What are My Beautiful Garments?
I want to share what the spirit taught me as I studied the words of Isaiah in 2 Nephi 8:24-25 (Isaiah 51:1-2). At first, I was thoroughly confused– which is often the case with the writings of Isaiah. It reads:
24 Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
25 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughters of Zion.
I literally thought, “what on earth is this saying?” Rather than skip past it like I usually do, I decided to think about it by reading a few footnotes to see if I might learn something. Then the phrase ‘put on thy beautiful garments’ (In Spanish, they are referred to as robes) caught my attention and I remembered what I have learned in the past about how garments or robes often represent our covenants with God. These covenants (such as baptism and those we make in the temple) qualify us to live with Him someday and they protect us from evil influences because they help us stay focused on the Savior. I then thought that it is very fitting that the garments or robes were described as beautiful because our covenants serve a beautiful purpose.
As I continued to read the next verse, I realized that this was a warning to repent and use the atonement so that we are not held down by our sins and bad habits. I love the metaphor of sins being like dust that we need to shake off of ourselves. It reminds me that it isn’t just the big sins that I need to repent of, but I should also pay attention to the little sins that hold me down and rob me of happiness. My interpretation of the metaphor was verified as I read a little further in Jacob 9:44-45 when he said, “I shook your iniquities from my soul,” and then later “turn away from your sins; shake off the chains of him that would bind you fast; come unto that God who is the rock of your salvation.”
With this new perspective, I again read 2 Nephi 8 & 9 with greater confidence and enthusiasm because of the foundational things that I learned from those original two verses. I found the whole experience very enlightening, so I wrote many notes about the things I learned inside my scriptures. This all came to me because I took the time to seek understanding of the scriptures rather than read them for the sake of reading.
