit ago
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about how God gave us a covenantal community.
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Now in the modern world, we live in this individualistic society.
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It's all about me. It's all about me.
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And we actually, as members of the church, are part of a
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covenantal community. And that's what the invitation
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here is to see the covenant of community that God has
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established, inviting us into. And the word Church comes from
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the ancient Greek word Ecclesia. It literally means those who are
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called out from the world to join into a covenantal
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community. God is trying to remind his
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people. Remember, the Abrahamic covenant
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is God's duty and his loyalty to us.
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He's trying to remind them of his love, His mercy, his
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kindness, because they've been kind of drifting away from him.
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And we imagine even Nephi's people, maybe they're starting
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to fill, like, worried, like do we still have God's love?
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Maybe they've been struggling in some way.
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And listen to what? What we hear from the words of
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Isaiah, chapter seven of Second Nephi.
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He begins with saying, yeah, for thus saith the Lord, have I put
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thee away or have I cast thee off forever?
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It's a rhetorical question. The answer is no.
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But he's trying to get the people to think about, like I
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haven't left you. If you're feeling sad or lonely
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or feeling like you're not experiencing my blessings, why
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not turn back to me? I'm still here.
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I'm still waiting to be with you.
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I want you to be my people. And he goes on.
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For thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother's
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divorcement? To whom have I put thee away?
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Or to which of my creditors have I sold you?
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Ye to whom have I sold you? And he goes on and says, Behold,
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for your iniquities, have you sold yourselves?
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And for your transgressions is your mother put away.
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So it's this. Idea of In that covenant I will
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be your God, you will be my people.
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That verse is is example after example after example of I never
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do this. It's always you who are doing
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this. I never gave you a divorce.
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I never told you I'm done with you.
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I'm sick of you. I'm tired of you.
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Kicked you out of the land? I don't.
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Do that but. You walked out of the land
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because your transgressions, to be more specific, your
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transgressions meant I had to let you go.
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But I want to bring you back in. Please come back.
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And this is always what God is offering, and I want to tie it
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into our day. Our sacrament service is a
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replication of the Passover mill, where God saved his
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people. And just like the Israelites
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partook of the the blood and flesh of the lamb, we do the
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same thing. And that's actually a covenantal
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reunion where the people pledge themselves to be God's people
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and we make that covenant every single week.
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We're saying I'm going to be yours, God, and what does it
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give us in return? You'll have my presence and.
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Isn't that isn't that amazing how God does that in a sacrament
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setting where you combine the best of the Hebrew mindset with
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the best of the Greek mindset? Yeah, you gather as a group, you
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come in families and and and as a ward family to partake of
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those emblems as a group. And that identity is a group
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that you partake of those elements as an individual.
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One by one you're making that individual covenant.
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I I think it's beautiful how God's doing that to the point
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where the very verse you read out of chapter seven, we know
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that Isaiah is talking about the House of Israel, this big group,
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we get that. But the reality is is at the
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individual mindset level, it's also true.
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You can have an entire family whose covenant keeping and
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they're doing everything right and one individual say I don't
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want him to be my God anymore. I want to go and do this other
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stuff, and they forsake the covenant.
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They leave the faith, so to speak.
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And the same exact thing can be said of that individual.
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Is God saying to that individual?
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Here's a writing of my divorcement.
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I'm done with you. No.
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So he treats us collectively and individually with this complete
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love and covenant, keeping perspective.
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And there's actually a number of passages here in Isaiah where he
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talks about and reminds people of his his covenantal
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faithfulness. And so as you read second in
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ephi Chapter 7 through 8, look for how does God describe
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himself? What does he say that he has
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done for the people or what he will do?
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And then what does he talk about, what he expects the
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people to do or what they have or have not done?
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And that's can help elucidate what Isaiah is talking about.
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And then we can think about Jacob is trying to encourage the
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people of Nephi to trust God. God has not moved.
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He is still there, full of grace, full of mercy.
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He is the Holy One of Israel who had saved their ancestors in the
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wilderness and LED them to the promised Land.
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And you had marked a couple of passages about that.
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Yeah, what I. Wanted to show you here is so it
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would be a great exercise for you to jump into seven and
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eight. But first of all make sure you
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you get the context that Jacob gives us from chapter six.
