Isaiah class 9

Thoughts from the ninth of ten classes, Thursday, December 10, 2009

For the first time since this series of classes started, Avraham Gileadi provided us an actual handout with scriptural references from Isaiah and the Book of Mormon concerning the major points he has been making. He titled his compilation "The Book of Mormon's Endtime Scenario of Concurrent Events Based on the Prophecies of Isaiah."

These are the 14 endtime events he listed, which taken all together constitutes Israel's restoration:

• The Lord sets His hand the second time: 2 Nephi 6:14; 25:17; 29:1; Jacob 6:2 (Isaiah 11:11).

• The Lord makes bare His arm: 1 Nephi 22:10–11; 3 Nephi 16:20; 20:35 (Isaiah 51:9; 52:10).

• The Lord's servant fulfills his mission: 3 Nephi 20:43–45; 21:8–11 (Isaiah 11:10–12; 41:2, 25, 27; 42:1–7; 44:26–28; 45:1–6, 13; 46:11–13; 48:14–16; 49:1–9; 50:4–10; 51:7–9; 52:13–15; 53:11–12; 55:3–5).

• The Lord performs a great and marvelous work: 1 Nephi 14:7, 17; 22:8; 2 Nephi 25:17; 29:1; 30:8; 3 Nephi 21:9, 26–29 (Isaiah 29:14).

• The gentiles reject the gospel after receiving it: 2 Nephi 28:24–32; 3 Nephi 16:10; 20:15, 28; 21:11 (Isaiah 28:7–29; 29:9–16; 41:21–29; 42:18–25; 50:1–11; 56:9–12; 48:1–7; 59:1–16; 66:5–6).

• Many fight against Zion: 1 Nephi 22:14, 19; 2 Nephi 6:12–13; 10:13, 16; 29:14 (Isaiah 29:7–8).

• Kings and queens of the gentiles nourish the house of Israel: 1 Nephi 22:6–8; 2 Nephi 6:6–7; 10:8–9, 18; 3 Nephi 16:4 (Isaiah 43:3–8; 49:22–23; 60:1–16).

• Israel receives a knowledge of the gospel: 1 Nephi 15:13–16; 22:9, 11; 2 Nephi 6:11, 14; 10:7; 25:16, 18; 29:13; 3 Nephi 16:4, 11–12; 20:13, 30–32, 40; 21:7–8, 26–27 (Isaiah 48:6–8; 52:6–8).

• The saints and covenant people of the Lord are endowed with power: 1 Nephi 14:14; 22:17; 2 Nephi 6:14; 3 Nephi 16:15; 20:16–17, 19, 22, 36; 21:11–13, 25 (Isaiah 41:8–16; 51:9–10; 52:1–3).

• Israel returns from dispersion: 1 Nephi 22:12; 2 Nephi 6:6, 11; 10:8–9; 29:14; 3 Nephi 16:5; 20:13, 18, 29, 33, 41–42; 21:1, 23–29 (Isaiah 11:10–12; 43:5–8; 49:8–12, 22; 51:11; 52:11–12).

• The wicked are destroyed: 1 Nephi 14:5–7, 15–17; 22:13–19; 2 Nephi 6:14–18; 30:9–10; 3 Nephi 16:15; 20:16–20; 21:12–21 (Isaiah 41:2, 11–16; 43:14–17; 47:1–15; 49:24–26; 54:5–17).

• The righteous are delivered: 1 Nephi 14:5, 14; 22:17, 19; 2 Nephi 6:16–17; 30:10; 3 Nephi 20:36–38 (Isaiah 42:7; 43:1–4; 45:13–17; 48:20–21; 49:24–25; 51:11, 21–23; 52:1–12; 55:12).

• Israel receives lands of inheritance: 1 Nephi 22:12; 2 Nephi 6:11; 10:7, 10, 19; 29:14; 3 Nephi 16:5, 16; 20:14, 21–22, 29, 33–34, 46; 21:22–24 (Isaiah 44:26, 28; 49:8; 51:3; 54:2–3, 11–12).

• God fulfills His covenants with the house of Israel: 1 Nephi 14:5, 8, 17; 15:18; 22:6, 9, 11; 2 Nephi 6:12; 10:7, 15, 17; 29:1, 14; 3 Nephi 16:5, 11–12; 20:12, 22, 25–27, 29, 46; 21:4, 7 (Isaiah 54:10; 55:3).

Brother Gileadi's contention is that if we as Latter-day Saints read the Book of Mormon thinking we are Israel, we will get it all wrong. In Book of Mormon terms, we are identified with the gentiles. Although, having made covenants with the Lord, we are numbered among Israel.

His conclusion: "When carefully researched, analyzed, and compared, the foregoing scriptural references demonstrate how the Book of Mormon's endtime scenario consists of a series of concurrent events predicted by the prophet Isaiah. Drawing on different parts of the Book of Isaiah—as if all depict a single scenario—Nephi, Jacob, and Jesus provide variations on one theme: the restoration of the house of Israel, which house of Israel they identify as Jews, Lehi's descendants, and [the] Ten Tribes.

"Israel's restoration involves the Lord's 'setting his hand the second time' to restore his people; the Lord's 'baring his arm' to all nations; the Lord's servant fulfilling his mission to the nations; the Gentiles rejecting the fulness of the gospel after having received it; the Lord's performing his 'great and marvelous work' among the nations; many people, including former believers, fighting against Zion; the (spiritual) kings and queens of the Gentiles nourishing the house of Israel; the house of Israel accepting the fulness of the gospel; the saints and covenant people of the Lord being endowed with power over their enemies; the house of Israel returning from dispersion in an exodus from the four directions of the earth; the destruction of the wicked of the world and the deliverance of the righteous; the house of Israel and those numbered among them receiving lands of inheritance; and the Father's fulfilling his covenant with the house of Israel and with Israel's ancestors.

"By the Book of Mormon's own definition, this synchronized series of events constitutes the Lord's 'great and marvelous work' and defines God's fulfilling his covenant. Employing a literary device familiar from the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Mormon ties the above events together domino fashion within the scriptural passages cited above to establish a single endtime scenario that is still future. Only by taking all such passages together, not separately, therefore, does this complete scenario clearly appear. The chapters of Isaiah from which the above events are drawn comprise principally the Book of Isaiah's high point in the vicinity of Chapter 52, but include also others such as Chapters 11 and 29. As with the Book of Mormon passages, however, these chapters cannot be isolated from others in the Book of Isaiah—to which they are linked by linguistic, typological, and thematic interconnections—without distorting the message of both Isaiah and the Book of Mormon.

"The part played by Latter-day Saints, who are identified with the Gentiles in the Book of Mormon (D&C 109:60), is to facilitate Israel's restoration through seven phases, the first two of which precede the Book of Mormon's endtime scenario while the remainder comprise it: 1. the restoration of the gospel to the Gentiles; 2. the completion of the scattering of the house of Israel by the Gentiles; 3. the Lord's servant bringing forth the words of Christ to the Gentiles; 4. many Gentiles rejecting the fulness of the gospel after receiving it, resulting in their being 'cut off from among my people who are of the covenant'; 5. the kings of the Gentiles hearkening to the words of Christ that the servant brings forth and ministering to the house of Israel; 6. the gospel turning away from the Gentiles back to the house of Israel; and 7. the house of Israel's restoration. Just as Israel's ancient apostasy caused its scattering, so Israel's endtime receiving the gospel leads to its gathering.

"Auxiliary events to this scenario, based on prophecies of Isaiah that are not delineated explicitly in the Book of Mormon, include a 'great division' that occurs when many who are at ease in Zion cling to 'precepts of men' and reject the further word of God that comes forth. We may thus conclude that searching the words of Isaiah on which the Book of Mormon's endtime scenario is based, and searching the Book of Mormon's own words for what they say, not what we assume they say, may prove critical to our salvation when the Lord sees fit to unfold the next phase of these prophesied events."

With that foregoing conclusion you have a fair summary of what we have spent the past nine weeks learning. (And I thus saved you $100 and ten trips to Provo.) I wonder what is left for us to cover in the tenth class this Thursday.

