2 Nephi 17:2
"And it was told the house of David, saying: Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind."
I love this analogy of the hearts of the people being moved like the trees by the wind. If you think about the gentle swaying of giant redwoods in the forest, how they move so subtley and smoothly... just like the Holy Ghost touching our hearts in such a subtle yet powerful way. The force of those trees could probably do some damage, and yet its still gentle and soft.
One thing about Isaiah is each verse is like poetry; a little story contained inside each one.. so easy to get caught up in the meaning of the individual verse and not what they all mean together. Or at least trying to figure out what each verse means alone, or the chapter as a whole for that matter!
2 Nephi 18:13-14:
"Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
Elder Holland referred to this scripture in his talk during conference this weekend so it caught my eye when I read it today. I remember thinking it was interesting when he said the Book of Mormon was a stumbling block like they talked about in the scriptures, because men would have to go
over it in order to leave the church. So true. And what a profound testiomony he bore yesterday about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith's mission!! I loved when he quoted his grandfather I think it was, "no wicked man could write such a book as this, and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so." Also when he mentioned how Joseph Smith bore strong testimony,
even til death of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Would a lying man be so concerned to seal his death with his lies? No, but a prophet of God would be so concerned to seal his death with his testimony. And Elder Holland certainly proclaimed his testimony to the world yesterday. I just listened to it once again on
lds.org. Its lengthy, but so profound.
"When Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum started for Carthage, to face what they knew would be an imminent martyrdom, Hyrum read these words of comfort to the heart of his brother: "Thou hast been faithful, wherefore thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place with which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I Moroni bid farewell, until we shall meet before the judgement seat of Christ.
...Later, when actually incarcerated in the jail, Joseph the prophet turned to the guards who held him captive and bore a powerful testimony of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. Shortly thereafter, pistol and ball would take the lives of these two testators. As one of a thousand elements of my own testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I submit this as yet one more evidence of its truthfulness, in this their greatest and last hour of need, I ask you, would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book, and by implication a church and a ministry they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth? Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless, never mind that their little band of followers will yet be houseless, homeless and and friendless, and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor. Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me, whether in this hour of death, these two men would enter the presence of their eternal judge, quoting from and finding solace in, a book, which if not the very word of God would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time. THEY WOULD NOT DO THAT. They were willing to die, rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. For 179 years, this book has been examined and attacked. Denied and deconstructed. Targeted and torn apart, like perhaps no other book in religious history. Perhaps like no other book in any religious history, and still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born, parroted and died. From Ethan Smith to Solomon Spalding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination. Because there is no other answer, than the one Joseph gave as its young, unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great grandfather who said simply enough, 'no wicked man could write such a book as this, and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.' I testify, that one cannot come to full faith in this latter day work, and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these our times, until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ of whom it testifies. If anyone is foolish enough, or misled enough, to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text, teeming with literary and semitic complexity, without honestly attempting to account for the origin of those pages somehow, especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ, and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now tens of millions of readers-- if thats the case then such persons, elect or otherwise have been deceived. And if they leave this church, they must do so by crawling over, or under, or around, the Book of Mormon, to make their exit. In that sense, the Book is what Christ Himself was said to be, 'a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.' A barrier in the path to one who wishes not to believe in this work."
Wow. Can a testimony get any more powerful than that?
