WEEK 39 INSIGHTS [ISAIAH 40-49]

“Comfort Ye My People”

September 19 – September 25

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Welcome back you guys.

This is week 39 of Creative Come Follow Me for the Old Testament.

And this is our third in the five week series on Isaiah.

And I have some really good news for you.

This, I would say, I mean, I haven't studied the last two, so just don't

quote me on this, but I really feel like of the three so far that we've

studied this week is by far the easiest.

It's not that it's not great.

In fact, I think it's got some of the most beautiful verses that.

Ever studied in the entire old Testament.

But what I think is really powerful about this one is it doesn't seem to

be in code . And honestly, it's just got a bit of an optimistic message.

I just found that as I was studying, there were bits and pieces that were hard to

understand that I had to go kind of go back and get some historical reference on.

But for the most part, most of the verses.

Kind of easy to digest all on their own.

And they just had this, I don't know this like surge of hope in them.

Isaiah has been warning and prophesying about destruction and in the middle of

what we studied last week and this week, which is really only a few chapters.

We have that destruction that happens in one form.

So the Assys come in, they conquer, you've got, you got Heka, who's

defending Jerusalem and he's actually listening to Isaiah.

So he's one of the Kings that will actually heed Isaiah's warnings.

And because of that, the whole focus of what Isaiah can teach turns.

I just found this, uh, like a really powerful overarching message of

this particular week that when you.

To follow the prophet when you choose to actually heed whatever it is.

He's trying to teach us the whole trajectory of what the

prophet can then say changes.

I, I don't know if there was something else that he would've said otherwise, but

I feel like in this position, Isaiah's.

Lips are loose and he can shout out prophecies of peace and joy and hope.

And I just think Isaiah must have delighted to be a

prophet at this point in time.

I, I know he found joy in other places throughout all of his ministry, but

this one where he AKA listens to some degree and the people are trying to come

back to Jerusalem and they're trying to live up to who they're supposed to be.

Must have been.

Just delightful.

I, I just think he deserves it.

anyway.

So hopefully you'll really enjoy this week of study.

Just like we've talked about in the past each and every chapter, we're

gonna try and focus on what you can learn about the character of Christ,

who he is to us individually, and how we can know that he sees us individually

by studying these particular verses.

Also as always, I encourage you to pray about your stewardship and take those.

Into your study, filter everything you read through, you know, this

lens of heavenly father, what do you need me to do with my family?

What do you need me to do for my calling?

What can I do to be a better disciple of Christ?

And then let Isaiah's, especially these words that are so full of.

Bright audacious hope.

Let them just kind of soak in cuz I promise you're gonna love it.

Okay.

We're gonna go from 40 all the way to 49.

So we've got 10 chapters to cover.

I think that's enough introduction.

Let's get our scriptures, get our notes and get started.

Isaiah's tone is gonna sound really different in chapter 40, because

he's directed to comfort the people.

I get a feeling.

This is almost that the calm that comes after the storm, you know, in

the book of Mormon, when they've had destruction for days and darkness that

no one has ever experienced before that level of hard, that's what they've

dealt with with the ass Syrians.

And now there's just.

Respite that's come.

And Isaiah is told to bring peace and comfort.

What I think you have to remember about that phrase comfort, especially

if you layer on what we learn in the book Mormon and the doctrine

covenants is that comfort from the Lord isn't necessarily comfortable.

you know what I picture.

Someone comforting me.

I've pictured them putting their arm around me.

Maybe wrapping me up in a really warm, fuzzy blanket.

I think all of my kids know that if they need to get me a mother's day gift or

Christmas gift, just get mom something fuzzy and warm and she'll be happy.

That's what I picture when I picture comfort.

But I think the more I read these verses, not just these, but some

more that we're gonna see today.

I.

The image that don't make fun of me for this, but the image that kept

coming in my mind is more like Rocky.

So instead of this warm, fuzzy blanket, you know, when he's finally done with

the round and the bell dings, and he goes back to his corner with his coach

and the coach like puts this towel on him and like squirts water in his mouth

and bandages up the wounds in a hurry.

That's the kind of comfort I think the Lord is referring to.

It is.

A break.

It is a respite is a time of renewal.

It does not mean you are done and it certainly doesn't mean you're

gonna curl up with something fuzzy and lay by the fire.

It means you're gonna get back in the ring in just a minute

and he wants you empowered.

That's how I see the temple.

Now it is a place of rest and respite, but it is designed to give you.

Surge of empowerment that you need so that you can go out and you can

do good in all kinds of places.

That's the kind of comfort he's talking about.

If you wanna learn more about the scripture references that led me to

that understanding, go in the notes and you can find a bunch more, but I

love the way it's taught for Morona.

I love the way it's taught from Joseph Smith.

So go in the notes, you can learn a lot more, but just don't.

Don't intend to feel comfortable in the Lord's comfort.

Um, but he does give us some guidance about what's gonna come next.

So when you flip the page, you'll see that this is more focused on before the

second coming our role to play this.

There's a lot of this is Isaiah.

So he's gonna have a lot of different layers of meaning

behind each of his prophecies.

So there will be people who will prepare the way for the Savior's actual coming.

When he comes in mortality, there's gonna be references to

when he comes again in the second.

This one, I think is more focused on the second coming, cuz it

talks a little bit more about Z.

So, if you look around nine and 10, there's this really cool visual of

people who are coming to Zion and lifting things up that they're gonna go to a

high place and not just to be in the tops of the mountains, but to do something.

So here's what I loved.

If you look around nine, it says you're gonna get the up to the

high mountains that you're gonna lift it up and not be afraid.

And then in 11, We find out why we need to go up to this high place.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.

He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them into his BOM and gently lead.

Those that are with young, the reason we need to make ourselves worthy, to be

in Zion and to be a Zion, like people is not so we can live in an idyllic place.

It is so that we can be where he is so that we can get enriched and empowered.

We can have that kind.

Comfort so that we can go out and do what needs to be done.