Isaiah class 7

Thoughts from the seventh of ten classes, Thursday, November 19, 2009

I took fewer notes this week than in any of the previous classes, partly because I was busy looking up other references as the discussion moved along, a lot of it question-and-answer stuff that I gather was not exactly what Brother Gileadi had originally intended to cover. And partly because we were just reading selections from various chapters of 1 and 2 Nephi that quote or paraphrase Isaiah's teachings on the events at the end of the last days.

Some of the Book of Mormon passages we specifically looked at all describe or refer to the same latter-day scenario:

• 1 Nephi 22:8–19 Correlated with other passages of scripture, particularly as presented throughout Isaiah, these latter-day events are all presented as a part of a single scenario.
  
• 2 Nephi 6:4–13
  
• 2 Nephi 10: 7–19
  
• 2 Nephi 25:1–8
  
• 2 Nephi 28:26–29 It is a most damnable attitude to say "we have received enough and need no more." Intelligence is not just acquiring information but what we do with it.
  
• 2 Nephi 29:1 This single verse contains three events from the list we began constructing last week of things that will happen at the last day: a marvelous work, the covenants of the Lord, and the Lord setting His hand a second time to recover His people.

Isaiah class 6

Thoughts from the sixth of ten classes, Thursday, November 12, 2009

The passages from Isaiah most quoted in the Book of Mormon (primarily by Nephi, Jacob, and the Savior) are chapters 48–55. They all refer to events in the last days. Interestingly, Isaiah 53, the one chapter that is clearly about the Savior, is not quoted (except as paraphrased by Abinadi) because that chapter has nothing to do with the last days. Book of Mormon writers, knowing that their writings would come forth in the last days, actually talk a lot about the last days.

Isaiah is pretty much the only Old Testament frame of reference to the last days that the Book of Mormon writers had.

There are relatively few Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament as we have it today. The Book of Mormon at least is pretty much silent on them. Given that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Christ, and that one of its central purposes is "to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations" (Book of Mormon title page), then it is curious that it would not have quoted more Messianic prophecies unless they were pretty much absent from the record. Some Messianic prophecies that are quoted, such as by Zenock and Zenos, do not appear in our current Old Testament.

It is important, however, to remember that another one of the Book of Mormon's central purposes is "that they [the house of Israel] may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever" (Book of Mormon title page). The Isaiah passages, together with prophetic commentary on them by Nephi, Jacob, and the Savior, speak much about the covenants of the Lord with His people and that because of those covenants they will not be cast off forever. That is what the prophecies concerning the last days are all about. And why they figure so prominently in their writings.

The Prophet Joseph Smith understood that he was just laying a foundation, the beginning of restoration. The Lord's latter-day servant, still yet to come, is also a restorer. The Savior's quoting of Isaiah in 3 Nephi 21 makes clear that this all comes at the end of the last days. We need to tie down to what scriptures actually say.

In a revelation the Lord gave in September 1832, the Lord spoke of a condemnation resting upon His people for treating lightly the things they had received, particularly the Book of Mormon (see D&C 84:54–58). President Ezra Taft Benson applied the same warning against the Latter-day Saints in the day that he presided over the Church. Perhaps a part of our condemnation for treating these things lightly is our ignoring Isaiah, whose teachings figure so prominently in the Book of Mormon.

Isaiah, given the way it is constructed, is a whole tapestry; all the threads run together. We cannot take bits and pieces out of context. One remarkable things the Book of Mormon writers do is to take different parts of Isaiah and treat them as one single scenario. That is a key to understanding Isaiah.

We started on a list of events that all happen together, that are all a part of one scenario, that occur in the last days.

1. A great and marvelous work (Isaiah 29: 14 / 1 Nephi 14:7)
   
2. Covenants of the Lord (Isaiah 54:10 / 1 Nephi 14: 5, 8, 17)
   
3. Fighting against Zion (Isaiah 29:8 / 1 Nephi 22:14, 19; 2 Nephi 6:12–13; 2 Nephi 27:3)
   
4. The house of Israel being nourished by the gentiles (Isaiah 49:22–23 / 1 Nephi 22:8)
   
5. The Lord making bare His arm (Isaiah 52:10 / 1 Nephi 22:10–11) ["Arm" signifies divine intervention, the revealing of the Lord's servant]
   
6. An endowment of power (Isaiah 52:1; Isaiah 51:9 / 1 Nephi 14:14 and 22:17)
   
7. Conversion of the house of Israel to the gospel (Isaiah 52:7–8)

We did not finish our list because we ran out of time.

Isaiah class 5

Thoughts from the fifth of ten classes, Thursday, November 5, 2009

This past week has been like no other we have experienced in a long, long time, if ever, so I am very tardy in reporting on last Thursday's session with Brother Avraham Gileadi, but I thought I should do so before going off to the sixth class tonight.

Although we are studying Isaiah, we spent much of the two hours in our fifth class reading and discussing parts of five chapters from two other Old Testament prophets: Ezekiel and Jeremiah. The intent, as I understood it, was to illustrate that Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah were all on the same page, as prophets of the Lord were all teaching the same message, and were all seeing down to the end of times, our dispensation, and prophseying of the Lord's latter-day servant who would assist in the gathering of Jacob or Israel.

We need a foundation in the Old Testament, Brother Gileadi affirmed, in order to understand the rest of the scriptures.

Old Testament > Book of Mormon > New Testament > Doctrine and Covenants

The Book of Mormon, for example, as the above little diagram illustrates, begins in and grows out of an Old Testament setting and culture. It assumes a deep familiarity with the Old Testament. Then as a premier witness of Christ and His mission, the Book of Mormon prepares us for and helps us really understand what the New Testament is about. And so forth.

We read from Ezekiel 34. Sheep are a metaphor for the Lord's people. Beasts are a metaphor for Satan's people. The word "meat," as translated in the King James Version of the Bible, signifies "food." Mountains and hills signify nations.

The Lord is always looking out for the poor. The Lord will search for and deliver them from all the places "where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day" (see verse 12). Causing them to "lie down," as in verses 14 and 15, signifies rest, peace, and security. The "deep waters" mentioned in verse 18 refers to the deep things of God. Joseph Smith once wrote that he was wont to swim in deep waters (see D&C 127:2). The shepherds of the people were privy to the deep doctrines, the deep things of God, but muddied it up for others.

The Lord is always gathering. Verses 23 and 24 reference the latter-day servant of the Lord, who will be called David. Verse 25 and beyond describe the Millennial era, when evil will be gone from the earth, when there will be no more telestial people around, and the Lord's people will be safe in the land (see verse 27).

We then turned to Ezekiel 37 and, beginning with verse 15 to the end of the chapter, talked about the uniting of the tribes of Israel into one nation. The sticks, although we commonly in the Church refer to them as the records of the two nations, in the actual context of this chapter refers to the two nations or kingdoms. The Lord is speaking of making the two nations into one. The reference in verse 23 that they shall "be my people and I will be their God" is covenant language (see also verses 26 and 27 and also Ezekiel 34:24).

A latter-day reference to the stick of Ephraim makes it clear that the stick actually refers to the house or tribe or nation of Ephraim (see D&C 27:5). Otherwise, the passage would be redundant, and the Lord would be saying that He had committed the keys of the record of the record of Ephraim.

Next we read from Jeremiah 23, where it opens with the same woe pronounced against the leaders of the people (the "pastors" referred to by Jeremiah comes from the same word in Hebrew as the "shepherds" in Ezekiel). The rise of the latter-day servant always comes on the heels of the abuse by the shepherds or pastors of the Lord's people. We see the same scenario in Isaiah, in Ezekiel, and in Jeremiah.

We then turned to Jeremiah 30, where it speaks of the latter-day servant David. The chapter heading interprets David as Christ, but it is clear from other passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah that the David mentioned in verse 9 is the latter-day servant of Christ. Jesus Christ or Jehovah is the Lord their God, and David is a king who serves under Him. The Prophet Joseph Smith seems to assert the same thing: "The throne and kingdom of David is to be taken from him and given to another by the name of David in the last days, raised out of his lineage" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 339).

