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3 Nephi 20–26 — Ye Are the Children of the Covenant

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aliases3 Nephi 20-26, 3 Nephi 20–26, Ye Are the Children of the Covenant, October 14–20 3 Nephi 20–26, The Covenant Sermon, Children of the Covenant, Christ Gathers Israel, Search the Words of Isaiah

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Come, Follow Me — October 14–20, 2024

Official lesson: “Ye Are the Children of the Covenant.” — 3 Nephi 20–26. The manual centers the week on God’s latter-day marvelous work, His mercy toward people who return, searching and recording scripture, tithing, and Elijah’s work of turning hearts. It makes the covenant personal: “when Jesus speaks of the house of Israel, He is talking about you.”1

← Previous: 3 Nephi 17–19 — Behold, My Joy Is Full | Next: 3 Nephi 27–4 Nephi — There Could Not Be a Happier People →

3 Nephi 20–26 — “Ye Are the Children of the Covenant”

Key Verse

“And behold, ye are the children of the prophets; and ye are of the house of Israel; and ye are of the covenant … And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.” — 3 Nephi 20:25

Why These Seven Chapters Belong Together

At first these chapters can feel like a crowded attic of scripture: sacrament, Isaiah, Micah, Moses, Abraham, Gentiles, Jerusalem, New Jerusalem, record keeping, Malachi, tithing, Elijah, sealed teachings, speaking children, and a covenant community with all things common. The unity becomes visible when one question is placed over the whole block:

How does the risen Christ gather people who have been scattered—from lands, from ancestors, from scripture, from covenant identity, from one another, and from God?

Jesus answers by doing and teaching one continuous work:

  1. He gathers the people to Himself sacramentally and fills them with the Spirit (20:1–9).
  2. He gathers Israel to covenant memory, weaving Moses, Isaiah, Micah, and Abraham into a promise centered in the Redeemer (20:10–21:29).
  3. He gathers the forsaken into mercy, using Isaiah’s image of a deserted wife whose tent must be enlarged for returning children (22:1–17).
  4. He gathers revelation into a trustworthy record, commanding His people to search, write, correct, expound, and teach scripture (23:1–14).
  5. He gathers a people capable of His presence, using Malachi’s images of refining, returning, offering, remembrance, and Elijah’s sealing work (24:1–25:6).
  6. He gathers readers into a test of faith, giving a “lesser part” before greater things and then showing the fruit of received revelation: Spirit-filled disciples, children who speak, mutual ministry, economic justice, and the church of Christ (26:1–21).

The chapters begin with people eating Christ’s offered bread and end with a people doing “all things even as Jesus had commanded them.” Between those scenes, covenant identity moves from a title to a life.

The governing thesis is:

To be a child of the covenant is not merely to inherit a sacred family name. It is to be found by the Redeemer, brought to a knowledge of Him, filled with His Spirit, refined into holiness, joined to ancestors and descendants, and sent to bless every kindred of the earth. God remembers His covenant so that His people can become rememberers, gatherers, record keepers, tithe payers, temple servants, teachers, and ministers.

What to Watch for While Reading

  • Mark every form of covenant, remember, gather, return, redeem, inheritance, people, children, and Father.
  • Notice that gathering is repeatedly defined as being “brought to the knowledge of the Lord their God, who hath redeemed them” (3 Nephi 20:13). Geography matters in the prophecies, but relationship with the Redeemer is their spiritual center.
  • Track the groups Jesus addresses: the descendants of Lehi, the larger house of Israel, the Jews and Jerusalem, and the Gentiles. Do not collapse every promise or warning into one audience.
  • Watch Jesus move between old scripture, corrected scripture, and newly given scripture. Revelation honors earlier prophets while continuing beyond what a community already possesses.
  • Ask what the violent harvest and judgment images are doing. The text warns against hardened hearts and unrepentant oppression. Some modern devotional teachers read the Micah imagery primarily as threshing and gathering; that reading should be attributed rather than used to erase the text’s judgment language.2
  • Follow the progression of sacred records: Isaiah must be searched; Jesus’s words must be written; Samuel’s fulfilled prophecy must be restored to the record; Malachi must be added; Mormon must include the commanded “lesser part”; some revelations must not yet be written.
  • Compare Isaiah 54’s images: barren woman, enlarged tent, covenant marriage, receding flood, beautiful stones, taught children, unprosperous weapons. Each turns desolation into belonging.
  • In 3 Nephi 24, do not isolate tithing from the chapter’s larger question: Who can abide the Lord’s coming? Returning, purification, economic justice, offerings, tithing, faithful speech, remembrance, and belonging all answer that question.
  • In 3 Nephi 25, notice that Elijah’s promise is not an appendix to gathering Israel. Turning hearts creates a covenant people across generations and “both sides of the veil.”2
  • In 3 Nephi 26, hold together revelation withheld and revelation poured out. Adults receive only a lesser written part, while children speak greater things that are not permitted to be written. God is not stingy; He teaches His people how to receive sacred abundance faithfully.

Historical and Literary Context

The Second Day Continues

Chapter 19 ends with Jesus praying among purified disciples. Chapter 20 opens without a scene change: He tells the multitude and disciples to cease vocal prayer but “not cease to pray in their hearts,” then miraculously provides bread and wine. The sermon is therefore not delivered to a detached lecture audience. It is spoken to a praying, sacrament-filled people who have just cried with one voice and given glory to Jesus.

That order matters. Covenant prophecy is not introduced as information for predicting headlines. It is taught inside communion with Christ. The people eat, are filled with the Spirit, worship, and then hear who they are and what the Father intends to do through them.

The “Covenant Sermon”

The BYU Studies lesson index calls 3 Nephi 20–26 the Covenant Sermon because Jesus explains the Father’s promises through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel, and their descendants.3 The unit is not a string of proof texts. Jesus creates a scriptural mosaic in which one prophetic voice interprets another:

Passage in 3 NephiEarlier scriptural voiceContribution to the sermon
20:10–14Isaiah and covenant traditionscattered remnants gathered to knowledge of their Redeemer
20:15–20Micah 4:12–13; 5:8–9remnant, lion, harvest, threshing, consecrated gain, and judgment
20:22covenant with JacobNew Jerusalem and divine presence
20:23–24Deuteronomy 18:15–19Jesus identifies Himself as the prophet like Moses
20:25–27Abrahamic promise; compare Genesis 22:18covenant children are blessed in order to bless all kindreds
20:29–46Isaiah 52:1–15Jerusalem awakened, redeemed, cleansed, and shown God’s salvation
21:8–10Isaiah 52:15 and restoration prophecyan astonishing work and a servant in God’s hand
21:12–21Micah 5:8–15remnant imagery, removal of false securities and idolatry
22:1–17Isaiah 54Zion gathered with everlasting kindness and covenant peace
24:1–18Malachi 3messenger, temple, refining, justice, return, tithing, remembrance
25:1–6Malachi 4day of the Lord, healing, Moses, Elijah, roots and branches

The BYU Studies quotation chart identifies nineteen Old Testament quotations in 3 Nephi 16–24.3 Exact source boundaries can be debated, especially where Jesus blends prophetic phrases without naming the prophet. The secure point is that He expects His hearers—and later readers—to search, compare, and hear one covenant story across the scriptures.

