Latest / Scripture Central / 2 Nephi 11-25 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited

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2 Nephi 11-25 | Book of Mormon Insights: Revisited · Scripture Central

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So we're going to begin with some overview, and there's some
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chapters in the Book of Mormon that we'll need to go back to.
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So we're going to do a little bit of rewind, we'll do some
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fast forwarding, and then we'll come back actually into second
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Nephi. So let's begin with the. 1st.
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Nephi 19. So it's interesting that it's
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Nephi who who gives us more Isaiah chapters than any any
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other prophet in the Book of Mormon.
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He is coming out of Jerusalem in 600 BC.
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Well, Isaiah was a prophet in the Kingdom of Judah from
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Nephi's hometown. He was a a court prophet.
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He he lived with the kings. He prophesied with the the
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people in the the King's court here from about 7:40 to 7:00 O1
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BC. So it's not that far in the past
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for Nephi and Jacob. It's like a. 100 years, yeah.
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And so this is kind of his, his hero as far as scripture writing
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is concerned. So he he loves Isaiah and he's
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going to use him more than anybody.
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In fact it's it's interesting if you go back to first Nephi 1923,
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Nephi tells us that he was reading scriptures to his
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brothers. He says I did read unto them
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that which was written by the books of Moses basically.
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So Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
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Well, we know from first Nephi that he's been focusing a lot on
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Exodus and Exodus isn't that hard to understand compared to
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other books in Scripture. But you can picture Nephi
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reading to his brothers out of the books of Moses and saying
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you're not making the connection.
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Are you and Laman looking at Lemuel saying it?
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You getting it? No, I'm not getting no, we're
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not getting it. They didn't do their homework.
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And Nephi says, OK, now look at the interesting transition in in
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chapter 19, verse 23 when he says, but that I might more
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fully persuade them to believe in the Lord, their Redeemer.
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I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet
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Isaiah. For I did like in all scriptures
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unto us that it might be for our prophet and our learning.
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So they're not fully connecting the dots with with Moses's
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writings. So he says.
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Let me make this more obvious. Let's turn over to Isaiah.
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Most people today wouldn't turn to Isaiah to make something more
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obvious, but Nephi does because it's very obvious to him.
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And we hope that it'll become more obvious to you as we look
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at what the Book of Mormon has said about Isaiah and that it'll
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invite you to see, oh, I see Jesus.
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I see my Savior and my Redeemer revealed in the words of Isaiah.
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So the other place to to look is if you flip over to 3rd Nephi
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chapter 23. This is a chapter where Jesus is
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among the Nephites and the Lamanites in the Americas.
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It's on his second day of of his ministry here in the Americas,
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and he just got through quoting to them Isaiah 54, which is one
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of the sweetest chapters of the entire scriptural Canon about
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God's mercy and his grace, and coming back to fulfill the
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covenant in spite of our unworthiness, he just finishes
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with quoting that that beautiful chapter all about himself.
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And then in chapter 23 he opens it by saying.
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And now behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these
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things. Yeah, a commandment I give unto
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you that you search these things diligently.
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For great are the words of Isaiah.
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You'll notice that he didn't say, I command you to read
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Isaiah. He said, a commandment I give
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unto you to search these things diligently.
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You can't just read Isaiah. You have to search him
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diligently. It takes great effort.
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And that's our goal today is to make it so that when you come to
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an Isaiah chapter in the future, you don't say, man, I'm gonna
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either skip it or just gloss over it so I can say I read it,
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but to help you actually search it diligently so you can fulfill
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A commandment from the Lord. It's a really interesting word.
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We work at the university, and one of the main things we try to
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help our learners do is learn how to be better learners.
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And sometimes as learners we have bad habits.
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We want the easy way out. Like, I'm gonna just read
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something kind of quickly and not really have my brain on, but
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I'll just kind of let my eyes wander across the page and I'll
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call it good. Or maybe I'll watch a video and
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call it good. That's done.