Compare also Jeremiah 33:14-16. And Doctrine and Covenants 113:1-6, which is a revealed commentary on certain verses in Isaiah 11 that speak of Christ as the Stem of Jesse and the rod of Jesse and the root of Jesse as a servant in the hands of Christ and who will hold "the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days" (D&C 113:6).

In Jeremiah 30:11 the Lord declares that in the last days He will make a full end of the nations but not of thee, meaning Jacob or Israel.

The Old Testament prophets know that what they are writing is ambiguous, and they seem to do it on purpose, as a test, to weed people out who are not spiritually attuned to understand and receive the message. From that vantage point, it is a merciful thing they do.

Isaiah class 4

Thoughts from the fourth of ten classes, Thursday, October 29, 2009

The most important lesson I took from this evening's class with Avraham Gileadi was that we have to fit all scriptures together, not just focus on one passage in isolation. Otherwise we will get into trouble and wander off course. We have to connect all the dots, put all the pieces of the puzzle together, and rely on the safety that comes from the scriptures' own internal checks and balances.

Among all holy writ, the book of Isaiah is remarkable in its exquisite use of literary devices and structure to ensure that every truth is presented in more than one way in more than one place, often in multiple ways, to keep us from getting off base. There is hardly a thing in Isaiah that does not repeat itself somewhere else. The book has its own internal checks and balances.

The scriptures all cohere. There are not contradictions. Apparent contradictions are there to weed out the insincere or lazy who really don't want to invest the effort, time, and energy to ferret out the truth. (He didn't say this, but I suppose there could be contradictions resulting from faulty transmission of the original text.)

Isaiah class 3

Thoughts from the third of ten classes, Thursday, October 22, 2009

We spent our two hours this week on Isaiah 49 (which Nephi quotes in 1 Nephi 21 in the Book of Mormon). After some review of chapter 48 and other preliminaries, and the discussion of pertinent questions along the way, we spent the rest of the time dealing with only the first six verses of chapter 49. If we were to continue analyzing Isaiah at the same rate we've started, I calculate it would take us another 128 weeks to complete our study. And we actually have only seven sessions remaining. (Although I perceive that one thing Avraham Gileadi is trying to teach us is how to study Isaiah and other scriptures.)

Preliminaries

For the sake of his latter-day servant, the Lord promises (in Isaiah 48:9) that He will not entirely destroy His people in the last days: "I have shown restraint toward you by not entirely destroying you." But that means He will mostly destroy them.

An idol is anything that diverts our attention from the true and living God. It is possible to veer off course and to let a lesser law become the whole law. It happened to Judaism. It happened to early Christianity. It has even happened, Brother Gileadi contended, to Latter-day Saints. We do not do and hear all that the Prophet Joseph Smith taught us.

Moses, at the foot of the mount, told Israel to both hear and do the word of the Lord (see Deuteronomy 5:1, 25, 27). Replace the word "hear" with "understand." Adam offered sacrifice for many days before he was taught to understand why (see Moses 5:6–8). But, as we seek to hear or understand, who has time to spend hours a day studying about God and His ways?

We live in a very materialistic and idolatrous world, which we take for granted because we are products of that very world. Recognizing Babylon, let alone fleeing it, is not necessarily an easy thing to do.

The Book of Mormon peoples did not have rabbinic Judaism; they had the law of Moses. Rabbinic Judaism developed after the Jews' return from Babylonian exile, and Lehi and his family left Jerusalem just before the exile. Book of Mormon prophets were very aware that the law of Moses was a foreshadowing of a higher law. They did not let the lesser law become the whole law.

How grateful we should be to have the book of Isaiah, Brother Gileadi exulted. It is such a gold mine, a systematic theology, a paradigm of life, a guidepost. If we read only Isaiah, we would be well off. Can you imagine what our scriptures would be like without the book of Isaiah? Frankly, some people would not even notice.

In Isaiah 57:1 the righteous disappear, and no man gives it a thought.

Throughout the book of Isaiah are various things the Lord is going to do: set His hand a second time (see Isaiah 11:11), do a marvelous work and a wonder (see Isaiah 29:14), reveal the arm of the Lord (see Isaiah 53:1), and those who fight against Zion (see Isaiah 29:8). The Book of Mormon brings these diverse elements together into a single concept that are all to occur in the last days at the end of times (such as in 1 Nephi 22).

It is no mere coincidence that Isaiah 48:22 and Isaiah 57:21 say the same thing: there is no peace for the wicked. They are the final verse in their respective chapters. Both chapters are talking about the Lord's latter-day servant. Healing occurs for both the servant and for all Israel (what is for one is for the many who depend on him).

In Isaiah 6:10 the Lord's servant receives a commission to harden hearts. The reverse of what this verse says is the very formula for healing: see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand in their heart, and repent. Only God can bring about healing and peace. It is a form of covenant reversal. Healing comes over time. The gospel has the power to heal all wounds, not just effect forgiveness of sins. Only God can reserve covenant curses. Doing those things listed in verse 10 will eventually bring healing.

And in Isaiah 53:5 we learn that peace and healing are synonymous. If there is no peace for the wicked, then there is no healing for them either (or vice versa).

Our examination of the first six verses of chapter 49

When Nephi quotes Isaiah 49 in 1 Nephi 21, it includes the things Nephi wants to tell us. There are probably at least two reasons why Nephi waits for several chapters after he tells us he cannot write more of the end-from-the-beginning vision before he quotes Isaiah: One, he wants to put some space between the two. And two, he lays a foundation for what he quotes; he tells their own exodus story.

This exodus story is not unique. Ancient Israel did it out of Egypt. Lehi and his colony did it out of Jerusalem. The Lord has led people out from time to time (as we learn in 2 Nephi 10:22). The Latter-day Saints have done it. And it will occur again in the last days, Isaiah tells us, under the direction of the Lord's servant.

1 Hear me, O isles; listen, you distant peoples:
The Lord called me before I was in the belly;
before I was in my mother's womb,
he mentioned me by name.

The mission of the Lord's latter-day servant is to be worldwide—to the isles of the sea, to distant peoples.

Here, as with Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 1:5), is a plain reference to the premortal call or foreordination of this servant. The sense is clearer here in Gileadi's translation than the same verse in the King James translation, where it reads, "The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name" (Isaiah 49:1).

The Lord's mentioning this servant by name before he was in his mother's womb is a reference to a premortal calling and election, a foreordination.

2 He has made my mouth like a sharp sword—
in the shadow of his hand he hid me.
He has made me into a polished arrow—
in his quiver he kept me secret.

"Hand" is a name for the Lord's servant. We know this from a similar passage in Isaiah 11:11–12, where the Lord's servant is an ensign who rallies the people to come to the latter-day exodus and delivers them. He recovers a remnant of the Lord's people from the nations, assembles the outcasts of Israel, and gathers the dispersed of His people from the four corners of the earth.

This servant is the Lord's secret weapon ("in his quiver he kept me secret"). He is not previously well known, like David, the youngest son of Jesse, at the time he was selected, was not known. Similarly, Christ was an upstart in his time, Joseph Smith in his, neither of them previously known to the establishment. The fact that he is "a polished arrow" suggests he has already gone through a refiner's fire. Arrow is not a friendly symbol; it goes straight to the heart.

Like the word hand, "arm" is also a metaphor of the Lord's servant, such as in Isaiah 52:10, where the baring of the arm is a revealing of the servant, setting everything in motion, bringing about the Lord's great and marvelous work, and bringing about the destruction of the people. "Arm" also symbolizes the power and intervention of God.

Why does the Lord do this now? What setting calls it forth? He will preserve a remnant of Abraham's posterity, which He is required to do by covenant. The Lord has made unconditional covenants with various prophets. (The Sinai covenant, on the other hand, is a conditional covenant: if Israel will do thus and such, the blessings will follow.) The Davidic covenant was also unconditional, a paradigm for anyone who is a king or priest. In the last days, when the servant comes forth, the Lord has all these covenants He has to respond to.

