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37: “God Is My Salvation” (Isaiah 1–12)

Fri Sep 02 13:06:47 EDT 2022
Episode 37

What do you delight in? What really makes you happy? Our goal over the next five weeks is for your answer to be the same as Nephi’s when he said “...that his soul delighteth in the words of Isaiah” (2 Nephi 25:5) And right after that he talked to us saying the words of Isaiah are of great worth and that they are particularly of great worth to those in the last days. Isaiah chapters 1-12 have plenty to delight in and it starts with the message that God is our salvation.



Segment 1:

Scriptures:
3 Nephi 23:1 (Search Isaiah diligently)
Isaiah 1:2-3 (Parallelisms in Isaiah)
Isaiah 1:18 (Sins made white)
Isaiah 1:9 (People like Sodom & Gomorrah)

Books:
Angels: Agents of Light, Love, and Power by Donald W. Parry
Understanding Isaiah by Tina Peterson, Jay A. Parry, and Donald W. Parry
Other Don Parry Books

Segment 2:

Scriptures:

Isaiah 1:1 (Intro to Isaiah)

Isaiah 1:6, 16-18 (Spiritual sickness)

Isaiah 3:16-26 (Zion will lose their temple)

Hebrew:

LORD in all capitals is Jehovah the english rendering of the Hebrew YHWH

All cities are feminine nouns (will use daughters to mean all of us)

Bravery = glory, beauty, honor

Segment 3:

Scriptures:

Isaiah 2:1-4 (Top of the mountain)

Hebrew:

Flow = River in verb form (“all nations shall river to [the temple]”)

Segment 4:

Scriptures:

Isaiah 6:1-8 (Isaiah’s vision of the Lord)

CR: 2 Nephi 11:2-3 (Isaiah saw Christ)

CR: D&C 77 (Angels)

Revelation 4:8 (Holy, holy, holy is the Lord)

CR: Exodus 19:18 (Mount Sinai in smoke)

CR: Revelation 15:8 (Smoke from the glory of God)

Books:

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith by Joseph Fielding Smith

Hebrew:

Seraph = to burn (Seraphim = burning one, burning with glory)

Unclean = ceremonial uncleanness in reference to working in the temple

Purged = atoned

Segment 5:

Scriptures:

Isaiah 7:14 (The coming of Christ)

CR: Matthew 1:21-23 (Call his name Emmanuel)

Isaiah 8:3 (Isaiah’s wife bears a son)

Hebrew:

Isaiah = The Lord is salvation

Segment 6:

Scriptures:

Isaiah 10:33 (Humbling the haughty)

Isaiah 11:1-9 (The kingdom of Judah will continue)

Girdle = sash, or temple apparel

Tammy 0:02

Okay, really quick, before we get started, we want to offer a little bit of a disclaimer. Throughout today's episode, several different times you're going to hear some crackling sound. Don't worry, it's not the episode, and it's not your device. It's actually the microphone, and it's brushing up against our guest's shirt collar. And we tried so hard, and it just kept falling. We even had them tape the microphone to his cheek. Anyway, we just wanted to let you know that, um, we're sorry. And we will try and do much better in the future. But please, do not let it affect the gloriousness of today's episode as we dive into Isaiah.

Tammy 0:36

What do you delight in? Like what really makes you happy? Now, did you immediately think, Oh, that's an easy question. It's the words of Isaiah. No? Well, me neither. But I have to tell you this: Nephi said that his "soul delighteth in the words of Isaiah", and then tells us that "the words of Isaiah are of great worth and that they are particularly of great worth to those in the last days". That's us. So today, we begin our five-week study of Isaiah. And when we are done, I believe that when it comes to the words of Isaiah, we are both going to not only just delight, but we will be able to see the great worth of his words.

Tammy 1:10

Welcome to the Sunday Monday Study Group, a Deseret Bookshelf Plus original, brought to you by LDS Living where we take the Come, Follow Me lesson for the week, and we really dig into the scriptures together. I'm your host, Tammy Uzelac Hall. K, if you're new to our study group, I just want to make sure you know how to use this podcast. So please follow the link that's in our description. It's going to explain how you can best use this podcast to enhance your Come, Follow Me study just like my friend, Marianne Hunt. Hi, friend. Now here's the most awesome thing about our study group. Each week, I get to be joined by two of my friends. So it's always a little bit different and a different take on what we discuss. But today we only have one friend and I have been looking so forward to this episode because you guys, we have Professor Donald Parry! He has been my Hebrew and Isaiah go-to for years and I couldn't be more excited about this. Hi, Don, welcome to our podcast!

Don Parry 1:58

Hi, it's so good to be here. Thank you for this invitation.

Tammy 2:02

Oh, now listen, for those of you who have been following our podcast know I talk a ton about Professor Don Parry. He's been a guest a couple of times. But we have only met via zoom. And I met him for the first time in person at Education Week at BYU last week! I got, my friend took a picture of me, Don. I was so excited. It didn't even matter. You could have been a rock star from a rock group or a Hollywood star. It didn't matter to me. it was Professor Donald W. Parry. I was so excited! And he did a great presentation, by the way, on Angels. Why did you choose angels?

Don Parry 2:36

I have been studying angels since 1990. And there are so many important aspects of angels that the Latter-Day Saints in general do not understand. And so it's my privilege to talk about them, and to discuss them and to bear testimony that they do exist.

Tammy 2:55

Wow. And bear testimony you did. It was an excellent presentation. So good. Are you writing anything about it? Are you in the works of a book?

Don Parry 3:01

I actually wrote a book a few years ago.

Don Parry 3:04

Oh, what's it called?

Don Parry 3:05

Called "Angels, Agents of Love, Light and Power".

Tammy 3:10

Okay, we're gonna put that in our show notes. You guys can click on it and find it. Now, that's just one of Don Parry's books. The reason I have him on the episode today is because, you guys, he has written at least seven books on Isaiah. That's amazing. Now in our show notes, we're going to lead you to the one that I love the most, which is called "Understanding Isaiah". And I told everybody to go buy this clear last year before we even started the Old Testament, so that you would love Isaiah as much as I do. And well, hopefully, my goal is to love it as much as Don does. But then there's several other books. So we're gonna put links to those and information about that as well, you guys, he's also written several different articles, dozens of articles, and he's presented about Isaiah at many academic conferences. So he knows his Isaiah.

Tammy 3:53

And I couldn't think of a better guest to have to kick off our five-week study on Isaiah and we are going to have so much fun. Before we start, Don, I just want to know real quick though, I said, I asked the question, What do people delight in? And Nephi says he delights in Isaiah. Um, I'm not there yet. I delight in a movie, and Milk Duds, and a Coke on my lap with popcorn. I want to know, what do you delight in, Don?

Don Parry 4:16

I really do delight in Isaiah. I'm following Nephi's example. I delight in Isaiah. I know that sounds super strange, but I am following Nephi as example who delighted in Isaiah and his words. And when I read Isaiah, it brings me comfort and peace and I feel very close to the Holy Ghost.

Tammy 4:39

Wow. Well, that's a great reason to study Isaiah right there, to feel a closeness to the Holy Ghost. So, I am so looking forward to this next hour that we have. And for those of you listening, I want you to grab your scriptures, your journals and something to write with. And I am not kidding when I say I'm sitting here with empty pages in Isaiah, because I'm ready to learn from Professor Donald Parry. And I hope you find this as awesome as I know I'm going to. So grab your scriptures and let's dig into Isaiah. Okay, Don, here we go. Why study Isaiah? Hit it.

