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What are some of the major themes of Isaiah? What is he hoping that people hear across the 66 chapters of his words? He's gonna have a front row seat to the scattering of Israel.
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But if I was to go out in the pasture, hmm, why does wool? If you are focusing on making yourself great, you have already violated God's plan. Why do you think that even matters to God?
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You gotta be worthy, and you gotta do it with your heart, and they weren't doing either. Mike wants to be more spiritual and talk about holiness. I just wanna talk about glory. All right, fine.
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[laughs] But I think they're related. Lord, how long? Yeah. Is this a two-year mission?
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[laughs] How did Isaiah's words find fulfillment in his day, 700 BC, but then how does it also find fulfillment now in these latter days? Well, it's about time, Taylor. Yeah, exactly. Come on, Isaiah.
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Why don't you take 10 chapters to say something worthwhile and happy? Welcome to Scripture Insights. I'm Taylor Halverson. I'm Mike Harris. Today we're excited to start the Book of Isaiah. So what is it, Mike?
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We have five episodes on Isaiah, and this one is Isaiah 1 through 12. But I think we probably should start with some background of like who's Isaiah? Why does he matter? Uh, what is he writing about? Who's he writing to?
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Why does he show up in the Book of Mormon? How, how many other questions should I throw at you? Well, yeah. [laughs] Those are all good. He comes along 100 years before 1 Nephi chapter 1. Sure. Same location.
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Still Jerusalem. Jerusalem, yep. Mm-hmm. Who's the big, bad, uh, empire to be feel, uh, feared in Isaiah's day? That would be Assyria. Hmm.
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Unlike when the Book of Mormon starts, Assyria's no longer the major- It's Babylon... it's b- it's then Babylon. Hmm. Um... Major king during his time is Hezekiah.
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He actually prophesies over maybe a 40 or 50-year career, but Hezekiah may be one of the most important kings during that time.
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And some people see Isaiah as a court prophet, meaning he's a prophet who seems to have an official position within government, almost as if he's an advisor to the kings.
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Whereas other prophets like maybe, uh, Amos or, uh, Malachi are not necessarily court prophets. These are people who are called from among the commoners to go preach a message of repentance.
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I mean, the messages are quite same, but, uh, but quite similar. So was it like 740 BC to somewhere around, uh, 8, 890 or 690 BC that he lives? Yeah.
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And I heard there's some tradition that Manasseh or Manasseh, who's the son of Hezekiah, who is listed as an evil king, uh, executes Isaiah. I don't know if you'd heard that.
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I'd heard he'd been sawn asunder, sawn in two. Right. But I didn't hear it was by- Yeah... the king's son. Yes. Huh.
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So Manasseh or Manasseh, he's the son of Hezekiah, who rules for about 50 years, and there's enormous economic prosperity. And when his rule reigns, that's about the time Lehi is born.
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So we actually have all these connections to the Book of Mormon. At least we're within that 100-year timeframe. So what are some of the major themes of Isaiah? Why...
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What is he hoping that people hear across the 66 chapters of his words? Well, I think to appreciate Isaiah, we need to know that he's gonna have a front row seat to the scattering of Israel, or the northern 10 tribes.
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I know he's living down in the southern kingdom of Jerusalem, but when the 10 tribes get scattered, that's happening in his day.
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And his people in downtown Jerusalem, or the kingdom of Judah, they're being stinkers as well. They are breaking their covenant. So Isaiah lives in a time that would be very depressing. Hmm.
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If you want covenant fidelity, living in Isaiah's day is not ideal. Hmm. In fact, his kingdom, southern kingdom of Judah, gets that close to also being decimated or scattered like the northern kingdom. Yeah.
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So, um, and you see that right at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 1 where the opening verses are just like, [laughs] "I've done everything for you." The Lord's like, "What more could I do for you?
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And you just keep going astray, and you're just gonna make your life hell." Yeah, yeah. But I think that's why Nephi quotes Isaiah so much because I... uh, Nephi has a front row seat to Laman and Lemuel.
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Mm-hmm, and the Babylonians who are about to conquer Jerusalem. But it's in his own family. It's both- Yeah... national and familial for, for Nephi. Well put. Yeah. Yep. And actually, um, that reminds me that we should
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lay a little foundation or at least remind ourselves, we've talked about two really important covenants during this, uh, year, actually three.
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Um, first is the covenant of grant or the Abrahamic covenant, the unconditional covenant God made to Abraham and all his descendants and all the families of the earth to offer them salvation if they would choose to have him as their God.
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And he gave instructions for how they could choose that at, with the Mosaic law. That's the conditional, uh, expectations. The other unconditional covenant is what God gave to King David in 2 Samuel chapter 7. And
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Isaiah's operating in the world of these three interlocking covenants, that God has made an unconditional covenant to offer salvation to people. He expects people to show up in that relationship, Mosaic law,
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and God will protect his Davidic king insofar as the people show up to receive God in their midst.
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And so many prophets, and Isaiah is a great example, when they're preaching, they're often reminding people, "This is what God has done for you,
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and here's what you should've been doing that you have not been doing, and therefore, accordin- according to like, say, Deuteronomy chapter 6, here's the good or bad things that are gonna happen based on your faithfulness."
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And anc- uh, scholars have called this like the, the prophetic lawsuit. Where a prophet is basically taking the people to court, and the prophet is the lawyer who's arguing on behalf of God's interests.
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The God who has done everything for the people has been violated by the people. And the prophet is saying, "You can fix things if you choose to be humble and faithful." Y- you see that right here in verse two.
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Isaiah 1:2, "Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth." It's, it's like a court scene where the witnesses are the heavens and the earth. And that is right there in verse two.
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What's interesting, Mike, right as you read that I thought, "Wait a second, this is how the book of Deuteronomy... Sorry, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants opens." Oh, yeah.
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It opens with the word hear, and actually, that's a covenantal or a legal term of God's, like, courtroom where He is making pronouncements. "Here's all the covenants that I have made," God speaks.
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"Want you to hear about them, and I'm also gonna speak about what you haven't done or what you should be doing.
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And if you align yourselves with loyalty and faithfulness to me, all the good things that I've promised you'll experience. Otherwise, you walk away from all of that."
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And we see this connection between Isaiah, Doctrine and Covenants, that prophets, their role is to invite people to remember God's covenants so we can live our covenants. And he presents the evidence here in verse two.
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"For the Lord has spoken, 'I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.'" And that pairing of nourished and brought suggests that He has done every conceivable thing- Mm...
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that any good parent would do. Mm. That you've been... And you don't see it here in the English, in the KJV, but in the Hebrew, children is, uh, in the emphatic position.
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It's at the beginning of the phrase try- which emphasizes these aren't just ordinary children. These are children of privilege or of covenant privilege. And there is nothing...
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I, I, it's, uh, like the, the language here is similar to what we see in Jacob chapter 5, the Allegory of the Olive Tree. "What more could I have done for my vineyard?" That's basically what he's saying here. Mm-hmm.
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Uh, but there's not anything I've done, and yet they have rebelled. They are, they're intentionally transgress- knowingly transgressing or rebelling.
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I love the connection to the Allegory of the Olive Tree 'cause when you first started explaining verse two, I... That's immediately what I thought of. Like, that sounds just like the language of- Oh, okay...
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God just working, working, working diligently. I made a little note here in my scriptures that verses two through 20 is the covenant lawsuit.
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So again, if you remember the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, these are God's unconditional covenants, and then the Mosaic covenant, our obligations to receive what God offers.
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If you read all of verse two through 20, you will see all the ways that God is explaining His evidence for how the people have not fulfilled their expectations, or He has done what He's supposed to be doing.
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And therefore, He is justified in the outcomes that He's going to describe to them. Very powerful, uh, intro. If you're looking to get prepared for the 25-Minute Classroom, I have two books that could help.
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Check them out on the QR code, and now back to the Come, Follow Me lesson. Verse four, he says, "Ah, sinful nation, people laden or heavy with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters."
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The word sinful, evildoers, and corrupters are active participles. Tell us what that means. Which is just a fancy gram- grammatical way of saying this suggests an ongoing, constant, habitual sinning.
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Not just like a one-time, it happened in the past long time ago. This is like a character or behavioral trait almost. Yep. Okay. That's fascinating. Okay.
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Uh, what else can you tell us, Mike, about, like, say, the structure of how Isaiah writes or what people could be looking for to make sense of the passages that they're reading in English? You mean the parallelism? Yeah.
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The poetic parallelism? Almost you see through all 66 chapters where one line will be synonymous with the next line. Hm. And I, I hesitate to say synonymous because I, I heard one Bible scholar say...
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That, that's a typical way to explain it, but I heard another scholar say that it's actually clim- climatic. Hm. Like, you have the first line, but the second one builds upon it, expounds and l- elaborates.
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It gives it an extra punch. Hm. So it's not exactly synonymous. It's interesting in English, like, uh, I know my English teachers when I was much younger, like, tell me, "Don't repeat yourself."
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Like, just say what you're gonna say, and just that's... Be done with it. And so we want the economy of language.
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Where Isaiah, like, if he had a typical, like, I don't know, uh, English teacher in the early 19- or the 1980s like I had, it... We, we'd actually probably only have 33 chapters.
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I'm kind of joking here, but he is so powerful because he helps concretize what his message is by seeing each concept in two different ways- Yeah... that build upon one another.
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Sometimes they're in contrast, but that's a form of building upon one another. Yeah. And I think you see that here in, in verse four. "They," the covenant people, "have forsaken the Lord." Now, here's the second line.
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"They have provoked," or spurned, "the Holy One of Israel unto anger." So forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One, those are- Hm...
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synonymous or complementary ideas That is so interesting. So they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are gone backwards.
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That final statement is just hanging on its own without a pair. Okay, good. And so what do you make of that? Well, it puts emphasis, 'cause an ancient listener...
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'Cause most people would be hearing these things read to them or spoken directly by the prophet. Mm-hmm. Most people did not have access to print scripture. They just didn't. It was a rare thing.
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That's why it was such a big deal for Laban to have a copy of scriptures. The fact that Lehi had to go get them through his sons from Laban tells you these were extremely rare objects.
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That being the case, you're gonna hear this cadence of, like, here's an idea, and here's how we're building on it. Here's another idea. Here's how we're building on it. Here's another idea.
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Here's how we're building on it. Here's another idea. Wait, where's the building on it? And it's just that pause of not having something paired with it puts, like, exclamation points on it. Mm.
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Which would be, they are gone away backward, and that would just rest with the people like, oh yeah, that is a pretty serious, um, pronouncement that God has made. And remember, this is a covenant lawsuit.
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God has kept his covenant. Have the people. Mm-hmm. And just in this portion, we already hear they are gone away backward. Quite powerful.
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Next, in verses four through six, you see descriptions of someone who has been injured in battle. Mm-hmm. Who's suffering in battle. Verse four, uh, they have iniquity.
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Verse five, they're stricken, whi- um, which means they've been beaten. Uh, the whole head is sick, and the, the word sick can also be translated, has agony. In verse six, wounds and bruises, sores.
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And all of these phrases, or all these words, you find repeated in Isaiah chapter 53, the famous, uh, chapter. Jesus Christ is a man of sorrows and acquainted with- Grief... grief.
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Grief comes from the same Hebrew word as sick. Wow. Surely hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Smitten. Smitten comes from the same Hebrew word as stricken. Hmm. But he was wounded back in verse six. Hmm.
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But the wounds, right? And for our tran- He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities, um, and with his stripes. And back in verse six, bruises and stripes. That's...
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It's, it's a similar concept. So he was bruised for our iniquities. Yeah. So it just seems like even though in this courtroom the children of Israel, who've made covenants and know better, are 100% guilty.
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That's- Mm-hmm... there's no doubt about it. The evidence is overwhelming. Mm-hmm. We have something interesting going on here. Right.
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That 50 chapters later, 52 chapters later, the judge in the courtroom decides, "I'm gonna inf- become enfleshed. I'm going to join the courtroom.
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I will be with the people who are under judgment, and I will take care of everything that they could not have done for themselves or that they should have done for themselves and decided to be disloyal.
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I will meet out everything that's expected. I will fulfill the justice." Yeah. It's quite powerful. Yeah. Verse seven is interesting. It starts with, "Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire."
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Let's back up for a second. What is God saying here in the courtroom? He's reminding the people subtly, "I have kept my end of the bargain.
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Everything that I've promised to, to do for Abraham and all his descendants and for all the families of the earth, I have done." So why is the country desolate? Why are the cities being burned?
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Well, clearly because you guys have not kept your end of the bargain where I said, "Here's all the promises. If you wanna receive them, do these things.
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If you walk away from my presence, the outcome is you don't get all these good, good things. You get the opposite." So God is using more evidence for the, uh...
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how he has been loyal to the people, and the fact that cities have been burned means they've been disloyal. And of course, the underlying expectation is turn. Turn to me. Turn and be comforted.
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Which by the way, that's... Isaiah chapter 40 is a major turning point in the overall structure of the 66 chapters, where Isaiah begins with, "Comfort ye. Comfort ye, my people." Hmm.
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'Cause the first 39 chapters are a lot of this courtroom scene of just evidence after evidence for how the people have not been loyal to God.
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And in chapter 40 to 66, and it's more nuanced than this, but chapter 40 to 66 is, "All right. You guys have violated all these things.
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Here's all the ways that I'm going to ignore that or do my part to more fully offer you salvation and comfort and all the good things to give you another chance.
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You guys have messed up, but I am going to yet offer you salvation." It's just the underlying theme throughout the entire scriptures is God's everlasting hesed. He does not forget us. He does not abandon us.
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Even when we abandon him, he returns again and again. Which is really shocking considering the language that describes their rebellion here in chapter one.
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I mean, what verse is it that it talks about that they're like Sodom and Gomorrah? Um, yeah, verse nine. We could have been like Sodom and Gomorrah, right? Um, yeah, verse 10.
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"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Give ear, ear unto the law of our God, you people of- Hmm... " I mean, he's not talking to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. He's just comparing it...
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comparing them to them. That's about as bad as you can get, isn't it? Yep So it's just utterly shocking that, like you were saying, Taylor, the compassion that he's extending to them, and we see that in verse, uh...
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It, it comes to a culmination or a climax in verse 18. Let's hear it. Should, should we go to that one? Yep.
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Verse 18, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
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Now, this is parallelism, but it's alternate. Hmm. The first line goes with the third, and the second goes with the fourth, right? You got the, "sins be as scarlet, red like crimson," that's a nice pairing. Mm-hmm.
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Then you have this awkward pairing, but it's g- it's intentional. "White as snow," and then, "be as wool." Hmm. And I'm just like, okay, I haven't spent much time out on the farm with sheep,
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but if I was to go out the pasture, hmm, white as wool? The wool would be kind of dingy and gray and dirty, wouldn't it? I mean, you go from the snow on the top of the mountains, right, giving you this
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beautiful scene and this pure water when it melts. Hmm. And then you go to this wool, [laughs] and you're just like wait a minute,
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I thought my sins could be erased and become beautiful, and even though I've messed up my life and now you're... What's with the cavi- the caveat here? I don't know. [laughs] Yeah.
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He's like, m- why not talk about, uh, the outcome with the fuller soap, like cleaning things and making them white? But yeah. I, I think th- there's, uh... If we look at the entire scripture canon,
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um, when snow and wool appear, we see something interesting. Let's hear it. Uh, Joseph Smith and Sidney... No, Oliver Cowdery in Doctrine and Covenant Section 109, and they said, "We saw the Lord.
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The hair of his head was white like the pure snow." Uh, John the Beloved, the last, uh, who wrote the last book in the Bible, saw Jesus Christ, and he said that Jesus' head and his hairs were white like wool. Hmm.
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As white as snow. Hmm. And then Daniel, who was thrown in the lions' den, also saw Jesus, and he said, "I beheld Jesus, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the- Hmm... pure wool." Hmm.
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So this is utterly shocking when you look at it. So when Isaiah says yours, "Though your sins be red like scarlet," they can be as white as snow and they can be as wool. Mm-hmm.
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He's not just saying, "You can be forgiven." He says, "You can still become like me." Hmm. That's radical. It is. That's radical theology. It's, i- in the ancient days and still today, that's just...
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It's radical, but utterly beautiful. Yeah. Anciently, I was doing some research on this a few months ago.
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Where do we have, of any of the ancient conceptions of gods among the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, any sense that there was a personal god who was personally deeply interested in the individual and national lives of those of his people?
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Not so much. And especially one who would work to help them overcome their moral failings. Like, this is super unusual. Most of the gods anciently demanded some level of obedience,
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uh, some level of loyalty and faithfulness, but it was basically a one-way street. They wanted the people to show up and do something for the gods.
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Yeah, work the farms, and if there's a, a war to be fought, go fight the battle. Right. But here, we have a god who is leading the charge into the battle and incurring the wounds- Right... to protect his people. Right.
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And he's the one who shows up and says, "Look, I wanna be in a relationship w- with you. I know that you guys struggle, and I'm gonna do my part to help you guys overcome difficulty."
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Like, God is putting himself, uh, under commitment to suffer on behalf of the people. Hmm. We don't see that a- among any of the ancient conceptions of gods in the Middle East. Never see that.
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And then we have the King of Kings sliding over on his throne and says, "Hey, there's plenty of room right here for you to sit next to me." Yeah. That is also super crazy.
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You have nothing like that anywhere among the ancient, um, the ancient literature, the ancient myths, ancient legends. Nowhere is there a sense that you can join the gods.
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In fact, there are stories about people trying to join the gods and getting in trouble. Like probably the most famous one is a guy named Gilgamesh, right?
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He, this story is about him trying to find eternal life, and it all ends up where he discovers he can't get eternal life, but the best he can do is build some monuments and name them after himself.
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What happens in the Bible when people build monuments and name them after themselves? Remember the story of Saul? Saul went to battle under the command of the prophet Samuel from God's instructions.
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Saul did not completely fulfill expectations. And then when he won the battle, but still didn't follow the rules, he built a monument to himself. Hmm.
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And that's one of the reasons why he lost kingship, is because he was focused on his own name, making his name great. If you look back to the Genesis 12 story of Abraham, God comes to Abraham
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and says, "I will make your name great." The chapter before, the people of Babylon wanted to make their name great. This is the whole Gilgamesh story.
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If you are focusing on making yourself great, you have already violated God's plan. You cannot. You cannot. It is a violation of what we see everything in scripture. Seek after making yourself great. You just can't,
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and claim to be a follower of God. That is God's job. If you want to displace God and push him away and say, "I will make myself great. I'll make my nation great without your help," no, no, no.
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You let God make things great. That's Genesis 11 and 12 The Tower of Babel. Mm-hmm They wanted to make a name for themselves. The very next chapter, 12, the Lord says, "Abraham, I will make your name great."
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Is that what I hear you saying? That's exactly right. And that's what we have going on here. God is going to make the people great if they're willing to join him in the relationship.
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If they wanna go old school and do it on their own, what happens? Well, your cities are burned, you're left desolate, your whole head is sick, back in verse five. I mean, listen to what he says in verse 11,
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"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?"
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Think about how much time, as members of the church, we like to talk about the ancient tabernacle and the ancient temple and the sacrificial system, and it all pointing towards Jesus. And that is all true.
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But right here, the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, the greatest writing prophet, basically says, from God, none of this matters. Doing sacrifices is irrelevant.
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[sniffs] "I am full of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks." I mean, "When you come to appear before me,"
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this is at the temple, "who hath required this at your hands, to tread my courts?" Who invited you to walk into my temple and to be with me there?
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Now, what's really interesting is this, can you imagine at general conference, any church leader who speaks at general conference saying,
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"Who do you guys think you are, as members of the church, showing up at temples to do temple work? Why do you think that even matters to God? You guys are completely wrong." I mean, could you imagine if that was said?
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Mm. How shocking that would be. This is exactly what Isaiah's saying, right in the middle of the courtroom. Why is he saying this?
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Because people anciently, the ancient Israelites believed if we did the sacrifices, if we showed up in the temple, call it good. All I have to do is be a checkbox follower of God, and I'm saved.
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Do we have that going on in our society today? I'm on the right team. I say the right things. But are we truly living, really truly living what matters most? Loving our neighbor,
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being humble, being peacemakers and not warmongers, on and on and on. What's fascinating is that God actually doesn't have a problem with sacrifices. He doesn't have a problem with people going to the temple. Mm.
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He has a concern, and this is what Isaiah's laying out, that when people do these things, when they actually aren't living the gospel, going through the motions doesn't count. Yeah.
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You gotta be worthy, and you gotta do it with your heart. And they weren't doing either. Right. And it's not enough to go to the temple and come back home and hate your neighbor and break
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God's laws or whatever it might be, like being a bad citizen. Like, there's all sorts of things that we could lay out here. It's not enough to be a checkbox follower of God. Yeah, absolutely.
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If you are doing fundamentally the things that God invites us to do, we fulfill all the checkboxes.
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But if we just, like, check them off ourselves, like, we're gonna find ourselves possibly in the same courtroom where God's like, "Man, you made a bunch of quote-unquote 'sacrifices,' but they were all not truly intended out of humility and out of love for others and love for me.
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You did it for the praise of the world or just to t- check, check it off of your counter item." [laughs] So I find this to be a really, uh, uh... If you think about the structure of Isaiah,
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this is a very shocking opening chapter. It begins with, "Hey, everybody, there's a big problem here. I need your attention." Everybody got, has their attention.
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Ev- everyone's, everyone's is paying attention now, like, "Okay, we're all in trouble." Well, then we see a beautiful contrast in the next chapter- Yeah...
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where here they're, they're flowing to the temple, but they're not doing it with their heart, and they're not worthy to be there. Mm-hmm. But then Isaiah has a, a vision of the last days- That's right...
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of temple worship, which is our days today, where we're gonna invert the trend, and we're gonna do it the right way. Yes. Let me lead you up to that briefly.
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If you look at verses 21 till the end of 31 in chapter one, this courtroom has now gone to a series of promises that what God will do, beginning, like, in verse 24 and 25.
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You could circle all the times where God says, "I will, I will, I will." He says things like, "I will turn my hand, purge away thy dross," verse 24. "I will restore thy judges as at the first.
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The city of righteousness and the faithful city will be redeemed." Verse 27, "Zion shall be redeemed."
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So even though there's this courtroom where the people are under judgment, or at least more impor- more specifically, God has given strong evidence that they- They are 100% guilty...
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they are 100% guilty, and God's like, "Well, you're 100% guilty, but to show you my hesed, I will promise that I will continue to advocate on your behalf, and I will continue to show my covenantal, unconditional loyalty to you to work to give you things that will help you to be loyal to me."
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And then that leads us right up to chapter two, which is his famous verses about the temple. Mm-hmm. But true temple wor- worship. Will you walk us through those, uh, those verses? Yeah.
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The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw, and the Hebrew word behind saw means to see something in a vision. It doesn't de- doesn't mean like, "Hey, I see that you look handsome with this suit coat on." Hmm. No.
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The saw here refers to a revelation, a future vision. So you could actually put a word that Amoz, the vision he had. Yes. Instead of the word saw. Yeah. Okay.
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Concerning Judah and Jerusalem, that's, uh, not just geography, but it's referring to the covenant people. And here we go, verse two. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house..."
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Now, in the ancient Near East, and you correct me if you see this differently, Taylor, but in the ancient Near East, you have all these pagan gods, and they would erect,
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uh, temples or structures to their gods, and oftentimes they'd be on hills or mountains. Mm-hmm. So you have- Or even they would build a, uh, an artificial hill, and they would put a temple at top to...
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If you didn't have a mountain nearby, you just kind of build a, a, a fake hill and put one up there. Yeah. Like a, like a ziggurat.
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Like, the ziggurats you have all over ancient Iraq, those are kind of like artificial mountains with temples on top dedicated to, like, Babylonian gods or... Okay, good, and that's the imagery it's drawing upon here.
