Latest / Scripture Central / 2 Nephi 11-19 | Feb 26-Mar 3 | Book of Mormon Matters with John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson

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2 Nephi 11-19 | Feb 26-Mar 3 | 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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I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson. And I'm John or Jack Welch.
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And we are here to talk about some wonderful chapters in
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Second Nephi 11 through 19 as part of the come follow me.
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And I just have to tell you that I have never enjoyed these
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chapters more. When you have to teach
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something, you studied a little bit more detail.
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But I hope that this year and some of the things that we can
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share with you will also help you appreciate these chapters
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more than any other year. They are beautiful, and the book
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of Second Nephi is powerful in its testimony of our Savior,
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Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful way to learn
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how we can come closer to our Savior, how we can become more
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holy, and how we can see the prophecies that were given
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before for our day and age. Then that's beautifully said.
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And second, Nephi is challenging.
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Amen. And you know, sometimes it can
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be daunting but never fails to reward those who will engage it
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fully and directly. And especially, I think using
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the keys and the understanding that Nephi gives us helps
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readers today to really understand and get the most out
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of these chapters. And I've been impressed as we've
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gone through this material again, how it all comes
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together. And I hope you'll, as all of our
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readers will, we'll we'll see how these pieces fit into
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Nephi's prophetic view that we've talked about before and
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how everything becomes clear, he says.
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These things are simple, plain and precious.
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But. That's for him.
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It leaves it up to. Us.
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Well, I also feel like last when we began Second Nephi, we said
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there was a reason why he separated his two books.
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And I feel like not only is it for poetry and beauty and and
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message, but these chapters are meat.
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This is for those who are ready to have higher doctrinal
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religious information, and Chapter 11 is organized in such
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a beautiful way that it allows us to see what some of that
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organization was, stepping back and looking at Chapter 11 as a
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whole. It's a short.
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It's a little short chapter, but you are the chiasmus, man.
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Have you seen it Gently as a as a loose chiasmus all the way
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through from beginning to end. Yes, indeed, and and Nephi does
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have a way of saying things twice.
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Yes. And he believes in two or three
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witnesses, and so the duplication.
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Is intentional. It it is, it's intentional.
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It accentuates and. So when you see and there are
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some things, point them out that Nephi mentions twice here and
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they need our special attention. So in Chapter 11 I will liken
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these words unto my people. And then you continue on.
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And he talks about my children, and then he says, I saw my
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Redeemer. And then we get the beautiful
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sections on. And in verse three about the
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need for the three witnesses. Actually, two and three that
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more witnesses are needed. And we'll talk about those 3 in
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just a minute. But as the chiasmus continues
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on, I love this, he says. My soul delighteth in proving
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unto my people the truths of the coming of Christ.
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And then this getting closer to the center, he says the law of
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Moses was given, but it was all given of God from the beginning
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as a type of Christ. It's all the typifying, It's
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what he used. I I think of it as a cookie
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cutter or as a there's consistency as we look not just
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for the law of Moses, but even the lives of the prophets.
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In fact, that word type is where we get typesetting, and you have
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an individual key or a letter in the font where you had to set
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the font one type type at a time.
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We we think of typing now as using a typewriter, But in their
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world, a type was also a seal or a stamp, something that could be
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stamped out multiple times. And so the image of Christ can
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be stamped out on each of us. And there are other things that,
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like Moses will do that will become a type and a shadow of
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things to come, as King Benjamin will say.
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So this idea of typology is a very powerful one.
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Nephi sees in Isaiah a pattern. It's a pattern of the plan of
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salvation. It's a pattern of God's plan for
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all of us on this earth. And the elements in that temple
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and sacred related pattern, the covenant, play out over and over
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again in our lives as we are righteous or not, as nations are
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obedient or disobedient and we can see these things recurring.
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Patterns over and over. And I also feel like it's not
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just they're focusing towards Christ, but just look at the
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symbolism of the temple. The altar represents Christ, the
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veil represents Christ, and those are.
