Latest / Scripture Central / 2 Nephi 20-25 | Mar 4-10 | Book of Mormon Matters with John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson

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2 Nephi 20-25 | Mar 4-10 | Book of Mormon Matters with John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson · Scripture Central

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Hello, welcome back to Scripture Central.
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We are so excited to be joining you for your come follow me as
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we study second Nephi. I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson.
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And I'm Jack Welch. We're in chapters 20 to 25
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today, so we have 4 short chapters in Isaiah, and then a
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very long chapter on Nephi's commentary on what he just said
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and why he said it and what it means to him.
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It's a fabulous little group of scriptures and I absolutely I
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think that you will come away with a greater love not only of
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Nephi but also of Isaiah from today's looking at these
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chapters. People for centuries have tried
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to understand Isaiah. It's kind of mystifying to most,
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and I think that actually people had grown weary of trying to
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understand Isaiah by the time of Joseph Smith in the 19th
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century. We don't see a lot of Isaiah
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commentary. New Testament focused in the
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19th century Americana. And so it's really amazing, It's
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miraculous and inspiring that we have Nephi, who, after all, knew
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Jerusalem. He knew what he was talking
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about, and he can interpret and read this for us.
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Nephi is the best guide I can ever imagine for understanding
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Isaiah. So except for you, Lynn.
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Oh. No, no.
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No. No.
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No. No.
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No, no. OK, we talked last week about
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before you jump into Isaiah, make sure you have charts and
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maps and a few things that might help you know where we're
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talking about. Remember, he's a prophet.
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When the northern tribes are taken captive, he's over 5
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different kings. The southern tribes are
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miraculously saved from Assyria. That's the big enemy and will
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come across Assyria many times in our reading today.
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What do we know about Assyria? Were these guys just friendly
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merchants? Sennacherib showed otherwise in
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his attack in 721 BC. Yeah, there's never been a more
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brutal civilization. You can hardly call it
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civilized. We have a body of laws called
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the Middle Assyrian laws and the punishments are.
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Torturous. Yeah, it's just awful.
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Yeah, it's not just ending your life, it's torture.
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And we we get the impression that even within Assyria, the
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kings ruled with an iron fist, and when they took a captive,
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they weren't very kind, to say the least.
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Captives were strung out along the road, hung on trees like
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crucifixion torture. They were strung up alive.
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And the northern tribes have been taken captive during part
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of the time that Isaiah is writing.
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These are the people who will come and take.
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Eventually. It's the end of Isaiah's life
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that these warnings will actually materialize.
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But when he's talking about Assyria, people know that this
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culture is violently opposed to the Law of Moses, to the God of
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Israel, to the the purposes of righteousness and salvation.
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Although for a short period of time before Isaiah's day they
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did repent, because that's Jonah's mission and he goes for
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a brief period of time and then they become wicked again.
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We we don't know much about that, do we?
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No, we don't. But we do understand, when you
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know a little about the background, why Jonah would have
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said. I'm not going there.
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You want me to go to Nineveh? Anywhere but Nineveh.
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You know, and when we read about this, this is the same time as
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Jonah, you know, the rise of the Assyrian Empire and Jonah being
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asked to go. And it's amazing that he does
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actually get an audience there when he eventually goes.
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And they repent, it says. Is that cloth and ashes?
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But it doesn't seem to stick. But let's dive into the text.
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Chapter 20 begins with this beautiful analogy that we just
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finished with last time about the Lord's hand being stretched
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out. Still, verse four, for all this,
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his anger is not turned away. I I feel like even though this
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is a hand of justice, it is still a hand of mercy because
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God's justice is filled with love.
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Moses, chapter one, verse 39. This is my work and my glory to
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bring to pass the immortality, eternal life of man.
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And it's nice when we see in scripture God speaking in the
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first person, my work and my glory.
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Let me let me just explain one thing that might be useful if
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you don't already have the Scripture Plus app which we've
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put together and we're adding to this constantly.
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It's getting better and better, but we've been working on this
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now for four years and it's really quite good.
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But if you go to second Nephi 20 in the Scripture Plus app, and
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there's a way to navigate, to just get to the scriptures
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themselves, there's lots of other resources and things
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there, but we have the texts in red lettering when they are the
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words of the Lord. So here in chapter 20, the red
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lettering begins in verse one. Woe unto them that decree
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unrighteous decrees and that right grievousness which they
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have prescribed to turn away the needy.
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Who's talking here? We've put this in red because.
