Post by Daniel –
My beloved brother it has happened – Jerusalem, the great city, has fallen. The House of the Lord is no more. Oh, how I roll in the dust and ashes as I think of that royal house, our magnificent temple, now defiled.
My eyes fill with tears of sorrow as the captives now begin to enter the provenance. I have not seen such a soul harrowing sight in all my years. Mothers, now childless and husbandless beg at the feet of their Babylonian captors. They moan and weep for mercy. But there is none.
We are now receiving more and more of the captives every day. I have done all I can to ensure they are not met with brutality, and have managed to secure them some land near the river Chebar, where Ezekiel and captives have dwelt these last years. Oh, that Ezekiel may administer to this fallen people.
How could such a people fall, after having received so many promises and blessings? How could this people forget the deliverance of their fathers from Egypt? How could they forget the example of those of Ephraim? Their brothers in Israel followed a course of idolatry and wickedness and were destroyed. How could Judah not understand? How could they not see the hand of the Lord extended?
Please Nephi, please do not let your family follow the same course to destruction as did the people of Judah. Teach your brothers, your sons, your daughters, and then their sons and daughters to walk righteously in the ways of the Lord. Teach them to remember the lessons we have seen in Egypt and in Babylon. Teach them to remember the words spoken to our fathers, “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth,” (Deut 28:1) and “Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you” (Deut 28:63).
May the Lord preserve you and your posterity. Simply remember if you are obedient you will prosper.
