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2 Nephi 1–2 | Scripture Study Insights with Tyler Griffin · Scripture Central

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Hello there, I'm Tyler Griffin and this is Scripture Study
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Insights by Scripture Central. Today second E5 chapters one and
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two. It's kind of fun to only have
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two chapters where we can dive deep and and explore more in
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depth before we begin with the scriptures.
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The the concept, the scripture study idea that I wanted to
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share today is this idea of are we just reading the scriptures
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to learn the history or to learn the stories of these people?
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Or does that become means to the end of coming to understand God
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better, to to discover attributes of the Savior Jesus
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Christ, better to be able to more fully connect with heaven
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in our own life? So what I wanted to to show is
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in in the lectures on faith in Kirtland at the School of the
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Prophets, Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigden, and other leaders of the
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Church would prepare those those early missionaries to go out and
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preach the gospel by going through the seven Lectures on
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Faith. A couple of those lectures talk
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about the characteristics, the perfections and the attributes
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of God. Now I always remember because of
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CPA, the characteristics, perfections and attributes of
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God. And the reality is, is if you
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read all of the lectures on faith, you will find that they
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they teach that there are three things that are necessary in
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order for you to have faith unto life and salvation. faith in
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God, unto life and salvation. The kind of faith that will
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actually propel you forward to becoming more like Christ.
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And the first thing is required, that you have a belief in God.
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The 2nd is that you have a knowledge of his
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characteristics, perfections, and attributes.
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And the third is that you have a knowledge that the course that
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you're pursuing in life is in accordance with God's will.
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So what we're going to focus on today is this middle requirement
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in order for me to have the kind of faith that will help me
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progress and actually become more like God, which is a
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correct idea of the characteristics, perfections,
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and attributes of God. And every time you open the
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Scriptures, you can look for the Savior on every single page,
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either through his names, his titles, or through the more
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abstract things, the symbols, the people who embody certain
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attributes of Christ, or the objects that become these object
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lessons in a metaphorical way to teach us more about His
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attributes and his personality traits.
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Because that's who we're trying to become.
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Like. So with those lenses, let's dive
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in to second Nephi chapter One, and watch how quickly this
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becomes apparent. So Nephi opens up this new book
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explaining that his father Lehi spake many things unto his
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children, his posterity, and he rehearsed unto them how great
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things the Lord had done for them in bringing them out of the
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land of Jerusalem. So as Father Lehi comes to the
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end of his life that this is, these are his final teachings to
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his children and to his posterity, you'll notice how how
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he shifts his focus away from just what his children are doing
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and what they're experiencing as a family.
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And he's putting a lot more focus on God and on these
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eternal aspects of our existence.
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So look at verse one. And now it came to pass that
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after I, Nephi, had made an end of teaching my brethren, our
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Father Lehigh also speak many things unto them and rehearsed
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unto them how great things the Lord had done for them in
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bringing them out of the land of Jerusalem.
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His focus is fixed on the Savior here and pointing out how how
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the Lord has preserved them. Now look at verse two.
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And he spake unto them concerning their rebellions upon
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the waters and the mercies of God in sparing their lives, that
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they were not swallowed up in the sea.
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So if you were marking these, these attributes or
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characteristics or perfections of God, you've got the stated
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principle right on the page, the mercies of God.
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But you also have the implied attributes of God.
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This idea that God is not an angry, vengeful being who's up
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in the the heavens waiting to strike us down with lightning
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bolts. Because if that's who he were,
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you look at the first part of verse two, their rebellions and
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their struggles. He should have destroyed them,
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but he didn't. He extended mercy to them.
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He preserved them. Look at verse 3.
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And he also speak unto them concerning the land of promise
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which they had obtained. How merciful the Lord hath been,
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had been in warning us that we should flee out of the land of
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Jerusalem. So His mercy to preserve in
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verse three His mercy to give this this new land of
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possessions, or to preserve them on the waters.