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You think it's the Lord? It's not Isaiah.
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It's the Lord because, well, he says to take away the right from
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the poor of my people, that they may rob the fatherless verse. 4
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Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, the
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Assyrians, and they shall fall under the slain now.
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It's a great resource. So it helps us all to let things
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sink in twice and even more emphatically when we say this is
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the Lord speaking. Also, the word Lord is
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highlighted whenever names of Jesus and it's Jehovah Jesus who
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appears a lot in these passages. So there's more to be gained by
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listening to come and listen to the Lord and His.
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His voice is given here by Isaiah, much as Joseph Smith
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will also give the words of the Lord.
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Chapter 20 also continues on after the destruction of the
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Assyrians and their awful torturous taking over.
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In verse 20 it says the remnant of Israel and such as escaped
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from the House of Jacob will come back.
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They will stay upon the Lord. So there will be some who were
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true to the Holy One of Israel. And then in 21 the remnant shall
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return, and in verse 22 the remnant of them shall return.
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There's always this hope. And I think this was so
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important for Nephi because he had just watched the destruction
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of the southern tribes to Babylon.
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So even though Isaiah's referring to the northern tribes
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Departure, Nephi and Lehi were watching the southern tribes and
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now he is being able to recite these prophecies that don't
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worry, the Lord is going to make everything right in the end and
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we're living in that right now. This is part of the restoration.
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The remnant will return is the gathering of Israel.
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And here the return of the Remnant probably refers to They
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will come back from Babylon. Yes, they do.
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And they will do that so that the Lord can come, so that Jesus
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can be born among them as. Prophesied by Isaiah.
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Has been prophecy a virgin shall conceive, and as Isaiah has
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mentioned previously, so there's that gathering.
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But when we get over to chapter 21, if you if you go there to
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verse 11, and you can see that Isaiah refers to another
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gathering, verse 11, and shall come to pass in that day, that
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the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover
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the remnant of his people. The second time is us.
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That's right. That's our gathering.
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So there are two gatherings, one that came about.
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After Babylon. And another that will come in
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the last days. And I believe that is the most
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important work we are to be doing right now, gathering
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Israel on either side of the veil as we all come into Christ.
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Of course the most important is to come into Christ.
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But you know, so chapter 21 is Isaiah Chapter 11.
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And just stepping back and looking at it as a whole, it's
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divided into 5 sections. We've talked about this prophet
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who's this stem of Jesse coming out of the roof of Jesse.
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And then we've got starting in about verse 6, the Millennium,
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verse nine, we have the temple imagery again.
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And then, as you mentioned in verse 11, the restoration and
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the gathering forth in the latter days.
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So as we start in the beginning, it's rather confusing who we're
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talking about and what is a root and what is a stem.
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And these are not words that we use every day in our gardening.
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And so I just want to go back to chapter 21, verse one, And there
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shall come forth from the rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
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branch shall grow out of his roots.
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Joseph asked about these verses and was given section 113, the
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answer. Section 113, verse four says,
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Behold, thus saith the Lord. It is a servant in the hands of
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Christ, who is partly a descendant of Jesse, as well as
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Ephraim, or of the House of Joseph, on whom there is laid
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much power. So we've got a someone in the
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Restoration, someone who's going to come and do this important
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work, who's partially from Jesse, which means he's from
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Judah, and if he's from Joseph or Ephraim, it's northern tribes
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and southern tribes intermarrying.
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But we're thousands and thousands of years after there
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was ever this separation. That's right.
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But but that's brilliant, because what it's talking about
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is the reuniting of all of the House of Israel.
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Yes. It's no longer the divided
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kingdoms. Oh yes, and that's why this
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person is described. Do you think it's literal as
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well that he literally came from these tribes?
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Well, I think it's talking about the root and the branch.
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So whoever this prophet is, he may even have this in his
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genealogy. And the reason why I say that is
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because when Joseph was translating this, he wrote on
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the side that this may refer to him.
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He said I didn't know I had any Judaic blood in me.
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Kind of questions, you know, no man knows my history.
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It comes from this, this verse. But it's very helpful as we
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continue reading about this prophet to talk about the root
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of Jesse also in verse 10 and there shall be a root.
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So we've got the stem of Jesse, a rod out of that stem, and now
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we have a root, and they're all described by Joseph.
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But I love verse two that describes more about this
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prophet. And the Spirit of the Lord shall
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rest upon him, And the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and
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the spirit of counsel and might, in the spirit of knowledge and
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of the fear of the Lord. Yeah, just reading the Isaiah
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passage, things can be a little bit obscure, but because we have
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section 113, we can tell that this is 1 great big plant.
