Victor: Greetings. I’m Victor Ludlow, a professor of ancient scripture here at BYU, and we’d like to welcome you to our discussion of the chapters of Isaiah. With me today are some of my colleagues from BYU across the table is Jeff Chadwick, who is actually from our church history department, a specialist in the Middle East. Welcome. To his right, is Richard Draper, who is one of our new testament scholars here in the college, and we welcome you Richard.
Richard: It’s a pleasure to be here with you.
Victor: And Paul Hoskisson and I are longtime friends. He’s one of our greatest in ancient near eastern linguists on our faculty. We’re glad to have you with us today.
Paul: It’s good to be here.
Victor: Today, we’re going to continue our discussion of some Isaiah chapters that are found in the book of Mormon. It’s the second major set of books of Mormon chapters. We’re all usually familiar that there was a big block of Isaiah, specifically chapters 2 through 14 that are quoted there in second Nephi, but these chapters 48 through 54 are also found, all of them in the book of Mormon. It’s just that they’re are scattered through different books as quoted and cited by different individuals. We just got into these chapters in the last round table discussion with chapter 48, which along with chapter 49 where we’ll begin today, was quoted by Nephi in 1st Nephi. And this was right after Lehi and his family had arrived in the new world, and as we made some comparisons, chapters 48 and 49 deal with covenant Israel and covenant blessings with covenant warnings that are given in these chapters. Apparently, they were developed by Isaiah to help teach the southern kingdom of Judah after the northern tribes of Israel were taken by the Assyrians, after Assyria had actually attacked and almost destroyed Judah. He wanted Judah to begin as a covenant people and so he gave them some important teachings that Nephi saw relevance and application to his people in the new world, they’d also undergone some great challenges making their way to their new land of destiny. Now chapter 49 is where he addresses Covenant Israel, almost like in a court setting with some different statements and accusations. And to set the stage for this, let’s just take a minute and talk about some of the basic elements of a covenant, and of a covenant people, because you’ll find all of these elements in these two chapters, 48 and 49. In fact, they’re almost like a reader’s digest, condensed version of the book of Deuteronomy where Moses is trying to do the same thing. And the basic elements of a covenant or an introduction of the covenant parties, there’s some type of a historical context that is presented. There are certain stipulations, conditions of the covenant that are laid out. There’s some type of ordinances or rights associated with the formal institution of the covenant, such as baptism that’s mentioned at the beginning of chapter 48.
Paul: And in the Old Testament there would’ve been some kind of sacrificial offering or something of that time.
Victor: Right. This idea of cutting the covenants, the slaughtering of a sacrificial animal or something. But then there are certain consequences of the covenant that are laid out. And this is particularly in chapter 49, there are witnesses that are called forth and are a part of the whole covenant process and then the idea that it’s in the record, it’s in the scripture, this idea of perpetuation and continuation is a part of it.
Richard: You might want to just point out too Vic, that this contains a covenant, not an agreement. That an agreement is equal to equal party situation, where a covenant is something that is imposed by one who is over, and the people have the right to accept or reject the covenant, albeit with consequence in each instance.
Victor: Right. And so, it’s a solemn agreement, I guess we could say where it initiates with the divine and it’s here with the people. Now, one of the problems that I think Bible readers and Latter-Day Saints have with these Isaiah passages are not just what’s there, but how it’s presented. Paul help us understand how is it that Isaiah packages this in such great literary form and yet it’s so frustrating for us to try to understand it.
Paul: Isaiah is probably one of the greatest poets who ever lived. If you read Shakespeare or Gerta or Pushkin, or even Omar Khayyam, you have wonderful literature, but Isaiah is every bit as good a poet as any of those, but he’s talking about sacred things which makes him, in my mind anyway, much more of a poet and much more important as a writer than any of the others. And as he says in chapter 50, this is an introduction to the section of Isaiah. “The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.” The Joseph Smith translation adds a little bit there. It says, “to speak a word in season unto Thee, o House of Israel when ye are weary.” Isaiah is calling, as to speak to Israel when it is weary, when it has forsaken the Lord. And try and cheer them up and say, hey, there’s a better way. Now to do this, he’s got to be careful not to offend anybody by being too explicit about the kinds of things that Israel had rebelled against, too explicit about the Messiah, and who he is going to be. So, Isaiah is going to use a lot of big words, even in Hebrew, and he’s going to use some beautiful illusions and allusions and metaphors and allegory to get across his point. And one of them is the one that you’re talking about there that you just mentioned Victor, about the covenant that is made. So, if you go back to chapter 49, verse 3, this is introduced as the kind of covenant that you mentioned Richard here, “thou art my servant O Israel in whom I will be glorified.” The relationship is spelled out there, Israel is the servant, God is the master.
Victor: Very important. These first few verses here also are a part of one of these servant songs that have been mentioned earlier. We found the first example of this back with chapter 42. This is the second one. It basically goes through these first verses of chapter 49. Help us out Jeff. What is a servant song or who could be this servant?
Jeff: Well, one of the things we have to remember about Isaiah when we read Isaiah and we see this also in the other books of the Old Testament. It was the manner of prophesying among the Jews that Nephi talked so much about in second Nephi, 25. That is that these prophecies and even the symbols and the metaphors in them are very often interpretable on multiple levels. When I teach Isaiah in a classroom, I like to say Isaiah is a multiple use profit and so is much of the Old Testament. So, the servant in these servant poems or these servant songs can be interpreted, I think primarily, as the Messiah of Israel, Jesus Christ.
Victor: The servant of all servants.
Jeff: Sure, but because he is the King of Israel, he is inherently part of Israel and even reflective of Israel so that the servant can also be interpreted as Israel itself doing the work of the Lord. And in Isaiah 49, the first few verses, what we specifically see is the servant speaking as Israel. Israel is personified as a person and in fact you have Israel, speaking to Israel, almost like the servant here is speaking to his own alter ego. And what we have here happening is essentially a personified triumphant Israel, who knows the end from the beginning. Speaking to Israel in around 700 BC that’s been beaten down and deported and only Jerusalem has been left of it. So triumphant Israel in 49, is speaking to downtrodden Israel, telling it, the day of your redemption and restoration will come.
Richard: You might want to point out too, that the transition is between verse 3 and 4, when the Lord says in Verse 3, “Thou art my servant O Israel,” he is talking about this Latter Day, strong, vibrant, righteous Israel. And then that Israel then responds with verse 4,”I have labored in vain, I’ve spent my strength for naught, and in vain: yet surely judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God.” You see the labor that has been given and not successful. And yet this positive Israel knows that there’s going to be a tremendous outcome in the end, and then we pick up that momentum from there.
Victor: Let me just shed another little dimension on this verse 3 that we’ve all loved and quoted here. “Thou art my servant O Israel.” Now, Israel literally means one who prevails with God, with Elohim and so yes it applies to his son that definitely prevails with the Father, but also with a covenant people who can prevail like Abraham, like Jacob and others who could prevail with God, and receive certain promises and blessings. So, this could expand not only to ancient Israel, but could apply to those of modern covenant Israel if they are honoring their covenant, they can prevail with God. They can be a true Israel one who prevails with God, but as you mentioned there, Richard, unfortunately verse 4, we often feel like we have done a lot of work in raising families, home teaching, and it just doesn’t seem to be appreciated. So, it’s not only the ancient prophets that felt frustrated as a servant of the Lord.