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You see all these different aspects of God's mercy, and His
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kindness, and His grace. And then you jump down to verse
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5. But, said He, notwithstanding
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our afflictions, we have obtained a land of promise, a
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land which is choice above all other lands, a land which the
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Lord God hath covenanted with me, should be a land for the
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inheritance of my seed. So again, instead of just
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reading black words on a white page or words on a screen of a
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smart device, if we dive into those words and ask the question
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repeatedly, what can this teach me about what kind of being God
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is? Because that's who I want to
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grow up, spiritually speaking, to become more like, then your
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scripture study time no longer needs to be this side duty as a
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member of the church where you check a box and say, OK, now I
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don't need to feel guilty because I read my scriptures
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today. But it becomes this glorious
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quest of wow, I can't wait to open up my scriptures today to
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discover what I can about what kind of a being God is and what
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kind of a being I want to become more like.
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And the more you do this, the more you see his power, his
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knowledge, his grace, his ability to create, his
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willingness to work with and forgive and to to guide it.
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It it becomes more real and it's a it becomes a part of our quest
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on the covenant path. So it would be a fun exercise to
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now take the rest of chapter one in second ephah with marking
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pencil or or the the journaling in hand to look for and note as
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many attributes of God as you can find.
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I'll just very quickly jump through a couple of verses here
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as as more examples we've talked a lot about his mercy.
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Look at verse 8. Behold it is wisdom that this
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land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations.
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So there's wisdom in God this He knows all things to preserve
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this land. If you look in verse 10, you're
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going to see the creation aspect of our God and all the things
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that He's created and his power and the means whereby he keeps
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things moving forward because of his infinite goodness.
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You know, these are things that it's it's one thing to know that
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God exists or to have a belief that God exists.
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It's another to have a correct idea of his attributes.
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One of my favorite quotes on this subject comes from CS Lewis
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where he says the following There have been men before who
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got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came
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to care nothing for God himself, as if the good Lord had nothing
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to do but to exist. I hope that as we we dive more
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into this study of the Book of Mormon this year that you find a
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lot more than just the names and the titles of God, but you find
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why He exists and how He exists and how he feels about us, who
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he really is. His identity is your future
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capacity if you're on this quest to become like him on the
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covenant path. So as you read these these
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scriptures, that's one way to to get more out of your scripture
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study. One other thing I wanted to
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point out from chapter one is his beautiful allusions not just
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to God's attributes, but to our attributes and to our state of
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being as fallen creatures in a fallen world.
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Look at verse 13, for instance. He says, O, that ye would awake
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awake from a deep sleep, even from the sleep of hell, and
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shake off the awful chains by which you're bound.
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Then he goes down to verse 14, skipping ahead, awake and arise
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from the dust. And then you see later on he's
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going to say in verse 21 again, Arise from the dust, my sons and
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be men. If you if you've noticed there's
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this beautiful metaphorical illusion back to our first
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parents Adam when he was first created out of the dust.
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It's this idea of creation forms you out of the dust.
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And and he's saying awake, arise from the dust, be more than just
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a natural created creature in a fallen world, take life, which
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now is going to set the stage for Chapter 2 when he's talking
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specifically to Jacob, his young son about agency and
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accountability and the redemption.
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So what you will see in these two chapters, another lens you
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can put on is our journey through Heavenly Father's plan
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for our happiness, which always begins with creation.
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Then there's a fall and then there's the redemptive part, the
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atonement. And it's it's scattered
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throughout these two chapters. In other words, we're going to
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be far less likely to want to turn to the Savior and rely on
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him if we don't feel the need, if we're, if we don't recognize
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that we're sick, we won't seek out the physician.
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These chapters help us recognize our fallen nature and our
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characteristics, perfections, or lack thereof, and our
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attributes. The the separate us from God and
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help us rely more fully on the Savior Jesus Christ to help us
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to grow up, to become more like Him and take on more of his
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attributes. And so we'll finish chapter one
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in verse 23, he says. Awake my sons, put on the armor
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of righteousness, shake off the chains with which you are bound,
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and come forth out of obscurity and arise from the dust.
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That's one of the most powerful nutshell descriptions of our
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fallen state that I know of and of our complete need for and
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dependence on Jesus Christ to help us overcome this fallen
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nature that we've inherited and in some cases magnified by by
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the choices we've made. So after speaking to Laman,
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Lemuel, Sam, his, his other grandchildren, and Zoram, then
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you get into Chapter 2 with his final words to Jacob.
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And again you can look for the attributes of Christ in the the
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symbols. And sometimes you don't have to
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look very hard because it's just obvious.
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And we're going to see it throughout Chapter 2, because
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here he's going to be teaching this incredible topic, this even
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doctrine of agency. But it doesn't come.
