A Study of the Book of Mormon

Alma 37:1-7 On my initial reading of these verses, I've spent a lot of time reviewing the footnotes found in verses 6 and 7 . On the word "small" I was brought Doctrine and Covenants 123:16-17 , which reads: You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves. Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.  I read last evening elsewhere about the power of a smile. And the Lord this morning seems to validating this thought, while also encouraging me on in my life's great (yet simple) mission. Action Item: smile and cheerful do all things that are in your power, and leave the rest to God. On a second day of study, my searches took me to contemplate the footnotes on "wise" purpose...

Mosiah 15:10-17 Abinadi explains how those who access Christ's atonement by making his soul an offering for their sins, these are they who become his seed, or as King Benjamin had put it, the children of Christ. I have had a struggle with these verses this morning. I read and reread verses 10 and 11 about 10 to 15 times this morning. I was trying to look at it from the roll of the believer, then I tried to understand the role of the Lord, but that wasn't what the Lord wanted me to understand this time. Feeling rather distraught about the lack of spiritual information being communicated, I realized that there is one other perspective that could be taken: the role of the prophets. For without the instructive words of the prophets, there is nothing for the children of men to exercise their faith upon, to the end that they might apply the atoning blood of Christ and become heirs of salvation. Thus Abinadi's question, or  Isaiah's question:  who shall declare his generati...

Mosiah 14 I am memorizing this entire chapter. I already had it committed to memory at one point in my past. Having done so, has made it very familiar to me as I read through it again. As I have read though the chapter again those feelings of familiarity seem to also be reminders of Savior's friendship and concern for each of us. It is an interesting thing to contemplate that in the equity of the Lord's plan, relatively very few ever had the opportunity to know Christ during His mortal ministry. Perhaps a lie of the adversary is that thought that had we been alive and know Christ personally, intimately, then we would believe and have as much conviction as the apostles of Christ did. However, I wonder how I would have responded to Christ if my first interaction with Him would have been to meet him personally in mortality. Without any knowledge of the plan of God, or being subject wholly to the tendencies of the natural man, I fear that I would (as would probably many others) dis...

Mosiah 12:20-24 The verses quoted in this section are taken from Isaiah 52:7-10 .  In context, I have to remind myself that these priests that quoted them where utterly clueless on the very points of doctrine that make this verse of scripture so rich in meaning and significance. Perhaps they used this passage of scripture through some gross distortion of it, as justification for their vain and pacifying promises to the people of Noah. But oh how beautiful and rich in symbolism is the true meaning of these verses. There is a verse of one of our hymns ("Come, Ye Disconsolate") that concludes with this line: "Earth has no sorrow that heav’n cannot heal." I feel that the significance of these verses is in the reality of that statement. As I work through these verses, I am asking myself why are these verses so significant and reassuring at the same time. What follows is a personal Q and A relative to the verses quoted from Isaiah. What is the significance of being in the...

2 Nephi 21:6-9 These verses talk about carnivorous animals lying down along side animals that would in other circumstance be deemed their prey: wolves and lambs, lions and fatlings, cows and bears. This is offered as an example of the effect that the knowledge of God will have upon the inhabitants of the earth.   As a father of young children, verse 8 is of particular interest: And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. I think of the particular precautions we as parents take to protect our children from dangers, sometimes to the point of excess. I can easily see the unattended child quietly escaping the supervisory care of a loving parent and finding an asp's or a snake's hole. This would naturally intrigue the small child to the point that the child would be putting itself in great danger. Yet with the change wrought by the knowledge of God, as best as I can tell, the viper's tendencies to att...

2 Nephi 19:6 & 7 The idea that the Savior of mankind will also become the supreme governor of the nations has capture my attention in this reading of these memorable verses. "For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given..." one of their own. "And the government shall be upon his shoulders." This strikes me as amazing. The weight of the government of the nations shall be upon Christ. So effective will be his leadership, so profoundly revolutionary shall be its effects, that people will call Him "Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The following verse states that this government that the Lord will establish will continue to expand and have no end to its increase. Yet the use of government in this sense is so different from the current, secular definition of government as I understand it today. This isn't to suggest that there will be an increase in government spending and programs. Christ's g...

2 Nephi 18:18 reads like this: Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion. "Behold," a call for attention to this statement which is one of the few times there is mention of family in the words of Isaiah. "I and the children," A father to children relationship --the entity of the family. Mother was probably not included in this statement either out of respect (or reverence) for her place in the family, or perhaps, because of social customs that had evolved out of a patriarchal society. Though she is referenced at the beginning of the chapter as a "the prophetess". "the children whom the Lord hath given me," Psalms 127:3 also reads, " Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord : and the fruit of the womb is his reward. " These verses are a recognition of the truth that our children are not really ours, but are on loan from...

