WEEK 37 [ISAIAH 1-12]
WEEK 37 INSIGHTS [ISAIAH 1-12]
September 12 – September 18
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Transcript
Hey everybody.
Speaker:Welcome back.
Speaker:This is creative.
Speaker:Come follow me for the old Testament.
Speaker:Week 37, where we kick off our study of Isaiah.
Speaker:And I know you have mixed feelings, probably.
Speaker:So what did I, but I gotta tell you, after this week of praying and
Speaker:studying my guts out, I can't wait to teach you these 12 chapters.
Speaker:There are so many little bits of beauty.
Speaker:You're just gonna be overwhelmed by them.
Speaker:Hopefully I have time to get to all of them.
Speaker:You can go into the history about Isaiah at the beginning of the notes.
Speaker:I'm not gonna spend a lot of time in, in that here.
Speaker:Um, but you can find out a whole bunch in the notes.
Speaker:He's basically a prophet who was a prophet to Northern and Southern
Speaker:Israel for four different Kings.
Speaker:So for a long period of time, he's not a prophet in the wilderness.
Speaker:He's a prophet who's kind of at court and often has the King's ear, but the
Speaker:Kings don't necessarily listen to him.
Speaker:Some do some don't.
Speaker:And we're gonna hear about a lot of those today.
Speaker:The best visual I can give you for what the book of Isaiah is all about.
Speaker:At least this, these 12 chapter.
Speaker:We have this road between my house and Jason's parents' house.
Speaker:They live in midway.
Speaker:We live in Draper and there's this canyon road.
Speaker:That's only opened some of the year and my kids call it the nature way, cuz
Speaker:it's not paved and it's kind of windy and they tend to get sick and it, but
Speaker:it's just this beautiful mountain pass.
Speaker:To get from one side of the mountain to the other.
Speaker:And on part of this canyon road, there is this big stretch of
Speaker:forest that is completely burned.
Speaker:And I wondered if there was some natural disaster that had happened
Speaker:and found out later that it was actually a controlled burn that the,
Speaker:they intended that burned to happen so that new growth could come up.
Speaker:That's how I read Isaiah, especially these 12 chapters.
Speaker:It is all about.
Speaker:There will be a destruction that is coming to the children of Israel because of their
Speaker:choices, because they've abandoned God, there will be this burning that occurs.
Speaker:Isaiah is there to warn them that it's happening so that those who can hear him
Speaker:and can decipher his words can get out.
Speaker:And those who choose to stay will in experience the burning, but
Speaker:the beautiful part of Isaiah.
Speaker:He speaks like a parent.
Speaker:His whole purpose is to teach about the new growth that is coming.
Speaker:So even though there will be this burning, the same way that forest that I drive
Speaker:through looks awful right now in a few years, new growth will shoot up because
Speaker:they've taken out all the brush and all the extra, and now there's space
Speaker:and nourishment in the soil so that new growth can come so much of what Isaiah
Speaker:teaches is about the savior, who will.
Speaker:Who will restore, who will bring light and life and new growth.
Speaker:He also talks about the restoration phase, where the restoration
Speaker:of the gospel will happen.
Speaker:This second time around will hear the gospel in its fullness.
Speaker:We'll have a chance for new growth.
Speaker:And then of course, the millennial reign of the savior where we'll see
Speaker:all of that kind of come to fruition.
Speaker:So you wanna keep that visual in your mind that that's Isaiah's purpose.
Speaker:His job is to warn the people about the burning and also to promise about the
Speaker:new growth that is coming down the road.
Speaker:One of the biggest endorsements you'll get for the book of Isaiah
Speaker:comes from the savior himself when he says great, are the words of Isaiah.
Speaker:Nefi is another one who I love.
Speaker:In fact, I love the way Nefi talks about Isaiah.
Speaker:If you go, and second Nefi, you can see a bunch of em, I'll give you the references
Speaker:in the notes, but he saw the savior and he, I imagine had a really hard time
Speaker:describing what that experience was like.
Speaker:And I wonder if.
Speaker:Because Isaiah saw the savior and he was only a hundred years apart from
Speaker:Nefi they bonded Nefi loved his words.
Speaker:I think, cuz Nefi understood how hard it is to describe something.
Speaker:So divine with such limited mortal words.
Speaker:And I just think he must have marveled at Isaiah's.
Speaker:Artistry in it.
Speaker:So watch for that.
Speaker:He does mention that it's hard to understand, but the other thing that
Speaker:NFI talks about this is an 11, eight.
Speaker:He talks about how in the latter days we'll have a better understanding
Speaker:of Isaiah than many others.
Speaker:Most of that I think comes from the fact that the book of Mormon will
Speaker:have come forth and the doctrine in covenants and the priesthood keys.
Speaker:But I also think a big piece of it comes from the fact that we have
Speaker:lots of scholars who have studied it.
Speaker:We have lots of books, you can buy things.
Speaker:You can study, you can go on Google earth and figure out what
Speaker:the land of Israel looks like.
Speaker:And all those tools are at your disposal.
Speaker:But I would tell you that the biggest two tools that helped me this week to
Speaker:study Isaiah is one to look for Jesus Christ, seek him out in every chapter.
Speaker:What am I learning about the savior?
Speaker:Not just that he lives, but that he loves me watch for that in
Speaker:everything, every single chapter.
Speaker:The second thing I would tell you is to watch for your stewardship.
Speaker:If you are going into this, week's study with questions about the things you are
Speaker:in control over my own family, my own callings, my ministry, all those things.
Speaker:If I'm thinking and praying and questioning those things.
Speaker:And then I open Isaiah spiritual promptings come,
Speaker:it was harder for me to try.
Speaker:Be a scholar in a wide sense.
Speaker:If I just narrowed down to heavenly father, how's this gonna help my family?
Speaker:What does this do for me then?
Speaker:Promptings came.
Speaker:So keep those two things in mind.
Speaker:Open up your scriptures, open up the notes, get rid of any apprehension you
Speaker:have, cuz I'm telling you I got you.
Speaker:This is gonna be a good week.
Speaker:All right, let's get started.
Speaker:Isaiah.
Speaker:One is sort of an introduction and an overview to the entire book.
Speaker:In fact, a lot of scholars believe that it's sort of like Dr.
Speaker:I covenants one that may have even been written much later and then
Speaker:was added as like a preface or a summary of what you're going to see.
Speaker:I'm not sure which of those are true, but I do feel like there's
Speaker:just this overarching theme of.
Speaker:Let me tell you the damage that I see the Lord is coming like a
Speaker:physician to the children of Israel.
Speaker:And he's talking about.
Speaker:The incredible damage that he can see that they can't see what it reminded me of.
Speaker:And this is gonna be me oversharing.
Speaker:Uh, when I was a younger mom, I went for about 10 years
Speaker:without going to the dentist.
Speaker:I don't have a really good excuse for this other than the fact that I was.
Speaker:Embarrassed.
Speaker:I don't know how to . So I knew things were not doing great in my mouth, but
Speaker:I was so busy with six kids and we had all kinds of troubles and we moved a
Speaker:lot and I just didn't make time for it.
Speaker:And then by the time I knew I needed to go, I was so embarrassed that I
Speaker:was that mom, that like took her kids to the dentist when everyone herself.
