2 Nephi 6

Here is a speech my brother Jacob gave to our family tribe:

My dear family, you know that God has called me. I’ve been ordained a priest, and I’m Nephi’s right-hand man. You depend on him for leadership, protection, and safety. I, meanwhile, have been a speech-giver. You’ve heard me many times. And here I am, doing it again. Why? Same reason as always: I fear for your souls.

I worry about you. A lot. I always have. To soothe that worry I’ve taught you time and again the words my father spoke and what he said about everything from the Garden of Eden to this wilderness. Now I want to talk to you about the present and future. My text is a well-known one: the book of Isaiah. It’s Nephi’s favorite book. But I’m teaching from it not to please him but to challenge and improve you.

These were God’s words through Isaiah to the whole House of Israel. But you’re a piece of that house, so they apply. Here’s what God said: “I’m going to exalt the Gentiles a little and let them post my great international flag. With that done, they’ll be hoisting your sons up and giving back-rides to your daughters. Kings and queens will tend your nurseries, bowing down to you at the doorway and even licking your footprints off of the rug.”

Here’s what I, Jacob, want to bring out of this scripture. Your old friends and neighbors at Jerusalem are dead or slaves. But God will show himself bodily to their descendants at some point, though I’m not sure how that works. Their response? To whip him and nail him to wooden slabs and let him hang there till he suffocates. (An angel told me this).

Well, that will pretty much finish them off as far as God is concerned. He’ll smash them with all he’s got, strew them from Palestine to kingdom come. But he always quits right before total destruction. He has this merciful streak that won’t let him go all the way. So once they wake up to the fact that God came to them bodily, he’ll let them come back to their homeland—the one we escaped just in time, by the way.

Stop hating the Gentiles. God loves them and if they’ll steer clear of the Devil-church there’s nothing God won’t give them that’s he’s promised to his heretofore chosen people. This is what Isaiah is getting at.

In the long run, anyone who tries to kick the Jews around will end up having to lick the dust off their feet. (God excepted, of course. He’s a special case.) Israel will not end up in shame. They’ll wait for the Anointed One and he will indeed come. That is, he’ll come a second time—remember what happened the first time—only this time he’ll be frightfully strong and completely intolerant of anyone who snubs him. He’ll also stick up for those who embrace him fully and he’ll destroy their enemies. Those who say, “He’s not the one” will roast in fires, get flattened by hurricanes, crushed in earthquakes, slashed by blades of all kinds, sucked dry by disease and starvation. And that’s how the Lord will convince them who he is.

As another scripture asks: Can you strip the prey from the predator’s mouth or wrench the prisoner from his cell? In this case, the answer is yes. God will rescue his people from their predators. He has a motto: You fight Israel and you’ll be fighting me. As I’ve said before, if you lose a fight with God you’ll end up cannibalizing your own body and getting drunk on your own blood. He’s Jacob’s big-armed bodyguard.