2 Nephi 15

Okay, how about a song? This one’s about a girl talking about her boyfriend’s vineyard:

This vineyard is on a very fruitful hill. My boyfriend raked it and fenced it, then planted the best vine there, built a watchtower and a wine-press. But the vineyard grew a lot of wild grapes. And he said, what more could I have done for a better crop? Nothing against wild grapes, but they’re not really what I thought I’d planted.

Well, sometimes I’m a hothead. I’m just going to tear down the fence and let animals and people raid the crops and tromp them down. Kind of rash, I know. But that’s me.

I don’t want to hoe it or fertilize it or tend it in any way. I want it dead, dead. I’ll do the no-rain dance. I want the whole thing to dry up.

Okay, here’s the interpretation, in case you needed it: The vineyard is Israel, the boyfriend is God. The “wild grapes” are the way the men of Israel oppress and cheat people, abuse their tenants, pay skeletal wages to their workers.

So, just like that vineyard, God says, I’m going to let everyone pick it clean, trudge through it, even dump their garbage there.

Okay, enough of that allegory.

New topic: If you get up early and start drinking and stay out late drinking and drink during the in-between hours, you’re doomed. You might have some good music in your bars, but it only drowns out God’s words.

The result? Ignorance of the things that matter. So Israel gets bound and shackled. They’d do anything for just a drop to drink or a bread-crust to suck on.

If hell were an animal, it would have dislocatable jaws. Like a python, maybe. And it would gobble up and suck down all the pomp and ceremony of Israel. I’ve said it before: Bigwigs will turn into littlewigs. Only God will come off looking good in the end.

Backyard livestock will eat what the people used to. All because the people called evil deeds good ones, dark deeds light ones, bitter deeds sweet ones.

Shame on people who consider themselves wise. Shame on people who drink like there’s no tomorrow. (For them there won’t be.) Shame on people who won’t give proper credit or who steal ideas. Shame on those who reward wicked behavior or don’t praise righteous behavior.

Because of them the fields will be lit, the fire wave across the landscape, scouring even the stubble from the soil. And the roots will be exposed to be rottenness. All because of this massive breach of Israel’s memory.

And with that fire, God’s anger will also light up. The hillsides will shiver with fear. Carcasses will fill the streets. But even so, his hand remains open for a second chance.

He will plant a flag that nations will look up to. It will hiss in the winds of change. And people will walk to it, ride to it, no one falling down. They won’t sleep, their shoes won’t break. They’ll turn into an army with sharpened arrows, and massive rolling chariots. They’ll roar like a pride of young lions, avenging themselves of the hunter. They’ll turn the peace of others into dismal defeat. God will turn the porchlights out in heaven.