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2 Nephi 6–10 — O How Great the Plan of Our God

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aliasesO How Great the Plan of Our God, February 19–25 — O How Great the Plan of Our God, 2 Nephi 6–10, 2 Nephi 6-10, Come Follow Me February 19–25 2024, Come Follow Me 2 Nephi 6–10, February 19–25 2 Nephi 6–10, Carried on Their Shoulders

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2 Nephi 6–10 — “O How Great the Plan of Our God.”

Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Book of Mormon 2024 — February 19–25
Official unit: 2 Nephi 6–10
Official quoted lesson title: “O How Great the Plan of Our God.”1

← Previous: 2 Nephi 3–5 — We Lived after the Manner of Happiness | Next: 2 Nephi 11–19 — His Name Shall Be Called … The Prince of Peace →

Opening Thesis: The God Who Gathers Is the God Who Raises the Dead

Jacob speaks to a people who have been displaced twice. They belong to a family carried away from Jerusalem, and they have now fled again from violent relatives in the land of promise. Their history appears to say cast off. Jacob opens Isaiah and teaches them to read it differently: God has not forgotten His covenant, His arm is not shortened, and exile will not have the final word.

Then Jacob makes a breathtaking move. He passes from scattered Israel to fallen humanity, from return to a land to resurrection from the grave, and from political deliverance to the “infinite atonement” of Jesus Christ. The shift is not a digression. Scattering is separation; gathering is reunion. The Fall separates body from spirit and humanity from God. Christ gathers what death and sin have torn apart.2

The five chapters therefore form one sustained sermon:

  1. 2 Nephi 6–8: God remembers His covenant people and promises to gather, comfort, awaken, and redeem them.
  2. 2 Nephi 9: Jesus Christ defeats the “awful monster” of physical and spiritual death and opens the way back to God.
  3. 2 Nephi 10: Because the Lord keeps covenant and Christ supplies grace, disciples can remember, choose, reconcile their wills to God, and “cheer up.”

Jacob’s hope is not denial. He names captivity, crucifixion, death, hell, sin, judgment, pride, and grief without softening them. Hope becomes possible because the character and power of Christ are greater than every separation. Allan Rau describes the sermon as hope grounded particularly in Christ’s mercy, integrity, and power: He wants to save, He keeps His word, and He is able to do what He promises.3

What to Watch for While Reading

  • Every form of separation and reunion: exile and return, covenant loss and restoration, body and spirit, humanity and God.
  • Jacob’s purpose statements: “that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God,” “that ye may rejoice,” and “that ye may remember.”
  • Isaiah’s questions: Has God cast you off? Is His hand too short to redeem? Who are you to fear mortal oppressors?
  • The movement from being carried in 2 Nephi 6 to being commanded to awake and stand in 2 Nephi 8.
  • The many divine verbs: comfort, redeem, gather, deliver, prepare, suffer, save, open, raise.
  • The “O” exclamations of worship in 2 Nephi 9:8–20 and the contrasting “wo” warnings in verses 27–38.
  • The two-headed “awful monster”: death of the body and death of the spirit.
  • What is unconditional in Christ’s victory—universal resurrection—and what requires a faithful response—repentance, reconciliation, covenant loyalty, and receiving eternal life.
  • Jacob’s careful relationship between knowledge and humility: “to be learned is good” when learning remains accountable to God.
  • Gate imagery: Christ is not merely a guide to the gate. He is its keeper, and “he employeth no servant there.”
  • The ending: agency does not mean saving ourselves. We reconcile our wills to God, yet even after that “it is only in and through the grace of God” that we are saved.

The Sermon at a Glance

MovementTextHuman crisisDivine answerResulting invitation
Covenant remembered2 Nephi 6Jerusalem destroyed; Israel scattered; Nephites displacedThe Messiah gathers, delivers, and fulfills His covenantsLearn, glorify God, liken Isaiah
The Servant does not retreat2 Nephi 7 / Isaiah 50Sin creates estrangement; servants suffer rejectionThe Lord can redeem; the obedient Servant sets His face faithfullyTrust God rather than self-kindled fire
Zion awakens2 Nephi 8 / Isaiah 51:1–52:2Zion feels barren, frightened, and intoxicated by judgmentGod comforts waste places, defeats chaos, and removes the cupRemember Abraham and Sarah; awake; stand
The monster defeated2 Nephi 9:1–26Fall, physical death, spiritual death, sin, devil, judgmentChrist’s infinite Atonement and Resurrection reunite body and spirit and make return possiblePraise, repent, have perfect faith in Christ
Two ways exposed2 Nephi 9:27–54Pride, appetite, violence, idolatry, spiritual deafness and blindnessChrist opens to the humble; revelation shows the pathHearken, come, feast, pray, remember
Grace has the last word2 Nephi 10Continued scattering and opposition; divided willsThe Lord keeps covenant, consecrates, gathers, and saves by graceCheer up, choose life, reconcile the will, remember Christ

Historical and Literary Context

Jacob’s first recorded sermon

Nephi has consecrated Jacob as a priest and teacher, and Jacob says he is “desirous for the welfare of your souls” (2 Nephi 6:2–3). This is not detached theology. Jacob was born in wilderness affliction, witnessed family violence, crossed the ocean, fled from Laman and Lemuel, and later remembered his people as “lonesome and a solemn people” who “did mourn out our days” (Jacob 7:26). Rau argues that this lived background makes Jacob’s hope more, not less, credible: he knows separation and still trusts Christ.3

The sermon may occur decades after the family’s departure from Jerusalem. The official manual frames it as a message to people already living with contention and the possibility that God has forgotten them. Jacob wants them to know that “God would never forget them, so they must never forget Him.”1

Jacob’s Isaiah sequence

Jacob does not quote random favorite verses:

