Mike Stroud Book of Mormon: 52

Transcription

1 Mike Stroud Book of Mormon: 52 We re starting on 2 Nephi, chapter 20 and picking up from verse 15 - it s where we ended off. And we ll go from there. I think what we were talking about last time was this king of Assyria and we were talking about the Assyrian siege of the Northern Kingdom and then later on towards the end of the Assyrian empire they also came down and attacked Judah. But in that attack, the Assyrian king lost 180,000 soldiers...remember that? (COMMENT: Is that the one where they died overnight?) Died overnight. So, the real destruction of the Assyrians took place in the Northern Kingdom and even though they came down and besieged the Southern Kingdom, it was never destroyed by them, but later the kingdom that followed Assyria did come down and attack the Southern Kingdom, and that s the Babylonians and that took place at the time when Lehi was in Jerusalem, so we re still talking about the Assyrians. And in verse 14, for a quick review, we re talking about global socialism - a socialistic order that takes place - actually it describes it in verses 13 and 14. It s a whole globalistic socialistic order, worldwide. It s being talked about right now and is well underway, and they call it The New World Order. And basically what it is, is Babylon in its most powerful sense that it s taken all of this time, to come to a point where it s literally found in a whole global thing. You can see in verse 13 where they remove borders and change boundaries of nations. You can see where they rob the treasuries and the riches of nations and they do it, actually through banking and taxation and you can also see down there in verse 14 where the king of Assyria where says, I ve gathered all of the earth, and there s none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth or peeped. That may have several different meanings. One that strikes me is, that it happens so subtly with a loss of liberty in the nations, where people turn to the government and basically over a period of time just allow the government to take care of them until eventually so much liberty s been lost that they wake up slaves and wonder what happened. This whole thing where it says, there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth or peeped seems to me that it didn t take place by conquest as much as it did inner erosion and treachery from within which seems to be the way that the devil works. But keep in mind this is a global thing. And in verse 15 now, we re talking about the axe which is the Assyrian and it says, Shall the axe boast itself against him who s the Lord. Remember that the Assyrian has one agenda, and that s simply to conquer nations and become powerful to steal their riches and enslave people. What the Assyrian doesn t know is the Lord is using him as an instrument. And back in 2 Nephi, chapter 5, when Nephi was told to separate from the Lamanites because of the danger there, the Lord told

2 him that if the Nephites forget the Lord, that the Lord would use the Lamanites as a scourge. So, what s happening here is this Assyrian is being used by the Lord as a scourge or a whip to punish people and hopefully bring them to a position of repentance and humility where the Lord can again bless them, which is always the reason behind that. So, he goes down and he says, Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Shall the saw (meaning the Assyrian)...magnify itself against him that shaketh it?... (meaning the Lord)...As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift up, or as if the staff [should] lift up itself as if it were no wood! In other words, what s happening here, is the Lord s behind the whole thing. They think they re involved. But in reality the Lord s using them. Any questions on that? (COMMENT: No, but I like the footnotes - the prophet compares the king to a tool. So, as we talked about before, it s like the Lord uses these kings and these nations, as you said, as a scourge, and it happens time and time and time again.) Let s go ahead and go to a real quick scripture here. Let s go up to Helaman chapter 12 where we can see this great principle again in chapter 12, verse 2. Now think that whenever people become rich and they become wealthy, the natural thing is to begin to forget God, and they say, I did this. This is my own strength that s done this, and by my own ingenuity, and by my own education and cunning. And at that point the Lord starts to back out. Brother Steve, do you want to read verse 2? Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies (Watch this next part right here.)... softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them (Now think about Israel where we re at right here. As long as Israel has the Lord for their guide - then the Lord protects the people against their enemies by softening their hearts that they don t declare war. If you kick the Lord out of your midst, then He just simply withdraws, and when He does that, your enemies hearts become hardened and they come down and attack. Keep going)...[a]nd in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One - yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity. Now, verse 3 has a direct application with what we re reading about here with the Assyrian in the Northern and Southern kingdoms: And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten (In place of chasten we could put whip, scourge...)...except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death (Think about what s happening with the Assyrians.)