Speaker:And so by the time I actually went, I was like, I had a, okay.
Speaker:I'm just gonna tell you.
Speaker:I had a tooth break in half in the back of my.
Speaker:and I had to, so then I was like, okay, I have to go in.
Speaker:There's no choice.
Speaker:So I went in and I on the form that you fill out in the lobby
Speaker:wrote down how embarrassed I was.
Speaker:And the dentist who came to talk to me was so kind, uh, he had to explain
Speaker:to me all the damage that was there.
Speaker:We did the x-rays, we did the whole thing and he sort of laid out for me.
Speaker:Okay, Maria.
Speaker:What I see, here's the things we need to take care of.
Speaker:And here's the plan.
Speaker:And that's sort of what I see with chapter one.
Speaker:The Lord is coming to a people who have forgotten him and they're breaking
Speaker:down and he's trying to say, let me show you how far gone you really are.
Speaker:So he pleads with them to hear the way he pleads with them is
Speaker:cuz he speaks through his prophet.
Speaker:Isaiah.
Speaker:So Isaiah hears.
Speaker:He is inviting everyone to hear.
Speaker:In fact, if you look in verse two, he says here O heavens and give ear O earth.
Speaker:The Lord has spoken this great physician has seen the damage and he's he's
Speaker:giving counsel and they need to hear it.
Speaker:and then he talks about how he's nourished them.
Speaker:I love that line into, he talks about nourishing.
Speaker:It reminds me of what you read in Jacob five about the vineyard and
Speaker:how he nourished it all the time.
Speaker:He's been nourishing this children of Israel group for generations,
Speaker:and they've turned against him.
Speaker:In fact, at the end of two, they have rebelled against me.
Speaker:Uh, when you go down into four, you see that it's beyond.
Speaker:Not just listening anymore.
Speaker:Now they're starting to go backwards.
Speaker:So not only are they not progressing on the covenant
Speaker:path, they're receding along it.
Speaker:And we are divinely programmed to progress.
Speaker:Our joy comes from progress.
Speaker:I think that's why the children and youth program puts so much emphasis
Speaker:on goals and making steady progress.
Speaker:Cuz that's where joy comes from and they're suffering cuz they're receding.
Speaker:Another thing you'll see is his initial diagnosis.
Speaker:So in five and six he asks.
Speaker:Why will you be stricken anymore?
Speaker:I wonder if they are like me right before the tooth broke.
Speaker:where, where they just don't see the damage and they don't even wanna think
Speaker:about it and they don't wanna look at it.
Speaker:And he's saying there is so much damage.
Speaker:In fact, if you look at six from the soul of the foot, even to
Speaker:the head, there is no soundness.
Speaker:You're completely decaying the wounds, the bruises, the tifying source.
Speaker:They have not been closed.
Speaker:Neither bound.
Speaker:To a God who loves to heal and to bind up wounds.
Speaker:This must have been an incredibly hard thing to see that his children are
Speaker:suffering and he has the treatment and they won't accept it, but that's
Speaker:Isaiah's job is to remind them of where they can find healing.
Speaker:It's interesting cuz the.
Speaker:When you go a little further, you see that they're still going through the
Speaker:motions of being a righteous people.
Speaker:So from like 11 to 15, to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices?
Speaker:Me, they're still making sacrifices.
Speaker:They still have some semblance of a temple, although it's
Speaker:become distorted and he's asking.
Speaker:Why I, you know, like it's, it's essentially like taking your kids and
Speaker:saying we don't watch TV on Sundays, but then not doing anything good in its place.
Speaker:we probably all had those Sundays where he's basically saying, why
Speaker:do you make these sacrifices?
Speaker:If, if none of your heart is in it, I loved this concept, especially if you
Speaker:read it alongside elder Oak doors, talk from conference where he talked about
Speaker:sacrifice and consecration, both are good.
Speaker:Both are holy sacrifice is good, but only if you fill up your time,
Speaker:Something worthwhile you consecrate your time towards something.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:So if you look in the advice he gets from Isaiah, it's similar, where he says in
Speaker:15, basically they're making sacrifices and their hands are full of blood.
Speaker:Cuz the sacrifices aren't holy there there's no heart behind it.
Speaker:So he gives them advice.
Speaker:16 wash you make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before your.
Speaker:Cease to do evil.
Speaker:That's the sacrifice.
Speaker:The consecration comes in 17.
Speaker:Learn to do well.
Speaker:It's not enough to just stop doing bad things.
Speaker:Do good as much.
Speaker:Good as you can seek judgment, get correction from me so that we can
Speaker:fix this learn to do well the same way the dentist doesn't just leave
Speaker:me and take out all the cavities.
Speaker:He fills them up and he gives me advice on how to not go another
Speaker:decade without seeing him.
Speaker:That's what happens.
Speaker:And then I love 18 come now and let us reason together.
Speaker:I've always read that as like a Becking of like come now and let us reason.
Speaker:I honestly read it this time.
Speaker:And it was like an exclamation point was after the, now it was
Speaker:come now, now fix this the same way.
Speaker:When the dentist finally did talk to me, it was.
Speaker:No, you need to fix this tomorrow.
Speaker:We're scheduling an appointment tomorrow.
Speaker:it's time to get the ball rolling.
Speaker:And that's what I think he's pleading with us to do as well.
Speaker:There's no time to delay.
Speaker:There's no time to wait.
Speaker:Before we get back into scripture study, before we get back to the temple come now.
Speaker:And if you come now, right when that prompting hits, the
Speaker:promises are powerful though.
Speaker:The skin sins be as Scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
Speaker:Remember their hands were covered with this red blood, this
Speaker:sacrifice that meant nothing.
Speaker:And he's saying.
Speaker:I promise I can make those sacrifices worth it.
Speaker:If you will consecrate to me, if you will seek to do good.
Speaker:And that's what he's asking them to do.
Speaker:The big crux of it is in 19.
Speaker:If you be willing and obedient, he shall eat of the good of the land.
Speaker:Even though they've Faren fallen so far off this path, he is inviting
Speaker:them to return if you're just willing.
Speaker:And you're just obedient.
Speaker:Same way when I had, I just had to show up for every appointment I had to swallow my
Speaker:pride and I just had to get back on track.
Speaker:That's the promise.
Speaker:If I just follow through, he'll do the bulk of the work and
Speaker:things can be cleaned again.
Speaker:So you'll see all of that in that chapter.
Speaker:And it's so.
Speaker:When you go a little bit further, you're gonna see some guidance
Speaker:about the cycle of aposty.
Speaker:I'm not gonna go into it here, but it is in the notes.
Speaker:If you wanna learn a little bit more, but he talks about the sins
Speaker:that are happening, the cleansing that will inevitably need to occur.
Speaker:And then the restoration and the judgment, it, it applies to Isaiah's day.
Speaker:It applies to the restoration time.
Speaker:It applies to the latter days.
Speaker:Lots of fulfillments on that one, but that'll take it to the end of chapter.
Speaker:Isaiah chapter two is where Nephi's writings kick off.
Speaker:So we don't have chapter one in second Nefi, but starting at chapter
Speaker:two, and then all the way to 12, you have all of this almost word
Speaker:for word in the book of Mormon.