Jesus as the Prophet Like Moses—and More than Moses

S. Kent Brown observes that Third Nephi repeatedly recalls Moses: Jesus gives law on a mount or at a temple, miraculously provides food, speaks of a new exodus, and directly applies Moses’s promised “prophet like unto me” to Himself.4 Moses mediated deliverance, covenant, law, manna, and a promised land. Jesus does not merely repeat that pattern. He is the Redeemer to whom Moses’s pattern points.

The second sacrament strengthens the connection. Israel received manna in the wilderness; the Nephites receive bread that was not brought by disciples or multitude. Yet Jesus interprets the gift beyond physical survival: “He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul” (20:8). The new exodus is finally a journey out of sin, death, estrangement, and unbelief through Christ.

One Sermon, Several Audiences

Dr. Ross Baron usefully slows down the pronouns and group labels in chapter 20: “this people” can refer to the people connected with Lehi; “house of Israel” names the larger covenant family; “Gentiles” identifies a different prophetic audience; and “my people” can narrow toward the Jews in passages about Jerusalem.2 This is a devotional reading of the discourse’s grammar, not a complete ethnic map, but it prevents a common mistake: assuming that every “they,” “you,” and “my people” means the same group.

The prophecies also contain severe warnings to Gentiles and covenant Israel alike. Covenant identity never grants immunity from repentance. The Gentiles can be numbered with Israel if they repent, come to Christ, are baptized, and do not harden their hearts (21:6, 22). Covenant descendants can likewise be scattered or cut off through unbelief. The dividing line is not racial superiority; it is response to the Beloved Son.

Gathering: Address and Allegiance

Unshaken summarizes the Book of Mormon’s distinctive emphasis with a memorable contrast: “attitude before address” and “lifestyle before location.”5 The text does promise lands of inheritance—Jerusalem and New Jerusalem—but it repeatedly defines gathering as coming to know, believe in, pray through, and covenant with Jesus Christ.

President Russell M. Nelson teaches that one fruitful meaning of Israel is “let God prevail” and describes gathering Israel as helping people on either side of the veil take steps toward making covenants with God.6 This modern prophetic application does not erase the chapters’ historical peoples or promised lands. It shows how the covenant sermon addresses a disciple now: every sincere act that helps a person let God prevail participates in the gathering.

The Covenant Pattern

1. God Remembers People Who Feel Forgotten

The Nephites descend from a branch removed from Israel’s ancient homeland. The official manual begins with their feeling that they were “lost from” the body of Israel, then answers with Christ’s declaration: “Ye are of the house of Israel” and “ye are of the covenant.”1

The emotional force of those words should not be lost in genealogy. Christ looks at a people whose old world was far away, whose cities had just fallen, and whose survivors had endured darkness. He tells them they have not fallen outside the Father’s memory.

Covenant remembrance in these chapters is active:

  • God brings scattered people to knowledge of their Redeemer.
  • He gives inheritance and establishes Zion.
  • He turns people from iniquity.
  • He pours out the Holy Ghost.
  • He restores Jerusalem.
  • He brings scripture from one people to another.
  • He gathers the forsaken with mercy.
  • He hears faithful people speak and writes a book of remembrance.
  • He sends Elijah to bind generations.

A covenant is not divine nostalgia. It is God’s reliable determination to redeem, gather, teach, and transform.

2. Covenant Blessing Becomes Covenant Vocation

The title verse does not end with “you are special.” It immediately recalls the promise to Abraham: “in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed” (20:25). Jesus then defines His own blessing as “turning away every one of you from his iniquities” (20:26) and extends the Holy Ghost to the Gentiles (20:27).

The order is crucial:

  1. Christ turns and blesses covenant children.
  2. Blessed covenant children become instruments through whom other kindreds are blessed.
  3. Those outsiders who come to Christ are numbered among the covenant people.
  4. The enlarged people assist in gathering still others.

This pattern refuses both covenant pride and covenant passivity. A family chosen to bless all families cannot use chosenness as a wall.

Don’t Miss This describes gathering as “kingdom community”: no boundary on love or welcome, with God redeeming, protecting, establishing, and then sending gathered people to carry rescue outward.7 That is devotional application, but it captures the movement of 20:25–27: filled people become poured-out people.

3. The Sign Is a Book in Motion

In chapter 21, the sign that the Father’s work has commenced is not an unexplained spectacle. It is these very words moving through history: Christ’s teachings are recorded among Lehi’s descendants, come to the Gentiles, and then return from the Gentiles to the descendants of the people who first heard them.

The Book of Mormon is therefore both message and event:

  • Its message declares Jesus Christ and the Father’s covenant.
  • Its coming forth enacts a movement between estranged peoples.
  • Its reception offers repentance, baptism, doctrine, and covenant belonging.
  • Its existence signals that gathering has “already commenced” (21:7).

Gospel Talktrine cautions against reducing this sign to a countdown clock for the Second Coming. Its more immediate referent is the covenant work Christ has been describing: widespread turning of hearts toward Him through the Restoration.8 That interpretation fits the chapter’s own language of a work commencing, words coming forth, people repenting, and scattered Israel being prepared to come to Christ.

4. The Gatherer Builds a Tent, Not a Trophy Case

Isaiah 54, quoted as 3 Nephi 22, changes the sermon’s emotional register. The earlier images of lions, threshing, judgment, and cities give way to a woman who feels barren, forsaken, ashamed, widowed, storm-tossed, and uncomforted.

Then the commands come:

“Enlarge the place of thy tent … lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes.” — 3 Nephi 22:2

A trophy case displays a few achievements behind glass. A tent stretches to shelter returning children. Zion must strengthen its stakes precisely because mercy is bringing more people home.

Cynthia L. Hallen’s study of Isaiah 54 emphasizes the linguistic joining of barrenness, Zion, earth, divine servants, and God’s astonishing covenant kindness.9 The chapter’s deepest security is not that mountains will remain; it is that God’s kindness will remain when mountains do not:

“For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed.” — 3 Nephi 22:10

This is not a promise that covenant life avoids grief. The woman has known grief. It is a promise that grief, shame, displacement, opposition, and even creation’s apparent permanence do not outlast the Redeemer’s covenant mercy.

5. A Covenant People Keeps a Trustworthy Memory

Chapter 23 shows Jesus reviewing the community’s record and finding a fulfilled prophecy missing. He does not shame Nephi into paralysis. He asks a direct question, brings the omission to memory, and commands a correction.