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Yes. Okay. V- so verse two again, "And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the pagans?" No. "Of the Egyptians?" No. "Of the Assyrians?" No.
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"The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains." Or another way of saying that, out of all the temples out there- Hmm...
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guess which one is gonna be the most popular, the one that people are gonna seek to. The temple that belongs to Yahweh or Jehovah or to- Hmm... the Lord- Hmm... the God of Israel. And let's see, "And shall...
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And this temple of Yahweh shall be exalted above the hills." It'll be more esteemed than any of the other pagan god hills or temples. And I love this last line, "And all nations."
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The Hebrew word behind nation is goyim, and most of the time goyim refers to the Gentiles. Mm-hmm. "And all nations shall flow unto it." And what's the antecedent to it?
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The temple, but oh, my gosh, I never thought about this before. Rivers always flow away from mountains. Always. Yes, yes. It's, uh, it's the law of gravity.
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[laughs] I'm just realizing these rivers are flowing the wrong way. Well, from a geologic gravity standpoint, they're flowing to the mountain and up into the mountain. Hmm. That's not how rivers work.
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So this is really powerful that God is inverting how the fallen world works, where the world or his people will all flow unto him.
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You might remember creation, there were four rivers that flowed out from the tree of life.
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I'm wondering, is this a reversal now that we're now having the rivers of humanity flow back into the center point of his temple, which is where the tree of life is?
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I, I really l- that, that sounds beautiful 'cause the word flow comes from the Hebrew, uh, verb na- nahar, I believe. Okay. Yeah. Uh, which is literally means it's the river. Mm-hmm.
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So we're gonna river, all these nations are gonna river or [laughs] that sounds weird, so we're gonna say are gonna flow like a river- Hmm... to the Lord's house. Mm-hmm. And I w- I imagine in 700 BC, the listeners
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hearing this for Isaiah, "Wait, Isaiah, you're telling us we've got a temple here in downtown Jerusalem." The temple in Isaiah's day was built by Solomon ath- in about 1000 BC. Mm-hmm.
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And that's the only temple we know of at the time. "And you're telling us that the Assyrians, the Egyptians, that instead of, i- instead of them worshiping their gods and their temp- they're gonna wanna flow to
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your, the, the Lord's temple?" This is so revolutionary and prophetic. Well, it is revolutionary because the Jewish people had so many rules and laws about staying away from non-Israelite people.
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These are the whole kosher laws that during the New Testament time created such contention, uh, among the people.
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Like, even Paul himself, there were riots who broke out because he brought a Gentile up to the temple area, and they're like, "Well, a Gentile is up here. That's a problem." And
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for anciently, many of the Israelites believed, "Well, we have the pure blood. We have the right blood, therefore only we are allowed into these experiences."
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And Isaiah's saying, "Actually, remember Genesis 12:1-3, God promised all the families of the earth would be blessed, all of them." Hmm. "Therefore,
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everybody should be flowing into this temple, and it's not just for the tribe of Judah, which is only one tribe out of 12."
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And by the way, today when people call the Jews Israelites, they are, but the Jews are not the only Israelites. They're only one-twelfth of the larger group.
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So it is true they're Israelites, but they don't represent the other 11 tribes. I mean, technically they don't, sometimes in our minds.
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And so God is saying, "I will save the Jews, and I'll save the tribe of Joseph and the tribe of Zeph- Ta- Naphtali and Zebulon and Issachar and Gad and Asher," all these other ones, "and anybody who actually was not born into one of these families,
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I will graft them in. I will adopt them in, and they will also flow onto my temple." So it is radical, wild theology.
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It, it doesn't sound quite as radical today, but anciently, this would have been so revolutionarily shocking to the ancient Israelites.
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So there's many reasons why the ancient Israelites preserved the words of Isaiah, but this is part of the reason. He said things that were so massively, unexpectedly beautiful and compelling
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that no one had probably ever heard before, and they're like, "We have gotta make sure we preserve his words." Yeah. So Mike, you were just pointing out something else about this little word it at the end of verse two.
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"All nations shall flow unto it."
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And that's a great translation, and that's how all modern translations handle it, but grammatically and technically speaking, the it is a masculine singular suffix, and I think you could make an argument that the it could also be translated-
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As Him. Mm. And all nations shall flow unto Him, meaning the Lord. Because at the end of the day, um, like you were suggesting back in chapter one, it's not enough just to go to the temple every week and check the box.
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Mm-hmm. Are we going to connect with Him and to learn about Him and to think about Him? And then when we come home, to actually live the things that we have committed to live.
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So verses six to 22, I made a note for myself. This is prophetic judgment, so it's actually transition. Isaiah's gone from, "All right. Here's all the great things God's gonna do for us,"
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but if the people are not faithful, they can't receive. If people walk away from God, here's what the outcome will be. In verses six through 22, Isaiah's actually speaking to God
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about God's judgment, or at least the consequences of people being disloyal.
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He says things like, "Therefore, thou, Jehovah, hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east and are soothsayers like the Philistines.
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And they please themselves in the children of strangers." In fact, uh, I see... I make a note here to Jacob chapter two. There's some interesting connections.
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Also, if you connect this to Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 16 and 17, um, the next verse, "Their, their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures.
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Their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. Their land is also full of idols. They worship the, they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made."
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So if you go back to Deuteronomy chapter 17 verses 16 to 17, God says, "My expectations for a king who's on the throne is they should not seek after silver and gold. Don't seek after horses and chariots. Seek after
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writing and reading and teaching the word of God." Yeah. Kind of like what's happening here, what we're doing right now.
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So unfortunately, the people had been misled by the kings to want power and prestige and wealth and warfare. And I'll just point this out. In our own communities and nations today, what are we doing?
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Are we seeking after silver and gold for our own purposes? Or, as Benjamin said, to clothe the naked and to feed the hungry and to liberate the captive. Are we seeking to multiply horses and chariots?
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Anciently, that meant to m- m- uh, multiply your military. Remember the phrase the Lord of Hosts? The hosts are the heavenly hosts of our... the, the heavenly army, and God is the commander, and He's saying, "Listen.
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I will fight your battles." And so when people choose to say, "We're gonna put all of our trust on our own military, and we're gonna build it up, and we're gonna forget God," that's what was happening anciently.
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We might ask ourselves today, huh, how well are we doing at not falling into the same trap that Isaiah's pointing out happened to the ancient Israelites, that they walked away from God, and therefore, they were going to have all sorts of negative things happen to them?
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At the same time, if we're honest,
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that's who we would wanna vote for today, somebody that could provide an economy where we can enjoy gold and silver and a, and a powerful military so we feel safe and that we have a good business. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm.
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I mean, he's des- it's describing King Solomon's reign. Mm-hmm. Right, so what do you do? Yeah. That's the problem. I mean, I guess... Well, I wonder if the wordplay here is revealing.
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Verse eight, "Their land is also full of idols," and the Hebrew word is elelim. Mm. So instead of having Elohim, God, they focus on elelim. So there's nothing wrong with having gold and silver, I don't think- Right...
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or wanting to feel safe by having a good military, but where's your trust? Where's your focus? Exactly. And I agree with you. I don't think God is saying those things are actually wrong.
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It's what were the means by which you got to those outcomes? That could be a problem. Yeah. Yeah. And then once you got those outcomes, what did you do with those means?
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Are you helping out the poor and the needy and- Did you actually use that to preserve peace, or did you use it to oppress people? I think the good news, Taylor, is I love how this chapter started, though. Mm-hmm.
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We're gonna see a great reversal, and I, I know we have issues today in these last days, but at the same time, it's never been better. A- amen.
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The, the, the house of the Lord, the mountain of the Lord's house is not just in Salt Lake. Yeah. We've... We're pushing 400 temples- Mm-hmm...
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right, that have been built or are under construction, and people are flocking to... They're, they're, they're flowing to them. And they, they're doing it with their hearts, and they...
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And when they do hit success and they do g- receive gold and silver and they're doing well, they love to share. Mm-hmm.
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I mean, last year alone, I think the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave over a billion dollars in cash. We're not even counting the hours- Wow... given.
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I mean, and I, again, I'm not suggesting we're perfect, but I, I see this amazing spiritual momentum that has never been seen before in the history of the world, and I think Isaiah saw that in vision, and we have a front-row seat to it.
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I wanna s- be a second witness m- to what you're saying, Mike, that we live in the greatest time in human history, okay? I've studied all of human history.
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I mean, I suppose besides when Jesus showed up in the, um, in the meridian of time. Besides that, we have this... Oh, maybe in Enoch's day. Okay, so
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we is a phenomenal time where the Restoration is with us, and we have an outpouring of scientific knowledge and other economic opportunities.
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And sure, economies go up and down, but God has just poured out His blessings upon the world, and they're just available for those who are willing to receive.
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And I think that's what Isaiah is bringing out this lawsuit that God wants to give you all these things, and when he gives those to you, your role is to turn around and give those to others, to act like God towards other people.
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Show your hesed towards other people. If you've made it to the temple, invite others.
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If you've received physical salvation, help others to receive physical salvation in the sense of, like, having enough to eat, and shelter, and clothing, and living in a safe environment, economic opportunity, right?
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If you have been given the blessings where your life is good, are you turning around and spending those blessings so somebody else can also benefit? That's exactly what God invites us to do. If we...
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If he serves us, which is the image of God, and we're all images of God, we should be serving the image of God wherever we go. That was King Benjamin's speech. I was, I was hungry. You gave me meat.
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I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was sick, and you visited me. Mm-hmm. I was naked, you clothed me. So that refers to both temporal needs- Mm-hmm... but also spiritual needs.
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And I love seeing covenant keepers trying to do that- Yeah... in b- in both areas there.
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And the summary of the remainder of this chapter is mostly Isaiah calling out or identifying what happens when people get all these positive benefits, but they use the wrong means to get there, or when they have these positive benefits, they misuse them.
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Verse 17: "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, the haughtiness of men shall be made low."
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Um, verse 20: "In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to, to worship, to the moles and to the bats.
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Because the fear of the Lord," verse 21, "and the glory of His majesty will arise and shake terribly the earth." So Isaiah is pointing out, don't let the good things of the world distract you from the good things of God.
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Because if all you want is the good things of the world, which God is willing to give, in the end, you're gonna want all those to be out of your life when He shows up again. So that was kind of a, a judgment, right?
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So chapter three also... Remember, we're kind of in the mode where Isaiah is in this lawsuit mode, identifying for the Israelites, "You guys have not been loyal to God."
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And so chapter three is judgment on the proud leaders and women of Jerusalem. So it's very interesting what he says.
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He says in verse, uh, one, "For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts," remember that's a military phrase, "doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, and the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water."
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And stay means the, the supply. All the basic necessities are gonna run out, yep. By the way, I looked up the word Lord some time ago, and it comes from two words, which I'm putting here. What are you writing?
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I'm writing the word loaf and ward. The word loaf u- refers to bread, and a ward is a guardian, someone who protects something. And if you take the word loaf and the word ward, like the person who guards the bread,
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and you drop the A-F of, of the word loaf and the W-A from ward, you have the word lord. And the word lord is a contraction from the word loaf ward, the person who protects and delivers the bread.
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Now, what happens at sacrament? Who protects and delivers the bread to us? Who's the Lord? Jesus himself. He's poured out his body on our behalf. What is he doing here?
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For people who've chosen to walk away from God, God is not their Lord. He is no longer their loaf ward. He's no longer protecting the bread of life for them, whether it's physical or spiritual. Mm.
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And this goes all the way down until, like verse eight says, "For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory." So
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if you're feeling like, oh my gosh, this is so depressing, I wanna be uplifted, just remember right now Isaiah is in a courtroom, and he's reminding the people of God's utter covenantal loyalty
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and the outcomes when people are disloyal to God. And then verses what, nine through 17? Do you want... Or 18? No. [laughs] Seven through
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the rest of the chapter, 26, talks about the daughters of Zion. Yeah. Let's, uh, t- walk us through that, Mike. What, what is Isaiah communicating to these women? Are they faithful or are they unfaithful?
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Well, I've s- yeah, this is... Well, let's look at some of these.
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Uh, like verse 16: "More- moreover, the Lord sayeth, because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will smite with a s- scab, the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts."
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And in that day, notice the wording here. This is interesting.
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Verse 18: "In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet and their cauls and their round tires like the moon, the chains and the bracelets, the mufflers, bonnets, ornaments of the legs and the headbands, tablets, earrings, rings, nose jewels, changeable suits of apparel, the mantles, the wimples, the crisping pins, and the glasses, the fine linen, the hoods and the veils."
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Okay. It's just describing all their bougie apparel. Yeah. I mean, they are looking fancy. Yeah. And so I've heard this used over and over again in gospel doctrine, in Sunday school, and in podcasts where they're like-
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Hey, ladies, don't, you know, dress modestly and don't become worldly. And [laughs] what was that snicker for? [laughs] You know, and of course, that's a good message, but I don't know if that's Isaiah's primary intent.
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No, let's step back into the context. This is a covenantal lawsuit in the courtroom where people have been disloyal to God. And so Isaiah's pointing out, like, "Hey, listen, your fancy clothes..."
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He could've pulled the men in. "Your fancy shirts and shoes and whatever, your fancy jobs and titles..." Well, actually, he did do that earlier. But he's just picking on the women in these verses- Right... it seems.
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He does pick out the... He does kind of tell the, uh, the rulers earlier that they also are not, um, gonna get away from judgment of being disloyal. God is saying, through Isaiah,
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"These things can't protect you from the outcomes of disloyalty to God." Now, let's suppose that the women had been completely loyal to God, and they happen to be wearing all this stuff.
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We'd have a different story where Isaiah's like, "God would like to tell you how much he loves you, and he's so appreciative of the way that you have taken care of the poor. You've been kind to your neighbors.
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You've been, um, seeking humility. You are kind to yourself, right? 'Cause you don't- Mm-hmm... force yourself into perfectionism, 'cause that's God's job. God just wants you to be in a relationship with him.
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And God is pleased that you have some good things of life that make your life comfortable and that you can share with others." That would've been a very...
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That exactly what I think Isaiah would've said had the people been faithful. So it's kind of an accidental situation that you have wealthy people who are wearing all these things, and they were just being disloyal.
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What if they had been very loyal? Hmm. I, I don't think Isaiah would've said, "You need to get rid of the earrings." Like, I don't see anywhere else in scripture where God has a problem with people's apparel.
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This is simply a signal that the individuals have taken safety in material things. It's like having idols. Idols aren't gonna save you. Mm. That does not show loyalty. So I'm with you. I don't think we should...
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I personally don't think we should be using this to make anybody in the church, particularly women or girls, feel bad about- Wanting to look nice and dress nice? About how they dress. Yeah.
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Um, and I think it's interesting that Bible scholars will point out that the phrase daughters of Zion refers equally to women and men. It's more of a- Hmm... a phrase- Hmm... to refer to covenant Israel.
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Oh, interesting. So when we're, we're thinking about a daughter of Zion, we're thinking more it's a covenantal, technical phrase that encompasses people. Just like when we say the church is the bride to Jesus Christ.
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Bride is a feminine, but it encompasses men. M- Right. You see- You see that all throughout the Bible. The parable of the 10 virgins. Right.
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That should see the- And we know the virgins, the five wise and faithful, represents members of the church. Hmm. Women and men.
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So you've made a pretty strong claim, which I think is actually, you've backed it up well, that when we read daughters of Zion here, we're not just trying to highlight the women of ancient Israel are the problem.
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God is identifying that the covenant people, who are supposed to be in a family, have misused their agency to be disloyal to God and to forget him and to forget their neighbor. I think so. Okay.
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Well, that's pretty powerful. And then I find it interesting, uh, the list of all the different things that the daughters of Zion were wearing actually refer to the items listed when it comes to temple worship.
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It's the clothing that you would often see the Levites and the priests wearing when they would go worship in the tabernacle of Moses. Hmm.
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And we won't go into all of it, but if you look at the Hebrew word behind them, you see them reappear in the tabernacle of Moses. Fascinating. And so, but then the Lord's warning them, "Hey, you are covenant people.
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You women and men, you've been clothed to worship me in the temple, me in the covenant, but what's gonna be your result? Because you're not keeping your covenant." Right. The, the Lord's gonna...
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Yep, verse 18, "I'm gonna have to take away all these things." Hmm. Uh, the covenant's not gonna do you... You're gonna be left exposed. You're not gonna be protected by the covenant.
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Not because I'm not faithful to my covenant, but I'm just not gonna force you to stay in it if you don't want it. Or how would you word it? I think you're exactly right.
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It's like, what if I say, "Well, I have a temple recommend, but I don't live my life really, truly worthy of it," and I basically just clean up my life for a week before I go and get my temple recommend interview.
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Or let's suppose I've been endowed, but I don't allow that endowment and the physical nature of wearing and expressing the endowment really change my life at all.
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God's like, "Hey, listen, you wearing temple garments or wearing garments under your clothing, that's not gonna save you if you don't choose to stay in relationship with me. I'm gonna honor your agency.
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You can be in a relationship with me or not, and the garment is a signal you're in relationship with me. But if you act differently-" You have to be true and faithful. [laughs] Yeah.
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It's no different than just wearing a T-shirt and shorts. Not gonna do much for you. Well, and then here's the great news again. So we kind of hit a bummer. Right.
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In Isaiah's day, 700 BC, in downtown Jerusalem, they were breaking their covenants. And I know that sometimes happens today. But in the last days, look at chapter 4 verse 1.
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"And in that day," meaning the last days, "seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, 'We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel. Only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach.'"
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Now, you can interpret that through a historical level, because in Isaiah's day, Assyria did wipe out a lot of the surrounding cities of, uh, Jerusalem or the kingdom of Judah, right? There wasn't a lot of men.
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Yeah, there was actually a register in the Assyrian annals that they had taken 46 walled cities of Judah. 46 walled cities. We're not talking about all the villages, just the walled cities. Jerusalem was never conquered.
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That's the whole story of Hezekiah and Isaiah encouraging the people to trust the Lord when the Assyrians had, had encircled them, what, around 722 BC. So yeah, on, on the weekends in Isaiah's day,
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a lot of the women were not going on dates. There just wasn't a lot of men. They had been wiped out by the Assyrians. Hmm. And so you can read, okay, so seven women are gonna wanna hold onto one man.
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They're gonna be desperate for a date and for a husband. But I don't know if that's the primary...
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I mean, that's historically accurate, but I don't know if that's the primary point he's trying to get across because he's referring to the latter day fulfillment. Yeah, what do you see there?
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The seven women, again, seven can refer to the complete. Hmm. Like shave is the Hebrew word that means, like, perfection or fully complete, or even, like, covenantal. Yep. And the seven...
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And the woman, again, we've already mentioned, right? That's covenant Israel or Christ's church. Yeah. Is gonna take hold of one man. We're gonna have this beautiful reversal. I want to n- not just go to the temple.
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I don't wanna just go through the motions. I wanna take hold of the one man, Jesus Christ. And th- keep going. You see this language. Say, "We'll eat our own bread and wear our own apparel."
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Being connected to Jesus Christ will mean more to me than the basic necessities. Hmm.
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Yeah, but I think this is also what you're trying to point out, that, "Only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach," taking upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, which we do at baptism.
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And in our temple covenants, we actually make the covenants in, uh... We take upon ourselves His name when we partake of the, uh, the, the temple ceremony. And the, the Hebrew word for to take hold is really fascinating.
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It m- it comes from khazak, which means... It can mean to ritually grasp by the hand to confer a position and power. Wow. That's powerful.
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And also, we have here in verse four, "When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.
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And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion," this is Jerusalem, "and upon her assemblies, a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for upon all the glory shall be a defense."
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Uh, remember, fire and cloud, these are all symbols of God's presence. Go back to Exodus. That's quite consistent.
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In fact, you might remember the tabernacle, Exodus 40, it concludes with God's smoky presence shows up and feel, fill, fills the temple or the tabernacle with His glory. Hmm.
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Sounds like that's being fulfilled today, where we have all these tabernacles- Hmm... throughout the world now. And I also love that he's saying this will be for everybody. It's democratized.
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It's not just a single location, but in everybody's dwelling they'll have this. Hmm. It's quite powerful. Let's now take a look at chapter five. I wrote at the top of my chapter, the song of the vineyard.
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You might also relate this to, uh, Jacob chapter 5, where he talks about the working in the orchard or the, or the vineyard. And the first seven verses are the song that God is singing to His people.
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Now, remember, we're still somewhat in the sense of Go- of, of Isaiah is in a courtroom speaking on God's behalf to the people about how they've not been loyal to God.
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And now Isaiah is speaking on behalf of God, singing about God's own loyalty to the people. He has filled his unconditional covenant that he made to Abraham and all of his posterity back in Genesis 12:15-17.
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And you just see some interesting connections with, uh, Jacob chapter 5. God says in verse one and two, uh... Well, he says v- end of verse one, "My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill."
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Verse two, he worked really hard on it. Then the, the verse it says, "It brought forth wild grapes." Now here's the lawsuit language.
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And verse three, "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Jud- Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more?"
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That's exactly the language we find repeated throughout Jacob chapter 5. Verse five, "And now go to. I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the protecting hedge thereof."
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The hedge would've been, like, those bushes that would, like, create natural fencing. "And the wall... And break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.
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And I will lay it waste, and it shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it."
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So this actually seems to be jumping over most of Jacob 5 and going right to the end, assuming that the Lord has been in there in the garden many, many, many, many times working on helping the people.
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I like in verse two, it's interesting that he planted the vineyard with the choicest vine. You would expect to... I mean, you got a whole... You got this whole plantation. You'd expect to see vines, plural. Hmm.
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But even if you look in the Hebrew, it's just the one choicest vine is planted there. Singular. The, yeah, the, this fruitful hill represents Jerusalem, I believe. Hmm. And he's saying, "I am the vine." Right?
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That's what Jesus said right before he went into- Oh, that's right... Gethsemane. John 17. Right? "And you're the branches." Hmm. Right? He, I planted myself right- In the midst, and I built this wine press, right?
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I'm gonna end up treading the wine press a- alone. Like The Hebrew word is Gethsemane. Yeah. I guess he's just saying, "What more could do? I actually became Emmanuel. I became flesh, and I dwelt among you.
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You could look into my eyes. You could hear my voice. I worked all these miracles. I, I, I bled and died for you. What more could I have done?" Verse seven, I find this beautiful again. It...
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We keep seeing Isaiah, like, these stunning, unexpected, uh, messages of beauty and hope. When people break their covenants, when you and I sin or those that we love,
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uh, we shouldn't lose hope because look at the conclusion here. Verse seven: "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah..." You expect him to say stinkers, right? Mm.
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Because they're breaking... But he calls them His pleasant plant. Mm. Even though they keep sinning and bringing forth these rotten, stinky grapes, they're bringing forth bad fruit
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and evil, he calls them a pleasant plant, which comes from the Hebrew word which means it's... It, it reflects the intense pleasure or delight, like a father who enjoys playing with his son. Hmm. That's powerful.
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I mean, isn't that true? I mean, you're a parent. I'm a parent, and we love our kids to death, e- no matter... They can break our hearts. Mm. But you know what?
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If they tell us, "Hey, can I come visit you and Mom on the weekend?" Even if they're in r- Mm. You just... Y- you, you want them to come home so desperately. Mm. He's... They're still my little boy.
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They're still my little girl, and w- God doesn't lose hope. But He still calls them the pleasant plant. Powerful. There's also a really cool Hebrew wordplay here. For, "He looked for righteousness, but behold, a cry."
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So it's tsedakah, that's righteousness, but behold, a tza'ak. So Isaiah's just a master of words. Nice. So we have this lawsuit here.
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Again, uh, Isaiah's speaking on behalf of the Lord, sings a song of the vineyard, asks, "What more could I have done?"
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And because the people had chosen to walk away from God, Isaiah identifies six woes between verses eight to 23. Woe one is in verse eight. Verse 11 is woe two.