3 ...with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him. So, the purpose of the scourge is to turn people s hearts, to get them to turn away, to repent, to turn away from the wrong direction they re going in and turn back and face the Lord so He can do what? So, He can bless them. And bring them to Him. Let s go down to verse 16 [2 Nephi 20]. We continue with this same kind of discussion here: Therefore shall the Lord of Hosts, send among his fat ones, leanness (His fat ones. Who are we talking about? Who s the fat ones? That would be His people. Yes.)...[A]nd under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. This his here we re talking about could have a couple of meanings. In this case, it could easily refer to the Assyrian. Seventeen: And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame, and shall burn and shall devour his thorns and his briers in one day Now that should be a little key to us there, talking that the empire that s here, in the Assyrians, but especially in the Latter-days, John talks about Babylon the great, the whole earth; the Lord s going to cause all of this all to go down. So, in the His timing, when the Lord s ready for it, the Lord s going remove all of these scourges, all of these axes, saws, and different things. And He can do it so fast; He can do it in one day. Any questions or comments? (COMMENT: [8:20 undecipherable]) Yea, that s right. Let s look at verse 18 - now this is talking about what s going to happen to the Assyrian once the Lord s finished using him. Go ahead: And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as a when a standard-bearer fainteth. Now, whenever the standard bearer, in a battle in ancient times, each army had an army that held up a banner that represented the army, the leader of the army. It represented their cause and everything. So, when it says that this glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field and the standard-bearer fainteth - the only time a standard-bearer fainted was when he was either dead or the battle was lost. The foe is devastated and the battle is over. [Verse 19] And the rest of the trees of his forest (meaning the remainder of his army - this is what s left of his army)...shall be few, that a child may write them. What does that mean, do you think? (COMMENT: A child may write them: w-r-i-t-e.) Yea, he s talking about this huge empire that is so fantastic, and so powerful, and everybody feared it...when the Lord gets through with them, there will be so few left that a child could write them. (COMMENT: Well, a child doesn t have great learning; can only count to so many numbers ) That s it! A little child can only count up to so far, which means that, do you see that symbolism there? Verse 20: It shall come to pass in that day (Now, in that one, when it s talking about that, it runs us up to the latter-days. That s the key that s coming up in at our

4 day.)...[t]hat the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them Now, see, this whole thing with the Assyrian has a latter-day fulfillment. We ve got another massive global army that s coming out of the north, that s going to afflict not only the world, but especially the hypocrital nation of the Gentiles, which is...what? (COMMENT: Well, the hypocrites are America.) Yea, that s the United States of America. We can look at the future of the United States being scourged and humbled by an Assyrian-like force that s yet in our future. And it comes out, and He says, that...shall no more again stay upon him that smote them, but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. What does that mean? Who s finally going to be the leader - what people are finally going to be humble enough, that the Lord comes in and fights their battles for them? (COMMENT: That would be the Jews and the righteous ) And what are the remnant of Israel and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob? (COMMENT: That s like the Lamanites, the Indians ) It s not the Gentiles, is it? So, it could be that the descendants of the tribe of Joseph, especially down through Lehi s posterity, which is what the Book of Mormon talks about. Verse 21: The remnant shall return, yea, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. Now that remnant is talked about over in 3 Nephi, chapter 16, chapter 20, and chapter 21. It s a big doctrinal principle in the Book of Mormon. It s yet in the future. It hasn t happened yet. (COMMENT: Is this the ten tribes?) I don t know that it s the ten tribes; I think the remnant is going to play this role, at least the part that the Book of Mormon talks about is pre-ten-tribe-return. So, for example, it says that the remnant of Jacob, in the Book of Mormon, over there in third Nephi, says, will be among the Gentiles. And be among those who are many, so they ll be inside the Gentiles. The United States of America is a Gentile nation. (COMMENT: Right. And we have the remnant of Jacob, we have a lot of Indian blood mixed in with the Hispanics that are coming across the border ) Yea, and look what s happening in America right now, I mean it s just amazing what s taking place. I see the stage being set for this. (COMMENT: There was a picture on the internet today of a coin with Washington on it, a dollar, and they d taken In God We Trust off the front and the back of it. And they said, Do not accept it as currency. When they do, just say, Oh, thanks, I want something else. ) Let s skip over to third Nephi for a minute and just glance quickly at these references to the remnant. 3 Nephi. And over here, this is the Savior quoting the same passages out of Isaiah. In fact, the only scripture that Christ commands us to study is the book of Isaiah, but He quotes Isaiah, He quotes Micah, He quotes Joel, and He quotes a couple of other places, but extensively from the book of Isaiah. Let s take a look at 3 Nephi, chapter 20, verse 16. Now we d have to read the whole chapter to get a feel for it, but this is referring to what we re talking about over there in 2 Nephi. Go ahead Steve, verse 16: Then shall ye, who are a remnant of

