14:1 - "...seven women shall take hold of one man..."
This may be showing an example of repentance. It seems like the women from the last chapter were humbled in their sinful and prideful state and now they want their reproach taken away.
It's so much better when we don't get into similar situations in the first place.
14:4-6 - "...when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion..."
After the daughters of Zion are purged and cleansed, then the Lord will be able to dwell with them. We also need to purge and clean ourselves in the prescribed manner, and He will be with us.
We don't have to wait until the Second Coming to be guided and led by the Lord. But we must follow Him.
14:5 - "...and the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory of Zion shall be a defence..."
This shows another aspect of faith...yes the Lord will create a cloud and fire, but he will do it upon every dwelling-place and assembly of Zion. This implies that we need to first build our dwelling-places and assemblies of Zion. How can he create the cloud and fire upon the dwelling-places if these places don't exist? As we build these places (physically and spiritually), we open ourselves to receive great blessings from the Lord!
13:1-5 - This passage gives a list of things that will be taken away in the last days.
The things that will be taken away are all symbols of a powerful society (mighty man, man of war, judge, prophet, captain of fifty, cunning artificer, eloquent orator, etc.). In the last days society will be changed from a powerful society and rendered to a society of chaos and disrespect. We can see some hints of that prophecy already with the rampant disrespect, pride, and entitlement views of many children. This shows the importance of discipline - we need to make sure that our children know that when they make a mistake, there are consequences. By being a good example, we can also help them know what they need to do.
13:6-8 - "...thou has clothing, be thou our ruler..."
At that time, many will look to anyone that has any success to be their leader. This can be sad if they do not look to support themselves and seek to use these leaders as a crutch. Maybe it will become so bad that even the people who are quite capable will be in the same boat.
If we have our food storage and are prepared while keeping the commandments, we will have less to fear.
13:9 - "...the show of their countenance doth witness against them..."
People can tell if we've been sinning or if we are clean. It shows in our countenance. If there's any problem, we must have faith in the Lord and go fix the problem. The Lord wants us to be happy...and that will come through righteous living.
13:16-17 - "...the daughters of Zion are haughty..."
This isn't talking about the population of the world in general...this is describing the daughters of Zion! Even the very elect can become proud and haughty - and when it gets that bad, it's only a matter of time to downfall. We need to be vigilant in keeping the commandments and staying true to the faith.
13:18-26 - "...the men shall fall by the sword..."
When women go bad, men go bad, too. We need the support of each other to stay on the right path. It's tough, but we need to each do our part.
12:2 - "...the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains..."
That's very interesting - in the movie "House of the Lord," it talks about this subject. Not only are we building temples in the mountains, but the word "Utah" itself means "top of the mountains." In this sense, prophecy has been and is being fulfilled, and we're a part of it. Prophecies will continue to be fulfilled, and we should participate by "flowing" unto the temple.
12:6-22 - This passage describes the conditions of pride in our days.
We worship the works of our own hands instead of being grateful that the Lord gave us the talent to be able to take care of things, build things, help people, be a leader, and so much more. As we are grateful, we give credit where credit is due, and this helps remove pride, or at least a lot of it.
The main point comes a little later in verse 22 - "cease ye from man." We must remove ourselves from the tendency towards the natural man, become as a little child, and humble ourselves before we are humbled by external forces.
12:22 - "...cease ye from man..."
It's surprising sometimes how much faith we have in man and man's abilities, but not faith in the Lord. The abilities of man testifies of the abilities of the Lord. We must trust the Lord and not lean on the natural man. We can still trust man, but have faith in the Lord.
As we act in faith, the more we will put off the natural man!
11:2 - "...my soul delighteth in the words of Isaiah..."
Isaiah testified of Christ, in many different ways. If we will delight in the words of Isaiah, read, study, and ponder these words...we can and will come closer to Jesus Christ.
11:3 - "...by the words of three...I will establish my word..."
Witnesses are so important. We have witnesses to the truth to help establish the validity of it. We have witnesses to ordinances to help ensure obedience to those ordinances. Our own example should be such that we are witnesses of God at all times and in all things and in all places, or our own actions will witness against us (Mosiah 18:9).
11:4 - "...my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ..."
What really gives me joy? I think it's helping others...making them laugh and helping them learn. There are many types of "aha!" moments. We do not have to limit ourselves to humor or astonishment. We can and must continue to learn and share with others. As we do so, we are helping them come unto Christ.
11:4 - "...all things...are the typifying of him..."
This says that all things testify of Christ (Moses 6:63). Light, nature, music...everything! We just need to look at everything and see how they each can bring us closer to Him.
11:5-6 - "...my soul delighteth in the covenants of the Lord..."
This is the type of faith that we must have...the kind that means that we are happy and excited to keep the covenants that we have made. The kind that pushes us to share our blessings and insights with others and help them come unto Christ.
God must be so sad when he sees us go through terrible times. He must cry out and want to help us, but with His wisdom and mercy, he allows horrible things to happen so we can learn and be a strength to those who need help in their own times of trial. It is a great blessing to be grateful for.
11:8 - "...liken them unto you..."
We can read all we want, but until we apply what we learn, we go nowhere...and actually regress if we aren't careful. If we aren't progressing, we regress. There is no "stagnation."
10:3 - "...Christ...should be his name..."
Up until this time, the Book of Mormon used the Hebrew form of the word "Christ," which is "Messiah." The Book of Mormon was written in Reformed Egyptian, a mixture of Egyptian and Hebrew. It would not make sense that they would use the Greek form of the word...unless it was revealed to them. At this point, an angel visits Jacob and reveals this name to him. From then on, this version of the name is used in the Book of Mormon. It's a great principle of revelation, and then application of that revelation.
10:3-5 - "...and there is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God..."
