2 Nephi 27

Read it HERE.

Summary: Darkness and apostasy shall cover the earth in the last days—The Book of Mormon shall come forth—Three witnesses shall testify of the book—The learned man cannot read the sealed book—The Lord shall do a marvelous work and a wonder—Compare Isaiah 29. Between 559 and 545 B.C.

Verses 1-5: Darkness and apostacy shall cover the earth in the last days.

Verses 5-14: The Book of Mormon shall come forth -Three witnesses testify - Words of the book are sealed.

Wow, there is A LOT to this chapter, and some amazing prophecies. If you don't mind, I'm just going to talk about one that I think is incredibly neat. Let's read these verses first.

15 But behold, it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall say unto him to whom he shall deliver the book: Take these words which are not sealed and deliver them to another, that he may show them unto the learned, saying: Read this, I pray thee. And the learned shall say: Bring hither the book, and I will read them.

16 And now, because of the glory of the world and to get gain will they say this, and not for the glory of God.

17 And the man shall say: I cannot bring the book, for it is sealed.

18 Then shall the learned say: I cannot read it.

19 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that the Lord God will adeliver again the book and the words thereof to him that is not learned; and the man that is not learned shall say: I am not learned.

Now, to explain these verses, I would like to quote LeGrand Richards:

Can you find a fulfillment of that anywhere in this world like when Martin Harris took copies of the hieroglyphics from the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated to Professor Anthon in New York? When Professor Anthon had given a certificate to say that the translation was correct, he wanted Martin Harris to bring the plates and let him translate them. Martin Harris said, “They are sealed.” The professor repeated the very words that Isaiah spoke thousands of years ago: “I cannot read a sealed book.” That is what I mean when I say that if the prophecies, as Peter indicated, are not of private interpretation, then no one else in the world can interpret these prophecies of Isaiah in his twenty-ninth chapter.

Then he goes on in this same chapter, after saying that the vision of all—that is the vision of all that he saw about this people and its destruction and the coming forth of their record, speaking out of the dust—would have a familiar spirit. I gave a copy of the Book of Mormon to the treasurer in the Presbyterian Church back in New Bedford, Massachusetts, when I was doing missionary work there. When he had about finished reading it, I said, “As you read that book, did it occur to you that anyone could have written the contents of that book to deceive people?”
“Oh,” he said, “Mr. Richards, when I read that book, I get the same spiritual uplift that I get when I read the New Testament.”

Isn’t that what Isaiah meant when he said that it should have a familiar spirit?
Then he goes on in that same chapter to say, “And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book [What book? The Book of Mormon], and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.” (Isa. 29:18.)

Isaiah didn’t understand way back in his day of his own wisdom the theory of braille that makes it possible for the blind to read the words of the book.

Then Isaiah says in that same chapter, “Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

“Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.” (Isa. 29:13–14.)

I bear you my solemn witness as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have that marvelous work and a wonder. These prophecies to which I have referred, no one else in all this world could interpret them if we will take them in the spirit in which they were written.
May God help us to share the marvelous truths that have come to us in this dispensation through the restoration of the gospel and our knowledge of the holy scriptures, I pray, and leave you my love and blessing, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Incredible, isn't it? Isaiah prophecied, over 2300 years before it happened, that the learned man would say, "I cannot read a sealed book." I find that quite amazing.