Welcome back, you guys.

This is week nine of Our Mothers Knew It, and this week we're going to go a

little bit deeper into Second Nephi.

In fact, we're going to tread into Isaiah territory, like a lot of Isaiah territory.

And in the past that would have scared me, but thankfully we built this

really steady foundation in Isaiah over those five weeks in the Old Testament.

So I found myself I wouldn't say I was, like, super sure and confident

as I went into my study this week, but I did feel like I had this

steady foundation to stand on.

And that all of a sudden, because we'd put so much time and effort and study into

understanding Isaiah in the Old Testament, when I got to come back to those same

verses and those same ideas and symbols, I found, like, I could reach new fruit.

You know, things I hadn't seen before, even in my previous

study of the Book of Mormon.

And it was Delightful to me.

It was, you know, not like I'm incredibly comfortable with it, but it was delightful

to me to see, oh, there are layers of understanding that are Becoming solid.

Solid enough for me to step onto them and to reach new things.

And I hope that happens for you this week as well.

I'm here to guide you through it.

One of the things I love about Isaiah, particularly the chapters that Nephi

chooses, is I feel like his whole goal is to help us understand Reconciliation.

It comes right on the heels of what we learned from his little brother Jacob that

this is all about reconciling with God.

The reason I think that's so powerful coming from people like

Nephi and Jacob and Isaiah is that they are people who know God.

Those three, well Elder Howland calls them the eyewitnesses of the

Book of Mormon because they are someone who they individually saw

Jesus Christ in his pre mortal form.

Which means to me That we can trust their word.

And if they say, Oh Maria, it's worth it.

Come.

Reconcile.

To me, that means they know his character.

They know the kindness of his eyes.

They know the the resonance of his voice and they're saying you can trust him.

I know him.

Come.

Come to him and let him heal you.

Let him help you.

There's just something powerful about it to me.

I love that you can see the words of Isaiah from two perspectives.

First, you can look at it from a macro lens.

Like, you can see the story of the children of Israel.

And thankfully, since we did so much study in the Old Testament, we have

a pretty good footing on that story.

I had to sort of refresh myself, so I went back into the archive and I

listened to the podcast of myself from a couple years ago as we were

studying to kind of refresh my history.

But once I had that grounding, I feel like he wants you to see from a macro

level how the children of Israel's story is unfolding, and how it's,

God has loved them always, that he will love them always, and that he's

hoping to have them come back to him.

He wants them to be reconciled, and so he extends these awesome opportunities

for them to be gathered and to come back.

You can also look at Isaiah's writings from a micro level.

And this is probably where I found the most help.

I found myself seeing repentance in almost every chapter.

When the Lord teaches about the children of Israel and how His arm is

stretched out still, I hear repentance.

And not just big, heavy repentance, but this daily repentance.

This opportunity for us to Set down parts of us that are the natural

man tendencies and pick up something better and work our way closer to God.

I felt like that's what you could see this week and Nephi

delights to tell us about it.

In fact, he gives you three big reasons.

You can go in the notes and learn more about this, but in the verses he's

gonna give you three big reasons why it's worth it to wade through these

chapters as hard as they might feel.

The first one comes in 1923.

This is in 1st Nephi when he says that he wants them to more fully

believe the words of Isaiah.

And the patterns that you see in his words will help you more fully believe

in this God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament and the God that

you'll see coming in the Book of Mormon.

It is the same God, yesterday, today, and forever.

You'll more fully believe in him as you study Isaiah's words.

The second one he gives you is in 1924, that you may have hope.

Honestly, for me, this is one of the most powerful parts of Isaiah's writings.

I feel like he's really honest and upfront about the hard things that

will be coming because we chose a different path than God intended for

us, or because he wants us to learn.

But he always ends with hope.

He always tries to pull us back in and say, look at the kind of God you worship.

He is someone you can have hope in.

He will always reach after you.

And then the last one he gives you is in 2 Nephi.

This is in this week's chapters.

It's in 11 verse 8, that you might lift up your heart and rejoice.

The words of Isaiah are not supposed to weigh you down or

make you feel distant from God.

The more you study and the more you come to understand, and for me, the more

years I come back to it and try and try again, the more my heart gets lifted up.

Literally, I feel like because you're standing on that understanding, your

heart is higher and you can rejoice.

Not just that you're making progress, but that the promises that you're

starting to understand and really, truly believe in, they taste good.

And your life gets better when you feel it.

I just, that's what I found all throughout my study this week.

It was a refreshing, joyful struggle.

And I hope it feels like that for you too.

So grab your scriptures, grab your notes.

It's time to get started.

You guys remember a few weeks ago when I talked about how some parts of the

Book of Mormon are fast growing seeds.

You know, like Alma 32 is a fast growing seed for me.

Even the story of Lehi and his family in the beginning of the Book of Mormon,

that's pretty fast growing seeds.

When you get to Third Nephi and you read about the Savior's coming, and the

Sermon on the Mount, and the healing, and the touching of the wounds, like those

are fast growing seeds that when you study them, the scriptures taste good.

Isaiah is a slower growing seed, meaning you might not like the

taste of all of it at first.

It's gonna take some time to get to that point.

But what I found is Isaiah is a very robust seed.

It's hard to kill.

It's hard to make mistakes.

It will Come back year after year, a little bit taller

and a little bit stronger.

You know, it's like the peony bush that I planted, I don't know, 10 years ago.

Every time it comes back, it's just this awesome plant that gets bigger and bolder

and gives me more blossoms every year.

That's Isaiah, you guys.

So just take your time.

If this is your first time really going through it, give yourself

some grace and take your time.

We're going to do seven sparks here.

There are countless things I could share, but I'm hoping to narrow it

down to just seven to get your mind.

Spinning and make you want to get into the verses.

Then, as always, we'll go through five key questions, and then we'll do three object

lessons on a separate video, so you find out how to teach these tricky verses to

your own families and to your classes.

So let's start with spark number one.