The sequence offers a durable pattern for sacred record keeping:

ActionTextPractice
Search23:1, 5look across a text for patterns, witnesses, and fulfillment
Give heed23:4grant the word sustained attention
Hearken23:5receive in a way that leads to repentance and covenant action
Write23:4, 13preserve what God has done and said
Audit23:7–11compare promise, event, and record
Correct23:12–13repair omissions without pretending the first draft was complete
Expound in one23:14connect separate witnesses around Christ’s work
Teach23:14pass understood scripture into community memory

The manual asks what the Savior might ask if He examined our records and what spiritual experiences ought to be preserved.1 followHIM adds a practical reason: forgotten sacred experiences can become available again during a hard day when they have been written and can be reread.2

For a linked personal practice, see Family Scripture Study. The invitation here is not to produce a polished autobiography. It is to keep enough faithful evidence that descendants can see where promises were fulfilled, mercy arrived, and God was present.

6. Refining Prepares an Offering

Malachi asks, “Who may abide the day of his coming?” and answers with refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap. Fire separates precious metal from dross; fuller’s soap removes embedded soil from cloth. Both images imply change more searching than surface improvement.

The refining has an outward purpose: purified people “offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness” (24:3). Judgment then names exploitation that worship cannot conceal—false oaths, adultery, oppression of workers, neglect of widows and fatherless children, and turning aside strangers (24:5). Holiness includes what happens to vulnerable people in an economy and community.

Tithing belongs in that larger return:

“Return unto me and I will return unto you.” — 3 Nephi 24:7

The storehouse, the Lord’s house, the windows of heaven, fruitful fields, and a delightsome land are communal images. The official manual teaches the law of tithing and invites attention to blessings that are not necessarily monetary.1 followHIM’s devotional application similarly frames tithing as formation of the giver’s heart, not a purchase of priesthood or prosperity.2

The promise should not be turned into a guaranteed financial-return formula. The chapter itself names nonmonetary covenant goods: returning to God, purification, justice, faithful remembrance, belonging among His “jewels,” and the ability to discern service to God.

7. Elijah Extends Gathering through Time

Chapter 25 joins Moses and Elijah at the close of the covenant sermon. Moses represents law and covenant at Horeb. Elijah brings priesthood keys that turn hearts and bind generations. In Restoration scripture, Doctrine and Covenants 2 renders the promise as planting in children’s hearts the promises made to the fathers, and Doctrine and Covenants 110:13–16 records Elijah’s appearance in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836.

Dr. Baron, drawing on his Jewish upbringing, describes setting a place and opening a door for Elijah during the Passover Seder. He connects Elijah’s Kirtland Temple appearance during Passover with the gathering of Israel and covenant work for the dead.2 The historical and doctrinal claim of Elijah’s return is official Restoration teaching; the personal Seder explanation is Baron’s lived devotional perspective.

The roots-and-branches image makes the doctrine tangible:

  • Roots without branches have no living future.
  • Branches without roots have no sustaining past.
  • Sealing does not turn either generation into an object. It turns hearts—attention, love, responsibility, memory, and covenant hope.

Gathering is therefore not complete when living people occupy the same room. It reaches backward and forward until the human family can be offered to Christ in covenant connection.

8. The Lesser Part Is a Doorway, Not a Dismissal

Mormon says less than one percent of Jesus’s teaching could be written, then calls what he does include “a lesser part” given first “to try their faith” (26:6–11). The test is not whether readers can guess the sealed material. It is whether they will believe, search, and live what has already been given.

Unshaken compares the text to a free sample whose goodness should create hunger for the full gift—but adds the necessary discipline: read the unsealed portion before demanding the sealed one.5 Gospel Talktrine similarly treats these chapters as a witness to how much revealed scripture remains underused, not merely how much future revelation remains unavailable.8

Then Christ overturns assumptions about who receives and communicates “greater things.” He loosens children’s tongues, and they speak truths greater than those He had revealed to the multitude. followHIM sees here the Savior’s unthreatened generosity: He is glad for children to carry the revelatory moment rather than protecting His place in the limelight.2

The chapter ends with the mature fruit of revelation:

  • baptism in Jesus’s name;
  • filling with the Holy Ghost;
  • seeing and hearing sacred things;
  • teaching and ministering one to another;
  • holding all things common;
  • dealing justly;
  • doing what Jesus commanded;
  • being called the church of Christ.

Greater light produces a more covenantal people, not merely more impressive religious vocabulary.

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

3 Nephi 20 — Filled, Gathered, and Commissioned

3 Nephi 20:1–2 — Vocal Prayer Ceases; Heart-Prayer Continues

“He commanded them that they should not cease to pray in their hearts.”

Jesus ends one form of prayer without ending communion. The multitude must stand, eat, listen, and later act; inward prayer can continue through each activity.

This corrects two errors. Prayer is not only audible speech, and constant prayer does not require withdrawal from embodied duties. A heart can remain turned toward the Father while hands break bread, ears receive scripture, feet gather, and records are written.

Come, Follow Me connection: Before scripture study, ask one question aloud. Then let the question remain in the heart while reading rather than filling every silence with more words.

3 Nephi 20:3–9 — Bread from No Human Supply

“There had been no bread, neither wine, brought by the disciples, neither by the multitude; but he truly gave unto them.”

On the first day, disciples brought bread and wine (18:1–3). Here no one has brought them. Jesus supplies the sacramental meal and explains its inward reach: body and blood are received “to his soul,” hunger and thirst give way to fullness, and the multitude is explicitly “filled with the Spirit.”

Brown’s Moses comparison is illuminating: wilderness Israel received manna, while this people receives miraculous bread from the risen Christ, the prophet like and greater than Moses.4 The sign points beyond appetite to the Giver’s redeeming body and blood.

The people cry “with one voice.” Sacramental unity is not sameness of biography; it is many persons receiving one Christ and giving glory together.

Come, Follow Me connection: Ask not only, “What did I bring to worship?” but also, “What can Christ give that no one in the room could manufacture?”

3 Nephi 20:10–14 — Isaiah, Covenant, and Knowledge of the Redeemer

Jesus resumes the Isaiah teaching paused at the end of chapter 16. The people already have the words before them, but possession is not comprehension: “therefore search them.”

The fulfillment of Isaiah is defined covenantally. Scattered remnants come from every direction and are “brought to the knowledge of the Lord their God, who hath redeemed them.” The compass points show breadth; the Redeemer gives the gathering its center.

Restoration parallel: 1 Nephi 15:12–16 connects Lehi’s branch, scattering, the Gentiles, knowledge of the true Messiah, and grafting into the olive tree.

Come, Follow Me connection: When evaluating a gathering effort, ask whether it merely increases proximity or actually helps people know the Lord who redeemed them.