And that's what he's gonna try and teach the children of Israel over and over

again, especially in this week's chapters that he wants to endow them with power

so that they can go out and fulfill that Abraham covenant and get back on track.

They won't always listen, but that's what he's hoping for.

What I love is what, how you see it play out.

So he gives you.

Credibility in the verses where he talks about why we should trust him.

So in 12, he talks about how he's the creator of everything that he measured

out the waters in his hand, I, I kind of visualize this, like when I make

a really familiar recipe, I don't even need measuring cups anymore.

I know exactly how much sugar goes in my holo bread.

I know it really well.

And I can just dump it right in that's.

The Lord created this earth using his own hands as a measuring tool.

He knows exactly what's happening.

The span in old Testament times just means from the tip of the finger to the elbow.

So when he talks about measuring the heavens with a span, it's,

everything is based on him.

There's just cool temple imagery all over the place.

I also love when you go a little bit further, he talks.

Their tendencies.

So many times in this week's chapters, he's going to warn them about

graven images and worshiping idols.

Cuz we know this about the children's when they struggle with outside contention

or inner contention, when things aren't going well in either sphere.

They have a tendency to revert back to whatever temptation is easy

for them and for the children of Israel, it tends to be idols for us.

I think it's actually really similar in that we tend to seek

out comfort instead of seeking out the Lord's comfort and empowerment.

We seek out what is comfortable.

We seek out what is familiar and all of us have different outlets for that.

Right.

And so he's warning you whenever you see him warn about idols or graven

images this week, plug in your own.

Temptations.

Where do you turn?

I don't know if it's Netflix or Instagram or whatever it is, wherever you turn

for comfort instead of the empowering choices of the Lord, plug that in and

then focus on what you can do better.

Cause he is gonna warn you about it a couple times.

. I also love the way he talks about how we're gonna accomplish this work and given

the fact that we're weak and we have a tendency to fall back to our old ways.

He talks about how, and it's around verse 26, 27 and 28.

So this is where he says, he's gonna call us by name.

And I love what you see at the end of 26, that by the greatness of his

might for he is strong empower and.

Not one faileth it is not because we will be so powerful and empowered that

we are able to accomplish his work.

It's because he is, it reminds me a lot of what we studied

back with Joshua and Caleb.

Remember when they wanted to go into the promised land and they'd

been wandering and now it's time.

And.

They're getting right there and they go in as spies and the other 10 spies

say, there's these giants and these walls and Joshua and Caleb say, no,

there's fruit and we can do this.

And if you compare us with God, you add God to the equation.

There's nobody.

They can defeat us.

No giant is taller and people don't listen.

And I feel like that's what Isaiah is trying to teach us again.

He's saying.

You your limited weak state, plus God is unbeatable.

Look at, look at how he says it.

He says has not known, has not heard that the everlasting God, the

Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, faint ti not neither is weary.

There is no searching in his understanding.

He simply can't by his nature.

Weaken.

He can't lose strength.

What I love is what you see when you go even further in 29, he

then gives that power to us so that we can increase in might.

He knows that our own natures aren't like this.

And so he willingly gives us that strength.

When we choose to live his commandments.

When we honor our covenants, we are endowed with.

That's the kind of power he wants to give us so that we can have this UN

wearying strength and it kind of hits a climax in 31, but they that wait upon

the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall Mount up with wings as Eagles.

They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint.

That is an incredible promise.

There's a lot of references even in just this last conference from sister

Wright and, uh, who was the other one?

El Degan I gave 'em to you in the notes.

They both talk about the, the virtuous spot of waiting on the Lord and how

that's a holy place, even a holy posture and a holy position, because

it implies, I have hope when you wait upon the Lord, it means I have hope

that even if this day is dark, I can be strengthened and there will be light.

It implies that even if my wings feel so weak on my own,

I believe that there can be.

Power brought back in and I can soar as an Eagle.

Really what I think it boils down to is to believe and wait on the Lord

means to trust in the power of the Atoma of Jesus Christ, that it can

overcome any weakness, any sin, any, any departure from the Lord's path.

And if we trust in that, Leaning space.

We trust in his atonement.

Then we can accomplish all these things that he, he hopes for us.

And I, I mean, isn't that a power packed way to start this week study?

You don't wanna miss chapter 40.

I.

The savior is always inviting us to come near, to come unto him.

And that's how he starts things off in 41.

Through Isaiah, he reminds the children visual that he wants them close.

Let the people renew their.

Let them come near.

It's almost like he's sounding that bell after a round of boxing and he's saying,

okay, let, 'em come back to the corner.

Let me, let me take care of them for a minute.

Let me coach them and guide them before they have to go back into the fight.

And so he asks them to be of a good courage and he, he tells them about

the servants that he's prepared to help this process happen.

He warns them about false idols yet again, and then he tells them the blessings that

come from being part of this covenant.

He wants them to.

He wants them to feel empowered as they leave that corner

to go back into the fight.

And the way he's choosing to do that is to have Isaiah talk about the blessings that

come from listening to this epic coach.

So you see them play out in the verses.

First.

He reminds them that they are chosen despite all of the history of their

parents and their grandparents who may have fallen away from the church.

They are a chosen people and he has chosen them.

I'm casting, not away in verse nine.

When you go to 10, you see the blessing.

They don't need to fear because he gonna say that a few times

they don't need to be afraid.

They don't need to be dismayed or confused.

He will strengthen them.

They will have the help they need.

I think you see that in Rocky all the time.

sorry.

You guys are gonna get so sick of this reference, but it's just, you know,

I can almost hear, I have a tiger in the background when I read these

scriptures, cuz it's like, he, he knows.

Even though they feel like they don't have another, you know, like ounce of

strength to give that he can find a way to give them what they need, if

they will just follow his guidance.

So he talks to them about it.

He says that he'll be with them, that no enemy can contend against them.

Doesn't matter who he's up against.

They'll have the strength they need to be successful for us as parents.

I think that's really valuable.

My enemies are not just my personal temptations, but also

all the ones that attack my kids.

Those are my enemies.

And I need all the strength I can get to combat them.

