1 Nephi 20: 8

 8 Yea, and thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time thine ear was not opened; for I knew that thou wouldst deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

Among all the prophecies the Lord has given to the house of Israel is this one, the reason He gave all the other prophecies. He knew they would try to credit some other source for events, and He gave prophecies to testify that He is the only true and living God. So another thing the Lord knew beforehand was that Israel would “deal treacherously.” He knew that Israel would reject Him, so he revealed all these events to his prophets, and here he tells them he knew they would apostatize. The Lord is definitely in a position to say he knew about these events, and one of the things He knew about was Israel’s apostasy. As great as the patriarchs of this family were (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob), and among the flashes of greatness, as in the prophets, they really have caused the Lord a lot of trouble “from the womb.” And while there were times of great faith, the Lord saw the seeds of apostasy from the beginning, so He provided prophecies from the beginning as a testimony of His divinity.

1 Nephi 20: 7

7 They are created now, and not from the beginning, even before the day when thou heardest them not they were declared unto thee, lest thou shouldst say—Behold I knew them.

This is reiterating that the Lord has revealed what would occur in the future through His prophets. He revealed them long before anyone could have predicted these events without divine aid, when Israel “heardest them not they were declared unto [them].” Again, the Lord wants no mistake as to who is really in charge, and he wants to remove any excuse the people might have to worship someone or something besides Him. So in verse five He points out that dumb idols could not predict the events that were unfolding, and in this verse he points out that nobody had the right to say, “I told you so,” except His prophets. Nobody could have known what would happen on his or her own. Now that the prophecies are being fulfilled, they need to recognize them as being foretold by the Lord’s prophets.

We are in the same situation today. Events are unfolding today that are creating conditions prophesied about in the scriptures, long before anyone could have predicted them on their own. Yet how many people worldwide recognize these prophecies as being from God? Although God may not be starting wars, or climate change, or [fill in the blank with your favorite world problem], He certainly revealed to His prophets thousands of years ago that they would occur. He knew about them long before anyone could have known they would occur.

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.