2 Nephi 17

Monday, September 2, 2013


In studying this section from the Book of Mormon tonight, for the first time in awhile, I've had to turn to the seminary guide for help to understand what exactly it was I was reading and why it is significant. 
While reading in the seminary guide, there was one section that particularly stuck out to me. If we look at verse 14, it says "Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign - Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall give his name Immanuel." Now I'm sure most of us would just jump to the conclusion that Isaiah was prophesying of the coming of Christ. But in this manual, I learned that the prophesies from Isaiah often have duel meanings. One such example would be this one. In the manual, it says that "'God is with us' was meant to reassure King Ahaz that if he turned to the Lord, then God would help him." I think this statement is extremely significant because each time we read through the scriptures, this same idea is reiterated time and time again. If we turn to the Lord, He will help us. While it may not be in the way or the time frame we want, we can know that He's always there and will always help us. 
One thing I've noticed is that He is especially there for us in times of trial. When we really need to be picked back up again, there He is. And that's something we can count on all of the time. 
If we look a little bit higher up, in verse 9, one statement that is made is "If ye will not believe surely ye shall not be established." I think in a way, this verse talks about our lives and goals in general. We could use the word "established" in such a way to where it states that we are establishing our faith. Jesus Christ is supposed to be our rock, or foundation. Something that is permanent and is not wavering. There is a scripture that talks about how we do not want our faith to be wavering because if it is, then we do not have a solid foundation and can be swayed in whichever way society persuades us to go. It is for that reason we need to make sure we are establishing our faith on something firm and steady. Christ is our rock and He is there to guide us. We just need to look to Him. 
Something that was discussed in church yesterday is how sometimes our Heavenly Father will not listen to us if we do not listen to Him. I don't exactly agree with this statement, as I know our Heavenly Father always hears us. But I do think that He won't help us if we aren't willing to listen. After all, how can we? The perfect example of what happens when we ignore Heavenly Father is demonstrated in this chapter. Because two of the kingdoms (specifically) had no faith and ignored our Heavenly Father, they were destroyed. 
If we don't have faith in our Heavenly Father, we can also be destroyed spiritually. So let us make sure we are doing everything we can each day to strengthen our relationship with our Heavenly Father. 

I would like to encourage each of you to watch this video as a follow-up to this post. 

http://show2.me/en/v/does-god-exist-1?eu=z6cfZ0ZlZ0