Jeff: That’s downtrodden Israel speaking in verse 4, I’ve labored, and it’s been in vain, but it’s triumphant Israel that understands the end from the beginning, that’s speaking in verses 1, 2 and 3, saying, “the Lord has called me from afar, from my mother’s womb.” And in verse 2, we have that beautiful illusion to Israel when it understands its destiny being a polished shaft in the quiver of the Lord.
Paul: I think it’s important here to realize also that, the Israel that understands and that is going to fulfill all of this is now, it’s today. It’s the Israel of today, which is saying, this will all come to fruition. Don’t worry about your troubles back in 700 BC. It’s going to work out in the end.
Richard: And I really like that coming out of verse 5, “And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb, to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him.” So, the modern Israel’s job is to reach out to the whole house of Israel and to bring them forward, to bring them into the kingdom to bring them to Latter Day Messiah.
Jeff: Right. It’s interesting too, that one of the greatest prophets of Israel ever to live, speaking now, not of Isaiah, but Joseph Smith used verse 2, when referring to himself. He called himself a polished shaft in the quiver of the Lord.
Victor: I like the way Joseph expresses this, and he obviously is using some of the imagery of this verse in his teachings. He says, “I am like a huge rough stone rolling down from a high mountain, and the only polishing I get, is once when some corner gets rubbed off by coming in contact with something else, striking with accelerated force against religious bigotry, priest craft, lawyer-craft, doctor-craft, lying editors, suborned judges and jurors and the authority of perjured executives, backed by mobs, blasphemers, licentious and corrupt men and women.” He summarizes, “All hell knocking off a corner here and a corner there. Thus, I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of the Almighty.” Just like this imagery there, where the Lord has hidden him in his quiver, ready to come forth and do the great work that he was able to do.
Jeff: It’s interesting, the Prophet Joseph Smith seems to have done just what the Savior commanded, and that is to search Isaiah diligently because not only in his own teachings, but in the revelations that come through him in the doctrine and covenants. There is more imagery from the book of Isaiah in Joseph Smith’s literary donations or contributions to us than almost any other biblical source. Can I just mention something before we run onto, because chapter 49, we wouldn’t want to miss that great imagery of the gathering? That’s the whole point. Victorious Israel knows and is telling downtrodden Israel, just wait In the Latter Days, you’ll be gathered. And starting at verse 12, we see in the Latter Days, places where that gathering will come from. Verse 12 says, “Behold, these,” referring to returning Israel, “shall come from far, lo, these from the north and from the west and these from the land of Sinim.” Which by the way, is just a transliterated Hebrew word? And in modern Hebrew, the word Sinim is China. In modern terms, it will be the land of the Chinese, but the nation state system that we have today didn’t exist in those days. And the land of Sinim, in Isaiah is a reference to the Far East. In other words, Israel would come back from where they had scattered too, which was not just Assyria, but over into East Asia, into North Asia and of course, west into Europe. And from there all over the world, the gathering of Israel is to be worldwide because that’s where the Lord scattered them.
Richard: Just one other point, very briefly Vic, is in verse 6, we see that the raising is not just to the tribes of Jacob, but as the Lord says, “I will also give thee for a light to the gentiles.” So, we see the leavening of the Gospel through Israel to all the world.
Paul: And captive Israel is mentioned again in verse 24 – at the end of the chapter, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered.” The answer, of course for Isaiah is Absolutely. And so, you get them in chapter 50, the resumption of the covenant that you talked about earlier, except this time in the metaphor of the relationship between a husband and a wife.
Victor: Let’s move on to the chapters 50 and 51. We’ll maybe discuss them as a set here, because that’s how they’re presented in the Book of Mormon. They’re actually the first Isaiah chapters to be quoted in 2nd Nephi. This was earlier in 2nd Nephi, where Jacob is speaking, and Nephi includes that in his writings here. So, you might not recognize this in your Bible text here, because unfortunately they don’t have the references here. I’ve written them in here and I noticed some of you had done the same thing.
Jeff: I wrote mine right in my chapter heading, where you would normally expect to see it. 2nd Nephi 7.
Paul: The footnote has it though. The footnote has the reference to chapter 7.
Victor: It has the reference there, but I put up here in the chapter heading because chapter 50 is 2nd Nephi 7, and chapter 51 is 2nd Nephi 8. What about this reference of, I mean, there was a prophet contemporary with Isaiah that talked about a woman and a covenant and going astray and coming back. What is this imagery of divorce, marriage is representing Israel here, that we find in these chapters?
Paul: The longest version of it is in Ezekiel 16, but I think we can shorten it a lot and say that throughout the scriptures, the Old Testament, New Testament and on into the doctrine and covenants, this metaphor of the God of Israel being the husband, and Israel being the bride…
Jeff: Or the church in the New Testament.
Paul: Or the church, in the New Testament. The church in Latter Days, as being the bride, invited to the wedding feast, is used here as a metaphor of the relationship between the church and Israel that is the church/Israel and God. And Paul uses that of course, again, to talk about the relationship between Christ and the church and so on and so forth. And the question now is, this downtrodden Israel, who has abandoned her husband, the Lord comes to her and says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement?” And the answer of course is, there isn’t one. There has never been a divorce. God is still the husband in this metaphor, and to whom have I put your way, well, I didn’t put your way and I didn’t sell any of my creditors. And those days you could sell your wife or your children to pay off your debts and he doesn’t do that. God doesn’t do that. So, the answer is, they’re still married, and God is going to take his wife back in the latter days when she becomes triumphant.
Jeff: If Israel feels distant from the Lord, if we feel distant from the Lord, it’s not because the Lord has sent us away, as it says in chapter 50, verse 1, “Behold for your iniquities, you have sold yourselves.” If we ever get distant from God, we have to ask ourselves, who moved?
Richard: Let me just point out one thing, just a textural kind of thing, and that is in verse 1 we have the Lord speaking. That really isn’t a transition into verse 2, and therefore it can be read as though it’s the Lord that’s continuing to speak, but what we have here is the servant’s response to what the Lord says in verse 1, so it is the servant that’s saying, “Wherefore when I came, there was no man when I called, there was none to answer.” So, again we have this idea of the servant responding. The Lord’s made these promises and initially it looks like they haven’t come to pass, and yet as the servant moves on, wow, the Lord really has done it all.
Jeff: And you see that it’s the servant speaking as you look at verse 5 and 6, because it’s definitely in that voice. “The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.”
Paul: And one of the problems that Israel has had, is I think is brought out in verse 11 at the end of the chapter. “They’ve tried to kindle a fire themselves and to live by the light of this fire which they have lit rather than living by the light which the Lord wanted to provide them.” In the latter days, that fire is going to be eclipsed by the restoration.
