Isaiah

But what they specifically put in there is confirmation of the prophecies concerning him.

Yeah, that's why he talks about Isaiah like a broken record, basically.

Right.

Isaiah is constantly just shooting information out about things for you to...

A lot of them too are kind of hard to decipher unless you really spend some time on the word.

Because there's certain pieces of it that, I can't recall one right now, but there's certain pieces of it which wouldn't make sense unless you actually study front to back.

It's talked about all through the Old Testament, Tanakh, so...

Oh, and I have a correction real quick.

So here was a high-ranking official traveling home from Jerusalem.

He's reading the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament in his chariot.

He's not really understanding what it means.

And so God directs Philip to run alongside the chariot and to explain how the scripture that he was reading, right in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, how that scripture pointed directly to Jesus.

The Lord has spoken it.

At a conference several years ago, Terry Ball, the former Dean of Religion at Brigham Young University said, the resurrected Christ gave special recognition to the writings of Isaiah.

As he spoke to the Book of Mormon people gathered at the Temple in Bountiful, the Savior proclaimed, a commandment I give unto you, that ye search these things diligently, for great are the words of Isaiah.

Brother Baal goes on to add, Isaiah definitely is not as easy as Ruth or Omni, but there's a huge payoff when we work to understand his messages.

There are several keys to understanding Isaiah, and one of them is knowing the geography and the general historical context.

In our last class about Isaiah, we talked about the Isaiah map and reviewing these details can be really helpful when you're studying Isaiah.

If you don't remember all the details from the Isaiah map, we've linked to a little review on the course website, and I definitely would encourage you to go check it out.

Just as a brief review, I want to talk about the storyline related to Judah, Babylon, and Persia, because it will come up in the chapters that we're studying today.

The Lord has spoken it.

At a conference several years ago, Terry Ball, the former Dean of Religion at Brigham Young University said, the resurrected Christ gave special recognition to the writings of Isaiah.

As he spoke to the Book of Mormon people gathered at the Temple in Bountiful, the Savior proclaimed, a commandment I give unto you, that ye search these things diligently, for great are the words of Isaiah.

Brother Baal goes on to add, Isaiah definitely is not as easy as Ruth or Omni, but there's a huge payoff when we work to understand his messages.

There are several keys to understanding Isaiah, and one of them is knowing the geography and the general historical context.

In our last class about Isaiah, we talked about the Isaiah map, and reviewing these details can be really helpful when you're studying Isaiah.

If you don't remember all the details from the Isaiah map, we've linked to a little review on the course website, and I definitely would encourage you to go check it out.

Just as a brief review, I want to talk about the storyline related to Judah, Babylon, and Persia, because it will come up in the chapters that we're studying today.

Because remember, the priests were a ruling class.

So that's why Isaiah 2, in the last days, the chief of the hills, the house of God, the house of the God of Jacob will be made the chief of the hills and all the nations will stream to it and the law will go forth from Zion.

So this is where God's law will be taught to all nations.

So that's how there's peace on the earth for a thousand years.

just Leviticus 19.18. You shouldn't harbor hatred in your heart for your neighbor.

So, yes, Jesus made some wonderful teachings.

He magnified the law, Isaiah 42.

He made some wonderful teachings that explain circumcision of the heart in regards to how we walk out the instructions of God, to do it with the right heart posture.

In verse 7, Satan goes to war against Michael and the angels of the Lord.

Now, I need to stop here and give you a principle about prophetic writing that will help you when you read other prophetic writings like Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and certainly Revelation.

In prophetic writing, you find that the past and the present and the future are written side by side.

I want to explain that.

In this very passage, in the chapter, you get the past, the present, and the future writing, all side by side.

You see that in Isaiah.

When I ask about the current problem and asking about salvation now, this is 700 years before Christ, and what does the word comes from the Lord? A word of prophecy.

The virgin shall have a child.

In verse 7, Satan goes to war against Michael and the angels of the Lord.

Now, I need to stop here and give you a principle about prophetic writing that will help you when you read other prophetic writings like Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and certainly Revelation.

In prophetic writing, you find that the past and the present and the future are written side by side.

I want to explain that.

In this very passage, in the chapter, you get the past, the present, and the future writing, all side by side.

You see that in Isaiah.

When I ask about the current problem and asking about salvation now, this is 700 years before Christ, and what does the word comes from the Lord? A word of prophecy.

The virgin shall have a child.

So the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were in him, but it was hidden.

He has no form or comeliness that when we look at him, we should desire him, Isaiah the prophet said.

But hang around him a little bit.

Get close to him, listen to him, and then you'll figure it out.

And I shall refer not only to his miracles, but, as is proper, to those also of the apostles of Jesus.

for they could not without the help of miracles and wonders have prevailed on those who heard their new doctrines and new teachings to abandon their natural usages and to accept their instructions at the danger to themselves even of death and there are still preserved among christians traces of that holy spirit which appeared in the form of a dove they expel evil spirits and perform many cures and foresee certain events according to the will of the and although celsus or the jew whom he has introduced may treat with mockery what i am going to say i shall say nevertheless that many have been converted to christianity as if against their will some sort of spirit having suddenly transformed their minds from a hatred of the doctrine to a readiness to die in its defence and having appeared to them either in a waking vision or a dream of the night many such instances have we known which if we were to commit to writing although they were seen and witnessed by ourselves we should afford great occasion for ridicule to unbelievers who would imagine that we like those whom they supposed to have invented such things had ourselves also done the same but god is witness of our conscientious desire not by false statements but by testimonies of different kinds to establish the divinity of the doctrine of jesus And as it is a Jew who is perplexed about the account of the Holy Spirit having descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove, we would say to him, Sir, who is it that says in Isaiah, And now the Lord hath sent me and his Spirit? In which sentence, as the meaning is doubtful, viz., whether the Father and the Holy Spirit sent Jesus, or the Father sent both Christ and the Holy Spirit, the latter is correct.

