There is a group of passages in Isaiah that causes a lot of speculation in LDS (and wider Christian) circles. In reality, there are many such passages, but here I’m referring to those relating to an end times servant, sometimes called the ‘Davidic servant’. Throughout Isaiah, the prophet uses a combination of King David, Moses, and the future Cyrus as types of the future end times servant.

In Isaiah 49, the Lord is speaking to this servant, who has been labouring in vain to bring the children of Israel back to God. ‘I have spent my strength for nought,’ says the servant. (Isaiah 49:4) But God is looking on the servant and seeing that he can do much, much more than ‘only’ bring Israel back to Him – this despite the servant’s apparent lack of success thus far.

‘And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.’ (Isaiah 49:6)

I’ve come across numerous theories about who this servant is or will be. Some say he will be someone named David because the Lord works in patterns and it will be a ‘second David’, and therefore must have the same name. Some have claimed to be this end times servant (usually while hiding their identity). Some LDS say that the end times servant is Joseph Smith and that he will return, either miraculously raised from the dead or resurrected. A spin on this latter point is that Joseph will be reborn as a new of his ‘multiple mortal probations’ (if you haven’t heard of this fringe doctrine, see the footnote below¹). Some say this end times servant has already come and is currently hidden to the world². Still others say the servant is Christ Himself and there will be no other.

This short article isn’t about who this servant is or isn’t, but rather the point made in the Isaiah passage I quoted above. The servant will initially go to the House of Israel to teach the gospel and will be rejected of them. God will then direct the servant to return, but this time to preach not only to Israel, but also to the gentiles and the whole world.

One thing I find fascinating is that we see this pattern on three distinct occasions in the Book of Mormon. First, there is Abinadi, who calls the people of King Noah to repentance. When they reject him and seek his life, he escapes. But he returns again a couple of years later.

Second we have Alma (junior). Amongst his tours across the Nephite cities, he finds himself rejected in the city of Ammonihah. He leaves, dejected, but God tells him to return, which he does. (Alma 8:13-16)

Finally, we have Samuel the Lamanite. Like Alma, he is initially rejected by the Nephites, but as he is about to return to his own lands, the Lord tells him to return. As the people of the city won’t let him in, he famously climbs upon the city walls to preach and prophecy. (Helaman 13:2-4)

So we have three examples of a prophet, called to cry repentance to the people. The people all reject him initially. When God commands him to return, he finds some limited success before being finally rejected again. The consequence of the second rejection is enormous persecution for those few who believe the words. Abinadi is burned alive (Mosiah 17:13-20). In Ammonihah, many believers are burned alive (Alma 14:8-14). After Samuel, all believers are threatened with death and are saved when the sign of Jesus’s birth is seen across the land (3 Nephi 1:9-19).

We know God works in patterns. Indeed, an important purpose of the scriptures is to show us those very patterns – something the Book of Mormon is especially effective at doing. We also know the Book of Mormon specifically was written to us, for us, and about us.

I believe these three prophets – Abinadi, Alma, and Samuel – are intended to serve as a pattern of the end times servant prophesied of by Isaiah. We thus gain something valuable by studying them. Perhaps most importantly, we benefit from reading their words as if they are speaking directly to us, as if we are the wicked people whom they are calling to repentance.

We tend to be pretty good when reading the scriptures of thinking that we are the good people King Benjamin is teaching, or the faithful followers of Jesus listening to His sermon on the mount. In contrast, when Jesus denounces the Pharisees, or Samuel the Lamanite tells the people they are wicked and reject true prophets in favour of those who say nice things, we believe those words are aimed at someone else. Anyone else, just not us.

But there is nothing in the record that suggests Mormon included the words of Abinadi, Alma and Samuel as words aimed at others. Quite the opposite in fact! We are repeatedly told by Nephi, Mormon and Moroni – the three main voices in the Book of Mormon – that we need to repent.