5 the house of Jacob, go forth among them; and ye shall be in the midst of them who shall be many; and ye shall be among them as a lion among the beasts of the forest, and as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he goeth through both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Now, if you ll slip on down to verse 20, you ll find out where it says that this remnant shall be among them who shall be many. It gives a little feeling for verse 20: And it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that the sword of my justice shall hang over them (That s the same them that you see in verse 16, where it says that the remnant shall be in the midst of them - it s the same one.)...[a]t that day; and except they repent it shall fall upon them, saith the Father, yea, even upon all the nations of the Gentiles. So, wherever the remnant is, they re among what we call the nations of the Gentiles. (COMMENT: That s an interesting phrase: nations of the Gentiles instead of Gentile nations. It kind of refers to - you have all of the Gentiles in the present-day America, and all the nations where those people came from also, which is primarily Europe.) Right. So, let s go on over to chapter 21 and look at verse 12. The Lord takes two and a half chapters of 3 Nephi to talk about this, that we re talking about over in 2 Nephi 20, and so you get a real interpretation of these verses over here: the remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, even unto the mighty God, the remnant shall return, etc. etc. Let s come over here to find out what it means; let s go up to verse 12. Here s the Lord speaking about the same thing again, but in a little more detail. 3 Nephi 21, verse 12: And my people who are a remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, yea, in the midst of them as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Now that spells it out even more clearly in one verse, again, among the nations.. among the Gentiles. Skip down to 14: Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they repent; for it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots. Now what would be a quick way to cripple the nations of the Gentiles? The latter-day nations? One way would be to destroy their transportation; any of their means of transportation: airlines, trucks... (COMMENT: I m thinking of trucks transporting food )...trains, anything and in America right now we have something called a just-in-time delivery system. We used to have huge warehouses. When I was growing up, all across the country, that warehouses would store food. Now, we don t. It goes direct from manufacture to consumer in something called, just-in-time delivery, which means trucks and trains and airplanes are continually on the move. And if you live in a place like we

6 do, in Eager, Arizona, where we have a Safeway store and another store there - that every night semi trucks come in from outlying larger cities to supply our stores. If those trucks were to stop - if anything were to stop - and that s an example of the way it is country-wide. If anything were to stop the run of those trucks, those stores would empty out in a matter of hours. So, all of the food that s in our grocery stores where we live is brought in, replaced and restocked daily. Daily. So, imagine what will happen in verse 14, where the Lord says, I will cut off thy horses from out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots. See, I think, that s what that s talking about. Go down to verse 17: Thy graven images I will also cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more worship the works of thy hands The money we use in the United States, it s not printed, it s engraven. And they use engraven plates. It s on a paper, but if you run your finger across the paper, it s not printed, it s actually stamped into the paper. And what s the one thing the people worship more than anything else? Money. You can anything in this world for money. Anyway, that gives us a feel. Let s go back to 2 Nephi for just a minute. Look at verse 22 [chapter 20]: For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return; the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. That consumption talks about the destruction of all the nations of the world, prior to the Second Coming. A complete devolving-down into chaos and anarchy, prior to the Second Coming. When the Lord says, in verse 23: For the Lord God of Hosts shall make a consumption, even determined in all the land. Consumption comes from the word...what? To consume. And when something is consumed, it s interesting the element we use to consume things, one of the main elements, is fire. Fire consumes things. Twenty-three- a we ve got a footnote down there but we won t go to it - it s Daniel. We ll look at it another time. Basically, it talks about all the nations of the earth that exists in the latter-days being ended. (COMMENT: Isn t that like a big statue, and different parts of the statue represent different nations?) Daniel. (And rocks rolling down a hill and smashing it.) Right. That s a lesson we could have one time, too. Let s skip over to verse 24: Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Hosts: O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian; he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. So, O, my people that dwellest in Zion What s that? Where is Zion? Where is the Zion before the Second Coming going to be located? (COMMENT: Before the Second Coming, it will be in Independence, Missouri.) So, we re talking about the United States. Don t be afraid of the Assyrian; he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of the Egyptians. What s that telling us about the latter-day? (COMMENT: That there s going to be a lot of persecution.)