2 Nephi 18:9-17 We live in difficult times and these verses are a powerful balm for me this day. In verses 9 and 10 , Isaiah sounds a warning against those who think to form alliances with larger powers so that they may be protected, or in the joining of smaller powers so that their combined powers may be a strength against larger threats. Isaiah plainly says that such will not stand nor will they be of effectiveness in coming against the Lord's people: "for God is with us." Verses 11 - 13 had heretofore alluded me as to the full significance of the passage. However, having first read the translation from Spanish, and having the broader overall picture in mind, these verses are powerful counsel. Verse 11: Isaiah is commanded not to walk in the ways of the people. With a strong hand, the Lord clearly delivered this counsel to Isaiah. Verse 12: this is the verse that most baffled me. "Say not, a confederacy... " The Spanish translation uses a word that means ...

2 Nephi 18:1-8 There is a theme that runs throughout this chapter. It is first stated like this: Forasmuch as this people refusesth the waters of Shiloah that go softly... behold, the Lord bringeth upon them the waters of the river, strong and many... ( vs 6 & 7 ). "Shiloah" in this verse is another name for the Messiah, (see JST Genesis 50:24 ). "The waters of Shiloah that go softly..." This reminds me of other names or titles attributed to the Savior, such as "living water". In John 4:14 from the conversation that the Savior has with the woman at the well, it reads: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. So perhaps in a similar sense, what Isaiah is accusing his people of rejecting is the gentle, peaceable gospel of Christ--these waters that flow softly. Focusing on the promise extended to those that do...

2 Nephi 17:10-16 I've already spent several days considering these verses in their context, making reference to both the English and Spanish translations in both the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament. The verse that is most frequently referenced in this group is found in verse 14 , "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bare a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Yet in the context of these other verses, the Lord provides this prophecy to illustrate that the threat that they presently faced, would come of naught in a span of a few years. The prophecy of Christ's birth is a symbolic representation of both spiritual and temporal liberation for the house of David. I appreciate the reference to butter and honey in verse 15 . From the footnotes in Isaiah, we learn that butter and honey were common staples among the poor in ancient times. The thought comes to me that it was not wrong that Christ himself be born into poor and humble circumstances. On a different n...

2 Nephi 17:1-9 The title of this post is part of the council of the Lord via Isaiah to the king of Judah, Ahaz. As a backdrop, we learn from this passage that two other kingdoms, Syria and Ephraim, had joined together to wage war against the house of David ( vs 2 ). Ephraim is the head of the ten tribes of Israel that had been driven north out of the land of Canaan. There is some poignancy in this affront because of Ephraim's fall from the house of Israel. It reminds me of those that leave the fold of God, but for whatever reason cannot leave it alone. Ephraim, despite their fiery threatening, is prophesied to be completely dispersed within 65 years of the time of this attack on Judah. And thus the Lord says to Ahaz, "It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass," ( vs 7 ). I find a great deal of courage in the face of potential opposition and fear. The Lord is with his people. And so we are blessed to follow the guidance of a prophet of God.

2 Nephi 16:1-5 This is an account of when Isaiah sees the Lord on His heavenly throne. I've already spent a handful of days on these verses in Spanish. There my emphasis was on the declaration found in verse 3, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." When I started studying in English, I discovered a footnote found in verse 1, for where Isaiah says, "I saw also the Lord." The footnote on "saw" leads to a verse in John 12:41 which reads: "These things said Esaias(Isaiah), when he saw his glory, and spake of him." Being in the Lord's presence, and in the presence of these beings called seraphim that declare to each other the holiness of the Lord, causes Isaiah to cry out in anguish, "Wo is unto me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." In other words, being in the presen...

2 Nephi 15:27 "None shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken; " A fresh reading of this verse, simply illustrates how quickly the traveling process will become. The travel shall become quick enough to not require sleep. "The girdle of their loins," this is a belt. "Latchet of their shoes" shoe buckle or anything else used to fasten a shoe. It simply seems to me that the point that Isaiah is trying to communicate here, is that travel will allow people to gather so quickly in the last days that it can be accomplished in less than a day. Such a concept was completely unfathomable even 60 years ago. In the history of the world, 60 years is a considerably small time frame.