The story of Abinadi is a fascinating one with so many different lessons we can take from it. A crucial part of this story is that the wicked King Noah and his priestly court are religious. They – along with the people over whom they rule – believe they’re righteous. When they take Abinadi before the King, the people say:

‘And now, O king, what great evil hast thou done, or what great sins have thy people committed, that we should be condemned of God or judged of this man? And now, O king, behold, we are guiltless, and thou, O king, hast not sinned; therefore, this man has lied concerning you, and he has prophesied in vain. And behold, we are strong, we shall not come into bondage, or be taken captive by our enemies; yea, and thou hast prospered in the land, and thou shalt also prosper.’ (Mosiah 12:13-15)

As evidence of the King’s supposed righteousness, the people cite the wealth and prosperity that has come to them. After all, the promise to Nephi and his descendants was that if they were obedient to God, they would prosper in the land (see 1 Nephi 4:14; 2 Nephi 1:20; 2 Nephi 4:4; Alma 9:13). And they were prospering.

This is the so-called prosperity gospel, and it comes originally from the Old Testament, in the covenant the Lord made with Israel through Moses. ‘… if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God … The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.’ (Deuteronomy 28:1-14)

It’s the reason why Job’s ‘friends’ told him to repent if he wanted his trials to go away, ‘… Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.’ (Job 4:7-9)

Just as Job’s associates were wrong about Job’s situation, King Noah’s people were wrong about their leaders and themselves, and we are largely wrong about ourselves today. Yes, God will prosper a people who hearken to Him, but we also must remember that a people’s curses are felt to the third and fourth generation (Deuteronomy 5:9), a people’s blessings for righteousness to a thousand generations (Deuteronomy 7:9), and that the Lord is slow to anger (Joel 2:3). Job’s suffering was for another reason entirely. This means that in practice, we can never draw a straight line between prosperity now and righteousness now.

This is entirely reasonable. After all, if we’re keeping the commandments because we want riches and earthly success, then we’re missing the point and won’t get close to God. He is after our hearts and minds. He wants to engender within us love for Him and love for our neighbour, not greed. Indeed, the only reason we should want riches is for the purpose of giving it all away:

‘And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.’ (Jacob 2:19)

So when the people of King Noah pronounce their verdict that they are righteous as evidenced by their prosperity, they are self-delusional.

Mormon tells us that King Noah had his heart upon riches, lived in ‘riotous living’ with his ‘wives and concubines’ and ‘harlots’, and became a ‘wine-bibber, and also his people’ (Mosiah 11:14-15). This is an entirely self-centred King, and his people followed after his lead. They succumbed to every temptation of the flesh, yet claimed righteousness because, ‘We teach the law of Moses,’ (Mosiah 12:28) even while doing so from comfortable seats that were raised above those of the ordinary person (Mosiah 11:11). The priests of King Noah quote scripture – they just don’t live it.

Teaching comfortable words from comfortable seats in spacious buildings is the exact opposite of what the true prophet was doing (Mosiah 11:8-11). How can we not see ourselves in this story?

King Noah’s response to Abinadi’s warnings was, ‘Who is the Lord?’ (Mosiah 11:27), mirroring the words of Pharaoh when Moses warned him to release Israel from bondage (Exodus 5:2). The allusion to Pharaoh and Moses seems deliberate, as Abinadi warns the people that if they don’t repent, they will be placed in bondage (Mosiah 11:23), just as Moses was warning Pharaoh to let Israel out of bondage.

When Abinadi returns the second time, he tells them that even repentance will no longer avoid bondage – that is now assured³ (Mosiah 12:2). If they still refuse to repent, destruction is now coming their way. And that is what happens. Many of the people are killed by invading Lamanite armies. King Noah himself is killed by his own people, and the people undergo great suffering.

When we look at prophecies of the last days, we see this exact same pattern among those who claim to follow the Lord. The last days covenant people of the Lord claim to be obeying His word, but in fact are laden in iniquity, are corrupters, and have forsaken the Lord (Isaiah 1:4). They love their temples and their sacrifices (Isaiah 1:11-13; Hosea 10:1), displaying a form of godliness (2 Timothy 3:5). But despite all this, the people are no more righteous than Sodom (Isaiah 1:10), and unless they prioritise the vulnerable rather than their own wealth, they will suffer a near similar fate (Isaiah 1:17).

