"As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.
For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many."
Isaiah 66:13-16
These verses are talking about the Second Coming, and contain an interesting contrast between the comforting of a mother (earlier verses have the analogy of breastfeeding), and the pleading of a sword, which can obviously be very persuasive, but is likely not our first choice when someone is trying to convince us of something.
Perhaps these two things don't normally make a lot of sense together, but because it is the Second Coming, I think that they make sense as part of a whole. Similar to what we see in 3 Nephi, there is going to be a lot of destruction before the Second Coming... finally the time will come to divide the wheat and tares (Matthew 13:30), to burn the branches that don't bring forth good fruit (Jacob 5:66) and to fulfil the promise of a better world--one where good can thrive without fearing evil. In this way, the Lord will comfort his people, but the destruction of the tares and the bad fruit will also be the impetus perhaps some of us need to see that the Lord is real, and to begin a relationship with him. Both milk and sword will have the potential to change us, depending on what we need at the time.
As strong as the message of the sword is, God will still never force us to turn to him. That's not the point of it. God doesn't change our minds for us, though he could. Rather, He says either be part of this good society or you need to leave, and it is a necessary change at this point for the growth of the society. It can't progress to a higher good while still allowing so much evil. The good society will happen... it is just up to us whether we are going to be a part of it. Leaving in this case does mean death, but it isn't a permanent death, and whatever our choice we will still be raised at the last day and enter into an immortal state, which is where the true, permanent dividing will happen, and then we will be placed with others like ourselves. As long as that doesn't scare us, then we'll be golden. :)
Today, let's look forward to the Second Coming of the Lord, and maybe try to be one of the servants helping to make the world better rather than one of the enemies who is making it worse.
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