I, I don't, can't do it for my kids.

They're gonna have to make their own choices, but I feel like what

the spirit offers me, especially as I turn to the spirit for

comfort, this endowment of power.

I get understandings.

I get ideas about how to teach, when to say, say things, what, what

to do in certain situations that help my kids avoid common traps.

They would fall into that's.

The, those are the enemies that I'm thinking about.

When I think about how he will help me defeat my enemies,

you go a little bit further.

Again, he talks about fearing.

Not that we don't need to be afraid.

I think as parents it's really easy these days to be afraid,

there are a lot of forces.

All over the place coming at our kids.

And I don't exactly know the right words or how to say things.

So the idea that I don't need to be afraid that I'll have what I need.

Is a pretty epic promise.

He also promises something interesting by saying, he's

gonna make us a different tool.

So this is around 15.

He says, I'm going to make you a tool for threshing.

He's gonna make you a very sharp gathering tool.

But what was really fascinating to me is when I studied this, normally when

you thresh wheat, they would go out into the fields, bring it down from the Hills

or from the planes, and then they would take it to the city center on a big

rock and a big flat area and thre it.

What he's saying in this verse is I'm actually gonna make you an instrument that

you can go thrush where the wheat grows.

It's it's this like time saving energy saving opportunity.

Here's what I thought was so cool about that.

I think the Lord.

Is able to do things with us that we can't even picture or envision,

especially as parents, if you will choose to be comforted in his way, he

can turn you into a tool that you have never even seen before that you can't

even understand how it's possible, how you could connect with your kid.

Who's so hard or so distant or that you can find a way to.

Pivot around some kind of obstacle that you never could have pictured.

I just love the, the ingenuity of it.

I, I picture God as a creator, not just in making things, but in reinventing

things and changing things to make it work for our good in our time.

I just, I love that piece of it.

Okay.

Some other things, he promises that you, he will have these open

rivers in high places, places where you can go for restoring, right.

Where you can, you can get strength when you need it in those high

places and that he will plant things.

So if you look around 19 and 20, there's this really cool.

This is how I read it.

He basically talks about a bunch of different trees that he's gonna grow

all in one place and that, because they all grow in one place, they actually

get strength from each, from each other.

This is how I see the church today.

There is so much diversity across all the continents and countries and that

as we come together as a church under common leadership, we actually draw.

From our diversity that we are different from each other.

I listened to a podcast recently about some women who

have this particular calling.

One was Scottish.

I can't remember.

There were a few different accents that were happening and

the way they spoke about their callings was so powerful to me.

I, their testimony of the savior sounded similar.

to mine and to my sisters and to anybody I know, but, but there was something unique

and different about their perspective.

And I grew in strength by just listening to it.

I just think that's the church, right?

It's, we're unique and different and we're planted.

Close together so that we can draw from each other so that we can, what

you see in 20 that you'll see, that you'll know that you'll consider

and you'll understand together.

That's the promise.

And I love all of those.

Then at the end, he warns about what else might happen.

So he talks about wind and confusion.

This is at the very end of 29.

The reason I still would draw your attention to this one is I think

this is what happens when we hear.

It's not even necessarily false doctrine, it's just not aligned doctrine.

So it's like theory or , you know, somebody's opinion about

what scriptures might mean.

And I just think it's, sometimes it can cause a stir in you.

Sometimes you'll read things on Instagram or other places and

you'll, it'll feel like a strong wind and you think, oh my gosh, what?

Maybe I was wrong or maybe I didn't understand that.

Right.

What I think is pivotal is understanding what follows this wind.

What follows this type of wind is confusion.

When you feel confusion about the gospel, you know, it's like a red flag.

There's something that's off the promise that you get in Galatians.

And this is in the notes.

If you wanna go deeper, but.

That the fruits of the spirit are love and peace and joy and kindness,

you know, like all those things are the fruits of the spirit.

So if the spirit is prompting something, it's not gonna end up in

confusion, it's gonna end up in clarity.

And I think it's a way for us to kind of have discernment to know

which is which, but you'll get more understanding of that as you jump into 42.

So let's go there next.

I feel like 42 is it teaches you the opposite of wind and confusion by teaching

about the characteristics of Christ.

You see them right on the surface.

There's a lot of other applications you can use for these verses.

But of course, Jesus Christ is the pinnacle one.

So I'm gonna focus there.

So if you look in one, it talks about this servant that's been prepared and

that in whom his sold the lights, right?

It's.

Got the father, speaking of his son as this servant who will

come and, and save the world.

And he delights in who he is.

I just love that word choice.

I realize these weren't written in English, but it's just this

utter joy that comes from.

From who Jesus Christ is and who he is is what happens in the next few verses.

So like in two that he's not gonna come loud and he's not gonna be boisterous.

He's not gonna stand on a soapbox.

He's gonna come to this quiet Galilean area and he's gonna

teach, but it's gonna be.

A quiet storm.

You know, he is a teacher who changes hearts and changes things fast, but

it's not by being loud and boisterous.

You also find that he's gonna be careful around those who are fragile.

And I love that that's in three and four, you learn that he will not be

discouraged and he will not fail.

What's powerful to me about this.

The fact that Jesus Christ lived the life that he did, especially in mortality, that

he didn't get discouraged is remarkable to me because even his disciples turned away.

I mean, Judas betrays him.

How does he possibly not get discouraged?

And I've had to learn this a little bit with my calling recently.

So.

since like last February, I've been teaching the YSA as I talk about them

all the time, but it's my stake calling.

And for the, what's tricky about that calling is I have no idea.

Who's gonna show up each week.

I work my guts out to try and make a lesson that I think will be great.

And that is what it needs to be.

And then I just sit there at like 6 55 and hope someone calls . Cause

it's, you know, I'm not like in a university where people are get a

grade for it, you know, it's like they.

they can choose to come or not come.

And sometimes they're at home and sometimes they're at work and who knows.

And you just never know who's gonna come through the door.

And the first like five or six weeks, I would struggle because I would take my

cues from those who came like, okay, if more come the second week, that must mean

I did a good job of the first weekend.