Victor: So, right in the middle of this chapter, we just have to clarify, we do have another one of these little servant songs or poems, verses 4 through 9 that is kind of the pivotal point of this chapter, as Israel is trying to come back into a covenant relationship and instead of just living by its own light or whatever. Now in chapter 51…
Jeff: Vic, before we run, let’s just point out, that servant and what he says he’s done in verse 6 of Chapter 50, “I gave my back to the smiters, my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” And while that’s clearly representing Israel and the indignities it suffers in order to be a light to the gentiles, it’s a great foreshadowing of what the King of Israel, the Messiah did, relating strongly to the mistreatment of the Savior in Matthew 27, when he was beaten and even spit upon.
Victor: Exactly. Alright. Chapter 51 and the last chapter that Jacob quoted there, is found in 2nd Nephi 8. To me, it seems like we’ve got a little more hope out of this chapter. A little something, a little more positive that Israel can look forward to.
Richard: In fact, I call this the beckoning chapter, okay. This is because of what the Messiah’s done, this is what you are to do. You are to harken, you are to listen. You are to awake. So, the Lord’s really pulling them in on this one. They are some concrete things you need to do now.
Jeff: It’s interesting too, that it seems to be addressing the gentile nations, I mean Israel is calling out to scattered Israel, but it’s addressing it as if it doesn’t know who it is, as if it’s a gentile nation. Verse 1 of 51, “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look to the rock from whence you’re hewn, to the hole out of which you’ve been digged.” Verse 2, “Look to Abraham, your father and to Sarah that bare you.” The whole really has this lineage and doesn’t know it, but that’s where we have to have them look back to the Israelite covenant if they’re to be gathered to the Gospel, and in verse 2 he says, “I called him alone and blessed him and increased him.” The promise to Abraham was that through him and his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed, and we’re seeing that in these days.
Richard: Exactly, and not only that, we were seeing the outgrowth of that in verse 3, that beginning word for is causal for this reason – that Zion shall be comforted, that Zion is going to come forth, there’s going to be a real power here in the last days.
Jeff: And those elements that seem to go together with the restoration of different branches of the House of Israel, whether it’s Judah or whether it’s the gathering of the Latter-Day Saints in Verse 3, we see waste places being comforted. The wilderness being like Eden, the desert becoming like the garden of the Lord.
Paul: And that which has been done to downtrodden Israel will eventually be turned around and given to the gentiles who have been the oppressors of the House of Israel as it mentions there, beginning in verse 17, at the end of the chapter.
Victor: And again, in verses 18 and 19, the idea of not only gathering, but in the book of Mormon it mentions a couple, 2 sons that come forth, you’ll notice some cross references to Revelation referring to 2 servants of the Lord in Jerusalem in the last days. I mean, there’s obviously… God has set some things apart for Israel to receive in the last days and there are going to be some powerful, wonderful servants who were going to help bring this about. Anything else that you would like to highlight here as we finish these chapters 49 through 51 here today?
Jeff: We know as we start to wrap up, we have to try and think, what is this group of chapters telling us? And it’s really telling us that the Lord, of course, knew and designed the end from the beginning and by personifying the people of Israel, as a person talking to its own downtrodden self, the Lord is telling us through Isaiah that we need to have our hearts be cheered. We need to consider ourselves comforted and blessed because indeed his hand is reaching forth to gather Israel from all nations. And I think that’s summarized best maybe in chapter 51, verse 11, “therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head and they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” And then maybe just one other one in verse 15 and 16, “I am the Lord, thy God that divided the sea, hearkening back to the origin of the people of Israel,” coming through the Red Sea with Moses. Well those were our ancestors, every bit as much as they were the ancestors of the Jewish people. And that Israelite heritage goes back for many people of the world, if they only knew, if they would only accept the covenant. Verse 16, “I’ve put my words in thy mouth, I’ve covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth and sand design thou art my people.”
Richard: Sure, that’s exactly what it’s all about, is to show that the covenant is still in effect that you have said already Paul. The marriage was never dissolved, it was a separation but not a divorce. And therefore, you still are my people and you need to come to me and if you’ll come to me again, I will be your God. You will be my people. We’re never allowed to forget that.
Victor: In fact, the verse you quoted earlier Jeff, verse 11, chapter 51, “Therefore the redeemed of Israel shall return.” Am I wrong to assume that this return could be not just a physical return, but return like a spiritual repenting, turning around, turning back to the Lord…
Jeff: That’s the nature of the return…
Paul: The JST adds a little sentence, a little phrase in there that emphasizes that they will return with singing unto Zion an everlasting joy, and holiness shall be upon their heads. That holiness is what it’s all about.
Jeff: Because the return of lost Israel is to come to the covenant of Israel, which is the restored Gospel. So, repentance and baptism is the act of returning and being gathered to those who are gathered of lost Israel.
Victor: Well, in fact, the term holiness actually describes a people that have been consecrated for a sacred purpose, and you’re not really consecrated for a sacred purpose if you haven’t entered into a covenant and that covenant has been accepted by the covenant granting party through some type of verification through the spirit, and obviously Isaiah had that spirit and understanding and although his words may be difficult, thank you for your help in letting us try to understand his words today. Thank you.
Insights Into Isaiah: A Light to the Gentiles Isaiah 48 through 54
Insights Into Isaiah: Every Knee Shall Bow
Featuring Andrew Skinner as host, with Richard Draper, Terry Ball, and Victor Ludlow
Andy: Welcome to another in our continuing series of discussions on the scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Today we will be discussing passages from the great prophet Isaiah. Joining me are members of the faculty of the Department of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. Across the table from me Professor Richard Draper. Nice to be with you Richard.
Richard: Good to be with you Andy, thanks.
Andy: To his right Professor Terry Ball, also a professor in the Department of ancient scripture. Welcome Terry.
Terry: Thank you.
Andy: And to my left Professor Victor Ludlow. Nice to be with you Victor.
Victor: Thank you. Good to be here.
Andy: Well brethren, we begin by noting that the chapters we want to discuss today, Isaiah 44 and 45, have a similar theme as other passages that we’ve looked at before. Namely that Jehovah is the great redeemer of Israel, He is the king of Israel, but there is a new dimension added to these chapters. Not only is he the redeemer of Israel but he’s also the pattern for one that he is going to call in the future, who like him will physically deliver Israel from their problems. That is the gentile King Cyrus the Great, Cyrus of Persia.
These chapters give us a chance to talk a little bit about some of the historical dimensions of Israel’s captivity, as well as the doctrine that the great prophet Isaiah was trying to teach to the people.
The first six or eight verses of Chapter 44 begins by Isaiah telling Israel that Israel is God’s chosen people and that he will pour out his spirit upon them as long as they are righteous and certainly in a coming messianic age. We get some of the same kinds of identifiers that we’ve seen in other passages. Verse 6, for example of Chapter 44, ‘thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his redeemer The Lord of Hosts. I am the first. I am the last and beside me, there is no God.’ So, there is an immediate continuity with past passages that we have looked at before.