So I call this to be delighted.

Because this is, one of the things that intrigued me about Nephi's

approach is, he comes right out of the gate and tells you that these

are delightful scriptures to study.

And it's hard, because honestly, anyone you talk to tells you how hard Isaiah is.

And I love that Nephi is this lone, you know, voice who

says, No, these are delightful.

I just think there's, we have to trust in his joy.

Nephi is someone we should trust at this point.

We've seen him go through hard things, we've watched him lean on the Lord in

cool ways, and we, we trusted him with the bow, we trusted him with the boat, we

should trust him with the words of Isaiah.

And so he's going to start us off with motivation.

So if you look in chapter 11, this is verses 2 and 3.

And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah.

For my soul delighteth in his words.

For I will liken his words unto my people, and I will send them

forth unto all my children.

For he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him.

And my brother Jacob also has seen him as I have seen him.

Wherefore, I will send their words forth unto my children to prove

unto them that my words are true.

Wherefore, by the words of three, God has said, I will establish my word.

Nevertheless, God sendeth more witnesses, and he proveth all his words.

What I like about Nephi's enthusiasm, and he's basically saying, I'm gonna

do everything I can to persuade you that the God that you worship is real.

That the redemption he offers is real.

That the warnings he gives about fallen men are real, and that

we should hold tight to them.

But then he basically says, you don't need to take my word for it.

I've got Jacob, I've got Isaiah, and I've got countless prophets who came

before me, and those who will come after, who will say the exact same thing.

We will all let you know that the God you worship is real.

So delight.

You can delight in that.

What I think is powerful about that with Nephi is he He seems

to specify what he delights in.

I really like that he kind of breaks this down.

He doesn't just delight that there is a God.

He delights what this God offers.

So if you look in some of the verses, he walks it through.

When I was studying a little bit about this word delight, I went into the

1828 dictionary just because I was kind of curious about what that word

might have meant in Joseph Smith's day.

And this is the definition that came up for delightful.

It says, a high degree of pleasure or satisfaction of mind.

joy.

It's the satisfaction of mind part that sparked for me.

There is something about when pieces fall into place, you know, like we've talked

about a few times, this idea of a puzzle.

And when you finally get that piece in the exact right spot, it goes and you

see the pattern on the top match and you feel the click and you see the progress.

Like there is satisfaction that comes.

That's what I see in Nephi's testimony about the savior, especially the

testimony that he gained through.

studying and reciting Isaiah to us because it doesn't just speak of generalities

he speaks of specifics so he talks about redemption that he will this week you're

gonna study Isaiah's story of feeling inadequate for his call and it will

sound a lot like Nephi's psalm at least it did to me You see Isaiah wrestle

with those same emotional rollercoaster feelings that Nephi felt, you know,

when he talked about being a wretched man and, and then pulling himself

up, you get that same arc in Isaiah.

And so I think Nephi delighted in his words because there were similarities,

you know, he, he felt a kinship there.

I think he feels another kinship because Isaiah speaks about home.

Isaiah is from Jerusalem.

He's, he's a prophet that came, like, 100 to 150 years before

Lehi, from their same little town.

You know, not the big Jerusalem that we think of today, but a smaller version.

That's his hometown.

And I wonder, as Nephi ages If there are fewer and fewer people

who remember that town, you know, the same way, like my older kids,

they were all born in Columbus.

So we call them born Buckeyes.

And, you know, they know things like Grater's ice cream and Donato's

pizza and what the horseshoe is.

My younger three, they weren't born there.

They were born in Missouri or Utah.

And so they don't know those things.

They've heard us talk about them, but it's not the same.

So when we run into old friends from Ohio and we start talking

about those things, there is.

There's a delight that comes to our face, you know, to have somebody who knows

what those memories mean is delightful.

And I think Nephi feels that with Isaiah.

I think another reason Nephi sees Isaiah as a You know, somebody

he could rally with is because the way Isaiah speaks about hope.

Nephi has experienced something similar to what Isaiah has experienced.

In Isaiah's day, he sees intense apostasy.

He's already seen the ten tribes be carried off.

He sees Jerusalem falling apart.

He sees leaders giving in to priest crafts and wickedness.

He has to watch this play out.

Nephi also went through a period of seeing sin and separation

and division in his people.

But what Isaiah teaches about is the missing piece that will bring your

brothers home is always the Savior.

In Isaiah's arc and in his stories he talks about the children of Israel being

separated from God by their own choice and then being welcomed back home.

And don't you think that would have sounded so sweet to the ears of Nephi

who's worried about his Brothers, he's worried about his nephews and nieces and,

you know, all the generations that will come later, and he trusts in that hope.

I think he reads Isaiah and feels refreshed in his hope.

And the last thing I think they find, well, there's probably many more, but

the last one that jumped out at me is that they understand this completeness

of God, that He is good, In all ways, His justice is good, His mercy is good,

His teachings are good, His law is good, like they understand the fullness of Him.

I love how it's phrased, this is from 5 to 7 of chapter 11.

And also, my soul delighteth in the covenants of the Lord, which

he hath made to our fathers.

Yea, my soul delighteth in his grace, and in his justice, and in his power,

and in his mercy, in the great eternal plan of deliverance from death.

And my soul delighteth in proving unto my people that save Christ

should come, all men must perish.

For if there be no Christ, then there be no God.

And if there be no God, we are not.

For there could not have been, there could have been no creation, but there

is a God, and he is Christ, and he cometh in the fullness of his own time.

Nephi rejoices that Christ is real, and I think his rejoicing is even deeper

because he hears that same message from a brilliant poet prophet 150 years earlier.

And so he wants us to hear the harmony between those messages.

And when he speaks, and he reads the words of Isaiah, you get that harmony.

This chord is struck that can't be mistaken.

I just think Nephi delights in it.

One of the things that's a little bit tricky about Isaiah is it's

hard to get your bearings in time.

Isaiah doesn't necessarily go in chronological order and he's a prophet.