Then the third week would come and I'd have like four people I'm thinking,

oh my gosh, what do I do wrong?

. And it wasn't until about, you know, eight weeks in that I started to.

It doesn't really matter how many kids show.

If even the one that I needed to teach that time shows up and I

teach and the Lord is pleased.

That's enough.

Right?

I don't need to be discouraged.

And honestly, it started to shift in my mind that I need to every

week look up for reassurance.

Not out.

Don't worry about that.

The, the people who need to be there will be there.

The spirit will take care of prompting them when they need to be there.

My job is just to teach whoever walks through that door.

So that's been my mentality since then.

Like, don't worry about it.

Look up for reassurance and it made a huge difference.

So I don't feel as discouraged and I don't feel as frustrated.

Um, and I don't think I can fail.

I think there's never gonna be a week where I'll feel like a failure.

When I look up and when I pray at the end of the night, was that okay?

And I feel at peace, then I can't fail.

That's the promise.

So hopefully that can fit with your calling as well.

But, um, I love the way he talks about us being a light.

So it sort of shifts tone a little bit around six.

This is when he's talking to his covenant children about what he needs them to do.

He talks about how he's called them, how he will hold their hand, he will keep

them and he will give them for a light.

So it says at the end of six and give the, for a covenant of the

people for a light of the Gentiles.

It's a promise that when you choose to stand in your sphere, whatever

it is, whether it be in your little YSA calling or something else, and

you choose to look up and do the best you can light will emanate out.

It it's just a promise.

It doesn't matter.

I don't have to do very much to, to accomplish that because the Lord wants

light to go out and we're imperfect and he's gonna work with that.

And it's just this, it reminds me of king.

I think it was president IR.

Who has a talk in the notes that used king as a reference on this verse.

But he taught me about when king Lamon feels this light.

He talks about being joy, infused upon his soul.

And that's how I feel the other night at why I say I had like four people.

We sat around to campfire.

I taught a lesson, but I felt joy infused on my soul because I, I was

at the right place at the right time.

I'd prepared as much as I could.

And it.

It was great.

it was great.

You guys.

And so I just felt peace.

Um, Kayla talks a little further on about new things.

This week's chapters will often talk about new things that are coming

and how they can't just lean on the old, the Jews have a tendency to, to

lean way back on miracles that have happened in the past, like the red sea

and the Jordan and water gushing out.

And he wants them to remember those, but he wants them to look forward

to new things and to sing new songs.

So in 10 you say he.

Singing unto the Lord, a new song, praise him in a new way.

What I like about this is we have a tendency to, um,

to rest on our testimonies.

If I have a testimony of the book of Mormon that came when I served a mission

or something, I might reference that for years and years, and he wants us

constantly singing new songs of faith.

I should have new examples in my life, weekly, even daily, sometimes of how the.

Affects me how I know that the Lord is with me.

I can't, if I'm leaning on songs that I sung when I was 20, I'm missing

something and I need to reengage.

That's what he wants the children of Israel to do as

well, to sing these new songs.

Then he promises a few things.

He tells them, he tells 'em, they're gonna need to get prepared for new

things that are coming their way, that he will make darkness light, that he

will straighten out crooked things.

Um, I think all of that worked through the holy ghost and you

can learn more about that in the notes, but I also love what you.

This is, it bounces a bit, but it goes from like 17 and 20 and 25.

He talks about people who basically can see, but choose not to see, they

can hear, but they choose not to hear.

Um, and then the consequences, what you see in 25 that they actually

are being burned by their choices, but they don't even feel it.

It's a spiritual numbness that he's trying to warn the children of Israel about.

And it's a warning for us to that.

We have a tendency when we choose to.

Deliberately not see.

And I do this sometimes, right?

I, I talked around the life last week that I have attend for a long time.

I deliberately didn't see family history.

I knew it was there.

I knew it was probably really great, but I deliberately wouldn't look

at it cause I just didn't want one more thing to feel guilty about.

So I just didn't see.

Um, and I didn't realize that until I served that, you know,

church service mission, how much.

I was missing, you know, I would go to the temple once I kind of

got the fever of family history.

I was like, oh, the temple opens up and you know, your time opens

up in ways you didn't see before.

So I think you have to watch for that and then remind yourself that sometimes when

you're kind of deliberately choosing not to see you're being burned in ways you

don't even notice there's a spiritual numbness that sets in, and that's

what he warns you about in first 25.

So you gotta keep an eye.

43 is almost like an extension of 42, because he's, again, trying

to kind of rally the troops.

He's trying to get this new generation to realize who they

are that they're connected to him.

So he talks about how he knows them, how he calls them by name again.

I think there's covenant.

Basis behind all of that, but he talks about the miracles that

they see because they are his.

So in two, he references those hero miracles of the children, of Israel,

the red sea partying, the Jordan party, maybe even Shara, meek and

Abednego and walking through fire.

And then he promises that he will be that same God for this next generation as well.

And so he reminds him who he is in three.

I love what you see him for.

Cause it tells you why he's willing to do all these things.

Since that was precious in my sight, that has been honorable.

I have loved the therefore will I give men for the and people for their life.

His whole motivation, always forever is his love for us.

That's why he parts the sea.

That's why he lets them walk through fire.

He loves his children, all of them.

And because he loves them, he needs this covenant group to feel empowered

because he's got a work to do this.

Covenant people is gonna need to take that light.

They feel right now.

Beam it out to everybody else.

Like that's what you see in the rest of the chapter around verse

nine, the, the tone kind of changes.

And it's almost like this, what I've written at the top of verse nine.

Like that column is like, let's go, that's what my Sam says all the time.

Now.

Like, let's go when he's feeling like, okay, we can do this.

And I get the feeling that that's how.

He he's been prompting them.

Remember who you are, he's they, they were sitting in the corner.

They're getting that towel wrapped around them.

They've got their shot of water in their mouth.

Let's go.

And what he needs them to do is to beam out to the rest of the world.