Richard: I might say this just putting Chapter 44 in Context. Chapter 43 ends with one of the most gating denouncements upon Israel because they have been blind because they will not see, and the Lord says in Chapter 43, verse 28, ‘because of these things, therefore I profaned the princes of the sanctuary,’ and so on. Then we turn the page and immediately we read into the words. Yet, now, here, O Jacob, I’m willing to forgive the past. Everything you have done in the past and we can begin anew right now and therefore this section really begins with a hope of Jehovah reaching out to try and draw Jacob now to him.
Andy: Isn’t it pretty typical of the way the patterns in scripture work. There is the call to repentance but always the yearning to have Israel return to God and God saying it doesn’t matter. I’ll forgive you, I’m your god, I’m your king. Just come back to me.
Victor: It’s not just the pattern of the scriptures. It’s the purpose of the Scriptures. Verse 7 here, ‘who I shall call and so declare, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people?’ of these things were coming and so forth. So, in other words these things are there but I am telling you these things are part of the purpose of scriptures, is to get this witness and these prophecies in the record.
All right, you’ve been disobedient. Here’s what’s going to come. Let’s make sure it gets in the record and let’s see how this happens because this will end up being a vindication not only for a prophet, is he really truly prophesying and foretelling that which is correct. But of God himself and his abilities, not only in this physical restoration and redemption that Cyrus is going to bring forth in this chapter and the next one. We see it carry over, but of course, the far greater redemption He brings is from death and hell eventually.
Terry: Well said. Another thing I think is going on in these first few verses as you read through what Jehovah will do for his people; you get the feeling that he’s a God that has power. He can move and do things for them.
Then in the middle of the chapter he’s going to talk about how all these things men do to try and build idols, is like you have to build idols but I built you. So, starting in Chapter 44 we read in verse 1 things like you’re Israel, ‘whom I have chosen …and formed thee from the womb, in verse 2, which will help thee,’ again in verse 3, ‘whom I have chosen. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground, I will pour out my spirit upon the seed and my blessings upon thine offspring,’ verse 5[–7], ‘I am the Lord’s, and another shall call himself by the name Jacob, another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel.’ [verse 6] ‘Thus, saith the Lord, the King of Israel and his redeemer the Lord of the hosts. I am the first. I am the last and beside me there is no God.’ …I call, …and I declare, and …I appoint. Here is a God who has agency. He can act and move and direct and then. What a startling contrast that is as he starts to describe how they build an idol, how the men raise up trees and beat gold and do all this stuff and their idols can’t do anything.
Andy: That’s a nice point that you make because in the first part of the chapter The Lord says I have chosen you. And then in the middle part say verses 9 –23, The Lord is saying now you choose me, don’t choose idols, choose me. I have chosen you the one true God. Now you choose me.
Victor: But instead you have chosen these things you mold with your hands.
Terry: What I really love is the sarcasm as he’s talking about the futility of trying to worship an idol here too. Three times he makes this point. As he talks about how they cut down a tree and this is what they do with the tree starting in verse 15.
He says, ‘a man takes a part thereof and warms himself and kindleth and baketh bread,’ and then another part he worships. Parts used for fuel, parts used for cooking and the parts you worship. Then he says the same thing in verse 16, ‘he burneth part thereof in the fire, with part of it he eats and parts of it he warms himself, and then in verse 17, ‘the residue thereof he maketh a God. And then one more time he says in Verse 19, ‘and none considereth in his heart.’
Now let’s see I’ve burned part of it in fire. Ye have also baked bread on the coals thereof. I’ve roasted flesh and eaten it. Shall I make the residue thereof an abomination. Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree. Can’t you see how unreasonable it is to use part for fuel, part of it to cook with and then to worship the rest.
Richard: And then let me just bring this up. Going back to verse 8, which is a moral corollary. The Lord is this active agent as opposed to the idols that are non-active agents. The moral corollary there is for Israel, this is the message. ‘Fear ye not neither be afraid.’ I am the act of God and therefore if you worship me you have nothing to fear. Just do it my way.
Terry: And if you don’t worship him, and worship idols you do what he says in verse 20. This image is just perfect. I love it. An idol worshiper is like someone eating ashes, ‘He feedeth on ashes. A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, no say, is there not a lie in my right hand.’ I assume the right hand is the one you’re eating with. So here you are, you’ve got a handful of ashes. You’re really hungry. You’re trying to satiate your hunger and you say, mmm, ashes and you start eating the ashes and you can eat the ashes and your hunger can be satiated. But what, you’re not nourished you’re not fed, you’ll still starve to death. You can have a belly full of ashes and still die of malnutrition.
Andy: It’s good for roughage. It’s not much of nutrition.
Terry: How is that like worshiping idols or isn’t that that interesting. People can invest all their time and effort in pursuing happiness to make a thing more important than God. And in the end, it’s not there for them.
Victor: It’s just an empty hollow. The vanity.
Terry: It can’t deliver.
Andy: And it’s so easy the way you’ve explained this, is so easy then to look at modern Israel. This is the case in ancient Israel. How are we doing as modern Israel. Do we hold up for ourselves these idols that are really ashes and then do feed ourselves on the ashes and then wonder why our lives aren’t turning out the way we want them to.
Victor: And then another part of contrast in here this talks about liars and those that have wisdom and knowledge, like he does of the personal truth. I mean you think of the father of lies and the things that he would have us believe and follow. And then the man of truth and his wisdom and his foretelling and his bringing to past what he’s promised. That’s another act and counteract that’s going on back and forth here. So, he’s really laying things out in their extremities. You can take the God that has created you and is trying to help you to these things that you create and ends up in empty ashes. You can take lies, or you can take truth. He’s really helping us to see the opposite, sort of, when it comes to these little decisions, it shouldn’t be any major dilemma to choose.
Andy: Right, from the foundation that he has laid in the first two thirds of Chapter 44. He then moves to reiterate the message again; the Lord Jehovah is the Redeemer. But he is also the pattern for another who is to come. I think that is so worthwhile. Maybe we could read beginning with verse 21, down through 28. Richard would you do that for us.
Richard: I’d be happy to. ‘Remember these, O Jacob and Israel for thou art my servant. I have formed thee, thou art my servant, o Israel thou shall not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out as the thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins. Return unto me for I have redeemed thee, sing o ye heavens for the Lord hath done it. Shout thee lower parts of the earth, break forth into singing ye mountains, o forest, and every tree therein for the Lord hath redeem Jacob and the glory and glorified Himself in Israel. Thus, saith the Lord, thy redeemer and he that formed thee from the womb. I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretched forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself, that frustrateth the tokens of the liars and maketh it diviners mad, that turneth wise man backward and maketh their knowledge foolish, that confirmith the word of his servant, that proformeth the counsel of his messengers, that sayeth to Jerusalem, thou shalt be inhabited. And to the city of Judah, ye shall be built and I will raise up the decayed places thereof, that sayeth to the deep be dry and I will dry up thy river, that sayeth of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure, even sing to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built unto the temple, thy foundation shall be laid.’
Andy: So, the lord is giving Israel kind of a hint of the coming attractions and ultimately ends up saying you’re going to run into some difficulty. But just as I am your redeemer I’m going to choose another and he’s going to redeem you physically like I redeem you spiritually and morally and emotionally and physically. And his name is Cyrus and the greatness about Cyrus is that he is going to act like a shepherd to my people. He’s going to be in my stead and he’s going to come and he’s going to rebuild Jerusalem which will have been destroyed and he’s going to rebuild the temple which had been laid in ruins by the coming Babylonians.
