Friday, July 20, 2018

Isaiah on Cleansing and Protection -- 2 Nephi 14

What Happens

"Zion and her daughters will be redeemed and cleansed in the millennial day—Compare Isaiah 4."
2 Nephi 14 Chapter Heading


Commentary

In our last episode, we were reading some Isaiah that Nephi wanted to share with his posterity and with us, mostly about punishment and destruction.  In this chapter, we continue reading Isaiah.

The previous chapter was referring to the tragedy of the people (specifically the daughters of Zion), but in this chapter things definitely turn around.  Instead of destruction, we see hope.  The women are working to improve their lot, and perhaps build back up a broken people, and everyone that is escaped, or left after the destructions seem to have hope and goodness ahead of them.

Verse 4 seems to say that the destructions that we just read about have cleansed the people, seemingly by getting rid of the most wicked among us.  The chapter heading tells us that this is referring to the millennium, so presumably this is the transition from the "end of the world" destructions to a thousand years of awesome: "beautiful and glorious" (verse 2), everyone still alive is called "holy" (verse 3), and it refers back to the cloud by day and the fire by night which is the way that the Lord traveled with the children of Israel in the days of Moses.

One difference is that the cloud and fire here aren't just in one place.  Verse five says that they will be "upon every dwelling-place."  That could be symbolic of the Lord being with the people wherever they are, but I think this likely also refers to something literal because the end of the chapter talks about Zion being a defence, and mentions a tabernacle that provides shadow and protection from the elements, and which is a place of refuge, so at least the protection from the heat and rain would be a physical place.

This chapter is a nice refuge for us as well from the destructions of the previous chapter, and I think encourages us to be the holy people that will escape and be around to see the amazing aftermath.

Tune in next time as we read more of the Isaiah verses that Nephi chose for us.

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