Speaker:So that, that means I'm gonna focus a lot in these chapters, but I love the
Speaker:way he compares Zion and the temple.
Speaker:To being in the tops of mountains.
Speaker:I love it because I'm a hiker . And so in two and three, you're gonna see
Speaker:this invitation for people to come and enjoy this ascent up at the mountain.
Speaker:So two says that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established
Speaker:in the top of the mountains.
Speaker:There's lots of cool latter day application for people seeing the
Speaker:temple in, in, you know, the Rocky mountains as, as an application of this.
Speaker:But I love what you also see in three, it says, and many people
Speaker:shall go and shall say, Comey and let us go to the mountain of Lord.
Speaker:I love this cuz this is what I do.
Speaker:so I'll try a new hike.
Speaker:I'll test something new.
Speaker:And then the first thing I wanna do is bring somebody else the next time.
Speaker:Cause I'm like you guys it's great.
Speaker:The views are so beautiful.
Speaker:And what you have to explain to people who are not really hikers is that.
Speaker:They're gonna see something gorgeous, but they're gonna come back and it's not so
Speaker:much about getting to a great destination.
Speaker:It's about what happens to you in the process of going on this hike?
Speaker:I get sweaty.
Speaker:I get tired.
Speaker:Whoever I've been fighting with in my family that morning, I tend
Speaker:to forget about like, I can just, I go up and down the mountain,
Speaker:but I don't come back the same.
Speaker:And I think that's the same intent with the temple.
Speaker:We are supposed to go there to partake of the goodness of God and
Speaker:then go out and then share that goodness with as many people as
Speaker:we can in as many ways as we can.
Speaker:It's kinda like what we're gonna read about in EZQ in Ezio.
Speaker:When we read about the river that comes out of the temple and nourishes all the
Speaker:land, that's what he is asking us to do.
Speaker:When I read verse three, I think of president.
Speaker:Nelson's talk about positive spiritual momentum.
Speaker:It's this, like, it's not enough to do it for yourself.
Speaker:You've gotta link arms with your family and your friends and be like, let's go.
Speaker:We're gonna go learn in the house of the Lord.
Speaker:I also love the millennial millennial promise in four.
Speaker:This is where you see that they're gonna take swords and they're
Speaker:gonna turn them into plow shares.
Speaker:They're gonna take Spears and turn them into pruning hooks.
Speaker:And for some reason, this time when I read it, I thought about the new
Speaker:Testament, how the savior takes fishermen.
Speaker:And he, he takes all those skills they developed and he
Speaker:turns them into fishers of men.
Speaker:And I imagine there were a lot of the talents they developed and
Speaker:the core attributes that actually helped them be good fishers of men.
Speaker:So I think millennially a lot of the.
Speaker:Mortal skills that we are learning right now will bless us.
Speaker:Then he'll just take those occupations that we have, and he'll
Speaker:turn our Spears into pruny hook.
Speaker:He'll find a way to take whatever your talents are and whatever your
Speaker:education is, and turn it into a tool for gathering teaching.
Speaker:And I can't wait to see what it comes up with.
Speaker:I also love what you find in five.
Speaker:This is when he says, oh, house of Jacob, come me and let us
Speaker:walk in the light of the Lord.
Speaker:The light of the Lord is a brilliant radiant force.
Speaker:And if you are living righteously, it is a warm blow . If you are off, it's
Speaker:hard at first, it's kind of like if you've stepped out of a movie theater
Speaker:and out into the parking lot and you're kind of jarred, um, it's that same feel.
Speaker:It's what I felt when I walked into the dentist office that day, all of a sudden
Speaker:all of my weaknesses were exposed and I.
Speaker:Embarrassed and it was hard.
Speaker:And that's what the light of the Lord feels like.
Speaker:Sometimes what I love is in the middle of this phrase is let us
Speaker:walk in the light of the Lord.
Speaker:That means somebody's linking my arm and they know this is gonna be hard.
Speaker:All of a sudden you're gonna see every weakness and vulnerability, and it's
Speaker:gonna be hard, but let us walk together.
Speaker:I promise it's worth it by the end.
Speaker:You'll want to be in the light of the Lord, but I think it helps me as a
Speaker:parent, cuz sometimes as I'm inviting my kids to come closer to Jesus.
Speaker:It, it makes them feel vulnerable and exposed.
Speaker:that light is.
Speaker:He's hard sometimes.
Speaker:That's why I think we have to do it together.
Speaker:So I love that.
Speaker:It, it says, let us go, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Flip the page.
Speaker:There's even more, when you go into six through nine ish, that's when
Speaker:he's advising them to drop magic.
Speaker:This is where he starts talking a little bit about pride and how
Speaker:they have to humble themselves.
Speaker:For me.
Speaker:I see these two pages of scripture as kind of linked together.
Speaker:So on in the idea, two frame, he's giving warnings about pride and he's
Speaker:talking about all the things that.
Speaker:Generally males rely in.
Speaker:So he talks about warfare.
Speaker:He talks about towers and ships and things that men build in order to feel secure.
Speaker:Again, this is men in Isaiah's day.
Speaker:What are things they would build to make them feel secure, especially if
Speaker:they've lost a connection to the Lord.
Speaker:And then he invites them in 22 CC from.
Speaker:This is drop the natural man.
Speaker:All of these fortifications that you're building will crumble.
Speaker:In fact, they're gonna battle the ASSR and literally all
Speaker:of these things will crumble.
Speaker:So Isaiah's trying to warn them that it's coming three is when you see, I
Speaker:think the female equivalent of that.
Speaker:So when you jump into three.
Speaker:He's talking a little bit about how they're gonna scramble around and
Speaker:have wounds that can't be healed, cuz they've learned to rely on
Speaker:sources that can actually help them.
Speaker:So you'll see that around verse seven, um, he talks about their
Speaker:countenance being fallen in nine and then their lack of charity.
Speaker:This is where it kind of.
Speaker:Shifted for me.
Speaker:So if you look around 12, their leaders have stopped helping them.
Speaker:In fact, they're destroying the paths that they used to walk on.
Speaker:And 15 is where you see their lack of charity hit what me?
Speaker:Me, that you beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor
Speaker:sayeth the Lord, God of hosts 16.
Speaker:Moreover the Lord sayeth because of the daughter's designer, hot and walk
Speaker:with stretch forth next and want an eyes walking and mincing as they go
Speaker:and making a tinkling with their.
Speaker:this to me is approaching the female side of pride.
Speaker:We each have different strengths and weaknesses, both genders.
Speaker:So I feel like you get both and it's not like this is exclusively
Speaker:something that women deal with any more than ships and fortifications or
Speaker:something exclusively men deal with.
Speaker:But I did like the comparison of the two he talks about when you start to rely
Speaker:on these things, being the source of your confidence, whatever I can put on
Speaker:whatever I can look like I become weak.
Speaker:I really feel like the two verses are tied together, that their lack of
Speaker:charity actually led them to become more.
Speaker:Self focused.
Speaker:They started to think about their own worth, that was on the outside
Speaker:and stopped focusing on others.
Speaker:And what happens is they lose their bravery.
Speaker:So if you see an 18 in that day, the Lord will take away their bravery.