Victor: Put this into historical context, there’s no way in the flesh as a mortal that Isaiah could have known of Cyrus. They’re like a hundred and fifty years apart as far as coming along in the page of history. I mean that would be as difficult for us today to try to say, well who’s going to be the leader of Russia 150 years from now. Even if we aren’t even sure if there’s going to be a political entity like a Russia in 150 years from now. And yet here he is mentioned by name. First time. We will follow up with it here and because this is here and because we normal mortals can’t see the future. Some critics say, well this must have been added later, this must have been some later person to say this. But of course, we as mortals and Isaiah as a mortal cannot see the future. But that doesn’t mean that God can’t see in the future and He can through various means reveal what He knows to his servants, the prophets. He’s already mentioned about how He’s going to confirm the word of a servant and perform the counsel of his messengers back here in verse 26. So, He’s in essence saying, I’m going to tell you right now some things that only my servants would know. No one else would be able to know this and will tell you a little bit about this Cyrus, who’s going to come 150 years later.
Richard: From chapter 42, he has continually been hitting Israel with the fact that he is God because He knows the future. And here is probably in my estimation one of the most dramatic instances, talking about concrete instances of that very thing.
Andy: You mentioned the word that Isaiah is the only one that could see this because he is the prophet of the true and living God, and seeing into the future, and isn’t that the definition of a seer. I think of Moses. Chapter 6 verse 36. This particular scripture pertains specifically to Enoch, but it also pertains generally to all of the others that have been called by the Lord as seers. And it says of Enoch, ‘he beheld the spirits that God had created, and he beheld also things which were not visible to the natural eye. And from thenceforth came the saying, abroad in the land. A seer hath the Lord raised up unto his people.’ This is one of the great demonstrations of Isaiah, Ceric ability. He is a great and powerful seer as you say to be able to prophesy something that would come 150 years later.
Terry: There’s precedence for this too. There are other individuals whose surname was given long before they were born in mortality, particularly in the book of Mormon. We think of Joseph from second Nephi, chapter 3.
Richard: King Josiah King [inaudible 00:15:54.24] write.
Andy: And then Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Richard: They knew her name.
Andy: Well, somebody talk to us a little bit about Cyrus of history. Cyrus in history emerges about 559BC. He starts out as the ruler of a small province, but then fairly rapidly in a period of 20 years or so ends up the king of what comes to be known as the Persian Empire. What else do we know about Cyrus?
Terry: He was viewed as a very magnanimous leader compared to ancient rulers at that time.
Victor: Most of the modern rulers of Middle East.
Terry: Were thought to be quite bloodthirsty and demanding, but Cyrus was rather magnanimous. Apparently when he conquered Babylon, he does so quite easily and then again as a type for the Savior, we had this great deliverer who conquers Babylon and we think what Babylon represents to us today, he conquers Babylon and sets the people free and helps them rebuild.
Victor: So, he comes from the east, he comes from what anciently was known as Persia, today would be the area of Iran. Comes into Mesopotamia anciently would be Assyria and then later Babylon which is Iraq today. And as Terry mentioned one of the more beneficence tolerant, I think tolerant is a good word to describe these types of rule. He tried to accommodate to different communities and nationalities that had been oppressed by the Babylonians and others and seems to have been well favored by a lot of people. It’s also in the setting of Ezekiel particularly Daniel in the old testament. He appoints Daniel as one of his chief administrators in his kingdom and so it’s all in that setting that comes some 150 to 200 years after that time of Isaiah.
Terry: And apparently, he was aware of this prophecy somehow.
Andy: In fact, it’s too bad that Chapters 44 and 45 are broken apart by a chapter subheading, because Chapter 45 verse 1 moves right in to the prophecy that then is picked up years later by Josephus who tells us that in fact yes, Cyrus did come to learn about Jehovah’s prophecy about himself and it had an impact on him. Terry why don’t you read for us verses 1 through 4 of Chapter 45, because this is the great prophecy of Cyrus, who is the only Gentile King to be described as a messiah, or as an anointed one in the old testament, please.
Terry: So, verse one begins ‘thus saith the Lord to His anointed’ and of course that’s the root word for Messiah or the Greek born Christ, ‘thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him. I will lose to loins of kings to open before him the two leaved gates and the gate shall not be shut,’ to loosen the loins means they’re going to be afraid of him. They’ll open up the gates to let him come in, which is how he ends up taking Babylon eventually. ‘I will go before thee and make the crooked places straight, I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut in sunder the bars of iron. I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant’s sake and Israel my said Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me’
Richard: Again, it shows the graciousness of God, Cyrus is not a Jehovah worshipper. He’s not there and yet because I think of Cyrus’ character, his nature, the Lord now reaches out and touches him and honors him with this title, the anointed one. And you are now anointed to do my work. My grace now reaches out to you and then the idea is, now you be gracious to my people.
Terry: Here’s what I’ve done for you. Now here’s what you have to do for me.
Andy: It’s interesting that within just a couple of verses, Cyrus has been called, Jehovah’s shepherd or the Lord’s Shepherd. He’s also been called the Lord’s anointed. He clearly is a figure that points us to Jesus Christ. He clearly is a type and a shadow of the coming Messiah in the dispensation. And to me again, I know this is repetitive but the fact that he’s a gentile King. This is not an Israelite that’s getting all these titles and is being described the things that he will do in the future. This is a gentile King.
Terry: Cyrus must have been surprised when he heard this. I imagine he was thinking, I did all of this and now he’s been told, no you didn’t. God did it. You were just his tool.
Victor: Yeah and he could have even been a little sceptic at first. Imagine him, recently conquered Babylon and to have a delegation of Jews come to him and say our prophet Isaiah had something to say about you, how you’re going to free our people and let us go back and build our city. Oh really.
Andy: Well in fact, I have the quote here from the Jewish historian Josephus who is writing the first century AD and he indicates that Isaiah’s prophecies themselves had this tremendous effect on Cyrus once he entered Babylon and saw the conquered Israelites and was shown by Israel’s prophets or Israel’s leaders his own sacred name in writing. This is what Josephus says ‘For he the Lord stirred up the mind of Cyrus and made him write this throughout all Asia, thus saith Cyrus the king since God Almighty hath appointed me to be king of the habitable Earth, I believe that he is that God, which the nation of the Israelites worship, for indeed he foretold my name by the prophets and that I should build him a house at Jerusalem in the country of Judea. This was known to Cyrus by his reading the book which Isaiah left behind him of his prophecies, for this Prophet said that God had spoken thus to him in a secret vision. My will is that Cyrus whom I have appointed to be king over many and great nations, send back my people to their own land and build my temple. This was foretold by Isaiah 140 years before the temple was demolished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read this and admired the divine power, an earnest desire and ambition seized upon him to fulfil what was so written.’ So that passage from Josephus, who is again writing 550 years after Cyrus did all these great things is very, very insightful. It gives a little insight into what Cyrus was feeling when he conquered the city.