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And searching actually requires quite a bit of effort.
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I mean, you think about search and rescue.
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It's not read and rescue, right? You're out there trudging
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through the hills and you're working with other people and
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you're collaborating and and it's it's effort and you're
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sweating a bit. It's not always necessarily fun,
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but the payoff is incredible. And we have to spend some time
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with our students, helping them improve their searching skills,
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their study skills, their learning skills.
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So one thing for us to remember in order to be able to fulfill
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this commandment from the Lord is recognizing that pattern that
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we've talked about before, where the prophets in the Book of
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Mormon will always introduce something to do with the chapter
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that they're going to quote. So before giving you Isaiah
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chapter or chapters, they're going to give you some
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introduction, then they're going to give you the commentary.
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It's fascinating with the largest Isaiah block in the
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entire Book of Mormon being the one here in second Nephi that
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everybody talks about famously, which is chapter 12 through 24.
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It it's really important that we see that Nephi opens this up by
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saying, look, I had Jacob, my brother, give you some chapters
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from Isaiah because Isaiah has seen the Lord like I have seen
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him and Jacob my brother has seen the Lord.
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So his introduction is I'm going to read you more of Isaiah
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because Isaiah is an eyewitness of God, which we're going to get
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in chapter 16 and I'm an eyewitness of God and Jacob.
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My brother's an eyewitness of God.
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We have 3 witnesses that Jesus is the Christ in this case
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because Nephi is going to give you his name.
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Jesus Christ in chapter 25 that Jacob gave you his name.
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Christ his title. Christ in chapter 10.
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First time in the book of Warm where you got Christ was from
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Jacob after reading Isaiah. Full name and title is chapter
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25. After Nephi reads you this big
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chunk, I think these two brothers have a message for us.
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I think they're serious about the fact.
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If you want to understand the Lord, your Redeemer better, then
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dive into Isaiah, because you're going to see Him and you're
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going to recognize him more fully among all the other things
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that Isaiah is prophesying. You're going to come to know
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your savior, and you're going to know not just His name, but your
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covenant connection to Him better.
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So that that helps us as we dive in and.
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Let me just share briefly. Names matter and it's
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interesting how Nephi when he talks about Jesus early on, he
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usually uses the phrase the Lamb of God or the Messiah.
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These are very Hebrew things to say the word Messiah.
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It means the anointed one. And it's interesting that when
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he starts to use the word Jesus Christ, those are Greek words
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and they actually had to be revealed.
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That's right. To Nephi, he would not have
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known Greek and so they're revealed to him and the word
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Jesus Christ. Christ is the Greek version of
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the word Messiah, and Jesus comes from the Hebrew word
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Joshua, which means savior. In fact, Isaiah's name is a
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variant of the word. Joshua Jehovah Saved or.
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Jesus and it literally means Jehovah saved.
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So it just all comes together that all these names are
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witnessing about what Jesus does for us.
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OK, now a couple of other really simple yet important
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foundational principles to help you as you dive into your study
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of of the Isaiah chapters. We live in a world that is
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dominated by a Greek mindset. These ancient Greeks, they they
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speak very literally. They see the world in a literal
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way. The Hebrews, especially Hebrew
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poets like Isaiah, is a Hebrew poet, like Zenith in your Book
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of Mormon is going to be giving us Hebrew poetry.
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They speak using symbols. And this is like Lehigh's dream.
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Lehigh's dream or? Nephi's vision?
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Very, very symbolic. Which means instead of saying
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this means this, they simply paint a picture for you and
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sometimes they'll give you interpretation, but they'll
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leave it open for layer upon layer upon layer of fulfillment.
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It's really quite powerful. Let me give you just a simple
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example from Isaiah. A Greek statement would be if
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you sinned, you can repent and be forgiven.
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Just say it. I just said it.