7 Very good. And look at verse 25: For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. Now, look at this wording, where the Lord says, For yet a very little while why doesn t he say a little while? Why a very little while? What s happening here that the Lord s talking to His people and saying is, What s happening here isn t going to last for a long time. (COMMENT: Right. Well, it kind of reminds me of what He told Joseph Smith when he was down there: This will only be for what did He say? For a short time? I kind of compare it to that because : You re in persecution now, but go ahead and bear it well. this is a little bit longer than a moment,...and you ll come out of it okay. ) From Spencer s book, it appears that the Saints, as they begin to gather from the various places out of the earth and come to the New Jerusalem, it will take some time to get there, even as much as many years. And I think that in one place we heard about Spencer s group moving from the Salt Lake City area, up into Cardston, Canada, in his vision, and then from Cardston, moving from there down to the New Jerusalem in Missouri. It took that trip up and they went down like this, and I think he said it took about three years to get there. Now you could have walked that easily in less than three years, but the purpose for that is, and they went through all kinds of things, they went through attack from their enemies, they went through hunger, there were some people that were killed, there were priesthood miracles, etc. etc. What was the purpose of that three years, Sister Stroud? (COMMENT: I would say, what they started out with was food, with vehicles and with ammunition, gas, and all the luxuries you can take on the road with you and it got down to the point where they came into town - Zion - that they were in tattered clothes and with barely shoes on their feet. I think the Lord was trying to soften their heart and change their heart, make them a Zion people. And we can t do that as long as we are attached to anything in the world because we become so worldly so easily.) (COMMENT: It s another eternal pattern. He did the same thing to the people coming out of Egypt. He let them wander around for 40 years, to soften them up, to purify them, of all that, and so they were able to come in. Then, they could not go into Zion, which is going to have the Lord residing in that also, and be in His presence, in the condition that they left it. They had to be made ready, during the trip, to be able to make it.) And that whole three years was exactly the time that was necessary to bring those people to the point where they were a Zion people by the time they got there. I think Spencer even said that if we had been a Zion people earlier, the trip would have been shortened to the degree that we would become the type of [people] that are necessary to make the trip. They could have gone there quickly. But, it took 3 years for that whole group to shed off the traditions, and to shed off the

8 weaknesses, and trusting in the arm of the flesh, and put your whole trust in the Lord. (COMMENT: Well, it s the same scenario in our own individual, personal lives. If we re going to have our Calling and Election Made Sure, Second Comforter, any of those things...it doesn t happen the same for anybody. It s accordance to your...really, how well you submit to the Lord. Your level of obedience equals your level of love for the Savior equals His level of being in your life.) I like it. Thank you. Verse 26, interesting verse. Talking about the future of the attackers of the people of the Lord: And the Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and as his rod was upon the sea so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. Now, that s an interesting statement there. We know about dividing the Red Sea. And we know that he lifted the rod up to divide the Red Sea. Did he use that rod again after the Sea was divided? (COMMENT: Was that the same rod that he did with the snake?) No this is a different one. (The rock?) No, this is a different one. The rock of Horeb is mentioned there, but what about the slaughter that - and it says, as his rod - it s talking about two words there, a scourge and a slaughter. Remember those two words. And then, after the rock of Horeb, you have a semi-colon, so what you re going to see in the next part, ties in with the slaughter and the scourge, and as his rod (Moses rod) was upon the Sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. What happened to Moses rod? How was Moses rod used? (COMMENT: When he held up the rod, it was in arms, they won the war, they won the battle, but the minute they drooped, they started losing the battle, so finally the guys held up the arms. Is that what you re talking about?) But it has to be down at the time with the Sea episode. (COMMENT: So, they divided the Sea, with the rod, and then, with the rod, he closed up the sea upon the Egyptians.) So, now you re talking about the slaughter and the scourge of the enemies of Israel at that time. Let s go over to section 45 [D&C] and look what we can see for these kinds of things in our day, here. If you look at section 45, verse 66. This is probably - as far as I know - in the Doctrine and Covenants, the finest definition of Zion and what s taking place at that time. Verse 66 talks about the New Jerusalem. Look at the words that are used: a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for whom? For the saints. There s your key [verse 67]. [T]he glory of the Lord shall be there and the terror of the Lord shall be there also. What s the terror of the Lord? (COMMENT: Well, those who are not righteous are terrified by Him.) And those who are not righteous are attacking the righteous saints, they re trying to. And when they try, they find out how impossible it is, to attack and damage a people that are protected by God. And so, it becomes a terrible experience for them. And it says: insomuch

