What Happens
"Judah and Jerusalem will be punished for their disobedience—The Lord pleads for and judges His people—The daughters of Zion are cursed and tormented for their worldliness—Compare Isaiah 3."
2 Nephi 13 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 the Second Coming. In this chapter, we continue that reading. Although a lot of this is likely about the Second Coming, Isaiah's prophecies are not always linear progressions. The destruction here could be from the past and from the future, or even symbolically talking about the future by talking about the past.
In the beginning of this chapter the people are being punished for wickedness. It gets sounding pretty bad, but one thing that I find really interesting is in verse 9 where it says "Wo unto their souls, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves!" ... This seems to be something that God is sad about, not just arbitrary lightning bolts from the sky, sent because God is really angry. When we are punished, in so many ways, we are punishing ourselves. Verses 10 and 11 tell us, basically, that our lives usually go wrong when we go wrong, and when we go right, our lives start getting back on track.
Now, of course, not all tragedy happens because of sin. Sometimes righteous people are the victims of other people's sin, and sometimes there are just natural disasters and trials that happen in the world. Part of the tragedy of sin I think is that God could make things better for us, no matter how bad things are, but when we aren't doing the right things then our spirits and attitudes won't let him in at all, and we can't be provided with the extra strength and endurance that he would offer us if we were willing to accept it. When we don't, God has to watch the natural consequences of really, really bad choices even down through many generations.
In this case, thinking of the history of Jerusalem and of geographical Zion, God miraculously supports his people, helping them to triumph over their enemies, but when they go against him, they are still in the midst of those enemies, but now they aren't righteous enough to have God supporting them, so they suffer.
In verse 13 "The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people." This is interesting to me, because in order to avert these disasters, God needs *us* to change. Even during the flood, presumably if he was willing to mess with free agency he could have just snapped his fingers and made everyone behave... but because he values our freedom and won't force us to do anything, he had to start over instead. No one was left in that society, save Noah, to stand up and be an example and teach anything but evil to future generations. He works with us through faith and each other, and when there is no faith and no other good people to help us, that's when (as he did with so many prophets in the scriptures), he leads us away rather than allowing us to be killed. Presumably, that is why the 12 tribes were led away and scattered... in order to preserve them.
The chapter continues its sadness at the punishment the people are going through, because they have done bad things, including beating his people to pieces and grinding the faces of the poor (verse 15) and haughtiness (verse 16), which sounds like many of the problems then (as now) may have been sparked by pride and inequality.
The city and the people have gotten to the point where there is just tragedy everywhere: "burning instead of beauty" (verse 24), and desolation (verse 26). Tune in next time to continue reading Nephi's selections from Isaiah and to see the hope, even after the devastation. :)
"Judah and Jerusalem will be punished for their disobedience—The Lord pleads for and judges His people—The daughters of Zion are cursed and tormented for their worldliness—Compare Isaiah 3."
2 Nephi 13 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 the Second Coming. In this chapter, we continue that reading. Although a lot of this is likely about the Second Coming, Isaiah's prophecies are not always linear progressions. The destruction here could be from the past and from the future, or even symbolically talking about the future by talking about the past.
In the beginning of this chapter the people are being punished for wickedness. It gets sounding pretty bad, but one thing that I find really interesting is in verse 9 where it says "Wo unto their souls, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves!" ... This seems to be something that God is sad about, not just arbitrary lightning bolts from the sky, sent because God is really angry. When we are punished, in so many ways, we are punishing ourselves. Verses 10 and 11 tell us, basically, that our lives usually go wrong when we go wrong, and when we go right, our lives start getting back on track.
Now, of course, not all tragedy happens because of sin. Sometimes righteous people are the victims of other people's sin, and sometimes there are just natural disasters and trials that happen in the world. Part of the tragedy of sin I think is that God could make things better for us, no matter how bad things are, but when we aren't doing the right things then our spirits and attitudes won't let him in at all, and we can't be provided with the extra strength and endurance that he would offer us if we were willing to accept it. When we don't, God has to watch the natural consequences of really, really bad choices even down through many generations.
In this case, thinking of the history of Jerusalem and of geographical Zion, God miraculously supports his people, helping them to triumph over their enemies, but when they go against him, they are still in the midst of those enemies, but now they aren't righteous enough to have God supporting them, so they suffer.
In verse 13 "The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people." This is interesting to me, because in order to avert these disasters, God needs *us* to change. Even during the flood, presumably if he was willing to mess with free agency he could have just snapped his fingers and made everyone behave... but because he values our freedom and won't force us to do anything, he had to start over instead. No one was left in that society, save Noah, to stand up and be an example and teach anything but evil to future generations. He works with us through faith and each other, and when there is no faith and no other good people to help us, that's when (as he did with so many prophets in the scriptures), he leads us away rather than allowing us to be killed. Presumably, that is why the 12 tribes were led away and scattered... in order to preserve them.
The chapter continues its sadness at the punishment the people are going through, because they have done bad things, including beating his people to pieces and grinding the faces of the poor (verse 15) and haughtiness (verse 16), which sounds like many of the problems then (as now) may have been sparked by pride and inequality.
The city and the people have gotten to the point where there is just tragedy everywhere: "burning instead of beauty" (verse 24), and desolation (verse 26). Tune in next time to continue reading Nephi's selections from Isaiah and to see the hope, even after the devastation. :)
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