Speaker:He's gonna strip them of all these things that will make them think things are fine.
Speaker:Uh, he's gonna take all those things away until they realize how
Speaker:little substance they have left.
Speaker:It's the contrast of the tooth I thought was really interesting.
Speaker:If you look, if you've ever watched like the hungry games movie, So they, they show
Speaker:the capital that has this opulence and excess and fancy jewelry and fancy makeup.
Speaker:And then they show all the different districts, you know,
Speaker:that are poor and living like it looks depression era almost.
Speaker:And it's the contrast that's so glaring.
Speaker:And I think that's, what's offending God in this chapter as well.
Speaker:That.
Speaker:there, there is a mighty contrast in the land of Israel.
Speaker:They've forgotten the poor.
Speaker:They're not caring for the widow or the fatherless, and they're putting all their
Speaker:effort into this shell that can't last.
Speaker:And eventually by the end of chapter three, you see that they become desolate.
Speaker:This is a prophecy that will happen in Isaiah's time.
Speaker:And in the latter times that all those things that we've built up
Speaker:to try and build our bravery on we'll disintegrate before our eyes.
Speaker:And by the end, you'll sit on the ground.
Speaker:DEC.
Speaker:In chapters four and five of Isaiah, the tone shifts a little bit.
Speaker:If you picture Isaiah, following that metaphor of the controlled burn.
Speaker:If Isaiah is basically like the forest ranger who comes out and says, Hey, we're
Speaker:doing a controlled burn in this area.
Speaker:Please get everything out.
Speaker:And you know, this is the day it's gonna happen.
Speaker:Trust me, it's coming.
Speaker:Those who listened.
Speaker:Escaped.
Speaker:They, they leave the area and that's what you see in verse two, that
Speaker:there are some who will escape.
Speaker:Again.
Speaker:This is talking mostly about the millennial day, but I think
Speaker:there's lots of applications.
Speaker:And, and then he talks about the piece that they find if they did escape,
Speaker:if they left all of that wickedness and chose to turn to the Lord.
Speaker:They'll be washed.
Speaker:So if you see that they'll those in Zion who are left in Zion in four, when the
Speaker:Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and shall have
Speaker:purged the blood of Jerusalem from the MI thereof, by the spirit of judgment and
Speaker:by the spirit of burning, there's this.
Speaker:That burning phase happened and he acknowledges that it happened,
Speaker:but all those who escaped get this beautiful blessing.
Speaker:So in five and the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount
Speaker:Zion and upon her assemblies, a cloud of smoke by day and a, and
Speaker:a shining of flaming fire by night for all the glory can be a defense.
Speaker:I love this visual after what we studied with Moses and the children
Speaker:of Israel, this cloud of covering that represents the Lord's presence
Speaker:is promised to be over every dwelling.
Speaker:The reason I thought this was so powerful is when you layer it on
Speaker:top of what president Nelson taught us about our role, specifically as
Speaker:parents and mothers in Israel is to create these places of refuge.
Speaker:If you go in the notes, you can read his bigger quote, but he
Speaker:invites us to create these places of refuge and that if we create.
Speaker:Then this protective cloud can come.
Speaker:Those are not his words.
Speaker:That's me kind of layering other things on top of it, but he does promise protection.
Speaker:He promises in times of trouble.
Speaker:You will have a place of peace and refuge for your family.
Speaker:I think sometimes we flip this.
Speaker:We tend to think, okay, when the Lord comes again, I'm gonna have a place where
Speaker:I can build a safe place for my family and what the scriptures are teaching.
Speaker:And what Isaiah was trying to teach us is no, no, you build that dwelling.
Speaker:You get out of the place where the fires coming.
Speaker:You.
Speaker:A different way and you build your home the best you can, and he will
Speaker:come and seal it, protect it and give it this gauzy cloud of peace.
Speaker:That's the promise.
Speaker:You'll have a place of refuge.
Speaker:That's what you see at the end in verse six.
Speaker:When you go a little further into five, you see a parable of sorts it
Speaker:again, it's kind of like Jacob five in Zen's allegory of the olive tree.
Speaker:That's in the book of Warman.
Speaker:He talks about a friend who's coming to a very fruitful hill.
Speaker:That that part I think is important.
Speaker:So highlight that in verse one, this is land that should produce beautifully.
Speaker:Um, and the vineyard keeper decides to do a whole bunch
Speaker:of things to prepare to plant.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Puts, he takes all the stones out.
Speaker:He builds hedges.
Speaker:He builds a tower.
Speaker:He builds a wine press so that everybody is clear on.
Speaker:What's the goal of this vineyard.
Speaker:It's not just gonna be a pretty Napa valley wedding spot.
Speaker:It's gonna be a place that produces.
Speaker:Exquisite wine.
Speaker:And everybody's supposed to know that.
Speaker:And then something strange happens despite all his effort and all
Speaker:his work, it produces wild grapes.
Speaker:That's what you see in four wild grapes means bitter grapes.
Speaker:They can't be used for wine.
Speaker:And then just like we saw in Jacob five, the vineyard keeper
Speaker:says, what could I have done more?
Speaker:he, he did everything he could to help it reminded.
Speaker:I guess maybe it made me grateful, cuz I feel like before the Lord planted me
Speaker:in this stewardship, this incredibly good stewardship where he planted
Speaker:me, he prepared a hundred things, probably an infinite number of things.
Speaker:He removed stones, he built hedges, he built tower, so
Speaker:that I'd have access to help.
Speaker:He, he gave me all these things that I probably will never
Speaker:appreciate the fullness of.
Speaker:And if I choose to become bitter, if I choose to turn away from that, then slowly
Speaker:he starts to take those things away.
Speaker:So that's what you're gonna see.
Speaker:Starting around verse five.
Speaker:He says, I, I guess I can't make what I hope to make of you.
Speaker:So I'm gonna start to remove all those things I built.
Speaker:I think it's really interesting that he doesn't just like torch the vineyard he
Speaker:doesn't do anything really dramatic here.
Speaker:He just takes away his fortifications and because of the natural
Speaker:man's state of this vineyard.
Speaker:Vines grow weeds, grow thistles grow, and everything gets overwhelmed.
Speaker:This is a metaphor for Israel, but it's totally a metaphor for our lives.
Speaker:When we turn against the commandments, he will remove those from us.
Speaker:We're not compelled to keep any commandments.
Speaker:Uh, we just get to choose it.
Speaker:And if we don't choose it, then those are slowly pulled away
Speaker:and we get the resulting fruit.
Speaker:That's what we'll find.
Speaker:So his pleasant plant, as he phrases it in verse seven.
Speaker:Becomes this suffocated sad residue.
Speaker:Remember, this is Isaiah though.
Speaker:So he's never gonna end there.
Speaker:He's gonna say, but that plant has seeds and that can still thrive again.
Speaker:It just didn't thrive this time.
Speaker:This is children in Israel.
Speaker:We're talking about, he talks about in nine and 10, that
Speaker:this, there it's a production.
Speaker:It it's an analogy that talks about how much.
Speaker:Yield they're getting out of this crop.
Speaker:And not only did it not produce the amount of fruit that the vineyard
Speaker:keep was hoping it would, but it also kind of goes backwards.