Returning to the notion of proxies discussed in previous weeks, Lot was saved for Abraham's sake, and Lot's daughters were saved for Lot's sake. Hezekiah interceded in behalf of all the people in Jerusalem in his day. Alma's prayer in behalf of Alma the younger is answered because of covenants already made to Alma the elder. That is why some equally as earnest parental prayers are not immediately answered with the appearance of an angel to the wayward child. It all has to do with covenants and associated promises.

All that the Lord does is because of covenants the Lord has made in the past, including in premortality. Each person has an individualized path laid out for him or her. All terms of covenants that God has made will be met. Our lives are patterns, foreshadowed. We need to accomplish what the Lord wants us to do—only God knows the ins and outs of these things, we cannot judge, but all happens within the context of covenant relationships.

3 He said to me, You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

The servant is a parallel with the Jacob scenario: his name was changed to Israel after he wrestled with an angel and saw the face of God. Jacob, being given a new name, was raised to the next level, to a higher spiritual state, where he received a greater spiritual inheritance and a higher commission.

"Servant" denotes a vassal relationship (the emperor-vassal relationship). "Son" also terms a vassal relationship. "Israel," as used in this verse, is probably a code name. We do not know what the servant's new name is. "Israel" can also refer to God's servants collectively.

All of us can glorify God by fulfilling our calling here on the earth.

4 I had thought, I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing
and to no purpose!
Yet my cause rested with the Lord,
my recompense with my God.

The servant had few or seemingly no results, ye he still had faith in the Lord.

5 For now the Lord has said—
he who formed me from the womb
to be his servant, to restore Jacob to him,
Israel having been gathered to him;
for I won honor in the eyes of the Lord
when my God became my strength—

The phrase "from the womb" in Hebrew has the sense of "before the womb," this notion again of premortal existence and appointment.

The servant's mission is to what? To restore Jacob. "Restore" is a key word. We speak of the restoration of all things.

Jacob/Israel represent a telestial level, but there is a difference between Jacob and Israel (some on the right hand, some on the left hand). Zion/Jerusalem represent a higher spiritual level, a terrestrial level.

"Israel having been gathered to him": the Latter-day Saints have been gathered. Isaiah is here using "Israel" as a spiritual level.

Nephi, the son of Helaman, is an example in the Book of Mormon of "God became my strength." He attained to the power of Elijah and was given the sealing power.

6 he said: It is too small a thing
for you to be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore those preserved of Israel.
I will also appoint you to be a light to the nations [or to the gentiles],
that my salvation may be to the end of the earth.

The servant's mission is not just to Jacob and Israel but to all the nations, to the end of the earth. The scattering of Israel was all a part of God's plan to bring salvation to all in the latter days because the seed of Israel is scattered among all nations, and thus the Lord's covenants previously made can reach out to embrace people among all nations.

The servant is to be a light to the nations that the Lord's salvation may be to the end of the earth. There are two lights: the Lord is a light, and the servant is a light, a greater light and a lesser light. The servant is like the dawning, the early morning, the beginning of the Millennium. He prepares for the coming of the greater light, the full blaze of the sun, who is the Son, the Lord Himself.

Isaiah class 2

Thoughts from the second of ten classes, Thursday, October 15, 2009

In this week's class we spent the entire two hours reading and discussing a single chapter of Isaiah, chapter 48, the first of many quoted by Nephi in the Book of Mormon (see 1 Nephi 20). With only eight sessions remaining, it is clear we will not cover many of the 66 chapters in the book of Isaiah.

Although Avraham Gileadi led an interesting, stimulating discussion, it was challenging for Michael and me to take detailed notes while trying to keep up with what he was saying. There were moments when I did not even try. There was a lot more class discussion this week, a lot of questions about what we were reading or what Avraham was teaching, and some of the time we were clearly sidetracked on tangents. Compounding the problem was his reading from his translation of Isaiah while I was trying to follow along in my King James Bible. The sense was clearly similar, but the wording differed significantly between the two versions. (My take on the two, after further reflection, is that the King James translation is far more poetic, while the Gileadi translation from Hebrew is actually easier to understand in contemporary English.)

Throughout the rest of this report, whenever I quote from Isaiah, I quote from the Gileadi translation and show it in italics. There were comments at pretty much each verse we read from this chapter, but I did not take notes in each case.

1 Hear this, O house of Jacob,

you who are named Israel--

though you stem from the lineage of Judah--

who take oaths in the name of the Lord

and invoke the God of Israel,

though not in truth or in righteousness,

The following chapter of Isaiah, chapter 49, begins with similar invocation, except in that chapter it is: "Hear me, O isles; listen, you distant peoples." The translation of that verse in the Book of Mormon adds a preface to that invitation to those upon the isles and in distant places: "And again, Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broken off and are driven out because of the wickedness of the pastors of my people; yea, all ye that are broken off, that are scattered abroad, who are of my people, O house of Israel" (1 Nephi 21:1).

The reference to "the pastors of my people" is reminiscent of both Ezekiel and Jeremiah, who refer to the pastors as shepherds.

In other chapters, Isaiah refers to the Lord raising up "righteousness from the east" (Isaiah 41:2; or "the righteous man from the east" in the King James Version). This is the Lord's latter-day servant, a person who is perfect on the seraph level, who keeps all the commandments required for that level. He exemplifies righteousness on the level of translated beings. In other places, the same person is referred to as "a bird of prey from the east, from a distant land the man who performs my counsel" (Isaiah 46:11; or "a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country" in the King James Version). John the Apostle refers to the same person as the "angel ascending from the east" (Revelation 7:2; see also D&C 77:9).

This righteousness (or righteous servant) prepares a righteous people who can be ready to receive the Lord. The Redeemer, on the other hand, is referred to as Salvation (see Isaiah 62:11).

2 who call yourselves of the holy city,

upheld by the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord of Hosts:

3 The prophecies of the events of the past

I made known long beforehand;

no sooner did they issue from my mouth,

than I caused them to be announced.

Then, suddenly, I acted and they came about.

How does the Lord tell the end from the beginning? Well, he tells it through prophets ("the prophecies of the events of the past . . . made known long beforehand"). But it is because He orchestrates the end from the beginning. Ancient history becomes an allegory of the last days. Isaiah, Nephi, and numerous other prophets use a selective selection of events from the past to foretell the future. (See, for example, the comment about Moses and the yet-to-occur latter-day exodus back to Jackson County, Missouri, that appears following verse 21 below.)

Everything that happens in the latter days is a shadow of what happened in the past.

The previous Saturday evening Avraham Gileadi had held a public Feast of the Tabernacles celebration, which apparently many in the class had participated in. He said that it is good to be familiar with what that and other ancient feasts teach us because the events, or similar events, will occur again. History is going to repeat itself. We need to be wholly familiar with the prophetic milieu.

4 For I knew how stubborn you were--

your neck was an iron sinew, your brow brazen--

5 therefore I told you them beforehand;

I announced them to you before they transpired,

lest you should say, My idols did it;

my graven and wrought images caused it!

We are so full of pride. We do not realize how nothing we are in God's sight. We put a lot of stock in "our idols," the technology and images and toys that define our modern world, that keep us tightly tethered to Babylon.

6 But you have heard 'the whole vision';

how is it you do not proclaim it?

Yet as of now, I announce to you new things,

things withheld and unknown to you,

Where is "the whole vision," the seeing of the end from the beginning, recorded? Well, in a couple of places that we know of: in the book of Isaiah and the in the book of Revelation. But it is all in code. We have to search it out, diligently, like learning a new language. It won't come with casual or cursory reading.

And there are other places, not currently available to us, where the end from the beginning is written, as Nephi reminds us: "And also others who have been, to them hath he shown all things, and they have written them; and they are sealed up to come forth in their purity, according to the truth which is in the Lamb, in the own due time of the Lord, unto the house of Israel" (1 Nephi 14:26).

7 things now coming into being, not hitherto,

things you have not heard of before,

lest you should say, Indeed I knew them!

And why does He spring these new things on us? Individually to try us, test us, and prove us. And collectively, to cause a division among the people.

8 You have not heard them,

nor have you known them;

before this your ears have not been open to them.

For I knew you would turn treacherous;

you were called a transgressor from the womb.