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Let me give you just a couple of examples to to empower you to
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hopefully have a better experience than you've ever had
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before reading Isaiah in the Book of Mormon.
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Look at verse five of chapter 6. This is Jacob's intro here.
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Now the words which I shall read are they which Isaiah spake
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concerning all the House of Israel.
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Wherefore they may be likened unto you, for ye are of the
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House of Israel. Again, you can take the Hebrew
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level, because yeah, you're part of this big group, but also
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don't leave out the eye level. That individual that oh wow,
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this this applies to me directly, regardless of what
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anybody else does. It's pretty profound.
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Now look at verse 10 again, thinking of the big group as
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well as you. After they have hardened their
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hearts, and stiffened their necks against the Holy One of
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Israel, behold, the judgments of the Holy One of Israel shall
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come upon them, and the day cometh that they shall be
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smitten and afflicted, wherefore after they are driven to and
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fro. For thus saith the Angel, many
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shall be afflicted in the flesh, and shall not be suffered to
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perish because of the prayers of the faithful, They shall be
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scattered and smitten, and hated.
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Nevertheless, the Lord will be merciful unto them that when
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they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer, they shall be
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gathered together again to the lands of their inheritance.
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We can see this through the history of the House of Israel,
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and I hope you can see this and sense this with regards to your
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loved ones who maybe have struggled and perhaps strayed
25:09
from the covenant path. And if you read it through both
25:12
of those lenses, I can promise you that you're going to have a
25:15
better experience reading these chapters of Isaiah here, chapter
25:18
seven and eight, where he's where he's going to be laying
25:21
this out for us. What God has done for us, even
25:24
though we've been completely unfaithful at certain times,
25:28
we're not going to. Spend a lot of time in these
25:29
chapters because we want to invite you to spend more time
25:33
for you exploring in the scriptures and having the Spirit
25:36
guide you with some of these insights we provided.
25:39
But why don't you spend a few minutes talking about a couple
25:42
passes you you've highlighted and I want to spend just a
25:45
minute or two on the last two verses of second ephi Chapter 8,
25:48
OK? So I'm not going to cover
25:51
anything in here. I want you to dive in.
25:53
I want to just give one little teeny segment here in verse in
25:58
chapter 8, which is Isaiah 51, verse 12, back to the idea of I
26:05
will be your God, You will be my people.
26:08
I am he, yeah, I am he that comforteth you.
26:12
Behold, who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of man who
26:17
should die, and of the son of man who shall be made like under
26:20
grass? Why are you fearing people who
26:24
aren't gods, organizations who aren't gods?
26:27
They sometimes act like they are.
26:29
They they talk as if they are, but they're not.
26:31
They're just They're they're made of the dust of the earth,
26:33
just like you are. But you're you're forgetting the
26:37
Lord, thy maker in verse 13 it which kind of Harkins back to
26:43
something he said. I told you I wasn't going to
26:44
take you into seven, but here I am.
26:46
Go back to Chapter 7, verse 11. Behold all ye that Kindle Fire,
26:50
that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light
26:54
of your fire, and in the sparks which you have kindled, this
26:58
shell you have of my hand, you shall lie down in sorrow.
27:01
The idea of you can try to set up your own light, you can try
27:05
to set up your own, your own sense of of of a God.
27:11
But you're going to walk in darkness because the light you
27:15
can kindle is nothing that can compare with what God sets up
27:19
for us. And so he's, He's setting up
27:21
this beautiful contrast that the world we live in is pleading for
27:27
you to leave God and come and embrace them.
27:30
And he's saying, you can, but you have this of mine hand.
27:34
You're going to lie down in sorrow.
27:36
And that's not a threat. It's just a reality.
27:39
It just is. That is what's going to happen
27:41
when you when you do this. But then the beautiful thing is,
27:45
is he'll still be kind to us. Look at verse 22.
27:50
Thus saith thy Lord the Lord and thy God pleadeth the cause of
27:55
his people. Behold, I have taken out of
27:58
thine hand the cup of trembling and the dregs of the cup of my
28:01
fury. Thou shalt no more drink it
28:04
again. No worldly organization, no
28:08
individual on the earth can make you that promise.
