From Whence Our Blessings Come

Given that end-time scriptures define the house of Israel as the Jews, Ten Tribes, and Lamanites, and Latter-day Saints as “the Gentiles” or “fulness of the Gentiles” (melo’ haggoyim), it is no surprise that millennial prophecies reserve the blessings of God’s covenants specifically for the house of Israel and those affiliated with them such as the Gentiles’ spiritual kings and queens.

The Lord had covenanted with the house of Israel, not the Gentiles. Hence Jesus confined his ministry to them: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Even his apostles “understood me not that the Gentiles should not at any time hear my voice—that I should not manifest myself unto them save it were by the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 15:23).

The Gentiles—including Ephraimites who assimilated into the Gentiles (Hosea 7:8; Doctrine & Covenants 109:60)—“stand by faith” and are not native-born “according to the election” (Romans 11:13–30). Until we, the olive tree’s wild branches, sustain the natural branches that are to be grafted in, therefore, we have no claim to prophesied millennial covenant blessings.

Said Nephi, “The thing which our father meaneth concerning the grafting in of the natural branches through the fulness of the Gentiles, is, that in the latter days, when our seed shall have dwindled in unbelief . . . then shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed” (1 Nephi 15:13; cf. 3 Nephi 16:4–5).

Said Mormon of the end-time Gentiles who would minister to the house of Israel: “I speak unto their seed, and also to the Gentiles who have care for the house of Israel, that realize and know from whence their blessings come. For I know that such will sorrow for the calamity of the house of Israel; yea, they will sorrow for the destruction of this people” (Mormon 5:10–11).

Even though the Lord “reserved their blessings, which they might have received in the land, for the Gentiles who shall possess the land” (Mormon 5:19), as Paul warns, “Boast not against the branches (Romans 11:18). For if the Gentiles, too, fail, will they be able to “stand before the power of God, except ye shall repent and turn from your evil ways” (Mormon 5:22)?

Said Jesus, “The stone the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore I say to you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matthew 21:42–32). Indeed, what surety have the Gentiles they won’t reject another such stone (Isaiah 28:16)?

Speaking of the house of Israel, when the Lord “calls you back as a spouse forsaken and forlorn, a wife married in youth only to be rejected” (Isaiah 54:6), who will remain of the Gentile wife that is “divorced” (Isaiah 50:1)? Won’t it be those who “have care for the house of Israel,” who “realize and know from whence their blessings come”—those found preparing his new bride?