Sunday, June 23, 2019

1 Nephi 2:20-24, Connections to Old Testament Covenants



This paper discusses connections between blessings in Leviticus 26 associated with keeping the covenant and blessings promised to Lehi/Nephi. This chart is a useful summary of the main idea.

Leviticus Verses1 Nephi Verses
If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; (Leviticus 26:3)And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments (1 Nephi 2:20)
Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full. (Leviticus 26:4–5) For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. (Leviticus 26:9–10)ye shall prosper. (1 Nephi 2:20)
and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land. (Leviticus 26:5–6)and shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands. (1 Nephi 2:20)
and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. (Leviticus 26:6–8)And inasmuch as thou shalt keep my commandments, thou shalt be made a ruler and a teacher over thy brethren. For behold, in that day that they shall rebel against me, I will curse them even with a sore curse, and they shall have no power over thy seed. (1 Nephi 2:22–23)
And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. (Leviticus 26:11–12)And inasmuch as thy brethren shall rebel against thee, they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord [implying that when there is no rebellion there is an absence of God abhorring them and thus they all have the presence of God]. (1 Nephi 2:21)
am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright. (Leviticus 26:13)wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led. Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in the promised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, am God; and that I, the Lord, did deliver you from destruction; yea, that I did bring you out of the land of Jerusalem. (1 Nephi 17:13–14)
But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. (Leviticus 26:14–17)And if it so be that they [Nephi’s seed] rebel against me, they [Laman’s seed] shall be a scourge unto thy seed. (1 Nephi 2:24)
if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. (Leviticus 26:41–42)They shall be a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in the ways of remembrance. (1 Nephi 2:24)