You are witnesses is what he says in 10.

Let the nations be gathered in nine.

I am the Lord beside me.

There is no savior.

Remember who I am or remember who you are and let's go.

And then in 16, he talks about how he makes ways we talked about

highways that he makes and how.

I mean highways in the middle of giant seas.

That's what the savior is offering and that new things are coming.

So if you look in 19 behold, I will do a new thing and it will spring forth in 22.

Oh, Jacob thou has been weary of me.

Oh, Israel.

He's what I think would be so hard to be in the Savior's shoes.

And even in Isaiah's shoes is that he's got all these answers and all

these solutions and he he's ready and he's got 'em ramped up and they.

at times weary and they don't want anymore.

You know, it's like if you've ever been on a team and your coach is trying

to give you guidance and you're just like, I am tapping out, that's what

he's trying to warn them against.

Um, stay engaged in this fight, come to me for strength.

So in 26 he says this kind of haunting phrase, put me in

remembrance, let us plead together.

It, it feels like, you know, come now and let us reason together.

It's this urgency and.

Partnership.

He's saying, get in this yolk with me.

I'm right here.

I'm gonna take the lion share of the weight.

Yolk in with me and let's do what needs to be done.

And the whole purpose is not so much to save the whole world

it's that we will be justified.

So if you look at the end of 26, when we choose to strap in, when we choose

to yolk ourselves in with the savior, the real reason he wants us to do it

is because it's what will justify.

When we act as he did, we develop his characteristics.

When we walk side by side with him in this yolk and pull, we become like he is, and

that's the whole purpose of mortality.

So he's just trying to come on, you know, and you could just feel him just

pulling through Isaiah, pulling these people to come onto him and to come fast.

Um, there's more quotes in the notes from elder Holland about

that, that you're gonna love, but let's jump to 44 and see what comes.

in the margins of chapter 44.

I have little plants drawn it just tells me visually to remember what

this chapter's about, but here's why.

The last few weeks, we've been talking about this controlled burn that needed

to happen because of the wickedness of the children of Israel, that they, there

needed to be a purging that happened so that new growth could come up.

And this is where the new growth starts to sprout this, this next

generation that's gonna come in, that will abandon the false traditions of

their parents and choose Jehovah again.

And so they're like these little shoots.

What I love about this.

when I've been praying about my own stewardship and my own kids.

I think this is a promise we can rest on that.

Those seeds of testimony that we've been planting in their hearts all the time in

their youth, especially can grow again.

Even if the surface level testimony gets burned.

I think all of us have experienced this in one way or another.

If you have teenagers or young adults, they go through phases where

everything on the surface looks.

Burned.

And I can't see any remnants of what I taught and it hurts your heart,

but you have to remember that the seeds of testimony are buried deep.

And if they will let themselves be exposed to the nourishing water that

he is promising to give in rivers and streams that will flow through,

then there can be new growth.

It takes time and it takes their agency.

There are seeds there, so we don't need to be afraid.

In fact, that's what he talks to us about.

He says, fear, not in verse eight.

Don't be afraid.

There is nourishment coming.

If they will let me, I will help them grow again.

And then he warns about their tendencies.

I'm not gonna go into this in depth, but you can learn a lot more in the notes,

but remember when they feel contention or stressed, they're gonna have a

tendency to fall back on what is their.

You know, temptation of choice and for the children of Israel, it

often is idols and graven images.

So he's warning them about it.

And he uses this really interesting.

It's not a parable, but it's sort of like an object lesson.

He talks about a carpenter who's who goes and cuts down the wood in the

forest, takes some of the wood and uses it for his, you know, cooking.

Some of it, he uses to heat his house and then whenever's left over.

He carves up and makes a statue or an image of some kind, and then

he knees down and he worships it.

And then around 17.

He's shocked that he's praying for deliverance and calling this little

thing, his God, and it can't deliver him.

And it's.

I, I think when you see it from the surface, it seems so blatantly apparent.

Like, of course that's not gonna work.

And the thing that came to my mind is, you know, I'm a graphic designer and

I'm pretty good at those kind of things.

And so if I needed to make a degree, I feel like I could probably do it.

You know, like if I wanted to make it look like I have some kind of awesome

graduate degree from some amazing institution, I could probably do it.

Um, but I would know the minute I walked into a job interview, I would actually

know that I remember making the file.

I remember buying the paper that it's printed on.

I remember it coming out of my printer, you know, I know all those steps.

So the audacity of me to like, pretend that that's real or even

convince myself that because I did such a good job making it, it must.

The equivalent of a really impressive graduate degree is ridiculous.

Right?

And that's kinda what the Savior's trying to teach here.

He's like, why, why are you spending all your time and energy making

something that simply cannot save you?

The reason I think that's important for us is I think in every generation,

but in ours as well, we have a tendency to want to make God in our own image.

Elder Holland talks about this.

You can go in the notes and read some of his incredible quotes on it, but.

We want a God that is comfortable.

And we want to be able to say things like, well, the God I worship

would never fill in the blank.

You know, the God that I love would treat all people blank.

You know, like we want to form God in something that is.

How we think and how we believe and what the, the commandments demand is

that we love our God, the God that he is not the God that we've crafted.

Um, because at the end of the day, even if it was based on an original

idea of God, if we've manipulated and contorted it to something that we like

and that we will bow down to, it cannot.

And I really think it's not that the Lord is a jealous God it's that

he doesn't want us to get to this place where we need deliverance.

And we, all we have to hold up is.

Our version of God that we've, we've been worshiping because he knows

in that moment we will despair.

And he's our parent and he doesn't want us to despair.

He doesn't want us to feel that ache and that regret and that pain.

He wants us to feel peace and hope.

And the only way to do that is to worship the living.

God.

The one that we know is true, the one that is taught by the prophets and the

scriptures, that's the only hope we can.

that's what he's trying to warn us about in these verses.

And then he talks about the repercussions that happen.

If you don't, it's really kind of poignant.

He says it in 20, he feedeth on ashes.

A deceived heart has turned him aside.