Don Parry 5:10

Okay, so the Book of Mormon gives us 11 reasons why we should study Isaiah, I will share two only, because of the timeframe. I think the top reason is, is because Jesus Christ, the resurrected Jesus Christ gave us a commandment to study Isaiah. I'm going to give you a quote, it's from 3 Nephi 23:1 "A commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently, for great are the words of Isaiah." Notice he says, "Search these things," And not just search them, but search them diligently. He doesn't just say read Isaiah, read it casually. He says, "Search these things diligently". Then he says, "Great are the words of Isaiah". That I think that's the number one reason why we should study Isaiah. And that would probably be enough for most of us. But I want to remind everyone that Isaiah, his text is Jesus Christ-focused. In several ways it's Jesus Christ-focused and if you'd like to at some point, we can talk about that.

Tammy 6:26

Yeah, we definitely will. Well, one of the things, hold on, I'm just writing all these things down. Just writing everything down you're saying Don. You know, when I first started teaching seminary, I remember the first year I got into Isaiah. And it was terrifying because - some people know, here's a fun fact about me, Donald: - I did not know Christ came to America until I was in the MTC. So that's how low my bar is.

Don Parry 6:47

Interesting.

Tammy 6:48

And I remember reading 3 Nephi 11 to my companions, and I just looked at them and I'm like, Did you know Christ came to America? And they looked at me, they're like, Are you a convert? No, I've been a member my whole life. I don't know how I missed that. So what I want to know from you is, Can anyone understand Isaiah? Or do you have to be a scholar?

Don Parry 7:05

No, no, you do not have to be a scholar. Jesus Christ will not give a commandment that we cannot obey. And anyone, everyone can study Isaiah and learn and search Isaiah's words diligently and understand. Now we understand line upon line. It may take us hours or dozens of hours or scores of hours. But we can and we are expected to study and understand Isaiah.

Tammy 7:37

So what would you say are some keys to making Isaiah easier to comprehend? What are some tips for understanding Isaiah then?

Don Parry 7:44

I'll give you three tips. Okay, there are many tips. But let me give you three. One is understanding his poetry. Isaiah wrote in parallelisms. And these are very short little poetic units. Sometimes they're six or eight words long. And a parallelism is a two line, little poetic structure. Let me give you some examples of parallelisms,

Tammy 8:13

Great

Don Parry 8:14

Before I do, let me tell you, I counted how many there are in the book of Isaiah. And I counted 1100 poetic parallelisms.

Tammy 8:25

Oh my gosh

Don Parry 8:25

That's a lot of them. To really comprehend Isaiah, you have to know how he writes in poetry. And the poetry is not like American or Western civilization or British poetry. It is ancient poetry. It's, he doesn't use rhymes, like we use in rhymes in our hymns and in our poetic units. So if you turn to Isaiah chapter 1, and let's look at verse 2. And I'll read it then I'll explain it; maybe we'll look at a handful. The first one, so Isaiah 1:2, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth" That's it. That's a parallelism. Now you have to find corresponding words. Pretend like they're two lines. "Hear, O, heavens" is line one. And "give ear, O earth" is line two. Hear corresponds to give ear.

Tammy 9:27

Oh, it does.

Don Parry 9:28

They both mean listen, listen up. "O heavens" corresponds to "O Earth". It's kind of like the cosmos or the heavens equals the earth.

Tammy 9:43

That's cool. That's really cool, Don. Right out of the gate verse 2 gives us a parallelism.

Don Parry 9:49

Yeah, it gives us a parallelism. And in my reading, maybe others will not fully comprehend this or agree with this, but when he's speaking to the earth, he means the inhabitants of the earth, not the globe, not the planet Earth. And when he speaks to the heavens, he's speaking of Heavens' inhabitants. And therefore, Isaiah is for not just Earth, people on Earth, but people in heaven.

Don Parry 10:20

Now, the next parallelism is this. Well, let's jump to verse 3. And we'll jump around a little bit. Chapter 1:3. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass has master's crib". So the ox is an animal, and it parallels or corresponds to an ass. And then "his owner "corresponds to "his master's crib". The next parallelism is found in verse 3 of the same chapter. "Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." So every time you look at a parallelism, look for corresponding thoughts or words. So in this one, "Israel" corresponds with "my people". "Doth not, doth not" they're found in both lines, and then "know" corresponds with "consider".

Tammy 11:16

Yeah. That's fun.

Don Parry 11:18

Shall I give some more examples? We have another 1096 or 97 to go; I can give a couple more, if you like.

Tammy 11:26

(laughs) That is awesome. Well, we don't have time. But let's go into your next tip for understanding Isaiah.

Don Parry 11:31

By the way, in our book, "Understanding Isaiah", we have listed all 1100 parallelisms in parallelistic format, meaning the two lines, and then two more lines, and then two more lines so that the reader can go read the parallelisms. They're all set out for you in that book.

Tammy 11:44

Perfect.

Don Parry 11:44

The next tip is understanding his symbols. His symbols are not hard to understand once we think them out, search diligently, we'll figure out his symbols and maybe I can give you two or three examples of those.

Tammy 12:12

Please do.

Don Parry 12:13

Turn to Isaiah 1:18. And it says, this, "Come now, and let us reason together saith the Lord." Now let me tell you that the word LORD here in caps, is in the Hebrew, is Jehovah. And that the name LORD, or Jehovah appears over 400 times in the book of Isaiah. It is a Jehovah-focused, or a Jesus Christ-focused text. So back to this verse, chapter one, verse 18. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet," See, the color scarlet sins are compared to this the color, it's a symbol. "they shall be white as snow". So now you have another color" white' "Though they be red," a third color, "like crimson, they shall be as wool." And wool is white, also. So here it's comparing our sins to red or scarlet or crimson. But when we repent and come into Christ, and apply His atonement, then our sins are like white as snow. And there is wool. And why 'wool' here? Because wool, when a sheep is cleaned up, the wool is white. But wool is also, there's a, an implication here of Jesus Christ, who's the Lamb of God. Through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, our sins become white. So that's a symbol.

Tammy 13:54

Awesome.

Don Parry 13:55

Maybe I could turn to one more, shall I?

Tammy 13:57

Yes, one more.

Don Parry 13:58

Okay. If you look at Isaiah 1:9 it says, "Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sadom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." Now notice the parallelism there "we should have been as, we should have been like". Now the two symbols here are Sodom and Gomorrah. Those are two ancient biblical cities. But this is not literal here because Sodom and Gomorrah had been destroyed centuries earlier. So what does it symbolize? It's saying that the people, the Lord's people were wicked, like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. So Sodom and Gomorrah are symbols. They're used throughout the scriptures of wicked people. And they're also used in the latter-day days by some of our prophets and apostles in General conference. They talk about Sodom and Gomorrah and the wickedness thereof.

Tammy 15:03

Perfect. Thank you for explaining that verse. Because it is a little bit, that verse when people read it, it's striking, like, What's he talking about? I'm glad you chose that verse to teach us. Okay, what's the third way we can understand Isaiah?

Don Parry 15:14

The third way is to know who the speaker is. In Isaiah, he moves around a little bit, and it's very, very difficult to follow him. And who's speaking now, who's talking? And so, if we know who the speakers are, that really, really helps us comprehend. And I have gone through and identified the speakers of Isaiah just for myself, and who's speaking. And I'll give you a couple of examples.

Don Parry 15:47

So what I did is I developed a criteria or we call it a methodology for understanding the speakers in Isaiah, and it's a four or five-step process that I don't think anyone has ever done before. And let me explain. The number one speaker in Isaiah, meaning the one who's speaking the words, is Isaiah. And according to my account, he speaks 344 times in 1290 verses. The second speaker in terms of frequency is the Lord Himself. He speaks 216 times. That's super significant to know that the Lord Jehovah is speaking that often in Isaiah, so it's a text that God is speaking to us. Now, I'm just going to give you two or three more examples. The wicked speak 10 times, that means their words are actually spoken. Hezekiah the king speaks nine times. We have Zions inhabitants speak three times. We have a Eunuch speaking one, foreigner speaking one. Cities even speak, but those are symbolic. So I think I have about 80 speakers altogether.