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That's the reality. A Hebrew poet would never say it
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that way. A Hebrew poet would say
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something like come now and let us reason together, saith the
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Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
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they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like Crimson,
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they shall be as wool. It's not just using symbols, but
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it's symbolic repetition. You say something with symbols
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and then you say it again with symbols, and it creates this
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almost like you have two eyes now.
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It gives a depth to what they tried to teach you, but you can
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keep learning lessons from that for the rest of your life.
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It's kind of like people going to the temple of our God today
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and putting on only Greek lenses and looking at everything that
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takes place in an endowment or an initiatory setting or a
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ceiling setting or in a sacrament meeting with only
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literal lenses. And sometimes you walk out
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going, well, that was weird. When in reality God is teaching
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us layered lessons over time, things that are waiting to be
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uncovered and revealed as we get the symbolic eyes to see
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unlearned lessons. That is what happens with the
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Book of Mormon and its use of Isaiah.
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Or if you read Isaiah just straight out in the in the Bible
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is you can keep learning lessons for the rest of your life at
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deeper and deeper and deeper levels.
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And sometimes in our modern world, because of the scientific
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revolution, this, this Greek worldview, we believe that truth
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can only be found through literalness and God's like, I'm
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the God of truth. We can do little truth and we do
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symbolic truth. And sometimes we get ourselves
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mixed up is because we don't see things literally and we're like,
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well, if it's only little, it's true.
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If it's symbolic, it's not true. And at the university, we have
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to deal with this and help students see that our role in
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life is to find and accept all truth.
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And if we only put ourselves into the Greek literal
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worldview, we will miss the fullness of truth that God has
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to offer us. So last item before we actually
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open up the the scripture block of the Isaiah chapters is to go
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to the end. So Nephi has just given you
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chapters 12 through 24. It's really easy to remember in
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the Book of Mormon because you just subtract 10.
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So if it's chapter 12 in the Book of Mormon, second Nephi,
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then it's chapter 2 in Isaiah. So it's chapters 2 through 14 of
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Isaiah, some of those very, very initial chapters that Nephi is
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quoting to us. He finishes that.
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And then in chapter 25 after closing Isaiah, now he says, now
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let me explain why a lot of people don't understand Isaiah.
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So we would invite you to pause the video here and turn to 2nd
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Nephi, chapter 25, verse one through 8, and read it
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carefully. Study it carefully, and look for
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keys that Nephi gives you to help unlock meaning and
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understanding in the in the book of Isaiah and in some cases, why
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he tells us the reasons people don't understand Isaiah.
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We hope that you found a whole series of things that that Nephi
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is talking about and we're not going to list all of them and
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they're not going to be in order here, but we're going to just
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cover a couple of them. Very quickly you'll notice that
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he said unless you understand the manner of prophesying among
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the Jews, then you're not going to understand Isaiah because
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he's a Hebrew poet and and he is a seer.
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And what is a seer? He's a seer.
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He he sees things past, present, future, he reveals things.
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You've got some great insights on the word prophet and what
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kind of revelation. This is really interesting.
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We often think that prophets only talk about the future, and
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they do talk about the future always in this covenant, the
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context of the consequences of keeping or not keeping the
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covenant. And if we go to Deuteronomy
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chapter 18, God is speaking through Moses, revealing his
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will to the people of how he wants them to be covenantly
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loyal. And he says the people thou
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shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.
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Now we think the word perfect means on without sin.
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It actually means be loyal to God in the covenant, do the
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things he's asked you to do, And then he goes on And God says,
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the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the
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midst of thee of thy brethren. Like unto me, unto him ye shall
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hearken. So Moses is not always going to
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be with the people, but he's kind of the ideal or
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paradigmatic or exempt exemplary prophet.
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And God saying, I will raise up other prophets like him.
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And what do prophets do? They teach God's covenantal
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words. Isaiah is one of those prophets.
