Saturday, February 15, 2020
Studying for Sunday School
I have been asked to substitute for a teen aged Sunday School class tomorrow. I will be teaching about Jacob's sermon based on Isaiah and have learned some interesting things. Previously I felt that Nephi was a bit too anxious to talk about his own ideas about Isaiah and somewhat dismissive of the further words of Jacob. Now I have revised my view. It seems that Nephi gave his much younger brother a significant honor, first by asking him to present the sermon which may have been a key address on the occasion of a festival which took him two days to complete. It was more like the address of King Benjamin than the itinerant preaching Lehi used when warning the people of Jerusalem. There would have been an audience gathered and the idea that Nephi felt his brother's sermon was worthy of being recorded on the small plates is significant. There is also the idea that this was meant to welcome 'Gentiles' who were not some distant people but the people who had joined the community of the Nephites from the indigenous population is intriguing. There are many clues to this such as the emphasis on 'adoption' into the tribe of Israel. Isaiah was an adviser to King Hezekiah who listened to him and ruled righteously for many years as opposed to his great, great grandson Zedekiah who was king in Lehi's time.
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