The Natural Man | 1 Nephi 20

It has taken me quite some time to break this chapter down so that I can really learn what Isaiah is trying to teach me and then to put it into a nice organized logical concept. There is so much packed into this chapter, so I only want to focus on what impressed me the most and the overall principle that I learned from it. This will most likely be different for each reader because every one comes with different needs and experiences.

Looking at the chapter from a historical point of view, the Lord is talking to Judah who had turned away from Him and had become carnally minded and corrupted as predicted by Zenos in the allegory of the tame and wild olive trees. However, if I take this same concept and symbolically overlay it over my own life then I can see that the Lord is also talking about the natural man in me just as in the next chapter He is talking about the spiritual-minded man in me.

The title that I have chosen for this principle is overcoming the natural man. However, I have decided to split this concept into three blog posts in order to stick with one of my primary objectives of keeping my blog posts readable in a few minutes. Fortunately, the chapter naturally flows into three sections:

1. Recognizing the natural man (verses 1-8).
2. Understanding the purpose of the natural man (verses 8-17).
3. Overcoming the natural man, the principle with a promise (verses 17-22).