{"id":41126,"date":"2020-11-24T06:08:32","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T11:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=41126"},"modified":"2020-11-22T16:08:54","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T21:08:54","slug":"pondering-on-isaiah-and-the-abrahamic-covenant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2020\/11\/pondering-on-isaiah-and-the-abrahamic-covenant\/","title":{"rendered":"Pondering on Isaiah and the Abrahamic Covenant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the past few years, I\u2019ve tried to take some time each year to focus in on a specific subject related to the section of scriptures covered in Sunday School.\u00a0 Last year, for example, I tried to scratch the surface of understanding Paul in the New Testament and look at some of how scholars approach him.\u00a0 This year, I focused on understanding how the Isaiah texts are used within the Book of Mormon\u2014particularly in Nephi\u2019s writings.\u00a0 I shared some <a href=\"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2020\/02\/what-has-isaiah-to-do-with-nephi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">very preliminary thoughts<\/a> from studying Isaiah in 1 Nephi earlier this year, but since then I\u2019ve done a lot more reading and thinking.\u00a0 I think the most insightful book I read was Joseph Spencer\u2019s <em>The Vision of All<\/em>, but I also enjoyed pondering on a few other books too.<\/p>\n<p>One issue that came up over and over in literature about Nephi\u2019s use of Isaiah was his efforts to reaffirm the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 Nephi does say, after all, that the \u201cmarvelous work\u201d of the Lord in the Latter-days shall be of worth \u201cunto the making known of the covenants of the Father of heaven unto Abraham,\u201d while he explained his interpretation of Isaiah\u2019s words to his brothers.\u00a0 He also stated that his \u201csoul delighteth in the covenants of the Lord which he hath made to our fathers\u201d as part of his explanation for including the large block of Isaiah text in 2 Nephi.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>\u00a0 What is interesting to me, however, is that while the various authors I read acknowledged the importance of the Abrahamic Covenant in Nephi\u2019s writing, they did not precisely align on what the Abrahamic Covenant is or means.<\/p>\n<p>Traditionally, we\u2019re used to looking at Genesis and the Book of Abraham to learn about the covenant and drawing a list of what was promised.\u00a0 For example, we might consider President Russell M. Nelson\u2019s summary that he has given multiple times in general conference talks as an example of this approach:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The covenant that the Lord first made to Abraham\u00a0and reaffirmed to Isaac\u00a0and Jacob\u00a0is of transcendent significance. It contained several promises:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Abraham\u2019s posterity would be numerous, entitled to eternal increase and to bear the priesthood;<\/li>\n<li>He would become a father of many nations;<\/li>\n<li>Christ and kings would come through Abraham\u2019s lineage;<\/li>\n<li>Certain lands would be inherited;<\/li>\n<li>All nations of the earth would be blessed by his seed;<\/li>\n<li>That covenant would be everlasting\u2014even through \u201ca thousand generations.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some of these promises have been accomplished; others have yet to be. I quote from a prophecy given nearly 600 years B.C.: \u201cOur father hath not spoken of our seed alone, but also of all the house of Israel, pointing to the covenant which should be\u00a0<em>fulfilled in the latter days;<\/em>\u00a0which covenant the Lord made to our father Abraham.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This approach is good at summarizing what the specific promises God made to Abraham, but sometimes makes it difficult to see why it is important to us today.<\/p>\n<p>Church leaders have made efforts to link lists like the one above to us today.\u00a0\u00a0 For example, in the talk cited above, President Nelson focused on the priesthood and families as fulfillment of the covenant, stating that: \u201cWe have the right to receive the gospel, blessings of the priesthood, and eternal life. Nations of the earth will be blessed by our efforts and by the labors of our posterity. The literal seed of Abraham and those who are gathered into his family by adoption receive these promised blessings\u2014predicated upon acceptance of the Lord and obedience to his commandments.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a>\u00a0 This is pretty standard for how I\u2019ve seen the Abrahamic Covenant treated by recent Church leaders and Church manuals\u2014we are part of the family of Abraham and Israel through bloodlines or adoption and build that family further by expanding our own families.