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And of course the main example is Jesus Christ, who reveals the
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fullness of God's covenants. When prophets are prophesying,
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they're always talking about God's covenants and they're not
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going to come out and say I'm talking about God's covenants,
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but they will be speaking God's words and what God expects of
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us. And that's what Isaiah is doing,
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and that's what Nephi is trying to help us understand.
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He's helping us to understand the consequences of being in
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God's covenant or not being in God's covenant, being loyal and
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faithful to what God had revealed to the people at Mount
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Sinai or in subsequent revelation.
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So knowing that, it's really important to see that when you
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read in Isaiah because he's a seer, he's a prophet, he's a
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revealer of God's covenant, God's words, God's connection
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with the people. He's going to be writing about
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events. Now you can look at the the
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writings of Isaiah and say, I wonder what he is telling us
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about his own time period based on Nephi and Jacob and their
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connection with Christ. I wonder what he's seeing.
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I wonder what he's seeing from Christ's time period and how
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Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of a lot of these
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things that are going on. And I wonder what he's seeing in
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our day. Because Nephi tells us that in
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the day, in verse 7:00 and 8:00, in the day that these Isaiah
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prophecies are going to be culminating and being fulfilled,
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then the people will understand them and and love Isaiah more.
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Well, we're living in that day. It doesn't mean that that's the
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only fulfillment of his writings because he's so good.
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They find layered fulfillment through time, But finally, in
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our day, they're going to culminate.
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Oh, and by the way, just for fun, this won't get you into
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heaven. But if he's a seer, wouldn't it
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be nice if he had two eyes? And in our case, we're good and
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only good pupils will get that joke.
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You'd also mentioned how his brothers may have struggled,
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Lamond and Lemuel to fully understand Isaiah because they
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didn't understand that Isaiah is speaking about these different
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time periods and the fulfillment of God's covenants.
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And since we now live in the latter days, we have the
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advantage because we actually know about Isaiah's day.
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We have resources on that. We know about Christ Day.
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That's what the New Testament's about.
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And we live in the latter days. And so we can see how Isaiah's
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words apply to us today. And that's ultimately why the
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Book of Warren was revealed, is to help dress into seeing how
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prophets have spoken to us so we can be saved in the unfolding
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embraces of Jesus Christ. Which makes the statement we'd
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liken all scriptures unto us. It makes sense now.
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We can say regardless of what Isaiah meant and everybody
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else's, he's inviting us to liken all of Isaiah's writing to
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us today in in the latter days, which is beautiful.
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Another reason that he says that people don't understand Isaiah
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is because they don't have the spirit of prophecy with them.
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Or if we have the spirit of prophecy, which is the spirit by
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which the words were written. If the same spirit that inspired
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Isaiah to see and write certain things is with us in reading and
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interpreting them, then we'll be able to see more clearly.
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But if we don't have the spirit of prophecy, then we can end up
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in endless debates about what it meant or what it didn't mean.
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And at the end of the day, because of the layered symbolism
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and the multiple fulfillments, it it may not be a very fruitful
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discussion or fruitful debate. Rather another thing that he
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talks about is Nephi comes out of Jerusalem.
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He knows all about the geography surrounding the Kingdom of Judah
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and the kingdoms of Israel and Syria.
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And his children didn't come out of there.
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They they they were born in the wilderness and they he hasn't
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taught them all of that. And so he says they're a little
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confused about this. So really fast.
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This will, this will be quick and if you understand just this
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30,000, actually this 26,000 mile or foot rather overview of
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geography, it it'll help put a lot of his writings into
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context. There's the Dead Sea, there's
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the Jordan River, there's the Sea of Galilee.
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Here's Nazareth, where Jesus was raised.
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There are two kingdoms, two major kingdoms in this land.
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You have the Kingdom of Israel up north with the 10 tribes.
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You have the Kingdom of Judah down South with the 2 tribes,
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and of course Levi is scattered among them 'cause he's the only
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one with priesthood. So they're really 13 tribes
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because of you from a Manasseh, but there you go.
