1 Nephi 20: 6

6 Thou hast seen and heard all this; and will ye not declare them? And that I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.

In this verse the Lord seems to be saying, “After all the prophetic evidence that you have seen and  heard, why aren’t you testifying that I am your God? Yet even now, I have shown you new evidence and prophecies, things you couldn’t know on  your own, and yet you ignore me.” Moses told Joshua, “…would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29). In the sense that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (see Revelation 19:10), we are all prophets by covenant, along with Israel. We should testify of Christ. And yet, here is Isaiah talking to those people of Israel who have taken this covenant and rejected it. Not only are they not testifying, they are not even acknowledging the Lord.

So, in the spirit of likening all scriptures unto me, that it might be for my profit and learning (see 1 Nephi 19: 23), do I declare that Jesus is the Christ? Well, I certainly don’t think I ignore that fact. I may not knock doors too much like the full-time missionaries do, but I do try to testify of Him whenever the opportunity presents itself. And sometimes I even make an effort to create the opportunity to talk about and testify of Him. While I have many flaws, I have at least kept this part of my covenant with the Lord. I do testify of Him.

• Numbers 11: 29
• 1 Corinthians 9:16

1 Nephi 20: 5

5 And I have even from the beginning declared to thee; before it came to pass I showed them thee; and I showed them for fear lest thou shouldst say—Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image hath commanded them.

At first this looks like God just wants the credit for what happens in the world. It looks like He’s saying, “I gave you prophets to tell you of things to come so that when those things actually came to pass you would give credit where it was due: to me instead of your idols.” We need to remember, however, what His real purpose is. His revealed job, and the way He grows (growth=life) is to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). All of a sudden this verse is not about jealously taking credit for being so smart; it’s about giving His children (Israel, or more personally, us) every opportunity to recognize Him (the Lord) as the only real way to gain exaltation, to return to Heavenly Father. Dumb idols don’t have that power. They don’t prophesy. The people still have a choice to make as to whom they should follow, but if they don’t follow the Lord they need to account for the evidence He has provided via prophets that He is the only true and living God.

1 Nephi 20: 4

4 And I did it because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;

Verses like this make me wonder sometimes why the Lord chose the people of Israel to be His elect. He knew that they would not be humble and teachable, so why did he bother with them? I know He made a covenant with Abraham and Jacob, but did it really have to extend to all their posterity, relatively few of which would truly appreciate it? The only answer I can come up with is that Heavenly Father needed a people who would eventually crucify His son. It’s possible that any race would have developed the pride necessary to do that terrible, and at the same time, necessary thing (leading to wonderful results) of sacrificing their God, just as Israel did in spite of the chosen status with Him that they enjoyed. Somebody had to do it, or there would be no Atonement, and the Plan of Happiness would be foiled. So it had to be done, but what a terrible thing to be the one responsible for doing it! (see Matthew 26:24)

When someone’s “neck is in an iron sinew” they are stiff-necked, and they can’t bow their heads in humility. When their brow is brass, they are hardheaded. You can’t teach them anything, because no idea from the outside can penetrate to the inside of their thick sculls. In short: pride. The Lord knew of His people’s pride, so He needed to give evidence that He knew more than they did. So he had his prophets prophesy, then the prophecies were fulfilled. Then He could say after the fact, “See, I told you so. Now listen to me, because I know more about what’s really going on than you do.”

1 Nephi 20: 3

3 Behold, I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them. I did show them suddenly.

Now that the Lord has established specifically to whom He is talking, He reminds those covenant breakers who He is. He starts out by reminding them that He not only tells his prophets ahead of time what will happen, He then makes or allows the prophesied events to happen. His prophecies are fulfilled, unlike prophecies by false gods and idols made through false prophets. One reason He provides foreknowledge of what He will do is that it might serve as evidence of who He is, i.e. the true and living God. That seems to be what the Lord is establishing in this verse by reminding apostate Israel of the fulfillment of prophecies given through his prophets.

1 Nephi 20: 2

2 Nevertheless, they call themselves of the holy city, but they do not stay themselves upon the God of Israel, who is the Lord of Hosts; yea, the Lord of Hosts is his name.

This verse is really the opposite as what is rendered in the King James Version of the Bible. In Isaiah 48:2 of the King James Version it says, “For they call themselves if the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The Lord of hosts is his name.” Two big word or thought changes are the first word, “for” changed to “nevertheless,” and the inclusion of the word, “not” in the Nephi version. So the way the King James Version is worded, this is merely a statement of the Jews’ claims, of how they swear by the name of the Lord and make mention of him, as stated in verse one. The Nephi version says that regardless of what the Jews claim in verse one, they do not rely on the Lord. So they say they are the Lord’s people, but really they are not. They reject the prophets, and they have broken their covenants with the Lord. And yet they still claim to be the Lord’s people. Another word for that kind of behavior is hypocrisy, and was among the sins most strongly condemned by the Lord in His mortal ministry. So in different, more modern language, I might render the verse like this: “In spite of the fact that they do not swear by the name of the Lord in truth or righteousness (verse 1), they claim to be holy and God’s covenant people. But hypocritically, they do not rely on the Lord of Hosts, as His covenant people would do.”

It is sobering to recall that this is included in the Book of Mormon for our benefit here in the latter days. Those of us in the Church need to periodically stop and evaluate whether we are individually like those Jews described by Isaiah in these verses. Do I claim to be one of the Lord’s people, but then reject the prophets and break my covenants? Sobering indeed.

1 Nephi 20: 1

 1 Hearken and hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, or out of the waters of baptism, who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, yet they swear not in truth nor in righteousness.

Nephi likens all scripture unto them, and I suppose he sees a real parallel between the Israel that Isaiah prophesies to and his own brethren. In this verse Isaiah is addressing his audience, which is pretty specific: the covenant Israel who do not live up to their covenants. Likewise, Nephi, through the writings of Isaiah, is addressing specifically his brethren, who are also covenant breakers. I have mentioned before how Nephi’s brethren keep repenting and trying again to do the right things (although possibly for the wrong reasons), so we can gather that they have made covenants with the Lord. Breaking a covenant is worse than never making the covenant in the first place. We need to remember Nephi’s purpose in reading Isaiah here. It’s not to condemn his brethren, but rather to persuade them. My guess is that if they are sitting still long enough to have Nephi read to them and preach, they are probably in one of their more teachable moments. So while this introductory verse may be a mild rebuke, they probably realized the truth of their position, that they had broken covenants with the Lord, just as the house of Israel, or the part of that house that Isaiah addresses here. So Laman could have likened this verse to himself like this: “Hearken and hear this, Laman, who is part of the Lord’s covenant people, Israel, who also has made covenants, but has made them falsely, with no real intent to be converted.” These chapters may not apply so directly to Sam and Jacob, and those others who also kept their covenants, except as it gives hope to all, or unless they also break their covenants at some future time. And that’s how it applies to us as well. Either we are covenant breakers, or we don’t want to be, so we should all give heed to these words.

1 Nephi Chapter 20 Overview

The Lord reveals his purposes to Israel—Israel has been chosen in the furnace of affliction and is to go forth from Babylon—Compare Isaiah 48. About 588–570 B.C.

Nephi, in the next two chapters, quotes words of Isaiah that are intended to bring his brethren to Christ. According to the textbook for the Book of Mormon course these are somewhat parallel chapters. This chapter is about the Jews in Jerusalem; the next one is about the Lehites in America. This should be interesting as I dig into understanding this amazing prophet.