2 Nephi 12:1-3 In this chapter begins the lengthiest direct extraction from the Bible that is found in the Book of Mormon, all of which are the words of Isaiah the prophet. This first chapter, which is the second chapter from the book of Isaiah, begins with a prophecy of the House of the Lord being established in the tops of the mountains. Latter-day Saints believe this to be in reference to the Salt Lake Temple and its surrounding meeting halls. I find it particularly intriguing the prophecy that many shall go up to it to find truth and instruction. Then the distinction between Zion and Jerusalem: "out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," ( see vs. 3 ). There is a relevant prophecy found in Zechariah .

2 Nephi 9:1-3 Here Jacob gives reason for his inclusion of these two chapters from Isaiah in his discourse to his own people: "I have read these things that ye might know concerning the covenants of the Lord that he has covenanted with all the house of Israel," ( vs. 1 ). For Jacob, Isaiah is evidence of the Lord's covenant relationship with the house of Israel. It is Jacob's hope and motivation for sharing this information that his hearers would find strength from the words of Isaiah. Jacob knows that a true knowledge of the covenants of God gives hope and freedom - reasons for rejoicing.

2 Nephi 8:1-12 Isaiah is again being quoted in this chapter. He starts by stating the audience for which this is intended: "Ye that follow after righteousness. " Then in verse 3 is found the premise, or main idea, for the remainder of the chapter: "For the Lord shall comfort Zion," or in other terms, the Lord shall restore the house of Israel. We believe in the literal gathering of the House of Israel, (see Article of Faith 10 ). However, the terms that Isaiah uses to describe this gathering or restoration paint a picture of a more personal God, working in a spirit of joy, gladness, and gratitude (see verse 3 & 11 ). Later in verse 12 , "I am he; yea, I am he that comforteth you. "

2 Nephi 7 , compare Isaiah 50 Isaiah is quoted verbatim in this chapter by Jacob. Isaiah here speaks Messianically, or as if he were the Savior himself. My first reaction when reading this is that personal application would be disrespectful or irreverent. However, if we are to become like Christ (which we are), these verses offer counsel and encouragement if applied personally. The principles of truth that apply to the Savior Jesus Christ are the same that are applied to me, though I am imperfect and He is perfect. Under the influence of the same Spirit that caused Isaiah to boldly penned words that represented the Messiah, I can learn from these words how to become more like Him. p.s. The ambiguity of this posting is intentional.

2 Nephi 6:1-7 Near the beginning of what is the longest grouping of verses quoted from Isaiah in the Book of Mormom, we get just a brief taste of what is in to come. Jacob, the brother of Nephi, takes a few moments at the head of this chapter to define his authority in terms of his responsibilities and obligations to those that he teaches. It is interesting to note the repetitive nature of his message, which he acknowledges to those that he is addressing ( see vs 3 ). This is one pattern of leadership that I see to be similar in the modern church. Another such pattern is that he is on assignment from his brother, their prophet leader, to address a specific set of scripture taken from Isaiah. This too is common at all levels in the Church today, to receive instruction from their priesthood leaders to act accordingly. What impresses me about Jacob's approach, however, is how engrossed he was in the topic at hand. It seems that he only offers the remark that Nephi had requested this ...

1 Nephi 20 , See Also Isaiah 48 As he has in ancient times, again the Lord has redeemed his people who serve Him. I myself feel that I can add my own life experiences as a witness to this truth. "And they thirsted not; he led them through the deserts; he cased the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he clave the rock also and the waters gushed out. "And notwithstanding he hath done all this, and greater also, there is no peace , saith the Lord, unto the wicked," ( vs 21-22 ) . Isaiah descriptively reminds of the many ways in which the Lord is mindful of us, His generosity and profound mercy. He also is quick to point out that even if we are favored of God, we cannot expect to be blessed of Him if we do not depend upon Him in righteousness, nor if we are not honest before Him. These verses at the end are also a mandate to those that know to declare the dealings of the Lord.

1 Nephi 19:18-24 Nephi, in his discussion on the purpose of record keeping, says that the main purpose for his keeping records is to persuade his people to come unto the Lord their Redeemer. He is grateful for the records from the brass plates and points specifically to the records of Isaiah, which he says is of particular worth unto them because of their ability to persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer. Verse 20 is the verse that the Lord is pointing me to this morning. This is an explanation of the workings of the Spirit and the benefit and blessing of these things in my own life. Perhaps it is even the protection and salvation that giving heed to the promptings of the Holy Spirit has afforded me.