I call him a prophet of the restoration because so much of what he's teaching

is about the restoration that will occur and he is somebody who has prophecies

about many different periods of time, kind of like you saw in his actual life.

He was a prophet for over 40 years to a bunch of different kings, like

he is somebody who was You know, in court all the time trying to give

advice to these different kings who most of the time didn't listen.

And that's, so you really kind of, it's hard to know what he's referring to.

And what I think is important to remember is that he, his prophecies

apply to all of those times.

So you really can't go wrong.

Like if you're reading what we're going to read in this little spark, we're

going to be in chapter 12 verses 4 and 5.

It has some big millennial applications, but I think you can

also take that exact same Sentiment, that promise, and you can apply it

to our day, and to the days of the restoration, and to the millennial day.

Like, it has a lot of stretch.

So let's read those verses first.

This is, this is 2nd Nephi 12, 4 and 5.

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people, and they

shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither

shall they learn war any more.

O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Ye come, for ye have all gone astray, everyone to his wicked ways.

This verse definitely is about the millennium, but I think when you look

at it in a micro level, it applies to us too, because there's something so powerful

about these two sentiments together.

Let's, I mean, break them down.

First, I love that he says you're going to turn your swords into plowshares.

The reason I like this is I think at a micro level, this

is the repentance process.

When he asks us to set down the natural man, he, he doesn't

want us just to be hollow.

He wants us to become something new.

Remember, Alma's going to teach us about being a new creature in

Christ, becoming something else.

So I really love that metaphor of Going from a sword to a plowshare.

Because I feel like a sword is something I use to defend.

It means I'm feeling hostility towards others.

I'm, you know, that's why I have a sword.

I'm on the defense.

If I'm a plowshare, that means I am something that will be

used to feed and nourish.

And not just for one generation or my table, but many.

He's going to take whatever you offer him and turn it into something that

can feed and nourish and replenish.

Not just you.

but everybody you come in contact with.

That's the repentance process to me.

And so I love that he has that micro level metaphor for us in there.

I just think it's fun to see how the Lord does it.

How he asks you to sacrifice things.

The same way, you know, the anti Nephi Lehi's are gonna bury their weapons and

Peter set down that big net full of fish.

He will take those sacrifices, those swords, and he will turn them into

something that can nourish and can feed.

So I love that piece of the verse.

I also love the invitation to come and walk in the light of the Lord.

I think they have to go together.

When you've made that shift, you will seek out the light.

Sometimes, We don't, because it's hard.

I think, the same way if you've come out of a movie theater, especially

a matinee, you know, and you go out into the full sun after being in this

dark space for so long, the contrast is so glaring that you often will,

like, shield your eyes or even retreat back into the theater for a second.

And that's sort of what Isaiah talks about in chapter 12.

He says, basically, you can choose between these two options.

You can choose to experience the light of the Lord on everything that comes with it.

Or you can choose to hide from him.

In fact, some of the people he talks about, they hide under rocks,

and they, they try to get things to cover them so they can shield

themselves from the glory of his light.

Cause it's blinding if you're not acclimated to it.

What I think is powerful is, he basically says, you're gonna see things.

When, when we sing that song, you know, Teach Me to Walk in the Light,

it sounds so soft and so inviting.

It is, but I think it also means you're gonna see things.

You don't want to see.

I think it's the same way if you were on the live last week we were

talking about that day that I finally changed the light bulb in my closet.

We have this closet that's attached to our bathroom and we get a lot

of natural light in the bathroom so it kind of spills into the closet.

And so I went for like three years without changing the light bulb in that

closet just because we didn't necessarily need it and I never got around to it.

And it was really interesting the day I finally did change the light bulb

because all of a sudden I could see.

All the things I had neglected, you know, like all the parts of the closet

that I hadn't looked at in a long time, and the, the corners and the

crevices that were so full of dust.

I think that's what it means to walk in the light of the Lord, you guys.

It, it means it's going to be hard, you know, that when you seek out an

opportunity to repent and to come to him, you're going to see yourself.

Plainly, you're going to see yourself and all the, all the issues that you have.

What I love is, Nephi's been there, and Isaiah's been there,

and your bishop's been there.

Everybody is rallying for you to say, yeah, but it's worth it.

Because when you choose to see yourself truly, then all of a sudden you can have.

Him with you.

That's why I love that it says, Come let us walk in the light of the Lord.

There is this partnership in the repentance process.

You're not supposed to do this alone.

You have the help from the Lord himself and you have support networks

in place to guide you through it.

So I just love it.

This is Elder Christofferson.

This is what he says.

A consecrated life is a beautiful thing.

Its strength and serenity are as a very fruitful tree which is planted

in a goodly land by a pure stream that yieldeth much precious fruit.

Of particular significance is the influence of a consecrated man

or woman upon others, especially those closest and dearest.

The consecration of many who have gone before us and others who

live among us have helped lay the foundation for our happiness.

In a like manner, future generations will take courage from your consecrated life,

acknowledging their debt to you for the possession of all that truly matters.

I feel like we are reaping the rewards of Nephi's consecrated

life and Isaiah's consecrated life.

They are people who chose to let their swords be turned into plowshares.

They are people who chose to walk in the light, even though it made them

feel like a wretched man at times.

They are those who chose to let the light fall on them so that we could see them

and we could pattern our lives after them.

And by default, pattern our lives after the Savior that they saw.

I think that's a beautiful invitation.

Repeatedly, the New Testament year, we studied those two great commandments

that we're asked to love God always and first and to also love our fellow men.

What I think is interesting is when you love God well and you do

your best to keep that commandment, he'll teach you how to love others.

But when you start to reject God and reject his law and reject his

prophets, then you forget how to love others or you don't even see others.

And I think you get that feel with.

These chapters, especially in chapter 12 and chapter 13, this is when Isaiah

is trying to teach his people about their loftiness and how all of that's

going to get cut out from under them.