Speaker:It consumes the fruit that it should have produced and it, nothing comes out of it.
Speaker:This, I think applies to us a lot in our day, cuz I felt
Speaker:like this in the new Testament.
Speaker:I gotta be completely honest.
Speaker:When come home me started in 2019.
Speaker:I was.
Speaker:Fully on board.
Speaker:I just I'll tell you about the whole story some other time, but, uh, I
Speaker:didn't do a great job, be honest.
Speaker:Um, and I feel like I reaped the rewards of that.
Speaker:My family didn't feel connected to the scriptures.
Speaker:I didn't feel connection to the scriptures I didn't put much in, so I
Speaker:certainly didn't get a whole lot out in 2020 when I shifted and started
Speaker:really caring about come follow me.
Speaker:All of a sudden, my vineyard.
Speaker:TA changed it, it was all about what I did differently and how my family supported
Speaker:it, that that made things change.
Speaker:So look around your vineyards and see where there is a, a lack of fruit
Speaker:and see what you do differently.
Speaker:It was powerful for me, as I was thinking about that.
Speaker:Another thing I'll see, when you go a little further, is
Speaker:that why it's not productive?
Speaker:So if you go in 12, they were garden out the work of the Lord 13.
Speaker:They end up in captivity because they have no knowledge.
Speaker:So much of his words have been focused on building knowledge and now it's lacking.
Speaker:And of course they're, Withing because of it.
Speaker:When you flip the page, there's a little bit more, it talks
Speaker:about these chords of inequity.
Speaker:I think what he's trying to say is that those in Israel are sort of pretending
Speaker:to cut ties with their sin, but sort of dragging them along behind them.
Speaker:, you know, it's like if you've ever had one of those newly or those new parents
Speaker:who they don't wanna take away the kids' whole blanket, so they cut up.
Speaker:Piece of it, let the kid carry that in their pocket forever.
Speaker:It's that kind of idea.
Speaker:Um, and he, what's interesting is they start to think that they're
Speaker:gonna have the blessings anyway.
Speaker:So in 19 they say, let him make speed and Hasting his work that we might see it.
Speaker:They fully believed because of the Divi covenant.
Speaker:The promise that somebody from the line of David would always be on the throne.
Speaker:That they didn't really have to worry or even really live righteously
Speaker:because there's this promise out there.
Speaker:Um, but he says then very powerful words in 20 and 21 woe unto unto them that call
Speaker:evil good and go to evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter
Speaker:for sweet and sweet for bitter wo unto them than are wise in their own eyes.
Speaker:This is an incredible, powerful message for all of us.
Speaker:We all fall into this trap.
Speaker:I think, especially in our day today, there are many people who are calling evil
Speaker:good, and who are deeply offended that anyone even pretends that there is evil.
Speaker:And I think every one of our.
Speaker:Apostles and prophets who are speaking today are inviting us to stand for
Speaker:something, to stand up for what you believe to do it kindly to do it, you
Speaker:know, with compassion, but to stand only.
Speaker:And I think you get that from Isaiah too.
Speaker:The other one I love is in verse 24.
Speaker:This is when he talks about the root.
Speaker:So he, he basically talks about a plant that looks healthy on the top.
Speaker:And then when you pull up the root it's molded and decaying underneath,
Speaker:it reminds me of when I go to chop onion or a piece of garlic and I find.
Speaker:It's been sitting there too long and it's got a whole like root that's
Speaker:rotten or an apple, if you've ever cut into an apple and it's got a big
Speaker:bruise inside, that's the same kind of feel what will happen because of
Speaker:that rottenness that's inside is he will lift up an enzyme to the nations.
Speaker:This enzyme that we're talking about here is more about the, as Syrians
Speaker:that will come, that will like take over the land and destroy things.
Speaker:But there will be another enzyme that we'll talk about in a couple chapters.
Speaker:That's more about the latter days.
Speaker:So we'll head that direction.
Speaker:Isaiah, like so many others in the old Testament that we've studied
Speaker:is a type of Christ and that shines out boldly in Isaiah six.
Speaker:So this is where you find out about Isaiah's call again,
Speaker:since we don't think that.
Speaker:Things in Isaiah necessarily go in chronological order.
Speaker:I don't know if this call came earlier or later, you know, because
Speaker:of the reference to the king that this is probably earlier in Isaiah's
Speaker:ministry that he receives this call.
Speaker:He sees the Lord and he seems almost shocked that he sees the
Speaker:Lord cause his response is, oh, no.
Speaker:Uh, in one I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, so he is having a vision of the
Speaker:Lord and then five, he starts to see his.
Speaker:Weakness his own sin and he is a little bit afraid or maybe a lot afraid.
Speaker:And I think there's powerful teaching in this.
Speaker:I think oftentimes when we come closer to God, we are more aware of our.
Speaker:Weaknesses.
Speaker:Sometimes that can be a bit daunting.
Speaker:Cuz you would think the closer I come to God, the more at peace I would do.
Speaker:And I think that's how the Lord's wait.
Speaker:We learned this in Proverbs.
Speaker:He is here to coach us and correct us.
Speaker:So that means the closer you come to him, the more correction you're
Speaker:gonna get so that he can refine you.
Speaker:And that's what's happening to Isaiah.
Speaker:He, he feels like just like ne I did in the book of Mormon where he felt like
Speaker:he had these sins and he was struggling and he wishes he didn't have them.
Speaker:He, he comes to the Lord and there's this beautiful scene with
Speaker:an angel who takes a cold, touches it to his lips and, and heals him.
Speaker:He takes away the sins of the past.
Speaker:In fact, it says in verse seven, Th iniquity is taken away.
Speaker:Th sin purged, in addition to taking away what didn't belong.
Speaker:Isaiah also is blessed with the ability to do something.
Speaker:Remember it's sacrificed and consecration, so that purging allows
Speaker:him to have this mouth that can speak with the tongue of angels.
Speaker:Almost he, he is someone whose words carry through the centuries and will be
Speaker:quoted by everybody in scripture that.
Speaker:With this prophetic gift, this calling.
Speaker:So you see him volunteer.
Speaker:This is where he sounds much like Christ.
Speaker:In verse eight, I heard a voice of the Lord saying, whom shall
Speaker:I send, who will go for us?
Speaker:And then said, I here am I send me it's this invitation to.
Speaker:Step forward.
Speaker:There's a great BYU devotional that kind of references this.
Speaker:And he talks about how all of us will have lots of opportunities in our
Speaker:life to basically do this, that maybe we even did this before we came into
Speaker:mortality, we took this opportunity to say, okay, put me in coach.
Speaker:I'm ready.
Speaker:I can do this stewardship.
Speaker:I can do this.
Speaker:Um, and then we come to mortality.
Speaker:But during that mortal time, we have opportunities.
Speaker:Some are formal, like when I get a mission call or a certain calling where
Speaker:I can say, okay, here am I send me?
Speaker:Some of them, you won't even realize in the process, you will be
Speaker:inadvertently serving and helping the Lord's work without even knowing it.
Speaker:But because you've been sank fed because you're living a good
Speaker:life, he can use you as a tool.
Speaker:Um, I love also how he.
Speaker:He talks about his ministry.