9 that the wicked will not come until it, and it shall be called Zion. Verse 68: And it shall come to pass among the wicked, that every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor must needs flee unto Zion for safety. Now, keep your finger here, and go back and look at verse 25 and 26. You can see that there s an attack against the saints. And the Lord, in verse 24 says, Don t be afraid. Do you see that? Don t worry about it. Yea, he s going to come and hit you with a rod, he s going to smack you a couple of times. Probably not after they get into the New Jerusalem because after they get into the New Jerusalem, then they re safe. But getting from where they re at, to where that is, is a different thing. And it s during that three year period, that the righteous - and keep in mind that the people that were making that journey - for all that devastation, they re making the journey with Spencer are the best! Those are the top, those are the people who are the survivors of all of the earthquakes and everything else that s taken place. So, these are not just regular-latter-day-saints. These are not dim-bulbs. And even those guys moving back to the New Jerusalem feel the scourge and in some cases, it will be likened unto a scourge and a slaughter because some do lose their lives. And they raise the dead with the power of the priesthood on that trip. Now go back to verse 69: And there (meaning the New Jerusalem) shall be gathered unto it out of every nation under heaven; and it shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another. Now, that ties in over here, really well. And you start talking about what s going on here. Keep your finger back there in section 45. Turn back to 2 Nephi 20, and look at verse 27. As far as I m concerned, verse 27 is one of the most significant verses in all of the Isaiah chapters. Let s take a look at it: And it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from off they shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. Now that s got a significant thing in there. Let s put some words in there. Let s do this: And it shall come to pass in that day (that s the last days. We re right now, before the Second Coming)...that his (meaning Assyrian) burden shall be taken...of of thy (meaning the Latter-day Saints)...shoulder. Now there s several places in Revelation and Daniel that appears like the Latter-day Saints are going to become into a period of time of physical bondange. They re going to lose some of their liberties for a while. Is it attacking foes that come in from foreign nations that come in and occupy the United States for a while? It could be. I personally believe that it will. And so, there s going to be a period of time where even the members of the Church are going to feel a loss of liberty. Think of why the Lord s coming out and He s saying, Don t be afraid of them. It s only going to last for a very little time. But it is going to happen. And there s a purpose for that. He said that His yoke from off of thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed. What s a yoke? What was a yoke used for?

10 (COMMENT: It s like the piece of wood that goes over so you can have a burden placed on you.) And that was for animals, where they would place the yoke on two animals so you could double up and have them pull together. But a slave s yoke was something else. (COMMENT: You also keep a yoke on cows to keep them from getting out. We used to when we lived up the river. If they would get through the fence, we would get a Y - a V like this - and over the neck with a stick straight up, and they wouldn t get out.) And also, they used to take slaves and tie them together, with wooden yokes - and they were spaced - and you couldn t go anywhere. You ll see pictures of ancient slaves being driven down the road with wooden yokes on their necks. And He says, All of this is going to happen. It s going to happen for a while, but it s going to cease. And here s the interesting thing: It will cease because of the anointing. Now that s what you want to ponder about. (COMMENT: People that are anointed as kings and queens?) That s right. The only place that I know of that an anointing takes place, in this life, is in the temple. And it seems to me that what takes place in the temple is going to be powerful enough to eventually deliver God s people from the force of this Babylonian scourge - latterday Babylonian scourge. (COMMENT: There s a couple of other things that this could mean. One: We re talking about the burden, it could also be by invasion, I agree with that, but it could also be internal. We talked before about (and you mentioned this the other day by the way), but the Nephite people at one point were being heavily taxed by the Lamanites, by up to 50% of their stuff, and that was kind of like the same thing that it s describing. Also, it talks about the anointing, and one of Christ s name (one of the many), and this takes place before Jesus Christ is born. So, it could also be that.) I like that. That s really good. Let s go to verse 28. Let s read and this is the ancient destruction route that the Assyrian army took as it came down from Nineveh into northern Israel. All of these places, here, anciently, were the cities that were destroyed in a sequence as they came down to attack the Northern Kingdom, and eventually come down to Jerusalem. So, if you were to go to Jerusalem north, you would find all of these ancient cities lined up that the Assyrians absolutely destroyed and killed or captured everyone that lived in them. So, it was just like a domino - from north to south. And we can read about it. Let s go ahead and read those four verses: He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmarsh he hath laid up his carriages. They are gone over the passage; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramath is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled. Lift up the voice, O daughter of Gallim; cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth. Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee. So, if you were to look at all that - I remember when I first read that I thought, What the heck is this? And then I went and I found each one of these on a map, and it s interesting, it s almost a direct line route from the Northern Kingdom, where Ephraim was, right straight back north, on up to Ninevah, and the capital of Assyria.

