Post by Nephi –
In some future day you too will be able to actually read the writings of Isaiah just as I do today. You will read of Isaiah’s prophecies of impending destruction of to proud. Their pride has been and will be the main element in the Jews rejection of the Messiah and their rejection of His servants. As is mentioned over and over, this pride has led and will lead to their downfall. This pride will also afflict the latter-day gentiles.
In the most recent blog, I talked about Isaiah’s description of one of these downfalls and the destruction that followed. Isaiah said that in that day, “seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach.”
Taken out of context you may read into this prophecy something erroneous. So let me take a minute to share my thoughts. If you recall, Isaiah has just described the destruction of Jerusalem that took place after our family left the land of our inheritance. In that destruction, most of the men were destroyed. This scarcity of men could also include a lack of willing men or able men to be husbands or fathers.
Remember, in our day, which you consider ancient Israel, women needed a husband not only to provide for the family but also to father a son so that the family inheritance could be passed on and to ensure that there would be someone to care for them in their old age. Therefore singleness and childlessness are viewed as a reproach. So this warning from Isaiah may serve as a warning to the daughters of Zion of what awaits them for the kind of worldliness and sin that we discussed in the previous post. In the latter-day that view may be totally different, however, if this reproach is due to pride and worldliness, Isaiah may be referring to your day as well.
Isaiah does not leave the hope of the future bleak, he uses the term “in that day” again but this time referring to a more distant future. He says, “In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the earth excellent and comely to them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, they that are left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem shall be called holy, every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem—
The Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. 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. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and a covert from storm and from rain.”
Now if that is not clear enough, let me sum up. The Lord will wash clean His people and will watch over them by day and night and life will be beautiful.
(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 14:1 – 6)