Tammy 17:14

Holy cow. Wow, that's cool. That is so awesome. Everyone listening, you're ahead of the game, because of what Donald just explained to us. And I have that written in my scriptures. So, thank you, thank you. So everyone can just breathe easy, you do not have to be a scholar to understand Isaiah. Knowing these three things are going to really help you a ton. And I can bear witness that what he has said is absolutely true, because having studied the poetry and the symbols, and then this is gonna be super helpful, knowing who's speaking is really going to open up the scriptures now for me. I can't wait to study Isaiah with that in mind, who is speaking. So keep that in mind now as you're studying Isaiah. And in the next segment, we are just going to jump into Isaiah chapter one.

Segment 2 17:53

....

Tammy 17:55

Over the last couple of weeks, Don and I have gone back and forth over an outline for this episode. And I just love everything that Don has added. And so for this part of the discussion, he says the superscription covers the entire Book of Isaiah, and I cannot wait for him to tell us what this means. And he's also going to talk about the authorship of Isaiah. So Don, what is the superscription mean? And who is the author of Isaiah?

Don Parry 18:19

Thank you, great questions. Isaiah 1:1 presents the superscription. The superscription introduces who the author is, and I'd like to read it, 1:1 "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz" (not to be confused with the Prophet Amos. This has Z, Amos has an S), "which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of...." and then it mentions kings of Judah. This is called the superscription. This introduces the entire Book of Isaiah, all 66 chapters. It's not just for chapter one. and it tells who the author is, it tells - in case you want to know, Woa, which Isaiah? - it's the son of Amoz. Notice it's a vision. Isaiah was a prophet and seer, and I testify that he was. And notice which he, when it says, "which he saw", when he says "he saw", that's a special Hebrew term. That means he saw in vision; he's seeing this in vision. And it's about Judah and Jerusalem. But I remind you, that he also speaks concerning the Lord and indeed the entire house of Israel. Now, yes

Tammy 19:43

I was gonna say, so Isaiah is the author. But then going back to last segment, many people will speak in this vision.

Don Parry 19:51

Yes. Isaiah is the author and the revelations come from Jehovah, who's Jesus Christ. And there's been a discussion the last two centuries by different scholars, who have questioned whether the entire 66 chapter, book, was written by Isaiah the son of Amoz. I say yes, absolutely. I've conducted a study in recent months. I've taken months to look at books and books and books and articles on this. And I am convinced that Isaiah, the son of Amoz wrote all 66 chapters. And of course, they didn't have chapters back then; I'm using modern terms. So he wrote all 66 chapters.

Tammy 20:41

Okay, I'm so glad that you said that. Because you're right. Many things I have read, people are starting to say, well, we're not sure if he wrote it all. So I'm so grateful that you put that thought to rest. I agree with you. I think Isaiah wrote all 66 chapters as well. And I love how you just pointed that out in verse one, and that superscription. He is the author, and I love the connection to 'vision' and 'saw'. And so everything we're about to study and read is, is for his people at the time. But then like you said, it's also for us, it's for future people. So if we dive into Isaiah 1, what's the overall message of Isaiah 1? What is he trying to teach the people here?

Don Parry 21:18

Some scholars maintain that Isaiah 1 is a preface to the entire Book of Isaiah, sort of like Doctrine and Covenants Section 1 is a preface, though he's speaking of Israel's sicknesses, meaning spiritual sicknesses. But he's speaking of their body, but he means their spiritual sicknesses. And, he tells them how to become clean. And it's just a very powerful set of verses.

Tammy 21:56

I like how you mentioned the sicknesses because it gives such meaning to verse 6 when you read the soul of the foot, even the head, "there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores". Like, that's how he, that's the wording he's using to describe just how sick these people are: a putrifying sore. I love the imagery he uses there. And then, "they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." What's he teaching in that last line there? Because he's saying you haven't gone to a doctor to get fixed. But what's he really teaching?

Don Parry 22:29

Well, he's teaching of their spiritual sicknesses, their sins and inequities. And they have not, basically they have not followed Jehovah. They've turned their own way, and it's super sad. But he does give them, tell them how they might turn to Jehovah. That's found in verse 16. It's not explicit, but if you read it carefully. For example, 1:16, he says, "Wash you make, you clean". So that's a little parallelism right there. Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. See, this is Jehovah speaking. Here's a case where we know Jehovah's the speaker, "cease to do evil; "Learn to do well; (I'm in verse 17), seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." And then he transitions into the verse that I already read: 1:18 about though your sins be as scarlet, they'll become white as snow. Very powerful imagery here.

Tammy 23:44

So Don, you mentioned in verse 16, that Jehovah is speaking right here. I want to know, how can you tell that for us who are reading. How do we know when Jehovah is speaking?

Don Parry 23:52

If you go back into the text, go to 1:11. It says, "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?," then notice " saith the Lord,". Remember the LORD in caps is Jehovah. So, saith Jehovah, and then he speaks in first person, "I am full of the burnt offerings..." "I delight not", and so on.

Tammy 24:21

There it is, and then you get into 16, He's still speaking. And then in verse 18, he qualifies it "thus saith th Lord." Oh, that's so cool. I'm grateful that you taught us LORD in caps means Jehovah. And when you say Jehovah is that the Hebrew rendering of Yahweh?

Don Parry 24:39

When I say, Jehovah, that's the English rendering of the Hebrew, Yahweh.

Don Parry 24:46

That's what I meant to say. (laughs)

Don Parry 24:46

Now there's more to it. I'm, I'm super-simplifying that so some of your readers might say, Brother Perry there's much more to it. Yes, there is.

Tammy 24:55

Yeah. But that's the best way to know. Notice that when you do see the word LORD in Scripture, it is the Hebrew Yahweh. So

Don Parry 25:03

If it's caps,

Tammy 25:04

Caps, when it's in caps. Perfect. Thank you for teaching that. Now one more thing. In verse 8, it says, "And the daughter of Zion,". Now we're going to read a lot of "Daughter of Zion" and "Daughters of Zion" throughout the book of Isaiah. Are we talking about just girls? Or is it bigger than that?

Don Parry 25:20

No, it's much bigger than that.

Tammy 25:22

So who are they?

Don Parry 25:23

Well, 'Daughter of Zion' is another name for Jerusalem.

Tammy 25:27

Okay.

Don Parry 25:28

And it's one of those symbols, it's a beautiful symbol. In the, in the Hebrew language, all cities are feminine, grammatically feminine. So if we speak about Bethlehem or Bethel, or, or Jerusalem in the Hebrew language, they're feminine, and they take feminine verbs and feminine pronouns.

Tammy 25:51

Don, thank you for teaching us that 'daughters of Zion' is Jerusalem. It's male, it's female, it's everyone. Because I want to include Isaiah 3:16-26 with our discussion from Isaiah 1. We just talked about how the people were sick, and the imagery that Isaiah gives us because of their sins. And so Isaiah 3 goes beautifully with this. And we want to go to Isaiah 3:16. And I want to focus on these verses, because traditionally we have used these verses to malign women, and to point out, 'Oh look, because girls are dressed immodestly, they're going to bring down the fall of all civilization.' And we just have to reframe this. Verse 16 says "Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty". So right there, throughout this year, we have looked for 'if and then' statements, this is a little bit different. It's a "because and then." Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go".