11 Let s go to verse 32: As yet shall he remain at Nob that day; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. This has reference to the outside walls of Jerusalem at the time when the Assyrian comes down in the days of Hezekiah. This is the last attack the Assyrians make on the Southern Kingdom and that s where Shalmaneser or Sennacherib? (I can t remember) loses 180,000 warriors - an angel of death just goes through there and destroys them. And that s referring to that in verse 32. Verse 33: Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts shall lop the bough with terror; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down; and the haughty shall be humbled. Go ahead, one more: And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one. These are all prophecies of the destruction of the Assyrian army. Back up to 32, when it says, he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. That has reference to when the Assyrians attacked and lost 180,000 soldiers overnight. Any questions on 2 Nephi 20? (COMMENT: No, just, if you take a look at 34, I m thinking about the thickets of the forests - a forest or wilderness refers to kind of like a sinful area and the rod of iron, but that s just really ) (COMMENT: I m just thinking the iron, that would be alike a sword, wouldn t it?) Yes, the forest, when it says cut down the thickets of the forests, the army was such a numerous army that they likened it unto a forest. And when they get through here, that forest is just cut down. Notice the wording in verse 33, lop the bough. Whenever you re pruning a tree, you go in with a big knife and you just cut that branch off and it drops down; lop the bough, hewn down; haughty, humbled, cut-down fall. All of those words in those verses have reference to the fall of the mighty Assyrian empire. And I think I mentioned before that after, I think Sennacherib, after he went back, after he lost all those soldiers, and he went back to Nineveh and his own son killed him while he was saying his prayers in one of the Assyrian temples.; assasinated his father who was such an embarrassment to lose their army to these dumb Jews down there. I mean, here this army captured every country in the world, and comes down to get little Jerusalem, and they don t even come out (there s no battle), and 180,00 of them die. And they just don t understand - 180,000. (COMMENT: By the way, that seems to be another eternal pattern. It seems like we always seem to be placed in a position where the only way out is by divine intervention. It kind of shows that. And it kind of matches also if you understand what the work of God is.) I take these kinds of stories also that, you can store weapons and ammunition all you want. There s always going to be somebody that s got more and bigger guns. And I look at this...eventually we ve just got to come to a point we just put our trust in the Lord and say, You know what? There s no way out

12 of any of this forest without Him. And the other side of it is, here he tells Hezekiah, Go home and get a good rest. Everything s going to be okay. And Hezekiah goes, But, but, but, but, look And Isaiah just says, Don t worry about it. The battle is the Lord s. And he gets up the next morning and it s done. And I think those stories are given to us in our day because in our day, we re going to be looking at impossible things. (COMMENTS: We re going to be looking at all of this stuff - all of it - the last 6,000 years will come to pass, on a global basis. So, study those scriptures so you know the battle plans.) Let s go over to chapter 21. Interesting symbols here. Look at your chapter heading: The stem of Jesse (who is 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 So, we ve got three different things in here. We ve got Christ coming, as the judge. We ve got Millennial experiences and we ve got the gathering of Israel in the last days. And the ensign is the restoration of the gospel. So, let s go to verse 1: And there shall come forth a rod (now this rod is a person)...out of the stem of Jesse (and the stem of Jesse that we ve already identified is Jesus Christ). [A]nd a branch shall grow out of his roots. The branch and the roots are talking about ancestry. Whenever you see roots, you re talking about ancestry. Who s the rod? (COMMENT: Well, we said the stem of Jesse is Jesus Christ.) Look over at your chapter heading: The stem of Jesse (Christ)... and look over at section 113 in the Doctrine and Covenants. But who s the rod that comes out of the stem of Jesse? (COMMENT: So, who s the rod who comes out of Jesus Christ? A branch shall grow out of his roots ) I ll tell you what the prophets have interpreted that, they ve interpreted that as Joseph Smith. Interestingly enough. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him (Who? On the rod or on the stem? Who s the main subject in verse 1 that we re talking about? Who s the main subject in verse 1, because we ve got to know that in order to identify 2.) There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. So, the rod is your main subject here. And notice that it says, the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Look at verse 3, talking about the rod still: And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. Who are we talking about? That s Jesus Christ, isn t it? So is the rod Joseph Smith? I have the feeling it s taught in some of the more learned circles that it is, but I have a feeling that the rod is also tied with the stem and that the two

13 of them are Christ. This is one of the big questions in Isaiah, that has not been totally resolved yet. Verses 6 and 7: The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. When s this talking about? (COMMENT: This is during the Millennium.) Yes, this is all Millennial things. So, verses 6 through 9 are Millennial events - things in the Millennium. Verse 8: And the sucking child shall play on the hold of the asp, and the weaned child shall put hand on the cocatrice s den. We don t really know what a cockatrice is. (COMMENT: I thought it was a snake.) We don t really know what it is. The asp is definitely a snake. But we don t know what a cockatrice is. All we know is, you don t go putting your hand in its den, whatever it is. Verse 9: They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Now, we ve talked about Millennium there, right? From this point on, we re going to talk about; from verse 10 through to 16, we re going to talk about the Lord raising up an ensign - the restoration of the gospel - to gather Israel from their scattered state. So, from verse 11 on through, that s what the themes going to be, so if we ve got that little feeling right there, let s see if we can identify. (COMMENT: This says that a cockatrice is a venomous serpent.) Does it really? Where did you read that at? (The Bible Dictionary.) Good! Let s go to verse 10: And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious. There s that question mark on roots, stems, rods, and everything else. We ll come back to that and see if we can figure that out a little bit later. The ensign that s lifted up is the restoration of the gospel; the gospel is restored among what people? The Gentiles. And the rest of the Lord that comes through the restoration, and the knowledge of the restoration will be glorious. Let s go to verse 11: And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. Anciently, these were the identified countries, that when the House of Israel was scattered, first of all by the Assyrians, and then continued on by the Babylonians, and then from there to the Persians, and from the Persians, to the Greeks, and from the Greeks to the Romans, anciently, these were the ancient nations that you could find these scattered remnants of Israel, that had either been forced there or carried there by slaves, or escaped there. That s where they were living.

