2 Nephi 8

In the first verses of this chapter, the Lord is telling the righteous to look to Abraham, or more specifically to the covenants made with Abraham. These are the same promises the Lord makes concerning the restoration of the gospel and makes to us in the temple. He tells us to "lift up your eyes to the heavens and the earth below" and all these things will eventually pass away, but his promises will not fail. We shouldn't worry about what the world can or may do to us, he'll take care of that. Just as he made a way for Israel to pass through the Red Sea, he will help us through all opposition. He urges us to awaken to the spiritual things in our lives. When we do, we can be redeemed and he promises we will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning will flee away. Then he says this, "I am he; yea, I am he that comforteth you." To me he is saying, "I am real. I exist. Let me lead and guide you, and let me comfort you."

In the last part of the chapter, he refers to the two prophets talked about in Revelation who will be in Jerusalem prior to the second coming. They will be killed and their bodies will be left in the streets. Then they will be resurrected before the people. In the end of the chapter, the Lord pleads for all of Israel to awaken out of the spiritual stupor they are in and become righteous so they can be free.

2 Nephi 7

This chapter begins as if Israel is complaining that the Lord has severed all ties with them, that the Lord has divorced himself from them. But the Lord asks them to find a bill of divorcement or, in other words, he's asking them to show any evidence where he removed himself from them. Because of their iniquities, they have removed themselves from him. The Lord tells them that if he can create and control all things, that if was willing to suffer all things, he can and will still redeem them. How often do we feel like the Lord isn't there and yet he tells us that he never leaves us. I know I leave him in the sense that my own actions make it hard for me to feel his presence and influence in my life. I've come to realize that his presence is always there. His love and peace is always available. It's so easy to get caught up in the everyday things of life and I find myself not thinking about Him or remembering Him when if I did, my life would go better and I would feel more happy and at peace. I like the words at the beginning of some of the verses: "The Lord God hath opened my ear, the Lord God will help me therefore I shall not be confounded, The Lord is near, and he justifieth me." And then he repeats and says, "The Lord God will help me." I wonder how many times he has helped me and I haven't even been aware of it.

2 Nephi 6

Jacob is not one step behind Nephi. He says that he is called of God "after the manner of his holy order" meaning he has the Melchizedek Priesthood. If the priesthood is there, the Nephites have order and organization. Jacob has beens shown a vision similar to Nephi's because he has seen the same things that Nephi has seen. Here are the nine things I think Jacob wants the people (and us) to know in this chapter:

1. The Lord has shown Jacob the Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem which is an historical fact and took place at the time Jacob is saying it did.
2. After this destruction of those at Jerusalem, the Jews will return again to that city.
3. The Savior will manifest himself to the Jews at Jerusalem and they will crucify him.
4. Because they crucify the Savior, the Jews will be hated, smitten and driven out of Jerusalem again.
5. When the day comes that Jews accept the Savior, he will be merciful to them and gather them back to their lands of inheritance.
6. The gentiles (all those who are not Israelites) who repent and do not align themselves with the great and abominable church (take part in the sins of the world) will also come to know the covenants the Lord has made with his people.
7. The people of the Lord who wait faithfully for his coming will not be conquered by their enemies.
8. The Lord will destroy the wicked, but manifest himself in great glory to his people and none who believe in him will be destroyed.
9. At the time of his second coming, all people will finally know that Jesus Christ is the Lord, the Savior, the Redeemer, and the Might One of Jacob. This last title is saying he is the Messiah was anciently prophesied of in Israel.

2 Nephi 5

You get the impression that the bulk of the people follow Nephi as they separate themselves from the Lamanites. If Nephi took all of the families of Zoram, Sam, Jacob, and Joseph, and all of his sisters, that only leaves Laman and Lemuel and whoever of the Ishmael's family were with them. The contrast is pretty stark between them with the Nephites being prospered, educated, building a temple with "workmanship [that] was exceedingly fine," while the Lamanites are cursed with a darker skin color to disinguish them from the Nephites). They become a lazy people, causing continual problems, even war, and rather than eat domesticated animals, they eat animals that prey off of other animals. At the base of it all is the statement that the Nephites believed in the revelations of God, the Lamanites didn't. Evil nations who sought to conquer other nations have nearly always had leaders who were godless in their beliefs. Whether it's Hitler, Stalin, Amin, or further back in history. If they claimed to not be godless, then they falsely used the name of God to accomplish their unrighteous subjection and slaughter of other peoples.

We've come to the actual time that Nephi made the small plates. It's been thirty years since they left Jerusalem. By the end of the chapter, 40 years have passed away. Nephi is probably nearly 60 years of age.

2 Nephi 4

Nephi says his soul "delighteth in the scriptures and my heart pondereth them." It's interesting that Nephi must use scripture to write scripture. One thing about truth, it is usually felt before it is understood. Sometimes we can't explain something fully, but hearts know fully that it's true. The process of a growing testimony is in a person's heart telling him things his mind doesn't understand yet. But eventually, the mind and the heart will come into union because understanding revelation requires that our hearts feel and our minds know. It is one thing to have revelation, and another to understand it. The Pharaoh of Egypt dreamed a dream but couldn't interpret it. Belshazzar saw the hand of the Lord write a message on the wall, but couldn't translate it. There are millions of people who have the Bible but don't understand it. But it all begins with the heart. That's why we have to be willing to be taught, to be humble and try to learn what we don't know. And it is a life long process.

