2 NEPHI 6:17-18—WHAT DREW JACOB TO THESE
WORDS OF ISAIAH?
In his speech, Jacob quoted Isaiha
49:22 to Isaiah 52:2. What was it that drew Jacob to these particular words of
Isaiah?
First, Jacob was told by Nephi to read
these selected words to the assembled people of Nephi (6:4). As prophet and
king, Nephi surely wanted to reassure his people that God would protect his
people: “the Mighty God shall deliver his covenant people” (6:17; Isaiah
49:25). This fledgling community must have worried and needed this reassurance.
Second, all the people were to know
that “all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Savior and thy Redeemer,
the Mighty One of Jacob” (6:18; compare Isaiah 49:26). Jacob, the priest
of the temple in the city of Nephi, would have been especially desirous that
his people would find redemption and deliverance through Jehovah, their
Redeemer (Jacob used the word “deliver” or “deliverance” 12 times in 2
Nephi 9). Despite their being more alone than ever before, the Lord had not
abandoned them in the wilderness. Thus, this block of text suited their needs
perfectly.
Third, from these words, Jacob hoped
that the people were to “learn and glorify the name of your God” (6:4).
Previously, Jesus Christ had been called several names, such as “Messiah,” “the
Lamb of God,” “the Lord [Jehovah],” and others. Now, in order that they might “learn
. . . the name of their God, to be used in glorifying Him, Jacob disclosed to
his people that His holy name, when He would come among the Jews in the flesh,
would be “Christ.” That name had been spoken to Jacob by the angel of the Lord
during the night (10:3) in the interval between the two days of the coronation and
covenant-renewal celebration. Because the word “Christ” literally means “anointed,”
raising that the name when renewing the people’s covenant to God and loyalty to
His anointed king (as kings in Israel were called, Psalm 2:2) would have been
especially appropriate. (John W. Welch, Inspiration and Insights from the
Book of Mormon: A Come, Follow Me Commentary [American Fork, Utah: Covenant
Communications, Inc., 2023], 45-46)