The Scriptures and Jess // Sibling Rivalry

So, every time I read my scriptures I get the urge to tell someone all about what I read and learned. But since I stay at home with the kids and they'd rather watch Moana for the 100th time, I can either wear my thumbs out texting Kade or start blogging about it.

Today I was reading in 2 Nephi 8. For whatever reason I've felt guided toward the Isaiah chapters, and even though it's a little intimidating it's been very interesting.

So today's chapter was all about how The Lord would save the Jews in the last days. The chapter talked about how, in the last days, two prophets would be raised up to teach them, and after three and a half years they would be rejected and killed by the Jews. After that, the Jews would continue on in their self-inflicted downward spiral of destruction when at the very last moment, they would be personally saved by the Lord himself.

And I thought, what the heck? Why are the Jews so special to the Lord when they clearly don't want anything to do with Him? Why does He continue to care so much about them? When is enough enough?

And at that point I realized that maybe, that's what the dark ages were. Heavenly Father had tried so hard to save them and they just continually spit in His face, so He threw his hands up in the air, turned around and sort of ignored them for a while. But in these last days, He is making a last-ditch effort to save them before it's officially too late.

That's when I realized that the whole history of the world is kind of like a sibling relationship. The Jews are the oldest child, who has the most knowledge and the most responsibility, but who also has a really rebellious nature despite their immense potential for good. The other denominations are the middle child, who may make mistakes but will probably turn out fine and the Lord doesn't worry about them too much, mostly letting them find their own way. The Latter-Day Saints are the baby of the family, who was born after the oldest's rebellion so they get more attention, love, praise, teachings and encouragement to "please don't turn out like your oldest sibling."

And everyone knows that the baby of the family is the favorite and most spoiled, which isn't technically true, but the perception is there. Everyone gets jealous of the baby, and that's when I realized that's what's happening to the LDS church today - I always wondered why people can't just live and let live and not persecute us so much when we're not doing anyone any harm. But it's because we are highly favored of the Lord, and they can tell and are jealous. They don't even realize that's what's happening but it totally is! 

So, while the Lord is busy with our older sibling, who He loves desperately and wants to save so that we can all be a family again one day, it's our job to teach and be good examples to our middle sibling, and in a way be the glue that holds the family together while we wait for our older sibling to come back home.

And once I realized all that, I understood the plight of Israel a little more. Obviously not fully, but this analogy helped me make sense of a small part of it. And I hope it makes sense to someone else out there, too!