3 Nephi 20:15–20 — Lion, Threshing Floor, Justice, and Repentance

Jesus combines Micah’s lion and harvest imagery. The passage is severe: enemies are cut off, a remnant is compared to a lion, sheaves are gathered to a floor, horn becomes iron, hoofs become brass, and the sword of justice hangs over unrepentant nations.

Dr. Baron reads the immediate frame as harvest rather than ethnic violence: horns signify strength, “beat in pieces” belongs to threshing, and consecrated gain is brought to the Lord.2 That reading offers a valuable restraint against using the passage to fantasize about modern racial revenge. Still, the text retains judgment. It condemns scattering, hardened hearts, idolatry, oppression, and refusal to repent.

The agent is finally Christ: “I am he who doeth it” (20:19). Covenant servants do not receive a license for private vengeance.

Come, Follow Me connection: Use spiritual strength to gather and consecrate, never to dehumanize a group under the cover of prophecy.

3 Nephi 20:21–22 — Established People, New Jerusalem, Divine Presence

“The powers of heaven shall be in the midst of this people; yea, even I will be in the midst of you.”

New Jerusalem is not defined only by a map coordinate or construction project. Its decisive feature is Christ in the midst of an established covenant people. The place and people belong together.

This anticipates the final community in 26:19–21 and 3 Nephi 27–4 Nephi, where Christ’s gospel produces a society without contention and with all things common.

Come, Follow Me connection: Build Zion by preparing places for Christ and becoming a people among whom His ways can remain.

3 Nephi 20:23–24 — “I Am He” of Whom Moses Spoke

Jesus directly claims Moses’s prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15–19. The command to hear the promised prophet is no longer abstract: “I am he.” All prophetic witness converges on Him.

Peter later applies the same Moses prophecy to Jesus and immediately quotes the Abrahamic promise (Acts 3:19–26), the same sequence found here. Jesus is the promised prophet and the covenant blessing through whom families of the earth can turn from iniquity.

Come, Follow Me connection: Searching prophets succeeds when it increases hearing and obeying Christ, not merely collecting parallels.

3 Nephi 20:25–27 — Children of Prophets, Israel, and Covenant

The title verse gives a threefold identity:

  • children of the prophets — heirs to witness and responsibility;
  • house of Israel — members of a covenant people God refuses to forget;
  • children of the covenant — beneficiaries and bearers of Abraham’s blessing.

Jesus explains “bless” morally and spiritually: He turns each person from iniquity, then pours the Holy Ghost upon Gentiles. The covenant is fulfilled not by preserving a closed bloodline but by spreading Christ’s transforming blessing.

This belongs beside Mosiah 18–24 — We Have Entered into a Covenant with Him, where covenant belonging likewise becomes bearing burdens, mourning, comforting, witnessing, and serving.

Come, Follow Me connection: Complete the sentence, “Because Christ has turned and blessed me, someone else can be blessed this week when I …”

3 Nephi 20:28–35 — Hard Hearts, Remembered Covenant, and Jerusalem’s Joy

Gentile power is morally ambiguous. It can help carry the record and gospel, yet it can scatter, dominate, and harden itself against Christ. Privilege becomes accountability.

God then declares, “I will remember the covenant.” The Jews will receive the fulness of the gospel, believe in Jesus Christ, pray to the Father in His name, see eye to eye, and sing as Jerusalem is comforted and redeemed.

“See eye to eye” need not mean identical opinions on every question. In Isaiah 52 it is the shared sight of the Lord restoring Zion. Unity grows from recognizing the same redeeming act.

Come, Follow Me connection: Where has a blessing become entitlement? Convert it back into stewardship, repentance, and service.

3 Nephi 20:36–42 — Awake, Dress, Rise, and Depart Cleanly

Isaiah addresses Zion and Jerusalem with embodied commands:

  1. awake;
  2. put on strength;
  3. put on beautiful garments;
  4. shake off dust;
  5. rise;
  6. sit in rightful dignity;
  7. loosen captive bands;
  8. depart uncleanness;
  9. bear the Lord’s vessels cleanly.

Doctrine and Covenants 113:7–10 interprets strength as priesthood power and the bands as curses associated with scattered Israel. Redemption “without money” does not mean without cost; Christ bears the redemptive cost that captivity could not pay.

The herald’s beautiful feet announce peace, good, salvation, and God’s reign. Don’t Miss This imagines families under threat repeating this promise at night: one day the messenger will come over the hill, chains will be removed, and Zion will rise.7

Come, Follow Me connection: Choose one waking action. What dust, band, unclean practice, or defeated posture does Christ ask you to leave?

3 Nephi 20:43–46 — The Marred and Exalted Servant

The servant is prudent, exalted, marred, and astonishing to nations. Jesus carries Isaiah 52 to its close but does not quote Isaiah 53 here. The unit keeps the servant imagery tied to God’s covenant work and Jerusalem’s restoration.

Different Latter-day Saint interpreters have connected servant texts with Christ, Joseph Smith, latter-day servants, or covenant Israel depending on the passage. Avoid forcing every servant reference into one identity without textual care. Here the sure declarations are that God’s work will astonish rulers and that the Father’s covenant will be fulfilled.

Come, Follow Me connection: God’s servants can be wounded without God’s work being defeated. Do not mistake visible marring for final abandonment.

3 Nephi 21 — The Book Comes Forth and the Work Commences

3 Nephi 21:1–7 — The Sign That Can Be Held in the Hands

Jesus gives a sign: these teachings will be made known to Gentiles and then come from them to the descendants of this people. When those descendants begin to know these things, “the work of the Father hath already commenced.”

The sign is fulfilled in motion, not mere printing. A book comes forth so people can know their ancestors, Christ’s doctrine, and the Father’s covenant; repent; be baptized; and be numbered with Israel.

The Gentiles’ role is instrumental, not self-congratulatory. The record comes “from the Father.” Its custodians must not harden their hearts against the people whose ancestors preserved it.

Come, Follow Me connection: Treat the Book of Mormon as a relationship entrusted for return—not a cultural possession used to elevate one people above another.

3 Nephi 21:8–11 — A Great and Marvelous Work and a Servant in God’s Hand

The work surprises those who have not heard. A servant is marred but kept in God’s hand and healed. God’s wisdom exceeds the devil’s cunning.

Latter-day Saints commonly connect the brought-forth words with Joseph Smith and the Restoration. The text’s center remains Jesus: the servant brings forth “my words, who am Jesus Christ” (21:11). Belief in the instrument should lead to hearkening to the Author.

Restoration parallel: 2 Nephi 28–29 warns Gentile readers not to reject additional scripture or claim God has spoken only to them.

Come, Follow Me connection: Marvel at the work, but then receive the words. Admiration without repentance leaves the sign unopened.

