No Peace Unto the Wicked

K. Douglas Bassett

(Isa. 48:21–22)

Isaiah reinforces the idea of God’s power to save and redeem Israel by reminding his audience of the great miracles Jehovah performed during an earlier but defining moment in Israel’s redemptive history—the time when they were brought forth out of Egypt … Yet, despite all that the Lord has done and will continue to do in behalf of his people, they will enjoy no lasting peace or geographical redemption while they remain wicked… .
These verses are especially well suited to Nephi’s family, particularly to the rebellious and spiritually impoverished brothers. Though Isaiah’s words seem to have made little sense to many in Nephi’s audience (see 2 Ne. 25:1–2), there were some gathered in the group to whom the Spirit of the Lord testified of the truthfulness of Isaiah’s words. Father Lehi and his younger son Jacob seem to have been forcefully affected by Isaiah’s message of hope and redemption for a broken-off branch of Israel (see 2 Ne. 1:1 and 10:7–9, respectively), even if Laman and Lemuel and their followers continued to waver. It would be but a few short years before Lehi’s family learned that Jerusalem’s destruction had occurred according to the promise of the Lord (see 2 Ne. 1:4).

(Andrew C. Skinner, Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch [Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1998], 103–104.)

Commentaries on Isaiah: In the Book or Mormon

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