Old Testament Commentary - Isaiah 8/2 Nephi 18

Christ shall be as a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense—
Seek the Lord, not peeping wizards—Turn to the law and to the testimony for guidance—Compare 2 Nephi 18.

Christ shall be as a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense—
Seek the Lord, not peeping wizards—Turn to the law and to the testimony for guidance—Compare Isaiah 8. [Between 559 and 545 B.C.]

 8^a he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land. O Immanuel If ever there was multiplicity, duality in the meaning and application of scripture here it is to be certainly found. Yes the King of Assyria had a very present and effectual meaning to the Jews of Isaiah's day and time, that he would overflow and fill the land building that great Assyrian Empire. Yet is not the ultimate King of Assyria and of every land not Jesus Christ, even that great Jehovah? And is not the land of Isreal about Jerusalem even as a 'narrow neck' passage from Assyria upon the north to Egypt upon the south even to be like unto the narrow neck of the Americas so discribed in the Book of Mormon, that narrow passage between the wings of North and South America? And is not these Americas, the land of Joseph of the latter days, that self same land of the Lord Jesus Christ of the retoration of the gospel to the earth in the fulness of time. So is the dualistic meaning of Isaiah '8:8', the lands of the two narrow necks. And so it is that Joseph the true and legal ancestor of Christ did reach and overflow and go over the ocean barrier and did reach even to the neck and then beyond, stretching out the wings of the people of Joseph, that is Israel and his companions upon these Americas. And even so today has not Joseph come again unto the retoration of Christ's gospel upon this Christ's promised land, a land choice above all other lands to fill the breath of his land with the gospel of Jesus Chirst, this land of Immanuel, the land of God with us.
Did not Nephi see this dualistic application of the words of Isaiah in that of his people upon the Americas? Cannot we also so see the multiplistic application unto today, the day of the fulness of times, in the coming forth of the Gospel in the latter day and that eventual return of the Savior in his Second Coming. Christ came to the neck of the land of Palestine in his mortal ministry, in his ressurected state he came to the narrow neck of the land of America, and in his Second Coming he will again come in glory unto both lands of Jerusalem of old and of the Jerusalem New, stretching out his wings, filling the breath of both his lands of Promise, the lands of Immanuel, even the land of all the earth for the earth is his and the glory thereof.

 9^a Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces This warning is for Israel, that is the people of the Lord, NOT to make any alliance with any other nation, but to rely upon the Lord. Israel made a confedercy with Assyrian and was destroyed and scattered. And when the Lord had told Judah to submit to the Babylonian Empire, they sought an alliance with Egypt and they were also destroyed and taken captive.

 12^a A confederacy Judah and even all of Israel before them were not to join themselves in 'a confederacy' with any other people or nation. The Lord only were they to rely upon. When 'Ephraim' became confederate with Syria they were destoryed by the Assyrians. When Josiah, perhaps the most righteous king of Judah, went out to fight against Egypt in support of Assyria, Josiah was killed. When the Jews of Zedeiah's day made an alliance witht he Egyptians the Babylonians destoryed Jerusalem. This is a lesson to all of Israel, God's people, not to rely upon the arm of man but to rely upon the arm of God only.

 20^a if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them The 'light' which would have resided within them is that light of the Spirit of God. That is to say the Spirit of God has withdrawn from them and they no longer know within themselves of the truths of God. They have lost their testimonies. They have ripened in wickedness and turned from the righteousness and have turned their back upon the workings of the Spirit. They have rejected the prophets and deny the powers and revelations of God. An angels no longer minister unto them. But they are left in their darkened state of darkness as to the things of God.