2 Nephi 9 (Part V)

Some references to being poor/rich:

2 Nephi 9:30 Wo unto the rich, who are rich as to things of the world. For because they are rich, they despise the poor, and they persecute the meek, and their hearts are upon their treasures; wherefore, their treasure shall perish with them also.

Genesis 13:2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Exodus 23:3 Neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his cause.

Exodus 30:15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord.

1 Samuel 2:6 The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.

Psalms 10:2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

Proverbs 10:4 He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

Proverbs 13:7,11 There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath n othing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches...Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.

Proverbs 13:18 Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall behonoured.

Proverbs 14:23-24 In all labour there is profit: but the talk of their lips tendeth only to penury. The crown of the wise is their riches: but eh foolishness of fools is folly.

Proverbs 28:6 Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.

Proverbs 28:20 A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent...He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.

Proverbs 30:8-9 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

There really are too many to list. I've blown through my time today reading references that all seem to imply that hard work is required by the Lord and results in prosperity, which is acceptable. Treating the poor badly is never acceptable. Being poor is only acceptable if you are not lazy, don't steal, and don't blame God for it. The rich often despise the poor, which is not ok. If the poor are wise, they are still treated badly, and we should all shut our mouths until we're sure it's the right time to talk. To summarize, I would say, God made us all, being rich caries its own special challenges, which it seems are more likely to prevent you from getting into heaven than the challenges associated with being poor, but there is clearly an obligation to work diligently to get yourself out of poverty if you are poor. When you do so, you can't treat the other poor (whether they are there because of laziness or not) badly, but must remember to treat them generously.

2 Nephi 9 (Part IV)

2 Nephi 9:21 For behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam. Jacob says, every living creature and then goes on casually enumerating who/what that includes. His list comprises only humans. For Jacob, every creature means every human. I bring this up because I have not quite come to a solid understanding in my own mind about what was happening with all the plants and animals during the 6 days of creation and the time subsequent to creation before the fall. Lehi told Jacon in 2 Nephi 2:22 if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. Was Lehi also speaking specifically of Humans? Bruce R. McKonkie said that there was no growth, offspring, or death in anything, plant, animal, or human prior to the fall of Adam, and that he brought death upon those things by his choice as well. I'm pretty sure he uses the 2 Nephi 2 reference as his justification. Given the context of 2 Nephi 9:21, did Lehi mean only humans? It's reasonable to assume that Jacob would learn to speak of things in the way he did from listening to his father speak of them. We do read in scripture that the plants grew and the animals were commanded to reproduce, but Adam and Eve were also commanded to reproduce and didn't do so until they were mortal. In a book by Skousen called The First Thousand Years, he asserts that Adam was unique from the plants and animals on this earth in that Adam was created of the substance of the earth while the plants and animals were brought here from another source.
The reference in Moses 3, where it says, man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also is a little more enigmatic, but the chapter goes on to a completely different chronology of creation than the one we get in Genesis, Abraham, and the temple, i.e. Adam is created first, then the Garden of Eden with its two trees, then the animals are created, (out of the ground, I might add) and then Eve comes. Moses covers it up by saying, the Lord God created all things...spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. But he goes on to say that the reason he did that was because he had not caused it to rain upon the face of the earth, which I find to be an extremely odd justification for not creating things in the same order as the rest of scripture says.

2 Nephi 9 (III)

2 Nephi 9:14 Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness. It's interesting that one of the first things that Adam and Eve noticed (or had pointed out to them) after partaking of the fruit was their nakedness. Here, it is used as another example of our how we (when sinning) are different from God. Additionally, as we purify ourselves, we are clothed in purity. Is it a purity or nothing question when dressing?

In the scriptures, when someone realizes that he has done somethign to incur the wrath of God, they often rend their clothes. Could the symbolism here be driving at a return to the shameful nakedness of Adam and Eve in the garden after they had eaten and before God made them the coats of skins when they were cast out?

2 Nephi 9 (part II)

2 Nephi 9:6 For as death hath passed upon all men...there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall. It seems that this is saying that the resurrection needs to be performed/brought about by a man, i.e. someone who was subject to the fall. Which coincides with all the terrible things that Christ had to suffer because of the fact that he was God operating within the limitations of humanity, but why? Is this an eternal principle that you have to dig yourself out of your own holes? Except it seems so broad--since a human ate the fruit and brought the fall, a human has to perform the atonement for all humans. Jacob speaks about that as though it's a given. He focuses on the mercy of the plan, and our eventual rise from death, but to me, the part that is fascinating is that we (humanity) are responsible for our own redemption from physical and spiritual death. Paul said, For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor 15:21-22) In reading that, I've always focused on Adam causing death and God causing the resurrection (v. 22), but it's clear that Christ in this context is considered a man, not God, focusing on his mortal mother, not his celestial father.

2 Nephi 9

2 Nephi 9:2 When they shall be gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise. There seems to be a really big fixation with promised lands and lands for inheritance throughout scripture. It's one of the pillars of the Abrahamic Covenant--specific lands were covenanted to be given to him and his posterity as part of his deal with God. It was reiterated with Isaac (and very notably refuted with Ishmael when Abraham asked if it could be through him), and was again confirmed with Jacob. But why was it so important that you have land (and more particularly, specific lands) when Christ comes? We know that the earth will be renewed and become the Celestial Kingdom after the Millennial reign of Christ, and perhaps the deed transfers and the covenant of land is actually a ticket to the Celestial kingdom.