But there is still time to repent (Isaiah 1:18). For how much longer, I don’t know. As of this moment, the people who should be the Lord’s are as a harlot and are murderers because of how they treat the vulnerable⁴ (Isaiah 1:21).

‘Thy princes (our leaders) are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.’ (Isaiah 1:23)

The result of this is already known:

‘And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.’ (Isaiah 1:28-31)

The warnings from Abinadi to the people of King Noah are similarly dire:

‘Thus saith the Lord, it shall come to pass that this generation, because of their iniquities, shall be brought into bondage, and shall be smitten on the cheek; yea, and shall be driven by men, and shall be slain; and the vultures of the air, and the dogs, yea, and the wild beasts, shall devour their flesh. And it shall come to pass that the life of king Noah shall be valued even as a garment in a hot furnace; for he shall know that I am the Lord. And it shall come to pass that I will smite this my people with sore afflictions, yea, with famine and with pestilence; and I will cause that they shall howl all the day long. Yea, and I will cause that they shall have burdens lashed upon their backs; and they shall be driven before like a dumb ass. And it shall come to pass that I will send forth hail among them, and it shall smite them; and they shall also be smitten with the east wind; and insects shall pester their land also, and devour their grain. And they shall be smitten with a great pestilence—and all this will I do because of their iniquities and abominations.’ (Mosiah 12:2-7)

The people of King Noah rejected Abinadi and suffered the consequences. The Kingdom of Israel rejected Isaiah’s warnings and suffered the consequences. As Christ said to the Nephites after His resurrection, ‘… all things that [Isaiah] spake have been and shall be, even according to the words which he spake.’ (3 Nephi 23:3) That means us. So the question is, will we heed the warning this time?

I pray that we will.

© Copyright Jeffrey Collyer 2026

1. The doctrine of Multiple Mortal Probations is essentially ‘reincarnation Mormon-style’. It posits that we must continually return to earth in a new mortal human body to make a better go of it than the last time, in order to go on towards perfection. I personally reject this doctrine as I believe it requires a forcing of the scriptures to say something they plainly don’t.

2. Although he has never made the claim himself, a Jew by the name of Jachanan ben Kathryn is said by some to be this servant. I’ve read his writings, and they do come across as scripture, although whether he is the one prophesied by Isaiah I can’t say. To learn more about him and his writings, see  https://thebookofjachananbenkathryn.org/

3. Note that the group led by Alma, who do repent this time, are still placed in bondage just as Abinadi prophecies, although the Lord delivers them from it because of their faith and patience (Mosiah 23:23).

4. ‘The consistent prophetic message is that economic oppression is itself a form of shedding blood. Theft is murder on both an individual and societal scale. The prophets constantly link bloodshed with economic oppression. Take Micah, for example. When he finally concludes that Zion has been built ‘with blood’ (Micah 3:10) he explains that this is due to economic oppression, bribery, and greed (Micah 3:11), and this also comes after a long list of other exploitative practices. This is more than mere juxtaposition. This is a meditation on what constitutes ‘bloodshed’ and ‘murder’. As Ezekiel puts it, ‘they take bribes, which is shedding blood.’ (Ezekiel 22:12) As if that was not clear enough, we go on to read: ‘you take both advance interest and accrued interest, and make gain of your neighbours by extortion; and you have forgotten me, says the Lord God. See, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made, and at the blood that has been shed within you.’ (Ezekiel 22:12-13, NRSV) The other prophets … are doing the same things as Micah and Ezekiel. What the prophets are saying is that economic exploitation belongs to the moral impurities (of murder, sexual sin and worshipping other gods) because it itself is a form of murder…. When society is so polluted from  moral impurity, the entire ‘system’ of sacrifice is rendered ineffective and only exile can be expected…. Nothing can be [properly owned] in a society this rotten economically.’ (Italics in original) (Rillera, Andrew Remington, Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s Death)