Book of Mormon Commentary CofC - Odessa, Missouri Community ...

Book of Mormon Commentary
1 Nephi Chapter 7
1 Ne 7:15 And it meaneth that the time cometh that after all the house of Israel have been scattered and
confounded, that the Lord God will raise up a mighty nation among the Gentiles, yea, even upon the
face of this land;
7:15 Doubtless the U.S.A. would best fill this identification as Nephi was in America at the time
he wrote. This is supported in Doctrine and Covenants 98: 10h.
1 Ne 7:16 And by them shall our seed be scattered.
7: 16 Nephi's thoughts reverted here to Lehi's descendants. The Gentiles should be the means of
driving them from one homeland or reservation to another. The practice continued long after the
white man's original conquest of the Americas by the Spanish, Portuguese, French, English,
Dutch, and others.
1 Ne 7:17 And after our seed is scattered, the Lord God will proceed to do a marvelous work among the
Gentiles, which shall be of great worth unto our seed;
7: 17 This refers to the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in latter days. Isaiah 29:26 tells of
this “marvelous work and a wonder" which the Lord was to bring about. It was to be of worth to
Lehi's seed and also to "the Gentiles" (19).
1 Ne 7:22 Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to make bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations, in
bringing about his covenants and his gospel, unto those who are of the house of Israel.
7:22 Because of the Restoration which shall bless both Jew and Gentile God’s promise to
Abraham (20) is to be more fully realized wherein he declared, “In thy seed shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:22; 28:14; Acts 3:25). Paul emphasized that this promise was not
given to "seeds, as of many, but ...to thy seed, which is Christ" (Gal.3:16).
The manifestation of power wherein God shall "make bare his arm" only had a beginning by A.D.
182O. Isaiah prophesied, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand
again the second time to recover the remnant of his people ...and he shall set up an ensign for the
nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together Judah from the four corners
of the earth” (lsa. 11:11,12).
The ministers of the Restoration began at once to preach confidently of the return of Judah to the
Holy Land (Palestine) and gave scriptural evidence for their faith. Thus the house of Israel shall be
brought "out of captivity" (23). Jeremiah predicted, "The days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no
more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but,
The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the
lands whither he had driven them; and I will bring them again into their land .that I gave unto their
fathers" (Jer. 16:14, 15). Zechariah saw a time when "Jerusalem shall be inhabited' as towns
without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein" (Zech. 2:4). The old wall is yet standing,
but for many years there has been more of Jerusalem outside the walls than within them.
The Lord will also bare his arm in the building of the New Jerusalem, the Zion in America. His
work may seem delayed, but "the purposes of God can not be frustrated, neither can they come to
naught" (D. and C. 2:1a).