Quote #1: When you hear people use terms like house of Israel, do you feel like they’re talking about you? The Nephites and Lamanites were literal descendants of Israel, “a branch of the tree of Israel,” and yet they felt “lost from its body”. But the Savior wanted them to know that they were not lost to Him. “Ye are of the house of Israel,” He said, “and ye are of the covenant”. He might say something similar to you today, for anyone who is baptized and makes covenants with Him is also of the house of Israel, “of the covenant.” In other words, when Jesus speaks of the house of Israel, He is talking about you. The instruction to bless “all the kindreds of the earth” is for you. The invitation to “awake again, and put on thy strength” is for you. And His precious promise, “My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,” is for you. (Come Follow Me Manual)
Quote #2: In a departure from the ordinance of the previous day, when it appears that the Savior alone blessed the bread and wine to be administered to all, he commanded that the twelve disciples should break and bless the bread, then give it to the multitude. We presume the same pattern was followed with the wine. In this conscious act of involving the twelve disciples in the ordinance, Christ was obviously showing the multitude that these brethren had authority to administer it, and it was not a one-time occurrence to be administered by Christ alone. Partaking of the sacrament was, after all, a new experience for them, and without that visible expression of permission and authority for the twelve disciples to officiate, the multitude might have resisted any perpetuation of the ordinance once Christ had departed. (Christ and the New Covenant. Jeffrey R. Holland pg 282)
Quote #3: One of the invitations inherent in the sacramental ordinance is that it be a truly spiritual experience, a holy communion, a renewal for the soul. Jesus said to these Nephites, “He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.” (Christ and the New Covenant. Jeffery R. Holland pg 283)
Quote #4: To go through the motions of the sacrament, without consciously tuning it’s repetitive actions toward the formation of a new self, is to miss its purpose. Put simply, sacramental habit can be powerfully transformative, but only if it does not descend to thoughtlessness. I have to be intentional about my quest for holiness when I place that bread on my tongue and bring the water to my lips over and over again. Otherwise, I squander the gift. I have “lost power”. (Moroni – a brief theological introduction by David F. Holland pg 43)
Quote #5: Such intense focusing on the life of the Savior, and in particular His Atonement, is designed to produce a supreme spiritual feast. Brigham Young declared, “The Lord has planted within us a divinity; and that divine immortal spirit requires to be fed…that divinity within us needs food from the Fountain from which it emanated.” That food may be found at the sacrament table. Bur Elder Melvin J. Ballard cautions, “We must come…to the sacrament table hungry”. (Callister, Infinite Atonement, 287-88)
Quote #6: Emily Belle Freeman – On this occasion, I was the only one taking the sacrament. One piece of bread. One cup of water. At church, my mind often focuses on the delivery system of the sacrament—the preparing, the blessing, and the passing. But on that afternoon, I pondered the gift of God’s power available to me through the sacred ordinance itself and the covenant promise I was making as I took that piece of bread and that cup of water. This was a time when I needed power from heaven. In the midst of great heartache, exhaustion, and uncertainty, I wondered about this gift that would allow me to draw upon the power from Him that I so desperately needed. Partaking of the sacrament would increase my companionship with the Spirit of the Lord, allowing me to draw upon the gift of God’s power, including the ministering of angels and the Savior’s enabling strength to overcome.
Quote #7: Elder Patrick Kearon – We may have been conditioned to suppose that the purpose of the sacrament is to sit in the pew thinking only about all the ways we messed up during the week before. But let’s turn that practice on its head. In the stillness, we can ponder the many ways we have seen the Lord relentlessly pursue us with His wonderful love that week! We can reflect on what it means to “discover the joy of daily repentance.” We can give thanks for the times the Saviour entered into our struggles and our triumphs and the occasions when we felt His grace, forgiveness, and power giving us strength to overcome our hardships and bear our burdens with patience and even good cheer.
Yes, we ponder the sufferings and injustices inflicted upon our Redeemer for our sin, and that does cause sober reflection. But we sometimes get stuck there—in the garden, at the cross, inside the tomb. We fail to move upward to the joy of the tomb bursting open, the defeat of death, and Christ’s victory over all that might prevent us from gaining peace and returning to our heavenly home. Whether we shed tears of sorrow or tears of gratitude during the sacrament, let it be in awesome wonder at the good news of the Father’s gift of His Son!
Quote #8: Elder Patrick Kearon – We do not gather on the Sabbath simply to attend sacrament meeting and check it off the list. We come together to worship. There is a significant difference between the two. To attend means to be present at. But to worship is to intentionally praise and adore our God in a way that transforms us!
Quote #9: The promises God made to the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are real! The Abrahamic covenant is not an allegory; it is not a Bible story that is to be spiritualized away. The gathering of Israel will be literal, and it is literal Israel that is to be gathered. The promises given to the seed of Abraham are as real as the dirt and dust upon which he set his feet of flesh and blood. (McConkie, “Final Gathering to Christ,” 193-94)
Quote #10: Portions of this chapter are quoted often in scripture. John the Revelator and Paul referred to it. So did Nephi, Jacob, the wicked priests of King Noah, Abinadi, Moroni, and Christ in the book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith in the Doctrine and Covenants. Clearly this chapter resonated with other prophets, and even with Christ. This suggests that we should give this chapter extra study and pondering. (Kerry Muhlestein “Learning to Love Isaiah”, 423)
Quote #11: In 3 Nephi 20, the Savior quotes part, not all, of Isaiah 52. Clearly the ideas of this chapter are important. They have applications in various time periods, but especially in the days of Cyrus, the Savior’s day, and our day. It is worth the reader dedicating serious time to studying how the Savior used Isaiah 52 to teach the Nephites. He especially emphasizes how it refers to the gathering of Israel. He does not quote the entire chapter, and he rearranges the order of the verses citing verse 8-10 first, followed by verses 1-3, then verses 6-7, and finally verses 11-15. While there are certainly other interpretations of Isaiah 52, the Savior’s emphasis on gathering should color much of how we read this chapter. (Kerry Muhlestein “Learning to Love Isaiah”, 424)
Quote #12:
· Put on thy strength – refers to putting on the authority of the priesthood
· Uncircumcised and the unclean – disobedient, sinners, or disbelieving Gentiles. Zion will be free of all such
· Arise, sit down – Get up from the dust where slaves must sit, and sit in a place of honor, as on a throne.
· Bands of thy neck – That which holds one captive. Here referring to the curses of God placed upon scattered Israel. These curses are removed as members of the house of Israel return to the Lord and repent of their sins.
(Largey, Book of Mormon Reference Companion pg 357)
Quote #13: The influence of parents who honor covenants and obey commandments indeed can have a decisive spiritual impact upon children who stray by activating the tentacles of divine Providence – in ways that have not been revealed fully and are not understood completely. However, righteous parental influence (1) does not replace in the life of an individual the need for the redeeming and strengthening power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, (2) does not overrule the consequences of the unrighteous exercise of moral agency, and (3) does not negate the responsibility of an individual as an agent to act…and not to be acted upon. (Bednar, “Faithful Parents and Wayward Children: Sustaining Hope While Overcoming Misunderstanding,” 32)
