It is interesting that when
Jesus visits the Nephites, He quotes part of Micah to them, but He adds some
things that change the sense of who the different people in the quotation refer
to. I have marked major changes in
blue, although there are a few grammatical changes that do not change the sense
of the text, which I have left unmarked.
Micah was speaking to the
Israelites back in the land of Jerusalem, whereas Jesus was speaking to the
Nephites in the Americas.
Micah 5:8-15
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3 Nephi 21: 12-22
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8 And the
remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles
in
the midst of many people
as
a lion among the beasts of the forest,
as
a young lion among the flocks of sheep:
who,
if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces,
and
none can deliver.
|
12 And
my people who are a remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles,
yea,
in the midst of them as a lion among the beasts of the forest,
as
a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through both treadeth
down and teareth in pieces,
and
none can deliver.
|
9 Thine hand
shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries,
and
all thine enemies shall be cut off.
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13 Their hand shall
be lifted up upon their adversaries,
and
all their enemies shall be cut off.
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10 And it shall
come to pass in that day, saith the Lord,
that
I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee,
and
I will destroy thy chariots:
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14
Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they
repent;
for it
shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father,
that I will cut off thy horses out of
the midst of thee,
and I will destroy thy chariots;
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11 And I will
cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds:
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15 And I will
cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strongholds;
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12 And I will
cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand;
and
thou shalt have no more soothsayers:
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16
And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy land,
and thou shalt have no more
soothsayers;
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13 Thy graven
images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee;
and
thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
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17
Thy graven images I will also cut off, and thy standing
images out of the midst of thee,
and thou shalt no more worship the
works of thy hands;
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14
And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee:
so will I destroy thy cities.
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18 And I will
pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee;
so
will I destroy thy cities.
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15 And I will
execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not
heard.
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19 And it shall come to pass that all lyings, and deceivings, and
envyings, and strifes, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, shall be done away.
20 For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at
that day whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I
cut off from among my people, O house of Israel;
21 And
I will execute vengeance and fury upon them, even
as upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.
22 But if they will repent and hearken
unto my words, and harden not their hearts, I will establish my church among
them, and they shall come in unto the covenant and be numbered among this the
remnant of Jacob, unto whom I have given this land for their inheritance;
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In Micah, the prophecy is
spoken as to the remnant of Jacob, that they would be like lions among the
Gentiles, but also as though this remnant would have their cities thrown down,
their idols and witchcrafts and soothsayers removed, etc.
In 3 Nephi 21, Jesus speaks
of the remnant of Jacob in some future day, that they would be like lions among
the Gentiles, but then speaks a warning to the Gentiles that without their
repentance Gentile cities would be thrown down and their idols, witchcrafts,
and soothsayers removed. (I think
this is directed to the Gentiles who are Christian.) Also, two extra verses are added indicating those who would
not repent and come to the Beloved Son would be cut off from among the people
of the house of Israel. This suggests
that those among the Latter-day Saints must be sure to repent or they will be removed
from the church as well and have vengeance and fury executed upon them “even as
upon the heathen,” meaning they will get the same treatment as those who have
never believed in Christ.
Micah doesn’t have an entirely
scary picture of this remnant of Jacob as a lion. Just before verse 8 there is a very positive picture of the
remnant as well, and the contrast is fascinating when we read those verses
together:
7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.8 ¶And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. (Micah 5:7-8)
We get the curious impression
that the remnant of Jacob is nourishing and refreshing AND terrifying and
destructive. This is understandable
if we consider that there are righteous remnants and wicked remnants. And yet the 3 Nephi version seems to
buck this a view with the added bit, “And my people who are a remnant of
Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, yea, in the midst of them as a lion among
the beasts of the forest” (21:12), which makes it seem like the righteous
remnant is going to be the terrible one after all. What makes it particularly puzzling is that during all the
modern history of the Latter-day Saints we have rarely if ever taken up arms
against our adversaries. Our
policy as a people has usually been to seek peace, and if necessary, allow the
Lord to fight our battles for us.
It
is possible that this pattern will continue, since the strong “I” statements
about coming destruction give us a sense that God will execute vengeance and
fury on the unrepentant Gentiles on behalf of the righteous:
·
I
will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee
·
I
will destroy thy chariots
·
I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all
thy strongholds
·
I
will cut off witchcrafts out of thy land
·
Thy
graven images I will also cut off
·
I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee; so will
I destroy thy cities
Mormon also references the
remnant of Jacob himself as a warning to the Gentiles:
22 And then, O ye Gentiles, how can ye stand before the power of God, except ye shall repent and turn from your evil ways?
Mormon sees these scriptures
in a military way because he is a military man and has seen it happen literally
to his people the Nephites. In
fact, to underscore his point, the very next chapter Mormon records is the
final destruction of his people by a wicked remnant of Jacob.
Why does it say
“there is none to deliver” this group?
I think it is because if they do not repent, there is no one that can
deliver them spiritually, and later when they get into such trouble as threatens
their lives, they are too hard-hearted to pray for deliverance, so no one can
save them.
This passage is still rather
unclear to us because events have not occurred that will give us an idea of who
the fearsome remnant is, but neat thing is that when it starts to happen we will
recognize the fulfillment and take comfort that God knew far ahead of time what
was going to happen.
I think the main message of
these verses is that we must repent or we will be cut off from the church and
have our share in the destruction eventually to come upon the unrepentant
Gentiles.
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