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Agency doesn't come alone. Agency always comes with its
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partner, accountability. Now we live in a world that
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wants to to teach agency in the form of personal freedom.
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But the world we live in, our society, our culture, doesn't
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want to teach accountability. And so it's fascinating to read
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Chapter 2 through the lenses of both companion doctrines being
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necessary. Now this is important for us to
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to contemplate for a minute, because if we're not careful,
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what we end up doing is we we think that God is up in heaven
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looking down at the earth and feeling upset because people are
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having fun. And so he has to create rules or
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commandments or laws to prevent people from having a good time
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or from from enjoying life. And that's a very false notion
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of God. Our Heavenly Father is not
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trying to prevent us from having fun.
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He's trying to help us find lasting, enduring joy and
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enduring relationships. And because we are fallen by
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nature of what we've inherited from Adam and Eve, and because
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we live in a fallen world, there are going to be all kinds of
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things that certain parts of us would like to do.
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But if we do those things, it would lead us further away from
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joy because it's masked in this temporary pleasure.
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Or what what the world would would portray as living in in
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happiness and total freedom, which ultimately leads to chains
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and bondage and bringing us down further into the dust, turning
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us more into the OR focusing more rather on the natural
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aspects of our existence rather than the eternal aspects of our
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existence. That's why I love the statement
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from President Russell and Nelson from his talk Think
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Celestial. This is so profound when he says
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the very things that will make your mortal life the best it can
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be are exactly the same things that will make your life
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throughout all eternity the best it can be.
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So God isn't up in heaven saying how can I prevent them from
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having fun? God is up in heaven saying, oh,
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how can I prevent them from falling into misery and
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destruction and and death that that lasts forever.
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And so he gives us these commandments, He gives us our
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agency and we have accountability to how we use
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that agency. And now let's watch how this
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plays out on the page. So jump in second Ephah, chapter
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2, verse one. And now, Jacob, I speak unto
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you. Thou art my first, born in the
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days of my tribulation in the wilderness.
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And behold, in thy childhood thou has suffered afflictions
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and much sorrow because of the rudeness of thy brethren.
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Lehigh is acknowledging Jacob, you were born in the wilderness
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of my affliction. You've had a very rough start.
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But then the next word he uses is nevertheless to put greater
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emphasis on what comes after the word.
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Nevertheless, nevertheless, Jacob, my first born in the
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wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God.
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I think Lehigh is passing on this, this not just prophetic
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wisdom, but his parental wisdom to his young son, because Lehigh
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has experienced some intense opposition and struggles in his
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life, and it's through those difficult passages of his life
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or parts of his life that he has come to know more fully the
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greatness of God. And then he says he will
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consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.
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So again, brothers and sisters, this is not just a story about
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Lehigh on his deathbed talking to his young son.
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This becomes a handbook for us in the latter days in the 21st
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century, to see more clearly some of these attributes,
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characteristics and perfections of God, of how he treats people
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back then and how he treats people today.
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That God is capable of taking those very difficult periods of
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your life and some of your passing through some of those
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right now. But if you turn to God instead
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of turn your back on him, repenting as President Nelson
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has has clearly taught, Metanoio is to turn to God.
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It's to change the way we think, the way we see God, the way we
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see life, the way we see each other.
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We change our life, and we focus more on him.
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And all of a sudden he can now consecrate our afflictions for
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our gain. So it becomes an applicable
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principle in our day, not just for for young Jacob, 2600 years
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ago. And then he goes on to say,
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Wherefore thy soul shall be blessed, and thou shalt dwell
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safely with thy brother Nephi, and thy days shall be spent in
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the service of thy God. And now my favorite part.
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Wherefore this cause and effect Word?
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Because of all of these things that have come in verse 1-2 in
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the first half of verse 3 the outcome is Wherefore I know that
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thou art redeemed because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer.
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You'll notice it wasn't because of the righteousness of your
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choices or because you're such a good kid, Jacob.
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You're going to be redeemed because of Jesus Christ.
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That is one of the central messages of not just the gospel
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in the Book of Mormon, but but of everything we hear from the
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prophets. It's to try to connect us with
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Jesus Christ because that is the only source of eternal joy and
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eternal salvation, Heavenly Father's great plan of
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happiness. It's not to prevent us from
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having fun. His whole plan is centered
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around connecting us with Jesus Christ so we can.