Tammy 26:53

Like he's using this female imagery. So you're imagining this really proud woman, and he's applying it to all of Jerusalem, like you are proud you have left me. Then we have verse 17. A "Therefore": Because you did something, now therefore, here's what I'm going to do. And he's going to "smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion". And so he gives this negative consequence from the Lord. But this is the worst negative consequence of them all. Verse 18. "In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments". Now, the word 'bravery' is so significant. It changes the entire way we've been teaching this for years because the word bravery in Hebrew, it's not bravery, its 'glory or beauty or honor'. In fact, in all of Scripture, this is the only place that Hebrew word is used as bravery. This word is used in Exodus, in describing the priest's clothing, the beauty and glory that will come from that. And so it changes "I will take away the beauty and the glory of their tinkling ornaments".

Tammy 27:57

Now look at "about their feet". That's in italics. That means it was added by the translators. So it's really not anklets. You imagine that these women wearing these fancy jewels, but 'the glory and honor' of their tinkling ornaments - that's referencing the priest's clothing. At the bottom and hem, at the hem of his garment, he would have bells and pomegranates. And when he would wear that outfit, he would walk into the tabernacle and the saints would hear that sound. And that was a symbol to them that their prayers were being taken into the temple by the priest. Their petitions to the Lord were being taken in by the priest. And so the imagery here throughout all the rest of these verses, this is a temple text. And the Lord is saying, Listen, if you don't get your act together, you're going to lose your temple. And in fact, they do; that is exactly what happens.

Tammy 28:47

So all of these words throughout all of these verses we have unfortunately attached what we know as being - this is clothing items - is what it's talking about, but it's not. Now, this discussion is totally preliminary. I acknowledge that. And I appreciate Don Perry's help with this, because he has given me some guidance, and we've been working on this together a little bit. And I think we need to just reframe the way we've taught this. So if you have the chance to teach this and Gospel Doctrine, please take the opportunity to tell them. What we're really talking about is what actually happened: the temple was destroyed. And these items are clothing items that the priests would have worn. They're symbolic of covenants that we make with the Lord. And I think that is beautiful.

Don Parry 29:26

You know, in fact, when I translated Isaiah from the Hebrew into the English, for this very verse, I wrote the word 'glory' instead of 'bravery'. So I wrote, "In that day, the Lord will take away the glory of". And then for a lot of these terms, by the way, these are archaic terms found in Isaiah 3:18-23. And a lot of them, we need to update. These are very old terms.

Tammy 29:57

Thank you. I totally agree and we're working on that. It's preliminary, but we're gonna get it. And we're gonna give it, I was so excited because it's so important to know so that we can just empower women and men with what the Lord is trying to teach here.

Don Parry 30:11

Posotively,

Tammy 30:12

Love it. Love it.

Don Parry 30:13

Well said, thank you.

Tammy 30:14

Thank you, Don. So, have fun with that in your Gospel Doctrine class. If you're teaching it, just make sure we don't malign any young woman. So that's the message of Isaiah 1. Bcause of their wickedness they had sores and wounds and bruises. And as it said, "putrifying sores". They weren't willing to get the help they needed and the Lord encourages them: Come, look, you can repent, though your sins as scarlett, they will be white as snow, but they just wouldn't. And so in the next segment, we're going to jump into Isaiah 2, and we're just going to cover four verses, and look what the Lord has to say to these people.

Segment 3 30:47

.....

Tammy 30:48

Okay, let's go to Isaiah chapter 2 and we're going to just do verses 1-4, and I'm so excited to find out what Don has to teach us about these verses.

Don Parry 30:56

This is an amazing set of verses here. Isaiah 2:1 has another superscription. "The word that Isaiah the son of Amozo saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." Now that's important to see that he's talking about Judah and Jerusalem, especially when you see what the next verse is. Verse 2, chapter 2:2, "And it shall come to pass in the last days". So this is a prophecy of the last days. And it's prophesying of the Salt Lake Temple, and other temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but it's also a prophecy of the future Temple of Jerusalem. Let's look at this quickly. Here's another symbol. I'm in chapter 2:2, "that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top in the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." A couple of quick comments here. Temples are mountains. And we might say this expression, all temples are symbolically mountains. In the history of the of the world, some mountains have been temples. So we, some prophets have gone to mountains and have had temple experiences.

Don Parry 32:23

Now I want you to look at the third word from the end in Isaiah 2:2, the last phrase actually. "and all nations show flow unto it." I want to show you how clever Isaiah was. He used the noun 'river', and made it into a verb. So where it says flow, literally, it's they'll flow like a river, or they'll river or they'll stream to the mountain, to the temple. And this partly shows the miracle of the latter-day, temples because if all nations are going to flow up the mountain, up the hill, like a river, they're actually going against gravity. So this is the miracle of the of the temple. I want to express Isaiah's amazing vocabulary and his approach to the Hebrew language. In the last expression of Isaiah 2:2, it says, "and all nations shall flow unto it," meaning unto the temple. And this, of course, is being fulfilled today, right now. All nations are going to the Lord's temples. But the word 'to flow' in the Hebrew is from a noun, river, the noun River, literally River, that Isaiah made the word river into a verb. And so all nations will river unto, to up to the mountain or the Lord's house. So that's the miracle of the temple, is people flow like a river, but they flow uphill, which is against gravity. Rivers flow down hill, as we know.

Tammy 34:11

I love that because you think of how many people have made great sacrifices to get to that mountain, and how that was absolutely against the current for many people spiritually, emotionally, mentally. It can be hard for many of us to get to the temple. I mean, just post-pandemic. It's been hard for me to find a date that works for both of my husband and I' calendars, family calendars, and then you have to schedule an appointment. Well, you did at the time, I don't think we do anymore. But boy, I have felt like I was flowing against gravity many times. I think that's awesome. Isaiah is so wise. I love the way he uses his words.

Don Parry 34:48

Very well said. I really appreciate the way you've expressed that. I would go into verse 3 and 4 quickly.

Tammy 34:56

Yes, please.

Don Parry 34:56

Chapter 2:3, "And many people shall go and shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." Now notice the transition: all of a sudden he's going to talk about the millennium. But I'm going to maintain that our temples and temple service and temple worship and going to the temple and doing work for the dead, and so many nations going to the temple will help transition into the millennium, millennium, of course, only after Jesus Christ's Second Coming and great glory. But notice this is on purpose; verse 4.2

Don Parry 35:50

2:4, "And he," (this is the Lord), "shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuked many people;" And I hope everyone's picking up on these little parallelisms. "and they" (the people) "shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

Don Parry 36:19

See, because of Temple worship and the great power of temples that will, that will certainly assist in this change from when we have wars and warfare, symbolized by swords and spears. And people take their swords and spears symbolically and turn them into agricultural tools and implements - plowshares and pruninhooks. And notice during the millennium, we'll have agriculture and people will not be starving and

Tammy 36:50

Don, when it says "shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks",could that also mean, is he talking about "the field is white already to be harvested"? Like we won't be warring, we're going to come in and do the Lord's work in the temples?

Don Parry 37:05

Absolutely. I haven't thought of that before. But this is millennial. "And the field is wide already to harvest", as you know is Latter-Day. D & C 4. But do notice that all four of these symbols: swords, plowshares, spears, and pruninghooks are, are such, are metal. And the application of them is, so different. Swords and spears are made to kill; plowshares and pruninghooks are made to grow and feed people and save lives.