There's a great talk in the notes about it's one thing to have

hypocrisy so that others will see and believe something about us.

It's another thing, if you've convinced your.

It's true, you know, for me to make a counterfeit version of a degree and

show it off to the world is one thing.

But to actually believe in my own heart, that that counterfeit degree

is just as valuable as the real thing is a whole nother level of, of dece.

And we have to be really careful about it.

So golden notes, you can learn some more.

Chapter 45, teaches you a little bit more about the characteristics of Christ.

And one of the ones I love is that he teaches you why he is the

way he is, why he's helping them.

So he's helping them find a way back home.

One of the ways he's gonna do that.

By inspiring Cyrus.

So do you guys remember when we were reading like back middle of the

year, Cyrus was the one that allowed the Jews to leave Babylon and to go

rebuild the temple first and then eventually go back to rebuild the

walls and he didn't just let them go.

He actually sent them with money.

Do you guys remember this?

And I remember when we studied it being kind of.

Baffled by it, you know, like why would he do that?

Exactly.

And I think 45 is where you find the answer he's inspired by God.

And you can learn more in the notes.

If you wanna go into the history about how kind of awesome this prop

is, but Cyrus isn't even born yet.

He's not gonna be, he's not gonna rule for another 200 years.

And Isaiah is speaking about how he will help.

And it's really just a metaphor for.

How the Lord makes these highways for his children to come home

and how he makes light and peace.

So in seven, I form the light.

I create darkness.

I make peace.

I create evil.

I, the Lord do all these things.

When you go into footnotes.

And especially if you go in modern revelation, there's a lot of beautiful

doctrine about how the Lord never makes evil that in fact, that in the

book Mor it says exactly the opposite.

You can go in the notes to learn that, but what I love.

The way elder ROR describes this.

So he says, you know, God's light is always shining.

And if we are ever in darkness, it's not that the light receded or weakened it's

that we have some obstruction in our way.

So you have to be watching for that.

Then he also talks about in nine that, you know, we will be unto them that.

Fight against your maker.

It's it's that, you know, the parable of the current Bush, I can't remember.

That's that video where it's like the current Bush wants to be a shade

tree and he gets chopped all down.

That's kinda what you're gonna see in 45 as well.

And then there's these warnings that we need to look to the right sources.

So around 22, look unto me be saved.

It sounds like the brass serpent, the gospel is simple and plain and precious.

And if we will simp.

Look upon it and lean towards it.

Uh, we can find salvation.

That's the promise.

I also love what we find in 23.

This is where he gives us that prophecy that every knee shall bow and every

tongue confess, this will happen.

Remember we talked last time when this verse came up, that Neil max or Neilly

Maxwell said that, um, if you have any inkling that this might happen, you

should do so now I love this prophecy because I think it promises that.

I think every knee shall bow because every knee will be able to bow all those bodies

that have been weakened in mortality.

All those people who dealt with incredible hard physical things will

heal and they will be able to bow.

And I just think that will be a miraculous day for all of us.

In chapter 46, he's giving you sort of a contrast.

So at first he talks about the graven images, the idols that they tend to

fall back to when they are struggling.

And then he talks.

Himself as the true God and the, and the contrast between them.

And it is so stark you guys.

So he talks about in one and two of these other gods that they're, they stoop and

they bow down, but they can't deliver.

So what's ironic about what they create is that they actually carry

these idols with them to captivity.

They can't not only can they not deliver them, but they have to be carried

on their backs and packed in carts.

They have to cuz they don't do anything.

They have no power.

A few of the other verses earlier in the chapters, talk about how

they have to actually be nailed down cuz otherwise they'll top below.

Like they have no power, but the children individual just it's their comfort.

Right?

It's what they fall back to when they don't want the comfort in

Rocking's corner kind of comfort.

They tend to go to wherever.

Can feel a little bit numb or, you know, nobody's gonna expect anything

of me if I go over, over here.

And that's kind of what I see here, but I love the contrast around three.

He talks about how he's been with them from the very beginning.

Oftentimes you're gonna see him reference the womb and I read a

beautiful scholar who talks about how, when you see that phrase, the womb.

What that means is premortal that he's been with us from the very beginning of

us, of who we are and that as we come here into mortality, he will stay with us.

He says he compares himself almost to a woman.

Who's pregnant with a child.

He says, I've made the, I will bar the, I will carry the, and I will deliver the,

and that he'll be with you until the very, until you are old, that he stays with you.

But your idols won't.

So if you look at seven, they bear them upon the shoulders.

They carry them talking about the idols.

They set 'em in their place.

They cry onto these idols, but they can't do anything.

It almost reminded me of like, Barnacles on a ship.

That's the visual that kept coming into my mind that these idols become these

dead weight things that just pull them down, things that they thought would bear

them up, just end up, weighing them down and he's warning them about the risk.

And then it, then it shifts completely.

And it turns into this like, But let's go, you know, I just, there's

always, Isaiah is like a motivator.

He wants them to move forward.

This next generation is not gonna fall into those same traps.

And so he wants them to awake and rise.

In fact, that's what I've written in my margins to the side of eight.

I love the way he says it.

Remember this and show yourselves men.

It is like, you know, the, in the book of war and like shake off the change

that behind you, we have work to do.

There's a whole bunch of the notes.

If you wanna learn a little more.

I love it.

It's like awake and arou your faculties wake up and let's get moving.

Remember what he says?

That's what you'll see in nine, remember who he was, remember what we've seen.

And then don't delay.

When you get down to 13, he's talking about it's not far off

and my salvation shall not.

Terry.

One of the children of Israel's temptations that they fall to in

addition to graven images, is this.

Comfort.

They get with knowing that they are a chosen people and they think they can,

they'll never lose favor with God.

And he's saying that's not the case the same way we saw with

Nefi in the book of Mormon.

He's saying shake off those chains.

I think that's why Nefi uses Isaiah's words as a reference point.

Cause he's got new converts there too.

And he is trying to like, see, like we had to get up, we gotta move.

We gotta get things back in line.