9 For my own name's sake I have bridled my wrath;

on account of my renown

I have shown restraint toward you

by not entirely destroying you.

Isaiah here refers to the occasion, which we mentioned last week, when the Lord God Jehovah wanted to destroy the children of Israel and make of Moses a great nation (see Exodus 32:7–14). Moses on this occasion stood as a mediator between God and rebellious Israel. He served a proxy role, the clue being the reference to "my own name's sake."

10 See, I am refining you, though not as silver;

I am testing you in the crucible of affliction.

Again the notion of trying, testing, proving. Seeing what we are made of. Refining us, etc. And it seems to happen best, or perhaps only, through affliction.

11 For my own sake, on my own account, I do it,

that my name be not dishonored,

nor my glory, which I give to no other.

12 Hear me, O Jacob, and Israel, my elect:

I am he who was at the first,

and I am he who is at the last.

The Lord God Jehovah is the same member of the Godhead that we know as Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Redeemer, Alpha and Omega, the first and the last (see Revelation 1:11, 17).

13 It was my hand that founded the earth,

my right hand that stretched out the heavens;

when I call them, they arise at once.

Scriptural references to the Lord's hand (in verse 13) or to His arm (in verse 14) refer to those who help Him, those who are His servants. When the Lord was creating the earth, we were surely there helping out, because that is the way He does things. What flower or plant might we have designed?

14 All of you, assemble and hear:

Who among you foretold these things?

It is him the Lord loves,

who shall perform his will in Babylon;

his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

15 I myself have spoke it, and also called him;

I have brought him, and I will prosper his way.

16 Come near me and hear this:

I have not made predictions in secret;

at their coming to pass, I have been present.

Now my Lord the Lord has sent me;

his Spirit is in me.

17 Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel,

your Redeemer:

I the Lord your God instruct you to your good,

guiding you in the way you should go.

18 Had you but obeyed my commandments,

your peace would have been as a river,

your righteousness like the waves of the sea;

Unconditional covenants start at the celestial level. Covenants at every level below that are conditional covenants.

19 your offspring would have been

as the sands in numbers,

your descendants as many as their grains.

Their names would not have been cut off

and obliterated from my presence.

The promise of posterity was the first covenant blessing. A lack of posterity was a covenant curse.

20 Go forth out of Babylon, flee from Chaldea!

Make this announcement with resounding voice;

broadcast it to the end of the earth.

Say, The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.

21 They thirsted not when he led them through arid places;

he caused water to flow for them from the rock;

he cleaved the rock and water gushed out.

Although Isaiah is speaking of the latter-day going forth out of Babylon, of our exodus out of the world, of the redemption of Zion, he holds up Moses as a type and refers to events from the exodus out of Egypt. Moses is a type. The latter-day servant of the Lord is like unto Moses.

Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord revealed concerning the latter-day redemption of Zion, an event yet future to us, "Behold, I way unto you, the redemption of Zion must needs come by power;

"Therefore, I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel. . . .

"And as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be" (D&C 103:15-16, 18).

22 But there is no peace, says the Lord,

for the wicked.

Reminiscent of Alma's teaching to his son Corianton in the Book of Mormon: "Wickedness never was happiness" (Alma 41:10).

The rest of my notes undoubtedly refer to thoughts Brother Gileadi expressed in response to questions that were raised, or tangents we were on, and do not fit neatly under any of the verses from chapter 48 quoted above:

Concerning the notion of individuals serving as types, an idea we explored the previous week, Cyrus serves as a type. He was the Persian conqueror of Babylon. David, Moses, and Enoch are also types.

One of things Enoch did was to get his people up to the level of the elect. Enoch did it, and Melchizedek did it. David, unfortunately, did not attain to that level. His sin against Uriah and his wife caused him to fall from his exaltation (see D&C 136:39).

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, "A murderer, for instance, one that sheds innocent blood, cannot have forgiveness. David sought repentance at the hand of God carefully with tears, for the murder of Uriah; but he could only get it through hell: he got a promise that his soul should not be left in hell.

"Although David was a king, he never did obtain the spirit and power of Elijah and the fullness of the Priesthood; and the Priesthood that he received, and the throne and kingdom of David is to be taken from him and given to another by the name of David in the last days, raised up out of his lineage" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 339).

The Prophet Joseph Smith continued receiving revelations throughout his entire life because he had an open mind and always wanted to know more. Joseph cautioned us not to set up bounds and stakes (or limits) to what the Almighty can do or can teach us. When we do that, we damn ourselves. We stop our own progress.

Real numbers are important in the Lord's scheme of things. Numbers such as three, seven, twelve, twenty-four, etc. often have particular significance. Fourteen is the numerical value of the name "David" in Hebrew. "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations" (Matthew 1:17).

Isaiah class 1

Thoughts from the first of ten classes, Thursday, October 8, 2009

Somewhere about 45 minutes into our class, the teacher looked up at the clock, and it was already five minutes after nine. Time to quit. And we had actually been at it for two hours, since seven o'clock.

Based on this first session last Thursday, this is going to be a good class that my oldest son, Michael, and I are taking in Provo every Thursday night over the next few months. We paid $90 apiece to go hear Avraham Gileadi, a religious historian and Hebrew scholar, who also happens to be a Mormon, teach a ten-week course on Isaiah.

What follows in this blog post is my attempt, from the meager notes I took, to make sense of what he was teaching and what I was learning. I am fulfilling requests from at least two of my daughters who live in opposite corners of the country. Eliza asked from Atlanta, "Are you going to blog everything you learn?" And Camilla added from Everett, "I like Eliza's idea. Best way to learn something is to teach it!"

The book of Isaiah holds the key to reconcile the Old and New Testaments. If you had a great tapestry of all the scriptures, Isaiah would be at the center.

The Ben Asher Codex, dating from about 800 A.D., is the earliest, best manuscript of Isaiah that exists. (There is an Isaiah manuscript among the Dead Sea Scrolls, dating from approximately 200 A.D., which is some 600 years earlier, but it is somewhat corrupted.) "The plain and precious parts" and "the covenants of the Lord" were both lost when the text passed through the gentiles.

The Book of Mormon throws a lot of light on Isaiah and bridges a lot of gaps between the Old and New Testaments. Hebrew literary structures, such as chiasmus, are very prevalent in the Book of Mormon, which was one of the things that intrigued Avraham, when he first read it in Israel as he was converting from Catholicism to Mormonism.

Isaiah was one of those who saw the end from the beginning. We are aware of some other prophets who did also, such as Moses, Nephi, the brother of Jared, John the Revelator, and Joseph Smith.

Studying Isaiah is like learning a new language. It takes two years of diligent study to become fluent, for the book to become plain. Two things, according to Nephi, help us to understand Isaiah: the spirit of prophecy (see 2 Nephi 25:4) and the manner of the Jews (see 2 Nephi 25:1–2, 5–6). Searching diligently is a necessity. In fact, other than general commands to study the scriptures, Isaiah is the only one the Savior singled out by name as a prophet we are to study (see, for example, 3 Nephi 20:11 and 3 Nephi 23:1).

After such introductory discussion as above, we spent much of the two hours reading from and discussing three chapters of 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon: chapter 14 (which is "a very informative chapter"), chapter 20 (in which Nephi quotes Isaiah chapter 48), and chapter 21 (in which he quotes Isaiah chapter 49).

What exactly is the "great and marvelous work" that Nephi refers to in 1 Nephi 14:7? We have to put together all the pieces of the puzzle—from different places in the scriptures. For example, Nephi speaks of the church of the devil, which is the great and abominable church, the mother of abominations, the whore of all the earth. Isaiah equates all of this with Babylon.

It is good to have a clear idea about what the various labels used (such as Zion, Israel, Babylon, etc.) actually mean. It is also important to know who you are so you can understand and properly fulfill your role.

