7 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; and by them shall our seed be scattered.
Now Nephi makes it very clear that this prophecy of the
scattering of Israel includes Lehi’s descendants. This is not just something
that will happen in Jerusalem, but the prophecy applies to this land as well.
Of course, Nephi saw this before, in his vision of Lehi’s dream (see 1 Nephi
13: 12–14). In fact, that vision of Nephi’s may have been at least part of the
reason he chose to read the Isaiah chapters that he did. He is trying to
convince his brethren that the scriptures are more than just a collection of
moral stories. They are written for them
(and us). They apply to them (and
us). This is an attitude that is popular today, even among some Christian
churches and clergy, that the Bible is nothing but a collection of stories,
fictional stories that are intended to teach morals.
This particular verse has reference to how the American
Indians were pushed off their lands and segregated onto reservations by the
United States government. I don’t know the history of Central and South America
so much, but a similar thing could have happened with those people with
colonization, etc. But I know for sure this prophecy has reference to what
occurred in North America.
- 1 Nephi 13: 14 (12–14)
- 2 Nephi 1: 11
- 3 Nephi 20: 27