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Woe three is verse 18, and then woes four, five, and six are verses 20, 21, and 22. So then you have a transition from the woes to what are the outcomes of those woes? How does that make people feel?
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And we have from verse 24 to 30 basically a long series of things that none of us would want to experience. It's basically you're not going to have mercy.
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Verse 25: "Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindle- kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them and hath smitten them, and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets.
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For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." Now, some people think, oh, the hand stretched out means, well, he's still reaching out in mercy. This is emphatically not mercy.
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When you see the hand stretched out still, it does not mean mercy. It means judgment has not finished. Mm. In the ancient world, the hand was the symbol of justice. Arms are the symbols of mercy. What does Lehi say?
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"I've been wrapped in the arms of his mercy." You do not wanna see the hand of God in your life. You wanna see his arms in your life. And so God is saying, "You guys have been so disloyal
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that even after all of this negative things going to happen, there's still more negative yet to come." Unless you turn to the Lord. Unless you turn to the Lord, which by the way, he's always there.
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His arms are always ready to receive us, always, always, always. And you see that in the next verse, 26. Yeah.
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"So he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth, and behold, they shall come with speed sweef- swiftly." So it's an invitation.
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So this phrase, "His hand is stretched out still," actually does mean justice is still coming, and one way many s- many people read verses 26 to 30, a lot of scholars, is that God is actually calling the Assyrian war machine to come attack the 10 northern tribes who had been so disloyal to God.
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And if you look carefully from verse 26 to 30 and you read it from the sense of God allowing the Assyrians to come in and conquer mercilessly the 10 northern tribes, this makes a lot of sense. Okay?
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Now, I do know that in the church we like to t- uh, interpret this like this is about missionary work, and we're su- gonna succeed and great.
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The way Isaiah probably saw this was God allowed the Assyrians to come in and conquer the Israelites.
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In fact, you point out, Mike, there's even this phrase that, uh, John the Baptist quotes: "Neither shall the girdle of their loins be loose, nor the latch of their shoes be broken." He mentions this about, um, Jesus.
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He actually says, "I am not worthy to unlatch his shoe." So it's not necessarily a direct quote, but it's kind of related language. Mm-hmm. And people...
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Sometimes we only look at the positive like, oh, Jesus came to save. He did, but he saves in part by... removing the people who shouldn't be there, right? He is both a savior, right?
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You have a great and dreadful day of the year. Lord, it's great for some people and dreadful for others, and this is actually military language we have here.
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So Jesus, um, will show up at some point, both of as a savior and as a military who removes the people who did not want to be saved.
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So again, we might think, "Oh, my gosh, I feel so overwhelmed by Isaiah seems like he's so negative." Um, to remind ourselves, Isaiah was living in extremely difficult times. The Northern...
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10 northern tribes of Israel had spent two centuries apostatizing. They had built the golden calf. They had done so many wicked things.
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They had apostatized, like, so tremendously that Isaiah is constrained to say things that are highly uncomfortable for people to hear. In fact, when we go to chapter six,
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we will hear Isaiah's call and how much he's not feeling ready for it because he knows how hard it is to say uncomfortable things to people who need to hear the truth.
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And what's interesting is chapter six, um, is his call to the ministry. Most prophetic books in the Old Testament, the call of the prophet shows up in chapter one. Here,
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Isaiah just jumps in for five chapters essentially saying, "God has a lawsuit against you guys. I'm his court, [laughs] court lawyer, and now let me tell you why I got called to be the lawyer here." Okay?
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Mike, what are some of the great takeaways you see from chapter six? This chapter is situated in the temple. So again, downtown Jerusalem, Solomon's Temple. Uh, and it, it, it says there in verse one,
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"He saw the Lord sitting upon a throne." And again, saw comes from the Hebrew word kazah, which means to see something in a vision. Mm.
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And he's sitting upon his throne, so scholars think that he's seeing Jesus in the Holy of Holies. Mm. Right? Which was considered God's throne. Considered his throne room, yeah.
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And actually at the base of the Holy of Holies... Sorry, in the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant, which was seen as either his footstool or the throne upon which he sat.
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And in the Ark of the Covenants was the Law of Moses. It's like what we have the pr- plates of brass, what Nephi went to go get, was effectively a copy of what sat inside the Ark of the Covenant. Mm-hmm.
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Which by the way, would mean that Nephi now effectively has a mobile tabernacle coming with him in, in the wilderness. Nice. He's like Ezekiel who sees God's presence leave the tabernacle and go in the wilderness.
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Like, yeah, Nephi's like, "Yep, that was us. He came with us when we brought the brass pla- brass plates." Now, then you have this interesting phrase, "It stood above the seraphims."
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That Hebrew word seraph means a burning... something that's burning. So these are just bright, glorious beaning, uh, beings. I, I think they're probably just, uh, angels. I mean, the wings- Mm-hmm...
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are symbolic of movement, power to act according to- Yeah... Doctrine and Covenant Section 77. Yeah, yeah. You see the same imagery in Ezekiel and in the Book of Revelation. With the wings?
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The, the, the wings and these- The glory... these weird, mythical looking creatures- Mm... which I think could just be... Uh, Joseph Smith, he said that when God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him, that he...
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that also angels appeared and he... Everything w- he thought the leaves in the trees were gonna catch on fire. Yeah. And you get the same fiery- Mm... imagery going on here. That's exactly right.
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That is the glory of God. In fact, we see this in verse three, "And one cried," one of these seraphim cried unto the other, "and said," notice this, three times, " 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts.
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The whole earth is full of His glory.' " And the word for glory is kavod, which means kind of like a, a heavy substantive weight of value. And when we think about glory, we think, oh, it's just shining.
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But it is like a shining that burdens you in a positive way. It's something that has heft and significance.
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I just want people to think if you've ever been in a moment where you felt so empowered or overwhelmed by God with goodness, that's kavod. That's kavod. Uh, yeah, holy, holy, holy comes from the Hebrew word
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ka- kodesh, and a Bible scholar did a really nice exhaustive survey of every time it had appeared, and he says, "You know, holy doesn't just mean..." The typical traditional interpretation is you're free from sin.
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Mm. You're sanctified. But he says, uh, uh, he argues that it means consecrated, dedicated, or committed. Hmm. That's more, much more relational. That's interesting.
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And I find that powerful and compelling because especially for Isaiah in 740 BC downtown Jerusalem, when Assyria is about ready to attack and decimate, what, 42 cities.
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We have historical archaeological evidence for it, and it says also in the Bible, uh, he is seeing the Lord of Hosts, Lord of Armies, right? That would've been powerful imagery for them because they need protection.
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Mm-hmm. And they need a God that can be committed and devoted to them, even though they've been stinkers. I love it.
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Wow, Mike, you're doing something we don't often think about, that when we're talking about the holiness of the Lord, it's because He's dedicated and committed to us.
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Even though we haven't been dedicated or committed to Him. Mm-hmm.
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Again, that's the stunner that we have throughout the Scripture, the Old Testament in particular, his ongoing hesed, that God is committed to stay in relationship with us.
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He does not force us to be in a relationship with him. He gives us full agency to walk away from him.
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He does tell us, as the lawsuits we've been hearing from Isaiah, "Here are all the consequences if you decide to leave my presence. My presence is where there is order," just like at creation.
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If you wanna go back into disorder, like before creation happened, that is your choice, but that's chaotic, and it's destructive.
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"Come, be with me in my temple, my Sabbath, where everything is at wholeness or peace, shalom." Yeah. So then we get the, this passage of Isaiah, um,
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saying, in verse five, "I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips." I mean, these are people who don't speak truth. They don't live truth.
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They don't k- keep their commitments. And then he, he says, "I have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." Again, remember the phrase, Lord of Hosts, is military language. This is the one who manages all the battles.
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"Then one of the seraphims," one of these burning ones, "took a coal," a burning coal, "put it on his lips, and purges his mouth."
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Verse seven, "Lo, this has touched thy mouth, thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." That's powerful. Taken away and purged. I lo- I love what President Boyd K. Packer said.
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He said, quote, "If you have already made bad mistakes, there are ways to fix things up, and eventually it will be as though they never happened," close quote. Just gone. Yep.
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In fact, the word, uh, atonement in Hebrew means to cover, like you just can't see it anymore. So of course then there's a question asked, who will go forth? Who will be the messenger?
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And in Hebrew, uh, the way it was understood that a, a messenger, the He- the Hebrew word for messenger is malach, or malachi. Like, malachi means my messenger. It's an angel.
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An angel or a messenger is somebody who stands in God's presence, in God's court, and then is empowered to go on a mission to teach what they've heard God speak in his heavenly courts. And they're...
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Isaiah's in the heavenly court, and they say, "Well, who's gonna go share this message?" And Isaiah says, "Here am I. Send me." Man, that would take a lot of courage. That's right.
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Because he knows the type of people he's been called to serve, and in fact, you were suggesting earlier that he was sawn asunder.
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I mean, he's gonna probably get killed, and yet he's, without hesitation, he's like, "Here am I. Send me," which echoes the same kind of response that Jehovah gave in the pre-earth life. That's right. He is...
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Yeah, he, he's been endowed with this power because of this purging that he's experienced, this love for his people, even though they're so wicked. And then he gets this really shocking mission call.
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So think about all the young people you see today on YouTube or Facebook or Live opened their mission call, and they're called to go preach the gospel. Notice what happens here.
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Now, remember, we're still in the midst of kind of a, a long judgment scene courtroom where God says, "All right. Go out and tell this people, 'Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not.'"
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Now, these are covenantal terms that the people have not kept their end of the bargain,
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and they've been shown covenantal loyalty from God, but they are not seeing his loyalty, and therefore they are not acting in concert with that. You can't blame Isaiah for asking in verse 11, "Uh, Lord, how long?" Yeah.
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"Is this a two-year mission?" [laughs] "Can we make it two weeks?" I mean, he's going forth with love and commitment. Right. But at the same time, you can see the, the mortal in him, like, "This is gonna be a big ask.
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Uh, how long is this gonna happen?" And then I love the answer. The Lord says, "Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man, and the land be utterly, utterly desolate."
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You talk about a God who is holy- Yeah... committed, dedicated. He's like, "I am not gonna give up as long as there's one house to... You, you ha- you still need to knock on their door." Mm-hmm. Yep.
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And what's powerful here is that if you think about the 10 northern tribes, the Kingdom of Israel, that has been so apostate for hundreds of years at this point, God is going to allow them to be taken away.
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Verse 12, "And the Lord hath removed men far away, and there would be a great forsaking in the midst of the land," 'cause the land is holy. You know, the people mistreat the land. God's like, "Fine.
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You can go live somewhere else. Go worship your false god somewhere else, but when you're on your, off your timeout, I will bring you back in. I am not abandoning my covenant.
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We might have to have a pause in your, your individual access to it until you're ready to be faithful, but it's always here." And that is lurking. The, the mercy's kind of lurking here in the background.
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So he does point out verse 13, "A tenth shall return."
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And our, our historical records of what happened to the Jews with Babylonian exile is, they're quite sparse, but it seems like only a very small fraction of the people of Judah who got taken to captivity by the Babylonians ever returned back into, uh, Jerusalem.
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And I think the Septuagint says that a remnant will return. That's a good phrase. Yeah, that makes sense for what we understand from, like, the, the restoration standpoint. Yeah.
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So then this chapter seven is back in a time period of enormous political and military conflict and problems, 734 to 732 BC, and I wrote at the top of here, "The sign of Immanuel amid political fear."
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And what's going on is the Assyrians are the world's most powerful empire at the time. They're threatening to conquer Syria- And the northern kingdom of Israel.
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And so Syria and Israel decide, "We're gonna protect ourselves by getting help from the kingdom of Judah." And Judah didn't want to join the coalition to fight against the Assyrians.
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So Israel and Syria decided, "Well, let's go to war against Judah, and let's put a leader in who will be friendly to our interests." And by the way, if you think this is, like, an ancient thing, it happens today.
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Can you think about any time in the year 2026 when the ruler of one country replaced the ruler of another country? This is still happening today, where powerful people want compliant people.
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And so this kind of political shenanigans have been going on for a long time, and we call this the Syro-Ephraimite War because Ephraim, which was the head of the house of Israel, or meaning the 10 tribes, and the Syrians go to war against Judah.
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Mike, tell us what's going on in this chapter, and w- w- why Isaiah got involved. Or am I putting you on the spot? Well, n- n- I'm just... No, I think you set up the, the stage really beautiful. It...
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This chapter, admittedly, for our audience, I, I hope you're not feeling frustrated. There's... If you read verses one and two, it has a lot of political components. Mm-hmm. Y- you gotta know the geography.
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You gotta know who the rulers are [laughs] and where they belong, and it can... It... You have to read it a few times. You almost have to map it out. Right. And that's why I think Nephi says in the Book of Mormon, uh,
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"For me, the words of Isaiah are delightful because I've lived there. I know the geography. I know the political situation." But for those that haven't lived there, you're gonna struggle a little bit.
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Well, he's doing something that we're not doing. He's like, "I'm just gonna give you the delightful, uplifting words of God, and I'm not gonna bore you with all the historical details and all the lawsuit language." Yeah.
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[laughs] But here in verses, in chapter seven, verses one and two, you've, you've got a... That's pretty political. Uh- Yeah... it sets the stage. But the, the essence of it is, uh,
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like Taylor said, you got the king- the northern kingdom of Israel and the territory or the kingdom of Syria. They want the southern king of Judah's help, and Judah won't help.
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And in fact, if you go to 2 Corinthians or 2 Chronicles 20:6, it says, "For Pekah, the King of Israel, slew in Judah 120,000 one day."
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The people would not come and help fight the war against, uh, Assyria, and they're like, "That's not cool. You should be helping fight this war, and we're gonna make you." That's fascinating.
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So the 2 Chronicles is almost a retelling of... 1 and 2 Chronicles is almost a retelling of 1 and 2 Kings. 2 Chro- uh, Chronicles is from the perspective of Judah.
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Notice that they are probably inflating and exaggerating numbers. "Oh, yeah, Israel came down. They killed 120,000 of us in one day."
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I will just promise you, if you look across all of human history, even in the worst wars, 120,000 people dying in one day, almost never. Y- you take the invasion of Normandy,
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uh, the US lost about 4,000 to 5,000 men that day to death. Yeah. So- It, it's probably got some symbol-... inflated and might have some symbolic... The, the number 120... Anyhow. Yeah. I, I like what you're saying.
424
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But the memory is real that the people of Judah felt they probably did have people in Judah die, that Israel did come down and attack. And Ahaz is the king.
425
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His name means to grasp, to seize, or take hold, but he seems to not grasp what's going on in the political situation or the spiritual situation. Wow. I didn't even... That goes back to Isaiah chapter three, verse one...
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No, Isaiah 4:1, when the seven women take hold, they grasp. It's... comes from that same Hebrew- Wow... Hebrew verb. Oh, that's cool. So those women were grasping in the good way. [laughs] Right. King Ahaz,
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he's, he's having a hard time. He's grasping- He wants to... Isaiah's gonna come to him and say, "You c- you can't trust in human strength. You've gotta s- turn to the Lord. That's your only chance against Assyria."
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Yeah. And if you actually read this chapter, it sounds like Ahaz and Isaiah are like, are buds. They're kind of talking to each other in a nice way.
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But they're just being politically polite, but there's all this tension underneath that Ahaz actually ends up not being a great king. He's actually a little bit unfaithful. Yeah.
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So here's the quandary Ahaz is in as a political leader. If he joins in the rebellion from Syria and Ephraim, it's automatically...
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He knows the Assyrians will invade, and the Assyrians are the most powerful military in that time. And he's probably like, "I need to protect my people, and I don't need to invite an invasion." If he resists,
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he gets invaded by Ephraim and Syria, and so he's calculating, "Huh, do I wanna get invaded by two lesser kingdoms who live next door to me or by the greatest kingdom of the age? Which one?"
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Like, it's a lesser of two evils. If he allies with Assyria, he puts un- uh, Judah under pagan authority. So he's got all sorts of difficult challenges. When we read this chapter, Ahaz is trusting political maneuvering.
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Isaiah is seeking to convince him to trust God's covenants. Well said. Now, it doesn't mean to just sit around and do nothing and, "Ahaz, eat, drink, and be merry. God will cover everything."
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But- Just stay home and read your scriptures... take the time to understand the Lord's will in this very difficult set of circumstances and choices you have. They meet in, uh, verse three, um,
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on the highway by the fuller's field. And Isaiah is giving him some political feedback. Remember, Isaiah's a court prophet. Not only does he speak God's truth, but he is basically a kingly advisor.
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And he tells Ahaz to not worry about the threat from Syria and the 10 tribes of Israel. Verse nine, he says, "And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son.
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If you will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." It's interesting, the word if you will not believe is the word, effectively, it's like la aman, layman, not believing.
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If you can't believe, you can't be firmly established. So God tries to convince Ahaz to trust the words of Isaiah.
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In verse 10: "Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 'Ask thee a sign'" or a, a symbol or evidence "that the Lord... of the Lord thy God," okay? That God's gonna be with you. Ahaz says, "I won't ask.
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I'm not gonna tempt the Lord." So it's interesting, Ahaz is quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, "Don't tempt the Lord." So Ahaz has already decided on a political option, so he's basically expressing false piety.
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He's already decided he doesn't want to hear the word of the Lord. He also doesn't want evidence from the Lord that Ahaz can trust that God will do His own work.
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And so he kind of falsely has this false piety, and he, he, he, uh- Well, yeah, because not to be confused with the... In the New Testament, the Lord says, "Whoever seeketh after a sign is an adulterous generation."
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Right. But that's not what's going on here. Correct. And remember, Jesus gets tempted out in the wilderness to turn bread, or stone into bread, and Jesus also quotes the same verse.
445
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He says, "Thou shall not tempt the Lord." Right. And so we read this, we're like, we get all confused, but the understory is that Ahaz is not trusting God.
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God is not saying, "Hey, don't use your brain to solve this difficult conundrum."
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He's saying, "Yes, think through the political ramifications and the issues of people's safety, and trust that God, the Lord of Hosts, has a plan, and take the time to listen to the prophet about what that plan could be."
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And the Lord wants to give you a sign. Yes. He wants to give you evidence that He's with you. That's right. That's right. But Ahaz, "No, I don't need a sign from the Lord. No, I'm..." He, he's, he's- Yes...
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rejecting this generous heavenly favor. It's false piety. Yeah. So what does Isaiah say in response? What is the sign that Isaiah says, "All right, fine. You don't ask for a sign? God's gonna give it to you anyway."
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What is the sign? Yeah, it's beautiful, isn't it? Yeah, we have, "Therefore," verse 14, "the Lord himself will give you a sign.
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Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name God is with us," or Immanuel.
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"Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good, for behold, for before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land of the Damarenes," that's Syria and Ephraim, "shall be forsaken of both her kings."
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And it actually did happen. By two years later, both the kings that are mentioned earlier in this chapter from Syria and Israel had gone the way of all the earth. Their threat had come and gone.
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That's exactly right, right? There's wars and rumors of wars, and, and Ahaz is dealing with a rumor of war. Yeah. Now, eventually, 12 years later, these Syrians did come down. It was during the time of Hezekiah.
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It's a different, different story. But so in Isaiah's day,
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Isaiah's saying there's gonna be a young woman who will have a child, and before that child's weaned from breastfeeding, this whole problem will go away, so less than two years.
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And that's exactly what happens two years later. This also is Isaiah layering his words that there will be Mary, who brings forth Jesus, who is God with us. And He will also deliver us from
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the attacks or problems or threats that we deal with if we choose to trust Him versus just doing political machination m- all the time.
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So it's a very interesting chapter, and again, we can see why Nephi probably not do to, do a lot of political deep dives with his people because sometimes it can, um, be distracting from just the pure, uplifting words of God about how He saves us versus like, "I gotta go master a bunch of geography and history before I can even feel [laughs] God's love in my life?"
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Sometimes that's what we have with Isaiah. Not always, but some of these chapters are a little heavy on the geography and the politics. Yeah. I love, Taylor, how you're f- pointing out the dual fulfillment.
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There was the immediate fulfillment in Isa- Isaiah's day- Yeah... when, when the, the God was with them to protect them from Assyria. But then you also have the fulfillment in Jesus Christ's day. Look at Matthew 1:21.
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It says, "And Mary shall conceive and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from," not Assyria, but now- Hmm... from sins, from sin and death. That's amazing, right?
463
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So you have these parallel things. People are being threatened with death and destruction in Isaiah's day,
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and Isaiah gives a prophecy for how that's gonna go away, and also forward looks to how Jesus will resolve the Assyrians in our day, like at least- Yeah... in Syria today. Mm-hmm.
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In fact, in 3 Nephi 23:3, the resurrected Savior encouraged the people to feast upon the words of Isaiah or search diligently the words of Isaiah. Then He said this key phrase,
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quote, "All things that Isaiah spake have been and shall be," close quote. Hmm. Inviting that dualistic interpretation.
467
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How did the Isaiah's words find fulfillment in his day, 700 BC, but then how does it also find fulfillment now in these latter days? And I think it's exegetical. It's good- Which means interpretive...
468
01:31:40.224 --> 01:31:46.224
it's, it's a good way, it's a solid way to interpret scriptures. Yeah. It's not proof texting.
469
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So just to remind everybody, sometimes Isaiah, because of the circumstances he was in and what God asked him to do, doesn't always have the most uplifting things to say.
470
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And I'm not trying to only highlight the negative, but this chapter concludes, verses 17 to 25, that destruction will come upon the wicked. Right? So, like, if you choose to walk away from God, here's what you get.
471
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And you can read those verses for yourself, but you can see how, um, statement after statement, that negative things will befall those who rejected the Lord.
472
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So in Isaiah's day, those verses, 17 to 25, are specifically directed towards the outcomes that the 10 northern tribes, the King of Israel, will experience. This is the language they use in the Old Testament.
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God calls the Assyrians to effect the punishment or the consequences on the northern, uh, 10 tribes because of their, um, their disloyalty to God. So that's the language we have here. So chapter eight.
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The warning for the southern kingdom of Judah. It's not just the northern kingdom that's gonna, that's gonna get a whoopin'. It's also gonna be the southern kingdom. And so Isaiah's gonna rent a billboard on I-15.
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[laughs] Well, it does say, "Moreover, the Lord said unto me, 'Take thee a great roll- Mm-hmm... and write in it with a man's pen a, concerning Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz." Mm. In other...
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Like, you need to engrave this message on this great roll. Like, that's why I said, you know, on I-15. You gotta advertise, you gotta let everybody know what's the message. And Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, what does that mean?
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01:33:34.724 --> 01:33:51.684
Basically, if you break down the Hebrew words, that means you're gonna die. [laughs] Or if you wanna be more spec- specific, destruction is eminent. That's amazing. So you get... In fact, didn't he actually name...
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B- in verse three, he names one of his own children Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. Now imagine- It's on the billboard on I-15, but it's also his son's name. It's like double emphasis. Destruction's coming. Wow.
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By the way, that kid probably would get... Well, I don't think anybody would've teased him because you'd have to say his whole name, and it'd take forever to say his name. He had a nickname, for sure.
480
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And by the time you get to saying his whole name, you forgot the mean thing you wanna say to the kid on the playground. [laughs] Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
481
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Can you imagine, like, the mom is, like, mad at him and trying to say his name three times fast? Yeah. So,
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so he takes these witnesses, that's in verse two, and what we have here in these verses, in this chapter, is the destruction of Israel and the long decline of Judah, 'cause Judah persisted for about another 140 years after the northern 10 tribes were, uh, taken into captivity and lost to history.
483
01:34:47.064 --> 01:34:54.384
Now listen, uh, what we hear in these verses. And just, Mike, sometimes people read this and they think, "Look at all these bad things God does to people."
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Listen to this: "Therefore, now therefore behold the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the King of Assyria and all his glory, and he shall come up over all his channels and go over all his banks."