Richard: And there’s a message here if you don’t mind me jumping in, with verse 5, which is now, to Cyrus, he just really said, let Cyrus know exactly what Cyrus is but does not forget that, ‘I am the Lord and there is none else. There is no God besides me, I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.’ Again, that idea that I am in charge.
Terry: Look how often he says that, the end of verse 6, ‘I am the Lord there is none else.’ The end of verse 7, ‘I, the Lord do all these things.’ Verse 8, ‘I the Lord have created it.’ Verse 14, ‘Surely God is in the end, there is none else, there is no God.’ Verse 18, ‘I am Lord, there is none else.’ Verse 19, ‘I declare things that are right.’ Verse 21, ‘there is no God beside me, a just God, a savior. There is none beside me.’ And then verse 25, ‘in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified.’ Do you think he got the message?
Victor: I think so. To me, my favorite verse in this whole chapter is 23 because it’s alluded to and quoted in so many ways thereafter ‘he has revealed all these things. Eventually though, everyone will recognize that he has foretold these things and brought them to pass, for verse 23, he Lord speaking, ‘I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me. Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear,’ or take an oath or make a covenant.’ So eventually not just Cyrus, not just the people that Cyrus may have helped deliver politically, but everyone especially those that God has delivered spiritually, but even those that have been from whatever background, everyone, every knee he will bow and recognize, He is the God of this earth.
Richard: Just to pick up verse 15, piggybacking on what you’ve said. The Lord is God. He’s the one who operates, but it is interesting that verse 15 describes Him, ‘verily thou art a god that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior.’ The idols are very visible. You go up to the temple and there is the idol. But what did these visible idols do? Nothing. And yet here is God who is working behind the scene, who brings about absolutely everything, through the Spirit through his servants and brings about absolutely everything.
Terry: And the rest of the story, Cyrus does conquer Babylon. He does allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Never such a thing had ever happened before, where conquered people were allowed to return and not only were they allowed to return, but he finances their return.
Richard: And thus, we see that Jesus works through a Savior, the Jehovah works through a Savior to be a Savior and therefore that one phrase right at the end of verse 21, ‘he is just God and a Savior. There is none beside me.’
Victor: And in verse 25, ‘and in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.’ Speak about a happy ever after.
Andy: Indeed. Well, and that’s the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ anciently and in modern times and the Lord is behind all of it. Thank you very much.
Insights Into Isaiah: Go Down Into Egypt
This BYU “Insights into Isaiah” Roundtable Terry Ball, Ann Madsen, Michael Rhodes and Jeff Chadwick will discuss the apocalyptic vision of Isaiah as he explains it in chapters 30 and 31 of his book of prophecy.
| Terry Ball |
We welcome our viewers to our continuing discussion of the scriptures of the church, of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Today we’re going to be discussing, in particular, the writings of the Prophet Isaiah. Joining me for our discussion today are three of my colleagues. We have a professor Jeff Chadwick, from the Department of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. Welcome, Jeff. |
| Jeff | Thank you. |
| Terry | Sitting next to him is professor Michael Rhodes from the department of ancient scripture. |
| Mike | Glad to be here. |
| Terry | Glad to have you with us, Michael. And we’re delighted to have with his sister Ann Madsen, also with the Department of Ancient Scripture. Welcome Ann. |
| Ann | Thank you. |
| Terry |
And I’m Terry Ball, likewise from the department of ancient scripture. For this session, we’re going to talk particularly about Isaiah chapter 30 and 31. These two chapters fit in the context of this larger section of Isaiah, chapters 24 through about 35 that the scholars often like to lump together under the category of Isaiah as apocalypse because there’s an especially strong apocalyptic flavor to these. Maybe we ought to begin by just talking for a moment about what the term of apocalyptic or apocalyptic literature means for our viewers. |
| Ann | It probably worries people to hear you say that, wondering what they’re going to think, what this really is. It’s simple, really. It’s about the last times, the last days, the end of the world. I think that’s the most simple definition we can get for it. |
| Terry | Very good. One of the distinguishing features I think of apocalyptic literature is it’s very dynamic and one moment when it’s talking about the destruction of the wicked, it’s just brutal and gruesome and then in reverse it can switch and all of a sudden, you’re talking about the joy and the happiness and how excited the righteous are at the same time, almost bipolar, if you will, but it makes the point really, doesn’t it? |
| Ann | Yes, it does. |
|
And we’ll see a lot of that as we look at chapter 30 and 31 and then for the next few sessions we’ll be doing discussions, we’ll be having on future chapters as well that way. Now, chapter 30 begins with the theme that Isaiah also addressed earlier in regard to Judah’s relationship with Egypt. Maybe we need some historical background because he’s going to give a warning about an alliance with Egypt as we start this. What do you want to talk about? |
|
| Mike | Earlier, Ahaz, who is the father of Hezekiah had made an alliance with Assyria and now, at the death of Sargon, there’s hope that maybe they can rebel against that and Judah and several other surrounding countries. |
 |
|
| Mike | Their head turned to Egypt and made an alliance with them thinking that Egypt, which had formally been a pretty magnificent and powerful empire could help them. And, Isaiah is here telling them, you’re relying upon a shadow or something that is not going to help. |
| Ann | Egypt had really diminished. |
| Mike | Yes, by now Egypt ceases to be a world power and never regains that status ever again. |
| Terry |
It seems to me Egypt is always anxious to make these alliances. Whenever there’s a Mesopotamian empire builder that’s expanding, they like to use Israel and Judah as a buffer zone. So, if you can keep them rebelling, I think their mindset is if we can keep Judah and Israel occupying the empire builders coming out of Mesopotamia, they won’t be able to come to attack us. So, they are just always saying rebel, rebel, we will support you. And of course, they never do. And it drives the prophets nuts, right? Here Isaiah is telling them, don’t trust Egypt and we’ll find Jeremiah doing the same thing later when the Babylonians come. And in a sense Egypt, I suppose, is a type for anybody or anything that wants you to trust in them more than God. |
| Ann | Yeah, sometimes I think it’s just the world. Like Babylon is. |
| Terry | Let’s read the first few verses. I’ll go ahead and read down here just a bit and then we can comment on them. All right. Starting with verse 1 in chapter 30,
|
| Mike | Strength is a doing method. There’s nice contrasting imagery here with the idea that here they are going to Egypt who had held them in bondage to make an alliance that will hopefully, in their minds, get them out of bondage with another country. It’s almost a reversal of roles and they’re going back with the treasures that they came out of Egypt in the exodus with treasures. And so, I think Isaiah is playing on that concept here as well. But the irony of going to Egypt, of all places to, escape bondage. |
| Jeff | Probably important to remember here too, that these are individual Judeans who are heavily advising King Hezekiah to switch his alliance to Egypt. Hezekiah had in mind that he would cancel his alliance or the alliance that his father Ahaz had made with Assyria. But as to what to do after that, to rely on Egypt or simply to go it alone, what the Lord is saying through Isaiah here is don’t make any new alliance with Egypt because that would be totally useless. Not only that, the Egyptians are in this for themselves, they have as their total goal in trying to entice you into a new alliance, only the protection of their own borders from Assyrian encroachment. They care nothing for Judah or the other countries in the Levant and so to rely upon Egypt is essentially to sign your own doom. |