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It almost reminds you of the allegory of the olive tree.
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And remember, the branches are grafted into the olive tree so
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that it's not talking about just a single genetic root.
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And so you might have in any one of these people a mixture and a
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totality of the House of Israel. And so we can see that that the
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stem meaning the trunk is Jesus Christ.
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He's coming out of Jesse. He's coming out of David's
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lineage. So our Savior, Jesus is born
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from David's. That's right.
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Then there will be another one that will be a branch.
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Which is here called a rod in this in King James language, but
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it's a branch. It's a branch.
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And the branch of the rod is Joseph Smith.
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Of course, the word rod can refer to the rod that we hold on
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to that leads us to the tree and can also mean the word, the word
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of God. So there are these symbolic
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things that are coming together around this wonderful image of a
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living plant that will produce wonderful fruit that the master
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wants to care for and eventually harvest.
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There's one other thing that's mentioned in Section 113 and
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that is that this plant will also have a root.
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Yes, that's coming out of Isaiah or 11 verse 10 or chapter 21 in
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second E 5 verse 10, yeah. And we don't know what the root
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might refer to. He says it's again going to be
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someone who comes from these different tribes that we have a
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combination of Ephraim and Judah again.
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And I think the important thing for us here is to see that it's
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the totality, the root and branch.
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Everything will be then healed and brought together in the
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millennial final triumph, the day of the Lord.
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Yeah, yeah. And in fact, he then goes and
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talks about the Millennium. This is where we get those
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verses about the the wolf will lie down with the lamb.
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And I used to always think of it literally, and I do believe it's
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literal. But I also love the Septuagint's
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translation. Here.
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The lion we're told in the patriarchal blessing from Jacob
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to Judah, is Judah's symbol. Judah is the lion of the Lord.
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And so for the lion to lie down with the lamb, I see this
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beautiful symbol of the Jews will accept the Lamb of God.
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That is wonderful. Yeah, yeah, that's verse six.
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Yeah, verse 6 and the lion, the fatling together and the little
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child should lead them. He's talking about the no harm
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in that day and age. It's going to be wonderful.
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We just have to go through a few more hardships before we can get
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there. The bride has to be ready that
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once the church is ready, these things will come to pass.
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Yeah, that's brilliant. That makes a lot of sense.
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Yeah, to look at Isaiah both literally and symbolically.
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Let. Me mention one thing that just
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occurred to me. If you go visit the Knesset
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building in Jerusalem, this is where the Israeli government
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meets. All over that building you find
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Chagall mosaics. And they are, they're beautiful.
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And what do they depict? These verses the lamb and the
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lion lying down together, looking forward to the coming of
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the Lord and the eventual peace that we yearn for, not just in
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Israel, but in the whole world, but especially these days in
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Israel. But peace will come through
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accepting our Savior and making covenants and coming unto
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Christ. You know, last week we mentioned
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that Isaiah was a great poet, a wordsmith.
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A Shakespeare of the ancient world.
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But here's a great example. Why don't you read this to us?
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Starting in verse three, therefore with joy shall ye draw
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water out of the wells of salvation.
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You talked about his imagery in the painting way he paints
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pictures and we're drawing water out of the world's of salvation
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in a land where water was everything, where where survival
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was depending on water. And so the salvation is not just
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your thirst of that day and your family for that week, but it's
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our Christ forever. And then here comes these
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beautiful parallels in verse four.
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And in that day shall ye say, praise the Lord, call upon his
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name, declare his doings among his people, make mention of his
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name is exalted, And then in a repeat of this idea, sing unto
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the Lord he that has done excellent things.
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And then finally, verse six, cry out and shout.
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Thou, inhabitants of Zion. You know, he's asking us to
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pray. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
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He's asking us to praise the Lord because we've seen the
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great works of Jehovah and his name is actually spelled out in
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verse 2 here, the Lord Jehovah in Isaiah do.
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You see this not just as a wonderful poem, but a little bit
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of a handbook for what we should be doing, say, in our.
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Worship service in our, prayers in our.
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Or our family home evenings or things like that.
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Look at the points he mentions. We praise the Lord.
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What does it mean to praise? Does God just want us to say,
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oh, you're so wonderful. Praise and thank are the same
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word in the ancient languages. So when you praise someone, you
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thank them. Yeah, I don't think God needs
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his ego built by us, so. Well, and by thanking and
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praising the Lord we we understand our relationship to
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Him. Yes, and we need to thank him in
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all things. And then second, we call upon
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his name if we do if we remember his name always and call upon
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it. And there is power in his name.