3 Nephi 21:12–21 — False Securities Are Cut Off

Micah’s imagery returns: lion, horses, chariots, cities, strongholds, witchcraft, soothsayers, images, groves, lies, envy, strife, priestcraft, and sexual sin are removed. The list joins military power, occult control, manufactured gods, social corruption, and religious exploitation.

The common thread is false security—anything trusted instead of the Father’s Beloved Son. “Cut off” can sound like arbitrary rage, but the repeated condition is refusal to repent and come to Christ.

Come, Follow Me connection: Which modern stronghold promises control but prevents trust in Christ—money, reputation, technology, ideology, secrecy, resentment, or self-sufficiency?

3 Nephi 21:22–29 — Repentant Gentiles Assist; Christ Stands in the Midst

The warning turns on “if”: if the Gentiles repent and hearken, they enter the covenant, are numbered with the remnant, and assist in building New Jerusalem and gathering scattered people. Covenant inclusion produces collaborative service.

The sequence widens:

  1. a church established;
  2. people enter the covenant;
  3. remnants and Israel are assisted;
  4. New Jerusalem is built;
  5. scattered people gather;
  6. heaven’s power descends;
  7. Christ is in the midst;
  8. the gospel reaches dispersed and lost tribes;
  9. the Father prepares a way among all nations.

“They shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight” contrasts panic with guided exodus. The Father goes before; He is also the rearward. No faithful traveler is outside His care.

Come, Follow Me connection: Entering the covenant is not replacing another people. It is joining the work of assisting, building, and gathering under Christ.

3 Nephi 22 — Everlasting Kindness and an Enlarged Zion

3 Nephi 22:1–3 — Sing before the Tent Is Full

The barren woman is commanded to sing before the promised children appear. Faith does not deny desolation; it prepares space in expectation that desolation will not have the final word.

“Lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes” balances reach and rootedness. Cords without strong stakes collapse; stakes without lengthened cords shelter no one new.

Unshaken turns this into a vivid church image: stronger stakes exist to bear the weight of a larger tent as God’s children come home.5

Come, Follow Me connection: What must be strengthened so welcome can be safely widened—doctrine, listening, language access, mentoring, transportation, child care, repentance, or follow-up?

3 Nephi 22:4–10 — Shame Replaced by Covenant Peace

The Lord speaks to Zion as maker, husband, Redeemer, Holy One of Israel, and God of the whole earth. Those names answer her fears:

  • barren does not mean uncreated;
  • forsaken does not mean unmarried forever;
  • captive does not mean unredeemable;
  • local desolation does not limit the God of the whole earth.

“A small moment” must not be used to minimize a sufferer’s long grief. The contrast describes eternity’s scale and mercy’s endurance, not permission to rush mourning.

The Noah comparison turns judgment imagery into covenant assurance: just as the flood will not return, divine kindness and covenant peace will not be removed.

Come, Follow Me connection: When circumstances feel unstable as mountains, anchor in the one thing the verse says will not move: the Lord’s covenant kindness.

3 Nephi 22:11–17 — Storm-Tossed Stones, Taught Children, and God-Given Righteousness

God does not tell the afflicted that the tempest was imaginary. He rebuilds with beauty: fair colors, sapphires, agates, carbuncles, pleasant stones. The city’s true treasure is then named: children taught by the Lord and great peace among them.

The final promise, “No weapon … shall prosper,” does not promise no weapon will be formed or no tongue will accuse. It promises that opposition cannot cancel the servants’ heritage. Even their righteousness is “of me, saith the Lord” (22:17); Zion cannot boast that she rebuilt herself.

Parents carrying sorrow over children should receive verse 13 as hope, not as a timetable or a weapon of pressure. The Lord teaches persons with agency; covenant peace can be trusted without coercion.

Come, Follow Me connection: Pray for the Lord to teach a child, then ask what kind of home, class, or relationship makes His peace easier to recognize.

3 Nephi 23 — Search, Write, Correct, and Teach

3 Nephi 23:1–5 — The Savior Commands a Search

“A commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah.”

Searching differs from merely finishing pages. It involves questions, repeated terms, cross-references, audiences, images, fulfillment, and Christ-centered application. followHIM notes the force of the wording: this is more than a book recommendation.2

Jesus gives reasons. Isaiah concerns Israel and therefore also the Gentiles; his words have been and shall be fulfilled; Christ’s words must be written and later go to Gentiles; hearkening should lead to repentance, baptism, and salvation.

Come, Follow Me connection: Search one image rather than racing through a chapter. Trace “awake,” “gather,” “servant,” “tent,” or “covenant” across 3 Nephi 20–22 and Isaiah 52–54.

3 Nephi 23:6–14 — Jesus Audits the Record

Jesus asks for the record, verifies Samuel’s prophecy, verifies its fulfillment, identifies the missing report, and commands its inclusion. Nephi’s omission does not disqualify him from continuing as prophet. Correction strengthens the record.

The missing event matters: resurrected saints appeared and ministered. A promise had become history, but without the record descendants could lose the evidence that God fulfilled it.

Don’t Miss This turns the scene into a hopeful discipline: write important experiences while details are alive, because years later a small preserved detail may restore confidence that larger promises can also be fulfilled.7

Jesus then “expounded all the scriptures in one.” Unity does not mean flattening authors or contexts. It means showing how distinct witnesses converge in the Father’s work through Christ.

Come, Follow Me connection: Audit one journal year. Add a dated note for a prayer answered, covenant made, grief carried, prompting followed, or promise partly fulfilled. Label memory honestly if details are uncertain.

3 Nephi 24 — The Messenger, the Refiner, and the Returning People

3 Nephi 24:1–6 — Suddenly to His Temple

The Nephites could not have brought Malachi’s post-Lehi record on the brass plates. Jesus commands that the Father’s words to Malachi be written, then expounds them. Continuing revelation adds to canon without dishonoring earlier scripture.

The messenger prepares the way; the Lord comes suddenly to His temple; the messenger of the covenant arrives. The question is not only When will He come? but Who can abide His presence?

Refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap are controlled processes aimed at purity and usefulness. Christ sits as refiner; He is not an arsonist destroying indiscriminately. Yet purification is not sentimental. Verse 5 places moral weight on wages, widows, fatherless children, strangers, sexual fidelity, truthful speech, and rejection of sorcery.

“For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (24:6) grounds survival in divine covenant constancy, not Israel’s flawless record.

Come, Follow Me connection: Ask where worship and justice have been separated. What offering would become more righteous if a worker, widow, child, or stranger were treated differently?

3 Nephi 24:7–12 — Return, Tithes, Storehouse, and Open Heaven

The people ask, “Wherein shall we return?” God names tithes and offerings. Giving reveals whether covenant gratitude has become concrete.

