The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and
will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land; and the strangers shall
be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
And the people shall take them and bring
them to their place; yea, from far unto the ends of the earth; and they shall
return to their lands of promise … The
whole earth is at rest and is
quiet; they break forth into singing.
… (2 Nephi 24: 1-2)
The Lord Will Yet Choose Israel: The Gathering
This section is one of
many millennial prophecies of Isaiah.
Prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the ushering in of the
millennium, several things must occur.
One of these signs is the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the
Restoration of Christ’s Church. Another is the return of Judah to her homeland. Yet another is the gathering of
scattered Israel to the gospel.
In 1841, Elder
Orson Hyde stood on the Mount of Olives and dedicated the land for the return
of the Jews.[1] It took
more than a hundred years for the nation we know today as Israel to be declared
to the world.
The gathering of all
scattered Israel to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is current and on-going. Strangers
shall be joined with Israel and shall enter into the covenant with God the
whole earth is being blessed by the descendants of Abraham through Jacob. In
2017, the American president formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of
Israel.[2]
Each prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has held the
keys to the gathering of Israel.[3]
Scattered Israel is being gathered first spiritually; the physical gathering of
Israel will not be completed until Jesus Christ comes again and ushers in the
millennium. It is then that Isaiah’s prophecy will be fulfilled, that the earth
shall be quiet and at rest and its people shall break forth in
singing.
With pen and paper, and in solemn silence, he offered a prayer dedicating the Holy Land “for the gathering together of Judah’s scattered remnants” and as a land of promise for all the scattered children of Abraham.
“Now, O Lord! Thy servant has been obedient to the heavenly vision which Thou gavest him in his native land,” Elder Hyde prayed, “and under the shadow of Thine outstretched arm, he has safely arrived in this place to dedicate and consecrate this land unto Thee, for the gathering together of Judah’s scattered remnants, according to the predictions of the holy prophets. …
“Let that nation or that people who shall take an active part in behalf of Abraham’s children, and in the raising up of Jerusalem, find favor in Thy sight.”
Not wishing to take away any recognition of Mr. Herzl, whose contributions to the gathering of the Jews was enormous, but as a Latter-day Saint, I believe that this movement - the Biblical promised gathering - began on a hillside in Jerusalem forty-four years earlier.
Strictly speaking, it began even before that when, on April 3, 1836, the Lord sent the great prophet Moses to appear to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple, to restore the priesthood keys to the gathering of Israel.
Isaiah was right: the Lord has always had mercy on Jacob. He always had plans in place to restore the Jews and the rest of Israel to their rightful places in the kingdom and to their promised ancestral homes. The Lord uses men to fulfil his purposes, men like Joseph Smith, Orson Hyde, Theodore Herzl, and even Donald Trump, who in 2017 recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
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