Book of Mormon passageIsaiah sourceRole in Jacob’s sermon
2 Nephi 6:6–7Isaiah 49:22–23Gentile nations carry scattered children home
2 Nephi 7Isaiah 50The Lord denies abandoning Israel; the faithful Servant suffers but trusts
2 Nephi 8:1–23Isaiah 51Zion looks to Abraham and Sarah, remembers the Lord’s power, and awakens
2 Nephi 8:24–25Isaiah 52:1–2Zion rises from dust, puts on strength and beauty, and loosens captive bands

Leland Gentry notes that Jacob tells us why he uses Isaiah: concern for his people’s spiritual welfare, desire to teach present and future things, obedience to Nephi’s request, hope that the people will glorify God, and a determination to liken scripture to their own condition.4

Physical gathering and spiritual gathering

The chapters do not reduce gathering to relocation. 2 Nephi 9:2 places restoration to “the true church and fold of God” before establishment in lands of promise. Robert Millet summarizes the order: gathering is first to Christ, then to His church and doctrine, and only secondarily to a place.2

This protects the doctrine from becoming merely geopolitical. A person can live in an ancestral homeland and remain estranged from God; a person can live on an “isle of the sea” and be gathered to Christ through covenant. The restored gospel gathers people by helping them know the Redeemer, receive His word, make covenants, and become one in Him.

Three Great Images

1. Carried on shoulders

Isaiah promises that scattered sons will be brought “in their arms” and daughters “carried upon their shoulders” (2 Nephi 6:6). Jared Halverson asks readers to hear this through Jacob’s own childhood. Jacob had literally been a small child carried through wilderness and ocean migration. The image makes gathering tender: covenant Israel does not return as freight but as children borne home by nurturing arms.5

Teaching image: Invite someone to describe the difference between being ordered home and being carried home. The gathering requires human servants, but the posture of those servants should resemble nursing parents, not conquerors.

2. The awful monster

Jacob calls death and hell an “awful monster” (2 Nephi 9:10). The image is not childish decoration. Isaiah 51 has just recalled the Lord cutting Rahab and wounding the dragon, ancient images of God defeating chaos and opening a way through the sea. Rau and Daniel Belnap read Jacob’s monster within that divine-warrior background: the Creator overcomes the forces that threaten creation and covenant life.6

Jacob defines his symbol rather than leaving it speculative:

  • death = separation of body and spirit;
  • hell = separation from God;
  • resurrection compels the grave to release bodies;
  • Atonement opens deliverance from spiritual death;
  • Jesus Christ is stronger than both heads of the monster.

Teaching image: A frightened child calls for a parent because something seems to be under the bed. Hank Smith reverses the familiar scene: sin and death are real monsters, but the Father has sent the Son who actually finds and destroys them.2

3. The gate kept by Christ

Jacob’s path is demanding, but the gate is personal: “the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there” (2 Nephi 9:41). Final judgment is not outsourced to a stranger eager to reject us. The One at the gate is the same One who descended, suffered, died, rose, and invited us to come.

This image balances accountability and hope. The way is narrow because Christ does not rename death as life or pride as humility. Yet the Keeper has invested everything in bringing His children home.

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

2 Nephi 6:1–5 — A teacher accountable to God

“I am desirous for the welfare of your souls.”

Jacob has been called and consecrated, but office alone does not animate the sermon. Love does. He teaches what Nephi desires, yet he speaks what he believes God has given him. Authority, brotherly stewardship, scripture, and personal spiritual concern work together.

Verse 4 gives a useful test for teaching: Jacob will speak of “things which are, and which are to come.” Prophecy is not an escape from present discipleship. It locates present trouble inside God’s future.

Come, Follow Me connection: Before preparing a lesson, write the name of the people you hope to bless. “Desirous for the welfare of your souls” is a better beginning than “I need enough material to fill the hour.”

2 Nephi 6:6–7 — Children carried home

“Thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.”

Jacob begins with Isaiah 49:22–23. Kings and queens become nursing and foster parents. The world’s prestige is converted into service to covenant children. The image is deliberately intimate: gathering is not only a mass movement but one person carrying another.

The final promise is crucial: “they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.” Waiting is not divine abandonment. It can be covenant endurance while God works across generations.

Come, Follow Me connection: Whom can I carry one step toward Christ without controlling the rest of that person’s journey?

2 Nephi 6:8–11 — Return, rejection, scattering, remembrance

Jacob says Jerusalem’s destruction has been shown to him, then describes a future return, the Messiah’s mortal appearance, His rejection and crucifixion, renewed scattering, and eventual restoration when the people “shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer.”

The sequence resists blaming suffering mechanically on personal wickedness. Lehi’s family was scattered in part to be preserved, while Jerusalem’s covenant rebellion led to judgment. followHIM distinguishes scattering through covenant violation from scattering through God’s wise placement of covenant seed among nations.7

Jacob’s wording about those at Jerusalem should not be weaponized against Jewish people collectively. The Book of Mormon itself presents the gathering as God’s continuing fidelity to the house of Israel, and Christian disciples read the crucifixion first as a revelation of universal human sin and Christ’s universal redeeming love.

Come, Follow Me connection: The decisive gathering is coming to “the knowledge of their Redeemer,” not winning an argument about another people’s history.

2 Nephi 6:12–18 — The Mighty God delivers covenant people

“The Messiah will set himself again the second time to recover them.”

Those who believe “shall be saved,” and Jacob grounds that promise in Isaiah’s question: can prey be taken from the mighty? Humanly, some captors appear too strong. Divinely, the answer is that “the Mighty God shall deliver his covenant people.”

This does not authorize believers to glory in violence. The theological center is that no empire, addiction, grave, devil, or inherited estrangement is stronger than the Holy One of Israel. The divine warrior fights to liberate captives.

Come, Follow Me connection: Name one captivity that feels stronger than you. Then distinguish, without minimizing responsible action, between my power is insufficient and Christ’s power is insufficient.