Doctrine and Covenants 119 gives the latter-day law of tithing. The manual explains that members with income pay tithing and points readers to the Church’s uses of sacred funds and to Elder David A. Bednar’s teaching about subtle, nonmonetary “windows of heaven” blessings.110

The agricultural promises fit an ancient community: devourer rebuked, fruit preserved, land called delightsome. Modern application should preserve the covenant principle without promising every tithe payer a raise, crop, or escape from hardship.

A window opens from above; a storehouse receives from below. Covenant economy has both directions: God pours out, and His people bring in so there is “meat in my house.”

Come, Follow Me connection: Review tithing as worship, not merely arithmetic. What has giving taught the heart about ownership, trust, gratitude, and the needs of God’s household?

3 Nephi 24:13–18 — Stout Words and a Book of Remembrance

A third temptation appears: concluding that service is vain because proud or wicked people seem to prosper. Malachi does not deny the apparent evidence. He changes the time horizon and the community of interpretation.

Those who fear the Lord “spake often one to another.” God hears, and a book of remembrance is written. Faithful speech creates a counter-memory against cynicism. The people become the Lord’s “jewels” or treasured possession, spared as children who serve.

The final discernment comes after “return.” Present appearances do not always reveal who is flourishing eternally.

Come, Follow Me connection: Replace one stout sentence—“It is vain,” “Nothing changes,” “Why bother?”—with a remembered instance of grace shared with another disciple.

3 Nephi 25 — Healing, Moses, Elijah, Roots, and Branches

3 Nephi 25:1–4 — Fire and the Son of Righteousness

The same coming is burning to pride and healing to those who reverence God. The “Son of Righteousness” rises with healing in His wings; the image combines dawn, refuge, and restoration.

“Neither root nor branch” portrays the isolating end of unrepented wickedness. Verse 4 responds by commanding Israel to remember Moses’s law at Horeb. The covenant people prepare for future glory by remembering received commandments.

The text’s fire imagery should awaken repentance, not speculation about which neighbors will burn. followHIM wisely applies the discernment first to one’s own soul rather than authorizing external judgment.2

Come, Follow Me connection: Let Christ burn away pride now through repentance so His coming can be experienced as healing rather than exposure.

3 Nephi 25:5–6 — Elijah Turns Hearts

Elijah’s return prevents the earth from being left under a curse. Restoration scripture explains why: priesthood keys make possible sealing and covenant work for the dead (Doctrine and Covenants 110:13–16).

Turning a heart includes more than collecting names. It can mean:

  • learning an ancestor’s story without romanticizing harm;
  • preserving photographs and documents;
  • repairing living family relationships where safe and possible;
  • preparing names for temple ordinances;
  • teaching children promises made to covenant fathers and mothers;
  • seeing oneself as a steward between generations.

The manual asks how hearts have turned through temple and family history work.1 A simple answer can be concrete: one name learned, one story recorded, one ordinance completed, one child told why the ancestor matters.

Come, Follow Me connection: Put one root and one branch on this week’s calendar: serve one ancestor through research or ordinance work and bless one descendant or younger person through story, attention, or testimony.

3 Nephi 26 — The Lesser Part and the Greater Fruit

3 Nephi 26:1–5 — Christ Expounds the Whole Story

Jesus expounds “all things,” from beginning to final judgment. Mormon summarizes the horizon: creation’s destiny, Christ’s glory, resurrection, judgment, mercy, justice, and holiness.

The three attributes belong together. Mercy without justice would make harm meaningless; justice without mercy would leave no path home; holiness names the divine life into which Christ redeems His people.

Come, Follow Me connection: Read prophecy as part of the plan of redemption, not as isolated disaster imagery. Ask what each future scene reveals about Christ’s mercy, justice, and holiness.

3 Nephi 26:6–12 — A Hundredth Part and a Trial of Faith

Mormon distinguishes records:

  • the plates of Nephi contain the “more part” of Jesus’s teachings;
  • Mormon writes a “lesser part” for later readers;
  • the lesser part is expedient first;
  • reception and belief prepare for greater manifestation;
  • rejection leads to greater things being withheld.

This is an ethic of revelation. Sacred knowledge is not withheld to flatter insiders. It is given according to what people will receive faithfully. The trial is visible in the current page: Will a reader search Isaiah, receive covenant warnings, tithe, record God’s works, turn to ancestors, and minister justly—or merely complain about the missing ninety-nine parts?

Come, Follow Me connection: Before asking for new revelation, list one revealed truth already waiting for obedience.

3 Nephi 26:13–16 — Repeated Bread and Children’s Greater Things

Mormon compresses time. Jesus teaches for three days, appears often afterward, and breaks bread often. Covenant communion becomes a repeated rhythm, not a once-in-history spectacle.

Jesus ministers to children and loosens their tongues. The children speak to their fathers; the revelatory direction reverses ordinary classroom hierarchy. On the next day even babes speak, while adults are forbidden to write the words.

The record protects two truths:

  1. children can genuinely receive and communicate divine things;
  2. sacred testimony does not authorize adults to invent what Mormon was forbidden to record.

Come, Follow Me connection: Ask a child an open scripture question and listen without rushing to improve the answer. Protect the child from performance pressure; revelation is gift, not entertainment.

3 Nephi 26:17–21 — Revelation Becomes a Just Community

The disciples baptize and teach. The baptized are filled with the Holy Ghost. People see and hear unspeakable things, then teach and minister to one another. They hold all things common and deal justly.

The sequence refuses a split between mystical experience and social ethics. Unspeakable revelation bears visible fruit in shared goods, justice, obedience, and mutual ministry.

“They did do all things even as Jesus had commanded them.” The lesser written part has become a fuller lived part. They are called “the church of Christ” because His name, ordinances, Spirit, commands, and social pattern shape them.

Come, Follow Me connection: Measure scripture study by one communal fruit: Did it make someone easier to teach, more willing to share, more just in dealing, or more ready to minister?

Teaching Illustrations

The Magnet and the Map

Place a map on a table and a magnet at its center. The map represents promised lands, dispersed peoples, roads, and nations. The magnet represents the Redeemer.

A map without the magnet can reduce gathering to moving bodies or decoding geography. A magnet without the map can ignore real histories, peoples, and covenant lands. Third Nephi keeps both: people gather home to inheritance and are brought to knowledge of the Lord who redeemed them.

Question: Is this ministry moving someone merely toward our group, or toward Jesus Christ?

The Expanding Tent

Use a small cloth, four stakes or weights, and cords. Add objects representing returning people. If the cords lengthen but the stakes remain weak, the tent collapses. If the stakes strengthen but the cords never lengthen, newcomers remain outside.

  • Lengthen: invitation, language, access, patience, outreach.
  • Strengthen: doctrine, covenant, repentance, trained leaders, safe practice, durable care.

Zion needs both.