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And why is that? If you know his name, and you
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pray in his name, knowing someone's name gives you a
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personal connection with that person.
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And if you know the Lord's name and the names by which we are
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called and how to approach Him, you can then with confidence
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call upon him as our friend and someone who has invited us to do
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that, declare his doings among the people.
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What does that mean? What does he want us to do?
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Preach the Gospel. Spread the news.
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Testify of Him as a God of miracles.
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Testify of him as the source of truth.
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Testify of him as the source of joy.
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And his doings, yeah. I think what I like about this
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is he wants to be remembered not for abstract things.
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But his doings? For what he has done.
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What he did in to Moses, the children of Israel, what he did.
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What He did in creating the world, when you remember the
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great things that the Lord has done for us, that's how Moroni
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begins. The promise that if you will
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then ask in his name, he will reveal the truth of these things
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to you. That's in Moroni chapter 10.
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Make mention that his name is exalted.
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So we need to mention his name with reverence, and remind
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people that this is a holy name. Sing unto the Lord.
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What a great tradition we have in the restored gospel of
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singing and with the choirs, ward, choir, family choir.
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But we want to sing unto him, for he hath done excellent
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things. This is known in all the earth.
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Cry and shout. Now inhabitant of Zion.
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Inhabitant, The people who inhabit are the people who are
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citizens. Those who inhabit, tie, and
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belong as a people, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the
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midst of thee. So here in this little poem.
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Yeah, it's just beautiful. Maybe put it on the wall and.
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And remember it. Chapter 23, unfortunately goes
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back to the destruction, and we now get not the destruction of
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the Assyrians, but the the destruction of the Babylonians.
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That's not going to happen for another 150 years or whatever
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after this was prophesied. And the Babylonians, where you
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have what we call the Neo Babylonian rise, Nebuchadnezzar,
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and others. They're the ones who will then
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come eventually and complete the destruction of Jerusalem.
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But before we see the destruction, he he uses this
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beautiful temple imagery again. He goes back and forth to the
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hope of the time when we're living our covenants and we're
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living with God. And then the current events of
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the disasters. To me it's a it's a message of
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hope. But in verse two it says lift up
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a banner upon the high mountain. So immediately I know we're
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talking about a temple text because he refers to mountains.
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And then he says, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand
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that they may go into the gates of the nobles I have commanded
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and sanctified ones I have also called my mighty ones.
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And then we get a change here in Isaiah he just says, mine anger
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at them, you know it's it's sort of strange for mine anger at
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them that rejoice in my Highness.
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It it it doesn't quite fit. So in second Nephi we have for
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mine anger is not upon them that rejoice in my Highness.
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This is one of those examples where I don't think Joseph and
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Oliver had enough time as they're writing so fast to say,
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oh, shouldn't we change this? I mean, this is such an example
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of the accuracy of the translation process almost.
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You know I mentioned this before, 60% of the verses are
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changed and they are changed with such powerful influence
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messages and this is one of them.
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Yeah. And as we've tried to replicate
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that process that Joseph went through with Oliver Cowdrey, you
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become aware of how you don't even know what the next word is
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going to be unless you can, unless Joseph can see where that
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ends. As he's looking in the hat at
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the German thumb, he can only see a few words.
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But putting a knot in there, he he might pause and say what's
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coming next. So it's not one of these kinds
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of things that a translator reads and sees the whole process
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and then decides what the best translation is.
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This is a process where the words are coming by the gift and
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power of God. That's just beautiful.
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The rest of this wonderful chapter talks about the Day of
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the Lord as well. In verse 9, Behold, the day of
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the Lord cometh cruel both with wrath and fierce anger.
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And he's It says in Nephi's commentary in chapter 25 that
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he's using some of these examples of the destruction of
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Babylon and the destruction of Assyria earlier because it's
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going to be a type of the last Days.
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And continuing on in the same chapter of chapter 23, he's
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talking about now what happens during all the proud being
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punished. That's verse 11.
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And then in verse 12 it says, I will make a man more precious
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than fine gold. And he gives an example of the
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most precious gold known in the ancient world.
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But the whole message for me of Liberty Jail is all these things
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will give the experience and be for thy good.
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And so as we go through this refiners fire, whether it's the
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Assyrian or the Babylonian or the latter days, the
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purification process is part of what is making us better.