Speaker:It's just, I think it's interesting that from like 10 to 13, basically he learns
Speaker:that this calling he's gonna have to be a prophet is not gonna be a productive one.
Speaker:People aren't gonna listen.
Speaker:It, it sounds a lot like Mormon and moron.
Speaker:They, they know how things are gonna shake out, but they're
Speaker:gonna speak with power and truth.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:It feels like a parent to me.
Speaker:There's I don't know how things are gonna shake out for my kids, but I know my job.
Speaker:In fact, that's one of the things I learned from Isaiah is that you can
Speaker:tell that he's not teaching the people in order to please the people or
Speaker:even out of just love for the people.
Speaker:His first love is to God.
Speaker:So he'll do whatever God needs him to do.
Speaker:And then, because he loves God, he experiences love for the people.
Speaker:That's what I feel like as a parent, the tighter I get with my
Speaker:connection to my father in heaven and understanding my savior, Jesus Christ.
Speaker:The more love I feel for the people he, he has put in my care.
Speaker:And that's what happens with Isaiah's call.
Speaker:And you kind of see that put to the test around chapter seven.
Speaker:So this is when he learns that there's gonna be an Alliance of sorts.
Speaker:You can get into the history.
Speaker:There's a lot more in the notes.
Speaker:If you wanna go more.
Speaker:Here's my very short synopsis, essentially Northern Israel and Syria
Speaker:are forming an Alliance because they're afraid of us Syria, this bigger.
Speaker:Remember, we're going back to like second Kings times.
Speaker:Ayia is this wicked blood thirsty?
Speaker:Kind of like Lamanites in the worst parts of the book of Mormon
Speaker:group and they're big and they're conquering everything in their path.
Speaker:So these two Syria and Northern Israel are trying to combine
Speaker:forces to fight against a Syria.
Speaker:That's coming in the process.
Speaker:They ask Judah to join Judah's in the south and they say to the king
Speaker:of Judah, a has like come and be a part of our little Confederacy, our
Speaker:little Alliance, so that we have some hope of fighting the big a Syrians.
Speaker:And this is when Isaiah steps in he's basically.
Speaker:Giving guidance to king a has saying don't form an Alliance.
Speaker:The only Alliance we should form is with God every time, all the time
Speaker:form an Alliance with God, sadly, it doesn't work out very well.
Speaker:Like we mentioned, none of Isaiah's proxies get picked
Speaker:up by people in his time.
Speaker:So he speaks to the king.
Speaker:He teaches the king, but the king doesn't really listen, but you see
Speaker:guidance about that in chapter seven.
Speaker:That's what he's trying to.
Speaker:He even does this interesting thing.
Speaker:So he says ticking a has, if you don't know this, if you don't
Speaker:believe this, ask for a sign.
Speaker:I thought this was really fascinating cuz of what we know in the book
Speaker:of Mormon, where they warn us against asking for signs, you know,
Speaker:like rahho and all that stuff.
Speaker:Why would he tell him to ask for a sign?
Speaker:And then I was listening to president Nelson and he does this all the time.
Speaker:he basically said in his last talk watch for and expect miracles,
Speaker:miracles are signs, right?
Speaker:It's a way to.
Speaker:Big bold light.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:The Lord is here and this is his work.
Speaker:When you are coming to the Lord in a position of faith and I'm ready to do.
Speaker:Please help me.
Speaker:He will give you a sign.
Speaker:I've seen this in prayer so many times when I have to make big decisions or
Speaker:Jason and I are praying about his health and we have big worries on the table.
Speaker:We say to the Lord, please help us know for sure this is the right decision.
Speaker:We're gonna move forward no matter what, but please give us a sign
Speaker:that we're on the right track.
Speaker:And he does it.
Speaker:Doesn't always come the way I expect it.
Speaker:Doesn't always come in the timeframe I expect it, but the Lord loves to give.
Speaker:To those who are willing to carry on the work.
Speaker:So don't be afraid to ask for signs when you need them.
Speaker:The sign that a has his promise is that there will be this version who will have a
Speaker:son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
Speaker:So this is when you start to hear, you know, Christmas songs in your head,
Speaker:but he, this has multiple fulfillments.
Speaker:So the Lord won't come for another like 700 plus years.
Speaker:So it's not just, I mean, obviously a has, will not see the birth of Jesus Christ,
Speaker:but there be multiple fulfillments, both in like, You know, he AKA will be born
Speaker:and that could have been a fulfillment.
Speaker:Isaiah has a son and it could be his fulfillment.
Speaker:There's a whole bunch of theories.
Speaker:So go read some more if you wanna learn more about it.
Speaker:But the Trump card, the most important is that this is a prophecy
Speaker:about the savior who will come.
Speaker:That that will be a sign that this time period where the Lord's gonna.
Speaker:Step in and help and save is on the horizon.
Speaker:They just have to hold out their hope.
Speaker:So that happens God with us.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:That's the meaning behind Emmanuel.
Speaker:So some other things you're gonna see as you go on this versus is the warning
Speaker:about this desolate valley that will come.
Speaker:There's gonna be a time of desolation, and then there's a promise.
Speaker:So when you fast forward into chapter eight, you'll see.
Speaker:The prophet.
Speaker:Isaiah has a son with his wife and they give them a specific name.
Speaker:I'm not even gonna try and pronounce, but all the names of Isaiah's sons have
Speaker:meaning they're part of the prophecy.
Speaker:What I thought was so cool about that is I really think this is
Speaker:how our callings work today.
Speaker:When you receive a calling, your whole family sort of gets that calling.
Speaker:You might not have.
Speaker:It's not the same, but, you know, I felt this way when Jason was
Speaker:Bishop for years, that our whole family was supporting that calling.
Speaker:He had the keys and he had the responsibility.
Speaker:Our job was to be a part of his calling right now.
Speaker:I'm the YSA Institute teacher in our stake.
Speaker:So he supports me, he comes and does my zoom calls and
Speaker:all that's just how it works.
Speaker:So I love that you see that in Isaiah's family as well.
Speaker:And then he warns about these two waters.
Speaker:The first one is the waters of Shiloh.
Speaker:It's.
Speaker:This it's what he AKA's tunnel is gonna be built around.
Speaker:It's this idea of there's this natural spring that kind of
Speaker:bubbles up into Jerusalem, which makes it a good city to live in.
Speaker:Cuz it's got a safe water source and he's offering that as their nourishment
Speaker:and what the Jews are gonna choose instead is the Euphrates, this big,
Speaker:heavy river that has a tendency to overflow its banks and be wild.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:That's what Isaiah's talking about in this chapter.
Speaker:He's inviting them to choose the soft spring.
Speaker:Remember we just studied natural spring.
Speaker:So I love this, the tie together between them.
Speaker:Um, and he is inviting them to choose the good, but he knows they won't pick it.
Speaker:They're gonna choose to go with a Syria instead.
Speaker:A has, will choose it over and over again.
Speaker:Um, in fact, eventually a has, will choose to make an Alliance with the big ass
Speaker:Syrians and it will be to the downfall.
Speaker:Everybody that that's how that happens.
Speaker:But I love that the warnings about it at the end of chapter eight, you'll see
Speaker:like around 14, that Christ will be a stone of stumbling, a rock for offense.