I want to thank Nephi a thousand times for this chapter. He is one of the great prophets and he shows us that he has his own weaknesses he battles just like everyone else. He says temptations and sins easily beset him and his heart groans because of his sins. To me the key words are "nevertheless I know in whom I have trusted." Nephi's great message here is that sin doesn't have to turn us away from the Lord. When we fall, the Lord is still there to support and love us. In some ways, it's probably good to have a keen sense of our own weaknesses, but we have to be sure that we don't descend into continual self-condemnation without remembering why the atonement is there. The process Nephi goes through with this is a great guide for what we should do. He first remembers all of the blessings he's received from the Lord, and then asks himself three questions, "Why should I yield to sin? Why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry?" There is no doubt Nephi is upset with himself, just like we would be, but he doesn't stay there. It's like he's saying, "Wait a minute. Why am I wallowing in all of this guilt and self-condemnation?" He quits playing the mind games and tells himself to let his soul (heart) wake up and start rejoicing instead of condemning himself. Then in verses 30-35 we get his beautiful prayer.

We are always good people in spite of the wrong things we say or the misdeeds we do. We're not Lamans and Lemuels who are wicked, who seek wickedness and the destruction of those who are trying to live the best lives they can. We have our faults. We commit our sins. But we're still loved by the Lord. He is always there for us. He doesn't condemn us so why should we do that to ourselves? He doesn't limit us because of our weaknesses and we shouldn't limit ourselves either.

2 Nephi 3

In the Bible, it says that Joseph, one of the 12 sons of Israel, "is a fruitful bough (tree), even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall." No one has known what that meant until the restoration of the gospel. Now we know that through Joseph's sons Ephraim and Mannaseh, it is his posterity that left the land of Israel and settled in the America's and other parts of the world.

All the prophets saw the day of the restoration and the Prophet Joseph Smith, but Joseph's prophecy is the most detailed. Joseph said this about Joseph Smith:

1. He would be highly esteemed by the posterity of Lehi.
2. He would bring the posterity of Lehi to a knowledge of the covenants the Lord made with there forefathers.
3. He would be great like Moses.
4. He would bring forth the gospel words written by the posterity of Lehi (Book of Mormon).
5. He would be called after Joseph's name and his father's name would be the same.
6. He shall write and speak other words that will go to the posterity of Lehi.
7. The scriptures that he will bring forth will prove the Bible true, will confound false doctrines and end contention, establish peace, bring the posterity of Lehi to a knowledge of their ancestry (Lehi's family), and bring them to a knowledge of the Lord's covenants. These scriptures will cry from the dust, or in other words, come from the ground.

While we revere Joseph Smith as a prophet, I think we will always fall short in realizing how a great a prophet he was and how important he is in sacred history. Only after this life when we finally see the big picture and have a complete understand of everything will we be able to really appreciate what he has done. When Doug Gibb appeared to his niece not long after his death, he said it would be a very long time before he would get to meet the prophet Joseph Smith because there were so many ahead of him. That says something about how he is thought of now in the spirit world.

2 Nephi 2

This is such a great doctrinal chapter. It's one of those chapters that each time you read it, I think you just try to glean one important idea since there is so much in it. Reading it this time, I felt like Lehi has drawn a line in the sand for his sons. He knows by vision what is ultimate going to happen to each, and as a result to their posterity, and tries to teach them the consequences of the directions they are going in. Here again, we can see the two extremes of righteousness and wickedness. Nephi and Jacob are both men who have had personal visitations of the Savior and probably have their calling and election made sure. Laman and Lemuel continue down the path of desire for murder and bloodshed. Lehi teaches them that in mortality, there are opposites in everything. On the one side is redemption which comes only to those who are righteous through repentance and the atonement. On the other, are those who are cut of from God because of wickedness and face an eternity of misery. Those are the extremes that his sons face. Lehi tells them that there has to be these two opposites as well as opposites in everything or else there would be nothing for their agency to choose between.

Everyone has the great gift of being able to choose. I think it is very insightful what we really ultimate choose between. Lehi tells his sons they are choosing between eternal life and eternal death as we all do. But he also says that our choices either allow us to act for ourselves or to be acted upon. When we choose correctly, we gain more freedom to act and choose. When we make bad choices, we hem our lives in and outside influences control us and our lives. They act upon us and take away our freedom to choose. This is a natural law that Satan takes great advantage of. It is his chief tool in his efforts to bring us all down into captivity and have all "men be miserable like unto himself." He is still wanting to have the control and take agency away from everyone.

Lehi tells his sons that "all men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil" and men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man for them to be free to choose liberty and eternal life... or choose captivity and death." Those are the ultimate consequences of our choices. Somewhere in the middle is where most of us are. Lehi says that one choice is made "according to the will of the Spirit" and one choice is made by the "will of the flesh." Those two things are always at the basis of every important choice we make.

There is a lot about the fall of Adam in this chapter. I'm going to wait until chapter 9 to talk about that.