2 Nephi 7:1–3 — “Have I cast thee off forever?”

“Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?”

Isaiah uses legal and economic metaphors. Where is the divorce document proving God dismissed Israel? To which creditor did He sell the people? No such document or creditor exists. Their sins caused estrangement, but God’s capacity and willingness to redeem remain.

The questions correct two opposite errors:

  1. Presumption: estrangement has no relationship to our choices.
  2. Despair: our choices have destroyed God’s ability or desire to redeem.

The Lord does not say sin is imaginary. He says sin is not stronger than His redeeming arm.

Come, Follow Me connection: When repentance exposes real responsibility, answer shame’s false conclusion with God’s question: “Is my hand shortened?”

2 Nephi 7:4–6 — The learned tongue and the suffering Servant

“I gave my back to the smiter … I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”

The Servant receives a learned tongue so he can speak “a word in season” to the weary. He listens morning by morning before he speaks. Christian readers naturally see Jesus Christ in the willing sufferer who does not retreat from humiliation; the passage can also describe Isaiah’s prophetic calling and the pattern of faithful servants. Mark Holt cautions against flattening Isaiah’s poetry to only one level; Israel, a prophet, and the Messiah can resonate within the servant image, while Jacob’s later exposition unmistakably centers redemption in Christ.8

Come, Follow Me connection: Before asking for eloquence, ask for an opened ear. The word that strengthens the weary is learned by listening to God.

2 Nephi 7:7–11 — Flint, vindication, and self-kindled fire

“The Lord God will help me.”

The Servant sets his face “like a flint,” not because suffering is painless but because God’s verdict outranks the mockers’ verdict. Garments and moths make mortality visible: opponents who seem permanent will wear out.

Verses 10–11 contrast trusting God in darkness with surrounding ourselves in sparks we have kindled. The warning is not against every human effort or technology. It is against substituting our manufactured light for revealed trust, then treating our own sparks as ultimate.

Come, Follow Me connection: What self-made light do I use to avoid dependence—control, reputation, money, expertise, anger, or constant distraction?

2 Nephi 8:1–3 — Look to the quarry

“Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah, she that bare you.”

The rock and quarry image asks covenant Israel to remember origins. Abraham was “one,” and Sarah was barren, yet God multiplied their family. Zion’s ruined places may look final, but the covenant began with human impossibility. God can make wilderness like Eden and fill waste places with joy.

Gospel Talktrine pictures Israel as stones cut from the same quarry: looking to Abraham and Sarah is not ancestor worship but remembering the God who creates covenant futures where none appear available.8

Come, Follow Me connection: Remember one beginning in your life that looked too small to become what God later made of it.

2 Nephi 8:4–8 — Salvation outlasts the heavens

“My salvation shall be forever.”

People fear reproach because other people seem immediate and solid. Isaiah relativizes that power: heavens can vanish like smoke, earth can age like a garment, and mortals can die like insects, but God’s salvation and righteousness endure.

This is not contempt for creation or human life. It is a scale correction. The loudest present judgment is not the final judgment.

Come, Follow Me connection: Which voice feels permanent only because it is loud today?

2 Nephi 8:9–11 — Awake, arm of the Lord

“Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?”

Zion prays for God’s arm to awake “as in the ancient days.” The sea-crossing imagery recalls the Exodus: God makes the depths a road for the redeemed. The “dragon” and Rahab personify chaos and hostile power. Jacob will soon translate this victory into Christ’s defeat of death and hell.6

The redeemed return with singing; “sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” This does not shame present mourners. It promises mourning is not eternal.

Come, Follow Me connection: Faith can say both “Awake, O Lord” and “everlasting joy shall be upon my head.” Lament and confidence may inhabit the same prayer.

2 Nephi 8:12–16 — Do not forget the Maker

“Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of man, who shall die?”

Fear expands oppressors and shrinks God. Isaiah reverses the proportions. The Lord stretched the heavens, laid the earth’s foundations, divided the sea, and put words in His people’s mouth. The captive exile’s release is not beyond Him.

The rebuke “hast forgotten the Lord thy maker” identifies a spiritual mechanism of fear: remembrance has collapsed. The solution is not pretending oppressors cannot harm. It is refusing to let mortal harm define ultimate reality.

Come, Follow Me connection: Pair each recurring fear with one remembered act or attribute of God.

2 Nephi 8:17–23 — The cup transferred

Jerusalem has drunk the cup of divine fury and lies exhausted. No human son can guide or comfort her. Then God pleads her cause and removes the cup.

The image prepares Christian readers for Jesus, who accepts the bitter cup and can therefore remove condemnation from the repentant. That Christ-centered connection is theological rather than a claim that every line has only one fulfillment. Jacob’s sermon itself authorizes the movement from Isaiah’s historical Zion to Christ’s saving work.

Come, Follow Me connection: God’s comfort is not always explanation. Sometimes it is the removal of a cup we could not remove ourselves.

2 Nephi 8:24–25 — Awake, arise, loose the bands

“Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem.”

The chapter began with Zion asking God to awake. It ends with God telling Zion to awake. Grace and response belong together. God breaks captivity; Zion must stand, dress, and loosen what remains around her neck.

This echoes Lehi’s “arise from the dust” and anticipates Jacob’s ending: “remember that ye are free to act for yourselves.” Deliverance restores agency rather than replacing it.

Come, Follow Me connection: What band has Christ made it possible for me to loosen now?

2 Nephi 9:1–3 — Isaiah is for rejoicing

“I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and lift up your heads forever.”

Jacob states his interpretive key. Isaiah’s scattering-and-gathering prophecies teach that God remembers covenants “from generation to generation.” The horizon exceeds one lifetime. A scattered generation can die in hope because God’s promise includes children and children’s children.

