2 Nephi 21

Chapter 21

The stem of Jesse (Christ) will judge in righteousness—The knowledge of God will cover the earth in the Millennium—The Lord will raise an ensign and gather Israel—Compare Isaiah 11. About 559–545 B.C.

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Sorry for the late entry today. I slept in!

What an awesome chapter! It talks of the Savior's Second Coming and the gathering of Israel.

A couple of cool things I came across:

The "branch" in verse one is referring to the Branch of David.  By blood, Mary is a descendant of King David, therefore through her the Savior had the blood of David in Him. In fact, if the crown had been handed down from father to son, Jesus would have been Jewish royalty.

Verse three hit me: "and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reproach after the hearing of his ears."   That should be a goal we should all strive for: not judge people by what we see or hear.  There is always more to the person and the story than we know. The greatest thing to soften a hardened heart or negative opinion is empathy and understanding.  We cannot have complete empathy and understanding for everyone because we haven't walked in their shoes, had their experiences, lived their lives, and we don't know them through and through.  The Savior knows us.  He loves us.  He understands and empathizes with us.  He is our righteous judge.   And even though we don't have the same capacity to understand and empathize, we can do the best we can on our level.

I also loved verse 9 "for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord."  Elder Orson Pratt wrote: The knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep.  There will be no place of ignorance, no place of darkness, no place for those that will not serve God.  Why? Because Jesus, the Great Creator, and also the Great Redeemer, will be himself here on earth, and all the resurrected Saints that have died in former dispensations will all come forth, and they will be on the earth. What a happy earth this creation will be, when this purifying process shall come, and the earth be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the great deep!  What a change! Travel, the, from on e end of the earth to another, you can find no wicked man, no drunken man, no man to blaspheme the name of the Great Creator, no one to lay hold on his neighbors goods and steal them, no on to commit whoredoms - for all who commit whoredoms will be thrust to hell, saith the Lord God Almighty, and all persons who commit sin will be speedily visited by the judgement of the Almighty!

That's cool stuff.


Finally, in verse 10 and verse 12 Isaiah speaks of an ensign to the people.  That ensign, according to Joseph Fielding Smith,"was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." How exciting is that!  I love it when we are part of the fulfilling of a prophecy.

As an ensign to the people, we are an example of the believers. We are also the ones who, in our everyday missionary living and speaking, spread the knowledge of God. We are fulfilling prophecy!

What a great chapter!