The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the time when the Lord should favor Israel, said, "All they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish;" 41. 11. "I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood;" 49. 26. "I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over;" 51. 22, 23.
The first Nephi saw the final result, as between Israel and their enemies, some six hundred years before the birth of our Savior. Speaking of the time when they should be brought out of captivity, and gathered to the lands of their inheritance, he says, "And the blood of that great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall turn upon their own heads; for they shall war among themselves, and the sword of their own hands shall fall upon their own heads, and they shall be drunken with their own blood. And every nation which shall war against thee, O house of Israel, shall be turned one against another, and they shall fall into the pit which they digged to ensnare the people of the Lord;" 1 Nephi 22. 13, 14.
The sacred and profane history of the world evidences that all people, outside of the covenant seed of Abraham, when brought into association with that seed, have exhibited an instinctive antagonism to them. As a result, there are few nations that have not oppressed them, when there has been opportunity.
The quotations made on this subject, and many more not noticed, show that Israel will rule over all these in the future. As a result the future princes of the earth will be of that lineage. Then will be fulfilled another very important promise which the Lord made to Abraham: "Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;" Gen. 22. 17.
The promise in the following, verse 18, which is also repeated in a number of places in the sacred writings, is a very important one: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." It was through the lineage of Abraham that Jesus came in the flesh to redeem the world. It was only to the seed of Abraham that he personally ministered while in the flesh.
He was born in Bethlehem of Judea, almost under the walls of Jerusalem; Luke, chap. 2. He grew up in Nazareth, a city of Galilee; verse 39. He was baptized in Jordan, the chief river of the land of promise; Matt. 3. 13. His chosen twelve disciples were of the house of Israel. They were sent first to preach the Gospel to the house of Israel: "These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel;" Matt. 10. 5, 6.
All the labors of Christ's earthly mission were in the midst of Israel. Among them he was slain for the sins of the world; his body was laid in a tomb cut in the rock of the promised land; in the midst of those with whose fathers he had covenanted he ascended up to his Father.
After his resurrection he told his disciples that Christ must needs suffer and rise from the dead, "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem;" Luke 24. 47.
So necessary did Jesus consider it, that the blessings and power of the Gospel should go forth to the world from the house of Israel, that just before his ascension he commanded his disciples, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high;" verse 49.
Jesus once said to his Jewish disciples, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd;" John 10. 16. While ministering among the Nephites, after his resurrection, he told them what he had said to his disciples at Jerusalem, and also that they were the other sheep which he referred to.