Speaker:Many times you're gonna see this kind of conflict of the savior is a help.
Speaker:And he is a stumbling block.
Speaker:Again, his light is warm and radiant and intended for.
Speaker:But if you've just come out of a dark movie theater, it's gonna burn
Speaker:your eyes a little and that's what you're gonna see in the verses.
Speaker:I love how it ends in 20, where it says to the law and to the testimony, if they
Speaker:speak, not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Speaker:He's referring to the magicians and things that they're turning to for guidance.
Speaker:But I, I think it's this warning to us, all the other sources that you choose,
Speaker:no matter what those sources are, if it's not from the true source of light
Speaker:and knowledge, It's insufficient.
Speaker:There's no light in them and he doesn't want them to turn to those sources.
Speaker:So there's big warnings at the end of chapter.
Speaker:You can always count on Isaiah for finding something we can hope in.
Speaker:And in chapter nine, you get a feel for it.
Speaker:Uh, there is a great light coming and he's speaking about the Messiah.
Speaker:This is where you get handles Messiah's lines come out of chapter nine.
Speaker:He says in verse two, the people that walked in darkness have
Speaker:seen a great light and they shall dwell in the shadow of death.
Speaker:Upon them has this light shin.
Speaker:He talks about what will happen if you look in verse four, that a yolk
Speaker:will be broken, the bondage will end.
Speaker:The rod of the oppressor will be taken away and you can start to
Speaker:see how the Jews in Jesus' time.
Speaker:Expected a conqueror.
Speaker:They were under the thumb of Rome when Jesus came to the earth and
Speaker:they expected someone who would liberate them from this captor.
Speaker:And Jesus didn't do that.
Speaker:In fact, he said that to them, to his disciples who were following
Speaker:him, he said, I came to relieve you of sin and death, not the Romans.
Speaker:And some of his disciples said that, why aren't we following you?
Speaker:You must not be the savior.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Here's why I think that's powerful.
Speaker:I listen to someone teach this once and for life, for me, I can't find
Speaker:the reference, but they invited me to find out what my Romans are.
Speaker:Um, it's something that you're so fixated on the Lord fixing for you, that you
Speaker:sometimes miss other bigger miracles.
Speaker:So I can get in this mindset about Jason's cancer.
Speaker:Sometimes.
Speaker:Um, his pancreatic cancer can be something that I fixate so much on
Speaker:the Lord fixing for me that I miss.
Speaker:The 800 miracles he has put into my life to help me navigate Jason's cancer,
Speaker:help our family navigate his cancer.
Speaker:I, if I only expect the Lord to come and take away that Roman that if I just want
Speaker:a cure and that's all I will accept, then I'm missing the real miracles.
Speaker:Maybe he didn't come to deliver me from that trouble.
Speaker:Maybe he came to deliver me from every other one and I just, I thought
Speaker:it was worth pondering as you read.
Speaker:what I love about it is it feeds right into the verses from handles
Speaker:Messiah six for unto, unto us, a child is born and unto us.
Speaker:A son is given and the government will be upon his shoulders.
Speaker:And then he gives him four names, a wonderful counselor, a mighty God
Speaker:everlasting father, that princes of peace.
Speaker:Isaiah's trying to teach us the character of Jesus Christ and to teach.
Speaker:The people in his day, what to watch for that, he wasn't
Speaker:gonna be this mighty conquer.
Speaker:He's gonna be a prince of peace.
Speaker:He's gonna be a counselor, someone who is warm and intimate and close to you.
Speaker:So that this is what I wonder if, when Neva read these words, if he was like,
Speaker:yes, that's what I wish I could have said.
Speaker:You know, if you've seen the Lord and you've seen his countenance and you know
Speaker:what he looks like to try and articulate, that must have been so difficult.
Speaker:And I wonder if NFI just rejoiced to hear somebody put some words to it and
Speaker:that they're so succinct is powerful.
Speaker:And a, it gets a little deeper.
Speaker:He says the Lord sent a word unto Jacob, and it has lighted upon Israel.
Speaker:Jesus Christ is the word.
Speaker:So when he is brought forth, And given to Israel, a light burst forth.
Speaker:Um, but the people don't listen it's in 13, the people's turn is not unto him.
Speaker:And they that SMI at them, neither did they seek the Lord of hosts.
Speaker:They talk about the leadership of the people that was going
Speaker:astray and that there is this darkening that happens in the land.
Speaker:In fact, in 18, it's called a fire.
Speaker:That's the verse that brought about that forest fire reference.
Speaker:Isaiah promised there would be a burning and now it's here.
Speaker:So the land becomes dark.
Speaker:When you flip the page, you see that things get ugly.
Speaker:Um, when there is devastation, there is social chaos, and
Speaker:that's kind of what's happening.
Speaker:And then you have this key phrase at the end of verse 21, where it
Speaker:says his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Speaker:And we can tend to read that phrase and think he's always merciful.
Speaker:His hand is always backing and that's accurate, but you can't dissect that
Speaker:from what happens before recess.
Speaker:His anger is not his anger's turned away.
Speaker:He's saying.
Speaker:He, if you are choosing to turn to him, his hand is one of beckoning
Speaker:and warmth and friendship.
Speaker:If you are choosing to rebel against that, offering his hand is
Speaker:stretched out still in consequence.
Speaker:It will Dole out the punishments that he's promised are coming.
Speaker:It's both that Lord's hand is both and we can't just paint him one way.
Speaker:You need to see him both.
Speaker:When you go into 10, it gets a little deeper where this is where
Speaker:Isaiah basically says you're gonna get to a point where you're gonna.
Speaker:I need help.
Speaker:if you stay in the forest, after the Rangers have said, we're doing a
Speaker:controlled burn here, you you're gonna get to a point where you want help.
Speaker:Uh, cuz there's no way out.
Speaker:And he says it it'll be too late.
Speaker:You won't be able to salvage what you hope because the ass Syrians are coming.
Speaker:So that mighty forest is gonna come.
Speaker:In fact, they're gonna be a tool in the hand of the Lord.
Speaker:Allow this consequence to happen for the Jews.
Speaker:They're gonna get conquered Syria, Northern Israel.
Speaker:They'll all are gonna get conquered.
Speaker:Eventually they'll conquer most of Juda, except for that one holdout in Jerusalem.
Speaker:Remember that's where we learned about heza Kaya.
Speaker:Was he?
Speaker:Everything else had been conquered and he was just trying to hold on the holy city.
Speaker:So that's what he's trying to prophesy about.
Speaker:And then he talks a little bit about what those Zion can expect
Speaker:if they stay stalwart there's hope.
Speaker:So go to like 24, 25, 26.
Speaker:This is where he teaches them that this scouring is only
Speaker:gonna happen for a little while.
Speaker:And then if you change, things will shift has AIA who's the son of this
Speaker:wicked king, a has, is righteous.
Speaker:Josiah comes next and he's righteous.
Speaker:There's hope for Israel.
Speaker:And that's what Isaiah's promising about.
Speaker:I love that he use.
Speaker:The examples of Midian.
Speaker:Cause that's Gideon.
Speaker:Remember Gideon who fought with like lamps and 300 men and the red sea partying.