Near the end of chapter 14, remembering that both Nephi and John had seen the end from the beginning, Nephi says that he was stopped from writing more, that he cannot tell us what John will later write, that John is commissioned to reveal the final part of the story (see 1 Nephi 14:19–28). So, Nephi spends the next five chapters finishing his journey narrative, telling of Lehi's people leaving their homeland and traveling to the promised land. He then quotes Isaiah 48 and 49, which also constitutes a journey narrative out of Babylon. Nephi knows full well that Isaiah saw the whole thing too, so why not quote someone else who is already published to tell more of the ending of the story. John won't be published for another 600 years or so.

Israel's latter-day restoration is a theme of everything Nephi quotes from Isaiah. Indeed, that theme is a preoccupation of all Book of Mormon writers.

Brother Gileadi referred to, but did not particularly elaborate on (or at least I did not take notes on), the Abrahamic covenant, the Sinai covenant, and the Davidic covenant, except to say that each of these covenants were permanent and would continue to the end of time. We speak a lot in the Church concerning the Abrahamic covenant, less so about the other two.

I suspect the Sinai covenant has to do with what is related in the book of Exodus, wherein the Lord says: "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation" (Exodus 19:5–6). And a little later when He says: "And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord their God" (Exodus 29:45–46).

In relation to the Davidic covenant, a proxy role is involved. David stood in for his people. Well, I guess Moses did too when he interceded with the Lord in their behalf when Jehovah wanted to destroy the children of Israel and make of Moses a great nation (see Exodus 32:7–14). Moses on this occasion stood as a mediator between God and rebellious Israel.

I hope in future classes we explore this path (the notion of proxy roles) further. Just as class was ending, Brother Gileadi observed that whenever we encounter the word "sake," such as occurs in 1 Nephi 20:9, a proxy role is involved. And then he noticed the time was gone, and the class ended, and nothing more was said.

No holier place

Thursday at work it was my turn to give the spiritual thought in our Executive Directors' meeting. I mentioned that I had recently been called to teach gospel doctrine in our ward and that this Sunday I was teaching a lesson on the 1856 rescue of the Willie and Martin handcart companies. I shared a couple of scriptures and this bit of testimony from a man who had crossed the plains with the Martin handcart company:

"One day he was in a group of people who began sharply criticizing the Church leaders for ever allowing the Saints to cross the plains with no more supplies or protection than a handcart company provided. The old man listened until he could stand it no more; then he arose and said with great emotion:

"'I was in that company and my wife was in it. . . . We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? . . . [We] came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities.

"'I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it. . . . I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.

"'Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company'" (quoted in Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [1996], 78).

At the conclusion of my thought, Elder Richard G. Hinckley shared an experience from his family that he said I was free to use, if I wanted, in my lesson Sunday. A few years ago his father, President Gordon B. Hinckley, took all of his family, his children and their children, to the area along the Sweetwater River in south central Wyoming known as Martin's Cove, where the handcart pioneers sought refuge from the early winter storms that descended upon them. As they were walking along the trail, the Prophet stopped and talked to them about what had happened here.

"You have all been in holy places," President Hinckley said in essence, "some of you in the Holy Land, all of you in temples." And then with some emotion he added that they would never stand in any holier place than here.


Claudia and I and some of our children have been to these same sites on the wind-swept highlands of Wyoming, where the handcart pioneers became acquainted with God in their extremities and where a prophet-directed rescue took place. And I feel the same as President Hinckley. It is a holy place.

Across four time zones

I read something in a supplement to this morning's paper that caught my attention. "Apparently," it said, "one of the inescapable rules of life is that children won't stay put" (Roger Aylworth, in Mormon Times, Oct. 3, 2009, 8). It's true when they're little. And it's true when they're grown up and start moving all about the country.

Our family is now spread across all four time zones of the lower 48 states. A daughter and her family live in Georgia (in the eastern time zone), where our son-in-law is in his second year of pharmacy school. Another daughter and her family live in southern Illinois (in the central time zone), where our son-in-law has become the head of the emergency room in the hospital of his boyhood home town. Five of our children, together with their families, still live near us in Utah (mountain time zone), where they keep busy with the routines of daily living. And a daughter and her family live in Washington (Pacific time zone), where they own and operate a Great Harvest bakery.

No one lives in Alaska or Hawaii yet, although our oldest daughter and her family are leaving in a couple weeks to go visit Hawaii. They have gone there every fall for the past several years to attend a conference on the island of Maui. This past weekend, when I mentioned my plan to go with them next year, they advised me that this year was their last time to go off to that tropical paradise. Bummer. And I've never been to Hawaii. Others of my children have. And some of my grandchildren.

Hawaii is one of four remaining states I have yet to visit, along with Alaska, Wisconsin, and Maine. So, with those four states still to visit—along with children living in Georgia, Illinois, and Washington—there are still some good road trips out there beckoning to me.

The birth of our eighth child

Twenty-five years ago today I made a simple, one-sentence entry in my journal: "Our eighth child and sixth daughter was born today." No other details or explanations.

"Since the birth of our eighth child," I observed two weeks later, "I have thought a lot about the importance of names. Interestingly, for the first time in our career as parents, we didn't have a name ready for this new little one, so she was named by committee."

A couple more weeks beyond that—on the next fast Sunday, November 4, 1984—I elaborated a little in the father's blessing I gave her: "Mary Elizabeth, you have recently been in the presence of our Father in heaven and now come very welcomed into your family and help to fulfill that scriptural teaching that children are an heritage of the Lord and happy is that man or woman who has his quiver full of them.

"You have been given two special and sacred names: Mary, after that hand­maiden who was described as highly favored of the Lord, who had the great and unique privilege of bearing and rearing and teaching and nurturing the very Son of the Most High God; and Elizabeth, after her cousin who, in her advanced age, was privileged to bear and rear and teach and nurture that prophet who prepared the way before the Lord and whom the Master Himself declared there was no greater born among women. These women were good and were full of faith and kept the com­mandments of God and are saved with an everlasting salvation in His kingdom. You are given their names that you might remem­ber them, and in remembering them be like them: that you too may be good and full of faith and keep the commandments and be saved in the celestial kingdom of God."

Fortunately, the historical record is not entirely silent on Mary's arrival into this world. I published at the time a quarterly newsletter for the descendants and relatives of John Marvin Lange and Barbara Jean Fraughton entitled Die Lange Zeit. The Family Bulletin Board in that fall 1984 issue reported:

"Mary Elizabeth Cleverly, Dean and Claudia's eighth child and sixth daughter, was born at 10:37 on Monday morning, October 1, in Bountiful's Lakeview Hospital. She weighed in at 7 pounds 1 ounce, was 19 1/2 inches long, and had lots of dark hair. She is Grandma and Grandpa's eleventh grandchild and ninth granddaughter.

"Claudia had gone to the hospital that morning by appointment to have the baby induced. Though she feared the labor would be longer and harder, it only took a little over an hour and a half.

"Mother and baby came home on Wednesday, October 3, to greet all the eagerly awaiting older brothers and sisters. Grandma and Grandpa had generously come from California to help out for a week and were able to stay until Mary Elizabeth's first week birthday the following Monday, October 8. Their timely assistance was much appreciated."

The writer's almanac

This evening I happened across a delightful little site on the Internet entitled The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor. Yes, the same Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion fame.

According to Wikipedia, "The Writer's Almanac is a daily radio and on-line program and podcast of poetry and historical interest pieces, usually of literary significance. It is hosted by Garrison Keillor and is produced and distributed by American Public Media. Program sponsors include, among others, The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry Magazine and The Mosaic Foundation of Rita and Peter Heydon.

"Each program is five minutes long and begins with the phrase 'And here is the Writer's Almanac. . . .' Each daily program includes vignettes about authors and other noteworthy people whose birthdays coincide with the date of the particular program, as well as excerpts of important events in history. The program continues with one or more poems usually chosen by Keillor, and ends with Keillor's traditional sign-off, 'Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.'"

Not bad counsel: Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

The birth of our first child

This is my 100th post on Interstate 50 since I first began blogging back on Christmas Day 2005. This post chronicles the arrival of our firstborn child.

September 2, 1973, was a fast Sunday. We had been to church on campus, where I served as a counselor in the presidency of a BYU branch. Fall was beginning, students were returning to school, it was the first Sunday of the new school year, it was a holiday weekend, and we were about to become parents. It was an exciting time.