\u00a0 We also receive the priesthood and bless the earth through sharing that priesthood and the gospel in missionary labors, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Elder Bruce R. McConkie took this further and made the Abrahamic Covenant fit to the pattern of how the Church operates today.\u00a0 He wrote that Abraham was baptized, received the higher priesthood and entered celestial marriage, making covenants of salvation and exaltation as he did so.\u00a0 Then Elder McConkie stated that these covenants are \u201crenewed with each member of the house of Israel\u201d as they participate in the appropriate ordinances, and \u201cthough that order the participating parties become inheritors of all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a>\u00a0 In a way, it could be stated that this approach makes Abraham a prototype of making covenants with God that we must follow to be covenant people (even if we don\u2019t have an explicit description of Abraham being baptized or being sealed to his wives and families in the scriptures).<\/p>\n<p>From the authors I studied this year, Terryl L. Givens seems to have taken Elder McConkie\u2019s idea to its logical conclusion in expounding an idea that the Abrahamic Covenant was a reaffirmation of an original covenant that God made with human beings, encompassing what we call the gospel, the Plan of Salvation, or the New and Everlasting Covenant.\u00a0 As he wrote in his volume of the <em>Book of Mormon: Brief Theological Introduction <\/em>series: \u201cThe everlasting covenant is not a part of the gospel; it is the master framework that encompasses the entire gospel, or what Alma<sub>2<\/sub> will call \u2018the great plan of happiness\u2019 (Alma 42:8).\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a>\u00a0 He looks to the statement of Joseph Smith from the King Follett discourse that: \u201cGod Himself found Himself in the midst of spirits and glory. Because He was greater, He saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest, who were less in intelligence, could have a privilege to advance like Himself and be exalted with Him,\u201d as the basic articulation of this everlasting covenant\u2014that if we worked with God and obeyed His laws, we would be exalted and become like Him.<a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Taking the idea presented in the Book of Abraham that God would bless Abraham and his descendants with priesthood as part of his covenant (Abr. 2:9-10), Givens explains that \u201cthe priesthood associated with Abraham is temple priesthood, the priesthood of sealing and uniting the human family. In that sense, too, the keys associated with Abraham and his descendants represent the ultimate amplification of the covenant to encompass all people.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Joseph Spencer took a different approach to understanding the meaning of the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 Approaching it through the writings of Isaiah, Spencer writes that the Abrahamic Covenant is \u201cabout the responsibility given to Israel to introduce peace to the whole world, reworking the world\u2019s deep tendency toward violence. That is, they\u2019re organized around Isaiah\u2019s vision of the ultimate fulfillment of that responsibility\u2014the day when all nations will join Israel in the worship of the true God, beating their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref8\">[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Spencer looks at the world history outlined in the early chapters of Genesis, focusing in on how after the fall, humans quickly turned to violence (beginning with Cain killing Abel), and by the time of Noah: \u201cThe earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence\u201d (Gen. 6:11).\u00a0 This, as he understood it, became a primary motivator for the flood and a subsequent series of laws outlined in Genesis 9 aimed at curbing violence, but those measures didn\u2019t succeed in doing away with humankind\u2019s violent tendencies.<\/p>\n<p>Spencer writes that the next step in this process occurs when \u201cGod calls Abraham. He takes one man and through him launches a new nation\u2014or really a non-nation, a nation that won\u2019t work like a nation.\u201d Ultimately, Abraham\u2019s children are called:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>To rework the very order of the world, replacing the national with the familial, war with peace. This is what the stories of Abraham in the Book of Genesis are all about, remember. Abraham is the figure of hospitality and peace. He\u2019s the guy who makes peace with Egypt, with Lot, with the king of Sodom, with Melchizedek, with Abimelech, with Ephron the Hittite. He\u2019s the guy who welcomes the strangers in and feeds them, the same strangers that nearby nations (Sodom, Gomorrah) treat with terrible violence. \u2026 Abraham is the figure of faith and obedience, but also of hospitality, of peacemaking.