The Sacred Record Audit

Show two columns:

Promise or promptingWhat actually happened
“Call this person.”“I called; the timing mattered.”
“I will not leave thee.”“Help came through …”
“Teach this child.”“The child later said …”

Nephi’s record had the prophecy but lacked the fulfillment. Invite learners to add one honest fulfillment note—not to force every unanswered prayer into a neat ending, but to preserve evidence that would otherwise disappear.

The Refiner and the Fuller

Display a tarnished metal object and a stained cloth. Neither becomes useful by being praised as already clean. Neither is hated by the person restoring it.

Refining asks: What does Christ love enough to remove?

Fulling asks: What stain has become embedded in habits, money, speech, sexuality, work, or treatment of vulnerable people?

The goal is an “offering in righteousness,” not humiliation.

The Open Window and the Storehouse Door

Draw a vertical window and a horizontal door.

  • Through the window, God pours blessings that cannot always be reduced to cash.
  • Through the door, covenant people bring tithes and offerings so the Lord’s house can serve His work.

This keeps tithing from becoming either a prosperity formula or a mere invoice. It is a relationship of return, trust, worship, and shared provision.

Roots and Branches at One Table

Place an empty chair for an ancestor and another for a future descendant. Ask:

  • What story from the first chair must not be lost?
  • What covenant, healing, or warning should reach the second chair?
  • What can I do in the temple, archive, journal, or living relationship to turn my heart both directions?

Avoid pressuring anyone to disclose family trauma. Turning hearts can include truthful boundaries and Christ-centered healing.

The One-Percent Sample

Offer one small, excellent piece of food and keep the rest covered. Ask what a wise response to the sample would be:

  • complain that the rest is hidden;
  • claim to know the covered recipe;
  • savor, examine, and receive what was given;
  • let the goodness increase readiness for more.

Then read 3 Nephi 26:6–11. The “lesser part” tests appetite by obedience.

Covenant Application

Personal Study

  • Search one repeated word across all seven chapters and record what changes from first occurrence to last.
  • Write one spiritual experience whose fulfillment or meaning could otherwise be forgotten.
  • Review tithing and offerings as indicators of the heart’s trust, not merely completed transactions.
  • Identify one false stronghold—an image, habit, possession, or source of control—that competes with letting God prevail.
  • Take one concrete step in family history or temple service.
  • Obey one known truth before asking the Lord for a “greater thing.”

Family

  • Build a simple three-generation tree and tell one honest, age-appropriate story for each person known.
  • Read 3 Nephi 22:10 and ask, “What stays when mountains move?”
  • Let a child select and explain a favorite verse without correcting every phrase.
  • Keep a family “book of remembrance” with brief dated entries of mercy, growth, and answered prayer.
  • Explain tithing through gratitude and the Lord’s work rather than fear or promised wealth.
  • Choose one way the family tent can be enlarged for a lonely, new, returning, or grieving person.

Ward or Class

  • Distinguish gathering people to Christ from recruiting them into a social circle.
  • Teach Micah’s severe imagery with attribution and restraint; never map scriptural enemies casually onto modern ethnic groups.
  • Pair lessons on temple preparation with 3 Nephi 24:5’s demands for economic and relational justice.
  • Make room for children and youth to speak without turning them into inspirational props.
  • Preserve local spiritual history: conversion accounts, service during crisis, building dedications, and fulfilled prayers.
  • Ask whether programs both lengthen cords and strengthen stakes.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

  1. Why does Jesus administer the sacrament before beginning the covenant sermon?
  2. What does being “filled with the Spirit” add to the meaning of sacramental fullness?
  3. How does 3 Nephi 20:13 define gathering?
  4. Why is it important to distinguish the people of Lehi, the broader house of Israel, Jews, and Gentiles in these prophecies?
  5. How can Micah’s lion and threshing imagery be taught without either celebrating ethnic violence or erasing divine judgment?
  6. What makes Jesus like Moses, and in what ways is He greater?
  7. Why does covenant identity immediately lead to blessing “all the kindreds of the earth”?
  8. How is the Book of Mormon both a message about gathering and an event within gathering?
  9. What false securities does 3 Nephi 21 remove before Zion can be established?
  10. What is the difference between lengthening cords and strengthening stakes?
  11. Which image in Isaiah 54 best speaks to shame, grief, family sorrow, or displacement?
  12. What does “covenant of my peace” promise—and what does it not promise?
  13. How is searching scripture different from reading it once?
  14. Why did the omitted fulfillment of Samuel’s prophecy matter enough for Jesus to correct the record publicly?
  15. What sacred experience would be lost to descendants if it remained unwritten?
  16. How do refiner’s fire, economic justice, tithing, and a book of remembrance answer “Who may abide?”
  17. What blessings of tithing cannot be measured financially?
  18. Why are Moses and Elijah placed together near the sermon’s end?
  19. What is the difference between collecting ancestor data and having a heart turned to the fathers?
  20. How does the “lesser part” try a reader’s faith?
  21. What does Jesus’s delight in children’s speech reveal about His character?
  22. Why do unspeakable spiritual experiences lead in the narrative to shared goods and just dealing?
  23. What would it look like for Christ—not a program, ethnicity, or institution alone—to be “in the midst” of a gathered people?
  24. Which covenant blessing received by you is ready to become a blessing offered through you?

Assigned Reading

Major Parallels

Annotated Source Guide

Official and Scriptural

  1. Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Book of Mormon 2024, lesson 42. Supplies the exact official title and the curriculum’s central applications: covenant identity, marvelous work and gathering, mercy toward returners, searching and recording scripture, tithing, and Elijah’s heart-turning mission.1
  2. 3 Nephi 20–26 and its scriptural parallels. The controlling evidence. The study guide’s structure follows the text’s movement from sacrament through covenant prophecy, scripture and records, Malachi, restrained revelation, children, and covenant community.
  3. Russell M. Nelson, “Let God Prevail.” Official general conference teaching that gathering Israel occurs as people let God prevail and receive covenant opportunities on both sides of the veil.6

Scholarly Research

  1. BYU Studies Come, Follow Me index, lesson 42. Curates chapter-specific material and identifies the unit as the Covenant Sermon. A retained local note records direct and tangential entries rather than treating every indexed item as equally relevant.3
  2. S. Kent Brown, “Moses and Jesus: The Old Adorns the New.” Gives the strongest historical-literary frame for Jesus as prophet like and greater than Moses, including miraculous food and new-exodus prophecy.4
  3. Cynthia L. Hallen, “The Lord’s Covenant of Kindness.” Contributes a focused scholarly lens on Isaiah 54’s barren woman, Zion, restored children, and covenant kindness. Only the public abstract and bibliographic page were available in this run, so no claim here depends on unretrieved full text.9
  4. Welch and Welch’s Old Testament quotation and Isaiah charts. Help inventory the prophetic mosaic. They are linked in the retained BYU Studies source note.3