The BYU Studies lesson index groups Jacob’s sermon around covenant restoration, hope in Christ, Resurrection, Atonement, revelation, repentance, and the contrasting ways of life and death.9

Come, Follow Me connection: Scripture study has not reached Jacob’s intended end if it only produces information. It should also produce covenant-grounded rejoicing.

2 Nephi 9:4–5 — “In our bodies we shall see God”

Jacob moves from national future to universal mortality: flesh wastes and dies, yet embodied people will see God. The Messiah comes among those at Jerusalem, permits Himself to become subject to mortal cruelty, and dies “for all men, that all men might become subject unto him.”

The paradox is central: Christ accepts death at human hands and thereby gains victory over death for humanity. His subjection is voluntary condescension, not defeat.

Restoration parallel: Doctrine and Covenants 138:11–18 depicts the righteous dead rejoicing that Christ will redeem their bodies from the grave.

2 Nephi 9:6–7 — Why the Atonement must be infinite

“To fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection.”

Jacob’s logic is sequential:

  1. transgression brings the Fall;
  2. the Fall cuts humanity off from God;
  3. physical death passes upon all;
  4. without Resurrection, corruption remains endlessly;
  5. therefore an Atonement adequate to the universal and otherwise endless problem must be infinite.

Millet emphasizes the sense most immediate in Jacob’s argument: the Atonement answers the dilemma every mortal shares. It is also infinite in the divine identity and saving reach of the One who performs it, but Jacob’s first focus is the endless condition Christ interrupts.10

The official manual invites readers to hold together two truths: Christ’s Atonement is infinite like stars or grains of sand, yet also personal enough to rescue one person in one pit.1

Come, Follow Me connection: Do not let “infinite” become an abstraction. Name the specific separation from which you need Christ to gather you.

2 Nephi 9:8–9 — The world without Resurrection

“O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace!”

Jacob imagines the counterfactual. Without Resurrection, spirits remain separated from bodies and shut out from God, becoming subject to the devil. Paul makes the same indivisible connection: if Christ is not risen, faith is vain and humanity remains in sin (1 Corinthians 15:12–22).

followHIM summarizes the logic: if Christ cannot break bodily death as promised, there is no ground for trusting His power to forgive spiritual death. Resurrection is not a pleasant appendix to the Atonement; it is part of Christ’s one victory.11

Come, Follow Me connection: Finish the sentence slowly: “Because Jesus rose, I can trust Him to …”

2 Nephi 9:10–13 — Death and hell release their captives

“O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape.”

The awful monster has two forms of separation, but both must “deliver up their dead.” Bodies and spirits are restored to one another through “the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.” Paradise also delivers its spirits; Resurrection is universal, not a reward only for the righteous.

The repeated words deliver up turn grave and hell into defeated jailers. They do not voluntarily become kind. Christ’s power compels captivity to end.

Restoration parallel: Doctrine and Covenants 88:14–17 calls redemption of the soul the redemption of body and spirit together.

2 Nephi 9:14–16 — Perfect knowledge and embodied judgment

“We shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness.”

Resurrection restores memory and moral clarity as well as embodiment. The righteous are clothed with purity and know their enjoyment; the wicked know their guilt. Nakedness and clothing communicate exposed or graced identity.

This passage should not be used to intensify obsessive shame. Jacob’s sermon has already supplied the answer to uncleanness: the Holy One prepares escape. Honest judgment is fearful only if isolated from the Judge’s Atonement and invitation to repent.

Come, Follow Me connection: Repentance practices truthful self-knowledge now in the presence of mercy, rather than waiting for truth to arrive as unwelcome exposure.

2 Nephi 9:17–20 — The four great attributes

Jacob’s praise moves through divine character:

  • great justice — God’s words are fulfilled;
  • great mercy — saints are delivered from death and hell;
  • great holiness — God hates sin yet loves His children;
  • great knowledge — God knows all things.

Rau’s helpful synthesis is that hope trusts Christ’s mercy, integrity, and power.3 Mercy means He desires our rescue. Integrity means He does not forget covenant promises. Power means He can defeat what we cannot.

Come, Follow Me connection: Choose one divine attribute and explain why it gives you a reason to lift your head.

2 Nephi 9:21–24 — He suffers for the family of Adam

“He suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature.”

Christ’s saving work reaches men, women, and children “who belong to the family of Adam.” The immediate result Jacob names is that “the resurrection might pass upon all men.” He then commands all to repent, be baptized, and have “perfect faith in the Holy One of Israel.”

Perfect faith need not mean flawless emotional certainty. Millet reads it as complete reliance—trusting Christ rather than a divided portfolio of Christ plus self-salvation.2

The conditions of repentance and baptism do not purchase Resurrection. They describe receiving covenant salvation and standing in Christ at judgment.

Come, Follow Me connection: Where am I treating faith as confidence in my performance instead of reliance on the Holy One of Israel?

2 Nephi 9:25–27 — Law, accountability, and probation

Jacob distinguishes people without revealed law from those who possess commandments and knowingly transgress them. God does not condemn people for light they never received. Those who do receive law must not “waste the days of [their] probation.”

The distinction joins mercy and responsibility. Less knowledge is not a strategy for salvation, and more knowledge is not a trophy. Revealed truth creates the possibility of faithful response.

Come, Follow Me connection: Ask not only “What do I know?” but “What loving action does this light now make possible?”

2 Nephi 9:28–32 — The cunning plan of self-sufficiency

“To be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.”

Jacob does not condemn education, wisdom, or material resources in themselves. He condemns the proud substitution of learning for revelation and riches for covenant trust. “They think they are wise” and “suppose they know of themselves.” The problem is not thought but closed accountability.

The warnings to rich, deaf, and blind people are spiritual diagnoses. Hearts fixed on treasures cannot carry them beyond death. Ears that refuse to hear and eyes that refuse to see convert capacities into barriers.