But the people in scripture seem to have a fixation on the land of their fathers. Zeniff and his people with the land of Lehi-Nephi, the Jews throughout the Old Testament. And it seems to be supported by the Lord, in that he tells people to go take certain lands away from others because he has given them to them. It's the kind of thing that really wouldn't go over well today: "Hey, I've given you Phoenix. Go kill the people who are currently living there and move into their houses." But the fact that they didn't have to build the houses, plant the crops, dig the wells, etc. was a major part of the deal with inheriting the land of Israel when Joshua led them across the Jordan river after the Exodus. Will this happen again if we start expanding outward to new planets? I could easily envision the whole Old Testament being acted out on a cosmic scale a couple of hundred years from now.

2 Nephi 8

2 Nephi 8:12 Behold, who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of man, who shall die, and of the son of man, who shall be made like unto grass? According to the Bible Dictionary, the title Son of Man was something that Christ used about 80 times when speaking of himself but was never used by anyone else when speaking about him while he was alive. In the Old Testament, it was used frequently but appears to refer to pretty much anyone the writer wants it to, but never to Jehovah. Bruce R. McConkie postulates that Christ used it about himself as an expression of humility or lowliness. In any case, as this chapter is Nephi, quoting Isaiah, both of whom were Old Testament time period, it clearly does not refer to Christ as someone who is more familiar with the New might assume.

8:17-20 Awake, Awake, stand up, O Jerusalem...thou has drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling wrung out--And none to guide her among all the sons she hath brought forth; neither that taketh her by the hand, of all the sons she hath brought up. Here's an interesting illustration - Jerusalem needs to awake and arise but struggles because none of her sons are around to hold her hand. Who are her sons? Who has she brought up? My first thought was that perhaps Christianity is one of the sons of Judaism, springing as it did from Jerusalem and spreading to the western world. If so, what is our obligation to the state of Israel? Could that be why the state of Israel is consistently supported by the western world despite the clearly superior claims that the Palestinians have to the land?

However, the scripture goes on to list two different sons, which makes me wonder who the other sons could be even more, and pokes holes in my first thought pretty effectively. These two sons are come unto thee, who shall be sorry for thee--thy desolation and destruction, and the fame and the sword--and by whom shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, save these two; they lie at the head of all the streets; as a wild bull in a net, they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God. So one son is desolation and destruction, and the other is famine and the sword.

This puts a different spin on who the sons might be. It implies that another son might be happiness and contentment, or increase and prosperity, or righteousness and blessing. But the only two that stuck around are full of fury and represent the rebuke of God, taking us back to an earlier discussion where we questioned whether the things that happened to the Jews after they were scattered among all nations were the continuing punishment of God or whether they were simply the natural consequences of that scattering, mingled with the agency of man, and could potentially have been different. I do not want to revisit that except to mention verse 22, which says, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again. But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; who have said to thy soul: Bow down, that we may go over--and thou hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to them that went over. To me that indicates that the treatment of the Jews post scattering is something the Lord is clearly viewing as an offense, which he will punish.

I want to focus on the other sons. It says of all the sons she hath brought up, these two sons are come unto thee. and Thy sons have fainted, save these two. Applying this to us, indicates that we have the opportunity and ability to bring up a variety of children which can represent our lifestyle. Since these two sons are the only ones to stick around, and they represent the rebuke of the Lord, perhaps they were preceded by the sons Pride and Wickedness. If we want the sons that stick around to be Peace and Happiness, perhaps we need to focus on raising the sons Patience and Gratitude. If we want Success and Prosperity, we probably want to focus our efforts on Work and Frugality. It seems that if we want the lasting children to be Blessings and Peace, our overall focus needs to be on Righteousness so that those children can represent the Blessings of the Lord instead of the Rebuke.

2 Nephi 7

2 Nephi 7:4,8 The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should learn how to speak a word in season unto thee...And the Lord is near, and he justifieth me. Who will contend with me?...Let him come near me, and I will smite him with the strength of my mouth. This is an interesting thought, that either Isaiah or Christ (Isaiah could be speaking messianically at this point--several of the scriptures in between 4 and 8 are clearly references to Christ I gave my back to the smiter, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back etc, although both of those verses could also be applied to Isaiah), one of them is basically saying, bring it on and I will destroy you with words. There is a verse somewhere in the old testament that says, He strengthens my arms to war that a bow of bronze is broken by my hands (or something similar). That one implies physical strength while this reference is clearly talking about rhetoric.

7:10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkess and hath no light? This is a great question: who loves the lord while walking in darkness? No one. You either love the Lord or you walk in darkness because if you love him, you keep his commandments, which means no walking in darkness.

2 Nephi 8:6-8 This one will take a minute to explain; Isaiah says, everybody on the whole earth shall wax old like a garment; and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner and then says that God's people should fear not the reproach of men because the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them up like wool but he just said that would happen to everybody! So he starts off by saying, everybody's gonna die, so don't be afraid of the wicked people, because they're going to die. But what? so are you, which we know, but what how is the fact that the wicked die supposed to change your mindset about their actions toward you? Perhaps it is supposed to remind you that there is no need for petty vengeance or anger at physical actions because eventually that person will die and then you'll both get what you deserve.