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Oh. Bakers doesn't.
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There you go. Up north you have the Kingdom of
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Syria. Up to the North East you have
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the Kingdom of Assyria. To the east, you have the
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Kingdom of Babylon. To the South and to the West you
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have the Kingdom of Egypt. This is Isaiah's world.
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So if he's writing from 7:40 to 7:00 O1 BC, there are major
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events that we're familiar with in the Old Testament that are
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current events for him. So for instance Syria is going
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to combine with Israel which is often referred to in Isaiah as
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Ephraim because it's kind of the the he's the leader of the group
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Here Syria becomes confederate with Ephraim in chapter 17 for
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instance and says let's go fight against the Kingdom of Judah.
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So that's what chapter 17 and 18 is about is them wanting to come
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together and the Lord telling Isaiah don't worry they're not
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going to come and fight you. So when you get to 17 and 18,
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just know that's what's happening and all of a sudden it
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makes more sense. You you can start piercing the
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elements of the story together better.
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God tells Isaiah, don't worry, they're not going to be able to
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come because before they do, Assyria is going to come to town
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and wipe out these two kingdoms. But then Assyria is going to
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keep coming and is going to besiege Jerusalem after wiping
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out all of the other cities of Judah.
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And Assyria comes in 721. You'll notice it's right in the
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halfway point. Isaiah is living through this,
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so when you get to chapters 20. 2122 Pay attention to the
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Assyrian references. And that's the Assyrian
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conquest. That is where we lose the 10
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tribes of Israel and they're carried away captive.
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The 10 Lost Tribes. That all happened right, in
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Isaiah's time. We don't know where they went.
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And so pay attention to that in 2021 and 22.
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Then when you get to chapters 23 and 24, that's Babylon coming to
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the Kingdom of Judah right after Lehi left, which is for Isaiah
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more than 100 years in the future when Babylon's gonna come
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and carry them away captive and then you get the the Jews in
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exile. So read chapters 23 and 24 from
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that context. If you understand basic
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geography in the different kingdoms, all of a sudden it it
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does open up and unlock some of the history so that you can then
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understand what happened back then and more easily liken those
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stories of history to our day today.
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We were going to talk with you guys about some basic ways of
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looking and searching in Isaiah and seeing the patterns for how
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he prophecies. And you were telling me earlier
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about this kind of multifaceted deep layer that he works
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through, where he will say something that can actually
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refer to his day, Christ day, our day.
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And previous to him. And that's what a seer does.
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That's what a prophet does. He reveals things from a
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heavenly perspective. So let's pick it up.
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Let's let's open up our first Isaiah chapter from from this
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big chunk, which is chapter 12 in Second Nephi.
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And a lot of people have already written and said a lot of things
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about the the mountain of the Lord's house, the temple being
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established in the top of the mountains.
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That could find fulfillment in Isaiah's day when the temple is
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is at the top of the mountain, in Mount Moriah, in Jesus day,
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in Jerusalem, in Jesus day with Herod's Temple.
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And it finds ultimate fulfillment with with temples
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being built in the top of the mountains today in the latter
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days. So we're just going to kind of
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gloss over that one. Go to verse 8.
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Their land is also full of idols.
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They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own
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fingers have made. Notice the repetition.
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He doesn't just say something once, he repeats it.
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And he's using symbols, land full of idols.
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They worship the workmanship of their own hands, that which
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their own fingers have made. Which time period is that just
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Isaiah's. Is that Jesus's?
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Is that both? Is that ours?
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Sounds like the human condition. Sounds like God's like.
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I created you. I give you all these good
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things. And you build them up with your
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own hands and then worship them instead of me.
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And then you act like you're saving yourselves, and you
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actually use the means of salvation to hurt people with
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it. Yeah, turn over to verse 17.
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The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, haughtiness of men
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shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that
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day. So there's an ultimate
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fulfillment of that prophecy in the Millennium.