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Types. They're all types of Christ,
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every single detail in there. Even the priest is acting as if
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he were the Anointed 1 and he has been anointed as well in
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order to serve in the temple. But the Prophet Hoshiya was at
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chapter 12, verse 10 I think, and where he says the lives of
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the prophets are to typify of our promised Messiah who's
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coming. So the fact that Nephi has that
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as the center of his message here, look at everything I'm
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going to teach you. Look at everything in the
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history of the world, the point to our Savior.
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He's using beautiful poetry. He's using the lives of the
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prophets. He's using the lives of his
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people to point to Jesus Christ or Jesus the Messiah.
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And Nephi makes that central point emphatic, as he then
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restates those points in the opposite order in the
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second-half of the chapter. So the chapter you wonder, why
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would Chapter 12 break off where it does and, you know, begin?
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Since 11:00. It's such a short one, but the
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the Chapter 11 is a nice unit and logically breaks there.
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The second-half coming out my soul delighteth in proving unto
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my people the Christ that should come, and then instead of the
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there were three witnesses. Now he repeats Christ's name,
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and he becomes a witness for three times beautiful.
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And then as he concludes again to my people, and I want you to
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liken them unto yourself. So it's a beautiful little
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chiasmus. And I hope in all of second
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Nephi, you take the time to get out your pencil and start
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circling some of these things that are repeated, or highlight
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them. But there is such power in
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seeing the beauty of the literature here, and the
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parallelism was the poetry in the Hebrew language.
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Wonderful. And you might wonder, where did
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Nephi learn how to write this way?
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One of the things that Isaiah is good at is writing with chiastic
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structure, and Nephi must have been taught how to read and
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write. And as a part of that training
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he would have understood and have been taught the stylistic
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and structural way in which you tell a story or you give a text.
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Have to realize that in the ancient world, they didn't have
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periods, they didn't have paragraphs.
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So you had to use internal structure like chiasmus in order
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for people to be able to tell where one idea ends and another
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begins. And worse than that, they don't
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even have capitalizations. So you really don't know when
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something ending and beginning and without the vowels words
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look the same. It's a very difficult task.
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So I'm really grateful that we have so many Old Testament texts
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in the Book of Mormon because we get a different view and we also
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can say this was the word of God.
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Then even though it went through hundreds and thousands of years
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of hands of scribes, it's still God's word.
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Do you want to talk about the three witnesses in Chapter 11?
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Of these three witnesses. Well, let's open it up.
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And it's interesting that all things shall be established by
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two or three witnesses. Deuteronomy.
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Exactly. This is a part of Jewish law,
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and it wasn't just given for purposes of establishing
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evidence in court. But Nephi says God also abides
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by the law, which I think is interesting.
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God will give us two or three witnesses, and we will learn in
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chapter 27 of second Nephi that there will be 3 witnesses for
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the Book of Mormon as well. So this principle of the three
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witnesses is a type, and I think it's also a type of the Godhead.
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It has to be you. Have the Father, the Son, and
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the Holy Ghost, and they bear witness of each other, we learn
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in 3rd Nephi 11. So they are also involved in
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this testifying. When you are a witness, you
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testify. And he tells us who these
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witnesses are starting in Chapter 11, verse two.
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I Nephi would write more of the words of Isaiah.
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So he's mentioned him a little bit, paraphrased a verse or two.
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But he says, I want to talk about Isaiah.
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My soul delighteth in his words, and I will liken his words unto
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my people, and I will send them forth.
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And then he goes on and says, He verily saw my Redeemer, even as
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I have seen him. And my brother Jacob also has
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seen him. So I think the Three Witnesses
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are eyewitnesses of Jehovah. Then that's a wonderful way to
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put it because witnesses have to testify of what they know, what
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they have seen and heard. Otherwise it's what we call
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hearsay or second hand evidence which isn't as strong.
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And by the way, the word to be a witness, at least in Greek, is
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related to the word to be a martyr.