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And as one who has dipped my toe into challenges, I am so
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grateful for my challenges. It the purification process
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works, I am so glad I went through two years of chemo.
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I feel like I'm a different person because of it.
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Not just because I have better health, but because I, my soul
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was cleansed. Before we leave chapter 23, I
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want to go to verse 22. We have another one of those
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additions that are in the Book of Mormon that were not in
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Isaiah originally. So the wild beasts and the
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islands, they're crying. They're desolate houses.
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The heathen uses the word Dragons and the King James in
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their pleasant palaces, you know, everything's being
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destroyed. It's going wild.
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And it says halfway down in verse 22.
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And her time is near to come, and her day shall not be
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prolonged. And then we have an edition in
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the Book of Mormon. For I will destroy her speedily,
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yeah, For I will be merciful unto my people, but the wicked
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shall perish. Now this, this hope, this
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constant drive of I love you. I'm going to take care of you.
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Hang in there. He's our he's encouraging.
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It's such a beautiful message. And notice that it says the
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wicked shall perish. It doesn't say I will destroy
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them, of course, and these will be natural consequences of
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choices. It's not that God is going to
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inflict these punishments. We do it to ourselves.
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We are. We are accountable for what we
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do, and we can't say in the end that God is going to give me
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some severe punishment. These are natural consequences
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that follow from the choices that we make.
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And we see another great addition of the Book of Mormon
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that's not in the original Isaiah.
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In chapter 24, verse 2, just a few sentences down, he's talking
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about the people shall take them to bring them in their place and
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then we add in, yeah, from far to the end of the earth and they
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shall return to their lands of promise.
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I think this is so important to Nephi.
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I think it was so important to Isaiah.
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Isaiah's watching the destruction literally with the
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Assyrians, and then through vision through the Babylonians
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and the hope of return is so important.
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Let's move on to chapter 25. We finally get to Nephi's
26:37
commentary. Chapter 25 is just an
26:39
outstanding chapter, and it begins, of course, with Nephi
26:45
giving us five steps. These are keys that he says
26:49
people should use to read Isaiah, yeah.
26:51
Now that we've finished it, we'll tell you how to read it.
26:54
Well, we hope that we've been modeling what Lephi has been
26:57
saying, and you've been following along and doing these
26:59
kinds of things, But having the handbook now will make a lot of
27:03
that clearer for us. First of all, in verse one, he
27:07
says if you want to understand Isaiah, you have to understand
27:10
the manner of prophesying among the Jews.
27:14
What do you think he means by that?
27:17
Well, I'm sure he's he wants us to realize that prophesying was
27:23
an accepted and and important practice for them.
27:27
But obviously it's different than what he's teaching his
27:29
children. They aren't looking at it in the
27:31
same allegorical or whatever. It's it's different.
27:35
In order to understand it, you got to understand the
27:37
prophesying of the Jews. That's a good point.
27:38
And. Then he goes on and says I lived
27:40
there, I got it, but you guys don't, so I'm going to tell you
27:43
plainly what this stuff means to.
27:44
Pass that on. So the importance of prophecy,
27:49
do you think we need to know the understand the manner of
27:51
prophesying today? Well, I think that's one of the
27:54
gifts the Spirit. And in fact even in the New
27:56
Testament in the Book of Revelation John says they who
27:59
have a testimony of Jesus have the spirit of prophecy and in
28:03
verse. Is it verse 4 where chapter 25
28:07
still where he says wherefore hearken all my people which are
28:11
the House of Israel, give ear to my words.
28:14
This is Nephi speaking. For because the words of Isaiah
28:18
are not plain to you, nevertheless they are plain to
28:21
all those who are filled with the Spirit of prophecy.
28:24
So that's a second thing that Nephi tells us.
28:27
You want to understand Isaiah, you have to find a way to be
28:30
filled with the spirit of prophecy.
28:32
And you don't don't preconceive what you think a prophet needs
28:36
to be, especially when you're listening to a general
28:40
conference. We don't listen for what we want
28:44
to hear. We have itching ears and we're
28:47
just waiting. And the same thing with our
28:48
prayers. We have to listen to what God is
28:50
saying, not what we want him to say.