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But there are other layered fulfillments of that prophecy.
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In Isaiah's day, these people were brought down, their idols
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were literally brought down and abolished, and the Lord alone
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has resulted in that day. In the time of Jesus, the Roman
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conquest in 686970 AD, that they are brought down and they are
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totally destroyed. Now look how he describes this.
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Instead of just saying it like a Greek, a Greek mindset would
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prefer, which is, yeah, they're going to be destroyed and all
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their riches are going to be taken away.
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Isaiah doesn't do that. He paints A symbolic picture for
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us. Look at verse 18.
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The idols he shall utterly abolish and they shall go into
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the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth.
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For the fear of the Lord shall come upon them and the glory of
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His Majesty shall smite them. They've been worshipping these
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idols as gods. Now when the real thing comes to
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town, they're like, whoa, this this is scary.
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And he's going to shake terribly the earth.
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It says, verse 20. And in that day a man shall cast
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his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which he has made
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for himself to worship to the moles and to the bats.
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I don't know about you, but it's way more powerful for me when
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you slow down and you stop reading and you start searching
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and you say, what? What message was Isaiah trying
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to communicate here and why did he use?
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Why did he pick the symbols that he did to communicate that
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thought to us as a seer? He picked 2 animals, mole and a
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bat. What do moles and bats have in
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common? They're two of the only animals
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in the whole world who do their there.
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There are a lot of them, but these are the two major ones who
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do their work in the dark, who do their work without relying on
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sight. And if you stop and think about
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it, what is an idol of gold or an idol of silver to a bat?
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What does it look to a blind bat?
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Or to a mole under the ground. It comes across this idol.
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Does it say I found some gold? I'm.
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I'm rich. I wow.
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I'm. Better than all the other.
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Mod I'm better than every other mole down here.
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That idol means no more to the bat and the the mole than a
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polished rock would, or even a non polished rock.
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Isaiah is sharing a message with us that that which we have set
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up to be so important to us. Even a mole and a bat who are
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totally blind can tell us their real worth.
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Nothing compared to the God of Heaven who holds worlds without
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number in his hand. So it's a beautiful way if you
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can get out of the Greek mindset and put on Hebrew symbolism
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lenses when you're reading in Isaiah and just slow down, ask a
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lot of questions. Hold up a verse and turn it and
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say, why did he pick that? Why did he say that?
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And you're not going to know all the answers because they're
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waiting to be revealed. Over time.
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You're going to keep getting them as you get more and more
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familiar with this manner of prophesying.
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That's just one little example. Every time I come back to these
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scriptures, I learn new things. It always, always amazes me that
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there's always something new to learn.
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And I know people love to mark their scriptures.
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Maybe I shouldn't reveal this. I actually like to read a fresh
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set of scriptures so that I can see new things.
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If I'm only looking at my insights from five years ago.
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And then actually like, oh, OK, that's the only thing I can get
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out of this. So I try to pick up a fresh set
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of scriptures and see something new.
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And look at chapter verse 17 again, where Isaiah uses this
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interesting symbolism and he repeats it twice.
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He says the loftiness of man, the pride shall be bowed down.
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The haughtiness of men, the pride shall be made low.
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OK, so it's said twice and then notice he says, and the Lord
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alone should be exalted in that day.
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But Isaiah does not repeat himself.
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The Lord is so powerful in his exaltation.
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He is alone in his exaltation, so alone in his exaltation that
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Isaiah doesn't even need to repeat himself a second time,
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that literally he has to twice talk about the pride of people,
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but only once. And God is alone in that
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statement. This is kind of a literary gem
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that I discovered some time ago. So let's just take another
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couple of simple examples as we go through.
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We're not trying to cover every verse.
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You're going to discover these over time as you as you dig in.
