2 Nephi 21

Then a twig will sprout from Jesse’s stem or a branch from Jesse’s roots, pick your metaphor. The point is, this is a man who will have God’s spirit with him, a keen mind that can see through paradox and can balance among competing values. He’ll be, as they say, a quick study. He won’t have a bone of superficiality in him. He’ll be able to judge reliably, rebuke with authority. People will say his words are like swords.

Of course, none of this would mean much without his reverence for divinity.

When he comes, you’ll see animals that hate each other start to play with each other: wolves and lambs, calves and lions, cows and bears, babies and snakes. You’ll see wild beasts following toddlers as though they were shepherds and ringmasters.

The earth will know God, about as much as the ocean covers most of the planet—a few outposts of ignorance, as always happens. That’s to be expected.

New metaphor alert: Jesse’s root will grow upside down into a flagpole. Weird, no? Because of that weirdness, all nations stare at it. Gentiles, Jews, it makes no difference.

That’s when God will draw his people from around the earth back to their homeland. They’ll all pledge allegiance to the flag flapping from that metaphorical flagpole. You’ll be shocked at how dispersed his people were. Everyone will be. (I could go country by country, but I’ll avoid the tedium.)

God will drive winds across seas and lakes, dry them up as if he himself were blowing on them. Streambeds will turn to highways that everyone can walk and ride back to their country.