28:52
Yeah, yeah. And be surprised, surprised by
28:56
Joy, CS Lewis said. A third thing that is mentioned
29:01
in verse back in verse two is do not do works of darkness or
29:07
doings of abominations. But I think if we do the works
29:12
of darkness, that means that our hearts are really set upon those
29:18
things. And if we're striving to find
29:22
ways in which to do evil, we're not going to understand what
29:26
Isaiah's talking about. And and the 4th 1 is what we've
29:32
already talked about. Be familiar with the regions
29:34
around Jerusalem. So hopefully our maps, and not
29:38
only at Book moment Central, but elsewhere you'll be able to find
29:40
some good ones. Yeah.
29:42
And a little bit like we were saying about understanding the
29:45
the culture of the world that and that the different societies
29:49
that were there and how those influence the the choices and
29:55
practices there. And then finally Nephi says it
29:58
really helps to live during the days that the prophecies of
30:03
Isaiah are fulfilled. Did did Nephi live in the day
30:07
when some of those prophecies were fulfilled?
30:10
Well, the destruction of Jerusalem.
30:12
So Nephi saw some of those things.
30:15
Nephi is saying I have lived and I have seen prophecies of Isaiah
30:20
come true, and because of that I then know that the rest of these
30:26
prophecies will also come to pass.
30:29
And we too have seen enough of these prophecies of Isaiah come
30:34
to pass. As we will see, as we talk about
30:37
Chapter 29 next week, we know that in the Restoration through
30:43
Joseph Smith, many of these prophecies have come to pass in
30:47
ways that he could not have orchestrated.
30:51
And if you think Isaiah is hard to understand, I don't think
30:56
Joseph Smith had nearly the tools or the ability to sit and
31:03
study these things. Like I said before, Isaiah was
31:06
not a favorite book of commentary in Joseph's day, and
31:12
and yet he sees these things fulfilled and knows even more
31:18
that these things are of the Lord.
31:20
Well, verse 8 Nephi even tells us, for I know that they shall
31:25
be of great worth unto them in the last days.
31:28
So he said, I'm including these things, 'cause I know you want
31:30
them so much, for in that day shall they understand them
31:34
there. Wherefore, for their good I have
31:37
written them so we avoid Isaiah. And he says I included them just
31:41
for you. OK, everybody.
31:43
No excuse. He spent all that time making
31:46
the extra plates and riding them in.
31:48
And he's putting those in, and I think he knows that because in
31:52
his vision, when he went up on that mountain, when he was at
31:57
his personal crossroad, am I going to follow Lehigh or not?
32:00
And he receives that vision. Remember Chapter 14 and 1st
32:05
Nephi. At the end of Nephi's great
32:07
vision he sees the the final scenes of history and he knows
32:16
that from the revelation that was shown to him.
32:20
And as a result, he can now appreciate the value that these
32:25
will be to us. Because he saw our day.
32:28
Yeah. And if we don't value them,
32:31
maybe we ought to value them more.
32:32
You know, go ahead and dig a little deeper.
32:35
And in fact, I wanted to talk a little bit about this great book
32:38
here. If you want to dig deeper, we
32:40
have got some wonderful resources.
32:42
And you can buy them. You can get them online.
32:44
Do you want to talk about this one, Jack?
32:46
This is one of your books. I would, yeah.
32:49
No, that's great. This is a paperback second
32:51
printing of a book called Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, and it's
32:58
a collection of essays going through all of the Isaiah
33:02
passages. We've only, of course, dealt
33:04
with a few. There will be more to come, but
33:08
this collection was put together some years ago in 1998, and it's
33:14
available free on the Scripture Central Archive.
33:19
It begins with a wonderful chapter by Elder Jeffrey R
33:25
Holland, more fully persuaded Isaiah's Witness of Christ's
33:31
ministry. And in this essay, Elder Holland
33:37
does not disappoint. He really feels and knows what
33:43
he's talking about, and it's written here.
33:48
We put it in as the introduction because it's really the key that
33:53
unlocks everything that's going on here.
34:01
So as he begins talking about these Isaiah chapters, he
34:05
focuses immediately on Christ, and I was touched that he even
34:09
goes to the crucifixion of our Lord in verse 12.
34:14
Behold, they will have wars and rumors of wars and then verse
34:17
13, they will crucify him. And after He's laid in the
34:22
Sepulchre, you know Christ's passion, the three days and
34:25
three nights is all described here.
34:28
And he is getting this out of the Isaiah passages.
34:31
He says, I'm going to give you now my own prophecy, but it
34:34
comes not only from the vision you were just referencing that
34:37
he receives back in first Nephi chapter 14, but he gets this
34:41
vision as part of his scripture study.
