In this lesson, we’re going to have an opportunity to really dig deep into Isaiah, but remember we’re using the Come, Follow Me format, which means you would have had a bit of homework to do and probably some class members too.
Isaiah 22:22. The Savior opens the door to Heavenly Father’s presence.
Isaiah 24:21–22. The Savior shows mercy for those in spirit prison.
Isaiah 30:19–21. The Savior knows our trials and directs our paths.
Lesson Preparation and Study
Notice that there are nine scriptures and today we’ve listed the outcomes of those scriptures here on the whiteboard; we will be going over them in a minute. This is going to lead to nine discussion groups, which is a lot larger than normal. We’ll probably break into groups of two or three each
During the week, you’re going to want to engage members of your class with these scriptures, like one or two a day. Tell them you’ve been reading them and you hope they will too.
You might also point them to these conference talks:
There are three videos that probably you won’t have time to watch, especially that Marvelous Work and a Wonder video during the actual Sunday school class. So, it’s something that’s going to have to be done ahead of time:
Perilous Times, (Isaiah 24) President Hinckley teaches that despite the perilous times that we live in we can all have peace in our lives by living the gospel.
There is also a Prezi slide deck for this lesson that you may use by clicking here.
I’m not interested in calling it homework, but if we’re going to get serious about the scriptures, we’re going to have to do more than drive-by reading, it’s got to be something a little bit deeper.
Additional Lesson Ideas
The following material supplements the suggested lesson outline. You may want to use one or more of these ideas as part of the lesson.
Objects that represent some of Isaiah’s images
Display various objects or pictures that represent some of Isaiah’s images, such as a key, a stone, or a picture of shade in the desert, as you discuss these images.
If Family Home Evening Video Supplement 2 (53277) is available, you may want to show “The Touch of the Master’s Hand,” an 18-minute segment, as part of the lesson.
I think as you came in today, you noticed that I had chosen to play music from Handel’s Messiah from the LDS Media Library. All three of these things appear at the lesson’s end as “Additional Teaching Ideas.”
First, to have some objects that represent Isaiah’s images; second, music from Handel’s Messiah; and lastly a video: The touch of the Master’s hand.
These additional teaching ideas are suggestions at the end of each lesson. Often we don’t use those, but I think because we have 10 minutes gathering between sacrament meeting and Sunday school, playing this segment from Handel’s Messiah, For Unto Us A Child Is Born, is really appropriate. It will set the tone for everything happening in the classroom today.
Sunday School Lesson Introduction
Last time we met, we had a little fun with some Whitman’s chocolates. We were talking about how most of us when we read Isaiah, we just choose to skip it or skim it.
Now here’s the problem, when you skip it, you haven’t even unwrapped it, so you haven’t smelled it, you don’t know any of its goodness. So, let’s unwrap this little sampler and we’re going to move from the skipping stage to the skimming stage.
In a different post at SearchIsaiah.org, Victor Ludlow suggested that skimming the chapter headings and finding the one you like will probably give you a taste for what’s ahead.
So, here’s four little chocolates in this Whitman’s Sampler (and by the way, am not a distributor of Whitman chocolates). I just know about these little size ones, and this one was gift-wrapped for Halloween this morning—we are moving into that season in fact, I noticed the trees outside, were already changing.
So, let’s say we do skim, and we just read the chapter headings, but we come across the chapter that interests us, this gives us a chance to take a little bit deeper dive. You’ll notice here that our Whitman’s Samplers are a lot bigger and that could represent all the paragraphs in that chapter.
That’s also something Victor Ludlow suggested, that you take it a paragraph at a time, not a verse at a time and that might help you dig in. So, of course, our goal is not just to read, it’s to study. To study, you’re going to have to go for something much more aggressive.
Now, studying the book of Isaiah could mean a number of things. For me, a few years ago, actually two decades ago, I tried looking up all the footnotes and that didn’t do the trick. So, I bought some scholars books and works on Isaiah and some other translations. Then I read a little bit on the side; that helped me somewhat study, but diligent study might actually be something much deeper, and of course, that takes us to our big box.
Diligent study is what we’re really after because the Savior commanded us to study the words of Isaiah diligently. So, we don’t get just to skip or skim or read or study, we have got to study diligently. Now, I think you’ll notice in here someone has been eating these very diligently. I think all of our team here have enjoyed Whitman’s chocolates since I brought this object lesson.
So, one of our team had a suggestion and I think it’s such a good idea. He said, when you get stumped with a word, turn to the Topical Guide. For example, Isaiah will talk about trees; he’ll write about Oaks and the Cedars of Lebanon. Whenever he’s talking about them, he’s talking about people.
Now, you might discover that by looking in somebody’s study aid or a scholar’s book or something, but another way to do it is to personally study the words ‘tree,’ ‘cedar,’ and oak. Then using the topical guide and as you can see here:
Going to the topical guide and we’re moving down to Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets, looking at all the times they use the words tree. Almost always, one of those will help you know he’s talking about people and then you can substitute the word ‘people’, for ‘tree’ every time.
In the case of Cedars of Lebanon, these are the great and powerful soldiers from the north, from Syria, and the Oaks are the great and powerful warriors from another area, I can’t remember if it’s from Egypt or something else. But it’s a fun thing to do when you take a little deeper dive.
Sunday School Lesson Discussions
The real question we have is, how to feast in the scriptures. And today we’re going to break into study groups and we’re going to try and see what happens to those who tried feasting a little bit at home.
As I told you at the beginning, we have these topics that we’re discussing the Savior today:
The Savior opens the door to God’s presence.
He gives us access to Heavenly Father through his name.
The Savior shows mercy to those in the spirit prison by opening the doors there.
He’s the strength and he’s a refuge.
