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God in 1 Nephi 21

my God • He that hath mercy on them • Holy One

my Lord • Lord • Lord God • Mighty One of Jacob

thy Redeemer • Redeemer of Israel • Savior

1 Nephi 21:12

These shall come from far

The Book of Mormon teaches

that people from all over the world would join the restored Church

And then, O house of Israel, behold, these shall come from far;

and lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.

If the servant being spoken to is the house of Israel, this verse continues the flow of conversation, and is used to stress that point.

But if the servant is the Promised Land, then in this verse the Lord is addressing another entity – the House of Israel.  Latter-day Saints believe themselves to be modern-day Israel, so we may consider that the Lord is here addressing the Church.  He says that more people will join with Israel from afar; he does not say that more will come to His servant, the Promised Land.

Following the pioneer period, the Church changed its policy: “. . . the Church to which we belong is not using any influence to persuade its members or others to emigrate, but desires that many of them shall stay and build up the work abroad. . .” (The Millennial Star, May 23, 1907, “Advice to Intending Emigrants,” CWP.

“The branches of the Church are very much depleted and weakened through the emigration of many of the most active and useful of the members.  It is not the policy of the Elders to urge emigration, but the contrary. . . if some of those who are able to depart or stop would stay awhile, at least, and help to build up the Church abroad, it would be greatly advisable.” (The Millennial Star August 8, 1907, “Our Visit to the Continent,” CWP)

While missionaries had worked thoroughly in many western European countries, and had paid brief visits to a variety of countries throughout the world, the effort now changed to a concerted building up of the Church in certain countries, first in Europe. There was a long hiatus from opening new countries, as the Church refocused their efforts at local building.

From 1830 to 1903 missionaries from the Church entered an average of six new countries per decade, peaking in the 1850’s with 16 new countries.  But from 1904 to 1924 there were zero.  The next period of Church growth was outside the United States, in Latin America, Asia, and several islands.  The next fifty years saw thousands of these people, while remaining in their homelands, come to Israel, to the knowledge of their Redeemer and His restored gospel.

1 Nephi 21:13

Sing, O heavens, O earth, and O mountains

The Book of Mormon teaches that the Lord will joyfully lift up His afflicted people

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth;

for the feet of those who are in the east shall be established;

and break forth into singing, O mountains; for they shall be smitten no more;

For the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

This verse is a vision of world-wide blessing.  The heavens – those who worship God according to the light He has given their cultures through the ages - may now sing because of the new light He is shedding upon their people.  The earth – the kingdom of God on the earth, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – may be joyful, because the Church is well-established throughout the world.  The Church has been established throughout the world by beautiful feet, the feet of missionaries working through the decades to bring this light.  The mountains – the nations of the world – may also sing joyfully, because the gospel is established for their peoples. The Church is no longer a Utah Church, an American Church, but truly the gospel of the God of the whole world is accessible to all in their own nation and in their own tongue.

I believe that at this point - halfway through the chapter -  we leave the chronology of history and enter the chronology of future events, though we can certainly see that the Church currently (2017) is and has been continuing its steady progress in this regard, as more and more countries are opened to the preaching of the gospel, the Book of Mormon is translated into more languages, and temples are built throughout the world.

One hundred years after the initial revelation and translation of the Gold Plates into the English Book of Mormon, it had been subsequently translated into 15 additional languages.  Fifty years later, by 1980, that number had doubled to 31.  In 1988 President Ezra Taft Benson encouraged the Church to “flood the earth with the Book of Mormon,” spurring an accelerated translation process.

As of 2017, the Book of Mormon in its entirety has been translated into 94 languages, with 20 more language translations of portions of the Book.  In contrast, the Bible, with a much longer and more convoluted history, has been completely translated into 554 languages, with portions translated into approximately 2900 languages.  However, Wycliffe Bible Translators note that there are 6,877 known languages, with millions of people speaking those non-translated languages.