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Oh dear. Well, people are willing to bear
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testimony on pain of death Under the law of Moses.
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If you testify falsely in court, say in a case where someone
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might be put to death for the violation of the law, and you
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bear witness falsely, and that's discovered, you will receive the
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punishment that would have befallen the person had your
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testimony not been discovered as false.
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So as a false witness, the death penalty could apply.
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So being a witness was a very serious matter, and I think
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we're right, and I think Nephi thinks we will get this without
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a little coaching. But to me, as I read his words,
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I know that Nephi is speaking absolutely seriously.
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His eternal life is on the line, and he's not just casually
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talking about things that he hoped will happen.
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He's certainly not filling up pages with Isaiah.
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He has a specific mission, and he told us back in first Nephi.
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My mission is to bring people to Christ.
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You even brought a scroll. Do you want to show it?
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Well, yes, if you'd like to see that.
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I'd love to see it. This what what we have here is a
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photographic replication. It goes on to 27 feet.
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I don't think you want to see the.
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We're not going to unroll at all.
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What you're seeing here is a photographic printing on
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parchment, on leather of the full text of the Book of Isaiah,
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all 66 chapters. It's found in the Dead Sea
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Scrolls. This is a copy of it.
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If you go to the shrine of the book in Jerusalem, this is
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basically what you see there. And so this is a copy of that,
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but it shows you the way it was set out in columns.
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And what's I think really significant for us and for the
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Book of Mormon is that when I was born, this wasn't known and
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many people doubted that if we only had a copy of the Isaiah
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text in Hebrew, we would have a much different text.
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And that's because before this scroll was found, the oldest
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Hebrew text of Isaiah was the Masoretic Hebrew, which comes
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1000 years after Christ. But the question was, can the
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Greek be trusted? This was discovered in 1947.
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People, of course, worked on it. It's been translated and many
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things studied about it. But what is interesting is that
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there's almost no difference between the Masoretic Hebrew and
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this Hebrew, which is this is more than 1100 years earlier
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than the Masoretic. So that ends up being a great
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confirmation of the accuracy of the text that we've always known
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of Isaiah. It also confirms the accuracy of
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the the brass plates, that there were more than there were more
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records there available and that we had them written down.
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And it's not just something that came up later that Isaiah was in
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the brass plates at 600 BC at least.
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The chapters we've got certainly were.
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I'm fascinated with how many times Isaiah is actually cited
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in the Book of Mormon. I feel like it's very
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significant that he's Nephi's favorite author, that he's the
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Lord's favorite author. And if he's hard to understand,
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I feel like one way we get to know someone is reading the
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books that they cherish the most.
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I think I can understand Nephi better.
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I can understand the Lord better when I understand their book
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better. And their favorite is Isaiah,
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and I think it's because he's so Christ centered.
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Yeah, with without a doubt. And think of it for just a
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minute. When did Isaiah die and where
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did he live? Isaiah lived in Jerusalem.
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Where did Nephi live? In Jerusalem.
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And Isaiah dies sometime shortly after 700 BC and Lehigh is born
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less than 50 years later. What does that tell us?
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Lehigh's parents or grandparents?
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Would have known Isaiah and he would have been the prophet, the
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time. Exactly.
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He's he is the main prophet others that we think of like
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Daniel and Ezekiel. No, they haven't.
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They haven't been born yet. They're not there yet, so the
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collection of prophecy is much smaller.
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At the time of Lehigh, yeah. That we might have thought.
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And So what might have been on the brass plates is
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predominantly Isaiah. There's some Zeniths and some
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Zenoch, and maybe a few others. Isaiah is their king, their
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prophet. Yeah, and to have this body of
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revelation, especially about the future, what is going to come?
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A lot of the initial prophets solve current problems, but
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Isaiah's vision is massive. It extends from the very
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beginning to the very end of the millennial times and the day of
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the Lord. And Isaiah was valued, I think,
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in Nephi's world, much as we as Latter Day Saints value Joseph
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Smith. Oh, interesting.