Like this, these gauze that they've made of their own hands, meaning

like the ships that they've built and the military victories they have

and the adornments that they wear.

All of those things that they've designed to puff themselves up, they're

all going to be swept out from under them and there won't be anything left.

And so he He warns them about it because he can see what inevitably happens.

When you turn away from God and you start to lose the blessings that he hopes

to give you, you get kind of frantic.

You know, haven't you felt this sometimes?

Like you, you get very clingy with your time and your energy and your talents

and you kind of you separate from others and you get very You know, almost

hoardery with, with what you have left and you get that feel in these verses.

So this is Second Nephi 13, 14 through 16.

I'm going to just start with 14 and 15.

He says, the Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his

people and the princes thereof for you have eaten the vineyard and the

spoil of the poor in your houses.

What mean ye?

You beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the

poor, saith the Lord of hosts.

It's almost like they've stopped, when they stopped following his law,

they stopped caring for the poor.

So remember some of the Law of Moses rules that we read in the Old Testament,

like, for example, that the corners of the fields, that they would leave those

so that people like Ruth could come and glean from them, so that those who were

poor had a way to take care of themselves.

There were basic welfare systems built into the Law of Moses.

And because they're starting to distort the law, and they're starting to hoard

things to themselves, then the poor are the ones who are Taking the brunt of it.

What sparked for me is that phrase, that you grind the faces of the poor.

I guess I just kind of wondered, what does that mean?

How do you beat and grind the faces of the poor?

And so I started to dig a little bit and study.

To me, what I found is, especially as I started to read more

prophetic commentary about the need for taking care of the poor.

In our day, in every day of the Lord's Church, there has been this

commandment to care for the poor.

And I think there's something about it that comes down to dignity.

I think when we grind the faces of the poor it means we are

feeding from their sorrows.

It always reminds me of Hunger Games, you know, the movie or the books,

if you read the books, but it's this idea of like there is so much distance

between the wealthy and everybody else and they almost delight and

feast on the suffering of the poor.

There is this huge divide and I think it's that they delight in the comparison

because they're not getting delight from their things Right the things that they

have that they hoped would bring them joy aren't bringing them joy So where they're

finding their joy is in the comparison.

Well, at least I have more than the other guy You know That's where their

happiness comes from and it can't last and it creates a really sick society And

so I think where we know from the New Testament that the gospel of Jesus Christ

is all about bringing dignity to men When you grind the faces of the poor, to me

that means you're pulling dignity away.

And I started to think of, this is probably just my interpretation of

things, but when you grind something down, you almost take away all of

its distinctive characteristics.

You know, if I'm sanding a piece of wood and I sand it intensely,

you take away all of its, you know, unique grains and you, it just

becomes this kind of generic thing.

And I feel like that's sort of what happens when we create

distance between ourselves and those who need our compassion.

When we start to see them in lumps, when we start to see the people who

need compassion in this big group, and we stop seeing stories and

faces and names, and we start to generalize things and create divisions.

One of the things that really jumped out at me this week as I was studying

There was this beautiful talk about taking care of the poor from Elder

Holland, and he referenced Mary.

You know the Mary that brought the alabaster box of oil, and

she offers it to the Savior, and she gets judged because of it?

And he basically reprimands those who judge her in that moment?

This is from Mark 14, this is verse 6 and 8.

And Jesus said, Let her alone, why trouble ye her?

She hath brought a good work on me, she hath done what she could.

She has come aforehand to anoint my body for the burying.

I think this idea of appreciating the poor, seeing what they need,

and showing compassion to them.

What the Savior does in this moment is not just accept her

gift, but he gives her dignity.

He says to every person in the room, her gift matters.

She gave all she could.

The same way he saw the widow and her two knights and said

she gave all that she could.

That is dignity, and it is valuable to the Lord, and he sees them as Equal,

you know, he sees their offering as good and I feel like that's

what he's asking us to do as well.

Especially as we approach those who are in need, whether it's a spiritual

need or a physical need, we're supposed to try to find ways to add dignity to

their lives and to find ways to find common ground and close the gaps.

I love Amulek's teaching.

This is Alma 3428.

And now behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you, do not suppose this is all,

for after you've done all these things, if you turn away the needy and the naked,

and visit not the sick and the afflicted, and impart not of your substance, if

you have, to those who stand in need, I say unto you, if you do not any of

these things, behold, your prayer is in vain, and it availeth you nothing, and

ye are as hypocrites who deny the faith.

I think that phrase at the end, where he says you're denying

faith, I found that fascinating.

It linked right in with Isaiah to me.

Because I feel like what he's saying is, if you refuse the poor, if you

start grinding their faces and seeing them generically, and you don't want

to know their stories, and you don't want to be up close, and you don't

want to feel what they feel, I feel what it is, is it's a way to say

to the Lord, You can't do enough.

You know, it's almost, I hold on to my energy and my time and my talents because

I fear that there won't be enough.

And I think, if I have increased faith in the Lord, that means I

know that there is always enough.

And so I can serve, and I can give.

I don't have to hold tight to things because I trust that His

grace and what He can offer me will fill me, will replenish me.

So, in my mind, I feel like if you're willing to care for the poor, it

says, I trust that God is enough.

He is an infinite God who can be enough.

So I'm gonna let go and I'm gonna let God prevail.

Spark number four I call breaking ground because it kind of reminds me

of anytime you've been to a temple site in the process of having that

temple be built there is a phase where it's just not pretty, right?

Things have to get destroyed to some degree before things can be built in

God's way and you see that happening in these chapters because basically what

Isaiah is going to describe is that there will be a burning that occurs.

When we were studying this together in the Old Testament, this is when I told you

guys about that patch of forest, remember?

There's this patch of forest between our house and Jason's parents house that had

this big black section, and I thought maybe there was some disaster that had

happened, and really it was that there was a controlled burn that occurred there,

and that the controlled burn was something where they came in and deliberately set a

certain area that would get destroyed so that that Those nutrients could go back

into the ground and help it thrive again.

