2 Nephi 12

For these Isaiah chapters, I am drawing a lot of my ideas from a site named gospeldoctrine.com. The author has a lot of quotes from modern-day prophets as well as religious commentators that shed a lot of light on the topics of the chapter.

Prophetic Dualism

Simply put, prophetic dualism means a prophecy is fulfilled in more than one event or manner. The term "mountain of the Lord's house" is one of these phrases that is fulfilled in more than one way.

It is a common belief that the mountain of the Lord's house is the Salt Lake Temple. The Salt Lake Temple stands in the valley of the Rocky Mountains and many people from all over the world have gathered to Salt Lake during General Conference and have been taught.

The prophecy also deals with the fact that sacred places were on tops of mountains. Eventually, the temples in the New Jerusalem and the Old Jerusalem will be built on tops of mountains and people from all over the world will attend those temples to learn of God.

Temples

The principal is there … we are to regularly attend the temple and learn from God. One of our goals, as a couple, this year is to attend the temple once a month. We have set up a time every month with a friend of ours so that one of us tends to the other's children while the other couple goes to the temple.

I will never forget one day during finals week my freshman year at college. I had just gone through the temple in March (along with my cousin and roommate). Finals week was at the end of April. We lived in a dorm that housed returned missionaries. One day in the middle of finals, one of the RM's came over to our room and asked us if we wanted to go do a session that day. My cousin and I looked at each other … we were put in a tough spot. If we said no, it made it look like our faith was lacking. If we said yes, then our study time for finals would be cut short by a few hours. We decided to go. Nothing really special happened at the temple, but to me it left a lasting impression of the importance of attending the temple.

Majesty and Glory

The rest of the chapter deals with the pride of the world and the warning the Lord gives. The pride of the world will be humbled. The one thing that struck me was that not only would the Lord tear down the world's pride, but that his majesty and glory would far outshine any pride the world has to offer. In verse 19 it says, "for the fear of the Lord shall come upon them and the glory of his majesty shall smite them." In my mind's eye, the coming of the Lord will be glorious beyond description. Any attempt by the world or man to look glorious and powerful will be far overshadowed by the Lord's glory and majesty.

Lastly in verse 22 it says, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils." I found this a rather odd verse, so I looked it up in the NIV to see if it would shed any light and it reads, "Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils." After reading this, the KJV/BOM version made much more sense. We ought not to trust in man or the flesh. Rather we must trust in the Lord and obey his words. Man will die and his knowledge is limited. God is immortal and his knowledge is unlimited.