And that takes you to the end of 40.

Chapter 47 is where you see some of the warnings about why you

can't turn away from the covenant, uh, what you lose in the process.

So he talks about how you'll be sitting on the ground.

There will be enslavement that happens because of sin because they lose

their connection to the covenant.

There will be.

They will become as slaves.

So a lot of the imagery is described that way, that this shame, that they'll

feel that they'll sit in darkness in verse five and be silent, that

they, they will have polluted their inheritance that they got in verse six.

And then in seven, there's almost a denial that happens where they really

thought they would always be honored.

I don't know if this is referencing the Divi covenant or something

else, but there is this denial.

Their circumstances, it sort of amplifies as you go even further, it talks about

how you say in your heart that I'm fine.

Everything's fine.

I can't lose my children.

I can't lose my inheritance.

Things are fine.

And I think we see this in our own hearts all the time.

Right.

Where we, even if we kind of fall into sin a little bit and we don't necessarily see

the repercussions immediately, we start to think, actually, that wasn't so bad.

Maybe that's not as big as deal as I always thought it was.

And we start to feel like we.

Immune to the consequences that have been taught and that's what's happening here.

It also talks about that.

They got their ways were perverted, that they like intend that the

wisdom and the knowledge it has perverted the, it is distorting their

vision and changing who they see.

Um, when you go a little further into 11, they talk about desolation that

comes and that it's gonna come fast.

These kingdoms will change.

Incredibly rapidly, you know, from a Syria to Babylon and for Babylon per it.

Like they are gonna change hands almost overnight at times.

And that's what he's trying to warn them about.

You're getting comfortable in your sin and you think you've

got time and you don't have time.

So he talks about where they'll turn in those moments of panic.

That they're gonna turn back to their astrologers and their magicians.

And he basically almost like what you see with Elijah and the priest of Baal.

He sort of was saying if that's what you want, turn to it and tell me how it goes.

I don't think it's a coldness.

I think he always loves this group and he always is seeking after them.

But.

It's their agency and they've chosen it.

And he is warning about what will happen and what happens is wasting 15 that

they'll wander everyone to his quarter and none shall save the it's kinda a haunt

hollow place in this week's chapters, but you almost have to let yourself go there

so you can appreciate what comes in 48.

So let's go there next.

Where he kicks things off in 48, he's warning about hypocrisy.

So if you look in verse one and two, they are calling themselves a holy

city without actually being holy it's.

Like what we talked about before with me printing out my own.

Certificate of some kind, they're actually starting to believe the lie

that they've been telling themselves and he's warning against it.

So he's talking about the self deception that's occurring, and then he talks

about how he's not terribly surprised.

I thought this was interesting from a parenting perspective.

It's almost like he knows his children so well that he's not surprised

at where they chose, but he's been giving them profits and leaders.

Anyway, just on the off chance that they might choose it,

he's been preparing things.

And then he says, why he forgives?

So if you look at nine for my namesake, will I defer my anger?

And for my praise, I will refrain for the, and Kati, not off, uh,

for his namesake, for who he is.

This again, character of Christ.

He is a merciful.

Loving never ending God.

And he will reach after them.

And he talks about how they're gonna get tried.

That comes in 10 behold.

I have refined Theo, silver.

I have chosen the, in the furnace of affliction.

There's a lot of conference talks that wrap around this verse and it

teaches you something powerful that he allowed the hardships that happened

to the children of Israel to occur.

And they're gonna have some.

Hardships because of their choices from the different conquerors that come

through, but he allows those things to happen so that they can be refined.

I think he probably wishes he could have refined them in a different way.

This is me projecting a little bit, but I think as a parent, He could have

refined them in any number of ways.

They just chose this one.

And I think that's a warning for us as well, that yes, he can

refine us in afflictions that we end up in because of our choices.

He can make all things work together for our good, but he also can make

good things work together for our good.

So I think we shouldn't seek after this process, we should be, we

should trust that the Lord has a bunch of ways to teach us truth.

And I think the children of Israel.

Missed a chance to learn it an easier way.

And now we're gonna learn it the hard way, which has a lot of parenting application.

When you go a little bit further, he invites them to come near.

So that's around verse 16, come near unto me.

Hear ye this, I love the way he kicks things off around 17.

He talks about how he wants to lead them, how they will grow and gain profit.

If he, if they let him lead them.

And then there is this.

, I don't know what you'd call it.

It's a haunting phrase to me, although it's also so beautiful.

It's in 18.

Oh, that thou has harkened my commitments.

Then the peace would've been as a river.

And that righteousness as the waves of the sea to me, uh, is what hit me as a

parent in this scenario is oftentimes I see this with my family, right?

Not necessarily always my kids, but family members or friends,

or my students in my class who.

they could have had a much easier road to learn on , but because they chose

something else, you sort of ache for them.

And I love that the savior shows that ache, that he wishes, they

would've picked a different path.

He wishes he could have bestowed all those blessings.

He had stored up, he wishes that vineyard could have thrived

and he's mourning a little bit.

I think that loss, and he says this, that phrase, this beautiful.

I wish I could have given you peace like a river.

I mean, that phrase to me was.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is moving, it's flowing.

And it is agile.

Just like when you picture a river, it, if it encounters a big obstacle or

something about if you know, the landscape changes, it finds another way around.

It softens every stone in its path.

It changes the landscape in order to accommodate its power and its motion.

That's the gospel to me.

I think when you are on the covenant path, it promise.

Peace like a river, because no matter what obstacles come your

way, it will continue to flow.

It'll find a way around or over or under or through the gospel

will find a way to continue.

That's the promise that he's offering.

And I just, it, it was comforting to me.

I, I think, especially when you think about.

His state, that's what he wanted to give his children, but they didn't choose it.

So instead they have this hard path where they have to get overthrown by a

Syrians and overthrown by Babylonians.

He can get to, to the exact same destination.

That's the incredible gift of God is that he can reroute things so that you

get to the same place, but oh, he wishes he could have taken them on that scenic.

Beautiful.

Flowing river.