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Go to chapter 13. Look at verse one, for behold
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the Lord, the Lord of hosts, Death, take away from Jerusalem
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and from Judah, the stay and the staff, the whole staff of bread
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and the whole stay of water. Now you'll notice that there's a
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very literal interpretation of this in Isaiah's in Isaiah's
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day, when Assyria comes to town and they they wipe out all the
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Kingdom of Israel and Syria, and then they start destroying the
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fenced cities of Judah, and then they come and they besiege
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Jerusalem. God is allowing this to happen
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because his people have broken that covenant of I will be your
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God, you'll be my people and I'll, I'll protect you.
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Well, they aren't his people. They've been off worshipping
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these idols. They they don't want him to be
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their God. So he's allowing this punishment
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to come upon them. And the whole purpose of a siege
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is to cut you off from life, giving water and food bread.
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So you can see the fulfillment in Isaiah's day very clearly in
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verse one, that God's allowing them to lose their stay and
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their staff. And you can see that in Jesus's
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day, as they reject the Messiah and they reject the the
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Apostles, God allows the Romans to come in and take away and
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siege Jerusalem again. And that siege is ugly.
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It's awful. Now here's the point.
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If all we do is read Isaiah with only a historical lens on,
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that's helpful, that's good. But there's a better way to do
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it, which is to read it with understand the historical
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setting, but also do what Nephi said, which is liken all
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scriptures unto us. You stop and think about the
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covenantal connection we have with Jesus and with with God.
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There's some real significance today that I don't think Isaiah
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intended back in his day. But Nephi invited us to liken
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it. So we're going to liken it,
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which is don't do things so that you get cut off from the bread
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and the water. The stay in the staff of life in
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a covenantal relationship with God is every week like food, you
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and water. You have to keep getting it.
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So you go every week to the sacrament table to re establish
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and make that new covenant and restore that covenant with God.
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I want you to be my God. We'll be your people.
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We partake of the bread and the water.
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When does that get removed from somebody?
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Only when they've seriously transgressed that covenant to
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the point where a priesthood leader will say, let's hold off
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on the bread and water while we work to reestablish some
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understanding here of what it means to be in a covenant with
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Christ and with God. It's important here that we
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recognize we're in a covenantal community.
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We are saved individually, but in the context of families and
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communities. And what God has asked us is to
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come join with that community every week and renew that
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covenant. Remember, we talked about this
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in the past, that we promise to keep the commandments.
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The commandments are the covenantal instructions for how
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we'll be loyal to God and to His people, how we'll love Him and
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love His children in return. We get the promise of His
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presence. We get the promise of His
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prosperity, which is His presence.
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And back in the time of of Isaiah, we still feel this way.
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Today the temple was in Jerusalem and the people saw
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that the temple is the House of the Lord and his presence was
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with them. And later when they sinned so
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much against against God, he eventually said, I left, my
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presence is left and I'm taking you guys out of out of Jerusalem
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and into captivity into Babylon. And it's a little bit like our
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modern day. If you sin sufficiently and are
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not humble enough to repent, God's presence will not be
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immediately available to you. Now it's there if you turn back
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and return to Him, But if you continue to sin as the people in
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the ancient times did, and that's why we have the
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scriptures is to point out here are the consequences of keeping
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the commandments or not. We get this presence and His
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prosperity when we keep the commandments.
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The opposite is true when we don't.
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And that message, if you, if you just keep the the covenantal
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connection with God and these these ordinances and these
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opportunities to be connecting points with God, as you go
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through these Isaiah chapters and how Israel is breaking those
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connections, then these chapters become more clear.
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So we're not going to take any more time going through verse by
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verse by verse. That's where you get to dig in
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and keep that commandment from the Lord and search diligently.
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These words, the two other things that we want to cover, is
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our first chapter 16, which is Isaiah's prophetic call when he
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goes into the temple and he sees.
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Such a great chapter. He sees God.
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This is his, what we would call throne.
