Christ’s focus continues to be on the future, when the Book of Mormon would come forth to bless the Gentiles. He declares “blessed are the Gentiles.” That would be a shocking statement to the Nephites, as their experience with those that would be defined as Gentiles was typically Lamanite. Christ was reversing expectations.
That reversal is amplified when the blessing on the Gentiles for belief is contrasted with the unbelief of the house of Israel. Nevertheless, this is no more than a reiteration of lessons that had been taught since the days of Isaiah in the Old World, and since the first Nephi in the New World (see Isaiah 49:22–23 and its quotation in 1 Nephi 21:22–23, and again in 2 Nephi 6:6–7).