Come, Follow Me connection: Good learning remains teachable. Good stewardship keeps resources movable toward God and neighbor.

2 Nephi 9:33–38 — The ten woes

Jacob warns liars, murderers, sexual sinners, idolaters, and those who die in sin. John W. Welch observes a tenfold pattern in verses 27–38 and compares it cautiously with scriptural uses of ten, including the Ten Commandments. His proposed themes include worthiness, consecration, testing, justice, reverence, penitence, Atonement, supplication, and ascent.12

The pattern is illuminating scholarship, not an official key required for salvation. Its clearest use is to show that Jacob’s “woes” are structured covenant warnings, not an emotional outburst.

Come, Follow Me connection: A warning is merciful when it names a road before the traveler reaches its end.

2 Nephi 9:39–43 — Two minds and one door

“To be spiritually-minded is life eternal.”

Jacob asks readers to remember the awfulness of transgression, then contrasts carnality with spiritual-mindedness. The keeper of the gate opens to those who knock, but proud learning, wisdom, and riches can make people unwilling to stoop.

Gospel Talktrine offers a useful reading of verse 42: the verse defines knocking as casting away pride, considering oneself a fool before God, and descending into humility. The point is not anti-intellectualism; it is bringing every strength to the door without demanding that Christ admit us because of it.13

Come, Follow Me connection: What credential, competence, or possession am I tempted to present as a substitute for a broken heart?

2 Nephi 9:44–49 — A teacher shakes the dust

Jacob symbolically shakes his garments and states that he has taught plainly enough to be free from his people’s blood. This is stewardship language, not self-congratulation. Love sometimes requires warning when silence would be easier.

Yet Jacob refuses moral distance: “I loathe sin” while loving righteousness and delighting in “the welfare of my soul.” A teacher can condemn sin without enjoying the condemnation of sinners.

Come, Follow Me connection: Plainness should be measured not by harshness but by whether truth and the path to Christ are actually clear.

2 Nephi 9:50–54 — Come without money and feast

“Come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not.”

The chapter that warned the rich ends with a market where saving food is offered “without money and without price.” Grace exposes the poverty of every mortal before God and then supplies what no mortal could buy.

Jacob closes by asking the people to pray continually, give thanks, and remember the words. Worship is how doctrine becomes covenant memory.

Come, Follow Me connection: Replace one week of hurried spiritual snacking with a deliberate feast: read, annotate, pray, and remain with one promise until gratitude appears.

2 Nephi 10:1–6 — Christ named and rejected

Jacob resumes the future of the Jews and says an angel revealed that the Messiah’s name would be Christ. He foretells crucifixion and scattering, then promises recovery when the people believe in Christ.

Again, the sermon’s posture toward Israel is covenant hope, not Christian contempt. The Lord’s response to rejection is a centuries-spanning labor to gather.

Come, Follow Me connection: The name Christ is not merely a label in the sermon. It gathers every prior image—Redeemer, Servant, Mighty God, Holy One, Creator, Judge, Gatekeeper—into one person.

2 Nephi 10:7–9 — Knowledge of Christ precedes restoration

“When the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ.”

The Lord’s covenant with the fathers remains active. Jacob again places spiritual recognition before establishment in lands of inheritance. Geography matters within scripture’s covenant story, but land without the Redeemer is not the sermon’s final gathering.

Come, Follow Me connection: Measure gathering by movement toward Christ, covenant, truth, and holiness—not merely by visibility or institutional activity.

2 Nephi 10:10–19 — A land consecrated against coercive kingship

Jacob applies covenant promises to the land where his people now live. He warns against kings who raise secret combinations and identifies the Lord as the true King. The political claims should be read within the Book of Mormon’s covenant ethic: power is accountable to God, freedom is preserved for worship, and no human ruler replaces the King of heaven.

The passage has been applied devotionally to the Americas, but it should not be converted into national self-worship. Consecrated land increases responsibility; it does not certify every policy, ruler, or people as righteous.

Come, Follow Me connection: Liberty reaches its covenant purpose when it enables people to worship God and protect one another from coercive power.

2 Nephi 10:20–22 — “We are not cast off”

“Let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads.”

Jacob interprets his own migration. They have been driven from inheritance but led to a better land; the sea became a path rather than a permanent barrier. Other branches on other isles remain within God’s knowledge.

Notice the order: remember Christ, lay aside sin, lift the head. Jacob neither says “cheer up because sin does not matter” nor “hang your head until you become worthy of hope.” Covenant remembrance supplies courage to repent.

Come, Follow Me connection: “Not cast off” is an identity from which repentance proceeds, not a reward postponed until repentance is flawless.

2 Nephi 10:23–25 — Agency, reconciliation, grace

“Cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves.”

Jacob echoes Lehi’s teaching in 2 Nephi 2. Freedom presents two actual ways: everlasting death and eternal life. Verse 24 then explains faithful action: “reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh.”

Jared Halverson makes the relationship to grace especially clear. Our work does not overpower the monster or earn heaven. It trains and yields the will so we can be reconciled. Even after that response, Jacob deliberately gives grace the final word: “it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved.”14

followHIM similarly cautions that “after all we can do” cannot mean Christ waits until we have exhausted every possible effort. Jacob’s earlier wording helps interpret Nephi’s later one: grace is above, beyond, and present throughout faithful response.15

The sermon ends where it began—with God gathering what has been separated. Resurrection reunites body and spirit. Atonement reconciles humanity and God. Repentance reconciles the human will to the divine will. Grace raises the disciple into eternal life.

Come, Follow Me connection: Agency is not independence from grace. It is the God-given capacity to stop resisting the One who alone can save.

