What Happens
"The Lord’s vineyard (Israel) will become desolate, and His people will be scattered—Woes will come upon them in their apostate and scattered state—The Lord will lift an ensign and gather Israel—Compare Isaiah 5."
2 Nephi 15 Chapter Heading
Commentary
In our last episode, we were reading some Isaiah that Nephi wanted to share with us, mostly about cleansing and protection. In this chapter, we continue reading Isaiah.
This is a great chapter which starts out with a parable about a vineyard. In a vineyard, presumably, the grapes have been cultivated and improved through the labor of the gardener, an example being the gardener planting it with his "choicest vine" in verse 2, but despite his effort, his grapes grow wild.
The beginning of this parable is very similar to the parable of the olive trees that we read about in Jacob 5. This parable takes a different turn though. In verse 4, the Lord basically says that he did everything he could for his vineyard (us), and we still went wild, and so he explains that since the vineyard isn't fulfilling its purpose, that he will destroy it.
The stages of destruction are interesting because he deconstructs things that we can see were clearly intentional and protective. He removes the hedge and the wall that he built as a protection (verse 5). He mentions that it won't be pruned or digged (verse 6), indicating the extensive labor that he was putting into it previously. He also mentions the clouds and that he will prevent them from raining on the field. This seems kind of mean on the surface, but it is another indication of the extensive effort that the Lord was making. He likely commanded the clouds to rain on his field in the first place, to help it to grow. An earlier verse also mentions him clearing the stones from the field and building a watchtower (verse 2).
In verse 7, the symbolism of the parable is explained in terms of the people of the day, but of course, as with all scripture, it can be likened to us as well (1 Nephi 19:23). God also helpfully explains what he was expecting (judgment) and what he saw instead (oppression), which helps us know what to improve.
To me, the admonition about joining houses (verse 8) seems to be the idea that the idea that one person or group controlling everything isn't the right way. It reminds me of the movie It's a Wonderful Life. When the big bank tried to take everything over and controlled all of the people's money, they felt oppressed and trapped, and it was important to the area that everyone have a way to be independent, make their own choices, and have a way to get their own space. Apparently, God cares about that too, wanting us all to have a chance to make our own lives and choices free from that sort of burden.
There are a lot of description in here of the coming destruction and how bad it will be, presumably so that we can try to avoid contributing to it. Helpfully, God also mentions specific sins to be avoided as well. Drinking all day is one (verse 11), and the reason for it is interesting. It's basically saying that a party lifestyle (here shown by the music and wine in verse 12) distracts us from attending to the Lord, and considering his works.
God mentions captivity and need, and tells us that the reason for these things is this idea of ignoring the Lord, which seems also to be the reason for the lack of knowledge mentioned in verse 13. This in turn allows hell to enlarge herself... I think the idea here is that the less we hearken to God, the more space we give for evil to take us over.
"The Lord’s vineyard (Israel) will become desolate, and His people will be scattered—Woes will come upon them in their apostate and scattered state—The Lord will lift an ensign and gather Israel—Compare Isaiah 5."
2 Nephi 15 Chapter Heading
Commentary
In our last episode, we were reading some Isaiah that Nephi wanted to share with us, mostly about cleansing and protection. In this chapter, we continue reading Isaiah.
This is a great chapter which starts out with a parable about a vineyard. In a vineyard, presumably, the grapes have been cultivated and improved through the labor of the gardener, an example being the gardener planting it with his "choicest vine" in verse 2, but despite his effort, his grapes grow wild.
The beginning of this parable is very similar to the parable of the olive trees that we read about in Jacob 5. This parable takes a different turn though. In verse 4, the Lord basically says that he did everything he could for his vineyard (us), and we still went wild, and so he explains that since the vineyard isn't fulfilling its purpose, that he will destroy it.
The stages of destruction are interesting because he deconstructs things that we can see were clearly intentional and protective. He removes the hedge and the wall that he built as a protection (verse 5). He mentions that it won't be pruned or digged (verse 6), indicating the extensive labor that he was putting into it previously. He also mentions the clouds and that he will prevent them from raining on the field. This seems kind of mean on the surface, but it is another indication of the extensive effort that the Lord was making. He likely commanded the clouds to rain on his field in the first place, to help it to grow. An earlier verse also mentions him clearing the stones from the field and building a watchtower (verse 2).
In verse 7, the symbolism of the parable is explained in terms of the people of the day, but of course, as with all scripture, it can be likened to us as well (1 Nephi 19:23). God also helpfully explains what he was expecting (judgment) and what he saw instead (oppression), which helps us know what to improve.
To me, the admonition about joining houses (verse 8) seems to be the idea that the idea that one person or group controlling everything isn't the right way. It reminds me of the movie It's a Wonderful Life. When the big bank tried to take everything over and controlled all of the people's money, they felt oppressed and trapped, and it was important to the area that everyone have a way to be independent, make their own choices, and have a way to get their own space. Apparently, God cares about that too, wanting us all to have a chance to make our own lives and choices free from that sort of burden.
There are a lot of description in here of the coming destruction and how bad it will be, presumably so that we can try to avoid contributing to it. Helpfully, God also mentions specific sins to be avoided as well. Drinking all day is one (verse 11), and the reason for it is interesting. It's basically saying that a party lifestyle (here shown by the music and wine in verse 12) distracts us from attending to the Lord, and considering his works.
God mentions captivity and need, and tells us that the reason for these things is this idea of ignoring the Lord, which seems also to be the reason for the lack of knowledge mentioned in verse 13. This in turn allows hell to enlarge herself... I think the idea here is that the less we hearken to God, the more space we give for evil to take us over.
God explains that he is going to right all of the wrongs detailed here, and allow his people to get what they need (verses 16-17), but he gives some strong warnings in order to help that to happen.
God cautions us against iniquity and sin, mentioning vanity specifically, which I think is interesting, and likely akin to pride, which gets in our way a lot. Other specific sins are thinking of ourselves too highly, drinking, and taking bribes (verses 21-23). Another interesting warning cautions us to not call evil good and good evil (verse 20). This backwards way to look at the world I think is very prevalent in our society, where we often seem to condemn religion and embrace sin for various reasons.
There are several other warnings here about things that will happen as a result of not following the Lord (verse 24), but interestingly he mentions "an ensign to the nations" which seems like another consequence, or perhaps it is the cure. The verses explain that this group will be tireless, implacable, and dangerous, and compares them to lions, from which no one can deliver the prey (verses 26-29).
The specific group could be referring to the Lord's kingdom, which is often referred to as an ensign, or it could also be referring to the remnant of Nephi's people, as mentioned in 3 Nephi 21:12: "And my people who are a remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, yea, in the midst of them as a lion among the beasts of the forest." It could also be both, in referring to the gathering of Israel and both of those groups merging together in some ways. The church itself being a lion and using sharp arrows (verse 28) seems to imply more violence than I can imagine on a non-symbolic level, but then again, this is referring to the Day of the Lord (footnote to verse 30), meaning the lead up to the Second Coming or the Judgment Day, so what happens then could be super different from what we would expect now.
The chapter ends with kind of a gloomy outlook: "if they look unto the land, behold, darkness and sorrow" (verse 30), acknowledging the mood of these verses and probably of the whole earth at this time in history. The cool thing about this is that we know it is a precursor to the appearance of Christ (similar to what happened with the thick darkness before Christ's appearance in 3rd Nephi). Like the parable that we started the chapter with, the vineyard is laid waste, but there is something better in store.
Tune in next time as we continue reading the Isaiah verses that Nephi chose for us.