Of course, simply having the Book of Mormon available in a language does not ensure that the people who speak that language will have access to it, and to the missionaries who carry its message.  The Book of Mormon was translated into Chinese in 1965, but the gospel has never been preached in China, and the 1.4 billion people who live there do not currently have freedom to learn and accept the gospel.  India’s 1.3 billion people are served by merely two missions, covering one stake and four districts.  “To put this in perspective, if we had the same number of missionaries in North America that the Church has in India—on a per capita basis—we’d have 35 to 40 missionaries in North America” – Melvin R. Nichols, mission president for the India Bangalore Mission, 2007-2010.  Indonesia, the world’s 4th most populous country, with 264 million inhabitants, has only one mission and about 7,000 Latter-day Saints.  In many of the world’s most populous countries, government policies restrict or prevent missionaries from preaching the gospel; Church growth – often quite modest - is fueled by natives accepting the gospel while traveling or living abroad, then returning to their home countries.

This scripture implies that repressive government laws will not endure; the Lord will comfort His afflicted, and they will be smitten no more.

1 Nephi 21:14

Zion hath said, The Lord hath forsaken me

The Book of Mormon teaches that God always remembers His covenant people, even in the midst of their suffering

But, behold, Zion hath said:

The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me--

but he will show that he hath not.

Isaiah has joyously described the spreading of the restored gospel throughout the whole world.  His view now shifts back to Zion, the Promised Land of America.  While the Church itself has been growing and blessing the lives of many accepting people, it appears that America will be experiencing some problems.  America, the land blessed by God from the beginning, no longer feels blessed.  It appears that America will have to go through some difficulties, but in the end the Lord will help, as He has in times past.

Why would America claim that God has forsaken her?  Surely it would only be a repentant people who would acknowledge His hand in the first place, and admit that due to America’s wickedness He has turned His back on her.

The first half of this chapter was history that we can identify.  It’s always much harder to interpret prophecies which have not yet occurred, to understand the form of their fulfillment.  

1 Nephi 21:15

Can a woman forget her sucking child?

The Book of Mormon teaches

that God’s faithfulness is stronger even than maternal love

For can a woman forget her sucking child,

that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?  

Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

The Promised Land is old.  The brightness of a new planet, the new family of Adam, degenerated to the wickedness that precipitated the flood.  The Jaredites found a fresh, new land, but their civilization became old and wicked, and imploded. The Nephites, too, defiled themselves and consequently their promised land, and lost its blessings, as their culture followed the path to destruction.  The United States of America is not an old country, compared to the Old World, but it has lost its youthful enthusiasm for freedom, for righteousness, and has become a querulous old society.  

Yet God looks upon this land and its people with the tenderness of a mother for her infant.

1 Nephi 21:16

I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands

The Book of Mormon teaches how intimately God is aware of His people

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands;

thy walls are continually before me.

The Lord has compared His love to the love of a mother for her young child.  He now adds two more images to help us understand His great love.

First is a vivid reminder of the atonement, when Christ endured the pains of the cross and keeps the nail marks in His palms.  These marks remind us of His sacrifice and our great debt to Him for doing what we could not do ourselves.  He says they remind Him of His people, even of His straying people.  He is faithful, even when they are not.

The walls of a city protect it from destroyers.  The Lord says He is constantly aware of the walls of the Promised Land, aware of the dangers and threats that it faces.  Although conditions may feel severe to the suffering inhabitants, “Their bounds are set; they cannot pass.” (Doctrine & Covenants 122:9)

1 Nephi 21:17

Thy children shall make haste against thy destroyers

The Book of Mormon prophesies that America will be great again

Thy children shall make haste against thy destroyers;

and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.

The Promised Land – America – will be suffering from some sort of destruction, some sort of degeneration and barrenness.  America’s children will rise up and defend her.  