The Logic of Jacob’s Plan

Condition without ChristChrist’s actGift to allCovenant invitationPromised end
Body and spirit separateHe dies and risesUniversal ResurrectionBelieve and receive His witnessIncorruptible embodied life
Humanity is cut off from GodHe performs an infinite AtonementA real way of escapeRepent, be baptized, exercise faithReconciliation and eternal life
Israel is scatteredHe remembers covenant and gathersContinuing divine invitationCome to Christ, His fold, and His doctrineCovenant belonging and inheritance
Truth exposes guilt and nakednessHe judges with justice, mercy, holiness, and knowledgeHonest and perfectly informed judgmentHumble the self; knock; comePurity, joy, and confidence
The will bends toward flesh and devilHe supplies commandments, Spirit, and graceAgency preservedReconcile the will to GodPraise “through grace divine”

“O” and “Wo”: Worship That Produces Moral Clarity

Jacob’s worship does not make him vague about evil. It makes him clearer.

Jacob’s exclamationWhat it reveals about God or the plan
“O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace!”The plan anticipates the otherwise endless catastrophe of the Fall
“O how great the goodness of our God!”God prepares escape from death and hell
“O how great the plan of our God!”Body and spirit will be restored; judgment will be embodied and true
“O the greatness and the justice of our God!”God’s words and moral order are fulfilled
“O the greatness of the mercy of our God!”Christ delivers saints from the monster
“O how great the holiness of our God!”God is holy, knows all, and saves without calling evil good

The “woes” are the negative image of the praise. Because life and learning are gifts, wasting probation and becoming proud in knowledge are tragic. Because Christ opens the gate, refusing humility is tragic. Because grace offers life without price, fixing the heart on perishing treasure is tragic.

Teaching Illustrations and Activities

1. Two-color reading: without Christ / because of Christ

Use the official manual’s suggestion for 2 Nephi 9:1–26.1

  • Mark in one color every consequence without Christ.
  • Mark in another every result because of Christ.
  • Circle every verb describing Christ’s action.
  • End by writing a one-sentence testimony beginning, “Because Jesus Christ …”

This keeps Atonement doctrine from becoming a list of abstract terms.

2. The plan on one page

Don’t Miss This tells of a seminary class asked to draw the plan of salvation. Most diagrams contained the expected circles and arrows. Two students wrote one large word: Jesus. The teacher later retrieved their pages from a dumpster because the insight would not leave her: Christ is not one box within the plan; every stage depends on Him.16

Have learners draw the familiar plan, then write What does Jesus do here? beside every stage.

3. Scattering and gathering with torn paper

Write these pairs on a page, then tear between them:

  • body | spirit
  • humanity | God
  • Israel | covenant homeland
  • human will | divine will

Reassemble the page while reading 2 Nephi 9:11–13 and 10:24–25. The paper cannot atone, but the visual makes Jacob’s repeated logic visible: Christ gathers what separation has torn.

4. Carry and awaken

Place two verbs on opposite sides of the board:

  • CARRIED — 2 Nephi 6:6–7
  • AWAKE / ARISE — 2 Nephi 8:24–25

Ask why grace sometimes carries helpless people and sometimes commands strengthened people to stand. Reject the false choice between divine rescue and human response.

5. Name the monster accurately

Draw a two-headed monster. Label one head physical death and the other spiritual death. Under each, list what Christ does. Do not label ordinary inconveniences as the monster; Jacob’s image deserves its full seriousness.

Then cover both heads with the title Holy One of Israel and read verses 10–13 aloud.

6. The gatekeeper interview

Ask:

  • Who owns the gate?
  • Who keeps it?
  • What has the Keeper already done for those approaching?
  • What must proud travelers lay down to knock?
  • How does this image change fear of judgment?

Keep both halves of the text: “the way is narrow” and “whoso knocketh, to him will he open.”

7. Infinite and personal

Follow the manual’s invitation to consider stars, sand, or grass as images of vastness. Then place one person’s name beside the image. Ask: How can Christ’s work be universal without becoming impersonal?

8. “I will” covenant inventory

Search 2 Nephi 10 for what the Lord says He will do. followHIM notes how repeated divine commitments build trust: God still remembers promises made to Abraham centuries earlier.2

Make two columns:

  • What God promises
  • What Jacob invites us to remember, lay aside, choose, and reconcile

9. A path of two plans

The official manual contrasts “the merciful plan of the great Creator” with “the cunning plan of the evil one.” Draw two paths. Populate them only with Jacob’s own words from 2 Nephi 9:27–52. Notice that the evil plan often disguises itself as self-sufficiency, appetite, prestige, or delay.

Covenant Application

When I feel cast off

  • Tell the truth about estrangement or loss.
  • Refuse the conclusion that God’s hand is shortened.
  • Remember a covenant promise.
  • Take the next act of repentance or trust.
  • Let another person carry you when strength is small.

When learning becomes pride

  • Keep studying; Jacob says learning is good.
  • Ask what evidence could correct you.
  • Submit interpretations to scripture, revelation, and charity.
  • Distinguish expertise in one field from wisdom about all reality.
  • Bring the gift to Christ’s gate rather than using it to demand entry.

When death becomes immediate

Jacob does not ask mourners to call death harmless. He calls it an awful monster. Christian hope is not liking death; it is trusting the risen Christ who makes death release every captive. Grief can therefore remain grief while losing its claim to be the final chapter.

When discipleship feels like earning

Reconciliation of the will matters. Commandments matter. Repentance matters. None of them makes Christ unnecessary; each turns the disciple toward Christ. Grace is not the remainder after our contribution. It is the divine gift that creates the path, empowers the response, forgives the failure, defeats the monster, and raises the dead.