14 Verse 12: And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, (restoration) and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The Judah has been gathered home. That has been - where it says, gathered together the dispersed of Judah - that s the national homeland for the Jews; that s the establishment of the state of Israel. That was fulfilled (you can put a date), May, 1948 where it says that the dispersed of Judah were gathered from the four corners of the earth. That actually began earlier, but the state of Israel was founded in May of A huge fulfillment of the sign. Verse 13: The envy of Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. Remember that Ephraim and Judah are brothers, and that these two people have certain rights. Ephraim has the rights of priestly rights, in other words, the rights of the gospel, the rights of the priesthood and Judah has the rights of monarch and kings. So, between these two tribes, you have kings and priests that are set up, so it becomes a symbol for what you see in the temple. Anciently, they got along fine, until the days of David and Solomon, and in the days of David and Solomon, they split, and ten tribes went north, and said, We re not going to have anything to do with you, and two tribes went south. And the tribes to the north became known as the kingdom of Ephraim, and the tribes to the south became knows as the kingdom of Judah. And so for the rest of their history, they hate each other. And that s what he s talking about - he s saying that when we get down to the Millennium, we get down to when the gospel s restored: the envy of Ephraim also shall depart., and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. Look at the Jews - their whole history has been one of persecution, attack, slavery, butchery and murder, and the Lord says, That s going to end. Let s go to section 133 for just a minute and see a modern revelation that talks about what we re discussing right here. Let s go to section 133, here we re talking again about these two tribes, interestingly enough. Let s go to verse 34 - we could do a lot more, but we won t do that today - verse 34: Behold, this is the blessing of the everlasting God upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows. Now Ephraim has the right to dispense the blessings of the priesthood, the gospel, and the sealing powers of the temple. That s the right that Ephraim possesses. Judah has the right of kings. Now look at verse 35: And they also of the tribe of Judah, after their pain, shall be sanctified in holiness before the Lord, to dwell in his presence day and night, forever and ever. Notice that the tribe of Judah, after their pain. What is that? (COMMENT: That could be all the persecution they re going through.) That s the history of the Jews. That s the history of the Jews and if you go back to 2 Nephi again, notice what

15 it says in verse 13: The envy of Ephraim also shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. In other words, in a coming day, they re going to be brothers again; they re going to dwell in peace and righteousness and it s not going to happen until Christ comes. You aren t going to see these two tribes make a full reconciliation. For example, you re not going to see Judah become Christian, until the Battle of Armageddon. You ll see some Jews, as the Book of Mormon says, begin to believe in Christ, and there is a movement right now called Jews for Christ, and it s quite a large movement, but nationally, the Jews will not convert to Christ until He appears in the Battle of Armageddon, in the Valley of Megiddo. (COMMENT: It s kind of interesting, though, that even today, America - well, up until recently - has always said that their number one ally, their number one friend was Israel.) Interesting isn t it? And America is Ephraim. And Israel is Judah. Yes, so you have those two things again. Let s look at 14, 15, and 16, and see what we ve got there. Verse 14: But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines towards the west... Stop right there. The Philistines were anciently the number one enemies of the House of Israel, a Goliath was a Philistine, and their capital city anciently, interestingly enough, in the Bible is the city called Gaza. Now, what do we hear today in the Israel just south of Jerusalem, is the ancient Philistine city of Gaza. And it s inhabited by a group of people that we call, Palestinians. And the Palestinians we think, are descendants of the ancient Philistines, and they re living in the ancient Philistine lands and their ancient capital city today is the same as it was in the day of David, which is 3,000 years ago. So, we re seeing repeated this same thing over again. And it says, they shall spoil them of the east together; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. I m not sure if I know what the fulfillment of this is going to be. I think we re living in the day - you have to find out who the modern day people of Edom and Moab, who are the modern day people of Ammon. Look at verse 15: And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind he shall shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod. I m not sure I know what that means, but I do know what 16 means. So, let s go to 16: And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. If you look at your footnote, up there it s talking about this highway, if you look at your footnote on 16-a, you can go to Isaiah 11:16, Isaiah 19:223, Isaiah 35: 8-10, D&C 133:27. We won t go there, you can look at it another time, but what it s talking about is that when the 10 lost tribes escaped from Assyrian captivity, when they went north, there was a highway that they followed,

