12 For
the day of the Lord of Hosts soon cometh upon all nations, yea, upon every one;
yea, upon the proud and lofty, and upon every one who is lifted up, and he
shall be brought low.
13 Yea,
and the day of the Lord shall come upon all the cedars of Lebanon, for they are
high and lifted up; and upon all the oaks of Bashan;
14 And upon all
the high mountains, and upon all the hills, and upon all the nations which are
lifted up, and upon every people;
16 And upon all
the ships of the sea, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant
pictures.
17 And the
loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made
low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. (2 Nephi 12:12-17)
In this block of scriptures, Nephi
quotes Isaiah who uses imagery to describe the types of pride that will be
humbled when the Lord comes. It
takes some thought to recognize what Isaiah refers to, but knowledge of gospel
symbolism is the key.
“upon
all the cedars of Lebanon, for they are high and lifted up; and upon all the
oaks of Bashan” (v13) – Trees are green, and
green things often represent life, particularly spiritual life, so these trees
could represent church members. We
church members can become proud of our spiritual growth and our place in the
kingdom of God. The Second Coming
will be a shock to those of us who are self-righteous because we will realize how
holy Christ really is and how much greater than us He is.
“upon
all the high mountains, and upon all the hills, and upon all the nations which
are lifted up, and upon every people” (v14) –
Mountains here represent continents and large nations. This shows us national pride will be
humbled.
“upon
every high tower, and upon every fenced wall” (v15)
– From our modern perspective, high towers and walls could represent pride of
building construction and engineering pride. From the ancient perspective, high towers and fenced walls
were representative of a city and its ability to withstand attack, so this
could be how Isaiah shows that civic pride and military pride will be humbled
by the Lord at His coming.
“And
upon all the ships of the sea, and upon all the ships of Tarshish”
(v16) – Ships represented both travel and trade, so Isaiah was showing that
pride of travel would be humbled, along with business pride and economic pride.
We see from these verses that there are
all different types of pride and the Lord finds none of it good. Verse 17 ends with this important
thought—“the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” I suppose if we want to prepare, we
should cultivate and practice our humility now, huh?
6 comments:
Humility is also so essential for us to be able to be receptive of the spirit. Good post. :)
cjanis, I have emailed you.
Corine, you are right. Thanks for visiting!
I've wanted to comment on lots of posts, but after "upgrading" I'm usually on a computer where I can't post comments anymore; but I have the opportunity now. As usual, lots of great posts over the past while! Thanks for continuing to pray, read, ponder, and share.
Dang, I can't even get it right this chance, either! That "Unknown" (thanks blogger.com!) is me.
grego
Thanks for the kind words, grego! I appreciate your blog too.
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