Questions for Personal Study and Teaching

  1. Why would Isaiah’s images of carried children matter especially to Jacob?
  2. What forms of scattering had Jacob personally experienced?
  3. Why does Jacob place restoration to Christ’s fold before restoration to lands?
  4. How do Isaiah 49–52 and 2 Nephi 9 belong to one sermon rather than two topics?
  5. What is the difference between God casting people off and people estranging themselves through sin?
  6. How does “Is my hand shortened?” answer despair without denying accountability?
  7. What can the suffering Servant teach someone who must speak “a word in season” to the weary?
  8. When have I walked by self-kindled sparks instead of trusting God in darkness?
  9. What does Abraham and Sarah’s story teach a person looking at “waste places”?
  10. Why can mourning be faithful even when everlasting joy is promised?
  11. Where does God’s command “Awake” meet my prayer asking Him to awake?
  12. What kinds of separation does Jacob describe?
  13. Why must the Atonement be infinite in Jacob’s argument?
  14. What is lost if Resurrection is treated as separate from the Atonement?
  15. Why does Jacob call death and hell a monster rather than an inconvenience?
  16. Which “O” exclamation best expresses my present gratitude?
  17. How do justice, mercy, holiness, and knowledge work together in God’s judgment?
  18. What does “perfect faith” mean if it is focused on Christ rather than my emotional certainty?
  19. How does Jacob preserve both universal Resurrection and meaningful covenant response?
  20. What is the difference between being learned and thinking I am wise “of myself”?
  21. What strength am I tempted to turn into pride?
  22. How does humility become a form of knocking at Christ’s gate?
  23. Why are Jacob’s warnings evidence of pastoral love?
  24. What does it mean to feast on what cannot perish?
  25. How can Christians discuss Jacob’s prophecies about the Jews without contempt or collective blame?
  26. How does “we are not cast off” strengthen rather than weaken repentance?
  27. What does agency enable that self-salvation cannot accomplish?
  28. What part of my will most needs reconciliation to God?
  29. Why does Jacob put grace after reconciliation and still say grace alone saves?
  30. What would it look like this week to carry one person toward Christ?

Assigned reading

Isaiah sources and essential parallels

Useful Internal Connections

← Previous: 2 Nephi 3–5 | Next: 2 Nephi 11–19 →

Annotated Source Guide

Official and scriptural sources

  • Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Book of Mormon 2024, February 19–25. Establishes the exact official title and lesson unit. Its teaching sequence emphasizes covenant mercy in 2 Nephi 6–8, deliverance from sin and death in 2 Nephi 9:1–26, the infinite Atonement, the contrast between God’s merciful plan and the evil one’s cunning plan, and joy through Christ in 2 Nephi 10.1
  • 2 Nephi 6–10 with Isaiah 49–52 and Restoration parallels. Primary authority for the guide. Isaiah, 1 Corinthians 15, Jacob 4, Alma 34 and 40–42, Doctrine and Covenants 88 and 138 are used as explicit parallels rather than replacements for Jacob’s text.

BYU Studies index and scholarship

  • BYU Studies Come, Follow Me index, lesson 8. Checked as the authoritative curated index. It identifies chapter-specific resources on Jacob’s use of Isaiah, covenant fulfillment, hope in Christ, divine-warrior imagery, the ways of life and death, the ten woes, Atonement, Resurrection, and the Fall.9
  • Allan D. Rau, “‘Cheer Up Your Hearts’: Jacob’s Message of Hope in Christ.” Supplies historical-emotional context for Jacob and develops hope as trust in Christ’s mercy, integrity, and power. It also connects Jacob’s “awful monster” with Isaiah’s divine-warrior imagery. Scholarly devotional interpretation, not official curriculum.3
  • Robert J. Matthews, “The Atonement of Jesus Christ: 2 Nephi 9.” Organizes the chapter into restoration, Fall and Atonement, revelation versus worldly wisdom, and exhortation to repentance. Matthews explicitly states that he is responsible for his interpretation and does not speak officially for the Church or university.17
  • Leland Gentry, “God Will Fulfill His Covenants with the House of Israel.” Contributes the map of Jacob’s Isaiah quotations and the five purposes Jacob gives for teaching them.4
  • John W. Welch, “Counting to Ten.” Proposes that Jacob’s ten woes participate in a wider scriptural pattern of tenfold moral completeness. The guide labels this as literary scholarship rather than settled doctrine.12

2024 and local series sources

  • followHIM episode 8, Dr. Robert L. Millet (2024). The proofread PDF was already local; this run created and verified a searchable companion Markdown extraction. The episode contributes the scattering/Fall and gathering/Atonement parallel, gathering first to Christ, Resurrection as inseparable from Atonement, covenant trust, grace after reconciliation, and the monster-under-the-bed teaching image.2
  • Unshaken, 2 Nephi 6–10, parts 1–2. Jared Halverson’s local transcripts contribute Jacob’s personal connection to being carried, the fusion of Isaiah’s gathering with Lehi’s plan of salvation, the awful-monster image, and the distinction between reconciling the will and attempting to earn salvation.5
  • Gospel Talktrine, S03E07. Mark Holt’s local transcript contributes the literary map of the sermon, layered reading of Isaiah, exile as a type of death and gathering as resurrection, the temple resonance of “infinite atonement,” and humility as the act of knocking at Christ’s gate.8
  • Don’t Miss This, 2 Nephi 6–10. The local transcript is from an earlier Book of Mormon calendar alignment but covers the exact chapter unit. It contributes practical Isaiah-reading guidance and the memorable classroom illustration in which the plan of salvation is summarized by one word: Jesus.16

Local collection audit

A full-vault search by assigned reading, official title, date, aliases, and legacy locations found no preexisting substantive guide, partial guide, or exact-title Inbox placeholder for 2 Nephi 6–10. The previous guide already linked forward to this exact intended title in both navigation locations. The next official guide, 2 Nephi 11–19, was not yet written, so this guide links to its exact official intended title without creating a placeholder.