And instead they chose a much rockier path and he is aching for it a little bit.

The reason I thought this was so powerful is I think this happens to me and others.

I know, you know, I was just talking with a friend about, she has a sister

who made some really hard choices that deeply impacted their whole family.

And you have to mourn a little bit for what is lost.

You know, things can come back and things can regroup and

things can get back to where.

They needed to be, but you always mourn a little bit for what could have been.

And I think the savior does that as well, but what's powerful about the

Savior's example is he never stays there.

He never just mourns.

He then says, okay, we are where we are.

Let's move forward.

And that's what you're gonna see when you go into 49, let's go there.

Hm, chapter 49 speaks about a servant.

Who's been kind of held in reserve so that when the time is right,

he can be used for God's purposes.

And this could mean a whole bunch of different people.

It could reference Isaiah Joseph Smith and Nefi, it could

reference Jesus Christ himself.

It maybe be it references all of them.

What I love is.

No matter who you plug into that role, the principles taught

in the following versus fit.

So he talks about how he was a polished shaft.

So it for Joseph Smith uses this verse to talk about how he felt that rough

stone rolling quote, where he felt like he was getting all the rough edges

knocked off that fits in this verse.

But I also love what you learned in four that they feel.

They're spending their strength and not getting the returns that they expected.

And I think every one of us can relate to that feeling.

What I love is what we've seen over and over again, this chapter is that the

reason they can still continue their mighty work is because they look to God.

So the end of five, my God shall be my strength.

Even if every other force turns against me, even the savior himself had a

lot of opposition and betrayal and.

Hard but he continually turned to God for his strength and found a reserve there.

And that's where the light comes from.

So this is where he starts to shift and talk about the

gathering that's gonna occur.

I imagine if I delighted in these verses, cuz his family is

one of those that was sort of.

Cut off, you know, that they were this branch that got placed somewhere else.

And so this promises that things will be restored at some point.

So he talks about in an acceptable time.

So this is eight let's say at the Lord in an acceptable time.

Have I heard the, and then he talks about the gathering that will come about.

I love the phrase, an acceptable time that.

We don't get to determine what is the acceptable time.

That's something that's the Lord's timetable.

And we have to get comfortable with that promise that when his timing is what

he believes is right, it will occur.

The answers will come and then Springs of water will flow out.

You see that in 10.

I love how he talks about it, that all these promises that he will lead them,

that the Lord will comfort them in 13.

Again, this is empowering comfort, but that's a big promise.

He also warns that the Jews are gonna doubt the.

They're gonna doubt that this is all gonna work out.

So that's, I'm 14, but Zion shall say the Lord has forsaken

me and my Lord has forgotten me.

They're gonna worry.

And then it's that epic verse in 15, that can a woman forget her sucking child.

You know, if you think about nursing mothers, they physically can't forget.

Even if they're not a good mother, their bodies will call

out to take care of their child.

I think it's one of the reasons he made us the way we are.

So he could teach us this principle.

There's this great talk from elder Holland, where he talks about

the beauty of using a mother as a reference point for the savior.

Um, he talks about moron 7 45 and about how a mother endure all things.

Beareth all things and believe withal things and hope with all,

you know, Almost like a mother embodies charity and I loved the tie.

So go in the notes and read that.

But then there's 16 where he talks about you've been raving upon the palms of his

hands and his, your walls are continually before him verse, we could talk for

half an hour about that verse, but I love the visual of a wounded healer.

Um, I just think it's profound that he chose to.

Keep those wounds.

That it's what he shows people when he encounters them in the new world.

It's how he identifies himself.

So that people see that that's the, a critical component of who he is, is

that he is our savior and our Redeemer.

And he's engraving you on the palms of hands.

I just, you know, like it doesn't get better than ever.

I love that one.

Um, when you go a little further, you'll see this promise about

the lost children coming home.

One of the worries of the children of Israel will.

Things are scattered and lost and how can it possibly be

salvaged, but he promises there.

They will come home that they'll be brought home.

So if you look around verse 21, there's gonna be this insurgence of

children of Israel in the latter days.

There's a lot of prophecies that teach that.

Basically, this is all of us as we get our patriarchal blessings, basically be,

you know, we realize we're part of the children of Israel and that there will be.

Kind of Gentile branch that gets added to the children of Israel

that we know of from scripture.

And that this will be this like wellspring of people in the latter

days who are all part of this covenant.

I love the way it's phrased in 22 says, thus, say the Lord, God

behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the

people, this enzyme, to the nations.

And they shall bring the sons and their arms and their daughter shall

be carried upon their shoulders.

The visual of this for me.

I mean, a lot of people use this to talk about missionary work and how one by one,

we carry people in, but because we've dealt with so much burning the visual that

came to my mind as I was reading, this is all those pictures you see, like maybe on

time magazine or somewhere where you see a firefighter, like literally carrying

somebody in from a, you know, from a place of disaster to a place of safety that.

What this gathering is, and it's not just missionaries who wear a

name tag it's any of us who choose to reach out and put an arm around

someone and teach someone truth, bring them to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is this, you know, this carrying from a place of destruction, to a

place of peace and joy and rest.

That's the promise that I just, I love that visual for me.

It reminds me of.

Jesus, when he's gonna go find that one, you know, he has to

leave the 99 and find the one.

And I imagine it's dirty and broken and sad and he has to carry it home.

Um, it's just such a gorgeous visual for what the gathering is.

And then he promises you won't be ashamed.

So ground 23 day that wait on the Lord will not be ashamed.

You will always find strength.

Even when you are belittled or you are mocked, there will be.

A wellspring of strength that comes from being connected to God

and being comforted in his way.

And in the end in 25, has this promise that he will save the children.

I think this absolutely applies to the children of Israel at this time

and the generations that will follow.

But I think it also applies to us that as we honor our covenants.

He will reach after our children, to the third generation and

fourth generation president Nelson spoke about it in his talks.

If you wanna read his words and see it better than I can say it, you should go

in the notes and find it, but that's a powerful way to end this week's study.