Out of Darkness Unto Light

As Lehi gave some of his final words to his youngest son Joseph, he declared, “I am a descendant of Joseph who was carried captive into Egypt. And great were the covenants of the Lord which he made unto Joseph.” He then explained one of these covenants that God made to Joseph of old: “He obtained a promise of the Lord, that out of the fruit of his loins the Lord God would raise up a righteous branch unto the house of Israel; not the Messiah, but a branch which was to be broken off, nevertheless, to be remembered in the covenants of the Lord that the Messiah should be made manifest unto them in the latter days, in the spirit of power, unto the bringing of them out of darkness unto light—yea, out of hidden darkness and out of captivity unto freedom” (2 Nephi 3:4-5). That is a lot to unpack—so the Lord promised to the ancient patriarch Joseph that out of his posterity the Lord would create a people (“a righteous branch”) that would be broken off. I believe this here refers to the Nephites and Lamanites who were indeed broken off from the main branch of Israel and taken to the Americas. Then this group would have the Messiah “manifest unto them in the latter days” by bringing them from darkness unto light. This presumably refers to the surviving posterity of Lehi’s family in our time who would be in darkness but ultimately receive the light of the gospel.

The Lord’s promise to Joseph is that this broken off branch would in the latter days—multiple millennia after Joseph himself lived—receive the light of the gospel. And how would this happen? The Lord had explained to Joseph, “A seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins…. And the words which he shall write shall be the words which are expedient in my wisdom should go forth unto the fruit of thy loins. And it shall be as if the fruit of thy loins had cried unto them from the dust.” So the Lord’s covenant to Joseph was in essence that the Book of Mormon would be brought forth in the latter days, to bring a part of covenant Israel from darkness into light. “And they shall cry from the dust; yea, even repentance unto their brethren, even after many generations have gone by them…. Because of their faith their words shall proceed forth out of my mouth unto their brethren who are the fruit of thy loins; and the weakness of their words will I make strong in their faith, unto the remembering of my covenant which I made unto thy fathers” (2 Nephi 3:11,19-21). So to answer President Nelson’s invitation, what has the Lord promised to do for covenant Israel? He has promised to cry repentance unto us and bring us out of darkness into light through the Book of Mormon.

                The Savior similarly connected the covenants of the Father to the house of Israel with the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon in the latter days. He declared to the Nephites, “Therefore, when these works and the works which shall be wrought among you hereafter shall come forth from the Gentiles, unto your seed which shall dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity; For thus it behooveth the Father that it should come forth from the Gentiles…. And when these things come to pass that thy seed shall begin to know these things—it shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the people who are of the house of Israel” (3 Nephi 21:5-7). A major part of the Lord’s covenants with Israel is that He would bring unto them the Book of Mormon so that they would more fully understand all of His covenants with them. That all, Israel and Gentile, “may repent and come unto me and be baptized in my name and know of the true points of my doctrine.” The Book of Mormon is a sign that the Lord is indeed doing great things for covenant Israel, and through its words we can all be brought from darkness into light and repent and come unto the Savior.