These posts on Repentance are intended to be read in order beginning with Repentance: Introduction. At the bottom of each post is a link to the next post.
Nephi introduces the Lord's great and marvelous work in 1 Nephi 14:7, where he says that the Lord's great and marvelous work will cause an irrevocable division between those who will be saved and those who will be damned. It is the events associated with this work that will cause all but the very elect to be deceived.
Nephi predicts a sequence of events for the times of the Gentiles. He prophesies, in order:
—the Christian apostasy (1 Ne. 13:4–9)
—Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America (1 Ne. 13:12)
—the arrival of the Pilgrims in America (1 Ne. 13:13)
—the establishment of many gentile peoples on this continent, their scattering of the Lamanites, and their obtaining political independence (1 Ne. 13:14–19)
—the dissemination of a defective form of the Bible in America—defective particularly with regard to the “gospel of the Lamb” or the New Testament (1 Ne. 13:20–29)
—the rising preeminence of the American people (1 Ne. 13:30)
—and the restoration of the gospel among the Gentiles (1 Ne. 13:32–37)
Nephi goes on to describe events that follow the restoration of the gospel, among them the “great and marvelous work.” These events include a time, prior to the Lord’s day of wrath upon the world, which foresees Gentiles who repent being numbered among the descendants of Lehi—with them to inherit this land forever
—while those Gentiles who have hardened their hearts incur the Lord’s wrath (1 Ne. 14:1–6);
--the great and marvelous work, which causes an irrevocable division between those who will be saved and those who will be damned (1 Ne. 14:7);
--an open confrontation between the multitudes of the earth and those on whom the power of God descends, who are the house of Israel (1 Ne. 14:8–14);
--the wrath of God descending on all nations and kindreds of the earth (1 Ne. 14:15–17);
--and the fulfillment of the Lord’s covenants with his people, who are of the house of Israel (1 Ne. 14:17).
Nephi then says that he saw in vision a much fuller version, or many additional events, of this sequence. These he was “forbidden” to write (1 Nephi 14:25, 28).
Nephi picks up again his latter-day theme several chapters later, in 1 Nephi 22. He again predicts, in order,
--the maturation of the mighty nation of America among the Gentiles and her scattering of Lehi’s descendants (v. 7);
--the marvelous work among the Gentiles—some time after Lehi’s descendants have been scattered—which marvelous work Nephi likens to the Lord’s “mak[ing] bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations” (vv. 8–11);
--the fulfillment of the Lord’s covenants with the house of Israel in bringing them out of bondage, both physical and spiritual, and gathering them to their lands of inheritance (v. 12);
--the wrath of God descending on the nations of the earth (vv. 13–16);
--the Lord’s deliverance of the righteous by his power (vv. 17–24);
--and the Lord’s millennial reign as Israel’s divine King (vv. 24–28).
Thus, Nephi makes dual mention of the Lord’s great and marvelous work (1 Ne. 14:7; 22:8). But more than that, he gives us the opportunity to discover more about that work by comparing his two sequences. For example, the second sequence emphasizes the end or closing events of the last days. Nonetheless, it does mention the coming forth of the Lord’s great and marvelous work. In connection with that work, both sequences mention the Lord’s wrath descending on the nations of the world and the power of God intervening to save his righteous people. Such divine intervention fulfills the Lord’s covenants with the house of Israel.
We therefore learn something about the Lord’s great and marvelous work: among the events Nephi’s two sequences have in common are the destruction of the wicked and the deliverance and restoration of the Lord’s righteous people. Though these events follow the great and marvelous work chronologically, they do not themselves seem to initiate something new. Rather, in both sequences these events derive directly from the great and marvelous work. By means of the two sequences, then, Nephi, without directly saying so, shows that the great and marvelous work involves these precipitous kinds of events.
Structurally, however, Nephi does much more to teach us about the great and marvelous work than just provide two complementary sequences of events. Let us look, for instance, at what he includes in the chapters that separate his two sequences.
