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.