All people want their children to have better than they have, and every generation of Americans has been better off financially than their parents, until the current generation.  Hope is waning as the American dream fades, and so many parents of all ages see their children failing, partly from lack of opportunities that were available in previous generations, and partly because of lack of vision among the young, and a dissipation of their lives.

The Lord says that this trend will be reversed.  Some younger generation – perhaps this one, perhaps a later one – will reclaim the hope and promise and vision of America.

Some group of people have laid waste to the Promised Land, but they will leave.  How did they get here in the first place?  Is there to be a military invasion? Will it be the floods of illegal noncitizens entering the country?  Is it merely the surging hordes of people who do not work for their living, but prey upon others, or who are content to live off the largesse of the country (welfare) without attempting to provide for themselves?  Or, being some future event, does this represent some political reality which is not yet on the horizon?

Many people, including some Latter-day Saints, spend a significant portion of their time identifying the problems in America, and the people who cause them.  Because it seems that many of these verses represent several decades of history, we may assume that the prophesies of the future also extend to decades.  Therefore this activity, of whatever worth it may be, will likely be available for a long time to come.

Whatever the case, the wasters and destroyers of America will leave the Promised Land.  They may leave because “the children” drive them out.  Of course, most military operations are conducted by young men.  Or they may leave because the political conditions that allowed them or encouraged them to waste the land are no longer extant, so they will choose to go elsewhere.

1 Nephi 21:18

Thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament

The Book of Mormon teaches that

there will be a future great gathering of the righteous

Lift up thine eyes round about and behold;

all these gather themselves together, and they shall come to thee.  

And as I live, saith the Lord,

thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament,

and bind them on even as a bride.

Too many times in scripture and history we read of people gathering together to war or to battle.  This, happily, is about something else.  

“These” are gathering together to go to Zion, to the Promised Land, to augment and support the righteous people who are already there.  “These” were mentioned in verse 12 as coming to the church, though not the Promised Land.  It appears that at this period, following a mass exodus from America, a new group of people will come to populate it.  These are Latter-day Saints, apparently again called to come and build up Zion proper, and not their own countries, for some reason.  

If the western American desert “blossomed as a rose” in the 19th century, the Promised Land will now be a whole garden of blossoms, bursting with the hope of spring flowers.  With the image of a beautiful bride, we recall all the New Testament allegories of Christ as the bridegroom and the Church as the bride.  

History is more than a series of events meandering or thrusting themselves through time.  It has a culmination, and that glorious ending will be the Second Coming of Christ.  This future gathering of Saints to the Promised Land is in preparation to receive Him.

1 Nephi 21:19

They that swallowed thee up shall be far away

The Book of Mormon teaches of a glorious future for the Promised Land

For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction,

shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants;

and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.

There are many passages in Isaiah and other scriptures where specific destruction is specifically prophesied and described.  But in this chapter it is not.  It is only referred to in flashbacks, and in the briefest verse of complaint.  The real action of this story is God’s salvation of the Promised Land, His constancy and great plans for her future.

The flashback in this verse gives us a hint that the conditions in American have been (will be) severe: waste, desolate places, and destruction are not pastoral words.  But these terrible memories are sandwiched in between a glorious vision of the Promised Land as a bride, and the Promised Land housing and hosting myriads of God’s chosen people.

Isaiah and the Lord also remind us again of what they said two verses ago:  the destructive elements in the Promised Land have gone forth, they are far away.  It doesn’t say they themselves are destroyed.  They have found a place more compatible with their views and operations.

We note here also that we have another chiasm, in verses 17-19, with a “thus sayeth the Lord” as the climax.  We do not yet know how extensive it is.  We will re-visit this idea later.

17 Thy children shall make haste against thy destroyers; and

they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.

18 Lift up thine eyes round about and behold; all these gather

themselves together, and they shall come to thee.

 

And as I live,

saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as

with an ornament, and bind them on even as a bride.

19 For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy

destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the

inhabitants;

and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.