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Theophany where he sees God sitting on a throne surrounded
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with with angels and look in verse 31 cried unto the other
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and said holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
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Those three repeat holies, meaning our God is the holiest.
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This is superlative. It's supernal.
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Nobody is holier than our God or more perfect.
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And here's Isaiah in the presence of all these heavenly
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beings, with God himself there. And Isaiah doesn't feel like he
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belongs. And he says, I woe unto me verse
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5. For I am undone because I am a
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man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of
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unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the
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king, the Lord of hosts, brothers and sisters.
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This is, this is beautiful When you take even Isaiah's calling
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and liken it unto us. The idea isn't that you be
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sinless, that you never mess up, you never make a mistake.
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The idea is, is you have the promise of a God to be with you
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constantly, the gift of the Holy Ghost.
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He's a God. He's a member of the Godhead,
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and it's promised that even though you have unclean lips and
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you live in a land that is defiled.
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And we make poor choices sometimes.
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The beauty of this is God sends one of the angels to go and get
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a live coal off of the altar, touch Isaiah's lips to purge
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them, and to cleanse him well. He makes the promise to us every
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week and even even day by day as we remember him.
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We can have his spirit to be with us, to keep making it so
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our confidence can wax stronger and stronger in the presence of
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God, even though we don't see him like Isaiah is directly
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seeing him. But that's kind of the message
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of the covenant path, isn't it? Is to help you prepare so you
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can walk back to the presence of the Father and not shrink from
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his presence and say I I I'm not at all comfortable.
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I don't belong. What I love about this passage
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is that Isaiah is humble enough to recognize that he needs
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healing, but he can't do it on his own.
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It's actually God or God's servant, this Angel who brings
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the healing power, the atonement to purge, to burn away his sins.
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And just a brief story, when I was younger, I still want to be
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in God's presence, but I felt like I can only be in God's
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presence if I'm perfect. I kind of feel like Isaiah, like
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I'm unclean. And so there was a whole number
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of weeks where I did not partake of the sacrament because I'm not
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perfect. I said I'm not going to partake
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of the sacrament until I'm perfect.
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I'm like, I'm not perfect yet, so I'm not going to take the
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sacrament. I kept trying to save myself and
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finally I realized I'm kind of a bit of a slow learner.
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God's like, no, no, no, be humble and I will purge you.
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I will bring my atonement to you and purge you and I will make
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you clean. I thought I had to cleanse
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myself. And just like Isaiah, he
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acknowledged his woe and his his fallen nature.
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He let God purge him. And when I finally realized
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that, I actually found that actually it was hard for me to
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have a good week when I hadn't partaken the sacrament because
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it was harder for me to have the Spirit.
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And so it got harder and harder. Finally I realized, oh, I'm
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supposed to trust God and let him purge me and for me to
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communicate to him my covenant, the loyalty.
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So I partook in the sacrament and I felt this wash of the
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spirit which empowered me to have a better week.
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Now, I'm still not perfect, but I'm in that coming up to a
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relationship with God and I have experience like Isaiah, that
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purging that can come as we accept atonement.
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Now to to finish up, we would invite you to to go through each
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of these chapters 12 through 24 with these Hebrew symbolic
36:55
layered repetition lenses looking for what is Isaiah
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seeing in his day, in Christ's day, in our day, in the
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Millennial day. Allow yourself to slow down and
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and ponder these things. But in closing we want to to
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take you to chapter 22. Of all of the chapters in this
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particular block of scriptures, this is perhaps the the most
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hope filled and and quite frankly from my perspective the
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easiest to understand because it it's just pretty straight.
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It's more Greek almost in nature because it's more
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straightforward and read verse 12345 and six.
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It's the shortest of the chapters, and in my opinion it's
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by far the easiest to understand, and it is extremely
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hope filled for anyone who's struggling on the covenant path.
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So Lord, bless you as you fulfill this commandment of the
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Savior, to search diligently the words of Isaiah.