28:12
Only God can make that promise, and he makes it over and over
28:17
and over again and. Once he has convinced us that he
28:23
is God, he is immovable. His mercy endures forever, he
28:27
concludes. I mean, Isaiah concludes Second
28:29
Nephi Chapter 8 with this call for us, this action for us to
28:33
take. OK, now that we know that God
28:35
will be totally true to us, what should we do?
28:38
Awake, Awake, Put on thy strength of Zion.
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What's that strength? He told me.
28:43
Jesus Christ, It comes through repentance.
28:45
Put on the beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for
28:49
henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised
28:53
and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust.
28:55
Arise, sit down, O Jerusalem, loose thyself from the bands of
28:59
thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
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So God is saying, I am here for you.
29:03
I have never let you go. Please come back to me.
29:08
Now, the chapter that most of you are probably most familiar
29:13
with, Chapter 9, which is the beginning of Jacob's commentary
29:17
of what he's just read, and he takes us straight into this
29:21
atoning redemptive process that Jesus went through for us.
29:25
And quite interestingly, he will share some things here that you
29:29
don't find explained in great detail in very many other places
29:35
in all the scripture. Let me give you an example.
29:38
Look at verse 5, He says, I know, yeah, I know that ye know
29:43
that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem
29:46
from whence we came. For it is expedient that it
29:49
should be among them, for it behooveth the great Creator,
29:54
that he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the
29:58
flesh. Now let me repeat that it
30:01
behooveth him. It's required of him.
30:03
He has to do this. He has to suffer himself to
30:07
become subject unto man in the flesh, and subsequently die for
30:12
all men, that all men might become subject unto him.
30:16
Let's unpack that for a minute. Most of you are very, very
30:20
familiar with and and comfortable with the notion of
30:24
Jesus going into Gethsemane and falling to the ground, and his
30:29
his prayer being ABBA Father, all things are possible unto
30:33
thee. Remove this cup for me
30:35
nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt not my will but
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thine be done. We're very, very comfortable
30:42
with Jesus saying, here's what I want, here's my will.
30:45
I don't want to keep doing this. Remove this cup.
30:47
Take it away. Stop this suffering.
30:48
It's it's worse than I thought it could be.
30:51
Nevertheless, he swallows his will up in the will of the
30:54
Father. Not my will, but thine be done.
30:56
You do whatever you want to do here.
30:58
But it's interesting that Jacob's wording here.
31:01
It's the same idea except for in this case it's Jesus taking his
31:06
will and having it be swallowed up in the will of men.
31:10
Not just any men, but those particular men who Jacob later
31:15
on is going to say no other nation would crucify their God.
31:19
It's as if Jesus is saying to them, here I am, I don't want
31:24
you to abuse me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
31:28
thine be done. And boy, oh boy do they do.
31:33
They unleash on him to harken back to some of the Isaiah
31:36
passages. Look at this.
31:39
If you look back at Chapter 7, verse six, I gave my back to the
31:44
smiter and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid
31:51
not my face from shame and spitting.
31:54
It's as if Jacob is saying Jesus isn't wanting this to happen.
31:58
It doesn't feel good. He doesn't enjoy it, but he's
32:01
willing to allow his will to be swallowed up in their will.
32:05
And they're having at him. They're smiting him.
32:08
He gave his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.
32:11
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John don't even go there.
32:13
We don't even hear about that in another passage there in Isaiah.
32:17
He says that Jesus's countenance, his visage, his
32:21
appearance is going to be marred more so than any man.
32:26
The idea being they are going to abuse him to an incredible level
32:33
and Jacob's commentary is all of this had to happen so that the
32:37
day could come when all men might become subject unto him in
32:42
the in the judgment. When I read this, I just find it
32:46
so beautiful how the prophets all speak with the same voice
32:52
and it's all focused on Jesus. That if we will have him to be
32:56
our God, we will find that the suffering we experience in this
33:01
life will always swallowed up in the suffering of Jesus Christ.
33:04
That we can be redeemed, brought back in the presence of God, and
33:07
find eternal happiness. So.
33:10
To make sense of this next part, referring to what Jesus is going
33:15
to accomplish in in his infinite Atonement process, we have to
33:23
understand the the two main elements that are at play here.