Matching local material was found in all recurring Book of Mormon series collections requested by the vault instructions: Unshaken, Gospel Talktrine, Don’t Miss This, and the followHIM Book of Mormon 2024 PDF collection. The followHIM PDF existed locally and was verified as a nontrivial 54-page PDF; its new Markdown extraction preserves page markers for bounded citation. No separate matching local Scripture Central series episode was found during this run; that statement describes the present local audit only.

Footnotes

Footnotes

  1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “February 19–25: ‘O How Great the Plan of Our God.’ 2 Nephi 6–10,” Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Book of Mormon 2024 (2023), https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/come-follow-me-for-home-and-church-book-of-mormon-2024/08?lang=eng. Official curriculum. The page was checked for the exact title, assigned chapters, opening historical frame, and section emphases. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Robert L. Millet with Hank Smith and John Bytheway, “‘O How Great the Plan of Our God,’ 2 Nephi 6–10,” followHIM episode 8 (2024), local proofread PDF BM-08-Dr.-Robert-Millet-2-Nephi-6-10-followHIM-Podcast-SHOW-NOTES.pdf and searchable extraction BM-08-Dr.-Robert-Millet-2-Nephi-6-10-followHIM-Podcast-SHOW-NOTES.md, especially extraction lines 339–366, 429–500, 1922–2054. Scholarly-devotional interpretation. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. Allan D. Rau, “‘Cheer Up Your Hearts’: Jacob’s Message of Hope in Christ,” Religious Educator 14, no. 3 (2013): 49–63, https://rsc.byu.edu/vol-14-no-3-2013/cheer-your-hearts-jacobs-message-hope-christ. Rau’s hope framework and reading of Jacob’s experience are religious scholarship, not an official psychological diagnosis or curriculum statement. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Leland Gentry, “God Will Fulfill His Covenants with the House of Israel,” in The Book of Mormon: Second Nephi, the Doctrinal Structure, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1989), 159–76, https://rsc.byu.edu/book-mormon-second-nephi-doctrinal-structure/god-will-fulfill-his-covenants-house-israel. Historical and literary scholarship. ↩ ↩2

  5. Jared Halverson, “Come Follow Me—2 Nephi 6–10 (part 1)—Carried on Their Shoulders,” Unshaken, local transcript Come Follow Me - 2 Nephi 6-10 (part 1) - Carried on their Shoulders, especially lines 131–169 and 287–302; and “part 2—O How Great the Plan of Our God,” Come Follow Me - 2 Nephi 6-10 (part 2) - O How Great the Plan of Our God, especially lines 128–176, 255–311, and 1204–1242. Devotional and literary interpretation. ↩ ↩2

  6. Rau, “Cheer Up Your Hearts,” section discussing Isaiah’s Rahab/dragon and Jacob’s monster; Rau cites Daniel Belnap’s ancient Near Eastern divine-warrior analysis. This is literary-historical context, not a claim that Greek or Near Eastern myths are themselves restored doctrine. ↩ ↩2

  7. Millet with Smith and Bytheway, followHIM episode 8, local extraction cited in note 2, lines 1802–1883. The distinction between punitive and providential scattering is a scriptural-theological interpretation. ↩

  8. Mark Holt, “2 Nephi 6–10—S03E07,” Gospel Talktrine, local transcript S03E07 - 2 Nephi 6-10, especially lines 28–60, 88–152, 174–192, and 213–270. Holt’s layered Isaiah readings and applications are devotional interpretation; his discussion explicitly distinguishes interpretation from official Church teaching. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. BYU Studies, “Explore resources for studying the Come, Follow Me lesson—‘O How Great the Plan of Our God,’” Book of Mormon lesson 8 index, https://byustudies.byu.edu/come-follow-me/book-of-mormon/8. Curated scholarly index; individual linked authors remain responsible for their interpretations. ↩ ↩2

  10. Millet with Smith and Bytheway, followHIM episode 8, local extraction cited in note 2, lines 480–502. Millet identifies this as the Book of Mormon’s first explicit mention of an “infinite atonement” and explains its immediate relation to the universal mortal dilemma. ↩

  11. Millet with Smith and Bytheway, followHIM episode 8, local extraction cited in note 2, lines 503–588. The episode compares Jacob with 1 Corinthians 15 and argues that Resurrection and forgiveness belong to one Atonement rather than two unrelated gifts. ↩

  12. John W. Welch, “Counting to Ten,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 2 (2003), https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol12/iss2/6/. Literary and comparative scholarship; the numerical pattern is not presented here as official doctrine. ↩ ↩2

  13. Holt, “2 Nephi 6–10—S03E07,” local transcript cited in note 8, lines 220–242. Humility as a definition of knocking is Holt’s close-reading application of 2 Nephi 9:42. ↩

  14. Halverson, “O How Great the Plan of Our God,” local transcript cited in note 5, lines 1204–1242. The training-the-will illustration is devotional interpretation used to distinguish sanctifying response from self-salvation. ↩

  15. Millet with Smith and Bytheway, followHIM episode 8, local extraction cited in note 2, lines 2007–2042. The explanation of grace as above and beyond rather than chronologically withheld is theological commentary. ↩

  16. David Butler and Emily Belle Freeman, “Come Follow Me—2 Nephi 6–10,” Don’t Miss This, local transcript Come Follow Me 2 Nephi 6-10 (Feb 10-16), especially lines 435–500. The file’s older calendar date differs from the 2024 week, but its assigned chapters match exactly. The classroom story is a devotional teaching illustration. ↩ ↩2

  17. Robert J. Matthews, “The Atonement of Jesus Christ: 2 Nephi 9,” in The Book of Mormon: Second Nephi, the Doctrinal Structure, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1989), 177–99, https://rsc.byu.edu/book-mormon-second-nephi-doctrinal-structure/atonement-jesus-christ-2-nephi-9. Matthews explicitly labels the interpretations as his own rather than official Church or university positions. ↩

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