First, we find a number of biographical chapters (1 Ne. 15–19). In these, Nephi reiterates that the restoration of Lehi’s descendants and of the Jews comes after the Gentiles have scattered Lehi’s descendants (1 Ne. 15:17–20). The restoration of the natural branches of the house of Israel involves their believing the gospel of the Messiah and their grafting back into the olive tree (1 Ne. 15:13–16). These chapters then outline the journey of Lehi’s party through the wilderness and their safe arrival in the promised land. For purposes of analysis, let us refer to these chapters as the “journeying narratives.”
Next, Nephi inserts two chapters from the book of Isaiah (1 Ne. 20–21; compare Isa. 48–49), which he quotes in their entirety. These two Isaiah chapters speak of the destruction of the wicked and of the gathering and restoration of the tribes of Israel at that time (1 Ne. 20:18–21:26; compare Isa. 48:18–49:26). A closer look at this intervening material thus reveals that Nephi places the two Isaiah chapters strategically. By means of the Isaiah material, Nephi may be telling us things about the great and marvelous work without actually saying so.
By the same token, the journeying narratives, which come just before the Isaiah material, provide us with important information: they show just how the Lord delivers the righteous of his people from destruction in a day of great judgment and restores them to their lands of inheritance (1 Ne. 15–19). These are the very kinds of events Nephi associates with the Lord’s great and marvelous work (compare 1 Ne. 22:8–12). In other words, the journeying narratives and the Isaiah chapters resemble each other in an important respect: each describes the same kinds of restorative events, one by way of narrative, the other by way of prophecy.
When we examine the journeying narratives and the Isaiah chapters more closely, we find that everything Nephi includes between the first and second versions of his prophetic sequence pertain to that sequence. Far from being a loose arrangement of material, his entire account is organized into a prophetic literary structure. Nephi has arranged his material so that its very organization reveals a prophetic message.
In order to better understand Nephi’s structural message, we will first examine the content of the two Isaiah chapters (Isa. 48–49). As I have mentioned, these speak of the destruction of the wicked and of the gathering and restoration of Israel. Two important themes emerge in this material: the role the Gentiles play in gathering and restoring Israel, and the role a latter-day servant of the Lord plays in fulfilling those same events.
In the book of Isaiah originates the key idea of the Lord’s making bare his arm in the sight of all nations (see Isa. 52:10). In Nephi’s second sequence, the Lord’s making bare his arm appears to be synonymous with the Lord’s great and marvelous work (1 Ne. 22:8–11). Nephi links these ideas both structurally and rhetorically. The arm of the Lord refers to a servant of the Lord who is a descendant of David, who precedes Jesus’ second coming. That servant is known in the book of Isaiah by a number of metaphorical pseudonyms, such as the Lord’s hand, ensign, arm, and an arrow hidden in the Lord's quiver. The term arm, I have found, connotes the Lord’s intervention in the affairs of humanity through the instrumentality of this servant.
The Davidic servant, in effect, accomplishes the same restoration of Israel and Judah that the Prophet Joseph Smith attributes to a latter-day David. Israel’s and Judah’s conversion and restoration, Joseph predicted, will occur in a “day of power.” According to the two Isaiah chapters, a servant of the Lord, who at first is hidden from the world but whom the Lord reveals, will gather and restore latter-day Israel. In that task, righteous Gentiles will assist him (compare 1 Ne. 21:22–23; 22:6–8). The Lord’s making bare his arm in the sight of all nations, therefore, refers to the universally revealed mission that the Lord’s servant performs when the Gentiles assist him.
Although we do not now know the identity of this servant, we do know, from scriptural patterns, that such a servant will not announce himself but will be called of God as was David anciently through the prophet Samuel. Isaiah prophesies that when the Lord’s servant is revealed to the world, many will hate and abhor him, even some of his own people. He will be marred, but the Lord will heal him. The Lord will nonetheless commission him with power to set free and gather His ancient covenant people from the ends of the earth. In conjunction with this mission, the Lord will give him power to judge Babylon.