And also to prevent bigger destruction from happening.

If another forest fire caught it, it prevents it from like

taking over the entire canyon.

And that's kinda what Isaiah can see.

He's basically like the foreman on a construction site or the

fireman at that in the forest fire.

He's basically saying to everyone who's there, clear the area there is.

He's already seen the beginning stages of it and he's like,

the writing is on the wall.

We, you need to go.

You need to find shelter elsewhere.

They just don't listen.

They don't listen, and so they struggle.

But there is purpose behind the destruction, and I guess that's what

I found helpful in chapter 14, is that Isaiah lays out what that purpose is,

why this destruction phase has to happen.

So if you look in verse 4, it says, When the Lord shall have washed away

the filth of the daughters of Zion, and have purged the blood of Jerusalem from

the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.

And then in 5, And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of

Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies a cloud and a smoke by day and a

shining of flaming fire by night.

For upon all the glory of Zion shall be a defense.

And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the

heat, and a place of refuge, and a covert from the storm and from rain.

What he's promising here is that there's a purpose behind the destruction.

The children of Israel have worshipped their own gods, they've fallen to all,

they've ignored the warnings and they've fallen to all of the You know, the

temptations that were surrounding them and so they're weak and there will be

a destruction phase that has to occur.

But that has to occur because of what, the holy thing that

will be built in its place.

And I feel like Nephi must have loved these verses because this

is exactly what just happened with him a couple weeks ago, right?

When he had to separate from his brothers so that he could take his

family and all who would follow him and who hoped for a life of righteousness.

and begin anew.

You know, the whole land of Nephi began because he's essentially doing just this.

He's saying, we need to be somewhere else in order to thrive.

And that's kind of what the Lord does here.

I don't think he ever seeks the destruction of his children.

I don't think he wanted this for the children of Israel.

In fact, I know he didn't.

We're going to learn that in subsequent verses, but he, he sees where they are

and he says, this is the safest course to where we need to be in order to

build that holy city, in order to get to, to the people I need you to be,

this destruction phase has to happen.

And so he allows it to occur.

Probably the most powerful thing I found in these verses

came from the footnote path.

So if you go on the footnotes on this destruction and this rebuilding, this idea

of You know, building a place of refuge on this holy ground that is now purified and

cleansed it, it takes you to Isaiah 60.

This is one through three, and then also 19 and 20.

It says, arise, shine, for thy light has come.

The glory of the Lord is risen upon me.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and growth, darkness the people.

But the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and the kings to

the brightness of thy rising.

The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither the brightness shall the moon

give unto thee, but the Lord shall be thy everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

The sun shall no more go down, neither shall the moon withdraw itself, for the

Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

The reason the Lord allows destruction phases to happen in our lives, I think,

is because He wants to get to that phase where we have Him as our light.

And not just a temporary light or a mortal light, but an everlasting light

that can illuminate All the questions and all the struggles that you feel.

I think this is what President Nelson was talking about when he,

he spoke about spiritual momentum.

I pulled one of the quotes because I just thought it It tied in.

He's talking about this micro level, this daily repentance and how we need

this destruction phase when we repent, this time of, you know, godly sorrow

and sometimes grief that comes so that we can rebuild into something else.

This is what he says, This path is rigorous, and at times it

will feel like a steep climb.

This ascent, however, is designed to test and teach us, refine our

natures, and help us to become saints.

It is the only path that leads to exaltation.

One prophet described the blessed and happy state of those who

kept the commandments of God.

For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual, and

if they hold out faithful to the end, they are received into heaven and dwell with

God in a never ending state of happiness.

That's why we need destruction phases as hard as they feel.

When we feel the soil of our life being tossed and turned, it's because

he's trying to create a place for holy ground, where something steady

and everlasting can be built.

Spark number five I call the parable of the grounded because it reminds

me a little bit about when you ground your kids and it also has a lot to

do with ground so it fits for me.

Basically this is where you see a parable play out it's kind of like Jacob 5 you

know the allegory of the olive tree that we've studied it's it's almost

like that but in a cliff notes condensed version because he talks about a vineyard

keeper and how he's done so much to try and create a lush good harvest.

So if you look in chapter 15 verses 1 and 2 it says this, And then I will

sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard.

For my well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it,

and he gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine,

and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein.

And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

This is Isaiah speaking about the children of Israel.

He's basically saying the Lord set all these gifts and blessings up for you.

He prepared this promised land for you.

He gave you prophets.

He gave you law.

He gave you all these promises and you produced wild grapes.

And what's fascinating to me is what happens next because the Lord doesn't

destroy the vineyard and he doesn't destroy the plant He just starts to pull

things away This is why I call it the parable of the grounded because it's

basically what you do with your kids when You're in this same spot So if you

look in five and six it says and now go to and I will tell you what I will do

with my vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up

I'll break down the wall thereof and it shall be trodden down I will lay at

waste, and it shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up friars

and thorns, and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

From the children of Israel's perspective, when they are conquered by Babylonians

and conquered by the Assyrians, they will feel, to some degree, neglected.

They'll feel isolated and left alone and they sometimes will turn against God.

They will blame him for their struggles and say, where are you?

You promised to be here with us.

And what Isaiah is trying to help them see is, oh no, he is here.

But when you rejected him, he had to pull away that hedge and

he had to take down that tower.

When, when they persecute the prophets like Jeremiah, that Watchmen on the

Tower is no longer, you know, you can see this playing out the same way when

your kids are grumpy for being grounded You're not actually punishing them.

You know when you take away their phone, you're not punishing them What

you're doing is you're taking a blessing that you gave them to bring them joy

and you're pulling it back The reason I think this matters so much for us

individually, at least for me, is that sometimes I think when we feel those

That isolation that comes when we feel blessings being pulled back from us.

We start to turn against God.

You know, have you ever felt like this?

Like you start to say things like, if you're a loving God,

why would you let this happen?

If you really cared about me, you would do, and then you fill in the blank.

