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."