| Ann | This helps, you know, in reading Isaiah to know some of these historical facts. I think one of the things that slow people down when they want to read Isaiah, they start reading through and they think, what does this mean? What alliance, what Egypt. It’s really useful Jeff, for you to tell us that background and so clearly. |
| Terry |
I think he shows kind of the hypocrisy of Egypt too because Egypt’s accepting all these bribes and payments to them, but really behind the back of Judah, they’re just laughing. They’re ashamed of him. They’re people who can’t help them at all. If it’s all right, why don’t we skip over to chapter 31 right here where he gets a similar message about the dangers of trusting in Egypt. Let me read a couple of verses here, starting with first 1,
How do you understand verse 3? |
| Mike | Well, if you’re turning to Egypt for help, Egypt, in fact, you know it’s the blind leading the blind and both are going to fall into a pit. If you’re looking for help from them, they need help themselves and you’re both going to be, as he says, fall down together, vivid imagery, and the Egyptians are ultimately conquered by Assyria. |
| Ann | And in the end, verse 1 is the crux of the matter:
…they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord! and there’s that parallelism where holy one of Israel and the Lord, same thing, same person. |
| Mike | Verse 3 really emphasize the Egyptians are men and not God. I think that’s a stunning message that Isaiah is trying to get across here. Rely on God, not on men. |
| Terry | Why would you rely on something less when you have something so much? |
| Mike | Exactly. The foolishness of what they’re doing, he’s trying to get across to them and apparently, they don’t see it. A message for us today as well. We tend to rely on things, of man rather than of God. |
| Jeff | The point here is too, that Egypt has had its day. There was a time when the horses and the chariots of Egypt were an insurmountable force, but the Assyrians are simply too strong and the real issue here is not even so much the Egyptians, as being willing to rely upon the Lord to help you, the Judeans would need to rely upon the Lord, as you see, reading forward into verses 4, 5 and 6, place your trust in the Lord, not in the Egyptians or any arm of flesh, and you would receive the aid from heaven, as you see in verse 5. |
| Terry | And the promise of verse 8. They’re looking to Egypt or protection from the Assyrians, but if you trust in the Lord, you have a first aid experience,
Then shall the Assyrian fall by the sword, not of a mighty man and the sword, not of a mean man shall devour him… And of course, you know the history. How does Assyria fall? They come and lay siege to Jerusalem and the Lord wipes them out in the night. |
| Jeff | And that’s, of course, foreshadowed in verses 4 and 5. If I could read those:
4 For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. Isaiah’s promises depend upon the Lord, not on the arms of the Egyptians chariots and horses. And then you will receive your protection. |
| Ann | And if you lived in Jerusalem, the image at birds flying overhead is a very real image because they migrate over Jerusalem. You see huge flocks of birds coming across Jerusalem. I remember once going out and looking at them and thinking, what is that? I thought it was airplanes and it was large birds and they filled the sky. And this image then, I think it’s so beautiful, the safety of being underneath a canopy at birds would be one that they would have known. |
| Jeff |
And the footnote for verse 5, footnote 5a, notes that, as birds flying, the activity here is actually hovering over their young. Those birds are circling in a protective mode to protect Jerusalem. The birds, of course, are a metaphor for God’s protection. The word at the end line of verse 5, passing over, he will preserve it, the Hebrew verb there is pesach [פָּסֹ֥חַ] which is the verb that we use also in Passover as the Lord protected Israel when they were in Egypt by passing over the houses of the firstborn. Here, he will make sure without Egypt that he protects Jerusalem by passing over Jerusalem to preserve it. |
| Terry |
And from that high vantage, he has a great perspective of all that’s going on. You know, I can picture you teaching this to your kids in home evening and your daughter goes out on a date and a fellow wants her to go see an R-rated movie. She says, no, I don’t think I want to do this. He’ll say why, and she’ll say, because you’re looking to Egypt for deliverance. And she’ll say, let’s go home and read the scriptures and stuff. Let’s go back to chapter 30 now and pick up some more of what this wonderful chapter has to say. After kind of giving this warning in the first seven verses about the dangers of trusting in Egypt, he then returned to this real apocalyptic kind of a discussion, where he’s going to describe, first of all, the rebellion of the people and the terrible destruction that is going to come upon them. Versus, let’s make it 8 down through 10 to start with. Michael, do you want 8, 9 and 10 for us? |
| Mike |
8 ¶ Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: |
| Terry |
So, what’s going on here? |
| Mike |
Well, they don’t want to hear what the prophets telling them. They want to hear good things that are in agreement with them. It’s very easy to follow the prophet if he’s telling you to do something you’re already doing, but if you’re, if he’s telling you to change, that’s hard. And they don’t want that. Tell us deceits, tell us, you know, smooth things.
|
| Terry |
That’s a spiritual barometer, isn’t it? If you find yourself bristling at the words of the prophet, it says more about you than it does to the prophecy, and you need to look carefully at your standing relationship with God.
|
| Jeff | Contextually here, the elite of Jerusalem, some of them bent on looking to Egypt for help against Assyria, are rejecting the words of Isaiah and others in his prophetic mode. And what Isaiah is saying is it’s easy to reject the words of the prophets when you can’t see how they can possibly help, but you have to have faith in the words of the prophets at all times. We often see in verse 10, people saying, I’m only interested in, you know, what’s culturally proper right now. The smooth things, those things which don’t bother society, those things which don’t cause any bumps in the road of political correctness, but sometimes what the prophets have to tell us, the eternal value of it is not congruent with the qualities and the values that are currently acceptable in the world at large. So, there’s a whole world out there saying in terms of religion, it should speak to us smooth things, but what we should really demand is a prophet of God that will speak to us true things. |
| Ann | And you can see why Isaiah is a prophet for our time. I mean these things are happening all around us. |
| Mike | It’s what Americans always called hard doctrine. |
| Terry |
He goes on and says in verse 12, “… because ye despise this word…” the teaching of the prophet, here are some of the things that are going to happen. You are like “…a breach ready to fall…” What does that mean? |
| Mike | There’s a crack in the wall and it’s ready to just collapse. Vivid imagery for the city that’s trying to defend itself against Assyria. |
| Ann | We saw this happen in 1991, I think it was when we had so much snow in Jerusalem and walls were giving way all over the city. They would absorb this snow and the water, and they would bulge out and ultimately just fall. |
| Terry | So instead of being a strong bulwark any little pressure on them and they just fell to pieces. |
| Ann | And they went down. |
Terry: Look what happens to people when they start to bristle at the prophet’s words, they become a breach ready to fall, and any little temptation, any little pressure, and it just falls to pieces. They don’t have something to anchor their faith and their testimony to. And so, they break as he says in verse 14, ‘like a Potter’s vessel.’ Now in verses verse 16, 17, 18, well 16 through 17, he again talks about what’s going to happen because you were so rebellious. They say you’re going to flee from your enemies and the thousand will run away from one and so forth. So, there’s nothing left but a flag on the top of the hill as it says at the end of verse 17. What I think is intriguing is that in verse 15, right between these two prophecies of what the consequences are for rejecting of a prophet and trusting in Egypt, is I think, the highlight of the whole chapter. This is the point that he’s hoping that these people will get and how they will actually respond. You want to read that for us, Ann, verse 15.