Tammy 37:44

I think that's awesome. Grow, feed, and save. That's what I wrote next to that. Very cool. Oh my gosh, that was just four verses. I think everyone's sitting is like awestruck as I am because I have so many notes in just four verses. This is so fun. Like I'm starting to delight. This is really exciting. I really enjoy finding out what words mean. And what Isaiah is speaking of when he speaks of these verses. I thought of, too, when you said that sometimes mountains can be temples of, it reminded me of Ensign Peak here in Utah, where there was one experience we know for certain, where a man right before his mission hiked up to Ensign Peak to receive his endowment. And so it was a temporary temple until the Salt Lake Temple got built. So,

Don Parry 38:27

Great example, great example. And sometimes when I am feeling a little down because of the news of the world, and the iniquities of the world, and what I see going on, I'll open up Isaiah, read,and the spirit will prompt me and give me joy and say, Everything's gonna be okay. And it's like I'm hearing the voice of the Lord say, Don, I'm in charge. Everything will be well.

Tammy 38:56

Is there a favorite chapter of Isaiah of yours?

Don Parry 38:59

Absolutely. Isaiah 53.

Tammy 39:01

That's your go to?

Don Parry 39:03

Yes.

Tammy 39:04

It is one of the best chapters.

Don Parry 39:05

Yes, yes. It's astounding.

Tammy 39:09

Everybody earmark that, you're going to go back and study it once you learn all of these tools that Don's taught us and I highly recommend you do and we're going to study that of course, you know, in four more weeks, but. Okay, Isaiah 53. I can't wait to study that. So in the next segment, then, you guys, this has been so much fun. So we're gonna dive into some more chapters and we're going to skip a bunch because we don't have all the time in the world. I wish we did. But we're gonna go right into Isaiah chapter 6, and we're going to do that in the next segment.

Segment 4 39:32

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Tammy 39:37

Okay, I love Isaiah 6 so much. It's probably one of my favorite chapters to teach because there's so much symbolism in it. This is the chapter that got me excited about Hebrew, I will tell you that, because reading everything and taking each word, so I am thrilled that Don is gonna take us through Isaiah chapter 6. And we have some fun facts about Isaiah that we're also going to learn so, we're gonna dive into Isaiah six, and then we'll tell you some fun things about him.

Don Parry 40:01

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's turn to Isaiah 6:1. And it says,

Don Parry 40:07

"In the year that King Uzziah died I " (and this is Isaiah speaking first person.) "I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple."

Don Parry 40:24

Let's look at that quickly. First, I want you to know that this is his grand vision of the Lord. It probably took place around 740 BC, we're not positive. But near the beginning of this ministry, the Lord he sees here is none other than Jesus Christ. My references for that are 2 Nephi 11:2-3. And the temple here is the temple in heaven, where the celestial temple - this is not Solomon's temple. And Isaiah sees Jesus Christ sitting on his exalted throne in the temple's throne room, which is the Holy of Holies. Now for those who want to pursue this, be sure and read Joseph Smith's amazing talk on The Second Comforter found in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pages 150 and 151. And from my reading of his talk, Isaiah's vision is connected with his - Isaiah's - receiving the gift of the second comforter.

Tammy 41:30

Wow, K that's powerful.

Don Parry 41:32

There are some archaic languages here, when it says "his train filled the temple". When I was a youth, I was thinking of a train with the locomotive and so on. I'm totally serious. And, and, but it's probably the hems of His robe

Tammy 41:49

Well, Don, and as a woman, I think of a bride's wedding train, like Princess Diana's, which was immense and so long, and it followed her. So that to me, is kind of like the followers of Christ, those who are following Him. And so that's kind of my female take on that.

Don Parry 42:05

Verse 2. "Above it stood the seraphims." Now seraphims is a double plural. "Im" in the Hebrew language, the IM ending is the masculine plural ending, and I'll give you three or four words that many of you have heard that have that ending: Elohim - IM, urim, thumim, cherubim, and seraphim. So here it's a seraphim. So it's the masculine plural ending, but it's also the s on the, so it's a Hebrew ending and the English. It should just say seraphs.

Tammy 42:44

Oh, wow, that's cool.

Don Parry 42:45

And whenever you have IM ending, it can be either all males or it can be males and females. So this is not to say that the seraphim are all males, they could be males or females, It can be a mix, but certainly there are at least two or more male serarphs here. And the seraphs, let's keep reading, "each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly." Now this, the wings here, in my opinion, are symbolic. And they symbolize the power of the seraphs to move and to act. And I get that from a passage in Section 77 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

Tammy 43:38

Well, and Don I'm grateful you brought that up. Section 77 is such a good source, especially when we get into New Testament, because it's a q&a about revelations from the book of Revelation. But I'm so grateful you cited that source because we're talking about these angels here with wings. And that's exactly what it says - it's the power to move and act.

Don Parry 43:57

Thank you. Yes. Let me just give you a note on what the seraphs probably are. In my view, they are a class of angels that are located in the celestial kingdom, and based on the Hebrew roots 'Seraph' (the Seraph sounds like sereph.) Seraph is a noun; seraph, the verb, based on the same noun, seraph means to burn. And the term sereph may be translated something like 'burning one.' And we don't mean a fire, camp fire, bonfire. We mean bright shining one, burning with glory, referring to their glorious condition and location to the Lord's throne. Now I'm going to quote a revelation from Joseph Smith. It's section 109 of the Doctrine and Covenants. It's verse 79. And Joseph Smith described bright shiny seraphs around God's throne, (that's the context) who shout "acclamations of praise, singing Hosanna to God and the Lamb!" You have to go to that exact verse. In Doctrine and Covenants section 38:1 we know that some of the seraphs are pre-mortal spirits.

Tammy 45:18

So I have a question, why are they covering the face, the feet? What is the symbolism of that?

Don Parry 45:24

Here's a possible understanding of that symbolism. Maybe, because of the glory of the Lord, which is so powerful there, and they're submitting themselves to God's glory. It might be similar to taking your shoes off in God's presence because of the holiness of the space.

Tammy 45:47

Oh, I like that. Yeah, just complete reverence for the Lord. That's great.

Don Parry 45:53

With the idea of holiness, remember, verse 1, the throne is high and lifted up. God is exalted. And in verse 3, we have the trifold, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts", and the whole earth is full of His glory. So that ties in with the idea of so much glory and holiness surrounding the Lord. In verse 3 it uses the trifold "Holy, holy, holy", Why three times? Here, here's one possibility. Repetition is for emphasis. So not just holy, but holy, holy, holy, so great is God's holiness that we can say it three times. And notice this also in the book of Revelation 4:8, it says, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty."

Tammy 46:56

Is it kind of the equivalent of our superlative where you'd say, Holy, holier, holiest?

Don Parry 47:01

Yes. I like that.

Tammy 47:02

He's the holiest of all.

Don Parry 47:05

I like that a lot. Okay. Very well said,

Tammy 47:07

Cool. All right, keep going.

Don Parry 47:09

Verse 4: "And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke." Now what's happening with the posts moving, the power of the seraphs voices are shaking the posts. What's with the smoke? Smoke sometimes symbolizes God's glory. I'll give you two references you can look at later. Exodus chapter 19, verse eight, Revelation 15:8.

Don Parry 47:41

Verse 5, "Then said I, "(now we're back to Isaiah speaking,) "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." So what's he saying, here with Woe is me and so on. Now, the Hebrew word twice translated 'unclean' in these lines refers to ceremonial, or ritual uncleanness. That pertains to the temple. We're not speaking of uncleanness because you've been working out in the yard or the garden, and you have soil. But, and we're not speaking of literal sins, we're talking about ritual uncleanness. And to understand that more fully, you have to read several passages in the Book of Leviticus.