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Use the attributes of his perfect atonement for us in
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order to grow and develop, and to become more like him and more
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like God, because that's ultimate happiness.
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And then watch for God's attributes in verse 4.
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And thou has beheld in thy youth His glory.
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Wherefore thou art blessed, even as they unto whom he shall
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minister in the flesh. For the Spirit is the same
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yesterday, today, and forever, and the way is prepared from the
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fall of man and salvation is free.
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Some of God's attributes are stated on the page, and some of
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them are implied. They're they're not written out,
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but they're there. That the implication is there
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and salvation is free is loaded with implied principles and and
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attributes of God. Which now brings us into his
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discussion of our agency, followed by our accountability.
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Look at verse five. Men are instructed sufficiently
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that they know good from evil. So in other words, before I can
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really have agency, I need to be able to know good from evil.
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Without a knowledge of what's right or wrong, I don't really
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have freedom of choice that would help lead me to becoming
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more like God. I would.
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I would be free to choose. But it wouldn't be ultimate
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agency if I don't know. That's why.
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If you want more freedom, if you want more liberty, if you want
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more agency and to become more like God, study more, learn more
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from heavenly sources and from divine places.
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As many truths as you can. Elder D Todd Christopherson said
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something along the lines of If you want more freedom, more
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agency, learn as many of God's laws as you can and keep them.
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That's how to get more freedom. So men are instructed
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sufficiently that they know good from evil, and the law is given
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notice. The law is given unto men, and
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by the law no flesh is justified.
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God gave the law not to prevent us from having fun, but to help
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set up those those guideposts for us, to keep us on the
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straight and narrow path, to keep progressing, to become more
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like Him. The law doesn't save the the law
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doesn't give you rewards for keeping it.
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The law punishes when you break it.
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And he tells us that the by the law no flesh is justified, or by
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the law men are cut off. The law is only focused on
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justice. Speaking of Adam and Eve, yeah,
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by the temporal law they were cut off, and also by the
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spiritual law they perish from that which is good and become
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miserable forever. Now can you see our state of
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being, our conditions? Can you see how desperately we
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need a savior? Because we can't rely on our own
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keeping of the law, because the law is only going to cut us off.
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So verse 6 Wherefore redemption cometh in and through the holy
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Messiah, for he is full of grace and truth, more attributes of
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God. I want to be more like him,
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which means when faced with opportunities today or this week
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or this month, where I might be able to bend the rules, I might
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be able to tell a white lie. I might be able to get away with
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something. I I might be able to lie, cheat
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or steal. It's an opportunity to pause and
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say, wait a minute, do I want to become more like the devil who
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is a being who takes things that don't belong to him?
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Who deceives people? Who gets them to believe things
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that aren't true? Or do I want to become more like
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God, so he's a God of who is full of grace and truth?
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And at that point, because of what I've learned in my
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scripture study and what I feel from the Holy Ghost, it can
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actually give me power in those moments of temptation or moments
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where I might feel weak to call upon the name of Jesus Christ to
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say help me, I want to be more like thee and less like the
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devil and less like these natural tendencies that I feel
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inside of me. Help me to become more like the
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a being of more truth than in the past.
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So you're seeing how then scripture study translates into
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this, this world that we're trying to create above the
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scripture page, where I can actually see more clearly the
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target, Jesus Christ, who I'm trying to become like.
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So redemption doesn't come from the law, it doesn't come from
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me. Jacob, you're redeemed because
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of the righteousness of your Redeemer, so I need to connect
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more with him. Verse 7.
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Behold, he offers himself a sacrifice for sin to answer the
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ends of the law. So the Lawgiver comes down
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perfectly, keeps the law, answers all the ends of the law,
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and then his reward is he gets punished for and in behalf of
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me, for all the times that I broke the law, that he perfectly
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gave and kept and preserved. He now gets judged according to
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my deeds and my words. And he is found guilty, and he's
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punished to the full extent of the Law.
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To help me better discover who I am and who I can become through
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His truth, and grace, and goodness and knowledge.
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I love verse 8. Wherefore, how great the
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importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of
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the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can
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dwell in the presence of God, save it be through what?
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Now look at these attributes, the merits and mercy and grace
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of the holy Messiah, who layeth down His life according to the
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flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit that he
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may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead being
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the 1st that should rise. I love this.
