By the springs of water He shall guide them. Isaiah 49:10Lesson 37: “Thou Hast Done Wonderful Things”, Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, 179
1. Introduction – PowerPoint
a) Isaiah's Prophetic Periods
i) Events before and during the fall of Israel to Assyria (800-700 BC).
ii) Events before and during the fall of Judah, the Babylonian captivity, and the Jewish return to Palestine (primarily 635-535 BC).
iii) Events related to the ministry of Christ in the Meridian of time.
iv) Events during the Last Days beginning with the restoration of the Gospel.
b) Purposes of Symbols
i) Greater involvement of readers/hearers by picturing familiar objects from daily life
ii) Added contemplation involved in understanding scriptural imagery increases opportunities for revelation
iii) Isaiah’s symbols point to the redeeming work of the Lord or to the craftiness of the Adversary
c) Importance of Revelation – Elder Oaks
i) As a source of knowledge, the scriptures are not the ultimate but the penultimate. The ultimate knowledge comes by revelation…. A study of the scriptures enables men and women to receive revelations…. because scripture reading put us in tune with the Spirit of the Lord. Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Scripture Reading and Revelation,” to BYU Studies Academy, 29 January 1993, 3-4, also at "Mormonism 101" lecture at Harvard University Law School, spring, 2010
d) Particular Symbols
i) Shadow from the Heat
ii) Refuge from the Storm
iii) Mountain of the Lord
(1) Mt. Sinai
(2) Denali, Mt. McKinley (20,320 feet)
(3) Aconcagua (22,841 ft)
iv) A Sure Foundation
v) Water in a Dry Place
vi) Fortress
vii) The key of the house of David
viii) The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces
e) Importance of Understanding Isaiah
i) It just may be that my salvation (and yours also!) does in fact depend upon our ability to understand the writings of Isaiah as fully and truly as Nephi understood them. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, Ensign, Oct 1973
2. The Savior opens the door to Heavenly Father’s presence.
a) Reading 1 – Isaiah 22:22
And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
b) Savior is the one who provides the way to our Heavenly Father through His Atonement
c) READ - Jesus once said to Thomas, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).
d) Reading 2 – Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote: "In ancient Israel, David was a man of blood and battle whose word was law and whose very name was also a symbol of power and authority. Accordingly, when Isaiah sought to convey a realization of the supreme, directive control and power resident in our Lord, the Son of David, he spoke these words in the Lord's name: 'And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.' (Isa. 22:22.) Centuries later, speaking of himself, our Lord said to John: 'These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth.' (Rev. 3:7.) Thus, the key of David is the absolute power resident in Christ whereby his will is expressed in all things both temporal and spiritual." (Mormon Doctrine, p409)
e) Reading 3 – 2 Nephi 9:41
41 O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name.
3. The Savior shows mercy for those in spirit prison.
a) Reading 4 – Isaiah 24:21-22
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
i) The "high ones" represent the wicked
ii) Reading 5 - President Ezra Taft Benson said: "There were two grand divisions in the world of spirits. Spirits of the righteous (the just) had gone to paradise, a state of happiness, peace, and restful work. The spirits of the wicked (the unjust) had gone to prison, a state of darkness and misery." (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p37)
b) The Lord didn't forget those who were in prison
i) READ – Isaiah 42:5-7
5 ¶ Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
6 I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
ii) Reading 6 – Doctrine and Covenants 138:29-31
29 And as I wondered, my eyes were opened, and my understanding quickened, and I perceived that the Lord went not in person among the wicked and the disobedient who had rejected the truth, to teach them;
30 But behold, from among the righteous, he organized his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness, even to all the spirits of men; and thus was the gospel preached to the dead.
31 And the chosen messengers went forth to declare the acceptable day of the Lord and proclaim liberty to the captives who were bound, even unto all who would repent of their sins and receive the gospel.
iii) Xx
iv) READ – Isaiah 49:9-10
9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. U
10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
4. The Savior is a strength and a refuge
a) Reading 7 - Isaiah 25:1–4; 32:1–2
1 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
GO TO 32:1-2
1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
i) He is a refuge from the storm (Isaiah 25:4).
ii) He is a shadow from the heat (Isaiah 25:4).
iii) He is a hiding place from the wind (Isaiah 32:2).
iv) He is a covert (cover) from the tempest (Isaiah 32:2).
v) He is rivers of water in a dry place (Isaiah 32:2).
vi) He is the shadow of a great rock in a weary (thirsty) land (Isaiah 32:2).
b) Reading 8 - President Harold B. Lee said, “the Master was telling us that those same storms [having quoted Matthew 7:24-27] are going to fall upon the house of every one of us, rich or poor, good or bad. The only ones who will not fall will be those who have founded their lives upon the Rock—meaning divine testimony of the mission of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (“Message to Students,” Ninety-sixth Annual Commencement Address and Message, Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1971, 18-19)
5. The Savior is a sure foundation
a) READ Isaiah 28:16
16 ¶ Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
b) Reading 9 – Helaman 5:12
12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.
i) These are the words that Helaman gave to his sons, Nephi and Lehi.
ii) Nephi remembers these words as he goes out to preach to the wicked Nephites shortly before the First Coming of Christ
6. The Savior knows our trials and directs our paths
a) READ – Isaiah 30:19-21
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
i) ASK – Who are our teachers?
(1) Promise is that our teachers will not be removed into a corner any more – Verse 20
(2) Promise that thine eyes shall see thy teachers – Verse 20
(3) Verse 21 - thine ears shall hear a word behind thee , saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left
7. Conclusion
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