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When we were born, it was only about 100 years after Joseph
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Smith's martyrdom, right? Maybe for you, Jack.
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Well, I was born in 1940. Six.
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That definitely works for you then.
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But. But the point is that Isaiah
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would have been valued. The way we value Joseph Smith,
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and also Joseph Smith's revelations came a piece at a
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time. Some of them are very short,
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some are longer. The first collection, the Book
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of Commandments, and then the Doctrine and Covenants, was
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published. But in a way, the Doctrine and
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Covenants is a scrapbook. It's just a collection of
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various revelations. Revelations that came to Joseph
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at different times very. Little in the way of
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introduction, telling us almost nothing about why the
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revelations were given. It's the same with Isaiah.
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The book of Isaiah is a scrapbook.
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Interesting way to look at it. And some of these revelations
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were given when Isaiah was younger and someone he was
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older, and so he refer he. And so Isaiah will return to
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certain themes that have shown up in earlier visions or earlier
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prophecies. And so you have to go through
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and rearrange Isaiah by topic. To understand it and obviously
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it's been edited and things have been moved around.
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But before we get into the text, can I just talk about the
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Prophet for a minute? So he served under 5 different
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kings, and I've got a chart here of where he falls in that last
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few years of the Judean kings in the southern tribes and where
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Lehigh comes in here. The world still has the northern
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tribes and the southern tribes during Isaiah's time, at least
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his early years before the northern tribes are taken away
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when Sennacherib's attack comes in in 721 from Assyria.
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But it's helpful when I'm reading Isaiah to look at some
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of these charts and see exactly where things fit in.
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I also been fascinated that in the Book of Mormon we have 1/3
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of Isaiah quoted. That's quite a bit, but 60% of
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those verses are changed. The brass plates had a
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significant differences and so you have 201 verses that are
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very consistent with the King James, but 277 that have
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dramatic changes in them. I also think that when I study
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the book of Second Nephi on the Isaiah chapters, it's great to
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do with a partner. And I have somebody reading
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Isaiah and someone reading second Nephi, and I have on my
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scriptures brackets what is added and what isn't.
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And I think it's significant to see the brass plates had some
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very important doctrinal differences than we have in our
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current King James. And some of those differences,
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even though they are all only subtle or minor, appearing a
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single word, though, can change the whole direction of a
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particular passage. Does that ever occur?
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Lynn oh, yeah, over and over. We'll get to it as we go through
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it. But as we talk about the text, I
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appreciate, Jack, your book on charting the Book of Mormon.
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That gives us these wonderful diagrams of which times Nephi
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and the other prophets in the Book of Mormon are actually
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quoting from Isaiah when they're paraphrasing Isaiah.
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And who is it? And I'm fascinated to say it's
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not just second Nephi. That's right.
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And what you're referring to are charts 96 and 97, which anyone
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can find. Go on the Scripture Central
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Archive and just search for charting the Book of Mormon.
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Charts 96 and up will come APDF of this page, and it shows in
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two long columns, direct quotations of Isaiah, and they
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run from first Nephi to 3rd Nephi.
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Some are in Mosiah, of course a Ben, and I will quote Isaiah,
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but they're quite a few in 3rd Nephi as well.
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And it looks to be like most of them are only parts of the
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chapter. That's correct.
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So we only have portions. It's almost like he uses that as
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a springboard for commentary. Yes, sometimes it's it's just
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one verse. I'm also fascinated to see on
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your chart where in the book of Isaiah do we have the same
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chapter repeated over and over? And it's fascinating to see
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chapter 52 you were just mentioning, repeated 17 times in
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17 different places in the Book of Mormon.
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Is sometimes quoted and sometimes paraphrased, but.
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Very important chapters, and these are the chapters that talk
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the most about our Saviour, the coming of the Messiah.