We start to turn against God, and I think that's what Isaiah is warning about in 20.

I've never read this verse this way before, so I could be wrong, you guys,

but this is how I took it this time.

Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for

light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

And woe unto the wise in their own eyes and the prudent in their own sight.

I think what he's trying to say is when you feel those moments of abandonment,

or what you think is abandonment, usually what it is is Heavenly Father pulling back

a blessing and inviting you to change.

inviting you to be obedient so that you can get that blessing back.

The same way I am eager to give my kids phones back.

Like I, it's a hassle for me to take their phones.

It's a hassle when they're grounded or they can't drive the car.

I'm eager to give them the blessings that, that I have ready for them,

but I need them to be obedient first.

And I think when they, when their heart is hard, they'll say

things like, Mom's the worst.

She's so mean.

You know, like, they just, they start to call good evil and evil good.

They start to mix things up.

Light and dark get tricky.

And I feel like one of the resulting ramifications of

this is what you see in 24.

It says, Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the

chaff, their root shall be rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust.

Because they cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despise the

word of the Holy One of Israel.

If we stay in that space too long, this space where I blame

God, where I, I'm frustrated or I feel like He has abandoned me.

If I stay in that space too long, I stop pulling nourishment from the soil, which

is why He describes it like a plant that you pull up and the roots are just rotten.

There's nothing to hold them.

There's nothing to tether them to the nourishment because

I've, I've stopped receiving.

I've started to You know, call sweet bitter and bittersweet.

I just think there's a soft warning in that, not just for the

children of Israel, but for us.

That we need to look at our blessings and be grateful for them.

And when we feel a need for blessings that we've had in the past and hope for again,

we should seek to come closer to God rather than to blame Him and accuse Him.

I just think that's, that's Isaiah's big warning.

Spark number six, I call simply Isaiah's story, because I really love

that in the midst of all these big macro level prophecies, he stops and

he tells us about his, I wouldn't say his conversion story, but his

call, like his call to be a prophet.

To me, this is just another evidence of how Isaiah is teaching us all about

repentance as he teaches us about the children of Israel, because his

story about receiving this call to be a prophet is a repentance story.

It's powerful to me.

It feels a lot like other repentant stories we have in scripture.

Not because Isaiah is coming from a place of terrible sinfulness.

I don't really think about his story.

I don't think he's any more sinful than Nephi was, but I think he is

someone who recognized the distance between himself and what he is.

Knows God wants for him and he, he worries.

So this is in chapter 16.

A lot of people call this a Throne Theophany because it's basically

a vision of God on his throne.

And it's, you know, written in symbolic language so you can go

in the notes and learn a lot more about what those symbols might mean.

But he basically sees angels and he is I don't know if it's afraid but he is aware

of of his weaknesses, of his problems.

The same way I was aware of my closet's issues as soon as I turned that light on.

So being around the throne of God and being around his

angels Makes you very aware.

So if you look in the verses, this is 16 verses 5 through 8.

And then I said, this is Isaiah speaking, Woe is unto me, for I am

undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of

people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, that's just an angel, having a live

coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and

he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, thine

iniquity is taken away, thy sin purged.

What to me is so beautiful about this moment is.

Isaiah chooses to tell us this part of the story.

That must have been tender and, you know, a very Sweet, visionary

experience just for Isaiah, and he chooses to put it in here.

The same way Enos tells us his story about a really similar moment.

The same way Nephi tells us his story about feeling like a wretched man and then

choosing to believe in the goodness of God and the redemptive power of Christ.

What's interesting to me is Isaiah seems to point out not just that he has

unclean lips, but he's like, I come from a place where everybody has unclean lips.

I, I'm a natural man.

I, I live in a fallen world.

How can I overcome this and by taking that coal and touching it to his lips

or having the angel do it for him?

It's this gift of it's a symbol for using the atonement of Jesus Christ

and that in this moment He's changed.

It's it's this rapid change that you almost Kind of staggered by the same

way when we heard the Savior heal and help people in the New Testament

He would often say go that way and sin no more, you know, they sins are

forgiven me and you're just like wait Well, how did that happen so fast?

In fact, I love the way it's raised with Enos.

So Enos, that's Nephi's nephew So we're gonna read about him soon, but he talks

about Seeing in his mind this joy that his father has spoken about and wanting

to know more, wanting to know for himself.

So he has that big wrestle with the Lord over the course of a night praying.

This is from four to eight.

And my soul hungered and I kneeled down before my maker and I cried

unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul all

the day long that I cried unto him.

He's in this moment where he feels like he has unclean lips.

All the day long.

And he's crying unto the Lord.

And when the night came, I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

And there came a voice unto me, saying, Enos, thy sins are forgiven

thee, and thou shalt be blessed.

And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie, wherefore my guilt was swept away.

And I said, Lord, how is it done?

And he said unto me, Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never

before heard nor seen, and many years passed away before he shall manifest

himself in the flesh, wherefore go to, thy faith hath made thee whole.

I feel like that's essentially what we see happening with Isaiah.

When that angel touches his lips with this coal and gives him this

gift of the atonement of Jesus Christ, he basically says, go to,

thy faith hath made thee whole.

Isaiah's doing the same thing.

He hasn't seen Christ in the flesh.

He's had visionary experiences.

In fact, I don't know where this call fits in with all the other experiences

he's had with the Lord or with divinity.

I just think he's He's so honest in this, in expressing how

he felt before the repentance process, and during it, and after.

In fact, it's what he does after that I love the most.

He does the same thing that Enos does, and that Nephi does.

He basically says, where do you want me to go?

What, what can I do?

And that's when he gets his call.

So if you look in 2 Nephi 16, verse 8, Also, I heard the voice of the

Lord saying, Whom shall I send?

Who will go for us?

And then I said, here I am.

Send me.

Isaiah knows who he was five minutes ago or whatever time is

like in this visionary experience.

He knows exactly who he's been and he knows who he is right

now and he says, send me.