He’ll prepare a feast and destroy the “vail.”
He’ll wipe away our tears; He knows our sorrows.
He’ll bring the resurrection to pass, first for him and then for all of us.
He’s our sure foundation.
He’ll restore the Gospel
He knows our trials and directs our paths
As we break into our groups, we’re going to divide into much smaller groups; probably two or three people each. Pick one of these topics, (we’re going to let you pick them) and then read the scriptures related to it. In addition, try and find a conference talk, notice there are some listed on the slide:
These are an update to the lesson because our lesson manual is eighteen years old.
Let’s take a look at this next page just so you can see that we’ve gone online and we’re going to break now into our groups.
Brothers and sisters, just organize however you want, it doesn’t matter to me. Pull your chairs together in small circles and read these scriptures. I’ll let you talk about them for 20 minutes and remember to find a conference talk.
Sunday School Lesson Discussion Reports
So, all of our groups have taken assignments. This last group we have looks like it has three in it and they’ve decided to talk about the how Savior knows our trials and directs us. Let’s take a look at my PowerPoint (images above) for just a minute because you also have the assignment to try and define how we feast on the word of God.
Read the scripture from Isaiah, talk a little bit about feasting on the words of God and be sure to find a conference talk that is related to the topic. Do you understand? Any questions?
Sam: “Thou shalt weep no more. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry.”
Troy: Isaiah is telling us that we need to rely upon the Savior and then verse 21, “And thine ears shall hear a word behind ye saying, this is the way, walk ye in it.”
Darryl: You getting that discussion on adversity ok?
Hannah: Yeah.
Darryl: I think I forgot to give you another scripture. I think Alma 37:37 was also one of yours. You guys take a look at that and remember in just a minute we’re going to want you to report to the whole group what your discussion was.
Hannah: I think that’s what it means to feast upon the word of Christ, or feast upon the word of God because I think we all face decisions in our life and we all have times of hardships, but like you said, when you face those times of hardships with prayer and with scripture study, I think that is true counseling.
Troy: Let’s feast on that Whitman Candy.
Hannah: Yeah, let’s do that.
Darryl: I’m hoping group nine will share their feast with everyone else here in Sunday school today. I don’t usually bring treats, I don’t want people to have a sugar high.
Let’s go ahead now and take reports from each of the groups now.
If you notice during the time that they were having a discussion, I worked my way around to each of the nine groups. In classroom management, this is a lot of people, and you’ve only got 40 minutes and so I allotted 20 minutes for each group to talk with each other; some of the groups had a lot of things to read. This group, not so much. They had the assignment to feast and then share chocolates.
Moving around each group lets you know if they’re engaged, or if they have any questions and that’s fairly important. And then, of course, you need to give them the opportunity to report.
Each group needs a chance to report and almost always, they’re going to take at least a minute, sometimes a minute and a half. So, for this whole lesson, a brief introduction, study assignments which very much engages them, we’ve had such good feedback from people about this. I know that the youth have been using these almost three years now and they’re very happy with it, but every adult class I’ve tried it in has felt very rewarded. When you think about it, they’re only getting a tiny taste, like one chocolate out of the whole box in their discussion group, but it’s still something for them.
Sunday School Lesson Conclusion and Call to Action
Let’s wrap this lesson up and I just want to share with you how grateful I am for the Savior and all He’s done for us.
Now, let me show you Search Hack 2.
Show it to your class using Facebook, to avoid LDS Church firewalls that block Youtube.
I’m going to ask you, because you’ve all got the home study guide, to look at these 9 things and maybe write something in a journal today and think about them. But to conclude, let’s look at Isaiah 35:3–4, and see if we can’t do what this prophet has asked us to do.
“Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense, He will come and save you.”
What a great promise that defines ministering to me. I hope each of you will have a chance to do that this week.
So, brothers and sisters, after the closing prayers we leave today. This BYU musical group will be singing ‘I Stand All Amazed’ from the LDS Media Library. I think that that probably references how we all feel today at what our Savior has done for us. I hope you’ll enjoy the week. Don’t worry, I’m going to be sending you more things this week, so you can get deeper into Isaiah because we want to diligently search the words of this prophet.
I remind you once again, if you’re a Sunday school instructor, you can download this lesson and get all 5 Isaiah lesson plan and slides in a Come, Follow Me format for Gospel Doctrine Lessons 36-40 by clicking this link.
Teaching a Sunday School class? Worried about the “Come Follow Me” next year. Isaiah Lessons (Lessons 36-40)? Don’t miss this opportunity to teach something valuable, with these full lesson plans.
Darryl teaches us using the Come Follow Me method, while showing how to use these downloaded lesson plans in your classroom. Use it this Sunday for an easy effective Isaiah lesson.
Last time we met, we had a little fun with some Whitman’s chocolates. We were talking about how most of us when we read Isaiah, we just choose to skip it or skim it. 
Now here’s the problem, when you skip it, you haven’t even unwrapped it, so you haven’t smelled it, you don’t know any of its goodness. So, let’s unwrap this little sampler and we’re going to move from the skipping stage to the skimming stage. 
Diligent study is what we’re really after because the Savior commanded us to study the words of Isaiah diligently. So, we don’t get just to skip or skim or read or study, we have got to study diligently. Now, I think you’ll notice in here someone has been eating these very diligently. I think all of our team here have enjoyed Whitman’s chocolates since I brought this object lesson. 
Brothers and sisters, just organize however you want, it doesn’t matter to me. Pull your chairs together in small circles and read these scriptures. I’ll let you talk about them for 20 minutes and remember to find a conference talk.
After teaching this lesson using PowerPoint, I made this Prezi to go with Old Testament Lesson 37 (http://prezi.com/6qsclqlgahyj/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share