Don Parry 48:36

To remove Isaiah's uncleanness, as Sara takes a coal from the sacrificial altar, and we're speaking symbolically here, and touches Isaiah's lips. And I'm probably jumping ahead a little bit. Verse 7, "And he (the seraph) laid it upon my mouth." Now that would really hurt and that'd be cruel, if that was literal. Whereas a serif takes a live coal and burns his mouth. So we're talking some symbolism, and the seraph is cleansing Isaiah, back to verse 7, "Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." Let me explain one of the words in verse 7, the last word 'purged'. In the Hebrew the word is 'atoned', so it'd read and thy sin atoned. And I just wanted to explain that, that's one of the cases where the word, the Hebrew word 'atoned' is found in the King James, but it's not translated literally as atone. But that's important to know; this is an atonement taking place here.

Tammy 49:51

That's really important, especially for the context of these verses. Because what is, what is Isaiah describing, then to us in this experience that is relatable to all of us?

Don Parry 50:02

He's explaining through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the power of Jesus' atonement, our inequities are taken away and our sins are atoned for.

Tammy 50:16

Wow. And coming from a profhet, firsthand experience, he knows what it feels like. And I love the depth of his wording. Like a live coal and how that must have hurt so much. And, boy, anyone who's truly gone through the repentance process, it's not easy. It is painful, but it's a good pain. It is awesome. And you do end up saying, Holy, Holy, Holy. I mean, he is the holiest to be able to do that for us. I'm so grateful you pointed out that word 'purged' is atonement. That is awesome. Thank you. Wow. So then how does he end this chapter?

Don Parry 50:49

Well, I think it's a long chapter; perhaps we can stop with verse 8. "And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me." I want to remind everyone that the expression 'Whom shall I send?' and 'Here am I, send me', follows a very ancient and sacred pattern found in Abraham 3:27, which states: "And the Lord said, Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man, Here am I; send me." This is formulaic expression that's very powerful, very ancient. And here the prophet Isaiah is following the pattern of the Lord. He's saying, 'Here I am,' just as the Son of man said. Now on a personal level, I want to show you who can see right now, my wedding band has Hebrew on it, and it says Hineni, Shelachni, in Hebrew. And it's a passage from Isaiah 6:8 "Here am I; send me." And as a little side note, my sweetheart Camille, my wife, allowed me to get this for a wedding band, because it has so much meaning to me, an expression from Isaiah and the Hebrew.

Tammy 52:28

That's really neat. I just wrote 'Don Parry' next to "Here am I; send me" wedding band.' That's fantastic. Don. Wow, thank you so much for sharing those verses with us and the meaning of them. This, really, I'm sure everyone is just like, Wow, this is so cool! It is just the greatest, I love Isaiah. Okay, everyone. So take a deep breath, because in the next segment, we're going to dive into more of Isaiah verses, specifically, some very famous ones that talk about Jesus Christ.

Speaker 5 52:56

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Tammy 52:57

So Don specifically chose one verse in Isaiah chapter 7 that he wanted to talk about, and I am thrilled that he's going to be discussing this. So Don, will you teach us Isaiah 7:14. Why did you choose this verse?

Don Parry 53:09

This is an extremely amazing prophecy. It's said in the context of a historical situation found earlier in chapter 7, and I invite all of your listeners to read the context and to read what's happening with Ahaz and the war and so on. And when they get to verse 14, it seems like it's out of context. And it's a really interesting passage. And it's controversial. But we as Latter-Day Saints who follow the New Testament, we follow Matthew, who applied it to Jesus Christ. So this is what the passage says,

Don Parry 53:56

Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore, (notice, therefore is transitioning from earlier verses. Again, I'm, I'm just picking this out now, but please, please read the greater context.) "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold," (meaning pay attention, listen carefully), "a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."

Don Parry 54:25

Now from Matthew 1:21-23, Matthew wrote, Matthew recorded regarding the Virgin Mary, the birth of Jesus who's called the Immanuel. Quote from Matthew, "She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that might it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, (the prophet Isaiah,) saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which beingn interpreted is, God with us," This is Matthew, he is an apostle of God. He's speaking the truth here. He's applying a passage from Isaiah to Jesus Christ.

Don Parry 55:21

So I want to pause and teach everyone very quickly. There are four legitimate and proper ways to read Isaiah. And we'll come back to this passage in just a minute. One is reading a contemporary view, meaning, what's he saying to his contemporaries, to his audience, then, to the inhabitants of Judah and the people from Jerusalem? So what is he saying? And how, what did it mean to them? Number two, is reading a prophecy or a distant view, meaning as he's speaking of the future, and even though his listeners or readers, then might read it, is he speaking of the time of Christ, or the millennium, or the Second Coming? Number three, is reading dual or multiple fulfillment prophecies. So that means, can you read it a contemporary view and a future or distant view? Yes, Some of the prophecies, and we've had at least two apostles in our dispensation who have spoken concerning this.

Don Parry 56:36

And the fourth legitimate and proper way to read Isaiah comes to us from Nephi. And that's the idea of the likening Isaiah to us. So when he speaks of something, maybe he's speaking of ancient Israel and their sins, and we liken it unto ourselves and say, Is that me now? Am I committing these sins?

Don Parry 56:56

Now, back to Isaiah 7:14, we just read a moment ago that the apostle Matthew says this is fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ. The virgin is speaking of Mary, his mother, and the Son Emmanuel is none other than Jesus Christ. But this has adual fulfillment, in my opinion. And I've shared this opinion with others, it's found in our book, "Understanding Isaiah", it's been very well received. So it has an immediate or a contemporary view. Immediate meaning in the next year or two. And if you turn to Isaiah 8:3, and I'm, you have to read the whole context here again. "I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Maher-shalal-hash-baz. If you do a careful study of the verse in Isaiah 7, and the verse in Isaiah 8, you'll see there's some terms. And let's broaden this out a little bit to two or three verses, in Isaiah 7:14-17; and Isaiah 8:2-4.

Don Parry 58:26

But notice these terms that are translated into English; I'm gonna give you about or six: conceive, bare, son, call, name, before, child, knows, and king of Assyria. And what I'm proposing is the first fulfillment was with Isaiah's wife. And they bore, they had a child. Now, not everything's exact, and everything corresponds perfectly. So there are some symbols here. And you have to under, read this a little more broadly. But the greater and distant fulfillment pertains to Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.

Tammy 59:16

I've never connected those verses directly to Isaiah 8, with Isaiah's, wife and son. That is so cool. And it's really true because Isaiah is multi-layered. And I am so grateful you've taught us that, because it can mean what it means. And then it can also be the distant view, dual, and then Nephi. This is so great. I am so grateful that you just connected those verses. And in fact, it's so cool to read in chapter 8, that he was married, and that his wife is called a prophetess. What do you make of that?

Don Parry 59:47

That could mean two things. It could mean number one, a prophetess is the wife of the Prophet. Or another opinion is that she, like like Isaiah, had a testimony of Jesus.

Tammy 1:00:03

Oh, I like that one for sure. I think she did. Oh, yeah,

Don Parry 1:00:07

Me, too, absolutely.

Tammy 1:00:09

So cool. Here's some cool things about Isaiah while we're talking about him. What is his name mean in Hebrew?

Don Parry 1:00:16

It means 'The Lord is salvation'.

Don Parry 1:00:19

How do you say Isaiah in Hebrew?

Don Parry 1:00:20

Yeshayahu. I'll say it again. Yeshayahu. It's quite a bit different than Isaiah, isn't it?

Tammy 1:00:27

It is. Yeah, absolutely. Especially that hoo at the end. Why do you think they changed it got, rid of the hoo, instead of doing Isaiahoo?

Don Parry 1:00:34

It's actually a transliteration, is that method of transliterating words in the Olde English, from Hebrew to English, and it just comes out a little different.

Tammy 1:00:48

Awesome. And you have more than one son, this is just one of the named sons that we have, right?