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I Nephi is so consistent on what he chooses, as was King Benjamin
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and Abinadai and even our Lord in the chapter that he gives
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everything focuses on testifying of Jesus.
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Exactly. Now these charts leave it up to
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you as the reader to go through and see now what's he talking
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about here. But one chart will help you if
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you want to just go in Book of Mormon order and pick up all the
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places where Isaiah is referred to, quoted or paraphrased.
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Chart 97 goes in Isaiah order, so if you want to see which
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chapters in Isaiah are quoted. Which ones are included and
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which ones are excluded? Which I think.
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Is significant. Well, I do, because when I go
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and look there, there's more historical They don't apply to
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the latter days they apply to. 36 or 39 They're not there.
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Yeah, because they're not relevant to Nephi's place.
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Nephi says it's important for people, if they want to
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understand Isaiah, to understand the regions and the people and
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the events that Isaiah was involved with.
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But what Nephi is pulling out are the things that have more
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eternal value. And he's talking now to his
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posterity, his living children and grandchildren.
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And he's writing. And to us, he.
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Says He's right. He's including him for us.
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Exactly. But he's not thinking.
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He says to understand this you need to know those things.
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Well, I know those things, he says.
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And so I can quote this and use it and help you understand it.
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I feel like one of the things that is most helpful for me is
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to look at our Isaiah chapters with a lens towards the temple.
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Margaret Barker once said the temple and its rituals were at
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the center of Isaiah's world. And Isaiah is not only just
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living during 5 kings, but he's living in Jerusalem and he's
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right there next to the temple and what?
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Temple did he have? Solomon's Temple.
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He does. He has still Solomon's Temple
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with all that was originally designed.
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It's the archetype of the temple and the laws of obedience and
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sacrifice, and the holy steps and progression.
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Nephi knows this as well. And before we jump into chapter
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12, I want to just give a few ideas that I use.
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And I know Nephi gives us ideas as well, but these are messianic
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prophecies. They're prophecies of the last
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day, and they're very poetic. I find this is used before, but
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Isaiah is the Shakespeare of of Hebrew as we have in English,
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and you've got to read them as poetry and look for these
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parallels in order to find the deeper meanings.
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No, we should say when you're using the word poetry, you don't
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mean poetry quite the way we think.
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OK, OK. I don't mean rhyming.
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Of course. That's right.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what do you mean by him
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being the Shakespeare? How about vocabulary?
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Does Isaiah have a big vocabulary?
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Yes, yes, he. Does, And Shakespeare did too.
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He knows how to use words. He's a wordsmith, and his and
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his analogies, he's constantly likening things unto They're
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just beautiful. And Isaiah is able to paint word
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pictures. I think that's what poets
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actually create are images in our mind where we have enough
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detail to be able to see ourselves, what he has seen and
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what we need to see and how we can see the Savior.
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So I think seeing him as a poet in that sense is a real gift.
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And in the ancient world, Homer, of course, was thought of as
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almost a demigod. Because he could use words so
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well. That well, and it was one of the
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muses, a divine influence for the Greeks that would allow
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people to speak eloquently, accurately, but inspiringly.
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And so we have to pause. We have to, of course, regret
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that we can't read Isaiah and understand all the illusions.
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You can't even read Shakespeare if you don't know Elizabethan
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England. Yeah, I got to have my Oxford
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English Dictionary there. And as we're going through, I
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think maps are helpful. I think charts with the kings
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are helpful. That's why I included that one.
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There I also find an addition to looking for these symbolisms,
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that the parallels, the repetition really becomes part
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of the poetry in the ancient world that makes it come alive
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to me. Don't give up.
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No, don't give up. Don't don't get to chapter 17.
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This is Isaiah 7 and say I'm not getting this.
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Keep reading, because Isaiah will bless you with a great
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prophetic experience. But let's dive in Now, we don't
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have much time to go through chapters 12 through 19, but
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there's a flow to these. There's a reason why he's put
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them in here. You've told me in the past,
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Jack, that you see rhythm to this.