Speaker:They're these weird miracles that don't involve a lot of bloodshed.
Speaker:That's that's, that's what he uses as a reference point.
Speaker:And I kinda love that.
Speaker:That's the power of it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Let's go to 11 and 12 next.
Speaker:Above my margins in 11 and 12, I have let God prevail.
Speaker:in big letters.
Speaker:That's the message of 11 and 12 that after this burning, after this dark,
Speaker:Burning of this forest, there will be new growth and the new growth is magnificent.
Speaker:In fact, it's a marvelous work and a wonder, that's what you see in 11.
Speaker:There is a stem of Jesse that will come forth.
Speaker:If you've ever seen a chopped down tree trunk that has like a
Speaker:new shoot that grows out of it.
Speaker:That's what they're trying to describe.
Speaker:It's what seemed to be.
Speaker:Will come again.
Speaker:This throne of David that seems to have been cut off a new shoot, will grow out
Speaker:of it and it will become this mighty Oak.
Speaker:Um, and you'll read about it.
Speaker:What he'll do this, that that's a representation of the savior himself
Speaker:and that he will come and he'll judge righteously he'll protect the poor.
Speaker:All those things that have been lacking will be restored and fixed because
Speaker:this, you know, stem of Jesse comes.
Speaker:He talks about how he'll judge, he talks about there's a lot
Speaker:of references to animals.
Speaker:If you've ever heard the references about these, you know, predator
Speaker:and prey animals, who will be together, this isn't just.
Speaker:You know, literally animals like this will be able to stay together.
Speaker:It also represents those in the world.
Speaker:Waring nations that have hated each other for generations will be
Speaker:together in peace because they'll find a common something to believe in.
Speaker:It's not that their differences all go away it's that they all
Speaker:look to the savior as their king.
Speaker:And when you have that central focus.
Speaker:All other differences can kind of fall by the wayside.
Speaker:That's the promise that you'll see in the millennial day that there
Speaker:will be peace because we're so focused on the king of the Kings.
Speaker:Another prophecy that comes in this chapter is the root of Jesse.
Speaker:So if you've ever seen, um, a tree that's dying or that's weakening,
Speaker:oftentimes if you look around it, you'll see these shoots they're called.
Speaker:Root sprouts, I think is what they're called.
Speaker:I put it in the notes.
Speaker:I was studying about this this week in my botanical studies on this chapter.
Speaker:And basically what happens is kind of far away from the tree, like within a few feet
Speaker:or so, you'll see a new root sprout up.
Speaker:So it's almost like growth occurred under the ground in the root and
Speaker:then sprouts up out of nowhere.
Speaker:People see these as obnoxious because in a yard, for example, they come
Speaker:up and write through your grass.
Speaker:But in a forest setting where everything has been burned, Having new life
Speaker:shoot up from this root is powerful.
Speaker:That means the tree can thrive and the forest will grow again.
Speaker:This a lot of times people reference as Joseph Smith or just the restoration
Speaker:in general, that it is like this.
Speaker:It's almost like the natural spring that we studied in our object lessons.
Speaker:It's that same idea of, of an unexpected place.
Speaker:New.
Speaker:Comes out and it will be an enzyme to the nations in 12, he shall
Speaker:set up an enzyme for the nations.
Speaker:He shall assemble the outcast of Israel.
Speaker:This is the gathering that president Nelson can't stop talking about
Speaker:because he's the prophet who is called to do this gathering work.
Speaker:And we're all on his team and his battalion.
Speaker:So if you look a little further, you can.
Speaker:The miracles that are gonna come in order for this gathering to occur.
Speaker:We're seeing it right now in the incredible temple growth and
Speaker:the missions that went on, even though COVID tried to stop them.
Speaker:I love the way it's phrased in 15.
Speaker:He talks about he compares it to.
Speaker:The miracle of the red sea party that the Lord will do miracles like that,
Speaker:that there will, men will go over a dry S shot 11 in 16, and there shall be a
Speaker:highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left in order for these
Speaker:people to come home in order for the gathering for them to physically come
Speaker:home to Jerusalem and also spiritually to turn to their savior, Jesus Christ.
Speaker:There will be highways made, and these are not highways on the land.
Speaker:These are highways through red sea.
Speaker:In my margins, I drew parting ways.
Speaker:drew a highway in the middle.
Speaker:That's what he promises that he will come up with unexpected solutions
Speaker:that will provide a wide birth for his faithful people to come home.
Speaker:And I just love it.
Speaker:And the result of that is what he seen 12, it's a song of praise.
Speaker:This is when we get there.
Speaker:The millennial day, a lot of people believe will actually sing these songs of.
Speaker:There's two of them in here.
Speaker:The first three verses are one and the second three verses are another
Speaker:and they teach me something powerful because of how they're written.
Speaker:The first group of three verses is me focused.
Speaker:It's what I will do, how I feel, how I will participate in salvation,
Speaker:how I will partake of salvation.
Speaker:It's very individual.
Speaker:And then the second group of three is all about us.
Speaker:How, as a congregation, we will sing.
Speaker:It felt like acquired to.
Speaker:When you describe a choir, it's all these individual unique voices who
Speaker:are coming together and harmonizing to create this reverberating
Speaker:sound that will just ring out.
Speaker:That's the promise.
Speaker:So if you look in one, you were angry with me, that anger is turned away
Speaker:and now has comforted to me, no matter how many mistakes I've made, I'm
Speaker:turning to you and you will comfort me.
Speaker:Two Jehovah is my strength.
Speaker:My song he's become my salvation three, therefore with joy, shall
Speaker:you draw water out of the well of S.
Speaker:One of the translations I read about well of salvation actually talks about
Speaker:it being a natural spring, that it is something that we get to is not dormant.
Speaker:It's something that is flowing and clean and pure, and it never stops.
Speaker:That's what we're drawing from.
Speaker:And then I love what you see in for the Claire is doing.
Speaker:When you have this witness, you have this testimony, your job is to
Speaker:declare it out and think about it.
Speaker:What are his doings in our day?
Speaker:It's big things like the coming forth of the book of Mormon and the first vision
Speaker:and the priesthood keys being restored.
Speaker:But it's also the small things.
Speaker:It's all the little miracles that I've witnessed in my life that my job is
Speaker:to testify of to teach that, yes, God is real and living in this big way.
Speaker:And he is real and living in this little way in.
Speaker:And let me tell you about it.
Speaker:In fact, I love it so much that let me sing about it.
Speaker:That's what he is asking.
Speaker:There are excellent things to sing about.
Speaker:Like you see in.
Speaker:and for me, the crux of all of it comes at the very last verse of this
Speaker:week's study, where he promises to be in the midst of the Zion is not just
Speaker:a place of beauty and peace and unity.
Speaker:It's a place where God is.
Speaker:So if you haven't read elder, Udo's talk about God among us.
Speaker:I give you big links in the notes, so you can read it.
Speaker:That's the promise.
Speaker:That's what we're seeking for.
Speaker:Zion is a place where we all individually praise God, where we
Speaker:collectively praise God and where we know him, because he's right there.
Speaker:Oh, you just love the seat.
Speaker:I'm telling you.
Speaker:We're gonna have a really good five weeks.
