The "Isaiah Barrier" - Key 3

Time for the third key to our understanding of Isaiah (almost seems like a contridiction in terms, doesn't it). After Nephi finished quoting from Isaiah, he mentioned a couple of things his people would need to know in order to understand these chapters (and presumably the rest of Isaiah). He said he taught his people "concerning the judgments of God, which hath come to pass among the Jews" (2 Nephi 25:6).

How is that going to help us with Isaiah?? There are a couple of answers which may help. First, if we see that Isaiah's prophecies concerning his day came true, then we can be confident his prophecies concerning our day will also come true (and some already have). Also, as if he wasn't hard enough to understand already, Isaiah made several dualistic prophecies which can apply to our day and his day at the same time. Understanding what happened in his day can help us figure out things that will happen in ours. For example, 2 Nephi 23/ Isaiah 13 uses the destruction of Babylon as a symbol of the destruction that will accompany the Second Coming.

So, where exactly do we start? One thing I found helpful was to make two lists as I went through 2 Nephi 12 - 24. The first list was God's judgement for the righteous. The second list was God's judgement upon the wicked. This helped me put things into perspective and sort out some of the tricky parts.Let's take a look at a few passages to see if they make more sense.

2 Nephi 12:6

Therefore, O Lord, thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and hearken unto soothsayers like the Philistines...

I wondered for a long time what it meant to be "replenished from the east". I should've checked the footnotes. The corresponding verse in Isaiah 2 has a footnote which explains that 'replenished' is an Idiomatic Expression meaning 'are filled, supplied with teachings' (Isaiah 2:6a). So Israel was getting a time-out for turning to other philosophies and beliefs, rather than turning to God for direction.

Another example is in 2 Nephi 13:16-24. I have read this passage several times in the past and have heard it discussed in Sunday School classes as being judgements against Babylon. Take a moment to read verse 16 again:

Moreover, the Lord saith: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes...

Whoa, Isaiah is saying that this is judgement upon the Lord's own chosen people. Those of the Lord's church are being chastized for following the world's extremes in fashion and for being proud while they're doing it. The word wanton means "sexually lawless or unrestrained; loose; lascivious", and these are the daughters of Zion... I don't need to know what a caul, wimple, or crisping pin is to know these girls are in trouble.

Let's shift gears and look at something a bit more uplifting.

2 Nephi 15:25:
"...For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still."

Some commentators interpret this as saying the Lord is just waiting to strike Israel again. I see it as the dual roles of justice and mercy. On one side, justice demands that we receive "the fruit of [our] doings" (2 Nephi 13:10), whether good or evil. On the other side, mercy seeks to lift us up as much as we will allow. I read that scripture and I see God's hand reaching out to pull us up if we will only grab hold.

Anyhow, go through and make your own list so you can see how Isaiah refers to God's judgements on Israel and other nations. I found the corresponding footnotes in Isaiah really help to understand the same passages in 2 Nephi, especially in the context of God's judgements.