33:28
When Adam and Eve partake of the fruit they are promised in the
33:32
day that we just throw of, Thou shalt surely die.
33:34
So there's a a spiritual death where they're they're removed
33:38
from the presence of Heavenly Father.
33:40
But then within that thousand year, one day of the Lord,
33:43
whatever way you want to look at that, they're also going to die
33:46
physically. So we have this physical death
33:50
that becomes a reality for all of us as children of Adam and
33:54
Eve. But we also have this spiritual
33:57
separation from God that we have also inherited.
34:03
So we would just call this death and this would ultimately be
34:09
hell. Jacob is going to teach this, in
34:14
my opinion better than anybody in the scriptures.
34:16
This guy is off the charts. Amazing how he clarifies what
34:22
Jesus did to overcome these, even giving it a name.
34:25
That awful monster. Death and health.
34:27
So watch, watch what happens. And This is why.
34:29
Nephi, look, Nephi is not full of himself.
34:33
He knows that his brother is such a capable gospel
34:36
communicator that he's like, why don't you jump into my journal
34:39
and take up, take a couple of chapters here.
34:42
You know, I would have never done with any of my brothers
34:44
because I know exactly what they would write about me, OK?
34:46
It would be the truth. It would be very embarrassing.
34:49
So. He's he's.
34:50
I love that he's he's saying, Jacob, I'm I'm the prophet.
34:53
I'm in charge of the people. But I want to delegate this part
34:55
of the meeting. You teach the people this.
34:58
You you understand this. We've had a lot of conversations
35:01
and Dad taught you well and go for it.
35:04
Look at what he says. Verse 7.
35:07
Wherefore it must needs be an infinite atonement.
35:11
Say if it should be an infinite atonement, this corruption could
35:13
not put on in corruption. Where for the first judgment
35:15
which came upon man must needs have remained.
35:18
What was the first judgment? Getting kicked out of the Garden
35:21
of Eden. And without an infinite
35:23
atonement, that judgment would remain to an endless duration.
35:29
Now let me just pause here for a second.
35:31
Go back to that moment in Gethsemane middle of the night.
35:36
Jesus is on the ground. Look at his prayer.
35:39
ABBA, Father, all things are possible into the remove this
35:44
cup from me if the sentence stops there.
35:49
From our perspective, if we're up in heaven watching that and
35:52
we hear that is our reaction, oh, it's not a big deal.
35:56
I think that it is a big deal because we understand this
35:59
doctrine here from Jacob's speech here in about 550 BC.
36:04
Look at what he says would happen to us if Jesus doesn't
36:07
complete an infinite atonement. If so, this flesh must have laid
36:14
down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth to rise no
36:19
more. Those are pretty sobering words
36:23
that becomes eternal for us to rise no more.
36:27
You're done. Now look what happens to your
36:30
spirit if Christ doesn't complete an infinite atonement.
36:34
Verse 80, The wisdom of God, His mercy and His grace.
36:39
For behold, if the flesh should rise no more, our spirits must
36:42
become subject to that Angel who fell from before the presence of
36:45
the Eternal God and became the devil to rise no more.
36:49
Jacob used the same 4 words to rise no more to say that's what
36:55
happens to your body if Jesus doesn't complete an infinite
36:58
atonement to rise no more. That's what happens to your
37:00
spirit if Jesus doesn't complete an infinite atonement.
37:04
We're kind of in a fix here. There's a lot weighing down on
37:07
that moment. That's why my favorite word in
37:11
the English scriptures is nevertheless, because it's at
37:16
that point that it becomes this turning point.
37:18
Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done, because without
37:23
him completing that infinite atonement, there's no purpose in
37:27
any of us trying to find any kind of joy.
37:31
Enduring joy of any kind doesn't exist without this infinite
37:34
atonement in place. So look at verse 10.
37:37
Oh, how great the goodness of our God who prepares the way for
37:41
our escape from the grasp of this awful monster.
37:45
Yeah, that monster. Death and hell, which I call the
37:50
death of the body, and also the death of the Spirit.
37:53
And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy
37:56
One of Israel, this death of which I have spoken, which is
37:59
the temporal, shall deliver up its dead, which death is the
38:03
grave. And then he also talks about how
38:05
we'll overcome this and be brought back into the presence
38:08
of the Father for judgement. One of the powerful words here
38:12
is the word wisdom in verse 8, all the wisdom of God.