This attitude and state that the people had reached that they would be willing to crucify their God is really sad, and is a result of priestcrafts and iniquities. If we don't pay attention, we could do the same today and reject God because of our obsession with priestcrafts and iniquities.
10:11-14 - "...there shall be no kings upon the land...for he that raiseth up a king against me shall perish..."
I really like this promise. The way the government is set up today in the United States is amazing, and gives representation to us...the people. We are blessed to be able to play a role in who represents us and the laws that we put on the land and people. We need to take advantage of this system to bless the people of America and the world, and not set up Kings who will reign in oppression, etc.
10:20-22 - "...great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the isles of the sea..."
I have seen a lot of these promises and blessings while serving as a missionary in the West Indies. These people are greatly blessed as they keep the commandments, just as much as I have seen others blessed as they do the same. God is no respecter of persons.
10:23 - "...cheer up your hearts...remember that ye are free to act for yourselves..."
This is very true. We have the freedom to act for ourselves, especially living in such a great country. That alone should cheer up our hearts. We are very blessed, and we need to be grateful to the Lord for giving us these great blessings!
This is also a great application of faith. We really should be acting in faith and not expect everything to be put into our laps. We act in faith, yes...but that does not mean that we have to be stoic about it. We can and should be cheerfully doing everything in our power to come unto Christ ourselves, and then help others do the same.
9:6-7 - "...resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall..."
We fell, so we need a way to overcome our fallen state. The atonement brought the resurrection, and because the atonement was infinite, it satisfied all the requirements necessary for resurrection (and exaltation).
9:8-9 - If there were no Atonement, we would be like Satan - angels to a devil.
When we follow Satan's plan, the best we can possibly do is to become angels to a devil. When we follow God's plan, the best we can possibly do is to become a god, like Him.
We become like those that we follow.
This is also seen in that the Lord took on himself the "seed of Abraham" and not the "nature of angels" (Hebrews 2:16).
9:13-14 - "...we shall have a perfect knowledge..."
For the righteous, it will be a great day. For the wicked, they will remember all their sins. Ouch.
We need to keep the commandments so it will be a good day.
9:21 - He will save all men if they hearken to His voice.
If we want to be saved, we need to do what He says.
The Lord is the only reason we can be saved, and I'm grateful!
9:23 - "...and he commandeth all men that they must repent and be baptized in his name, having perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God..."
We all want to be saved...we want to be happy. It takes work, effort, and giving up things that don't lead us to God. It takes acting in faith. If we have faith, we shall not fear.
9:28-29 - "...to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God..."
That's the trick - hearkening to the counsel of God. Often, we just want to do things our own way...and only God's way will work. It's when we trust our own wisdom that the problems come. Like it says in the verse, though, being learned is good...if we hearken to the counsel of God. It's tough sometimes because we're told to make a decision and then pray for confirmation...sometimes I wonder if I'm receiving confirmation or convincing myself that I have. Reading the scriptures diligently and earnest prayer will help us know the difference.
9:31-32 - "...wo unto the deaf that will not hear...wo unto the blind that will not see..."
It's not that they can't hear or see...it's that they won't. How many times do we plug our ears and shut our eyes and do not take advantage of the gospel? We hurt ourselves and all the people we could have helped.
9:39-40 - "...words of truth are hard against all uncleanness..."
That reminds me of 1 Nephi 16:1-3 where Nephi says the same thing to Laman and Lemuel.
They take truth to be hard because of inertia - it's easy to stay on your current path, and change is tough. When you stay carnally-minded, it leads to death. However, if you can keep the inertia in staying spiritually-minded, you will follow the path that leads to eternal life.
9:41,45,51 - "...come unto the Lord..."
We are exhorted so many times to "Come unto Him"...this implies action. We must keep the commandments, thus becoming like Him, while we're coming unto Him.
9:48 - "...if ye were holy I would speak of holiness...but as ye are not holy...I must teach you the consequences of sin."
Interesting. I just wonder what General Conference would be like if everybody were holy. I do know that our own personal preparation will help us learn and be taught through the Holy Ghost, so at least we can prepare ourselves to receive the revelation we need.
8:1-2 - "...look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn...look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah..."
The Abrahamic covenant applies to us, and if we follow the example of Abraham and Sarah (implied through the verbiage "look"), then we will receive those blessings.
8:4-7 - Chaiasmus
It looks like this passage is a chaiasmus, with the focus being on "lift up your eyes to the heavens." We are often told to "look" or "lift up our eyes." This implies action on our part. If we want the blessings, we need to follow the required commandments.
8:5 - "Righteousness"
Very often when you see the word "Righteousness" in Biblical passages (mainly the Old Testament) and Isaiah passages, it's referring to the Melchizedek Priesthood. Melchizedek was the "King of Righteousness." It makes sense in this passage because the word "righteous" is being used as a noun and not an attribute. It also makes sense because it says, "my righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth," - which goes together. Salvation comes from the ordinances properly administered by the correct authority - the priesthood.
8:5 - "...the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust..."
We must have faith in the Lord and trust Him. It's difficult sometimes when we can't see the end from the beginning, but if we do trust Him, we will get the blessings from following Him.
8:12 - "...who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of men..."
We must not be afraid of men, but rather fear the Lord and follow His teachings and commandments.
8:20 - "...thy sons have fainted, save these two..."
There are a lot more questions about this passage of scripture than there are answers. If this is referring to the two prophets at Jerusalem as described in Revelations (Revelations 11:3-12), then what does this passage mean by the fainted part? Will all the rest of the prophets have fainted at that point? Will there just be two prophets left? When it says "prophets," does this mean prophets from the First Presidency or Quorum of the 12, or prophets raised up from the Jews? There are a lot of questions, but few answers.