Those who will respond positively to the servant’s message are those who will not be deceived having taken the word of God as their guide. They will separate from among the wicked by leaving Babylon on the eve of her destruction. They will participate in a prolonged journey through the wilderness to inherit Zion, a promised land. At the same time, the wicked of the Lord’s people will be cut off and destroyed with Babylon.
By piecing together this information from Isaiah with both of Nephi’s two sequences of events, we arrive at a remarkable insight. We find that the baring of the Lord’s arm (the revealing of the Lord’s servant) in the sight of all nations has a dramatic polarizing effect on all peoples of the earth—not the least on us. It causes some to harden their hearts to the point that they will be damned for it. Others are led to repent so that they may be numbered among those whom the Lord delivers. As soon as this polarization has taken place, the Lord brings on his cleansing judgment of the earth (see 1 Ne. 14:7–17; 22:8–26).
Isaiah refers to this series of redemptive events as “new things” (1 Ne. 20:6; compare Isa. 48:6). According to Isaiah, the new things are patterned after the “former things” the Lord has performed (1 Ne. 20:3; compare Isa. 48:3). Among these new events, two stand out: the new exodus out of Babylon on the eve of her destruction and the new wandering in the wilderness to the promised lands. They reflect Isaiah’s use of types—Isaiah draws on events out of Israel’s past as types and shadows of what will befall Israel in the last days. We can understand this typological viewpoint as the Lord refers to himself as the “first” and the “last” (1 Ne. 20:12; compare Isa. 48:12).
In other words, the same God who redeemed Israel at the first, in the days of Moses, will redeem Israel at the last, in our day: the Lord is the author and the finisher of His people’s salvation. The new events of which Isaiah speaks, however, take a new, unanticipated turn. There are unknown factors that enter into the redemption of Israel that constitute a trial or test of the Lord’s people. These trying elements result when the ancient types combine in unexpected fashion to form the new events. The new events serve as a test because they may or may not conform to a person’s worldview. They influence some of the Lord’s people to accept the great and marvelous work and others to reject it. How people react to what the Lord does reflects what has gone on before in their lives, and their adherence to the word of God. The conditioning effect of the people’s faithfulness or unfaithfulness towards the word of God now comes fully into play.
A note here that may be of interest: from the Isaianic context of Nephi’s material, it appears that chapters 48 and 49 of Isaiah—the ones Nephi quotes—may detail some of the things Nephi was “forbidden” to write (1 Ne. 14:28), the things he saw in vision that he “durst not speak” (1 Ne. 22:29). In other words, Nephi may be using material from the book of Isaiah to say indirectly what he himself cannot say directly.
The things he was not permitted to say plainly, in order to protect those who are spiritually vulnerable, may be quite appropriate for him to say indirectly—he may be doing so in part by quoting Isaiah. Israel’s restoration fits precisely at the point where Nephi speaks of the great and marvelous work. In Nephi’s sequence, that work’s universal, polarizing effect serves as a precondition of Israel’s restoration (1 Ne. 14:7–8, 14; 22:8–12). Similarly, in the Isaiah chapters, some take part in an exodus out of Babylon and journey in the wilderness to the promised lands; others remain behind and are destroyed. Israel’s restoration in the last days, divisive as it is, thus fulfills the Lord’s covenants with the house of Israel, and which will cause all but the very elect to be deceived.