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You call it something like a prophetic view or something.
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Well, we did talk earlier about Nephi's prophetic world view,
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and he divides the world into four stages.
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Or the prophetic view, and Isaiah will follow those, and
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Nephi will use that prophetic worldview as he interprets
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Isaiah and that the view is helpful to remember.
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First of all, he knows. Isaiah knows that there will be
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a destruction of Jerusalem. And the destruction is repeated
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in almost every one of these six chapters that we've got.
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But God has made promises, and those promises will be kept, and
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the Jews will be brought back, as they will be from their first
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exile into Babylon, so that the promise of the coming Messiah
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can be fulfilled. And they're all types also of
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the last days that Isaiah says. These are just types of this
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Lord's second coming. That's right.
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And then stage 2. For Nephi is realizing that when
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the Messiah comes, he will not be accepted by all people, and
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as a result of that there will be an even greater scattering,
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and that the House of Israel will be scattered throughout all
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the world. But there is a promise that the
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Lord's hand is always outstretched and he will somehow
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reach out, and the way he will do that is through the Gentiles.
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And this is the third stage whenever you see the word
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nations in the King James translation.
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It's always Gentiles or foreigners or something, yeah,
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yeah. That's exactly referring to the
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Gentiles. And so Stage 3 is there will be
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a day of the Gentiles when God will preserve enough things and
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will prepare a way that the gospel can eventually be brought
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to all the world. And the culminating event of the
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Day of the Gentiles is coming forth of the records, including
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especially the Book of Mormon. That will then prepare the way
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for the final culmination, which is Stage 4 the the preparation
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for the coming of the Millennium.
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OK, with that, let's dive into Chapter 12, Isaiah.
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I've got a couple of favorites here, he starts out by saying,
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and it came to pass in the last days, when the mountain of the
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Lord's house shall be established in the top of the
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mountains. That's a plural.
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Plural. It's not just one temple on
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Mount Moriah, and also it a it's a different time period and it
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shall be exalted above the hills.
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And the nation's plural again. And what is the word nations?
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You just taught us Gentiles, so the Gentiles will flow into it.
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It's not just a temple for the Israelites.
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And then in verse 3 and many people shall go and say, come,
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let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of the
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God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in
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his paths. And walking is not just with
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your feet in the ancient world. That's right, it's your.
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Your whole behavior, it's living.
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It's the covenant path. Because we have a temple,
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because we have the House of God, we will live to be able to
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approach it, approach, entering into the presence of the Lord.
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So Isaiah begins with a broad prophetic view, Speaking of
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where this is all going to end. Yes, he starts at the end
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saying. There will come a time when all
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will be worshipping God on his holy place in his holy house.
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And he's going to backtrack and say, so how's this going to
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happen? Where did we come from?
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Why are we here? Sound familiar?
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And the rest of chapter 12 is just on this destruction of the
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proud and the wicked and the wealthy.
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And then chapter 13 in second ephi, which is Isaiah 3, refers
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to the destruction of Judah, Jerusalem, the daughters of
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Zion. And then the next chapter 14 and
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4 Zion is cleansed. And then in 15 we have the
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destruction of even the Lord's vineyard.
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And then out of the blue, chapter 6 comes the vision of
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the throne of God, or chapter 16 in second ephi.
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And then we get these two interesting chapters, the
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messianic types of the prophecies in that are
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intermixed into this historical typology that we've talked
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about. And we'll end in Isaiah chapter
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nine or second ephi 19 on these beautiful messianic prophecies.
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So this is sort of an overview of where we're going and we'll
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just touch a little bit on some of these chapters.
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Well, in chapter 13 and we get a description of the extremities.
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This will be a cat catastrophic destruction of Jerusalem.
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Oh yeah, it's horrific. And you know, and as as we live
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in our modern world today as well, we can also stand in fear
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of the catastrophic powers, the the magnitude of weapons today.
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And the magnitude of natural disasters.