485
01:35:08.464 --> 01:35:16.154
So this is symbolizing that the Assyrian army is gonna invade, and it's gonna flood everything. Everything's gonna be destroyed. But if people say, "Wait, the Lord did this?"
486
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Anciently, the focus was on God's majesty and power, that he's completely in charge.
487
01:35:23.864 --> 01:35:38.524
Today, if somebody was actually telling the story for the first time with more emphasis on agency and natural consequences, we might not narrate this, "The Lord brought the Assyrians to destroy northern kingdom of Israel."
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They might say, uh, the people chose to walk away from God's protective power, and therefore, this was the outcome. These were the consequences.
489
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So just, everyone remember, when we hear that God is doing everything, it's because for the ancient Israelites, they wanted to see the power, majesty, and the agency of God.
490
01:35:58.644 --> 01:36:13.784
They focused far more on that than they did on their own agency. We emphasize agency. They did not as much. And bringeth, I'm willing to bet $10, I bet that's a hiphil verb form- Hiphil is a-... which
491
01:36:15.204 --> 01:36:30.724
the hiphil, which is just a, a fancy- Way of saying something's caused... yes. And scholarship will show that the hiphil verb form can often convey allowance. Hmm, interesting. So there's causative.
492
01:36:30.884 --> 01:36:43.824
There's also I'm allowing something to happen. Perfect. So look at verse eight. We've just finished verse seven: "And he shall pass through Judah," this is the king of Assyria, "and he shall overflow and go over.
493
01:36:45.084 --> 01:36:50.824
He shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of the land. O Immanuel."
494
01:36:51.824 --> 01:36:58.924
Now, the s- the metaphor here is that the Assyrians will come in, they'll flood the northern kingdom of Israel. They, they were destroyed, taken captivity.
495
01:36:59.404 --> 01:37:08.664
They'll even come into Judah, and the flood waters will get to the neck. Well, where is the head of Judah? Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Does Jerusalem fall, Mike? Nope. It doesn't.
496
01:37:09.284 --> 01:37:21.044
Hezekiah and Isaiah help protect the people, and we have this tremendously powerful story. It shows up in, uh, the history portion of Isaiah, like, um- In Kings... it shows up in Kings.
497
01:37:21.364 --> 01:37:30.164
2 Kings 20:20, Hezekiah made a conduit and brought water into Jerusalem. It talks about all his preparations. They built a new wall to protect the people.
498
01:37:30.244 --> 01:37:39.164
In fact, this is when, um, Nephi's ancestors probably fled from the Assyrian onslaught in the north down to the protection of Hezekiah and Isaiah.
499
01:37:39.644 --> 01:37:49.876
So that's why Nephi, who's not from the tribe of Judah, would be living In Jerusalem. It's not his tribal homeland. His tribal homeland's up in the north that's been conquered by the Assyrians.
500
01:37:50.236 --> 01:38:02.876
So it's probably his great-grandparents who come down to Jerusalem for protection. Hmm. What's fascinating is that we have found in Assyrian archeology, it's called the Taylor Prism. It's a, um...
501
01:38:02.916 --> 01:38:14.816
It's a six-sided clay baked cylinder, and it lists or describes the conquest of the Assyrians against, uh, Israel and Judah, and they list the 46 walled cities.
502
01:38:15.236 --> 01:38:29.486
And they even say something like, "The Assyrian king boasts" "I shut King Hezekiah up like a caged bird in his royal city of Jerusalem." Which basically means you didn't win. [laughs] Right?
503
01:38:29.896 --> 01:38:39.336
So anciently, the king's gotta look awesome, so he's like, "Well, I, I shut him into, like, a, a, a caged bird." And this is where the Assyrian king, um, surrounded Jerusalem.
504
01:38:40.016 --> 01:38:48.856
And then one morning, they wake up, and, like, all these Assyrians are dead. And the Assyrian king goes back into his homeland and gets, uh, uh, murdered or assassinated by one of his sons.
505
01:38:49.556 --> 01:38:59.916
So the threat against Judah has now dis- dissipated, but this is the symbolism going on in this chapter, that the flood waters of the Assyrians will come up to the neck of Jerusalem.
506
01:38:59.996 --> 01:39:08.796
And sure enough, it did, and we have archeological evidence, written evidence, from the Taylor Prism, um, from the Assyrian perspective of their fight against Judah and Jerusalem.
507
01:39:10.256 --> 01:39:11.976
Now, notice these things in verse nine, 10.
508
01:39:12.516 --> 01:39:26.656
Like, I- Isaiah's saying, "If you guys think that after breaking all of God's commandments, you guys can join together and create some kind of alliance, and that will allow you to overcome the consequences of broken covenants, not happening."
509
01:39:27.356 --> 01:39:36.136
He says, "Associate yourself," verse nine, "O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces." Verse 10, "Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought." Verse 11.
510
01:39:36.676 --> 01:39:50.456
I can just imagine the burden that Isaiah has to bring this lawsuit against the people of covenantal unfaithfulness. "For the Lord," verse 11, "spake thus to me with a strong hand." Remember, the hand is justice.
511
01:39:51.016 --> 01:40:01.396
"And instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, 'Say ye not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy. Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.'"
512
01:40:01.536 --> 01:40:11.596
Basically, don't let the warmongering, the fearmongering, and the wars and rumors of wars that the people are all worried about bother you. Be with the Lord.
513
01:40:12.336 --> 01:40:23.985
By the way, as an invitation to people, um, if you drop social media, your happy- your life will be much happier. I've effectively been off social media for about 10 years. And what do we have going on social media?
514
01:40:24.485 --> 01:40:34.566
Almost everything on social media is verse 11 and 12. And God is saying, "Don't bother with all that distraction. Focus on me." What should you be doing?
515
01:40:34.876 --> 01:40:47.716
"Sanctify the Lord of hosts, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." Verse 14, "He shall be for a sanctuary, and for but a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense to both the house of Israel...
516
01:40:48.356 --> 01:40:59.936
houses of Israel," meaning the 10 northern tribes and the southern tribe of Judah, "for a gin, and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Okay, so again, Isaiah's got really strong words.
517
01:41:00.156 --> 01:41:08.076
I feel like he, if he and Jacob had known each other, we're talking the prophet Jacob of the Book of Mormon, they'd both say, "I don't really like the fact that my job's hard.
518
01:41:08.496 --> 01:41:18.216
People want the pleasing word of God, and I gotta bring out the daggers and tell people, 'Hmm, here's all the ways that you have violated yourselves, violated the people you've loved, and violated God.
519
01:41:18.286 --> 01:41:30.216
And therefore, not good things are gonna happen.'" Yeah. Am I hearing anything uplifting here? [laughs] Man. Yeah. He pleads with them in verse 20 to look to the law and to the testimony.
520
01:41:30.236 --> 01:41:40.156
In other words, look to what the prophets are teaching, both verbally and in their writings. Yeah. When moving to chapter nine, there are two things happening at once.
521
01:41:40.256 --> 01:41:44.896
Isaiah is both speaking messianically about God showing up, about Jesus himself.
522
01:41:45.436 --> 01:41:54.756
But we also have his present circumstances that they are living in a kingdom that is under threat from the world's largest empire at the time.
523
01:41:55.276 --> 01:42:02.506
So Isaiah speaks about the, the war that's gonna happen in the land of Israel.
524
01:42:03.506 --> 01:42:15.556
And if you know your geography, between the Galilee region up in the north and the hills of Samaria that run all the way down to Jerusalem- You took me there a couple years ago. I'm visualizing it.
525
01:42:15.596 --> 01:42:28.366
Okay, I remember standing on the hill on the northern part of- Mm-hmm. Nazareth. Uh, yeah, of the, the Sea of Galilee was down below. Oh, yeah. Uh, Mount, uh, Arbel. Mm-hmm. Yep. Okay, keep going.
526
01:42:28.656 --> 01:42:40.416
So the Jezreel Valley is this beautiful farmland. In fact, it means God sows, like he sows plants. And it was like the breadbasket of ancient Israel. And it was the place where all the armies would march.
527
01:42:40.996 --> 01:42:50.356
This is gonna be the Valley of Armageddon, right? Yeah, Vami- Valley of Armageddon because Megiddo is there. The mountain of Megiddo, it's a fortress city.
528
01:42:50.976 --> 01:43:05.436
And Har Megiddo in Hebrew means Mountain of Megiddo or the City of Megiddo. It later becomes symbolically Armageddon. Any, any army that wants to come through and fight has to pass through the Jezreel Valley.
529
01:43:06.916 --> 01:43:18.056
And so it's known as the Valley of the Shadow of Death because so many armies march through there. If you're an army, do you wanna march through the mountains or march through the flatland farmland? I think I r-
530
01:43:19.236 --> 01:43:37.076
read an article once that identified, I think it was, like, 24, 25, 26 battles that they could identify had taken place there- Yes... over the centuries. Yeah, Megiddo has been destroyed 26 times. Was it 20?
531
01:43:37.136 --> 01:43:49.972
Yeah. So it became proverbial. Like, Megiddo's the place where a city gets destroyed. In fact, the word gid means troop. Think about like the troop commanders in the Book of Mormon, like Gidgiddoni.
532
01:43:50.412 --> 01:43:59.762
He, he has troop, troop in his name. And you have Giddiona. He's like the Gadianton robber. Anyway, I might have the wrong- their names wrong, but their names actually evoke the Hebrew word for troops.
533
01:44:00.512 --> 01:44:12.752
And when you put ma in front of a Hebrew word, it means the place of. So Magido is the place of the troops. Hmm. It was the troops would be stationed there to protect the land from invading armies.
534
01:44:13.092 --> 01:44:23.912
By the way, the word menorah comes from the word nur. Like a minaret in Islamic, it's like a, like almost like a lighthouse to come draw people to worship.
535
01:44:24.402 --> 01:44:34.461
The word minaret comes from the same Hebrew word of menorah, and menorah means the place of light. So that's how the word ma works. Okay. So what's happening here?
536
01:44:35.492 --> 01:44:39.562
Isaiah is seeing the time when the Assyrians will come sweeping through from the north.
537
01:44:39.972 --> 01:44:51.452
They'll pass through the Galilee region, including the Jezreel Valley, and that's what we h- are hearing here in verses one, two, and three. "Thou hast multiplied the nation," verse three, "and not increased the joy.
538
01:44:51.972 --> 01:44:55.972
They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
539
01:44:56.612 --> 01:45:02.271
For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
540
01:45:03.012 --> 01:45:12.582
For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire." So it's like three things going on. There's the war that Assyria brought.
541
01:45:12.922 --> 01:45:21.222
There's when Jesus comes and, like, delivers the people because he brings the light, and then there's the last days where they'll, they'll be consuming fire.
542
01:45:22.012 --> 01:45:31.712
So this is also like Isaiah's got some of the most important words. And why did Nephi bring these words to life in the Book of Mormon?
543
01:45:32.832 --> 01:45:42.952
In part because he knew that Isaiah, as a lawyer on behalf of God, knew God's covenants and wanted the people to understand, "Here's your choice.
544
01:45:43.242 --> 01:45:47.672
You have on the right hand, choose to be with God, be loyal to him, and all good things will flow to you.
545
01:45:48.472 --> 01:45:56.372
Or on the left hand, choose to walk away from God like the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the 10 tribes, or like Judah," and everything got destroyed.
546
01:45:56.472 --> 01:46:04.772
So the Nephites, when they get to the New World, Nephi is trying to convince them by reading these 10 or 12 chapters of Isaiah, "You have a choice.
547
01:46:05.132 --> 01:46:14.232
You can suffer all the consequences that your ancestors su- suffered, or you can find all the best blessings that God has promised if you're faithful."
548
01:46:14.252 --> 01:46:24.152
And just look, Isaiah probably takes no delight in reminding the people that they have chosen not God, but anything but God.
549
01:46:24.512 --> 01:46:33.722
Verse 12, "The Syrians before," like they're in front of you, "and the Philistines behind," like they're on your other side, like you're being crushed from all sides, "and they shall devour Israel with open mouths.
550
01:46:34.152 --> 01:46:43.542
For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." Again, this is judgment, not mercy. Why is this happening?
551
01:46:44.082 --> 01:46:55.732
"For the people turneth not unto him the smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush in one day.
552
01:46:56.152 --> 01:47:07.612
The ancient and the honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail." So I just think, man, Isaiah is just speaking the truth, and it is absolutely clear you have a choice.
553
01:47:07.992 --> 01:47:14.412
Turn to the Lord and don't experience these things, or turn away from God and all these negative things will happen.
554
01:47:15.272 --> 01:47:28.872
Verse 18, "For wickedness burneth as the fire; it shall devour the briers and the thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting of smoke." So yet another chapter
555
01:47:30.292 --> 01:47:44.852
where Isaiah, commanded by God, needs to declare the harsh reality of the consequences of faithlessness. But we turn to chapter 10, and it's a focus on the Assyrian arrogance.
556
01:47:44.892 --> 01:47:55.752
God is not necessarily pleased with the Assyrians, even though they're the ones who bring the destruction, and God renews hope. Verses one to four are woes about unjust decrees.
557
01:47:56.492 --> 01:48:06.252
Isaiah, speaking on behalf of God, speaks out against leaders who just flippantly say things and just make statements that are unjust or make laws that are unjust.
558
01:48:07.572 --> 01:48:18.452
Verses five to 19, Isaiah refu- reviews again how Assyria functions as God's rod of discipline against faithless people.
559
01:48:19.092 --> 01:48:31.312
So you read verses five to 19, and you can hear all the ways that God allows the Assyrians to bring the consequences of faithlessness towards the people. But then get to verses 20 and 34.
560
01:48:32.632 --> 01:48:42.612
I think that's an important verse right there, chapter 10 verse five, because you see often in Isaiah, and actually throughout scriptures, where the anger of the Lord, that phrase, anger of the Lord. Well,
561
01:48:43.652 --> 01:48:59.252
verse five gives you an interesting possible interpretive key and says that Assyria is the rod of his anger. Mm-hmm. So maybe that's, uh, uh, certainly theologically, that's a good way to look at it.
562
01:48:59.552 --> 01:49:10.222
W- w- well, you were suggesting this earlier, when God is never gonna stir up another nation- Mm... to go to war. Yeah. That is not in his character. He, he's anti-war,
563
01:49:11.272 --> 01:49:22.712
um, even though sometimes it, the scriptures portray God as he's causing it to happen. Right. Yeah, but it's really a- Assyria doing its dirty deeds. Yep.
564
01:49:23.812 --> 01:49:34.812
But you turn to chapter 20, or chapter 10, verses 10 to 34, and you actually have a bit of positive that we haven't been hearing for a while in these chapters. Well, it's about time, Taylor. Yeah, exactly.
565
01:49:34.852 --> 01:49:38.392
Come on, Isaiah. Why'd you have to take 10 chapters to say something worthwhile and happy?
566
01:49:38.502 --> 01:50:00.192
"So it came to pass in that day," verse 10, "that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them," meaning they're not going to turn to Assyria for political support and for their salvation, "but they shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth."
567
01:50:01.132 --> 01:50:12.572
So yes, they had the temple, they had the Law of Moses, but apparently they decided, "You know what? We're gonna trust in the Assyrians to protect us." And then when that didn't turn out right, they lost everything.
568
01:50:13.012 --> 01:50:24.472
They should have trusted in God and his counsel for how to succeed. So verse 21, "The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
569
01:50:25.152 --> 01:50:36.802
For though the people Israel be as the sand of the sea," this goes back to Genesis chapter 15, God promising to Abraham that he would have children as many as the stars, and sands of the sea I think comes from Genesis 17.
570
01:50:37.342 --> 01:50:49.682
"Yet a remnant of them shall return. The consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness." So instead of the king of Assyria, who was personified as a river overflowing its banks,
571
01:50:50.592 --> 01:50:54.992
God's people in righteousness will overflow. That's exactly right.
572
01:50:55.432 --> 01:51:05.592
Verse 24, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts; O my people, that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.
573
01:51:05.732 --> 01:51:11.052
For yet a little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction."
574
01:51:11.632 --> 01:51:21.992
Verse 27, "It shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing."
575
01:51:22.512 --> 01:51:36.112
So here Isaiah's promising a Davidic king who will relieve the people of the burdens of foreign entanglements and foreign kings. And in Isaiah's day, that immediate fulfillment could be through Hezekiah. Yeah.
576
01:51:36.152 --> 01:51:45.812
That's, I- He was an anointed one, right? Yes. And then in Christ's day, of course, Christ is the anointed one, right? And then in the last days it'll...
577
01:51:45.832 --> 01:51:59.672
when Jesus c- comes, he'll be able to relieve the burden from off, the yoke from off our neck. Okay, we're gonna turn over to chapter 11. I wrote at the top, "The righteous branch and a peaceable kingdom."
578
01:51:59.822 --> 01:52:07.832
So notice how Nephi quoted Isaiah chapter 2 through 12. So we are only getting to chapter 11 at this point.
579
01:52:08.272 --> 01:52:22.332
A lot of it seems a bit of a downer, where Isaiah is the lawyer speaking on behalf of God in this lawsuit against the people and their faithlessness, and yet now we have two final chapters that turn more towards the peace and God's salvation.
580
01:52:22.872 --> 01:52:35.652
And I think Nephi quoted all this to say, "Listen, people. Listen to Isaiah. God is utterly faithful to all of his covenants. But here's what happens when people disobey.
581
01:52:35.662 --> 01:52:46.432
Here's what happens when people are faithless to God. But you can trust that God will remember his people. And even though they will be punished, he will return them again.
582
01:52:46.912 --> 01:52:57.852
So even though you feel scattered away from Jerusalem, you can have hope that God remembers you, and he will bring you back in." And that's what we're gonna see here in these last two chapters.
583
01:52:57.872 --> 01:53:16.712
So when we're reading these two chapters, think about what it may have meant in Isaiah's day, what it may have meant to Nephi and his people to hear these things after so much, uh, courtroom drama of, like, all the punishments that are gonna happen, and of course how Jesus fulfills this when he showed up in the meridian of time, and how he fulfills it for us today.
584
01:53:16.752 --> 01:53:28.132
So that's like, what? Four or five ways of thinking about this. Mm-hmm. Lots, lots to consider. Verses one to nine are a reference to King David and also forward looking to Jesus Christ.
585
01:53:29.212 --> 01:53:43.172
It also probably has to do with Hezekiah, who became the king after Ahaz, and he ruled in righteousness, and the people prospered, meaning they did not actually, the people living in Jerusalem did not get conquered by the Assyrians.
586
01:53:44.072 --> 01:53:50.512
So these are really powerful, uh, verses here, and we've read them talking about the millennial day.
587
01:53:51.092 --> 01:53:58.511
But they would've meant a lot to the people of Isaiah, that, "Oh, we're gonna get to a point where we're not gonna have war encompassing our land."
588
01:53:58.552 --> 01:54:06.511
For Nephi and his people, they would've felt like, "Okay, we're not gonna simply feel punished, that we're living away from the original promised land, that God has planned for us.
589
01:54:06.532 --> 01:54:13.192
And a new promised land where we can flourish." And then I like to read verse 12 as restoration language.
590
01:54:13.602 --> 01:54:21.732
"And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and ga- gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
591
01:54:22.172 --> 01:54:31.922
And isn't that what missionary work is doing today? So what Isaiah preached and prophesied so many years ago is happening in full force right now.
592
01:54:33.092 --> 01:54:40.752
And then I see, like, a second ex- Exodus, that God's gonna re-run the Exodus story for everybody in the last days who chooses to be loyal to him.
593
01:54:41.072 --> 01:54:50.472
Verse 16, "And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."
594
01:54:51.492 --> 01:54:59.432
So we should expect in the last days that God will do mighty acts of salvation just like he did for the original Israelites when he saved them out of Egypt.
595
01:55:00.232 --> 01:55:09.232
And you can imagine how empowering this would've been to the people of Nephi, that, "Oh, God will graft us back in. We are not cast off forever."
596
01:55:10.592 --> 01:55:22.132
We'll conclude today's episode with chapter 12, which people like to call the Song of Salvation. This is actually a beautiful song that Isaiah shares, and let's just read some highlights from this.
597
01:55:23.172 --> 01:55:35.352
Sounds a lot like the Psalm language from, uh, a few episodes ag- ago. "I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
598
01:55:36.272 --> 01:55:49.512
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."
599
01:55:49.552 --> 01:56:02.947
Okay, so that was song one. The second song is verses four to six. So song one is one to three. "And in that day shall ye say Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord. Call upon his name. Declare his doings among the people.
600
01:56:03.028 --> 01:56:10.688
Make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things. This is known in all the earth.
601
01:56:10.828 --> 01:56:19.048
This is just like the Exodus story, by the way, that when they were saved from Egyptian bondage, they sang in Exodus chapter 15, they sang about their salvation.
602
01:56:19.108 --> 01:56:33.488
Verse six, cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. Okay? So there's two more chapters that I, uh, that Nephi, um, quoted, chapter 13 and 14.
603
01:56:33.988 --> 01:56:44.528
You can see that Nephi wanted to include these as comfort and encouragement for his people that, yes, God allows bad things to happen when people choose to walk away from him.
604
01:56:44.888 --> 01:56:58.078
But yet, we will see as we continue to read Isaiah how much good and goodness God brings to people to the point that we should sing with everlasting praises of his salvation, his love, and his goodness.
605
01:56:59.458 --> 01:57:05.808
So Mike, we've talked for a long time today about these first 12 chapters of Isaiah, setting kind of the stage for the rest of Isaiah.
606
01:57:05.828 --> 01:57:18.588
What would you say are some highlight summaries we could give for people to walk away with before they, um, get their lives back? [laughs] Yeah. I, I think Nephi, like I said at the beginning, really,
607
01:57:19.528 --> 01:57:31.068
uh, he is-- his heart aches. He says that he, he would wet his pillow by night, right? Because he would think of his family, his brothers, Laman and Lemuel, not keeping the covenants. And,
608
01:57:32.148 --> 01:57:47.378
and, uh, ultimately Laman and Lemuel want, you know, to go to war against not just Nephi, but Nephi's posterity, Nephi's kids and grandkids. And he's-- and Nephi just yearns for the millennial day. Mm. Right?
609
01:57:47.488 --> 01:57:58.328
When the lamb can lay down with the lion, uh, where the Gentiles and God's people can get along, if you will. And Isaiah understands Nephi's pain.
610
01:57:58.408 --> 01:58:15.368
And I think a lot of us today, we have loved ones that we, we would long to have reconcili- reconciliation with both in as far as the covenant goes, having to come back to activity in the Lord's kingdom, but also just getting along with the family.
611
01:58:15.608 --> 01:58:22.327
And that's what Isaiah wanted. That's what Nephi wants. And that's what the Lord wants. That's, that's the overriding message, at least one of them that I get. What do you see?
612
01:58:23.508 --> 01:58:35.368
Well, I love how this ends on chapter 12, these two songs of salvation. And we conclude with that, that we hope, in fact, I repeat Nephi's words, that we don't read these things to weigh you down.
613
01:58:36.088 --> 01:58:42.208
And we may have spent a lot of time sharing, like, the history and the culture that sometimes might feel a bit overwhelming.
614
01:58:42.228 --> 01:59:03.408
We hope that the context helps you to see that God ultimately is in charge, and he has a plan from the end all the way to the beginning, that the words of Isaiah have mattered to the people in Isaiah's time, Nephi's time, Jesus' time, Joseph Smith's day, and our day, and that the main message is God knows you.
615
01:59:04.148 --> 01:59:15.868
He keeps his covenant. He will always be faithful, no matter what. Even when we see here that people violate God's covenant, he's still there. He's still offering his arms of salvation.
616
01:59:16.628 --> 01:59:29.328
And we can receive those arms of salvation, and we can sing any of these songs of salvation any day that we feel God's love in our lives. And we hope that you feel that love today, this week, and always.
617
01:59:29.988 --> 01:59:37.228
We leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. [outro music]
1
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:11.900
What are some of the major themes of Isaiah? What is he hoping that people hear across the 66 chapters of his words? He's gonna have a front row seat to the scattering of Israel.