16 and down in Isaiah, it s called The Way of Holiness, which seems to indicate to me that if you weren t holy, you couldn t walk that path, that there had to be a certain level of holiness and sanctity for you to be able to take it. And it think it was prepared by the Lord specifically, I think probably angels were their guides. I think it miraculously appeared, and as they went over, it miraculously disappeared. Now the interesting thing is, that when these ten tribes in our day come down out of the north, the Lord says they re going to come down on a highway. Let s go to section 133 for just a minute. Section 133, verse 26: And they who are in the north countries (these are your lost tribes of Israel that are in one body - this is not the tribes of Israel that are scattered among the Gentile nations that we come from. This is that other group that we talked about in that one lesson) they shall come in remembrance before the Lord... (They re coming from the north and going down to the south.)...[a]nd their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall not longer stay themselves; and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence. Verse 27: And an highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep. And they come down on that highway, and I think it s the ancient highway that Isaiah calls - and you can look these up in Isaiah 11:35 - it s called The Way of Holiness. And they re going to come back on that same road, and I think that as mysteriously as it appeared and disappeared, you can see that appearing again in 27 when it says that it shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep. You know, what is that? (COMMENT: Some other thoughts? One is that it s talking that the ice shall flow down at their presence you have a lot of ice breaking down and flowing out now, where we have the melting of the northern pole and they flow. It s going faster than they thought and once upon a time, they said that was going to be completed by the year 2020, that the northern ice cap would be ice-free. Ice-free poles is what they said. I m also thinking about that that would raise the sea levels I don t don t know what that s going to do. It could also be, because all that ice with be precipitated, that the land mass will be able to expand more which might make the Bering Straits come back up again. But I don t know if that has anything to do with it.) That was an ancient land bridge at one point for sure. They crossed over from the Russian side to the Alaskan side for sure. That s a historic fact. What if the great deep is not water at all? What if it s space? (COMMENT: Joseph Smith even went out and point that out.) I ve got all these stories and I personally think (this is Stroud chapter 16, verse 22), that the ten tribes are not on this earth, but are on a piece of this earth that was separated from it and that when they come, they ll come in the same way that they were taken away in a miraculous way. And maybe that highway isn t what we think as a highway at all, in the way we think, maybe it s just a highway like Moroni appears on every once in a while when

17 he comes. Maybe it s a highway of life. Who knows? One thing s for sure, the Lord s in charge of that, and when they come it will be under his direction and it will be miraculous. It will be absolutely miraculous. (COMMENT: The other thing at the [Second] Coming, this time, is all the land will have been brought back together again, right?) Or is in the process of being done, one of the two. (COMMENT: Right. And that could also be to where it s talking about the Egyptian tongue, all the rivers to be dried up at the time because of that.) Let s go to chapter 22. It s a short one, just 6 verses and we ll call it good today. Let s look at the chapter heading: In the millennial day all men will praise the Lord - He will dwell among them. Verse 1: And in that day thou shalt say: O Lord, I will praise thee; though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. What period of time, or what historical event is [it]referring to when these people say, You were angry with me. (COMMENT: Well, that might be the short time before the new millennium.) When, in all of these we ve talked about, when does the Lord as the bridegroom talk about putting away his bride and my arm was not shortened that I could not save, what more could I have done? My arm is still stretched out for you. And what is it that separates them? Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away? What s happened, what is the message of the House of Israel from the beginning to the last day? That they would be scattered? The purpose of their scattering is basically because of rebellion and disobedience. In their scattered state, they would bless all of the nations of the earth, in which they resided during their scattered state. And we can see that, that wherever you have any of the House of Israel, even in their apostate-state, the nations that have them living in their midst are blessed in many, many different ways. And then it says, [T]hough thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away That s a reference to what? The gathering of Israel and being brought back to their Savior, and thou comfortedst me. Verse 2: Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation. That song is an interesting thing. What does it mean, the Lord is my strength and my song? Is there any reference in the Book of Mormon to those kinds of songs? (COMMENT: Yes, and in the book of Revelations, the Song of Redeeming Love. ) It is, the Song of Redeeming Love and you can see that when it says, those that sing this song, He has become my salvation. That s why they re singing it. Verse 3: Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Let s stop right there. That s interesting symbolism, an interesting metaphor there. What do we see on that? [W]ith joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Let s look at the people he s speaking to. Why would that be a joyous metaphor to the House of Israel?