Don Parry 1:00:54

We know of, yes, the other son is Shear-yashub. I have a hard time saying it in the English; it's a little clearer in the Hebrew.

Tammy 1:01:06

Of course it is.

Don Parry 1:01:07

Both children remember are signs and symbols.

Tammy 1:01:13

Oh, tell us about that.

Don Parry 1:01:18

Isaiah 8:18 says, "Behold, I," (Isaiah), "and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion." So Isaiah didn't come up with the idea of their signs and for wonders, it comes from the Lord of hosts themselves.

Tammy 1:01:43

Oh, how were they signs and wonders?

Don Parry 1:01:45

I'll give you an example. Shear-jashub in Hebrew means 'a remnant will return'. So his son has this really weird name. Who would name their child 'a remnant will return'? So we know it's a symbol, and it's symbolizing that even though Israel will be scattered, a remnant will return. And in my, my opinion, that the return is in the last days.

Tammy 1:02:13

Okay, that's really significant. That is a sign for sure. Fantastic. Really quickly, tho, I want to ask about Isaiah. How long did his ministry last? Do we know how long he was a prophet?

Don Parry 1:02:23

We don't know exactly. Most scholars say from 40 to 50-ish years. Some say, I think most scholars agree that his ministry started in 740 BC, and some say it concluded in 700, or 698, or even longer. They're different opinions. So let's just say 40 or 50-ish years,

Tammy 1:02:54

Perfect. And whatever happened to Isaiah, do we know?

Don Parry 1:02:58

There are some strong indications from extra biblical text - meaning, not scriptural or canonized text - that he was a martyr. He may have been put in a tree, a hollow tree and saw, sawn asunder - sawed in half.

Tammy 1:03:18

Wow. Thank you, Don. Thank you. I'm so sad that the next segment is our last, because I could do this for hours. Oh, my goodness. Okay, so in the next segment, we're going to do our very best to cover as much as we can from Isaiah chapter 10, in to Isaiah chapter 11.

Segment 6 1:03:34

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Tammy 1:03:40

Alright, let's turn to Isaiah chapter 10. We're going to start in verse 33. And we're going to go through to Isaiah 11:9. Why did you choose these verses, Don?

Don Parry 1:03:49

These texts are astounding, just like the rest of Isaiah. I wanted to point out a couple of things from this passage because Isaiah is prophesying of the millennium. And if you look in all of the standard works, Isaiah speaks concerning the millennium clearly and powerfully and beautifully. Now we actually have to start with Isaiah chapter 10:33 to understand chapter 11 - the first five verses. So,

Don Parry 1:04:24

ISA 10:33 "Behold, the LORD, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.

Don Parry 1:04:40

34 "And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron (meaning an iron axe), and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one."

Don Parry 1:04:51

And what's happening here in this, these, just these two verses, it's portraying the Lord symbolically as a lumberjack. And what He's doing, He's taking the mighty nations, for example, Assyria, and as a lumberjack or a forester He's cutting them down with an axe. If you can imagine Jehovah symbolically wielding a mighty axe and with His awe- inspiring power, that's how I translate part of it. He's cutting down Assyria and other mighty nations who have plagued and beat up on Israel, and so on. So that's, that's what's happening; the Lord's in power, and just with an axe He can cut down mighty nations. And we transition, you have to understand the Lord as a lumberjack, now, let's go to Isaiah chapter 11:1,

Tammy 1:05:52

I've never heard that explained that way before. I think that is so profound: the Lord as a lumberjack, like I wrote that in my Scriptures. That is so cool. I'm imagining some of our younger listeners thinking of Thor with the big, but instead of the hammer, it's an eye, it's an axe. But just the vision of that, and how much power and might it would take to do this as a lumberjack and just, Paul Bunyan, he's huge. I just think that is awesome. So okay, I'm imagining Him as a lumberjack. That's excellent. Keep going.

Don Parry 1:06:22

And remember, the chapters and verses were put in much later. The original Hebrew did not have chapters and verses. And if it was me, I would have put those two verses at the end of Isaiah 10 as part of chapter 11. And not not cut them off there. And notice how we're still talking about trees, or a tree stem, the stem of. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse". Some people say stem, think of trunk. But others say, Well wait a minute, an olive tree, olive tree really doesn't have a trunk.

Don Parry 1:07:01

So let's call it a stem, but just kind of think of a trunk. And think, All right, one of the trees cut down was the tree of, of Jesse. And all that's left is a trunk. But what's going to happen is a STEM is going to grow out of, a rod is going to grow out and a branch will grow out of his roots. And what's this mean? The kingdom of Judah is going to continue. And, and even though the kingdom of Judah was destroyed anciently, there's going to be new life come to it. And the life is none other than the greatest King of all, from the kingdom, the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of David. And that's the Messiah. Now, before we read the next verse, I want to remind our listeners that when Moroni visited Joseph Smith on the night of September 21, 1823, he quoted Isaiah 11, Moroni did. And then he said, it's about to be fulfilled. So this is really fun stuff for us, the fulfillment of Isaiah 11, soon to be fulfilled.

Tammy 1:08:20

And just as a reminder for our listeners: Jessie is the father of King David. So it says 'stem of Jessie', that's who it's referring to, not some random guy. So it's Jesse, who's the father of King David, and it's through the lineage of King David that we get Jesus Christ.

Don Parry 1:08:36

Thank you, excellent. I'm so glad you said that. So Isaiah, chapter 11, the first five verses prophesied that Jesus the Messiah will smite the earth and slay the wicked at His Second Coming and prepare for the glorious millennium, which is found in the next five verses. And so if you just study all of these and you see that in verse 1, we have rod, stem, branch and roots. So we're, we're continuing the idea of tree trunks and lumberjack, and so on. It's just so powerful. There's a lot of things here. We don't know all, we don't know everything about it. We're still working on some of that. I'm going to go to verse

Don Parry 1:08:40

2 "And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;

Don Parry 1:09:38

3 "And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes," (like humans and mortals) "neither reprove after the hearing of his ears."

Don Parry 1:09:52

He's God. He judges with perfection.

Don Parry 1:09:57

4 "But with righteous shall he judge the poor," (the poor have been beat up on for millennia. So now we're going to have a righteous person who will help them) "and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked."

Don Parry 1:10:22

So notice we're continuing still, as a forester who destroyed the mighty kingdoms; He's now destroying the wicked before the Second Coming. And then we have some symbols in verse 5,

Don Parry 1:10:39

5 "And righteousness righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins." And instead of saying girdle, I'd say sash - back to a Temple sacred vestment. So girdle, when I was growing up girdle meant something else.

Tammy 1:10:55

Oh, I know what a girdle is, believe you me. (laughs)

Don Parry 1:10:57

And faithfulness, the girdle of his 'reins' instead of saying reins, again instead of girdle think sash, a Temple sash. Used anciently, think Exodus 28 and Exodus 39 describes this. And instead of the reins it's, "And faithfulness the sash around his waist." Now shall we transition to what are perhaps the most powerful verses on the millennium? So I'm in verse 6, I'm in Isaiah 11:6, and we have a lot of symbols here and a lot of power.

Don Parry 1:11:41

11:6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb," (Now we're clearly talking about the millennium.) "and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." Now wait a second, the little child will lead a leopard? And, and the young lion? And young lion here is a lion in its power. It's, we're not talking about a baby lion. Continuing,

Don Parry 1:12:13

7 "And the cow and the bear shelf feed; their young ones" (meaning the next generation, and then implying generations thereafter, 1000 years), "their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox." So what we have so far is we have ferocious animals who destroy other animals. That's the way God made them, of course. But the symbol here is that we'll have peace. These animals, the animal kingdom. All right, let's look at verse

Don Parry 1:12:50

8 "And the sucking child" (meaning the nursing child) "will play on the hole of the asp", ( meaning on a viper or rattlesnake or a poisonous snake, whatever you want to say. It's a, an asp is a poisonous snake. So the nursing baby will play on this hole.)

