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.

2 Nephi 5

In this chapter, Nephi is warned to leave his leave his older brothers because Laman and Lemuel wanted to kill Nephi. As discussed earlier, Laman and Lemuel's pride was so great that in stead of heeding the teachings and admonitions of Nephi to release themselves of the chains of unrighteousness, they desired to eliminate their source of stress - Nephi. They believed they could accomplish this by killing Nephi. In 2 Nephi 5:3, they clearly state their purpose of killing Nephi: "...now let us slay him, that we may not be afflicted more because of his words." So, just as throughout the entire Book of Mormon history, the downfall and stumbling block of the people is pride. It was the pride of Laman and Lemuel that caused their murmuring and complaining and their desires to kill Nephi.

In verses 15 & 17, Nephi teaches his people to work hard and to be industrious. This is a principal that needs to be taught more in our lives. Too much of our time is filled with watching TV, playing video games and sitting idly. We ought to be “anxiously engaged in a good cause” (D&C 58:27) and we ought to use our time to build up the kingdom of God on the earth. We can use our time to visit our home-teaching families, attend the temple, study the scriptures and serve others. Not only should we help build up the kingdom of God, but we can improve our lives by getting more education or by continuously building upon our education. This life has so much to offer and there are so many good things that we should have no excuse for idleness.

Verse 16 talks about how Nephi builds a temple. It is noteworthy that after Nephi and his people depart from Laman and Lemuel that the first thing he does is make swords to defend his people and then they build buildings. In other words, they see to their basic needs first. As soon as those basic needs are met, the first item on the Spiritual checklist is to build a temple. This teaches us that the temple and the work therein are very important and are a high priority on Heavenly Father’s list.

In verse 27, Nephi makes a simple, but profound statement, “And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.” Nephi teaches us that if we truly want to be happy, then we must live righteously. In a cross reference to Alma 41:10, another Book of Mormon prophet teaches us that wickedness never was happiness.