34:43
He understands it more from Isaiah, and he sees the
34:46
scattering of the nation verse 16 after they've been scattered
34:50
and the Lord has scourged them by the other nations for the
34:53
space of many generations. Then he gives this hopeful
34:56
comment until they have persuaded to believe in Christ,
35:00
the Son of God, and the Atonement, which is infinite for
35:06
all mankind. I feel like Nephi's additions
35:10
here clarify all these misunderstandings in early
35:15
Puritan America. You know, by by the 19th
35:18
century, the majority of the religions believed in a
35:22
Calvinistic thought were totally deprived.
35:24
It's the elects that are saved. The atonement is limited, you
35:28
know, there's perseverance only of the elect, and all of those
35:32
points of their Tulip doctrine are knocked down.
35:35
So that Joseph could learn, I think, as he's translating the
35:39
Book of Mormon right here, that all can be saved, and Nephi
35:43
quotes it over and over again in these verses.
35:46
And you, you see, you see that right in the word infinite
35:49
atonement, right? I mean that's inconsistent with
35:54
or that's a formulation of that doctrine that is so expansive.
35:59
And of course it's reiterated not just by Jacob and Nephi, but
36:04
also later by Alma. So we know this is something
36:07
that the Nephite prophets took very seriously.
36:12
Another thing the nephite's prophets took seriously is verse
36:15
19600 years from the time that my father left Jerusalem.
36:19
Now that's already been prophesied back by his dad, but
36:23
now Nephite is stating it again in this book.
36:26
But for some reason, later on in the history of the Nephite
36:29
people, they don't know, they say, why isn't Jesus going to
36:33
come here? So why isn't God going to come
36:35
to our people? And if they knew their
36:37
scriptures, they would have known he was because Nephi
36:40
prophecies of it right here, quoting not only his dad, but
36:43
the spirit of prophecy that he said he was given.
36:45
But that's that's right. But the priests and the people
36:48
who have the records are very good with calendars, and we know
36:53
that the Nephites were meticulous in counting the
36:56
years. And why are they doing that?
36:58
I think because of this prophecy.
36:59
Yeah. They want to know exactly when
37:01
he's coming. And and that's why they know at
37:06
the end of the book of Helaman, they know that the time is
37:08
running out and if it doesn't come, then prophets have failed.
37:13
Yeah. And that's why Samuel the
37:15
Lamanite comes. Yeah, yeah.
37:16
We'll get there in a few more months.
37:17
OK, but also in that verse in 18.
37:21
For there is save 1 Messiah spoken of by the prophets and
37:26
that Messiah is he who should be rejected by the Jews.
37:30
Nephi says now the word Meshiach or Messiah means the anointed
37:36
one. There were lots of people who
37:38
were anointed. And even things like the altar
37:41
was anointed at the temple. It's it's holy.
37:44
Anything sacred. Yeah.
37:45
And the king, King David, was anointed.
37:48
But what he's saying here is there is really only one
37:53
capital, anointed one. The promised Messiah of Jesse.
37:58
And they should not look for others.
38:02
He's emphasizing that that's beautiful.
38:04
I'm also touched with the way he emphasizes the name of the Lord
38:08
that you brought up earlier. Look at verse 19.
38:10
At the very end his name shall be Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
38:14
and then skipping over to the end of verse 20.
38:17
There is none other name given under the heaven save it be
38:21
Jesus Christ of which I have spoken whereby man can be saved.
38:26
You know Nephi is writing as an Old Testament prophet using the
38:31
New Testament words. Jesus is not Joshua.
38:35
You know he's using these words because he's seen him in the
38:38
future. And remember we're told last
38:41
week they an Angel told him his name will be Christ, Messiah in
38:46
Hebrew, Christ in Greek. And this name has power and
38:50
there is no other name given than Jesus.
38:55
And that's why he talks so much about him.
38:56
That's why verse 23 is so important to us.
38:59
We labor diligently to write, to persuade our children and
39:03
diligently to to write was a lot more than getting out a piece of
39:06
paper and a pencil or typing on your computer.
39:09
You know they're having to make the metal and record all this
39:12
down. But I love this.
39:14
We take so much diligence to persuade our children, our
39:17
brethren, to believe in Christ and to be reconciled to God, to
39:22
know that it is by His grace that we are saved after all we
39:26
can do. And notwithstanding we believe
39:29
in Christ, we have to keep the Law of Moses but look forward
39:33
steadfastly to this Christ. And then he says, we're alive in
39:38
Christ. And all of these beautiful
39:39
verses are part of a little chiasmus, and it's a nice tight
39:43
one. In order to draw special
39:45
attention to this particular point that Nephi is making about
39:50
the complete and important central focus on Jesus Christ
40:00
the Christ, Nephi has constructed here a very careful,
40:09
a chiastic, focusing passage. And which verses are they Jack?