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Of what can occur? Interestingly, in chapter 13, he
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also though specifically points to the destruction of the
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Daughters of Zion because of their pride, their emphasis.
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Let me just start here, verse 16, Chapter 13.
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The Lord saith because the Daughters of Zion are haughty
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and walk without Stretch next. You know this this image for
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pride that they're they're putting themselves before other
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people, walking and mincing as they go.
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To me, that's women wearing stilettos.
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But I don't know what it means. You know, they they prance
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around as if they're proudful and they make a tinkling with
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their feet. Therefore I, the Lord will smite
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the scab and talks about how he's going to bring them down.
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And I feel like this is not just a message for Isaiah's time.
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This is so important for us to realize that Satan's lure of
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fashion and money and pride and and and attention to the wrong
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things. Our life is so needed to build
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the Kingdom of God. Let's prioritize the things that
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matter and not the things that you can buy with money.
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Absolutely, Lynn. What you're modeling here very
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well is the method that a person needs to use to actually
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understand Isaiah. And to read Isaiah, you have to
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go carefully and slowly, and you have to try, as Nephi says, to
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apply it to our day. Whatever your day is, or
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wherever you are, these are universal lessons.
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And if you're asking not just what did he mean, but what might
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these words mean to me? And how can I benefit from the
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warning that I feel the Lord is giving me?
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Personally, I don't think Isaiah was talking as much to the
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leaders as to the general people.
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Interesting. Chapter 14 also has some
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beautiful little chiastic parallels, and I just want to
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point out one or two. Let's look at them.
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This one starts in chapter 14, verses two to six.
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In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and
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glorious, and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely.
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And then we come to the center point here in verse 3.
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They that are left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem shall be
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called holy. And I see this holiness all over
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these Isaiah verses as well as in Second Nevi on his own.
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But holiness is the sanctification of the Saints.
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It's it's it's our goal. And he's really beautifully
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intertwining it here in his parallels.
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He says in verse four that the Lord washed the filth of the
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Daughters of Zion. You know, we've repented, we've
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we have left our ways of the world, and God purged the blood
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of Jerusalem. And then coming out of the
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parallels, we now see the dwelling place on Mount Zion.
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And he uses the beautiful image from Moses about the cloud by
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day and the pillar by night. He's thinking of the temple.
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It's always temple focused. You're right.
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Those who who come back or those who retain will be they'll be
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sanctified. They'll be holy.
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Yeah, because they've gone through repentance.
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They are now. There are ordinances involved
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here. They will be washed.
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Yes, and that's exactly what he says.
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And they will be purged. What does that mean?
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They'll be cleansed by fire. Right.
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And we believe in the baptism by fire that the Spirit is the
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cleansing agent. Exactly.
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And so they will be cleansed, not just physically but
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spiritually. And that comes right here at
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the, like you say, in the emphatic structure of this
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little prophecy about even though things are going to get
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bad and he knows that Israel is going to be taken captive, he
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knows that Jerusalem is going to be destroyed.
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But they will come back and they will have another chance.
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But then you mentioned that chapter 6 talks about Isaiah's
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vision. Yes, the throne Theophany.
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Where is that happening and why? Why does Nephi include that
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chapter? He didn't have to include that
35:16
chapter. Well, again, it's coming unto
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Christ. And Isaiah 6 is my favorite
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chapter in all of Isaiah because he's seeing the throne of God.
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And the the descriptions there of the angels surrounding the
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throne with their six wings are so beautifully symbolic.
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And I go back to section 77 where the Lord taught Joseph
35:35
Smith the wings represent power to move.
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This is section 77, verse four. Power to act and.
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And so if the wings are covering their head, their eyes and their
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ears, you know their mouth, they have power and then they have
35:50
the ability to fly and then they have the ability to extra power
35:53
on their feet. These angels have extended
35:56
power. And then of course we learn
35:57
about God himself in this vision of the throne.