Tammy 1:13:08

It's the craziest thing ever. Like, why would you ever put a baby near a place where snakes dwell and that, like, the imagery here just really is, he's, he's using all of these animals that are scary, and are terrifying, especially to any mother that has a young baby that's still nursing. Oh, and I'm just gonna leave it here where there's a bunch of snakes. And so he's conjuring up these ideas of terror, but now he's using it in a way of complete peace. Who'd even be afraid? I mean, my gosh, I'm afraid to let my kids go play after dark. Like, you know, they used to play that commercial when we were all young: "Do you know where your kids are?" at 10 o'clock at night. And most parents know where their kids are now, because it's a scary time. And so this idea of peace is just blowing my mind.

Don Parry 1:13:49

It is so poetic, so powerful. And when it says "the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den," I would translate that instead of cockatrice I'd say an adder, which is also a very poisonous snake. And the idea here is Isaiah's pairing, using parallelistic parellelisms: a nursing baby and a toddler - two small children that are so helpless in the face of danger - and two very poisonous snakes. But during the millennium, the animal kingdom will be harmonious with humans. And this is not just speaking of the animal kingdom; it's speaking, it's referring to the entire community of people, and nature, and so on. It's an astounding prophecy.

Tammy 1:14:47

These verses are. I just, bracket those often write 'Millennium' next to it. I think they are beautiful verses to discover and discuss in our Gospel Doctrine classes. What does peace look like to you? Because Isaiah just beautifully described it in his own words. So, thank you, Don, for going through each one of those verses and helping us understand what they mean. That is amazing. Boy, those are good. Ah, okay, verse 9? Anything you want to say about verse 9?

Don Parry 1:15:14

Yeah, maybe we can stop with verse 9, because then it starts a new thought. Verse 9 says

Don Parry 1:15:19

9 "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." But what's this about, Holy Mountain? We learned earlier that Holy mountain is a temple. So it's suggesting here that the entire earth during the millennium will be temple-like, where, where you have, when you go to the temple and you feel peace, and you feel joy. And it's all because Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, and He will indeed return for the Second Coming and bring peace to the earth. He is indeed the Prince of Peace. Now, when it says, "for the earth" (that's for or because) "the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD," And how full will it be? Let's look at this image, just "as the waters cover the sea." I love this imagery.

Don Parry 1:15:19

And I'm just so anxious to have all my brothers and sisters from other communities and countries and nations learn what I know about Jesus Christ and His power to save, and His power to redeem and cleanse us. So just as the waters cover the earth, the seas, the oceans, the knowledge of the Lord will be, cover the earth. And just a side note, the Prophet Joseph Smith, I'm quoting from "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith", page 93 explain that this 'knowledge of the Lord' is none other than, quote "sacred knowledge". So it's spiritual things.

Tammy 1:17:01

Oh, my goodness. Can we just say amen to all of that, Don, that was incredible. What an incredible discussion about Isaiah. You know, one of the things that I wrote at the very beginning when you started, you said that Isaiah is Jesus Christ-focused. And I love how you ended all of this by talking about the Savior. One of the things that I love, and I asked what your favorite Isaiah chapter was, and you said, Isaiah 53, which is Jesus Christ-focused, I would say my favorite is Isaiah chapter 12. Jesus Christ-focused. And so our challenge to you who are listening, now, is to take all the skills that you have learned throughout the course of this last hour that Don has taught us and apply it to Isaiah chapter 12. It's six verses. Just sit down and read these and find out what the Lord is really trying to say to you personally, and how this is Jesus Christ-focused. And then how Isaiah, by reading and studying Isaiah, how we can make us a more Jesus Christ-focused people so that we can receive what Don just taught us: the sacred knowledge. That when He comes again, that will be a beautiful millennium.

Tammy 1:18:03

So thank you, Don, for sharing everything you know, and for paying the price to know what you know about Isaiah. This was so great. Ha, so good! Okay, so we'll just gather our thoughts. And just think for a minute, is there any takeaways from today's discussion? Anything that you're like, Oh, I hadn't thought about that before, or what you're going to apply to your life? I mean, I just have to go first, because I thought I was the student this whole entire hour, for sure. I think for me, I, my gosh, I have so many notes. I love that you found out that there are so many parallelisms. I did not know there are 1100. And when you taught us all the different speakers in Isaiah, that blew my mind. And I'm just looking through all my notes here, because. Oh, I know what I loved. Isaiah 2:3, when you taught us what the word flow means - that it's a river, and that it is this against gravity uphill, because you're flowing to the mountain. And so I thought that was really cool. I did not know the meaning of that word flow. Very good. Ho.

Don Parry 1:19:03

Let me tell you, I really appreciate your insights into the expression 'daughter and daughters of Zion". That is so important for us to rethink that and reconsider and not follow the crowds of what they said over the past centuries and so on, and how we're speaking of something much different than the traditional commentaries read and so on. So I really appreciate that and I can't wait to go back and reread it and gain more knowledge. So thank you very much.

Tammy 1:19:41

Oh, you're welcome. I don't know, did everybody just hear that? Can you, can someone send this to my parents? (laughs) Oh, my gosh, Don, you just made my whole life. That is awesome. Well, Don, and I are going to keep studying it and discovering what these verses mean. I think it's fascinating, because I spent some time at BYU reading as many commentaries as I could. And it seems universal, that a lot of people don't know what those words mean. And so we're gonna dive in and find out what they mean. And we'll get that. I don't know when, but in the future, but just know. let's reframe it. So thank you. Thank you. Oh my gosh, Don. Excellent. I just adore you. I think you're, you're just my go-to, you're my Hebrew and I'm so grateful for the time you've spent today. Thank you so much for coming prepared.

Don Parry 1:20:20

I so appreciate you and your scholarship. I appreciate your love of the scriptures. I want to sign off once more by bearing testimony that Isaiah's text is Jesus Christ-focused. And remember, he clearly identified Jehovah as the Savior and the Redeemer explicitly many times. So I testify that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.

Tammy 1:20:48

Amen. Thank you, Don. Wow, okay, I just am dying to know what your big takeaway is from this episode, because that was a lot! So if you haven't already joined our discussion group on Facebook or Instagram, go do it because it's so fun. You can ask questions throughout the week as you study. You can even share things that you're learning as you're studying throughout the week. And then at the end of the week, on a Saturday, we usually do a post asking for what your big takeaway was from this episode. So comment on the post that relates to this lesson to let us know what you've learned. You can get to both our Facebook and Instagram by going to the show notes for this episode on LDS living.com/sunday on Monday and it's not a bad idea to go there, anyway. That's where we're gonna have the links to all the references, as well as to Don Parry's books, and the transcript of this entire discussion. And you're gonna want that because this was a lot of information. This was like "Isaiah 400-level" class, so go check it out.

Tammy 1:21:37

The Sunday on Monday Study Group is a Desert Bookshelf Plus original brought to you by LDS Living. It's written and hosted by me Tammy Uzelac Hall and today - wow! our just brilliant study group participant was Don Parry, and you can find more information about him at LDS living.com/sunday on Monday. Our podcast is produced by Katie Lambert and me; it is edited by Hailey Higham, and it is recorded and mixed by Mix at Six Studios. And our executive producer is Erin Hallstrom. Thanks for being here. We'll see you next week.

Tammy 1:22:04

And please remember, that you are God's favorite

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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