Chapter 22
Israel shall be
scattered upon all the face of the earth—The gentiles shall nurse and nourish
Israel with the gospel in the last days—Israel shall be gathered and saved, and
the wicked shall burn as stubble—The kingdom of the devil shall be destroyed,
and Satan shall be bound. About 588–570 B.C.
1 And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had read
these things which were engraven upon the plates of brass, my brethren came
unto me and said unto me: What meaneth these things which ye have read? Behold,
are they to be understood according to things which are spiritual, which shall
come to pass according to the spirit and not the flesh?
2 And I, Nephi, said unto them: Behold they were manifest
unto the prophet by the voice of the Spirit; for by the Spirit are all things
made known unto the prophets, which shall come upon the children of men
according to the flesh.
3 Wherefore, the things of which I have read are things
pertaining to things both temporal and spiritual; for it appears that the house
of Israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of the earth,
and also among all nations.
4 And behold, there are many who are already lost from
the knowledge of those who are at Jerusalem. Yea, the more part of all the
tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the isles of
the sea; and whither they are none of us knoweth, save that we know that they
have been led away.
After preaching to his brethren, Nephi, reading from the brass plates, read Isaiah 48 & 49 to them. After he finished, they asked him to explain what these things mean. Are they understood spiritually or what? Hugh Nibley comments on their questions.
“Let's come to Chapter 22, when the brethren ask him what
these things mean that Isaiah talks about. Notice they say in 1 Nephi 22:1, ‘What
meaneth these things which ye have read?’ Aren't they just spiritual? We're not
going to be bound by them; these are just spiritual. This is always the way to
weasel out of a situation. This is just spiritual. I'll just pay a spiritual
tithe; that's the important thing. He says, No, they're both.”[1]
These things were given to the prophets through the voice of
the Spirit. It is only through the
Spirit that these things are made known to the prophets and then to us. In his general epistle, Peter would write:
“We have therefore a more sure knowledge
of the word of prophecy; to which word of prophecy ye do
well that ye take heed whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in
your hearts:
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of
any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man:
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (JST 2 Peter 1:19-21).
To what to the words Nephi read pertain? To both the temporal and spiritual. The Lord would tell Joseph Smith,
“For by the power
of my Spirit created I them; yea, all things both spiritual and temporal—
“First spiritual,
secondly temporal, which is the beginning of my work; and again, first
temporal, and secondly spiritual, which is the last of my work—
“Speaking unto you
that you may naturally understand; but unto myself my works have no end,
neither beginning; but it is given unto you that ye may understand, because ye
have asked it of me and are agreed.
“Wherefore, verily
I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have
I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of
men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created” (D&C 29:31-34).
Eventually, the Jews will be scattered through all nations
on Earth. Later in life, Nephi would
write:
“And behold it
shall come to pass that after the Messiah hath risen from the dead, and hath
manifested himself unto his people, unto as many as will believe on his name,
behold, Jerusalem shall be destroyed again; for wo unto them that fight against
God and the people of his church.
“Wherefore, the
Jews shall be scattered among all nations; yea, and also Babylon shall be
destroyed; wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered by other nations.
“And after they
have been scattered, and the Lord God hath scourged them by other nations for
the space of many generations, yea, even down from generation to generation
until they shall be persuaded to believe in Christ, the Son of God, and the
atonement, which is infinite for all mankind—and when that day shall come that
they shall believe in Christ, and worship the Father in his name, with pure
hearts and clean hands, and look not forward any more for another Messiah,
then, at that time, the day will come that it must needs be expedient that they
should believe these things” (2 Nephi 25:14-16).
Nephi tells them “there are many who are already lost from the
knowledge of those who are Jerusalem”
(1 Nephi 22:4). Hugh Nibley wrote:
“The scattering was to be not only more widespread than one
supposed, embracing ‘all the face of the earth’ even to the unknown ‘isles of
the sea’ (1 Nephi 22:3—4), but it goes on in installments, some of the
migrations going back into early times and many of them being unknown to
history: ‘And behold, there are many who are already lost from the knowledge of
those who are at Jerusalem, . . . and whither they are none of us
knoweth’ (1 Nephi 22:4). The Dead Sea Scrolls and other documents now attest
the reality of such emigrations from Jerusalem.”[2]
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