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I love Isaiah 6. I think he included it because
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it testifies again of Christ, which is his reason why he has
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Isaiah in here. And had Nephi seen angels?
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And had Jacob seen angels? You know, we have our three
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witnesses of them again, yes. And had Joseph Smith seen Angel?
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Yes, very important. God works through his
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messengers, which is what the word Angel means.
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So that's Chapter 16, this Beautiful.
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Does Moroni quote Isaiah? Oh, yes.
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He does. How does he know Isaiah?
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Interestingly, I think when Moroni comes to visit Joseph
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Smith that first time, he quotes Isaiah.
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There are 11 places where Moroni will quote Isaiah as he is
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instructing Joseph about what will happen and what his
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mission. Will be.
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So how does Moroni know Isaiah? Either the brass plates or
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Nephi. He knows his stuff and after
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all, he had a while all alone to memorize them so.
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I don't know how many books he was hefting around though, as
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he's trying to hide from the Lamanites.
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I don't know, but I'm sure he rehearsed that speech before he
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gave it to Joseph probably checked his footnotes.
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Yeah, he did have a few times. Yeah, but I think that shows how
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important Moroni clear at the very end of the Book of Mormon
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realizes that it's all grounded in.
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These prophecies of our Savior. It's not just Lehigh and Nephi.
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It's Isaiah. And zenith and the whole
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prophetic world view. The chapter that I want to spend
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our ending on is chapter 18, where he starts talking about
37:38
the temple again, 1814. He shall be a sanctuary.
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So he's talking about Christ. We're going to be sanctified by
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Christ and then Christ becomes this sanctuary.
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And the sanctuary is actually the Holy of Holies and Holy
37:51
Place. It's not the whole Temple Mount,
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it's not all of the Solomon's Temple.
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It's just this sacred space that's another type of Christ,
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But it's a stone of stumbling. For some people, it's a rock of
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offence, for some people it's a snare, he says.
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And then in verse 16 bind up the testimony.
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And you just showed us an example of their scrolls and
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their witnesses. Seal the law among my disciples.
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And then in verse 17 I will wait upon the Lord hideth His face
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from the House of Jacob, but I will look for him.
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Behold, I and my children, whom the Lord hath given me, are for
38:28
signs and wonders in Israel. And then he goes on the talking
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about dwelling on Mount Zion. I think this is a temple text
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again. It's the vision of where this
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can go. And as we bind up the
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testimonies in our hearts, I think it's to have the Spirit of
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God with us, directing our lives.
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This lesson, of course, ends with Chapter 19, and I think,
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Lynn, it would be nice if we ended our session right now by
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looking at a couple verses in chapter 19, which are the most
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famous of all for unto us a child is born.
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Unto us a son is given, and the government will be built upon
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his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor,
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the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and
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of the Increase of his government and Peace.
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There is no end. And what a way for us to end
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this week, remembering, as you mentioned earlier, all the
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different names and titles and functions that our Lord Jesus
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Christ will provide for us. He will provide us with counsel,
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with wisdom, with power and His name.
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He shall have all these names because He will have all of
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those attributes and characteristics.
39:45
Of course, Handel made this indelibly memorable to us.
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Through the music of the Messiah.
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And these words and phrases also will be picked up by Nephi as he
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and later prophets in the Book of Mormon.
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Remember that there will be a son that will be born, and that
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that son will be a special son son who in the pre existence
40:17
said, not my will, but thy will be done and.
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Then I'm so grateful for Isaiah. I'm grateful that Nephi has
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brought it to us and we'll see more as we go on in the next
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week or two with our come follow me study that this book is
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really aimed at all people, which includes us, which means
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it's a book for our time as well.
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Oh, I think so. And our testimony is
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strengthened as we read these chapters looking for Jesus
40:55
Christ. He is there.
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And his hand is still stretched out, and may we feel his arms
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around us. And as you approach our your
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scripture study prayerfully, may you feel the Lord's embrace.
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I pray in the name of Jesus Christ.
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Amen.