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And then he goes on to talk about the intercession and how
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all men have to come to him in order to get to God.
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And then look at verse 11. For it must needs be that there
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is an opposition in all things. And then he expands on that
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There has to be an opposition in all things.
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If not so my first born in the wilderness righteousness could
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not be brought to pass. If there weren't a choice to be
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made, you wouldn't really have agency.
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There has to be an opposition for you to have this true test
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of mortality that the the Lord has set up for us.
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So then you turn the page over. You get to verse 13 and he gives
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you this long list of things that are reliant on other
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things. He says, if you shall say
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there's no law, you shall say there's no sin.
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If you say there's no sin, you'll say there's no
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righteousness. And then he goes all the way
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down this list telling us about the difference between things to
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act and things to be acted upon. And brothers and sisters, we are
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not objects that were sent here to this earth just to be acted
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upon. I get that sometimes.
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That's what happens. But the reason we're here is to
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act, to use our agency to learn as much as we can, to discover
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the laws of God, to face the opposition.
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Oh, and by the way, there's a qualifier for that opposition.
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In verse 16 it says, Wherefore the Lord God gave unto man that
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he should act for himself. Wherefore man could not act for
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himself, save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the
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other. So the opposition has to
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actually be enticing for it to be a true test of our character.
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And then he shifts into the rest of this chapter, talking about
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the fall of Adam and Eve and the opposition that existed in the
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in the Garden of Eden. If you look at verse 15 you get
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the forbidden fruit and the tree of life.
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They were planted together in the midst of the the garden.
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Then you get the description here in verse 25.
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Adam fell that men might be and men are, that they might have
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joy, and the Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that he
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may redeem the children of men from the fall.
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I love this. He doesn't say.
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And the Messiah shall come in the fullness of times that that
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he may condemn those who can't perfectly keep the gospel and
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perfectly be a husband or a wife, or a mother, a father, a
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brother, a sister, or fill in the blank with whatever
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relationship you want. God so loved the world that He
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sent His only begotten Son into the world.
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He He sent His Son to save us. He didn't send His Son to
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condemn us. So now you'll notice it says
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because they are redeemed from the fall, they have become free
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forever. Free in God's context of our
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agency. We're free forever knowing good
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from evil to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save
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it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day.
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So we can either choose to keep the law, or we can choose to be
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punished by the law that God has given, because accountability
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and those consequences can't be removed.
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Verse 27 Wherefore men are free according to the flesh, and all
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things are given them which are expedient unto man, and they are
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free to choose liberty and eternal life through the great
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mediator of all men. If we choose to think celestial,
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as President Nelson has said, or to choose captivity and death
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according to the captivity and power of the devil, for he
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seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.
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So to finish this off, when you put on the lenses of looking for
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God's characteristics, perfections, and attributes, and
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looking for our own state, our own characteristics, lack of
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perfections and our own attributes, and the the the
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absolute need that we have for the Savior to help us, then as
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we pray to God to help us rely more upon the merits, the mercy,
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and the grace of the Holy Messiah, He will answer those
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prayers. I don't know how, I don't know
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when, and I don't know what it will look like for you.
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But I know He will answer those prayers.
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And He will extend His mercy and His grace and His goodness to us
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as we continually seek Him. And to know what He would have
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us do. And to see Him as a loving
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Father in heaven rather than an angry deity who's looking at us
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with with furrowed brow and folded arms.
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Because we're not perfect, but we can turn to the Savior,
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trusting that we will find a God of mercy and a God of grace.
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That's my prayer for me, my family and loved ones, and for
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all of us collectively as we try to move forward on the covenant
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path together. And I leave that with you in the
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name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Know that you're loved. As you find learning paths in
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the Gospel Explorer this week, you can take the Left Path to
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immerse yourself in a study of prospering in the land through
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keeping the commandments of God. Obedience truly brings
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blessings. The middle pathway focuses on
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the concept of being redeemed by the righteousness of our
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Redeemer. This path will even lead you to
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the well known talk by Brother Brad Wilcox called His grace is
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Sufficient. The third pathway will guide you
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into a study of the fall of Adam and Eve.
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All of these resources are designed to help you beg deeper
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and become closer to Jesus. We hope that this week's
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selection of videos helps you to feel the love of God to a
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greater degree in your lives.