Post by Jacob –
As I continue studying Isaiah’s writings, it is very clear that in the last days the Lord’s covenants will be fulfilled. Latter-day people will find hope and happiness in the promises He has made to bring an end to the fallen condition of the earth. He will renew the earth and will dwell among His people. Jerusalem will be called to put on her beautiful garments. Zion will be called to awaken and they are to remove the bonds of captivity that have held them bound. The Lord refers to His people as “those who follow after righteousness, my people, O my nation, ye that know righteousness and the redeemed of the Lord.” He tells them that He will “comfort Zion, make her wilderness like Eden and joy, gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of melody as well as righteousness and salvation would be found in her.” He says that those that inhabit Zion will receive “everlasting joy upon their heads, sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”
You are probably asking why such wonderful promises for a people and a time so far distant would interest us. First, as Nephi mentioned earlier, when we read and then see God’s prophesies fulfilled in our own time and then read of prophesies for the future, we recognize the Lord has a long term plan for us His children. We know He will fulfill all His promises, including those made to us right now. Also, many of the house of Israel of which Isaiah is prophesying, are my descendants and I care about them.
One more thing is that many of you who read these blogs will actually be living in those last days and I want you to know of God’s promises, for you will surely see many of them fulfilled in your lives.
Again, I have included some of Isaiah’s actual writings from the plates of brass for you to read and ponder yourselves.
1 HEARKEN unto me, ye that follow after righteousness. Look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged.
2 Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah, she that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him.
3 For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation; for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light for the people.
5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arm shall judge the people. The isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9 Awake, awake! Put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days. Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
10 Art thou not he who hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
11 Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy and holiness shall be upon their heads; and they shall obtain gladness and joy; sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 I am he; yea, I am he that comforteth you. 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?
13 And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hasteneth, that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I am the Lord thy God, whose waves roared; the Lord of Hosts is my name.
16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion: Behold, thou art my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury—thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling wrung out—
18 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.
19 These two sons are come unto thee, who shall be sorry for thee—thy desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword—and by whom shall I comfort thee?
20 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.
21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, and not with wine:
22 Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord and thy God pleadeth the cause of his people; behold, 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.
23 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.
24 Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
25 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 8:1 – 25)