2
00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:23.860
But if I was to go out in the pasture, hmm, why does wool? If you are focusing on making yourself great, you have already violated God's plan. Why do you think that even matters to God?
3
00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:33.240
You gotta be worthy, and you gotta do it with your heart, and they weren't doing either. Mike wants to be more spiritual and talk about holiness. I just wanna talk about glory. All right, fine.
4
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[laughs] But I think they're related. Lord, how long? Yeah. Is this a two-year mission?
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[laughs] How did Isaiah's words find fulfillment in his day, 700 BC, but then how does it also find fulfillment now in these latter days? Well, it's about time, Taylor. Yeah, exactly. Come on, Isaiah.
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Why don't you take 10 chapters to say something worthwhile and happy? Welcome to Scripture Insights. I'm Taylor Halverson. I'm Mike Harris. Today we're excited to start the Book of Isaiah. So what is it, Mike?
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We have five episodes on Isaiah, and this one is Isaiah 1 through 12. But I think we probably should start with some background of like who's Isaiah? Why does he matter? Uh, what is he writing about? Who's he writing to?
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Why does he show up in the Book of Mormon? How, how many other questions should I throw at you? Well, yeah. [laughs] Those are all good. He comes along 100 years before 1 Nephi chapter 1. Sure. Same location.
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Still Jerusalem. Jerusalem, yep. Mm-hmm. Who's the big, bad, uh, empire to be feel, uh, feared in Isaiah's day? That would be Assyria. Hmm.
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Unlike when the Book of Mormon starts, Assyria's no longer the major- It's Babylon... it's b- it's then Babylon. Hmm. Um... Major king during his time is Hezekiah.
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He actually prophesies over maybe a 40 or 50-year career, but Hezekiah may be one of the most important kings during that time.
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And some people see Isaiah as a court prophet, meaning he's a prophet who seems to have an official position within government, almost as if he's an advisor to the kings.
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Whereas other prophets like maybe, uh, Amos or, uh, Malachi are not necessarily court prophets. These are people who are called from among the commoners to go preach a message of repentance.
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I mean, the messages are quite same, but, uh, but quite similar. So was it like 740 BC to somewhere around, uh, 8, 890 or 690 BC that he lives? Yeah.
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And I heard there's some tradition that Manasseh or Manasseh, who's the son of Hezekiah, who is listed as an evil king, uh, executes Isaiah. I don't know if you'd heard that.
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I'd heard he'd been sawn asunder, sawn in two. Right. But I didn't hear it was by- Yeah... the king's son. Yes. Huh.
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So Manasseh or Manasseh, he's the son of Hezekiah, who rules for about 50 years, and there's enormous economic prosperity. And when his rule reigns, that's about the time Lehi is born.
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So we actually have all these connections to the Book of Mormon. At least we're within that 100-year timeframe. So what are some of the major themes of Isaiah? Why...
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What is he hoping that people hear across the 66 chapters of his words? Well, I think to appreciate Isaiah, we need to know that he's gonna have a front row seat to the scattering of Israel, or the northern 10 tribes.
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I know he's living down in the southern kingdom of Jerusalem, but when the 10 tribes get scattered, that's happening in his day.
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And his people in downtown Jerusalem, or the kingdom of Judah, they're being stinkers as well. They are breaking their covenant. So Isaiah lives in a time that would be very depressing. Hmm.
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If you want covenant fidelity, living in Isaiah's day is not ideal. Hmm. In fact, his kingdom, southern kingdom of Judah, gets that close to also being decimated or scattered like the northern kingdom. Yeah.
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So, um, and you see that right at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 1 where the opening verses are just like, [laughs] "I've done everything for you." The Lord's like, "What more could I do for you?
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And you just keep going astray, and you're just gonna make your life hell." Yeah, yeah. But I think that's why Nephi quotes Isaiah so much because I... uh, Nephi has a front row seat to Laman and Lemuel.
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Mm-hmm, and the Babylonians who are about to conquer Jerusalem. But it's in his own family. It's both- Yeah... national and familial for, for Nephi. Well put. Yeah. Yep. And actually, um, that reminds me that we should
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lay a little foundation or at least remind ourselves, we've talked about two really important covenants during this, uh, year, actually three.
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Um, first is the covenant of grant or the Abrahamic covenant, the unconditional covenant God made to Abraham and all his descendants and all the families of the earth to offer them salvation if they would choose to have him as their God.
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And he gave instructions for how they could choose that at, with the Mosaic law. That's the conditional, uh, expectations. The other unconditional covenant is what God gave to King David in 2 Samuel chapter 7. And
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Isaiah's operating in the world of these three interlocking covenants, that God has made an unconditional covenant to offer salvation to people. He expects people to show up in that relationship, Mosaic law,
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and God will protect his Davidic king insofar as the people show up to receive God in their midst.
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And so many prophets, and Isaiah is a great example, when they're preaching, they're often reminding people, "This is what God has done for you,
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and here's what you should've been doing that you have not been doing, and therefore, accordin- according to like, say, Deuteronomy chapter 6, here's the good or bad things that are gonna happen based on your faithfulness."
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And anc- uh, scholars have called this like the, the prophetic lawsuit. Where a prophet is basically taking the people to court, and the prophet is the lawyer who's arguing on behalf of God's interests.
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The God who has done everything for the people has been violated by the people. And the prophet is saying, "You can fix things if you choose to be humble and faithful." Y- you see that right here in verse two.
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Isaiah 1:2, "Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth." It's, it's like a court scene where the witnesses are the heavens and the earth. And that is right there in verse two.
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What's interesting, Mike, right as you read that I thought, "Wait a second, this is how the book of Deuteronomy... Sorry, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants opens." Oh, yeah.
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It opens with the word hear, and actually, that's a covenantal or a legal term of God's, like, courtroom where He is making pronouncements. "Here's all the covenants that I have made," God speaks.
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"Want you to hear about them, and I'm also gonna speak about what you haven't done or what you should be doing.
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And if you align yourselves with loyalty and faithfulness to me, all the good things that I've promised you'll experience. Otherwise, you walk away from all of that."
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And we see this connection between Isaiah, Doctrine and Covenants, that prophets, their role is to invite people to remember God's covenants so we can live our covenants. And he presents the evidence here in verse two.
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"For the Lord has spoken, 'I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.'" And that pairing of nourished and brought suggests that He has done every conceivable thing- Mm...
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that any good parent would do. Mm. That you've been... And you don't see it here in the English, in the KJV, but in the Hebrew, children is, uh, in the emphatic position.
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It's at the beginning of the phrase try- which emphasizes these aren't just ordinary children. These are children of privilege or of covenant privilege. And there is nothing...
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I, I, it's, uh, like the, the language here is similar to what we see in Jacob chapter 5, the Allegory of the Olive Tree. "What more could I have done for my vineyard?" That's basically what he's saying here. Mm-hmm.
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Uh, but there's not anything I've done, and yet they have rebelled. They are, they're intentionally transgress- knowingly transgressing or rebelling.
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I love the connection to the Allegory of the Olive Tree 'cause when you first started explaining verse two, I... That's immediately what I thought of. Like, that sounds just like the language of- Oh, okay...
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God just working, working, working diligently. I made a little note here in my scriptures that verses two through 20 is the covenant lawsuit.
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So again, if you remember the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, these are God's unconditional covenants, and then the Mosaic covenant, our obligations to receive what God offers.
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If you read all of verse two through 20, you will see all the ways that God is explaining His evidence for how the people have not fulfilled their expectations, or He has done what He's supposed to be doing.
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And therefore, He is justified in the outcomes that He's going to describe to them. Very powerful, uh, intro. If you're looking to get prepared for the 25-Minute Classroom, I have two books that could help.
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Check them out on the QR code, and now back to the Come, Follow Me lesson. Verse four, he says, "Ah, sinful nation, people laden or heavy with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters."
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The word sinful, evildoers, and corrupters are active participles. Tell us what that means. Which is just a fancy gram- grammatical way of saying this suggests an ongoing, constant, habitual sinning.
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Not just like a one-time, it happened in the past long time ago. This is like a character or behavioral trait almost. Yep. Okay. That's fascinating. Okay.
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Uh, what else can you tell us, Mike, about, like, say, the structure of how Isaiah writes or what people could be looking for to make sense of the passages that they're reading in English? You mean the parallelism? Yeah.
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The poetic parallelism? Almost you see through all 66 chapters where one line will be synonymous with the next line. Hm. And I, I hesitate to say synonymous because I, I heard one Bible scholar say...
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That, that's a typical way to explain it, but I heard another scholar say that it's actually clim- climatic. Hm. Like, you have the first line, but the second one builds upon it, expounds and l- elaborates.
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It gives it an extra punch. Hm. So it's not exactly synonymous. It's interesting in English, like, uh, I know my English teachers when I was much younger, like, tell me, "Don't repeat yourself."
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Like, just say what you're gonna say, and just that's... Be done with it. And so we want the economy of language.
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Where Isaiah, like, if he had a typical, like, I don't know, uh, English teacher in the early 19- or the 1980s like I had, it... We, we'd actually probably only have 33 chapters.
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I'm kind of joking here, but he is so powerful because he helps concretize what his message is by seeing each concept in two different ways- Yeah... that build upon one another.
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Sometimes they're in contrast, but that's a form of building upon one another. Yeah. And I think you see that here in, in verse four. "They," the covenant people, "have forsaken the Lord." Now, here's the second line.
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"They have provoked," or spurned, "the Holy One of Israel unto anger." So forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One, those are- Hm...
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synonymous or complementary ideas That is so interesting. So they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are gone backwards.
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That final statement is just hanging on its own without a pair. Okay, good. And so what do you make of that? Well, it puts emphasis, 'cause an ancient listener...
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'Cause most people would be hearing these things read to them or spoken directly by the prophet. Mm-hmm. Most people did not have access to print scripture. They just didn't. It was a rare thing.
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That's why it was such a big deal for Laban to have a copy of scriptures. The fact that Lehi had to go get them through his sons from Laban tells you these were extremely rare objects.
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That being the case, you're gonna hear this cadence of, like, here's an idea, and here's how we're building on it. Here's another idea. Here's how we're building on it. Here's another idea.
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Here's how we're building on it. Here's another idea. Wait, where's the building on it? And it's just that pause of not having something paired with it puts, like, exclamation points on it. Mm.
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Which would be, they are gone away backward, and that would just rest with the people like, oh yeah, that is a pretty serious, um, pronouncement that God has made. And remember, this is a covenant lawsuit.
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God has kept his covenant. Have the people. Mm-hmm. And just in this portion, we already hear they are gone away backward. Quite powerful.
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Next, in verses four through six, you see descriptions of someone who has been injured in battle. Mm-hmm. Who's suffering in battle. Verse four, uh, they have iniquity.
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Verse five, they're stricken, whi- um, which means they've been beaten. Uh, the whole head is sick, and the, the word sick can also be translated, has agony. In verse six, wounds and bruises, sores.
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And all of these phrases, or all these words, you find repeated in Isaiah chapter 53, the famous, uh, chapter. Jesus Christ is a man of sorrows and acquainted with- Grief... grief.
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Grief comes from the same Hebrew word as sick. Wow. Surely hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Smitten. Smitten comes from the same Hebrew word as stricken. Hmm. But he was wounded back in verse six. Hmm.
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But the wounds, right? And for our tran- He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities, um, and with his stripes. And back in verse six, bruises and stripes. That's...
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It's, it's a similar concept. So he was bruised for our iniquities. Yeah. So it just seems like even though in this courtroom the children of Israel, who've made covenants and know better, are 100% guilty.
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That's- Mm-hmm... there's no doubt about it. The evidence is overwhelming. Mm-hmm. We have something interesting going on here. Right.
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That 50 chapters later, 52 chapters later, the judge in the courtroom decides, "I'm gonna inf- become enfleshed. I'm going to join the courtroom.
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I will be with the people who are under judgment, and I will take care of everything that they could not have done for themselves or that they should have done for themselves and decided to be disloyal.
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I will meet out everything that's expected. I will fulfill the justice." Yeah. It's quite powerful. Yeah. Verse seven is interesting. It starts with, "Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire."
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Let's back up for a second. What is God saying here in the courtroom? He's reminding the people subtly, "I have kept my end of the bargain.
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Everything that I've promised to, to do for Abraham and all his descendants and for all the families of the earth, I have done." So why is the country desolate? Why are the cities being burned?
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Well, clearly because you guys have not kept your end of the bargain where I said, "Here's all the promises. If you wanna receive them, do these things.
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If you walk away from my presence, the outcome is you don't get all these good, good things. You get the opposite." So God is using more evidence for the, uh...
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how he has been loyal to the people, and the fact that cities have been burned means they've been disloyal. And of course, the underlying expectation is turn. Turn to me. Turn and be comforted.
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Which by the way, that's... Isaiah chapter 40 is a major turning point in the overall structure of the 66 chapters, where Isaiah begins with, "Comfort ye. Comfort ye, my people." Hmm.
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'Cause the first 39 chapters are a lot of this courtroom scene of just evidence after evidence for how the people have not been loyal to God.
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And in chapter 40 to 66, and it's more nuanced than this, but chapter 40 to 66 is, "All right. You guys have violated all these things.
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Here's all the ways that I'm going to ignore that or do my part to more fully offer you salvation and comfort and all the good things to give you another chance.
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You guys have messed up, but I am going to yet offer you salvation." It's just the underlying theme throughout the entire scriptures is God's everlasting hesed. He does not forget us. He does not abandon us.
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Even when we abandon him, he returns again and again. Which is really shocking considering the language that describes their rebellion here in chapter one.
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I mean, what verse is it that it talks about that they're like Sodom and Gomorrah? Um, yeah, verse nine. We could have been like Sodom and Gomorrah, right? Um, yeah, verse 10.
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"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom. Give ear, ear unto the law of our God, you people of- Hmm... " I mean, he's not talking to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. He's just comparing it...
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comparing them to them. That's about as bad as you can get, isn't it? Yep So it's just utterly shocking that, like you were saying, Taylor, the compassion that he's extending to them, and we see that in verse, uh...
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It, it comes to a culmination or a climax in verse 18. Let's hear it. Should, should we go to that one? Yep.
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Verse 18, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
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Now, this is parallelism, but it's alternate. Hmm. The first line goes with the third, and the second goes with the fourth, right? You got the, "sins be as scarlet, red like crimson," that's a nice pairing. Mm-hmm.
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Then you have this awkward pairing, but it's g- it's intentional. "White as snow," and then, "be as wool." Hmm. And I'm just like, okay, I haven't spent much time out on the farm with sheep,
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but if I was to go out the pasture, hmm, white as wool? The wool would be kind of dingy and gray and dirty, wouldn't it? I mean, you go from the snow on the top of the mountains, right, giving you this
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beautiful scene and this pure water when it melts. Hmm. And then you go to this wool, [laughs] and you're just like wait a minute,
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I thought my sins could be erased and become beautiful, and even though I've messed up my life and now you're... What's with the cavi- the caveat here? I don't know. [laughs] Yeah.
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He's like, m- why not talk about, uh, the outcome with the fuller soap, like cleaning things and making them white? But yeah. I, I think th- there's, uh... If we look at the entire scripture canon,
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um, when snow and wool appear, we see something interesting. Let's hear it. Uh, Joseph Smith and Sidney... No, Oliver Cowdery in Doctrine and Covenant Section 109, and they said, "We saw the Lord.
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The hair of his head was white like the pure snow." Uh, John the Beloved, the last, uh, who wrote the last book in the Bible, saw Jesus Christ, and he said that Jesus' head and his hairs were white like wool. Hmm.
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As white as snow. Hmm. And then Daniel, who was thrown in the lions' den, also saw Jesus, and he said, "I beheld Jesus, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the- Hmm... pure wool." Hmm.
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So this is utterly shocking when you look at it. So when Isaiah says yours, "Though your sins be red like scarlet," they can be as white as snow and they can be as wool. Mm-hmm.
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He's not just saying, "You can be forgiven." He says, "You can still become like me." Hmm. That's radical. It is. That's radical theology. It's, i- in the ancient days and still today, that's just...
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It's radical, but utterly beautiful. Yeah. Anciently, I was doing some research on this a few months ago.
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Where do we have, of any of the ancient conceptions of gods among the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, any sense that there was a personal god who was personally deeply interested in the individual and national lives of those of his people?
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Not so much. And especially one who would work to help them overcome their moral failings. Like, this is super unusual. Most of the gods anciently demanded some level of obedience,
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uh, some level of loyalty and faithfulness, but it was basically a one-way street. They wanted the people to show up and do something for the gods.
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Yeah, work the farms, and if there's a, a war to be fought, go fight the battle. Right. But here, we have a god who is leading the charge into the battle and incurring the wounds- Right... to protect his people. Right.
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And he's the one who shows up and says, "Look, I wanna be in a relationship w- with you. I know that you guys struggle, and I'm gonna do my part to help you guys overcome difficulty."
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Like, God is putting himself, uh, under commitment to suffer on behalf of the people. Hmm. We don't see that a- among any of the ancient conceptions of gods in the Middle East. Never see that.
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And then we have the King of Kings sliding over on his throne and says, "Hey, there's plenty of room right here for you to sit next to me." Yeah. That is also super crazy.
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You have nothing like that anywhere among the ancient, um, the ancient literature, the ancient myths, ancient legends. Nowhere is there a sense that you can join the gods.
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In fact, there are stories about people trying to join the gods and getting in trouble. Like probably the most famous one is a guy named Gilgamesh, right?
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He, this story is about him trying to find eternal life, and it all ends up where he discovers he can't get eternal life, but the best he can do is build some monuments and name them after himself.
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What happens in the Bible when people build monuments and name them after themselves? Remember the story of Saul? Saul went to battle under the command of the prophet Samuel from God's instructions.
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Saul did not completely fulfill expectations. And then when he won the battle, but still didn't follow the rules, he built a monument to himself. Hmm.
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And that's one of the reasons why he lost kingship, is because he was focused on his own name, making his name great. If you look back to the Genesis 12 story of Abraham, God comes to Abraham
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and says, "I will make your name great." The chapter before, the people of Babylon wanted to make their name great. This is the whole Gilgamesh story.
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If you are focusing on making yourself great, you have already violated God's plan. You cannot. You cannot. It is a violation of what we see everything in scripture. Seek after making yourself great. You just can't,
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and claim to be a follower of God. That is God's job. If you want to displace God and push him away and say, "I will make myself great. I'll make my nation great without your help," no, no, no.
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You let God make things great. That's Genesis 11 and 12 The Tower of Babel. Mm-hmm They wanted to make a name for themselves. The very next chapter, 12, the Lord says, "Abraham, I will make your name great."
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Is that what I hear you saying? That's exactly right. And that's what we have going on here. God is going to make the people great if they're willing to join him in the relationship.
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If they wanna go old school and do it on their own, what happens? Well, your cities are burned, you're left desolate, your whole head is sick, back in verse five. I mean, listen to what he says in verse 11,
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"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?"
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Think about how much time, as members of the church, we like to talk about the ancient tabernacle and the ancient temple and the sacrificial system, and it all pointing towards Jesus. And that is all true.
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But right here, the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, the greatest writing prophet, basically says, from God, none of this matters. Doing sacrifices is irrelevant.
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[sniffs] "I am full of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks." I mean, "When you come to appear before me,"
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this is at the temple, "who hath required this at your hands, to tread my courts?" Who invited you to walk into my temple and to be with me there?
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Now, what's really interesting is this, can you imagine at general conference, any church leader who speaks at general conference saying,
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"Who do you guys think you are, as members of the church, showing up at temples to do temple work? Why do you think that even matters to God? You guys are completely wrong." I mean, could you imagine if that was said?
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Mm. How shocking that would be. This is exactly what Isaiah's saying, right in the middle of the courtroom. Why is he saying this?
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Because people anciently, the ancient Israelites believed if we did the sacrifices, if we showed up in the temple, call it good. All I have to do is be a checkbox follower of God, and I'm saved.
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Do we have that going on in our society today? I'm on the right team. I say the right things. But are we truly living, really truly living what matters most? Loving our neighbor,
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being humble, being peacemakers and not warmongers, on and on and on. What's fascinating is that God actually doesn't have a problem with sacrifices. He doesn't have a problem with people going to the temple. Mm.
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He has a concern, and this is what Isaiah's laying out, that when people do these things, when they actually aren't living the gospel, going through the motions doesn't count. Yeah.
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You gotta be worthy, and you gotta do it with your heart. And they weren't doing either. Right. And it's not enough to go to the temple and come back home and hate your neighbor and break
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God's laws or whatever it might be, like being a bad citizen. Like, there's all sorts of things that we could lay out here. It's not enough to be a checkbox follower of God. Yeah, absolutely.
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If you are doing fundamentally the things that God invites us to do, we fulfill all the checkboxes.
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But if we just, like, check them off ourselves, like, we're gonna find ourselves possibly in the same courtroom where God's like, "Man, you made a bunch of quote-unquote 'sacrifices,' but they were all not truly intended out of humility and out of love for others and love for me.
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You did it for the praise of the world or just to t- check, check it off of your counter item." [laughs] So I find this to be a really, uh, uh... If you think about the structure of Isaiah,
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this is a very shocking opening chapter. It begins with, "Hey, everybody, there's a big problem here. I need your attention." Everybody got, has their attention.
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Ev- everyone's, everyone's is paying attention now, like, "Okay, we're all in trouble." Well, then we see a beautiful contrast in the next chapter- Yeah...
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where here they're, they're flowing to the temple, but they're not doing it with their heart, and they're not worthy to be there. Mm-hmm. But then Isaiah has a, a vision of the last days- That's right...
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of temple worship, which is our days today, where we're gonna invert the trend, and we're gonna do it the right way. Yes. Let me lead you up to that briefly.
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If you look at verses 21 till the end of 31 in chapter one, this courtroom has now gone to a series of promises that what God will do, beginning, like, in verse 24 and 25.
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You could circle all the times where God says, "I will, I will, I will." He says things like, "I will turn my hand, purge away thy dross," verse 24. "I will restore thy judges as at the first.
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The city of righteousness and the faithful city will be redeemed." Verse 27, "Zion shall be redeemed."
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So even though there's this courtroom where the people are under judgment, or at least more impor- more specifically, God has given strong evidence that they- They are 100% guilty...
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they are 100% guilty, and God's like, "Well, you're 100% guilty, but to show you my hesed, I will promise that I will continue to advocate on your behalf, and I will continue to show my covenantal, unconditional loyalty to you to work to give you things that will help you to be loyal to me."
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And then that leads us right up to chapter two, which is his famous verses about the temple. Mm-hmm. But true temple wor- worship. Will you walk us through those, uh, those verses? Yeah.
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The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw, and the Hebrew word behind saw means to see something in a vision. It doesn't de- doesn't mean like, "Hey, I see that you look handsome with this suit coat on." Hmm. No.
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The saw here refers to a revelation, a future vision. So you could actually put a word that Amoz, the vision he had. Yes. Instead of the word saw. Yeah. Okay.
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Concerning Judah and Jerusalem, that's, uh, not just geography, but it's referring to the covenant people. And here we go, verse two. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house..."
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Now, in the ancient Near East, and you correct me if you see this differently, Taylor, but in the ancient Near East, you have all these pagan gods, and they would erect,
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uh, temples or structures to their gods, and oftentimes they'd be on hills or mountains. Mm-hmm. So you have- Or even they would build a, uh, an artificial hill, and they would put a temple at top to...
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If you didn't have a mountain nearby, you just kind of build a, a, a fake hill and put one up there. Yeah. Like a, like a ziggurat.
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Like, the ziggurats you have all over ancient Iraq, those are kind of like artificial mountains with temples on top dedicated to, like, Babylonian gods or... Okay, good, and that's the imagery it's drawing upon here.