2024 and Local Series Material

  1. followHIM with Dr. Ross Baron. Adds careful audience distinctions, Micah harvest framing, Moses and temple connections, sacred-record application, tithing as heart formation, Jewish Passover context for Elijah, and attention to Christ’s generosity toward children. The proofread 59-page PDF and complete searchable extraction are retained locally.2
  2. Unshaken with Jared Halverson. Contributes the sermon-ranking hook, gathering as both spiritual and geographic, “attitude before address,” the enlarged-tent image, Isaiah 54 family hope, scripture-searching discipline, and the “lesser part” as a test of appetite.5
  3. Gospel Talktrine, S03E40. Contributes gathering as inward transformation, exile/gathering as death/resurrection imagery, the Book of Mormon sign as commenced covenant work rather than a countdown clock, scripture-record density, and the value of what is already revealed.8
  4. Don’t Miss This. Contributes the “kingdom community” application, covenant blessing flowing outward to every kindred, record keeping as evidence for trusting larger promises, and scripture study that moves the reader to action.7

No separate matching 2024 Scripture Central video transcript was found in the local Sources/Series collection during this run. Scripture Central-hosted scholarship was audited through the BYU Studies index; the Hallen archive page exposed bibliographic data and an abstract, not the complete chapter.11

← Previous: 3 Nephi 17–19 — Behold, My Joy Is Full | Next: 3 Nephi 27–4 Nephi — There Could Not Be a Happier People →

Source Notes and Footnotes

Footnotes

  1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “October 14–20: ‘Ye Are the Children of the Covenant.’ 3 Nephi 20–26,” Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Book of Mormon 2024 (2023), official manual page. Official curriculum. The opening personalizes house-of-Israel language for baptized covenant makers; lesson sections emphasize the latter-day marvelous work (3 Nephi 20–22), mercy toward returners (22; 24), recording spiritual experiences (23:6–13), searching scripture (20:10–12; 23; 26:1–12), tithing (24:7–12), and Elijah’s return (25:5–6). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  2. Ross Baron with Hank Smith and John Bytheway, “3 Nephi 20–26: ‘Ye Are the Children of the Covenant,’” followHIM Podcast (2024), retained proofread PDF at Sources/PDFs/followhim_book_of_mormon_2024/BM-42-Dr.-Ross-Baron-3-Nephi-20-26-followHIM-Podcast-SHOW-NOTES.pdf and complete searchable extraction at BM-42 — Dr. Ross Baron — 3 Nephi 20–26 — followHIM Podcast Show Notes. Devotional and historical interpretation. See Part 1 timecodes 22:00–32:52 for sacrament, audience distinctions, Micah, and gathering; Part 2 11:12–17:16 for records; 17:16–35:43 for Malachi, refining, and tithing; 36:44–45:55 for Elijah and family history; 45:55–50:07 for Mormon’s abridgment and children. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  3. BYU Studies, “Ye Are the Children of the Covenant,” Book of Mormon Come, Follow Me lesson 42, lesson index; retained local research map: BYU Studies Come, Follow Me — Ye Are the Children of the Covenant — 3 Nephi 20–26. Curated scholarly index, not an official Church interpretation. It calls 3 Nephi 20–26 the Covenant Sermon and indexes Welch and Welch’s quotation charts, Russell M. Nelson, S. Kent Brown, Garold N. Davis, Cynthia L. Hallen, John W. Welch, and related resources. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. S. Kent Brown, “Moses and Jesus: The Old Adorns the New,” in From Jerusalem to Zarahemla: Literary and Historical Studies of the Book of Mormon (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1998), 157–68, complete essay. Latter-day Saint scholarship, not official curriculum. Brown argues that miraculous bread and wine, new-exodus prophecy, law, and Christ’s explicit use of Deuteronomy 18 establish Moses as a type and Jesus as the promised greater deliverer. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Jared Halverson, “Come Follow Me — 3 Nephi 20–26 — Children of the Covenant,” Unshaken (2024), local transcript: Come Follow Me — 3 Nephi 20–26 — Children of the Covenant, YouTube. Devotional interpretation. Especially relevant are transcript lines 77–105 for gathering as the sermon’s unifying word; 134–182 for physical and spiritual gathering; 740–782 for Isaiah 54; 783–842 for searching, records, and Malachi; and 845–883 for the lesser part and children. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Russell M. Nelson, “Let God Prevail,” October 2020 general conference, official text. Official prophetic teaching. President Nelson gives “let God prevail” as one Hebraic meaning of Israel and teaches that gathering Israel includes helping people on both sides of the veil move toward covenants with God. ↩ ↩2

  7. David Butler and Emily Belle Freeman, “Come Follow Me 3 Nephi 20–26,” Don’t Miss This (2020, retained in the Book of Mormon local series collection), local transcript: Come Follow Me 3 Nephi 20–26, YouTube. Devotional interpretation. See transcript lines 150–214 for gathering and outward covenant blessing; 224–255 for the Book of Mormon sign and New Jerusalem; 322–328 for Isaiah’s covenant kindness; and 360–451 for records, searching, action, and Isaiah 52 hope. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. Mark Holt, “3 Nephi 20–26,” Gospel Talktrine, episode S03E40 (October 16, 2020), local transcript: 3 Nephi 20–26 — S03E40, canonical SoundCloud episode. Devotional interpretation. Relevant transcript lines include 38–62 for Old Testament gathering context; 130–152 for inward gathering and exile/resurrection; 180–218 for the Book of Mormon sign, holiness, and Isaiah 54; 220–254 for records, Malachi, and revealed scripture; and 244–268 for the lesser part and children. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. Cynthia L. Hallen, “The Lord’s Covenant of Kindness: Isaiah 54 and 3 Nephi 22,” in Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch, eds., Isaiah in the Book of Mormon (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1998), 313–49, Scripture Central bibliographic record and abstract. Latter-day Saint linguistic scholarship, not official doctrine. The publicly retrieved page states that the study connects the barren woman with Zion, earth, the Lord’s servants, and God’s merciful covenant love; the full chapter text was not exposed by that page during this run. ↩ ↩2

  10. The official manual’s tithing section links Doctrine and Covenants 119, the Gospel Topics entry “Tithing,” and David A. Bednar, “The Windows of Heaven”, October 2013 general conference. These are official Church sources. The guide follows their emphasis on the law and on blessings that are often subtle or nonmonetary rather than teaching tithing as a guaranteed financial-return formula. ↩

  11. Local source audit for this run searched the vault by 3 Nephi 20–26, hyphen/en-dash variants, “Children of the Covenant,” lesson 42, series names, and neighboring lesson titles. Matching local items were found for followHIM, Unshaken, Gospel Talktrine, and Don’t Miss This. No separate matching 2024 Scripture Central series transcript was found; Scripture Central material surfaced through the BYU Studies index and the Hallen archive record. This reports only the August 7, 2026 local/current search, not permanent unavailability. ↩

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