<a href=\"#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref9\">[9]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thus, to Joseph Spencer, the focus of the Abrahamic Covenant is to create a family that remakes the world into one of peace rather than violence.<\/p>\n<p>Each of these approaches is different but I don\u2019t think they aren\u2019t necessarily mutually exclusive understandings of the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 I can see ways to harmonize them\u2014i.e., it could be said the list approach like the one used by President Nelson captures the specifics of what God covenanted with Abraham, Terryl Givens\u2019s approach captures the broader context and goals of that covenant, and Joseph Spencer captures what abiding by the Abrahamic Covenant looks like in practice.\u00a0 Regardless, I thought it was interesting how different aspects of the covenant that Nephi was working to explain were emphasized by different writers and the different ways that covenant has been made to apply to us as members of the Church today.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Potential questions for discussion:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How do you understand the Abrahamic Covenant?<\/li>\n<li>How do you think does the Abrahamic Covenant apply to us today as Latter-day Saints?<\/li>\n<li>What do you think about the various approaches to the Abrahamic Covenant discussed above?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> 1 Nephi 22:9, 2 Nephi 11:6.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Russell M. Nelson, \u201cChildren of the Covenant,\u201d CR April 1995, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lds.org\/general-conference\/1995\/04\/children-of-the-covenant?lang=eng\">https:\/\/www.lds.org\/general-conference\/1995\/04\/children-of-the-covenant?lang=eng<\/a>, see also \u201cCovenants,\u201d CR October 2011.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Russell M. Nelson, \u201cChildren of the Covenant,\u201d CR April 1995, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lds.org\/general-conference\/1995\/04\/children-of-the-covenant?lang=eng\">https:\/\/www.lds.org\/general-conference\/1995\/04\/children-of-the-covenant?lang=eng<\/a>, see also \u201cCovenants,\u201d CR October 2011.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> Bruce R. McConkie, <em>Mormon Doctrine<\/em>, 2<sup>nd<\/sup> ed. [1966], 13.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> Givens, Terryl. 2nd Nephi (A Brief Theological Introduction) . The Neal A Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> Stan Larson, \u201cThe King Follett Discourse: A Newly Amalgamated Text,\u201d BYU Studies 18, no. 2 (Winter 1978): 204.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn7\">[7]<\/a> Givens, Terryl. 2nd Nephi (A Brief Theological Introduction) . The Neal A Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn8\">[8]<\/a> Spencer, Joseph M.. The Vision of All: Twenty-five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi\u2019s Record . Greg Kofford Books. Kindle Edition, location 5805 of 9766.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" name=\"_ftn9\">[9]<\/a> Spencer, Joseph M.. The Vision of All: Twenty-five Lectures on Isaiah in Nephi\u2019s Record . Greg Kofford Books. Kindle Edition, location 1795 of 9766.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the past few years, I\u2019ve tried to take some time each year to focus in on a specific subject related to the section of scriptures covered in Sunday School.\u00a0 Last year, for example, I tried to scratch the surface of understanding Paul in the New Testament and look at some of how scholars approach him.\u00a0 This year, I focused on understanding how the Isaiah texts are used within the Book of Mormon\u2014particularly in Nephi\u2019s writings.\u00a0 I shared some very preliminary thoughts from studying Isaiah in 1 Nephi earlier this year, but since then I\u2019ve done a lot more reading and thinking.\u00a0 I think the most insightful book I read was Joseph Spencer\u2019s The Vision of All, but I also enjoyed pondering on a few other books too. One issue that came up over and over in literature about Nephi\u2019s use of Isaiah was his efforts to reaffirm the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 Nephi does say, after all, that the \u201cmarvelous work\u201d of the Lord in the Latter-days shall be of worth \u201cunto the making known of the covenants of the Father of heaven unto Abraham,\u201d while he explained his interpretation of Isaiah\u2019s words to his brothers.\u00a0 He also stated that his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,18,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-of-mormon","category-general-doctrine","category-scriptures"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41127,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41126\/revisions\/41127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}