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Sunday, January 13, 2019

"And the Lord is near, and he justifieth me." Who is being justified here? Jesus Christ or Isaiah? 2 Nephi 7:8

"And the Lord is near, and he justifieth me." Who is being justified here? Jesus Christ or Isaiah? 2 Nephi 7:8

This is a nice little prayer thing that goes like this:

¶ For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
Is Jesus Christ speaking?

Yes. The chapter heading of Isaiah 50 mentions that here, Isaiah is speaking "as the Messiah."

If we interpret these verses to be Jesus Christ speaking, then the LORD GOD here, the one who "will help" is God, the Father.

If we apply these verses to ourselves as Nephi would do (see 1 Nephi 11:2), and also Latter-day prophets and apostles have done - albeit not very recently (see Daniel H. Wells "Increase of the Stakes" 1877, George Q Cannon "Gathering - Its Spirit, Etc." 1872,  Orson Pratt "The Kingdom of God" 1855) then the LORD GOD becomes the Godhead - God the Father as the designer of the plan, Jesus Christ as the executor of the plan, and the Holy Ghost as the witness of the plan.

These are extraordinarily confident and uplifting words testifying of the power and strength of God over our myriad enemies. I really love these words.  


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