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Yes. Okay. V- so verse two again, "And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the pagans?" No. "Of the Egyptians?" No. "Of the Assyrians?" No.
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"The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains." Or another way of saying that, out of all the temples out there- Hmm...
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guess which one is gonna be the most popular, the one that people are gonna seek to. The temple that belongs to Yahweh or Jehovah or to- Hmm... the Lord- Hmm... the God of Israel. And let's see, "And shall...
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And this temple of Yahweh shall be exalted above the hills." It'll be more esteemed than any of the other pagan god hills or temples. And I love this last line, "And all nations."
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The Hebrew word behind nation is goyim, and most of the time goyim refers to the Gentiles. Mm-hmm. "And all nations shall flow unto it." And what's the antecedent to it?
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The temple, but oh, my gosh, I never thought about this before. Rivers always flow away from mountains. Always. Yes, yes. It's, uh, it's the law of gravity.
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[laughs] I'm just realizing these rivers are flowing the wrong way. Well, from a geologic gravity standpoint, they're flowing to the mountain and up into the mountain. Hmm. That's not how rivers work.
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So this is really powerful that God is inverting how the fallen world works, where the world or his people will all flow unto him.
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You might remember creation, there were four rivers that flowed out from the tree of life.
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I'm wondering, is this a reversal now that we're now having the rivers of humanity flow back into the center point of his temple, which is where the tree of life is?
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I, I really l- that, that sounds beautiful 'cause the word flow comes from the Hebrew, uh, verb na- nahar, I believe. Okay. Yeah. Uh, which is literally means it's the river. Mm-hmm.
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So we're gonna river, all these nations are gonna river or [laughs] that sounds weird, so we're gonna say are gonna flow like a river- Hmm... to the Lord's house. Mm-hmm. And I w- I imagine in 700 BC, the listeners
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hearing this for Isaiah, "Wait, Isaiah, you're telling us we've got a temple here in downtown Jerusalem." The temple in Isaiah's day was built by Solomon ath- in about 1000 BC. Mm-hmm.
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And that's the only temple we know of at the time. "And you're telling us that the Assyrians, the Egyptians, that instead of, i- instead of them worshiping their gods and their temp- they're gonna wanna flow to
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your, the, the Lord's temple?" This is so revolutionary and prophetic. Well, it is revolutionary because the Jewish people had so many rules and laws about staying away from non-Israelite people.
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These are the whole kosher laws that during the New Testament time created such contention, uh, among the people.
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Like, even Paul himself, there were riots who broke out because he brought a Gentile up to the temple area, and they're like, "Well, a Gentile is up here. That's a problem." And
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for anciently, many of the Israelites believed, "Well, we have the pure blood. We have the right blood, therefore only we are allowed into these experiences."
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And Isaiah's saying, "Actually, remember Genesis 12:1-3, God promised all the families of the earth would be blessed, all of them." Hmm. "Therefore,
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everybody should be flowing into this temple, and it's not just for the tribe of Judah, which is only one tribe out of 12."
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And by the way, today when people call the Jews Israelites, they are, but the Jews are not the only Israelites. They're only one-twelfth of the larger group.
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So it is true they're Israelites, but they don't represent the other 11 tribes. I mean, technically they don't, sometimes in our minds.
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And so God is saying, "I will save the Jews, and I'll save the tribe of Joseph and the tribe of Zeph- Ta- Naphtali and Zebulon and Issachar and Gad and Asher," all these other ones, "and anybody who actually was not born into one of these families,
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I will graft them in. I will adopt them in, and they will also flow onto my temple." So it is radical, wild theology.
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It, it doesn't sound quite as radical today, but anciently, this would have been so revolutionarily shocking to the ancient Israelites.
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So there's many reasons why the ancient Israelites preserved the words of Isaiah, but this is part of the reason. He said things that were so massively, unexpectedly beautiful and compelling
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that no one had probably ever heard before, and they're like, "We have gotta make sure we preserve his words." Yeah. So Mike, you were just pointing out something else about this little word it at the end of verse two.
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"All nations shall flow unto it."
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And that's a great translation, and that's how all modern translations handle it, but grammatically and technically speaking, the it is a masculine singular suffix, and I think you could make an argument that the it could also be translated-
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As Him. Mm. And all nations shall flow unto Him, meaning the Lord. Because at the end of the day, um, like you were suggesting back in chapter one, it's not enough just to go to the temple every week and check the box.
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Mm-hmm. Are we going to connect with Him and to learn about Him and to think about Him? And then when we come home, to actually live the things that we have committed to live.
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So verses six to 22, I made a note for myself. This is prophetic judgment, so it's actually transition. Isaiah's gone from, "All right. Here's all the great things God's gonna do for us,"
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but if the people are not faithful, they can't receive. If people walk away from God, here's what the outcome will be. In verses six through 22, Isaiah's actually speaking to God
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about God's judgment, or at least the consequences of people being disloyal.
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He says things like, "Therefore, thou, Jehovah, hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east and are soothsayers like the Philistines.
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And they please themselves in the children of strangers." In fact, uh, I see... I make a note here to Jacob chapter two. There's some interesting connections.
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Also, if you connect this to Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 16 and 17, um, the next verse, "Their, their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures.
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Their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. Their land is also full of idols. They worship the, they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made."
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So if you go back to Deuteronomy chapter 17 verses 16 to 17, God says, "My expectations for a king who's on the throne is they should not seek after silver and gold. Don't seek after horses and chariots. Seek after
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writing and reading and teaching the word of God." Yeah. Kind of like what's happening here, what we're doing right now.
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So unfortunately, the people had been misled by the kings to want power and prestige and wealth and warfare. And I'll just point this out. In our own communities and nations today, what are we doing?
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Are we seeking after silver and gold for our own purposes? Or, as Benjamin said, to clothe the naked and to feed the hungry and to liberate the captive. Are we seeking to multiply horses and chariots?
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Anciently, that meant to m- m- uh, multiply your military. Remember the phrase the Lord of Hosts? The hosts are the heavenly hosts of our... the, the heavenly army, and God is the commander, and He's saying, "Listen.
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I will fight your battles." And so when people choose to say, "We're gonna put all of our trust on our own military, and we're gonna build it up, and we're gonna forget God," that's what was happening anciently.
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We might ask ourselves today, huh, how well are we doing at not falling into the same trap that Isaiah's pointing out happened to the ancient Israelites, that they walked away from God, and therefore, they were going to have all sorts of negative things happen to them?
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At the same time, if we're honest,
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that's who we would wanna vote for today, somebody that could provide an economy where we can enjoy gold and silver and a, and a powerful military so we feel safe and that we have a good business. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm.
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I mean, he's des- it's describing King Solomon's reign. Mm-hmm. Right, so what do you do? Yeah. That's the problem. I mean, I guess... Well, I wonder if the wordplay here is revealing.
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Verse eight, "Their land is also full of idols," and the Hebrew word is elelim. Mm. So instead of having Elohim, God, they focus on elelim. So there's nothing wrong with having gold and silver, I don't think- Right...
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or wanting to feel safe by having a good military, but where's your trust? Where's your focus? Exactly. And I agree with you. I don't think God is saying those things are actually wrong.
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It's what were the means by which you got to those outcomes? That could be a problem. Yeah. Yeah. And then once you got those outcomes, what did you do with those means?
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Are you helping out the poor and the needy and- Did you actually use that to preserve peace, or did you use it to oppress people? I think the good news, Taylor, is I love how this chapter started, though. Mm-hmm.
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We're gonna see a great reversal, and I, I know we have issues today in these last days, but at the same time, it's never been better. A- amen.
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The, the, the house of the Lord, the mountain of the Lord's house is not just in Salt Lake. Yeah. We've... We're pushing 400 temples- Mm-hmm...
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right, that have been built or are under construction, and people are flocking to... They're, they're, they're flowing to them. And they, they're doing it with their hearts, and they...
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And when they do hit success and they do g- receive gold and silver and they're doing well, they love to share. Mm-hmm.
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I mean, last year alone, I think the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave over a billion dollars in cash. We're not even counting the hours- Wow... given.
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I mean, and I, again, I'm not suggesting we're perfect, but I, I see this amazing spiritual momentum that has never been seen before in the history of the world, and I think Isaiah saw that in vision, and we have a front-row seat to it.
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I wanna s- be a second witness m- to what you're saying, Mike, that we live in the greatest time in human history, okay? I've studied all of human history.
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I mean, I suppose besides when Jesus showed up in the, um, in the meridian of time. Besides that, we have this... Oh, maybe in Enoch's day. Okay, so
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we is a phenomenal time where the Restoration is with us, and we have an outpouring of scientific knowledge and other economic opportunities.
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And sure, economies go up and down, but God has just poured out His blessings upon the world, and they're just available for those who are willing to receive.
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And I think that's what Isaiah is bringing out this lawsuit that God wants to give you all these things, and when he gives those to you, your role is to turn around and give those to others, to act like God towards other people.
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Show your hesed towards other people. If you've made it to the temple, invite others.
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If you've received physical salvation, help others to receive physical salvation in the sense of, like, having enough to eat, and shelter, and clothing, and living in a safe environment, economic opportunity, right?
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If you have been given the blessings where your life is good, are you turning around and spending those blessings so somebody else can also benefit? That's exactly what God invites us to do. If we...
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If he serves us, which is the image of God, and we're all images of God, we should be serving the image of God wherever we go. That was King Benjamin's speech. I was, I was hungry. You gave me meat.
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I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was sick, and you visited me. Mm-hmm. I was naked, you clothed me. So that refers to both temporal needs- Mm-hmm... but also spiritual needs.
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And I love seeing covenant keepers trying to do that- Yeah... in b- in both areas there.
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And the summary of the remainder of this chapter is mostly Isaiah calling out or identifying what happens when people get all these positive benefits, but they use the wrong means to get there, or when they have these positive benefits, they misuse them.
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Verse 17: "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, the haughtiness of men shall be made low."
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Um, verse 20: "In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to, to worship, to the moles and to the bats.
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Because the fear of the Lord," verse 21, "and the glory of His majesty will arise and shake terribly the earth." So Isaiah is pointing out, don't let the good things of the world distract you from the good things of God.
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Because if all you want is the good things of the world, which God is willing to give, in the end, you're gonna want all those to be out of your life when He shows up again. So that was kind of a, a judgment, right?
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So chapter three also... Remember, we're kind of in the mode where Isaiah is in this lawsuit mode, identifying for the Israelites, "You guys have not been loyal to God."
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And so chapter three is judgment on the proud leaders and women of Jerusalem. So it's very interesting what he says.
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He says in verse, uh, one, "For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts," remember that's a military phrase, "doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, and the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water."
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And stay means the, the supply. All the basic necessities are gonna run out, yep. By the way, I looked up the word Lord some time ago, and it comes from two words, which I'm putting here. What are you writing?
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I'm writing the word loaf and ward. The word loaf u- refers to bread, and a ward is a guardian, someone who protects something. And if you take the word loaf and the word ward, like the person who guards the bread,
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and you drop the A-F of, of the word loaf and the W-A from ward, you have the word lord. And the word lord is a contraction from the word loaf ward, the person who protects and delivers the bread.
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Now, what happens at sacrament? Who protects and delivers the bread to us? Who's the Lord? Jesus himself. He's poured out his body on our behalf. What is he doing here?
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For people who've chosen to walk away from God, God is not their Lord. He is no longer their loaf ward. He's no longer protecting the bread of life for them, whether it's physical or spiritual. Mm.
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And this goes all the way down until, like verse eight says, "For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory." So
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if you're feeling like, oh my gosh, this is so depressing, I wanna be uplifted, just remember right now Isaiah is in a courtroom, and he's reminding the people of God's utter covenantal loyalty
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and the outcomes when people are disloyal to God. And then verses what, nine through 17? Do you want... Or 18? No. [laughs] Seven through
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the rest of the chapter, 26, talks about the daughters of Zion. Yeah. Let's, uh, t- walk us through that, Mike. What, what is Isaiah communicating to these women? Are they faithful or are they unfaithful?
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Well, I've s- yeah, this is... Well, let's look at some of these.
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Uh, like verse 16: "More- moreover, the Lord sayeth, because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will smite with a s- scab, the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts."
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And in that day, notice the wording here. This is interesting.
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Verse 18: "In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet and their cauls and their round tires like the moon, the chains and the bracelets, the mufflers, bonnets, ornaments of the legs and the headbands, tablets, earrings, rings, nose jewels, changeable suits of apparel, the mantles, the wimples, the crisping pins, and the glasses, the fine linen, the hoods and the veils."
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Okay. It's just describing all their bougie apparel. Yeah. I mean, they are looking fancy. Yeah. And so I've heard this used over and over again in gospel doctrine, in Sunday school, and in podcasts where they're like-
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Hey, ladies, don't, you know, dress modestly and don't become worldly. And [laughs] what was that snicker for? [laughs] You know, and of course, that's a good message, but I don't know if that's Isaiah's primary intent.
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No, let's step back into the context. This is a covenantal lawsuit in the courtroom where people have been disloyal to God. And so Isaiah's pointing out, like, "Hey, listen, your fancy clothes..."
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He could've pulled the men in. "Your fancy shirts and shoes and whatever, your fancy jobs and titles..." Well, actually, he did do that earlier. But he's just picking on the women in these verses- Right... it seems.
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He does pick out the... He does kind of tell the, uh, the rulers earlier that they also are not, um, gonna get away from judgment of being disloyal. God is saying, through Isaiah,
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"These things can't protect you from the outcomes of disloyalty to God." Now, let's suppose that the women had been completely loyal to God, and they happen to be wearing all this stuff.
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We'd have a different story where Isaiah's like, "God would like to tell you how much he loves you, and he's so appreciative of the way that you have taken care of the poor. You've been kind to your neighbors.
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You've been, um, seeking humility. You are kind to yourself, right? 'Cause you don't- Mm-hmm... force yourself into perfectionism, 'cause that's God's job. God just wants you to be in a relationship with him.
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And God is pleased that you have some good things of life that make your life comfortable and that you can share with others." That would've been a very...
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That exactly what I think Isaiah would've said had the people been faithful. So it's kind of an accidental situation that you have wealthy people who are wearing all these things, and they were just being disloyal.
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What if they had been very loyal? Hmm. I, I don't think Isaiah would've said, "You need to get rid of the earrings." Like, I don't see anywhere else in scripture where God has a problem with people's apparel.
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This is simply a signal that the individuals have taken safety in material things. It's like having idols. Idols aren't gonna save you. Mm. That does not show loyalty. So I'm with you. I don't think we should...
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I personally don't think we should be using this to make anybody in the church, particularly women or girls, feel bad about- Wanting to look nice and dress nice? About how they dress. Yeah.
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Um, and I think it's interesting that Bible scholars will point out that the phrase daughters of Zion refers equally to women and men. It's more of a- Hmm... a phrase- Hmm... to refer to covenant Israel.
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Oh, interesting. So when we're, we're thinking about a daughter of Zion, we're thinking more it's a covenantal, technical phrase that encompasses people. Just like when we say the church is the bride to Jesus Christ.
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Bride is a feminine, but it encompasses men. M- Right. You see- You see that all throughout the Bible. The parable of the 10 virgins. Right.
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That should see the- And we know the virgins, the five wise and faithful, represents members of the church. Hmm. Women and men.
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So you've made a pretty strong claim, which I think is actually, you've backed it up well, that when we read daughters of Zion here, we're not just trying to highlight the women of ancient Israel are the problem.
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God is identifying that the covenant people, who are supposed to be in a family, have misused their agency to be disloyal to God and to forget him and to forget their neighbor. I think so. Okay.
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Well, that's pretty powerful. And then I find it interesting, uh, the list of all the different things that the daughters of Zion were wearing actually refer to the items listed when it comes to temple worship.
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It's the clothing that you would often see the Levites and the priests wearing when they would go worship in the tabernacle of Moses. Hmm.
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And we won't go into all of it, but if you look at the Hebrew word behind them, you see them reappear in the tabernacle of Moses. Fascinating. And so, but then the Lord's warning them, "Hey, you are covenant people.
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You women and men, you've been clothed to worship me in the temple, me in the covenant, but what's gonna be your result? Because you're not keeping your covenant." Right. The, the Lord's gonna...
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Yep, verse 18, "I'm gonna have to take away all these things." Hmm. Uh, the covenant's not gonna do you... You're gonna be left exposed. You're not gonna be protected by the covenant.
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Not because I'm not faithful to my covenant, but I'm just not gonna force you to stay in it if you don't want it. Or how would you word it? I think you're exactly right.
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It's like, what if I say, "Well, I have a temple recommend, but I don't live my life really, truly worthy of it," and I basically just clean up my life for a week before I go and get my temple recommend interview.
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Or let's suppose I've been endowed, but I don't allow that endowment and the physical nature of wearing and expressing the endowment really change my life at all.
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God's like, "Hey, listen, you wearing temple garments or wearing garments under your clothing, that's not gonna save you if you don't choose to stay in relationship with me. I'm gonna honor your agency.
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You can be in a relationship with me or not, and the garment is a signal you're in relationship with me. But if you act differently-" You have to be true and faithful. [laughs] Yeah.
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It's no different than just wearing a T-shirt and shorts. Not gonna do much for you. Well, and then here's the great news again. So we kind of hit a bummer. Right.
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In Isaiah's day, 700 BC, in downtown Jerusalem, they were breaking their covenants. And I know that sometimes happens today. But in the last days, look at chapter 4 verse 1.
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"And in that day," meaning the last days, "seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, 'We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel. Only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach.'"
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Now, you can interpret that through a historical level, because in Isaiah's day, Assyria did wipe out a lot of the surrounding cities of, uh, Jerusalem or the kingdom of Judah, right? There wasn't a lot of men.
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Yeah, there was actually a register in the Assyrian annals that they had taken 46 walled cities of Judah. 46 walled cities. We're not talking about all the villages, just the walled cities. Jerusalem was never conquered.
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That's the whole story of Hezekiah and Isaiah encouraging the people to trust the Lord when the Assyrians had, had encircled them, what, around 722 BC. So yeah, on, on the weekends in Isaiah's day,
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a lot of the women were not going on dates. There just wasn't a lot of men. They had been wiped out by the Assyrians. Hmm. And so you can read, okay, so seven women are gonna wanna hold onto one man.
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They're gonna be desperate for a date and for a husband. But I don't know if that's the primary...
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I mean, that's historically accurate, but I don't know if that's the primary point he's trying to get across because he's referring to the latter day fulfillment. Yeah, what do you see there?
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The seven women, again, seven can refer to the complete. Hmm. Like shave is the Hebrew word that means, like, perfection or fully complete, or even, like, covenantal. Yep. And the seven...
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And the woman, again, we've already mentioned, right? That's covenant Israel or Christ's church. Yeah. Is gonna take hold of one man. We're gonna have this beautiful reversal. I want to n- not just go to the temple.
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I don't wanna just go through the motions. I wanna take hold of the one man, Jesus Christ. And th- keep going. You see this language. Say, "We'll eat our own bread and wear our own apparel."
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Being connected to Jesus Christ will mean more to me than the basic necessities. Hmm.
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Yeah, but I think this is also what you're trying to point out, that, "Only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach," taking upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, which we do at baptism.
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And in our temple covenants, we actually make the covenants in, uh... We take upon ourselves His name when we partake of the, uh, the, the temple ceremony. And the, the Hebrew word for to take hold is really fascinating.
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It m- it comes from khazak, which means... It can mean to ritually grasp by the hand to confer a position and power. Wow. That's powerful.
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And also, we have here in verse four, "When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.
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And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion," this is Jerusalem, "and upon her assemblies, a cloud and a smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for upon all the glory shall be a defense."
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Uh, remember, fire and cloud, these are all symbols of God's presence. Go back to Exodus. That's quite consistent.
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In fact, you might remember the tabernacle, Exodus 40, it concludes with God's smoky presence shows up and feel, fill, fills the temple or the tabernacle with His glory. Hmm.
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Sounds like that's being fulfilled today, where we have all these tabernacles- Hmm... throughout the world now. And I also love that he's saying this will be for everybody. It's democratized.
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It's not just a single location, but in everybody's dwelling they'll have this. Hmm. It's quite powerful. Let's now take a look at chapter five. I wrote at the top of my chapter, the song of the vineyard.
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You might also relate this to, uh, Jacob chapter 5, where he talks about the working in the orchard or the, or the vineyard. And the first seven verses are the song that God is singing to His people.
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Now, remember, we're still somewhat in the sense of Go- of, of Isaiah is in a courtroom speaking on God's behalf to the people about how they've not been loyal to God.
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And now Isaiah is speaking on behalf of God, singing about God's own loyalty to the people. He has filled his unconditional covenant that he made to Abraham and all of his posterity back in Genesis 12:15-17.
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And you just see some interesting connections with, uh, Jacob chapter 5. God says in verse one and two, uh... Well, he says v- end of verse one, "My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill."
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Verse two, he worked really hard on it. Then the, the verse it says, "It brought forth wild grapes." Now here's the lawsuit language.
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And verse three, "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Jud- Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more?"
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That's exactly the language we find repeated throughout Jacob chapter 5. Verse five, "And now go to. I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the protecting hedge thereof."
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The hedge would've been, like, those bushes that would, like, create natural fencing. "And the wall... And break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.
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And I will lay it waste, and it shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it."
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So this actually seems to be jumping over most of Jacob 5 and going right to the end, assuming that the Lord has been in there in the garden many, many, many, many times working on helping the people.
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I like in verse two, it's interesting that he planted the vineyard with the choicest vine. You would expect to... I mean, you got a whole... You got this whole plantation. You'd expect to see vines, plural. Hmm.
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But even if you look in the Hebrew, it's just the one choicest vine is planted there. Singular. The, yeah, the, this fruitful hill represents Jerusalem, I believe. Hmm. And he's saying, "I am the vine." Right?
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That's what Jesus said right before he went into- Oh, that's right... Gethsemane. John 17. Right? "And you're the branches." Hmm. Right? He, I planted myself right- In the midst, and I built this wine press, right?
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I'm gonna end up treading the wine press a- alone. Like The Hebrew word is Gethsemane. Yeah. I guess he's just saying, "What more could do? I actually became Emmanuel. I became flesh, and I dwelt among you.
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You could look into my eyes. You could hear my voice. I worked all these miracles. I, I, I bled and died for you. What more could I have done?" Verse seven, I find this beautiful again. It...
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We keep seeing Isaiah, like, these stunning, unexpected, uh, messages of beauty and hope. When people break their covenants, when you and I sin or those that we love,
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uh, we shouldn't lose hope because look at the conclusion here. Verse seven: "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah..." You expect him to say stinkers, right? Mm.
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Because they're breaking... But he calls them His pleasant plant. Mm. Even though they keep sinning and bringing forth these rotten, stinky grapes, they're bringing forth bad fruit
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and evil, he calls them a pleasant plant, which comes from the Hebrew word which means it's... It, it reflects the intense pleasure or delight, like a father who enjoys playing with his son. Hmm. That's powerful.
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I mean, isn't that true? I mean, you're a parent. I'm a parent, and we love our kids to death, e- no matter... They can break our hearts. Mm. But you know what?
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If they tell us, "Hey, can I come visit you and Mom on the weekend?" Even if they're in r- Mm. You just... Y- you, you want them to come home so desperately. Mm. He's... They're still my little boy.
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They're still my little girl, and w- God doesn't lose hope. But He still calls them the pleasant plant. Powerful. There's also a really cool Hebrew wordplay here. For, "He looked for righteousness, but behold, a cry."
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So it's tsedakah, that's righteousness, but behold, a tza'ak. So Isaiah's just a master of words. Nice. So we have this lawsuit here.
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Again, uh, Isaiah's speaking on behalf of the Lord, sings a song of the vineyard, asks, "What more could I have done?"
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And because the people had chosen to walk away from God, Isaiah identifies six woes between verses eight to 23. Woe one is in verse eight. Verse 11 is woe two.
