3 Nephi 23

(All of my own thoughts are in red type 7/20 orange 7/21 brown 2022 -23) 

CHAPTER 23

Jesus approves the words of Isaiah—He commands the people to search the prophets—The words of Samuel the Lamanite concerning the Resurrection are added to their records. About A.D. 34.

  1 And now, behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to ^asearch these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of ^bIsaiah. I understand why we are to search Isaiah diligently because of his prophecies for the latter days, but why did they need to? What value are prophecies that are not fulfilled in your lifetime? I think of Nephi saying how much he loved Isaiah and how he "likened" the scriptures to him. We do that all the time with stories from the past, so why not from stories of the future?
  2 For surely he spake as touching all things concerning my people which are of the house of Israel; ^atherefore it must needs be that he must speak also to the Gentiles. Is this because the Gentiles are "nursing kings and queens" to Israel and/or because they are adopted in to the House of Israel? Notice He says Isaiah spake touching ALL things concerning the House of Israel, so it MUST include future prophecies.
  3 And all things that he spake have been and ^ashall be, FUTURE even according to the words which he spake.
  4 Therefore give heed to my words; write the things which I have told you; and according to the time and the will of the Father ^athey shall go forth unto the Gentiles. It will be amazing to get ALL of His words (sealed portion)
  5 And whosoever will hearken unto my words and repenteth and is baptized, the same shall be saved. Search the ^aprophets, for many not all? there be that testify of these things. So Isaiah is not the only prophet that testifies of the latter day events. We need to "search" out these prophecies...
  6 And now it came to pass that when Jesus had said these words he said unto them again, after he had expounded all the scriptures unto them which they had received, how wonderful to have Jesus "explain" the meaning of all the scriptures He had just given them! he said unto them: Behold, other scriptures I would that ye should write, that ye have not.
  7 And it came to pass that he said unto ^aNephi: Bring forth the record which ye have kept.
  8 And when Nephi had brought forth the records, Seems like there would be ALOT of records to bring forth from 600 years. Was it just the latest one that he brought? and laid them before him, he cast his eyes upon them and said:
  9 Verily I say unto you, I commanded my servant ^aSamuel, the Lamanite, that he should testify unto this people, Right here, the Lord confirms that it was He that called Samuel, the Lamanite (not then a prophet) to testify...that at the day that the Father should glorify his name in me that there were ^bmany ^csaints who should ^darise from the dead, and should appear unto many, and should minister unto them. And he said unto them: Was it not so? The Savior must have been able to "know/perceive" what was written on all these records to discern that a prophecy had not been written. Amazing!
 10 And his disciples answered him and said: Yea, Lord, Samuel did prophesy according to thy words, and they were all fulfilled. Anytime prophecy is fulfilled we should write it down...
 11 And Jesus said unto them: How be it that ye have not ^awritten this thing, that many ^bsaints did arise and appear unto many and did minister unto them? People being resurrected and appearing to their posterity and ministering to them would be quite a miracle and something you would never forget! Maybe they took it for granted that it would never be forgotten or passed on from generation to generation verbally, so they didn't need to write it...what other reason could they have for not writing it? "I meant to....just forgot..."?
 12 And it came to pass that Nephi remembered that this thing had not been written.
 13 And it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be ^awritten; therefore it was written according as he commanded. There doesn't seem to be an accusation by the Lord for not writing it...just a correction that it needed to be done. Lends credence to the idea that it was unintentional.
 14 And now it came to pass that when Jesus had ^aexpounded all the scriptures in one, which they had written, he commanded them that they should ^bteach the things which he had expounded unto them. And so should we teach these things...How amazing to have Jesus himself expound the scriptures!