38:16
In a prior video I talked about the power of that word Wisdom
38:21
and other words in English that are related to the word Wisdom
38:24
are vision, evidence, story, history.
38:29
And what God does is He shows us through the stories of the
38:35
scriptures, the history of the House of Israel.
38:38
He gives us evidence of his love of this covenant path that saves
38:43
us from this these deaths and that leads us to wisdom.
38:47
And truly we both work in high red and people want to become
38:52
more wise. They go and get an education.
38:54
And I'm jumping ahead just briefly, but this verse 29, it
38:57
says to be learned is good. If they hearken unto the
39:02
counsels of God, that is true wisdom.
39:05
Don't get me wrong. I mean, studying the world and
39:07
history and anything else that we might learn about is great.
39:10
But true wisdom is seeing evidence for God's love, and
39:17
that is what Jacob's trying to reveal to us in plain words that
39:21
just cannot be misunderstood. And of all the learning you can
39:24
get in the world, the most important learning you can get
39:27
is to hearken the counsels of God and to believe The witness
39:31
which actually comes from the word Wisdom, the Word wit, it
39:33
means wisdom to see and vision is this witness that Jesus
39:38
Christ is our Savior, and He saves us from these twin deaths
39:41
that we are all subject to without His loving kindness.
39:46
So something for you to to pay attention to as you go through
39:49
Chapter 9. A former student of mine, Kyle
39:52
Smith, who who also is a seminary teacher now, he shared
39:57
this idea that Chapter 9 has the Cheery OS.
40:01
And the dreadful woes, it's just kind of fun to look at and mark
40:05
all of the OS. OOO, they're they're everywhere
40:09
in here. Jacob is overcome with with joy
40:15
at at the deliverance that has promised him.
40:17
And he's using this O over and over again And then the
40:21
second-half of Chapter 9, he's going to use those dreadful
40:24
woes. What happens when you don't take
40:28
upon you the name of Christ when you don't recognize his infinite
40:31
atonement? It's a it's a life of woe.
40:34
And just as a a little side note on the the speaker here, Jacob,
40:41
I love, I love when you see a person's character, their
40:47
attributes, their personality shine through, either in written
40:50
word or if they've spoken them. And in this case, he spoke them.
40:53
And if I wrote them down for us, look at what you notice about
40:57
Jacob's personality in verse 14. I love this guy.
41:00
He's one of my heroes. Wherefore we notice he's
41:04
including himself. We shall have a perfect
41:07
knowledge of all our guilt and our uncleanness and our
41:12
nakedness, and then notice how he finishes it.
41:16
And the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their
41:21
enjoyment and their righteousness, being clothed
41:23
with purity, even with the robe of righteousness.
41:26
I don't know very many people who are more righteous than
41:29
Jacob, who are more good than Jacob.
41:31
And yet he's being so cautious to not come across as
41:34
self-righteous. He's saying, look, we we're
41:37
going to remember all of the bad things we did.
41:39
But the righteous, they're going to remember all of their
41:41
goodness and their purity and their righteousness.
41:42
And he's not putting himself in that group.
41:44
He's putting himself in this group and I don't know, there's
41:47
something about that that I really like.
41:49
Well, it's just. Humility.
41:50
He recognizes. He participates in this
41:53
condition as well, and he needs we all equally need, the atoning
41:59
love of Jesus Christ. It's just that simple.
42:02
So. 11 Closing thought for me in chapter 10.
42:09
So Jacob he he gives that long speech in Chapter 9.
42:13
It's been a long day. They go home.
42:16
They come back the next day, and he gives the second-half, which
42:19
is chapter 10. I want you to notice what he
42:22
says at the very end of his speech, Chapter 10, verse 24.
42:26
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will
42:29
of God. That's what Jesus did,
42:32
reconciled himself to the will of God.
42:34
And we want to be more like him and not to the will of the devil
42:38
and the flesh. And remember that after ye are
42:42
reconciled unto God that it is only in and through the grace of
42:46
God that ye are saved. I don't think it's inappropriate
42:51
to end with a little personal story here.
42:54
One time many years ago, my son Jarrett was turning 4 and he
43:02
wasn't potty trained yet, and that bothered me.