Ann: Yes. ‘For thus, saith the Lord God, the Holy Land of Israel, in returning and rest, shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength and ye would not.’
Terry: How would you put that in 2006 English?
Ann: If you return to the Lord, you’ll be safe, and quietness is such a strange commodity in our world where I don’t know where you can go and truly know that it will be quiet, but it’s such a wonderful metaphor for being with God, being able to be confident and section 1,21 in the DNC says in the presence of God, that kind of quietness.
Mike: I immediately think of the temple. That’s where I find peace and quiet and just an escape from the world.
Ann: Okay, you just answered my question. That’s one place you can go.
Mike: That’s one place you can go.
Ann: And be certain it will be quiet.
Mike: And the returning here, the Hebrew there, is [inaudible 00:18:44.25] and it can also mean simply to repent. It’s return to the Lord. He’s saying, repent and ye shall be saved. The central message.
Terry: This whole idea that we just need to be patient with the Lord and trust in Him even through hard times. I think verse 18 kind of says the same thing, ‘and therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God of judgment, blessed are all they that wait for him.’ You know, from chapter 40 on we find this kind of an odd concept all over through Isaiah. Blessed are those that are willing to wait for the Lord. Jeff, what do we know about that word wait?
Jeff: In this case, verse 18 here, wait, is almost better if you translate it as attend or take care of. Therefore, will the Lord attend to you that He may be gracious to you and therefore will He be exalted because he’s taken care of you. You will realize that and take care of him.
Terry: In verse 18, the first part where the Lord is waiting, and then at the end where it’s blessed are they that wait for him, is it the same thing?
Jeff: It’s the same thing that we may in turn, attend to the Lord and wait on him. Sometimes we think of wait in terms of, well, I’m, I’m waiting for something to happen, but this is a different kind of waiting. It’s what the old English term waiter means. Someone who comes to take care of you and see to that which you have expressed as a need. Well, the Lord waits on us. Whereas he takes care of those things which we express as a need in prayer. When we wait on him, we take care of those things that He has asked us to do.
Ann: We say something like, I want to do what you want me to do, thy will be done. That’s waiting on the Lord.
Terry: So as a new meaning to being a waiter.
Ann: Yes.
Terry: Verses 19 through 21, continue with beautiful language describing the blessings for those that wait and trust in the Lord. Why don’t you read those for us? Ann, can you?
Ann: ‘For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry, when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. And though the Lord give you the brand of the adversity and the water of affliction yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word behind the saying, this is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left.’ I love that scripture. I love the notion. It’s a perfect description, I think. When you hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk ye in it. That’s the Holy Ghost. That’s what each of us, we need to be listening for that voice just behind our ear. One of my students one day said, I think it’s one of my relatives in the spirit world that really cares about what happens to me and they’re whispering, they’re the deliverer. The Holy Ghost is the deliverer of the Lord’s word to us.
Terry: We live in a world where there are so many dilemmas for people that aren’t guided by the Holy Spirit. They wonder, what choice should I make? Where should I go? But the point is, you’ve placed your trust in the Lord, you’ve waited upon him, there’s a director always there. You know which way to go. You know when you have important decisions, you ponder them, and the thoughts and feelings come immediately. You’re not left without direction.
Ann: And he talks again about ears and eyes. He does this often, Isaiah, he says, your ears will hear a word behind you and your eyes shall see your…what does he say? Shall see thy teachers. In other places, back in 18 of 29, he says, ‘and in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.’ And in other places, he’s going to say those who prefer not to see. He keeps using that metaphor over and over again of our eyes and our ears and how we can either use them in the service of the Lord and be listening and watching, or we can close them and be deaf and not hear, choose not to hear.
Jeff: If I could poke in something at this point, I think that it’s important for everyone who’s reading Isaiah to remember, I am a nudged on by the three words in verse 19 to remember this as well. The word Zion at Jerusalem. Sometimes as latter-day saints, we tend to have a rather one-dimensional idea of Zion. It is us, it is based in America, sometimes even in Utah. And, there’s a much wider application of the word Zion in the Lord’s terminology. In the Bible, however, and particularly in Isaiah, but almost everywhere in the Old Testament, in the context of the geographies, Zion is usually Jerusalem in its first interpretation and then other things in subsequent interpretation. So, the Lord is talking first and foremost about the people of his time. A prophet speaks to the people of his time, first and foremost. Isaiah had a message for us in terms of apocalyptic or eschatological terms, but, he was speaking to those people at Jerusalem and this message is for them because they’re in trouble because the Assyrians are on the way. And as you see in verse 17, where Isaiah foreshadows what would eventually happen, Jerusalem will be all that’s left of Judah, being left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain and an end sign on a hill. Just that flag on the top of the hill, Jerusalem will be all that’s left on top of that hill. The rest of Judah destroyed for their wickedness and the people in Zion and Jerusalem would be spared because the Lord has a purpose for them. But how much more, if they’ve listened to the prophets, would not only they in Jerusalem, but all of Judah have been spared the yields that awaited them.
Terry: You know, another thought you gave me, that phrase Zion and Jerusalem, I hadn’t really thought of this before, but many people think that Zion is purely a place in the Bible. And an attitude in the latter days, but this suggests that it’s both a place and attitude. Zion at Jerusalem, the place is Jerusalem, the attitude is Zion.
Jeff: They need it to be better at being Zion in Zion, Jerusalem, in order to avoid those ills, follow those prophets.
Terry: Wonderful. Well, he continues with this wonderful promise to those that have waited and trusted on him. Clear down through verse 26 of this chapter. I love some of the imagery, like in verse 23. ‘If you trust in the Lord, then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow withal, and bread of the increase of the earth.’ He provides bread and water, even a bread of life in living water. Similar ideas in verse 25 that they will make sure that on every high mountain there are streams of waters and rivers. And biblical scholars often think this is just arguing against their…placing faith in water, gods of other religions, but there’s something messianic about this as well. And then he finishes with a warning again to how the wicked are going to be destroyed with burning and the anger of the Lord, they’ll be sifted and so forth and that will include the Assyrians who will ultimately be destroyed, as a type for the destruction of the wicked.
Jeff: Verse 31, the Assyrian shall be beaten down.
Terry: And so, what happens to them? All right, you’ve just read chapter 30 and 31 now to your children once more. As we close this discussion, let’s talk about what the most important themes are. The things you hope that they’ll take home and teach to your grandchildren.
Mike: Well, I think the summons substance of it, the main point he’s trying to make is, you’ve got to rely on God, not the things of the world. If you rely on God, then all these beneficial things will occur. If you rely on the world, destruction and misery and woe will occur. It’s just that simple.
Terry: Well said. Thank you.