In short, Isaiah’s message in these two chapters accords with what Nephi says about the great and marvelous work, and Nephi uses it to amplify his own message. These narratives foreshadow what will befall Israel in the last days. They outline typologically what the Isaiah chapters prophesy directly. In the journeying narratives, Nephi himself is a savior figure. Nephi is the equivalent of the Lord’s servant in the Isaiah chapters. Many times during the journey to the promised land, all of Lehi’s party depended on Nephi for deliverance. As Laman and Lemuel and others hated Nephi, so many of the Lord’s people will hate the latter-day servant, according to Isaiah. Even as the Lord vindicated Nephi, however, so the Lord will vindicate the latter-day servant and his mission. As the Lord endowed Nephi with His power, so the Lord will endow the servant with His power. As Nephi revealed the future, so the Lord’s servant will reveal the future. Nephi’s role in crossing sea and desert typifies in many ways the role of a new Moses that Isaiah ascribes to the Lord’s servant. As Moses led Israel anciently, so the Lord’s servant will lead the new exodus out of Babylon and the new wandering in the wilderness to the promised land.
Parallels between the role of the Lord’s servant in the book of Isaiah and the role of Moses are abundant, as are parallels between Nephi and Moses. From the beginning of the Book of Mormon, resemblances between the exodus out of Jerusalem and the exodus out of Egypt appear again and again. In several instances, Nephi himself draws attention to them (1 Ne. 4:2–3; 19:10). One direct comparison in the journeying narratives spans twenty verses (1 Ne. 17:23–42). In connection with such parallels, as well as those in the book of Isaiah, Nephi says, “I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning” (1 Ne. 19:23; emphasis added). In the journeying narratives we thus find types of an exodus pattern in the Lord’s miraculously leading Lehi’s party through the wilderness.
In addition to these parallels between the exodus out of Jerusalem and the exodus out of Egypt, Nephi refers to Isaiah twice in the journeying narratives (1 Ne. 15:20; 19:23). Nephi also quotes again from the verse in Isaiah that speaks of the arm of the Lord being revealed (1 Ne. 19:17; compare Isa. 52:10). Nephi again refers to the Lord’s covenant with Abraham (1 Ne. 15:18), the fulfillment of which Nephi associates with the Lord’s marvelous work and with Isaiah’s prophecy of the Lord’s arm being bared (1 Ne. 22:8–11). Finally, the role the Gentiles perform in aiding the latter-day fulfillment of the Lord’s covenant is detailed in the Isaiah chapters, the journeying narratives, and Nephi’s sequence. By checking the noted scripture references, the reader will get an idea of how precisely Nephi is using structure to teach these concepts. These literary connections tie the journeying narratives and Isaiah chapters firmly to Nephi’s prophetic sequence. They are not related just because Nephi places this material between the two versions of his sequence. All share content and subject matter.
In short, we understand Nephi’s sequence better when we understand the intervening chapters. Evidently, Nephi chose to place these intervening chapters where he did in order to shed light on the great and marvelous work. As the climax, or centerpiece, of Nephi’s sequence, the great and marvelous work deserves to be detailed somewhere. Nephi accomplishes this structurally by giving us two versions of his sequence that culminate in the great and marvelous work, and by then interposing the journeying narratives and the Isaiah chapters between the two. From the intervening chapters we learn something of the nature of the Lord’s great and marvelous work. At least in part, that work concerns a new exodus and a new wandering in the wilderness to the promised lands for Israel in the last days. We also see that these redemptive events fulfill the Lord’s covenant with his people.
The Lord prophesies these same events in 3 Nephi 16, 20 and 21. See Jesus' First Prophecy and Jesus' Second Prophecy. Note that while Nephi is forbidden to say anything of the latter-day servant, Jesus is not.
As you can see by this analysis, there is more to His words than we can imagine. And so I say again: "whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived..." (JS Matthew 1:37 emphasis added).
Note that the Lord links the "great and marvelous things" which have been hid up with His prophecies that these great and marvelous things shall come forth as part of His great and marvelous work (3 Nephi 20 & 21), and that the house of Israel will believe His great and marvelous things, and that the Gentiles will not believe them. And why? Instead of reflecting upon and searching for hidden things of the greatest value to them, they rather wish to learn how to secure their way through the world as easily and as comfortably as possible.
Next: Repentance: Come Unto Christ