Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Isaiah on The Second Coming -- 2 Nephi 12

What Happens

"Isaiah sees the latter-day temple, gathering of Israel, and millennial judgment and peace—The proud and wicked will be brought low at the Second Coming—Compare Isaiah 2."
2 Nephi 12 Chapter Heading


Commentary

In our last episode, Nephi bore his testimony of Christ and urged us to remember that we need him in our lives.  In this chapter, he shares with us some of Isaiah's prophecies of the Second Coming to further illustrate our need for Christ.

I like the phrase "the mountain of the Lord's House."  Mountains are symbolic of temples and of being high and close to God.  In this case, verse two tells us that "all nations shall flow unto it," which expands the idea of purity and revelation and individual, face to face communication with God to everyone, in all nations.  That is a cool idea, since we too often think about religion and the gospel in an exclusive way, only open to people like us.  God makes it clear that there are people willing to be like him all over the place, which is pretty much the point of all of it. :)  What a great day that will be.  Verse three tells us that we will have the opportunity to learn of God and walk in his paths, which we already can do, but still the whole idea of gathering to God to do it makes it all better and more awesome somehow.

At the Second Coming God comes not just as a teacher, but as a ruler and a judge, which it talks about here as well.  That's appropriate and God's right, but I also think that it will be such a relief.  No matter where we live on the earth we see corruption and bias; injustice and inequality.  With God as not only our spiritual guide but our ruler we won't see any of that.  We'll certainly be rebuked and have to change our outlook and our behavior, as it mentions in verse 4, which definitely isn't always easy, but for the result of no more war, that seems more than fair.

I like how it makes clear that the house of Jacob has *all* gone astray.  This chapter doesn't talk about God coming back and raising one group up and condemning another.  It says that we need to all come and walk in the light of the Lord and stop worshipping the work of our own hands.  Probably some things that we can start doing now, in addition to the largest suggestion in the rest of the chapter which is to be humble.

The idea in verse 11 that "the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day" is an interesting one.  Does that mean no movie stars, no sports figures, no YouTube sensations, or just that we won't be addicted to those things like we are as a society now? :)

After this Isaiah talks more about humility, but he starts sounding like he isn't just talking about emotion, but actual calamity.  He talks about not just people that are lifted up being brought low, but trees, and mountains, and hills, and nations, towers, walls, ships, and even pictures.  Then, in verse 19, it says that the Lord will arise to "shake terribly the earth."  That totally sounds like a massive earthquake to me, but who knows.

The end of the chapter warns us against idols which will be utterly abolished, but it is also mentioned that people will throw them to the moles and the bats, likely just to get rid of them since idols don't sound like a good thing to be in possession of at the Second Coming... which really also begs the question, what exactly *are* our idols?  A good thing to think about.

Isaiah sums everything up by saying "Cease ye from man," basically advising us to stick with God and not turn to society's wisdom... or our own, or other people's.  Only God's.

Tune in next time as we continue to  read some Isaiah chapters that Nephi thought we should know about.

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