40:12
So this is in second Nephi 25 verses 24 to 27.
40:18
It begins by saying, and notwithstanding we believe in
40:22
Christ, we keep the law of Moses, and it ends.
40:27
This little chiasm ends at the end of verse 27, and they need
40:33
not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be
40:38
done away. So with that, with the the
40:41
bookends there, let's look at what happens approaching the
40:44
center and then retreating out of it.
40:50
But even though we keep the law of Moses, he says, we look
40:53
forward with steadfastness under Christ, until the law shall be
40:58
fulfilled. Or for this end was the law
41:01
given. Wherefore the law hath become
41:03
dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our
41:06
faith. Yet we can keep the law because
41:09
of the commandments and. Then 26 must be the center.
41:14
As you can see, once again Nephi has taken the time and effort to
41:18
be sure that we get the center point and the things that lead
41:21
up to it, and the reasons why they at the middle talk of
41:27
Christ, rejoice in Christ, preach of Christ, prophecy of
41:30
Christ, right according to our prophecies, that our children
41:34
may know to what source they may receive a remission for their
41:38
sins. So we have that at the the
41:42
center. Before and after that, Nephi
41:46
mentions that the law has become dead unto us, and that we are
41:52
made alive in Christ because of our faith and because we keep
41:56
the commandments right after that one.
41:59
Following it, he talks about the deadness of the law.
42:02
We have to know eventually that the law will not provide all
42:05
that we need. And by knowing the deadness of
42:08
the law, we can look forward to the life in Christ, which is
42:14
contrasted with being made alive in Christ at the beginning.
42:18
The point about for this end was the law given is echoed, and
42:24
that they may know for what end of the law was given.
42:28
So he's declaring that he knows why the law was given for this
42:33
purpose. But if we will talk of Christ
42:37
and prophecy of Christ, then we will know that too.
42:40
You know, this verse was my my goal as a mom when I was raising
42:47
my seven kids. This was my goal.
42:49
I want to talk of Christ. I want to rejoice in Christ.
42:52
I want to preach of Christ, you know, And if we can testify of
42:57
Christ, then we are prophesying of Christ so that we knew where
43:01
to go for remission. And when kids say we're sorry,
43:04
we have weaknesses, we need help.
43:07
And we prophecy of Christ, not just in what's going to happen,
43:12
you know, at the final judgement, although we do
43:15
prophecy of what that will be like when we face the final
43:19
judgement. But we can also predict or
43:23
prophecy what's going to happen if you keep the commandments.
43:27
If you do this, the Lord will do these things.
43:30
And we can prophecy as we speak forth.
43:34
Pro faces can mean to speak ahead of, but also to speak out,
43:41
and so prophesying has lots of words that meanings that work
43:46
here. The the one element that we
43:48
haven't mentioned is B&B prime, and that is that we look forward
43:56
with steadfastness under Christ until the law shall be
44:01
fulfilled. And even after the law is
44:04
fulfilled, Nephi says we will then be able to look forward to
44:12
what will come next. So he's he's got all the
44:16
elements there. And that is Nephi's commentary.
44:21
Just saying, as you read this Isaiah, don't you see Christ and
44:24
almost every chapter had beautiful prophecies of our
44:27
Savior, and almost every chapter talked about ways that we could
44:31
become more holy. And we only become holy after
44:34
all that we can do through the redemption and atoning sacrifice
44:39
of our Savior. I love the depth of our Savior
44:43
in these chapters, and I really hope that as you study them, you
44:47
can feel a magnetic pole to draw closer to our Savior.
44:53
Lynn, I I think you are a wonderful model of what Nephi
44:58
would hope everyone would get out of what he's done.
45:03
Nephi's sacrifice that we might know of Christ and the words of
45:08
Isaiah talking about Jehovah, the great Jehovah, and the whole
45:14
plan that brings us closer to God through these principles and
45:21
these laws. How blessed we are.
45:24
And I thank you for this wonderful session we've been
45:28
able to have together and. And let's thank Nephi and thank
45:32
our Lord. And thank Isaiah.
45:34
And Isaiah and Joseph. And let's praise them too.
45:38
Yes, and sing that. In the name of Jesus Christ,
45:41
Amen. Amen.