Claudia was eight months along, expecting our first child on October 5, and everything seemed to be progressing as it should. She looked cute being so very pregnant. Two weeks earlier—on Friday, August 17—she had graduated cum laude from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in elementary education. Following her graduation, we rode back to California as her parents' guests for a week at Laguna Beach. Our apartment there perched on top of a cliff overlooking the vastness of the mighty ocean.

But now we were back in Utah and looking forward to a new school year. We were both out of school, but our ties to the university continued through my employment on campus and through our associations in the branch. Just the day before, on Saturday, I had completed and mailed the first issue of the Cleverly Newsletter, a quarterly newsletter for my parents' family that I would continue to publish over the coming decades in quarterly, monthly, even weekly formats.

Sunday afternoon we were home from church, and Claudia had prepared our Sunday dinner. We sat down to eat around four o'clock in the afternoon. I noticed her squirming in her chair and asked what the problem was.

"Oh, just constipation," she replied. A bit later she was feeling worse and called her doctor.

His first question was, "Are you in labor?"

"Of course not. I'm not due for another month." From the way she described how she was feeling he couldn't tell what was wrong.

"Maybe it is constipation," he concluded. He pre­scribed some medi­cine, but be­fore we could even think about finding a drug store that was open, she was feeling so bad that I called the doctor again. He told me to take her straight to the hospital and he would meet us there. We drove over to the hospital in Marshmallow, our little white Volkswagen. It was only a few blocks from where we lived.

At 5:17 Claudia was wheeled into the labor room with contrac­tions at eighty seconds. Not bad for not knowing she was having contrac­tions. I was sent down to admit her to the hospital, and when I returned she was in the delivery room having a baby. I was allowed to be with her, even though we'd had only three of the six required prenatal classes.

Our son was born at 6:30 in the evening. Michael Adam was seventeen and a half inches, six pounds seven ounces. A month and three days early. Claudia's labor had been extremely short—two and a half hours from start to finish.

The instant the doctor laid the baby on her stomach, Claudia said, "Let's do it again!"

For a few hours I was allowed to stay with her in the recovery room. There was little sleep for either of us that night.

Nineteen years later, as Michael was preparing to leave for his mission to Brazil, I spoke in his missionary farewell of that first night: "Nineteen years ago . . . Claudia lay in a hos­pital bed in Provo with her firstborn son in her arms, just hours old, counting his fingers and toes, as I sup­pose new mothers do, but even more importantly thinking ahead, among other things, to this very day. She was planning in her mind the future course of his life, envisioning his serving a mis­sion, looking forward with an eye of faith. And so what does she spend the next nineteen years doing? The kinds of things the Lord's prophets have told parents to do to get their sons ready and worthy to serve missions. She has acted in faith, seeing with her eyes the things which she had beheld with the eye of faith."

The next day was Labor Day, even though Claudia had done her laboring on the Sabbath day. On Tuesday her mom flew in from southern California to help out for a week and a half. Our new little son was the Langes' first grandchild. Claudia and Michael Adam came home from the hospital on Wednesday.

My recent medical journey

Nearly two weeks ago—on Friday morning, August 14—I went for my twice-a-year visit with my rheumatologist. Normally our conversation goes something like this:

Doctor: "How have you been doing?"
Me: "Pretty much about the same. Nothing new to report."
Doctor: "That's great. See you again in six months."

Now, that's a bit oversimplified, I'll admit, but it pretty much summarizes the extent of our semiannual visits over the past few years. I have been very fortunate that my autoimmune disorder has been a relatively mild version of scleroderma—primarily affecting my hands and feet, my esophagus, and my lungs—and has not been progressing significantly since it was first diagnosed in the early 1990s.

This time I decided to lay out everything I've been dealing with lately, whether or not the symptoms seemed to have any bearing on the disorder he's been seeing me for. I discussed with him the three main symptoms I've been dealing with lately: extremely painful feet, a sensation that I'm having a difficult time breathing coupled with a lingering pressure or tightness in my chest, and the episode of gout I experienced the previous week in Illinois.

He focused mostly on the breathing issue and said it could be heart disease (which in my case is most likely), pulmonary hypertension, or lung disease. He called my cardiologist's office and arranged a heart echo and then the lung center and arranged pulmonary function tests.

On Monday of this week I went for the echocardiogram and the pulmonary function tests. A part of the lung tests was an update on my diffusion capacity, a measure of how well gases are passing from the air sacs of the lungs into the bloodstream. The technician who performed the latter test told me that my lung diffusion capacity had decreased to 40 percent, down from the 46 percent the previous time it was tested. By way of perspective, it has hovered around 50 percent over the past decade or so.

After the tests on Monday, I returned to work for the rest of the day, exercised at the gym with my trainer, and in the evening went with Claudia to "Lucky Stiff," a play at Rodgers Memorial Theatre. Near the end of the play, without any prior warning, I blanked out for perhaps a few seconds, we're not sure how long, although enough for Claudia to notice there in the dark theater. She wondered if I had fallen asleep. I felt terrible as the play ended, so she drove us home. As we were returning home and after we were home, I had the sensation that I needed to throw up, although I cannot technically do that because of surgery I had many years ago to repair a hiatal hernia. But my body kept trying to throw up. A most unpleasant feeling.

On Tuesday morning I went to visit my cardiologist. I still felt crappy from whatever was going on the night before, so I decided not to go to work at all that day. The doctor reviewed with me the test results from the previous day. I do not have pulmonary hypertension, which is good news, but he did confirm the 40 percent diffusion capacity rate. I had been doing some research on pulmonary hypertension, ever since my rheumatologist mentioned it as a possibility, and I am glad, quite frankly, not to be going down that road.

My cardiologist then decided to interrogate the heart monitor that was implanted in my chest a little over a year ago. The previous evening, along about 9:13, which would have been when I passed out at the theater, my heart quit beating for a full 15 seconds. Several episodes since that one showed my heart skipping beats for 3 to 5 seconds at a time. That is a new concern. He hooked me up to an external Holter monitor that I was to wear for the next 24 hours and to record any unusual symptoms.

I returned the Holter monitor midday Wednesday. I was feeling a lot better, pretty much back to normal, but had also taken the day as sick leave from work. A week from Friday I go back to see my cardiologist, and I guess we will talk about what happens next. I may now need to have a pace maker implanted. Stay tuned for further developments.

And through all this, the bottoms of my feet still hurt.

The birth of our second child

In honor of Rebecca's birth more than a third of a century ago, we share this account of her arrival in 1974. Happy birthday, Becca!

In late July 1974, the day after I had a wisdom tooth pulled, Claudia's parents came from southern California to visit us in Provo. Her father came to attend the ninth annual priesthood genealogy seminar at BYU. But the real reason was that their only grandchild, Michael Adam, happened to live at our house. Claudia was great with child. We were not venturing far from home, not knowing whether our second child, like the first, might come five weeks earlier than expected.

At her weekly doctor visit, about three weeks before the August 19 due date, the doctor told Claudia the baby could come at any time. Based on that comment and our experience the previous fall when Michael Adam was born, Claudia's mother decided to stay for the birth of the baby. Her father drove home. He had to return to work.

And so we all waited. And waited. And waited. August 19 came and still no baby. We tried all the old tricks—taking castor oil, driving across railroad tracks—none of them worked. Claudia's dad, alone in California, was probably tiring of peanut butter sandwiches every day.

On Sunday evening, August 25, we went to church in the campus branch where I was serving as a counselor in the branch presidency. I was conducting sacrament meeting. As part of the service, we were inviting members from the congregation to speak impromp­tu. I called on Claudia, and she came forward and started by saying she thought I had done it just to get the baby coming. Unknown to me then, she was already feeling slight con­trac­tions. She shared a beautiful experience from her semes­ter in Europe when her group held a sacrament service on the beaches of Thessalonica, Greece, on the Sunday of April con­ference.

Anyway, back at home after the meeting, Claudia let us know she thought she was finally having a baby. That was good news to her mother, who by now was anxious to return home after four weeks at our house.