43:05
And I worked with him and worked with him and the kid just
43:08
couldn't be bothered. And finally I came up with a
43:11
system where I said, look, if you can go seven days without an
43:13
accident, you and I'll get a date.
43:15
Where do you want to go? And he told me he wanted to go
43:17
to McDonald's. I'm willing to go to even
43:19
McDonald's for you on this one. So we worked at it and I can't
43:24
remember whether he was three or four days into it, no accidents.
43:26
And it was great. And then one day there in the
43:29
middle, I came up the stairs into our bedroom, looked into
43:34
the bathroom and there's this little 4 year old in the dark
43:37
master bathroom hunched down on the floor.
43:40
I went and looked over his shoulder and saw that he had
43:43
some a little wad of toilet paper and he was trying to clean
43:48
up an accident. I flipped on the light and said
43:51
Jarrett what happened? And this little kid just burst
43:55
into to a pile of tears instantaneously and his little
44:00
body was just racked with sobs. I said after I calmed a little
44:05
bit, I said Jarrett, what happened?
44:08
And he he didn't answer my question.
44:11
He just looked at me with big tears and he said I'm never
44:15
going to get that date with you, am I daddy?
44:19
At that point my whole heart sunk into my shoe and I took
44:24
that little 4 year old and I grabbed him, pulled him onto my
44:28
lap and I just held him and I cried with him because I had the
44:34
same feeling going through struggles of mortality, feeling
44:39
like I'm never going to get that date with you, am I daddy?
44:45
And in that moment the infinite atonement of Jesus Christ became
44:50
not just this big thing that covers everybody, but it became
44:53
a very, very close and personal thing.
44:56
And there have been so many moments in my life where that
44:58
where that has occurred. But this is 1 little example to
45:02
embody this idea of these teachings, these doctrines,
45:06
They're not just contained in a book, they're part of reality.
45:10
There is a God in heaven who does love you.
45:14
He sent his son to save you, and his son is very good at what he
45:17
does. And if you'll just stick with
45:20
him and keep trying, keep getting up as many times as you
45:24
have an accident, Little Jared told me after he had calmed
45:27
down. He said, Daddy, I'm so sorry.
45:29
I didn't try to have an accident.
45:31
I was trying to get to the potty on time, but I didn't quite make
45:36
it. And then he was trying to clean
45:38
up his own mess. And I said, Jared, can I, can I
45:40
clean up that mess for you? And he said yes.
45:43
And I said thank you because quite frankly, it's a lot easier
45:47
for me to do that. And that is true for all of us.
45:51
There is this, this savior who is your savior and Redeemer.
45:58
Know that you're loved. The Come Follow Me program is an
46:02
incredible resource to aid your gospel study.
46:06
There are many supplementary Come Follow Me video programs
46:09
within the Church. These videos should never be a
46:12
replacement for your own personal and family study.
46:16
As this video finishes, we encourage you to open your
46:19
scriptures and begin studying the sacred words written there.
46:24
If you need additional resources to enhance your study of the
46:26
scriptures, please check out the Gospel Learning app from
46:30
Scripture Central. You can search just about any
46:33
topic in the gospel that you can think of and find a number of
46:36
videos to help enhance your understanding.
46:39
We are certain these learning paths will deepen your desire to
46:41
follow Christ. The Gospel Explorer feature
46:45
within the app was created with the Come Follow Me program in
46:48
mind. Let's explore the learning paths
46:51
in the Gospel Learning app this week.
46:54
On the left path, we dive into the topic of prophets, quoting
46:57
the words of past prophets. This helps build our faith that
47:01
God is continually guiding us and speaking to us through his
47:04
living prophets. The middle pathway goes in depth
47:08
on the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
47:10
This pathway splits into two sections, one on the
47:14
understanding the redemptive power of the Atonement of Jesus
47:17
Christ, and the second one taking a look into the physical
47:21
nature of Christ's sacrifice. The last pathway explores the
47:26
hopeful message of the gospel, which Jacob shares with us as
47:30
well as his prophetic warnings If we fail to keep the
47:32
commandments of God, thanks for watching with us.
47:36
We hope you become a more devoted disciple through
47:38
immersing yourselves more fully in the scriptures each day.