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Woe three is verse 18, and then woes four, five, and six are verses 20, 21, and 22. So then you have a transition from the woes to what are the outcomes of those woes? How does that make people feel?
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And we have from verse 24 to 30 basically a long series of things that none of us would want to experience. It's basically you're not going to have mercy.
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Verse 25: "Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindle- kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them and hath smitten them, and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets.
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For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." Now, some people think, oh, the hand stretched out means, well, he's still reaching out in mercy. This is emphatically not mercy.
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When you see the hand stretched out still, it does not mean mercy. It means judgment has not finished. Mm. In the ancient world, the hand was the symbol of justice. Arms are the symbols of mercy. What does Lehi say?
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"I've been wrapped in the arms of his mercy." You do not wanna see the hand of God in your life. You wanna see his arms in your life. And so God is saying, "You guys have been so disloyal
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that even after all of this negative things going to happen, there's still more negative yet to come." Unless you turn to the Lord. Unless you turn to the Lord, which by the way, he's always there.
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His arms are always ready to receive us, always, always, always. And you see that in the next verse, 26. Yeah.
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"So he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth, and behold, they shall come with speed sweef- swiftly." So it's an invitation.
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So this phrase, "His hand is stretched out still," actually does mean justice is still coming, and one way many s- many people read verses 26 to 30, a lot of scholars, is that God is actually calling the Assyrian war machine to come attack the 10 northern tribes who had been so disloyal to God.
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And if you look carefully from verse 26 to 30 and you read it from the sense of God allowing the Assyrians to come in and conquer mercilessly the 10 northern tribes, this makes a lot of sense. Okay?
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Now, I do know that in the church we like to t- uh, interpret this like this is about missionary work, and we're su- gonna succeed and great.
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The way Isaiah probably saw this was God allowed the Assyrians to come in and conquer the Israelites.
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In fact, you point out, Mike, there's even this phrase that, uh, John the Baptist quotes: "Neither shall the girdle of their loins be loose, nor the latch of their shoes be broken." He mentions this about, um, Jesus.
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He actually says, "I am not worthy to unlatch his shoe." So it's not necessarily a direct quote, but it's kind of related language. Mm-hmm. And people...
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Sometimes we only look at the positive like, oh, Jesus came to save. He did, but he saves in part by... removing the people who shouldn't be there, right? He is both a savior, right?
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You have a great and dreadful day of the year. Lord, it's great for some people and dreadful for others, and this is actually military language we have here.
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So Jesus, um, will show up at some point, both of as a savior and as a military who removes the people who did not want to be saved.
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So again, we might think, "Oh, my gosh, I feel so overwhelmed by Isaiah seems like he's so negative." Um, to remind ourselves, Isaiah was living in extremely difficult times. The Northern...
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10 northern tribes of Israel had spent two centuries apostatizing. They had built the golden calf. They had done so many wicked things.
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They had apostatized, like, so tremendously that Isaiah is constrained to say things that are highly uncomfortable for people to hear. In fact, when we go to chapter six,
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we will hear Isaiah's call and how much he's not feeling ready for it because he knows how hard it is to say uncomfortable things to people who need to hear the truth.
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And what's interesting is chapter six, um, is his call to the ministry. Most prophetic books in the Old Testament, the call of the prophet shows up in chapter one. Here,
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Isaiah just jumps in for five chapters essentially saying, "God has a lawsuit against you guys. I'm his court, [laughs] court lawyer, and now let me tell you why I got called to be the lawyer here." Okay?
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Mike, what are some of the great takeaways you see from chapter six? This chapter is situated in the temple. So again, downtown Jerusalem, Solomon's Temple. Uh, and it, it, it says there in verse one,
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"He saw the Lord sitting upon a throne." And again, saw comes from the Hebrew word kazah, which means to see something in a vision. Mm.
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And he's sitting upon his throne, so scholars think that he's seeing Jesus in the Holy of Holies. Mm. Right? Which was considered God's throne. Considered his throne room, yeah.
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And actually at the base of the Holy of Holies... Sorry, in the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant, which was seen as either his footstool or the throne upon which he sat.
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And in the Ark of the Covenants was the Law of Moses. It's like what we have the pr- plates of brass, what Nephi went to go get, was effectively a copy of what sat inside the Ark of the Covenant. Mm-hmm.
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Which by the way, would mean that Nephi now effectively has a mobile tabernacle coming with him in, in the wilderness. Nice. He's like Ezekiel who sees God's presence leave the tabernacle and go in the wilderness.
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Like, yeah, Nephi's like, "Yep, that was us. He came with us when we brought the brass pla- brass plates." Now, then you have this interesting phrase, "It stood above the seraphims."
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That Hebrew word seraph means a burning... something that's burning. So these are just bright, glorious beaning, uh, beings. I, I think they're probably just, uh, angels. I mean, the wings- Mm-hmm...
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are symbolic of movement, power to act according to- Yeah... Doctrine and Covenant Section 77. Yeah, yeah. You see the same imagery in Ezekiel and in the Book of Revelation. With the wings?
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The, the, the wings and these- The glory... these weird, mythical looking creatures- Mm... which I think could just be... Uh, Joseph Smith, he said that when God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him, that he...
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that also angels appeared and he... Everything w- he thought the leaves in the trees were gonna catch on fire. Yeah. And you get the same fiery- Mm... imagery going on here. That's exactly right.
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That is the glory of God. In fact, we see this in verse three, "And one cried," one of these seraphim cried unto the other, "and said," notice this, three times, " 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts.
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The whole earth is full of His glory.' " And the word for glory is kavod, which means kind of like a, a heavy substantive weight of value. And when we think about glory, we think, oh, it's just shining.
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But it is like a shining that burdens you in a positive way. It's something that has heft and significance.
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I just want people to think if you've ever been in a moment where you felt so empowered or overwhelmed by God with goodness, that's kavod. That's kavod. Uh, yeah, holy, holy, holy comes from the Hebrew word
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ka- kodesh, and a Bible scholar did a really nice exhaustive survey of every time it had appeared, and he says, "You know, holy doesn't just mean..." The typical traditional interpretation is you're free from sin.
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Mm. You're sanctified. But he says, uh, uh, he argues that it means consecrated, dedicated, or committed. Hmm. That's more, much more relational. That's interesting.
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And I find that powerful and compelling because especially for Isaiah in 740 BC downtown Jerusalem, when Assyria is about ready to attack and decimate, what, 42 cities.
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We have historical archaeological evidence for it, and it says also in the Bible, uh, he is seeing the Lord of Hosts, Lord of Armies, right? That would've been powerful imagery for them because they need protection.
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Mm-hmm. And they need a God that can be committed and devoted to them, even though they've been stinkers. I love it.
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Wow, Mike, you're doing something we don't often think about, that when we're talking about the holiness of the Lord, it's because He's dedicated and committed to us.
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Even though we haven't been dedicated or committed to Him. Mm-hmm.
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Again, that's the stunner that we have throughout the Scripture, the Old Testament in particular, his ongoing hesed, that God is committed to stay in relationship with us.
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He does not force us to be in a relationship with him. He gives us full agency to walk away from him.
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He does tell us, as the lawsuits we've been hearing from Isaiah, "Here are all the consequences if you decide to leave my presence. My presence is where there is order," just like at creation.
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If you wanna go back into disorder, like before creation happened, that is your choice, but that's chaotic, and it's destructive.
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"Come, be with me in my temple, my Sabbath, where everything is at wholeness or peace, shalom." Yeah. So then we get the, this passage of Isaiah, um,
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saying, in verse five, "I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips." I mean, these are people who don't speak truth. They don't live truth.
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They don't k- keep their commitments. And then he, he says, "I have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." Again, remember the phrase, Lord of Hosts, is military language. This is the one who manages all the battles.
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"Then one of the seraphims," one of these burning ones, "took a coal," a burning coal, "put it on his lips, and purges his mouth."
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Verse seven, "Lo, this has touched thy mouth, thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." That's powerful. Taken away and purged. I lo- I love what President Boyd K. Packer said.
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He said, quote, "If you have already made bad mistakes, there are ways to fix things up, and eventually it will be as though they never happened," close quote. Just gone. Yep.
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In fact, the word, uh, atonement in Hebrew means to cover, like you just can't see it anymore. So of course then there's a question asked, who will go forth? Who will be the messenger?
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And in Hebrew, uh, the way it was understood that a, a messenger, the He- the Hebrew word for messenger is malach, or malachi. Like, malachi means my messenger. It's an angel.
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An angel or a messenger is somebody who stands in God's presence, in God's court, and then is empowered to go on a mission to teach what they've heard God speak in his heavenly courts. And they're...
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Isaiah's in the heavenly court, and they say, "Well, who's gonna go share this message?" And Isaiah says, "Here am I. Send me." Man, that would take a lot of courage. That's right.
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Because he knows the type of people he's been called to serve, and in fact, you were suggesting earlier that he was sawn asunder.
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I mean, he's gonna probably get killed, and yet he's, without hesitation, he's like, "Here am I. Send me," which echoes the same kind of response that Jehovah gave in the pre-earth life. That's right. He is...
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Yeah, he, he's been endowed with this power because of this purging that he's experienced, this love for his people, even though they're so wicked. And then he gets this really shocking mission call.
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So think about all the young people you see today on YouTube or Facebook or Live opened their mission call, and they're called to go preach the gospel. Notice what happens here.
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Now, remember, we're still in the midst of kind of a, a long judgment scene courtroom where God says, "All right. Go out and tell this people, 'Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not.'"
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Now, these are covenantal terms that the people have not kept their end of the bargain,
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and they've been shown covenantal loyalty from God, but they are not seeing his loyalty, and therefore they are not acting in concert with that. You can't blame Isaiah for asking in verse 11, "Uh, Lord, how long?" Yeah.
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"Is this a two-year mission?" [laughs] "Can we make it two weeks?" I mean, he's going forth with love and commitment. Right. But at the same time, you can see the, the mortal in him, like, "This is gonna be a big ask.
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Uh, how long is this gonna happen?" And then I love the answer. The Lord says, "Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant and the houses without man, and the land be utterly, utterly desolate."
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You talk about a God who is holy- Yeah... committed, dedicated. He's like, "I am not gonna give up as long as there's one house to... You, you ha- you still need to knock on their door." Mm-hmm. Yep.
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And what's powerful here is that if you think about the 10 northern tribes, the Kingdom of Israel, that has been so apostate for hundreds of years at this point, God is going to allow them to be taken away.
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Verse 12, "And the Lord hath removed men far away, and there would be a great forsaking in the midst of the land," 'cause the land is holy. You know, the people mistreat the land. God's like, "Fine.
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You can go live somewhere else. Go worship your false god somewhere else, but when you're on your, off your timeout, I will bring you back in. I am not abandoning my covenant.
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We might have to have a pause in your, your individual access to it until you're ready to be faithful, but it's always here." And that is lurking. The, the mercy's kind of lurking here in the background.
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So he does point out verse 13, "A tenth shall return."
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And our, our historical records of what happened to the Jews with Babylonian exile is, they're quite sparse, but it seems like only a very small fraction of the people of Judah who got taken to captivity by the Babylonians ever returned back into, uh, Jerusalem.
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And I think the Septuagint says that a remnant will return. That's a good phrase. Yeah, that makes sense for what we understand from, like, the, the restoration standpoint. Yeah.
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So then this chapter seven is back in a time period of enormous political and military conflict and problems, 734 to 732 BC, and I wrote at the top of here, "The sign of Immanuel amid political fear."
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And what's going on is the Assyrians are the world's most powerful empire at the time. They're threatening to conquer Syria- And the northern kingdom of Israel.
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And so Syria and Israel decide, "We're gonna protect ourselves by getting help from the kingdom of Judah." And Judah didn't want to join the coalition to fight against the Assyrians.
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So Israel and Syria decided, "Well, let's go to war against Judah, and let's put a leader in who will be friendly to our interests." And by the way, if you think this is, like, an ancient thing, it happens today.
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Can you think about any time in the year 2026 when the ruler of one country replaced the ruler of another country? This is still happening today, where powerful people want compliant people.
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And so this kind of political shenanigans have been going on for a long time, and we call this the Syro-Ephraimite War because Ephraim, which was the head of the house of Israel, or meaning the 10 tribes, and the Syrians go to war against Judah.
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Mike, tell us what's going on in this chapter, and w- w- why Isaiah got involved. Or am I putting you on the spot? Well, n- n- I'm just... No, I think you set up the, the stage really beautiful. It...
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This chapter, admittedly, for our audience, I, I hope you're not feeling frustrated. There's... If you read verses one and two, it has a lot of political components. Mm-hmm. Y- you gotta know the geography.
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You gotta know who the rulers are [laughs] and where they belong, and it can... It... You have to read it a few times. You almost have to map it out. Right. And that's why I think Nephi says in the Book of Mormon, uh,
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"For me, the words of Isaiah are delightful because I've lived there. I know the geography. I know the political situation." But for those that haven't lived there, you're gonna struggle a little bit.
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Well, he's doing something that we're not doing. He's like, "I'm just gonna give you the delightful, uplifting words of God, and I'm not gonna bore you with all the historical details and all the lawsuit language." Yeah.
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[laughs] But here in verses, in chapter seven, verses one and two, you've, you've got a... That's pretty political. Uh- Yeah... it sets the stage. But the, the essence of it is, uh,
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like Taylor said, you got the king- the northern kingdom of Israel and the territory or the kingdom of Syria. They want the southern king of Judah's help, and Judah won't help.
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And in fact, if you go to 2 Corinthians or 2 Chronicles 20:6, it says, "For Pekah, the King of Israel, slew in Judah 120,000 one day."
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The people would not come and help fight the war against, uh, Assyria, and they're like, "That's not cool. You should be helping fight this war, and we're gonna make you." That's fascinating.
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So the 2 Chronicles is almost a retelling of... 1 and 2 Chronicles is almost a retelling of 1 and 2 Kings. 2 Chro- uh, Chronicles is from the perspective of Judah.
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Notice that they are probably inflating and exaggerating numbers. "Oh, yeah, Israel came down. They killed 120,000 of us in one day."
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I will just promise you, if you look across all of human history, even in the worst wars, 120,000 people dying in one day, almost never. Y- you take the invasion of Normandy,
423
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uh, the US lost about 4,000 to 5,000 men that day to death. Yeah. So- It, it's probably got some symbol-... inflated and might have some symbolic... The, the number 120... Anyhow. Yeah. I, I like what you're saying.
424
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But the memory is real that the people of Judah felt they probably did have people in Judah die, that Israel did come down and attack. And Ahaz is the king.
425
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His name means to grasp, to seize, or take hold, but he seems to not grasp what's going on in the political situation or the spiritual situation. Wow. I didn't even... That goes back to Isaiah chapter three, verse one...
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No, Isaiah 4:1, when the seven women take hold, they grasp. It's... comes from that same Hebrew- Wow... Hebrew verb. Oh, that's cool. So those women were grasping in the good way. [laughs] Right. King Ahaz,
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he's, he's having a hard time. He's grasping- He wants to... Isaiah's gonna come to him and say, "You c- you can't trust in human strength. You've gotta s- turn to the Lord. That's your only chance against Assyria."
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Yeah. And if you actually read this chapter, it sounds like Ahaz and Isaiah are like, are buds. They're kind of talking to each other in a nice way.
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But they're just being politically polite, but there's all this tension underneath that Ahaz actually ends up not being a great king. He's actually a little bit unfaithful. Yeah.
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So here's the quandary Ahaz is in as a political leader. If he joins in the rebellion from Syria and Ephraim, it's automatically...
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He knows the Assyrians will invade, and the Assyrians are the most powerful military in that time. And he's probably like, "I need to protect my people, and I don't need to invite an invasion." If he resists,
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he gets invaded by Ephraim and Syria, and so he's calculating, "Huh, do I wanna get invaded by two lesser kingdoms who live next door to me or by the greatest kingdom of the age? Which one?"
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Like, it's a lesser of two evils. If he allies with Assyria, he puts un- uh, Judah under pagan authority. So he's got all sorts of difficult challenges. When we read this chapter, Ahaz is trusting political maneuvering.
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Isaiah is seeking to convince him to trust God's covenants. Well said. Now, it doesn't mean to just sit around and do nothing and, "Ahaz, eat, drink, and be merry. God will cover everything."
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But- Just stay home and read your scriptures... take the time to understand the Lord's will in this very difficult set of circumstances and choices you have. They meet in, uh, verse three, um,
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on the highway by the fuller's field. And Isaiah is giving him some political feedback. Remember, Isaiah's a court prophet. Not only does he speak God's truth, but he is basically a kingly advisor.
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And he tells Ahaz to not worry about the threat from Syria and the 10 tribes of Israel. Verse nine, he says, "And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son.
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If you will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." It's interesting, the word if you will not believe is the word, effectively, it's like la aman, layman, not believing.
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If you can't believe, you can't be firmly established. So God tries to convince Ahaz to trust the words of Isaiah.
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In verse 10: "Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 'Ask thee a sign'" or a, a symbol or evidence "that the Lord... of the Lord thy God," okay? That God's gonna be with you. Ahaz says, "I won't ask.
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I'm not gonna tempt the Lord." So it's interesting, Ahaz is quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, "Don't tempt the Lord." So Ahaz has already decided on a political option, so he's basically expressing false piety.
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He's already decided he doesn't want to hear the word of the Lord. He also doesn't want evidence from the Lord that Ahaz can trust that God will do His own work.
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And so he kind of falsely has this false piety, and he, he, he, uh- Well, yeah, because not to be confused with the... In the New Testament, the Lord says, "Whoever seeketh after a sign is an adulterous generation."
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Right. But that's not what's going on here. Correct. And remember, Jesus gets tempted out in the wilderness to turn bread, or stone into bread, and Jesus also quotes the same verse.
445
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He says, "Thou shall not tempt the Lord." Right. And so we read this, we're like, we get all confused, but the understory is that Ahaz is not trusting God.
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God is not saying, "Hey, don't use your brain to solve this difficult conundrum."
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He's saying, "Yes, think through the political ramifications and the issues of people's safety, and trust that God, the Lord of Hosts, has a plan, and take the time to listen to the prophet about what that plan could be."
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And the Lord wants to give you a sign. Yes. He wants to give you evidence that He's with you. That's right. That's right. But Ahaz, "No, I don't need a sign from the Lord. No, I'm..." He, he's, he's- Yes...
449
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rejecting this generous heavenly favor. It's false piety. Yeah. So what does Isaiah say in response? What is the sign that Isaiah says, "All right, fine. You don't ask for a sign? God's gonna give it to you anyway."
450
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What is the sign? Yeah, it's beautiful, isn't it? Yeah, we have, "Therefore," verse 14, "the Lord himself will give you a sign.
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Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name God is with us," or Immanuel.
452
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"Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good, for behold, for before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land of the Damarenes," that's Syria and Ephraim, "shall be forsaken of both her kings."
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And it actually did happen. By two years later, both the kings that are mentioned earlier in this chapter from Syria and Israel had gone the way of all the earth. Their threat had come and gone.
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That's exactly right, right? There's wars and rumors of wars, and, and Ahaz is dealing with a rumor of war. Yeah. Now, eventually, 12 years later, these Syrians did come down. It was during the time of Hezekiah.
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It's a different, different story. But so in Isaiah's day,
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Isaiah's saying there's gonna be a young woman who will have a child, and before that child's weaned from breastfeeding, this whole problem will go away, so less than two years.
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And that's exactly what happens two years later. This also is Isaiah layering his words that there will be Mary, who brings forth Jesus, who is God with us. And He will also deliver us from
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the attacks or problems or threats that we deal with if we choose to trust Him versus just doing political machination m- all the time.
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So it's a very interesting chapter, and again, we can see why Nephi probably not do to, do a lot of political deep dives with his people because sometimes it can, um, be distracting from just the pure, uplifting words of God about how He saves us versus like, "I gotta go master a bunch of geography and history before I can even feel [laughs] God's love in my life?"
460
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Sometimes that's what we have with Isaiah. Not always, but some of these chapters are a little heavy on the geography and the politics. Yeah. I love, Taylor, how you're f- pointing out the dual fulfillment.
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There was the immediate fulfillment in Isa- Isaiah's day- Yeah... when, when the, the God was with them to protect them from Assyria. But then you also have the fulfillment in Jesus Christ's day. Look at Matthew 1:21.
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It says, "And Mary shall conceive and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from," not Assyria, but now- Hmm... from sins, from sin and death. That's amazing, right?
463
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So you have these parallel things. People are being threatened with death and destruction in Isaiah's day,
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and Isaiah gives a prophecy for how that's gonna go away, and also forward looks to how Jesus will resolve the Assyrians in our day, like at least- Yeah... in Syria today. Mm-hmm.
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In fact, in 3 Nephi 23:3, the resurrected Savior encouraged the people to feast upon the words of Isaiah or search diligently the words of Isaiah. Then He said this key phrase,
466
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quote, "All things that Isaiah spake have been and shall be," close quote. Hmm. Inviting that dualistic interpretation.
467
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How did the Isaiah's words find fulfillment in his day, 700 BC, but then how does it also find fulfillment now in these latter days? And I think it's exegetical. It's good- Which means interpretive...
468
01:31:40.224 --> 01:31:46.224
it's, it's a good way, it's a solid way to interpret scriptures. Yeah. It's not proof texting.
469
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So just to remind everybody, sometimes Isaiah, because of the circumstances he was in and what God asked him to do, doesn't always have the most uplifting things to say.
470
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And I'm not trying to only highlight the negative, but this chapter concludes, verses 17 to 25, that destruction will come upon the wicked. Right? So, like, if you choose to walk away from God, here's what you get.
471
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And you can read those verses for yourself, but you can see how, um, statement after statement, that negative things will befall those who rejected the Lord.
472
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So in Isaiah's day, those verses, 17 to 25, are specifically directed towards the outcomes that the 10 northern tribes, the King of Israel, will experience. This is the language they use in the Old Testament.
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God calls the Assyrians to effect the punishment or the consequences on the northern, uh, 10 tribes because of their, um, their disloyalty to God. So that's the language we have here. So chapter eight.
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The warning for the southern kingdom of Judah. It's not just the northern kingdom that's gonna, that's gonna get a whoopin'. It's also gonna be the southern kingdom. And so Isaiah's gonna rent a billboard on I-15.
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[laughs] Well, it does say, "Moreover, the Lord said unto me, 'Take thee a great roll- Mm-hmm... and write in it with a man's pen a, concerning Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz." Mm. In other...
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Like, you need to engrave this message on this great roll. Like, that's why I said, you know, on I-15. You gotta advertise, you gotta let everybody know what's the message. And Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, what does that mean?
477
01:33:34.724 --> 01:33:51.684
Basically, if you break down the Hebrew words, that means you're gonna die. [laughs] Or if you wanna be more spec- specific, destruction is eminent. That's amazing. So you get... In fact, didn't he actually name...
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B- in verse three, he names one of his own children Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. Now imagine- It's on the billboard on I-15, but it's also his son's name. It's like double emphasis. Destruction's coming. Wow.
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By the way, that kid probably would get... Well, I don't think anybody would've teased him because you'd have to say his whole name, and it'd take forever to say his name. He had a nickname, for sure.
480
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And by the time you get to saying his whole name, you forgot the mean thing you wanna say to the kid on the playground. [laughs] Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
481
01:34:20.904 --> 01:34:26.684
Can you imagine, like, the mom is, like, mad at him and trying to say his name three times fast? Yeah. So,
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so he takes these witnesses, that's in verse two, and what we have here in these verses, in this chapter, is the destruction of Israel and the long decline of Judah, 'cause Judah persisted for about another 140 years after the northern 10 tribes were, uh, taken into captivity and lost to history.
483
01:34:47.064 --> 01:34:54.384
Now listen, uh, what we hear in these verses. And just, Mike, sometimes people read this and they think, "Look at all these bad things God does to people."
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Listen to this: "Therefore, now therefore behold the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the King of Assyria and all his glory, and he shall come up over all his channels and go over all his banks."