I think there's power in that because so often in the repentance process

we get mired down and we can't let go of our past selves and we don't want

to believe that the Atonement is as powerful as it is and we doubt, right?

And what Isaiah says in this moment is I'm just gonna go forward.

Enos does the same thing.

He goes forward in faith and trusts that though that guilt is swept away and

he doesn't need to harbor it anymore.

I love, there's a BYU devotional from a man named Robert Gardner

and he, he says this, Certainly throughout our lives we are repeated,

we repeatedly have opportunities to step forward and declare here am I.

Some of these times are formal, such as when we receive a mission call,

have a temple recommend interview with a bishop, or receive a call

from the, a calling in the church.

As we're reminded in the Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, other

times may come to us unexpectedly.

Of course, the time will come for all of us when we must ultimately present

ourselves before our Maker, stripped of any pretense, and declare, Here am I.

The outcome of that experience is largely dependent on how well

we follow our Redeemer's example as He stepped forward with this

initiative, involvement, and integrity.

He is urging us to repent.

That's how I take it.

I think Isaiah is, I think Brother Gardner is, I think all of these people

are saying take this day and repent.

The atonement is powerful enough to purge you of whatever it is you're afraid of.

It takes time and it's processed, but it is worth it because then

you can say to the Lord, here I am.

Like, in all honesty and without hiding, you can say, here I am, and then he will

say, go to, you know, I have work for you.

Spark number seven, I call Choose the Shiloh, because this is one of those

choose your own adventure type moments.

You know, did you ever read those books as a kid?

And you can kind of, you get to this point, this crossroads, and you have

to pick one course or the other, and what you choose has huge impacts on

what happens in the rest of your story.

That's basically what Isaiah is saying.

He's taking them back and he's saying, let's go back to that

moment where you made a choice to flip to page 67 instead of 89.

And that's what you see play out in chapter 18.

Because he's basically saying, those troubles that you feel right now

because of the Assyrian army that is coming and the destruction that

you're feeling in your beautiful city.

I can take you back to where that decision was made.

And this is what he describes.

So this is verse five, well five through eight.

The Lord spake also unto me again, saying, Forasmuch as this people refuseth

the waters of Shiloh that go softly and rejoice in Rezin and Remeliah's son,

now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up on them the waters of the river.

Strong and many even the king of Assyria and all his glory and he shall come up

over his channels and go over his Over all his banks and he shall pass through

Judah and shall overthrow Overflow and go over he's describing two different

rivers In fact, the first one isn't even a river this Shiloh is this natural spring?

It comes right up near Temple Mount and it's this pure water that bubbles

up and has this gentle course down And then he has this Euphrates River.

And basically what he's saying is Isaiah's trying to take them back to

that moment of decision and he's saying when you chose to reject the prophets,

when you chose to turn against God and make idols again and puff yourselves

up with vanity, you chose to turn to page 89 and you should have taken the

road to Shiloh, this soft gentle brook.

What's powerful is he reminds them that Emmanuel is their God still.

That's at the very end of verse 8.

He says, and he shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over,

and he shall reach even to the neck, and stretching out of his wings shall fill

the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

Immanuel means God with us.

The reason I think that's powerful in this particular set of verses is he's

basically saying, whichever direction you choose, that soft, gentle stream,

or this raging river, I am with you.

I am here with you no matter what.

We saw that all throughout the Old Testament.

That no matter what they chose, The Lord was with them.

He, He continually stays with them.

He just can't give them the blessings that they hope for.

So if they choose the Shiloh, He can bless them and cushion them along the way down.

If they choose the Euphrates, He can't give them those options.

So they're gonna get a little battered and a little bruised.

And honestly, I think it's the same thing.

Prophets and apostles are teaching us right now.

Like when president oaks spoke at conference and he talked about the

kingdom of glory He he brought it back to our choice He says we have a loving

heavenly father who will see that we receive every blessing and every advantage

that our own desires and choices allow Our heavenly father seeks to bless us.

He wants us home In fact, if you go in the paragraph above that with

president oaks He talks about how he wants us to live with him forever.

He wants us there and he's going to give us every possible opportunity to

repent To choose other courses, and if we don't pick it, it's, it's on us, right?

That's, that's his imitation.

I think the waters of the Shiloh are designed to nourish and replenish

us, and the waters of the Euphrates are gonna batter us a little

bit, but either way we can come.

What I think is powerful about this image is, I think especially as you're

teaching teenagers, sometimes They think that in order to really appreciate the

goodness of God, they've got to sin a lot.

You know, in order to really appreciate and be a good prophet, you've got

to have Alma Younger's backstory.

You've got to make all these big mistakes.

And this is what the Lord, I think, is trying to teach.

He's saying, Oh no, I can, I can create a course for you, a gentle course.

You'll still have adversity and struggle, but I can create a course for you that

if you follow my guideposts, if you stay within the law and you follow

the prophets and you feast on my word, it is a, it's a gentle course to be.

And if you go a different road, you've got the Euphrates, and that's his warning.

There's a great talk from Robert Matthews about this idea of a stone

of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Because I think this is the ramification that happens based on what we choose.

If we choose the Euphrates option, we abandon the prophets, we do our

own thing, we trust our own wisdom.

Then we end up seeing Christ as a stumbling block, a rock of offense.

If we choose the waters of the Shiloh, we see him as this.

Gentle guide along the river, and it's up to us to decide where we will go.

I think you guys probably know the drill by now, but I'm going to ask you five

key questions here just to wrap things up and hopefully get you intrigued,

get you into your scriptures and get you having really good conversations

as you try to sort out the answers.

One of my favorite parts of any lesson is when a really good question

is asked and you have to sit and think and let the spirit Work on

you and triangulate truth by hearing answers from all different people.

So I'm hoping that happens here as well Okay, question number one.

This comes from that first chapter.

This is 11 verse 8 This is when Nephi is teaching us about

likening the scriptures unto us.