For, because the Savior was sent, afterwards the holy spirit was sent also that the prediction of the prophet might be fulfilled and as it was necessary that the fulfilment of the prophecy should be known to posterity the disciples of jesus for that reason committed the result to writing i would like to say to celsus who represents the jew as accepting somehow john as a baptist who baptized jesus that the existence of john the baptist baptizing for the remission of sins is related by one who lived no great length of time after john and jesus for in the eighteenth book of his antiquities of the jews josephus bears witness to john as having been a baptist and as promising purification to those who underwent the rite now this writer although not believing in jesus as the christ in seeking after the cause of the fall of jerusalem and the destruction of the temple whereas he ought to have said that the conspiracy against jesus was the cause of these calamities befalling the people since they put to death christ who was a prophet says nevertheless being although against his will not far from the truth that these disasters happened to the jews as a punishment for the death of james the just who was a brother of jesus called christ the jews having put him to death although he was a man most distinguished for his justice paul a genuine disciple of jesus says that he regarded this james as a brother of the lord not so much on the account of their relationship by blood or of their being brought up together as because of his virtue and doctrine if then he says that it was on account of james that the desolation of jerusalem was made to overtake the jews how should it not be more in accordance with reason to say that it happened on account of the death of jesus christ of whose divinity so many churches are witnesses composed of those who have been converted from a flood of sins and who have joined themselves to the creator and who refer all their actions to his good pleasure although the jew then may offer no defence for himself in the instances of ezekiel and isaiah when we compare the opening of the heavens to jesus and the voice that was heard by him to the similar cases which we find recorded in ezekiel and isaiah or any other of the prophets we nevertheless so far as we can shall support our position maintaining that as it is a matter of belief that in a dream impressions have been brought before the minds of many some relating to divine things and others to future events of this life and this either with clearness or in an enigmatic manner a fact which is manifest to all who accept the doctrine of providence so how is it absurd to say that the mind which could receive impressions in a dream should be impressed also in a waking vision for the benefit either of him on whom the impressions are made or of those who are to hear the account of them from him and as in a dream we fancy that we hear and that the organs of hearing are actually impressed and that we see with our eyes although neither the bodily organs of sight nor hearing are affected but it is the mind alone which has these sensations so there is no absurdity in believing that similar things occurred to the prophets when it is recorded that they witnessed occurrences of a rather wonderful kind as when they either heard the words of the lord or beheld the heavens open for i do not suppose that the visible heaven was actually opened and its physical structure divided in order that ezekiel might be able to record such an occurrence should not therefore the same be believed of the saviour by every intelligent hearer of the gospels although such an occurrence may be a stumbling-block to the simple who in their simplicity would set the whole world in movement and split and sunder the compact and mighty body of the whole heavens but he who examines such matters more profoundly will say that there being as the scripture calls it a kind of general divine perception which the blessed man alone knows how to discover according to the saying of solomon thou shalt find the knowledge of god and as there are various forms of this perceptive power such as the faculty of vision which can naturally see things that are better than bodies among which are ranked the cherubim and seraphim and a faculty of hearing which can perceive voices which have not their being in the air and a sense of taste which can make use of living bread that has come down from heaven and that giveth life unto the world and so also a sense of smelling which sense such things as leads paul to say that he is a sweet savour of christ unto god and a sense of touch by which john says that he handled with his hands the word of life the blessed prophets having discovered this divine perception and seeing and hearing in this divine manner and tasting likewise and smelling so to speak with no sensible organs of perception and laying hold of the logos by faith so that a healing effluence from it comes upon them saw in this manner what they record as having seen and heard what they say they heard and were affected in a similar manner to what they describe when eating the roll of a book that was given them and so also isaac smelled the savour of his son's divine garments and added to the spiritual blessing these words see the savour of my son is as the savour of a full field which the lord blessed and similarly to this and more as a matter to be understood by the mind than to be perceived by the senses jesus touched the leper to cleanse him as i think in a twofold sense freeing him not only as the multitude heard from the visible leprosy by visible contact but also from that other leprosy by his truly divine touch it is in this way accordingly that john testifies when he says i beheld the spirit descended from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him and i knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water the same said to me upon whom you will see the spirit descending and abiding on him the same is he that baptizeth with the holy ghost and i saw and bear witness that this is the son of god now it was to jesus that the heavens were opened and on that occasion no one except john is recorded to have seen them opened but with respect to this opening of the heavens the saviour foretelling to his disciples that it would happen, and that they would see it, says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye shall see the heavens open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

And so Paul was carried away into the third heaven, having previously seen it open, since he was a disciple of Jesus.