485
01:35:08.464 --> 01:35:16.154
So this is symbolizing that the Assyrian army is gonna invade, and it's gonna flood everything. Everything's gonna be destroyed. But if people say, "Wait, the Lord did this?"
486
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Anciently, the focus was on God's majesty and power, that he's completely in charge.
487
01:35:23.864 --> 01:35:38.524
Today, if somebody was actually telling the story for the first time with more emphasis on agency and natural consequences, we might not narrate this, "The Lord brought the Assyrians to destroy northern kingdom of Israel."
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They might say, uh, the people chose to walk away from God's protective power, and therefore, this was the outcome. These were the consequences.
489
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So just, everyone remember, when we hear that God is doing everything, it's because for the ancient Israelites, they wanted to see the power, majesty, and the agency of God.
490
01:35:58.644 --> 01:36:13.784
They focused far more on that than they did on their own agency. We emphasize agency. They did not as much. And bringeth, I'm willing to bet $10, I bet that's a hiphil verb form- Hiphil is a-... which
491
01:36:15.204 --> 01:36:30.724
the hiphil, which is just a, a fancy- Way of saying something's caused... yes. And scholarship will show that the hiphil verb form can often convey allowance. Hmm, interesting. So there's causative.
492
01:36:30.884 --> 01:36:43.824
There's also I'm allowing something to happen. Perfect. So look at verse eight. We've just finished verse seven: "And he shall pass through Judah," this is the king of Assyria, "and he shall overflow and go over.
493
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He shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of the land. O Immanuel."
494
01:36:51.824 --> 01:36:58.924
Now, the s- the metaphor here is that the Assyrians will come in, they'll flood the northern kingdom of Israel. They, they were destroyed, taken captivity.
495
01:36:59.404 --> 01:37:08.664
They'll even come into Judah, and the flood waters will get to the neck. Well, where is the head of Judah? Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Does Jerusalem fall, Mike? Nope. It doesn't.
496
01:37:09.284 --> 01:37:21.044
Hezekiah and Isaiah help protect the people, and we have this tremendously powerful story. It shows up in, uh, the history portion of Isaiah, like, um- In Kings... it shows up in Kings.
497
01:37:21.364 --> 01:37:30.164
2 Kings 20:20, Hezekiah made a conduit and brought water into Jerusalem. It talks about all his preparations. They built a new wall to protect the people.
498
01:37:30.244 --> 01:37:39.164
In fact, this is when, um, Nephi's ancestors probably fled from the Assyrian onslaught in the north down to the protection of Hezekiah and Isaiah.
499
01:37:39.644 --> 01:37:49.876
So that's why Nephi, who's not from the tribe of Judah, would be living In Jerusalem. It's not his tribal homeland. His tribal homeland's up in the north that's been conquered by the Assyrians.
500
01:37:50.236 --> 01:38:02.876
So it's probably his great-grandparents who come down to Jerusalem for protection. Hmm. What's fascinating is that we have found in Assyrian archeology, it's called the Taylor Prism. It's a, um...
501
01:38:02.916 --> 01:38:14.816
It's a six-sided clay baked cylinder, and it lists or describes the conquest of the Assyrians against, uh, Israel and Judah, and they list the 46 walled cities.
502
01:38:15.236 --> 01:38:29.486
And they even say something like, "The Assyrian king boasts" "I shut King Hezekiah up like a caged bird in his royal city of Jerusalem." Which basically means you didn't win. [laughs] Right?
503
01:38:29.896 --> 01:38:39.336
So anciently, the king's gotta look awesome, so he's like, "Well, I, I shut him into, like, a, a, a caged bird." And this is where the Assyrian king, um, surrounded Jerusalem.
504
01:38:40.016 --> 01:38:48.856
And then one morning, they wake up, and, like, all these Assyrians are dead. And the Assyrian king goes back into his homeland and gets, uh, uh, murdered or assassinated by one of his sons.
505
01:38:49.556 --> 01:38:59.916
So the threat against Judah has now dis- dissipated, but this is the symbolism going on in this chapter, that the flood waters of the Assyrians will come up to the neck of Jerusalem.
506
01:38:59.996 --> 01:39:08.796
And sure enough, it did, and we have archeological evidence, written evidence, from the Taylor Prism, um, from the Assyrian perspective of their fight against Judah and Jerusalem.
507
01:39:10.256 --> 01:39:11.976
Now, notice these things in verse nine, 10.
508
01:39:12.516 --> 01:39:26.656
Like, I- Isaiah's saying, "If you guys think that after breaking all of God's commandments, you guys can join together and create some kind of alliance, and that will allow you to overcome the consequences of broken covenants, not happening."
509
01:39:27.356 --> 01:39:36.136
He says, "Associate yourself," verse nine, "O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces." Verse 10, "Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought." Verse 11.
510
01:39:36.676 --> 01:39:50.456
I can just imagine the burden that Isaiah has to bring this lawsuit against the people of covenantal unfaithfulness. "For the Lord," verse 11, "spake thus to me with a strong hand." Remember, the hand is justice.
511
01:39:51.016 --> 01:40:01.396
"And instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, 'Say ye not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy. Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.'"
512
01:40:01.536 --> 01:40:11.596
Basically, don't let the warmongering, the fearmongering, and the wars and rumors of wars that the people are all worried about bother you. Be with the Lord.
513
01:40:12.336 --> 01:40:23.985
By the way, as an invitation to people, um, if you drop social media, your happy- your life will be much happier. I've effectively been off social media for about 10 years. And what do we have going on social media?
514
01:40:24.485 --> 01:40:34.566
Almost everything on social media is verse 11 and 12. And God is saying, "Don't bother with all that distraction. Focus on me." What should you be doing?
515
01:40:34.876 --> 01:40:47.716
"Sanctify the Lord of hosts, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." Verse 14, "He shall be for a sanctuary, and for but a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense to both the house of Israel...
516
01:40:48.356 --> 01:40:59.936
houses of Israel," meaning the 10 northern tribes and the southern tribe of Judah, "for a gin, and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Okay, so again, Isaiah's got really strong words.
517
01:41:00.156 --> 01:41:08.076
I feel like he, if he and Jacob had known each other, we're talking the prophet Jacob of the Book of Mormon, they'd both say, "I don't really like the fact that my job's hard.
518
01:41:08.496 --> 01:41:18.216
People want the pleasing word of God, and I gotta bring out the daggers and tell people, 'Hmm, here's all the ways that you have violated yourselves, violated the people you've loved, and violated God.
519
01:41:18.286 --> 01:41:30.216
And therefore, not good things are gonna happen.'" Yeah. Am I hearing anything uplifting here? [laughs] Man. Yeah. He pleads with them in verse 20 to look to the law and to the testimony.
520
01:41:30.236 --> 01:41:40.156
In other words, look to what the prophets are teaching, both verbally and in their writings. Yeah. When moving to chapter nine, there are two things happening at once.
521
01:41:40.256 --> 01:41:44.896
Isaiah is both speaking messianically about God showing up, about Jesus himself.
522
01:41:45.436 --> 01:41:54.756
But we also have his present circumstances that they are living in a kingdom that is under threat from the world's largest empire at the time.
523
01:41:55.276 --> 01:42:02.506
So Isaiah speaks about the, the war that's gonna happen in the land of Israel.
524
01:42:03.506 --> 01:42:15.556
And if you know your geography, between the Galilee region up in the north and the hills of Samaria that run all the way down to Jerusalem- You took me there a couple years ago. I'm visualizing it.
525
01:42:15.596 --> 01:42:28.366
Okay, I remember standing on the hill on the northern part of- Mm-hmm. Nazareth. Uh, yeah, of the, the Sea of Galilee was down below. Oh, yeah. Uh, Mount, uh, Arbel. Mm-hmm. Yep. Okay, keep going.
526
01:42:28.656 --> 01:42:40.416
So the Jezreel Valley is this beautiful farmland. In fact, it means God sows, like he sows plants. And it was like the breadbasket of ancient Israel. And it was the place where all the armies would march.
527
01:42:40.996 --> 01:42:50.356
This is gonna be the Valley of Armageddon, right? Yeah, Vami- Valley of Armageddon because Megiddo is there. The mountain of Megiddo, it's a fortress city.
528
01:42:50.976 --> 01:43:05.436
And Har Megiddo in Hebrew means Mountain of Megiddo or the City of Megiddo. It later becomes symbolically Armageddon. Any, any army that wants to come through and fight has to pass through the Jezreel Valley.
529
01:43:06.916 --> 01:43:18.056
And so it's known as the Valley of the Shadow of Death because so many armies march through there. If you're an army, do you wanna march through the mountains or march through the flatland farmland? I think I r-
530
01:43:19.236 --> 01:43:37.076
read an article once that identified, I think it was, like, 24, 25, 26 battles that they could identify had taken place there- Yes... over the centuries. Yeah, Megiddo has been destroyed 26 times. Was it 20?
531
01:43:37.136 --> 01:43:49.972
Yeah. So it became proverbial. Like, Megiddo's the place where a city gets destroyed. In fact, the word gid means troop. Think about like the troop commanders in the Book of Mormon, like Gidgiddoni.
532
01:43:50.412 --> 01:43:59.762
He, he has troop, troop in his name. And you have Giddiona. He's like the Gadianton robber. Anyway, I might have the wrong- their names wrong, but their names actually evoke the Hebrew word for troops.
533
01:44:00.512 --> 01:44:12.752
And when you put ma in front of a Hebrew word, it means the place of. So Magido is the place of the troops. Hmm. It was the troops would be stationed there to protect the land from invading armies.
534
01:44:13.092 --> 01:44:23.912
By the way, the word menorah comes from the word nur. Like a minaret in Islamic, it's like a, like almost like a lighthouse to come draw people to worship.
535
01:44:24.402 --> 01:44:34.461
The word minaret comes from the same Hebrew word of menorah, and menorah means the place of light. So that's how the word ma works. Okay. So what's happening here?
536
01:44:35.492 --> 01:44:39.562
Isaiah is seeing the time when the Assyrians will come sweeping through from the north.
537
01:44:39.972 --> 01:44:51.452
They'll pass through the Galilee region, including the Jezreel Valley, and that's what we h- are hearing here in verses one, two, and three. "Thou hast multiplied the nation," verse three, "and not increased the joy.
538
01:44:51.972 --> 01:44:55.972
They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
539
01:44:56.612 --> 01:45:02.271
For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
540
01:45:03.012 --> 01:45:12.582
For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire." So it's like three things going on. There's the war that Assyria brought.
541
01:45:12.922 --> 01:45:21.222
There's when Jesus comes and, like, delivers the people because he brings the light, and then there's the last days where they'll, they'll be consuming fire.
542
01:45:22.012 --> 01:45:31.712
So this is also like Isaiah's got some of the most important words. And why did Nephi bring these words to life in the Book of Mormon?
543
01:45:32.832 --> 01:45:42.952
In part because he knew that Isaiah, as a lawyer on behalf of God, knew God's covenants and wanted the people to understand, "Here's your choice.
544
01:45:43.242 --> 01:45:47.672
You have on the right hand, choose to be with God, be loyal to him, and all good things will flow to you.
545
01:45:48.472 --> 01:45:56.372
Or on the left hand, choose to walk away from God like the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the 10 tribes, or like Judah," and everything got destroyed.
546
01:45:56.472 --> 01:46:04.772
So the Nephites, when they get to the New World, Nephi is trying to convince them by reading these 10 or 12 chapters of Isaiah, "You have a choice.
547
01:46:05.132 --> 01:46:14.232
You can suffer all the consequences that your ancestors su- suffered, or you can find all the best blessings that God has promised if you're faithful."
548
01:46:14.252 --> 01:46:24.152
And just look, Isaiah probably takes no delight in reminding the people that they have chosen not God, but anything but God.
549
01:46:24.512 --> 01:46:33.722
Verse 12, "The Syrians before," like they're in front of you, "and the Philistines behind," like they're on your other side, like you're being crushed from all sides, "and they shall devour Israel with open mouths.
550
01:46:34.152 --> 01:46:43.542
For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." Again, this is judgment, not mercy. Why is this happening?
551
01:46:44.082 --> 01:46:55.732
"For the people turneth not unto him the smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush in one day.
552
01:46:56.152 --> 01:47:07.612
The ancient and the honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail." So I just think, man, Isaiah is just speaking the truth, and it is absolutely clear you have a choice.
553
01:47:07.992 --> 01:47:14.412
Turn to the Lord and don't experience these things, or turn away from God and all these negative things will happen.
554
01:47:15.272 --> 01:47:28.872
Verse 18, "For wickedness burneth as the fire; it shall devour the briers and the thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting of smoke." So yet another chapter
555
01:47:30.292 --> 01:47:44.852
where Isaiah, commanded by God, needs to declare the harsh reality of the consequences of faithlessness. But we turn to chapter 10, and it's a focus on the Assyrian arrogance.
556
01:47:44.892 --> 01:47:55.752
God is not necessarily pleased with the Assyrians, even though they're the ones who bring the destruction, and God renews hope. Verses one to four are woes about unjust decrees.
557
01:47:56.492 --> 01:48:06.252
Isaiah, speaking on behalf of God, speaks out against leaders who just flippantly say things and just make statements that are unjust or make laws that are unjust.
558
01:48:07.572 --> 01:48:18.452
Verses five to 19, Isaiah refu- reviews again how Assyria functions as God's rod of discipline against faithless people.
559
01:48:19.092 --> 01:48:31.312
So you read verses five to 19, and you can hear all the ways that God allows the Assyrians to bring the consequences of faithlessness towards the people. But then get to verses 20 and 34.
560
01:48:32.632 --> 01:48:42.612
I think that's an important verse right there, chapter 10 verse five, because you see often in Isaiah, and actually throughout scriptures, where the anger of the Lord, that phrase, anger of the Lord. Well,
561
01:48:43.652 --> 01:48:59.252
verse five gives you an interesting possible interpretive key and says that Assyria is the rod of his anger. Mm-hmm. So maybe that's, uh, uh, certainly theologically, that's a good way to look at it.
562
01:48:59.552 --> 01:49:10.222
W- w- well, you were suggesting this earlier, when God is never gonna stir up another nation- Mm... to go to war. Yeah. That is not in his character. He, he's anti-war,
563
01:49:11.272 --> 01:49:22.712
um, even though sometimes it, the scriptures portray God as he's causing it to happen. Right. Yeah, but it's really a- Assyria doing its dirty deeds. Yep.
564
01:49:23.812 --> 01:49:34.812
But you turn to chapter 20, or chapter 10, verses 10 to 34, and you actually have a bit of positive that we haven't been hearing for a while in these chapters. Well, it's about time, Taylor. Yeah, exactly.
565
01:49:34.852 --> 01:49:38.392
Come on, Isaiah. Why'd you have to take 10 chapters to say something worthwhile and happy?
566
01:49:38.502 --> 01:50:00.192
"So it came to pass in that day," verse 10, "that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them," meaning they're not going to turn to Assyria for political support and for their salvation, "but they shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth."
567
01:50:01.132 --> 01:50:12.572
So yes, they had the temple, they had the Law of Moses, but apparently they decided, "You know what? We're gonna trust in the Assyrians to protect us." And then when that didn't turn out right, they lost everything.
568
01:50:13.012 --> 01:50:24.472
They should have trusted in God and his counsel for how to succeed. So verse 21, "The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
569
01:50:25.152 --> 01:50:36.802
For though the people Israel be as the sand of the sea," this goes back to Genesis chapter 15, God promising to Abraham that he would have children as many as the stars, and sands of the sea I think comes from Genesis 17.
570
01:50:37.342 --> 01:50:49.682
"Yet a remnant of them shall return. The consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness." So instead of the king of Assyria, who was personified as a river overflowing its banks,
571
01:50:50.592 --> 01:50:54.992
God's people in righteousness will overflow. That's exactly right.
572
01:50:55.432 --> 01:51:05.592
Verse 24, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts; O my people, that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.
573
01:51:05.732 --> 01:51:11.052
For yet a little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction."
574
01:51:11.632 --> 01:51:21.992
Verse 27, "It shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing."
575
01:51:22.512 --> 01:51:36.112
So here Isaiah's promising a Davidic king who will relieve the people of the burdens of foreign entanglements and foreign kings. And in Isaiah's day, that immediate fulfillment could be through Hezekiah. Yeah.
576
01:51:36.152 --> 01:51:45.812
That's, I- He was an anointed one, right? Yes. And then in Christ's day, of course, Christ is the anointed one, right? And then in the last days it'll...
577
01:51:45.832 --> 01:51:59.672
when Jesus c- comes, he'll be able to relieve the burden from off, the yoke from off our neck. Okay, we're gonna turn over to chapter 11. I wrote at the top, "The righteous branch and a peaceable kingdom."
578
01:51:59.822 --> 01:52:07.832
So notice how Nephi quoted Isaiah chapter 2 through 12. So we are only getting to chapter 11 at this point.
579
01:52:08.272 --> 01:52:22.332
A lot of it seems a bit of a downer, where Isaiah is the lawyer speaking on behalf of God in this lawsuit against the people and their faithlessness, and yet now we have two final chapters that turn more towards the peace and God's salvation.
580
01:52:22.872 --> 01:52:35.652
And I think Nephi quoted all this to say, "Listen, people. Listen to Isaiah. God is utterly faithful to all of his covenants. But here's what happens when people disobey.
581
01:52:35.662 --> 01:52:46.432
Here's what happens when people are faithless to God. But you can trust that God will remember his people. And even though they will be punished, he will return them again.
582
01:52:46.912 --> 01:52:57.852
So even though you feel scattered away from Jerusalem, you can have hope that God remembers you, and he will bring you back in." And that's what we're gonna see here in these last two chapters.
583
01:52:57.872 --> 01:53:16.712
So when we're reading these two chapters, think about what it may have meant in Isaiah's day, what it may have meant to Nephi and his people to hear these things after so much, uh, courtroom drama of, like, all the punishments that are gonna happen, and of course how Jesus fulfills this when he showed up in the meridian of time, and how he fulfills it for us today.
584
01:53:16.752 --> 01:53:28.132
So that's like, what? Four or five ways of thinking about this. Mm-hmm. Lots, lots to consider. Verses one to nine are a reference to King David and also forward looking to Jesus Christ.
585
01:53:29.212 --> 01:53:43.172
It also probably has to do with Hezekiah, who became the king after Ahaz, and he ruled in righteousness, and the people prospered, meaning they did not actually, the people living in Jerusalem did not get conquered by the Assyrians.
586
01:53:44.072 --> 01:53:50.512
So these are really powerful, uh, verses here, and we've read them talking about the millennial day.
587
01:53:51.092 --> 01:53:58.511
But they would've meant a lot to the people of Isaiah, that, "Oh, we're gonna get to a point where we're not gonna have war encompassing our land."
588
01:53:58.552 --> 01:54:06.511
For Nephi and his people, they would've felt like, "Okay, we're not gonna simply feel punished, that we're living away from the original promised land, that God has planned for us.
589
01:54:06.532 --> 01:54:13.192
And a new promised land where we can flourish." And then I like to read verse 12 as restoration language.
590
01:54:13.602 --> 01:54:21.732
"And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and ga- gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
591
01:54:22.172 --> 01:54:31.922
And isn't that what missionary work is doing today? So what Isaiah preached and prophesied so many years ago is happening in full force right now.
592
01:54:33.092 --> 01:54:40.752
And then I see, like, a second ex- Exodus, that God's gonna re-run the Exodus story for everybody in the last days who chooses to be loyal to him.
593
01:54:41.072 --> 01:54:50.472
Verse 16, "And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."
594
01:54:51.492 --> 01:54:59.432
So we should expect in the last days that God will do mighty acts of salvation just like he did for the original Israelites when he saved them out of Egypt.
595
01:55:00.232 --> 01:55:09.232
And you can imagine how empowering this would've been to the people of Nephi, that, "Oh, God will graft us back in. We are not cast off forever."
596
01:55:10.592 --> 01:55:22.132
We'll conclude today's episode with chapter 12, which people like to call the Song of Salvation. This is actually a beautiful song that Isaiah shares, and let's just read some highlights from this.
597
01:55:23.172 --> 01:55:35.352
Sounds a lot like the Psalm language from, uh, a few episodes ag- ago. "I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
598
01:55:36.272 --> 01:55:49.512
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."
599
01:55:49.552 --> 01:56:02.947
Okay, so that was song one. The second song is verses four to six. So song one is one to three. "And in that day shall ye say Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord. Call upon his name. Declare his doings among the people.
600
01:56:03.028 --> 01:56:10.688
Make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things. This is known in all the earth.
601
01:56:10.828 --> 01:56:19.048
This is just like the Exodus story, by the way, that when they were saved from Egyptian bondage, they sang in Exodus chapter 15, they sang about their salvation.
602
01:56:19.108 --> 01:56:33.488
Verse six, cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. Okay? So there's two more chapters that I, uh, that Nephi, um, quoted, chapter 13 and 14.
603
01:56:33.988 --> 01:56:44.528
You can see that Nephi wanted to include these as comfort and encouragement for his people that, yes, God allows bad things to happen when people choose to walk away from him.
604
01:56:44.888 --> 01:56:58.078
But yet, we will see as we continue to read Isaiah how much good and goodness God brings to people to the point that we should sing with everlasting praises of his salvation, his love, and his goodness.
605
01:56:59.458 --> 01:57:05.808
So Mike, we've talked for a long time today about these first 12 chapters of Isaiah, setting kind of the stage for the rest of Isaiah.
606
01:57:05.828 --> 01:57:18.588
What would you say are some highlight summaries we could give for people to walk away with before they, um, get their lives back? [laughs] Yeah. I, I think Nephi, like I said at the beginning, really,
607
01:57:19.528 --> 01:57:31.068
uh, he is-- his heart aches. He says that he, he would wet his pillow by night, right? Because he would think of his family, his brothers, Laman and Lemuel, not keeping the covenants. And,
608
01:57:32.148 --> 01:57:47.378
and, uh, ultimately Laman and Lemuel want, you know, to go to war against not just Nephi, but Nephi's posterity, Nephi's kids and grandkids. And he's-- and Nephi just yearns for the millennial day. Mm. Right?
609
01:57:47.488 --> 01:57:58.328
When the lamb can lay down with the lion, uh, where the Gentiles and God's people can get along, if you will. And Isaiah understands Nephi's pain.
610
01:57:58.408 --> 01:58:15.368
And I think a lot of us today, we have loved ones that we, we would long to have reconcili- reconciliation with both in as far as the covenant goes, having to come back to activity in the Lord's kingdom, but also just getting along with the family.
611
01:58:15.608 --> 01:58:22.327
And that's what Isaiah wanted. That's what Nephi wants. And that's what the Lord wants. That's, that's the overriding message, at least one of them that I get. What do you see?
612
01:58:23.508 --> 01:58:35.368
Well, I love how this ends on chapter 12, these two songs of salvation. And we conclude with that, that we hope, in fact, I repeat Nephi's words, that we don't read these things to weigh you down.
613
01:58:36.088 --> 01:58:42.208
And we may have spent a lot of time sharing, like, the history and the culture that sometimes might feel a bit overwhelming.
614
01:58:42.228 --> 01:59:03.408
We hope that the context helps you to see that God ultimately is in charge, and he has a plan from the end all the way to the beginning, that the words of Isaiah have mattered to the people in Isaiah's time, Nephi's time, Jesus' time, Joseph Smith's day, and our day, and that the main message is God knows you.
615
01:59:04.148 --> 01:59:15.868
He keeps his covenant. He will always be faithful, no matter what. Even when we see here that people violate God's covenant, he's still there. He's still offering his arms of salvation.
616
01:59:16.628 --> 01:59:29.328
And we can receive those arms of salvation, and we can sing any of these songs of salvation any day that we feel God's love in our lives. And we hope that you feel that love today, this week, and always.
617
01:59:29.988 --> 01:59:37.228
We leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. [outro music]