I guess I found myself wondering this week based on what we've learned the

last couple weeks, especially from Jacob about this process of restoration

that will occur and how There will be the Gentiles will bring the children

of Israel's children back, you know, they're, they will carry them in

their arms and on their shoulders.

And I guess I wondered if maybe there's some connection between studying the

words of Isaiah and the great gathering.

So my question is, how do you think understanding things like Isaiah's

time period, his geography, all those things that we're supposed to study

when you study Isaiah, like his, the things he uses, the measurements he has.

Is there some connection between what we're asked to study to understand Isaiah

and what will actually help us be better at bringing the children of Israel?

Home.

Do you think there's a connection there?

Okay, second question.

This one comes from 5 ish.

There's an interesting phrase that pops up in both those places.

It says in 3, And many people shall go and say come ye and let us go

up to the mountain of the Lord.

And then 5, Come ye, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Isaiah seems to be urging us to like link arms, not just with each other,

but with him across time somehow and go up to the mountain of the Lord.

And my question for you is simple.

Where do you see prophets and apostles doing this today?

Not just teaching us what to do, but linking arms with us

and inviting us to come up with them to the Mount of the Lord.

I think it's a powerful thing that this prophet does in scripture.

And I think you actually see it in our day too.

And I would love to know where you see that happening.

Third question.

This is 12.

This is when Isaiah taught about the leaders being a big source of the problem.

Remember how Jacob talked a little bit about this through Isaiah as well, that

there was priestcraft that were getting into the leadership, that there was

sin and wickedness in the leadership, which then filters down into the

people and causes spiritual atrophy.

In 12 he says, Oh my people, they who lead thee cause thee to err

and destroy the way of thy path.

That phrase was interesting to me.

It almost felt like Hansel and Gretel kind of, you know, like, it's almost like

the leaders are deliberately getting rid of tradition, getting rid of their past,

like their stories of miracles, their, their rewriting history a little bit.

And I wondered if you see that happening in our day at all.

If you see the forces of the adversary working to, Distort our past or to make

us forget our past or to rewrite the past and where do you see that playing?

Okay, fourth question.

Second Nephi.

This is chapter 15.

This is around 25 to 30 or so I thought it was interesting that many times in

this week's reading you're gonna see Isaiah teach in these powerful Contrasts.

So for example from 25 to 30, he talks about an enzyme to the nations.

Now every other time I've thought of an enzyme to the nations I think of I

think of like a big flag that's going to call everybody up, but in this

particular case, he's actually referring to the consequences that will come

to the children of Israel in Isaiah's day because they ignored the Lord.

They, they, he will put up an enzyme so that their enemies can come

and carry out the consequences.

You know, he's withdrawing that blessing.

Remember that hedge he said he built around the vineyard?

When they turn against him, he starts to pull that hedge away.

And one of the ways he does that is by planting an enzyme essentially, you know,

metaphorically, so that they can feel the ramifications of a life without his care.

Or not, maybe not care, without his caretaking.

And I thought it was interesting that you could see such a That you

could see visuals in both ways.

You see this again later in the verses, when you see him talking repeatedly

about his arm being stretched out, or his hand is stretched out still.

You can read that softly, you know, as this invitation to come unto him that

he will always extend this arm of mercy.

You can read those exact same phrases and also read them to mean, his hand

of justice is stretched out still, meaning This is the consequence you

asked for and chose, and here it is.

I guess I'm curious, why do you think the Lord teaches this way?

Why does he use phrases that can teach light and dark, that

can teach blessings and trials?

Why does he use this kind of imagery, and where else do you see it?

Specifically, my question is, what other symbols can mean both good and bad things,

and why does the Lord teach with contrast?

Okay, fifth question.

This is 6.

Isaiah is promising essentially what you read here in Handel's Messiah.

This is when you hear that epic verse.

This is verse 6.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon

his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the

Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

I think that Wonderful, Counselor, Peace is particularly Interesting here.

I, often when I think about a counselor, I think of the Holy Ghost being a counselor,

a comforter, a guide, a teacher of sorts.

I'm curious where you see that being an attribute of the Savior.

I mean, of course it is.

It fits, right?

But I'm curious how you see it.

Where in your daily life have you seen the Lord being a wonderful counselor for you?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Before we head into the creative, I just want to leave

one last little thought here.

I love the way Isaiah teaches about reconciliation all throughout, you know,

at a big macro level, at a small micro level, it's just this constant invitation

to come close and be reconciled to him.

He even gives us his own story of feeling exposed and vulnerable and not good

enough and feeling the sweeping grace.

of Jesus Christ that allows him to move forward.

He has stepped into that light and he knows what it feels like and he's inviting

us to come with him and I love it.

What I felt as I read Isaiah's words this week were I felt

Elder Holland's voice in my head.

As weird as that sounds, in the past I've read Isaiah kind of cryptically and cold

and because so many times the words of Isaiah are referenced in Elder Holland's

I found myself putting Elder Holland's voice on Isaiah and his storytelling and

his symbols and I loved it so much more.

I just felt, when I listened with Elder Holland ringing in my ears,

Isaiah's words meant more to me.

You can hear some of Isaiah's sentiments in Elder Holland's writings.

For example, in this one from 2006.

To all of you who think you are lost or without hope, or who think you have done

too much that was too wrong for too long, to everyone of you who worries that you

are stranded somewhere on the wintry plains of life, that you've wrecked your

handcart in the process, this conference calls out Jehovah's unrelenting refrain.

My hand is stretched out still.

I shall lengthen out my arm unto them, he said, and even if they deny me,

nevertheless I will be merciful unto them.

If they will repent and come unto me, for my arm is lengthened out all the

day long, saith the Lord God of hosts.

That's Elder Holland to me.

When he teaches, I feel like he's constantly saying, trust

in the God that I know and love.

Come close, be reconciled.

That's what Isaiah says over and over again.

I've seen him, I know him, come close, and we can trust him.

If we can trust Elder Holland, we can certainly trust Isaiah.