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.