We walked around the block—Claudia, Michael Adam, and me—and then she came home to take a hot bath. I guess the walking and the bath help it along. We started timing con­tractions at four minutes, but soon they were only two minutes apart, lasting about 30–40 seconds each. Then sometime around 10:15 at night we went to the hospital.

We had pretty much concluded that this second baby would also be a boy. This was in the day before ultrasounds were used to give parents advance notice of what flavor was coming. After a not too difficult labor, Rebecca was born at 2:24 in the morning of Monday, August 26, exactly one week short of her older brother's first birthday. She weighed in at seven pounds fifteen ounces—almost eight pounds—and was twenty inches long.

I wrote in my journal: "Our first daughter and second child was born this morning at 2:24. She is healthy and her wonderful mother—my beloved Claudja—pulled through it all in fine form. The ex­perience of having a child born, and being there to see it happen, always arrests my thoughts and arouses deep emo­tions that I cannot express. Once again, life seems a miracle so sacred, so divine that I'm amazed that our loving Father so freely shared its powers with us, especially as we see its abuse all around.

"Rebecca comes very welcomed into our home. Just as surely as Michael Adam came to us a week short of a year ago, her coming was also planned and prayed for this time."

With the doctor's having said three weeks before the due date that the baby could come at any moment, and then Claudia's going a full week after the due date, she felt like she had had a ten-month pregnancy. Her poor mother had had to wait six weeks before she could return home to California after Rebecca was born and established.

The birth of our third child

In honor of Rachael's birth more than a third of a century ago, we share this account of her arrival in 1975. Happy birthday, Rachael!

Nearly a month short of Michael's second birthday and a few weeks short of Rebecca's first birthday, our third child and second daughter was born in Provo's Utah Valley Hospital. Rachael arrived at noon on Thursday, August 7, 1975. She was a big one—7 pounds 15 ounces, almost eight pounds. She was 20 inches long.

"All is well with Claudia and the baby," I wrote the next day in my journal. "Since I returned to work today, Claudia was not ex­pecting me to visit during the afternoon visiting hours. But I took off work and surprised her. She was so happy."

On Saturday evening, August 9, we went to the Dixon family reunion in the Payson Park. Even though she wasn't there, Claudia was the talk of the reunion for having just had a baby. We'd had two since the previous year's reunion. At that reunion, Rebecca hadn't been born yet.

"Claudia and Rachael came home from the hospital today," I wrote on Sunday, August 10. Home was a little brick house on 300 West in Provo, where we occupied the main floor and rented the basement level to four single college students. "Michael Adam seemed pleased; Rebecca less so, which surprised me. I thought she'd be too little to even know what was going on. It is good to have Claudia back."

Claudia's parents were visiting from southern California, her mom to help out with the new baby. Or, more accurately, to help out with not-quite-two-year-old Michael and not-quite-one-year-old Rebecca.

On Monday I had gone to work in Salt Lake City. Late that afternoon, August 11, a brief thunder­storm hit Provo and moved north along the Wasatch Front. Claudia was sitting in our front room nursing four-day-old Rachael. Michael Adam was next to her patting the baby. Rebecca was on her way to the kitchen looking for her grandma, who was putting clothes into the dryer. That's when the lightning struck a tree overhanging our driveway, only ten feet from where Claudia was sit­ting. It sounded like a tremendous explosion. The sound was deafening. In the kitchen the dryer and stove sizzled before the power went out.

When I arrived home from work, there was evidence of shattered tree all over our driveway. For about three days, until the huge tree was completely removed, we had the most popular tree in the neighborhood.

Meeting the neighbors

Our daughter who lives in Georgia is in the process of moving to a new apartment, one that is far closer to where her husband goes to pharmacy school. I think she would not mind my sharing this post from her private blog:

Our new neighbor Terry came over to introduce herself and this was how our conversation began . . .

Terry: "Are you Roman Catholic because you have a lot of children?"

Me: "Actually I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."

Terry: Blank stare

Me: "Sometimes people call us 'Mormons.'"

Terry: "Oooh, so does your husband have more than one wife?"

Me: "Nope, he's stuck with just me."

Did we mention that our daughter and her husband have two children? Apparently in some circles that is "a lot of children."

Change of address

Keith J. Beazer used to live in the house we now live in. He moved four years before we bought the home. And we have lived here going on 32 years.

Periodically, a couple times a year, we still get mail addressed to him at our address. Always from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Because they've had to do with insurance, I always hand delivered the unopened envelopes to his married daughter who works at the same place I do. I naively assumed that the family at some point would change the address or otherwise put a stop to the letters coming our way.

Another one came today, a postcard notifying Keith of a class action suit for something that occurred in the year 2000. Did I happen to mention that Keith Beazer died something like 20 years ago? Or more?

And his life insurance company doesn't even seem to know about it. Scary.

One small step for a man

Forty years ago today—on July 20, 1969—man first stepped onto the moon.

Three astronauts were a part of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Armstrong was the first to set foot on the moon. Aldrin was second. As Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon, he uttered the words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." After a couple hours on the lunar surface, the two rejoined their third companion, who had been orbiting above in the spacecraft. And then they returned home to earth.

It had been a mere 66 years since Orville Wright flew the first powered airplane at a wind-swept beach at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. The first flight lasted only 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Three more flights were made that day with Orville's brother Wilbur piloting a flight that lasted 59 seconds and covered 852 feet. Americans consider the Wright brothers the fathers of aviation.

Brazilians, those dear people among whom I served my mission, consider one of their own countrymen as the father of aviation. Santos Dumont [Alberto Santos Dumont, 1873–1932, born in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais] designed, built, and flew the first controllable airship, a small blimp, around the Eiffel Tower in Paris on October 19, 1901. Five years later, on October 23, 1906, he flew a fixed-wing airplane, the first such aircraft to be publicly witnessed to take off, fly, and land in Europe. He was one of the most famous people in the world in the early years of the twentieth century.

Even though he died in 1932, he was still very famous and very revered in Brazil when I was there serving my mission in 1969 and 1970. The smaller of two airports in Rio de Janeiro was named after him, and while I was serving in the mission office I went there at least once to meet someone flying in from São Paulo. Arriving and departing missionaries flew into and out of the larger, newer Galeão International Airport. The smaller, older Santos Dumont Airport primarily handled domestic flights to and from other Brazilian cities.

And so I guess it was appropriate that I was in Brazil for one of the most significant events in the history of mankind: man's first steps on the moon. And although the Apollo 11 spacecraft actually reached the moon on my 20th birthday, Saturday, July 19, 1969, the space module Eagle did not actually land on the surface of the moon until what in the western hemisphere of our planet was Sunday, July 20. But that seemed appropriate: July 20 was the 96th anniversary of Santos Dumont's birth.

"A dream of ages was fulfilled tonight," I wrote in my missionary journal for Sunday, July 20, 1969, "as man stepped onto the moon. Ever since the project was given the final go-ahead a few days ago, I have prayed for the mission's success and for the safety of the astronauts. But the moon is no longer virgin soil. The two Americans stepped onto the moon just a few moments before midnight Brazilian time, about 40 minutes after we gave up the vigil and went to bed. Probably every television set in the world was tuned to the coverage of the moon shot. Part of the goal set back in 1961 by John F. Kennedy has been realized: having a man on the moon before 1970. The other part? To bring them safely back to earth."

The next day, Monday, July 21, I wrote in a letter to my family back home in Idaho: "Yesterday, July 20, man first stepped onto the moon. A dream of centuries has been realized within 66 years after man’s first heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk on that Dec­ember morning in 1903. In just a lifetime fantasy has become reality. What will that many more years bring? We are living in an exciting age, in adventurous times."

It was a heady time. For days afterward we missionaries, being Americans, were hailed on the streets as heroes, as though we had played some personal part in the historic drama that played out before the eyes of all the world.

On Thursday, July 24, which was being celebrated back home as Pioneer Day, I made one final journal entry: "Appropriately America's modern pioneers, the three astronauts, safely returned from their journey to the moon. Although they went into incubation confinement immediately after leaving the space cap­sule, President Richard M. Nixon was aboard the naval carrier that picked them up to give them an appropriate heroes welcome."