Friends, I couldn’t sleep last night.

About 2:00 am, I got out of bed, thinking about Isaiah 29.

Heading downstairs to the home study, I thought I would start my inquiry by seeing what Joseph Smith said about the chapter, so I pulled out the Joseph Smith Translation (Orem:  Granite Publishing, 2006). (more…)

This picture of an Idaho shack is a good illustration of our present earth (Isaiah 24:20). Morally polluted, the earth is on its last leg, swaying like a drunk before the judgment of God. Al Gore is leading
a crusade to save it. But we definitely have bigger problems like mankind’s lack of acknowledging and exalting the majesty of God.

There is a scene by far more grand and beautiful than the sun filling the skies, it is when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion and in Jerusalem (Isaiah 24:23). One thing stands out before his ancients. It is glory.

His GLORY.

Stop dwelling on man’s glory.

First, aren’t all Latter-day Saints millennialists (there is quite a divergence among evangelicals)?  Secondly, does the LDS Church believe they will possess male and female slaves during a future millennium?  In this post, I am not going to get into all the changes made by the JST or BoM to the KJV text because I just want to jump right into a big heart issue phrased in my title.

In Understanding Isaiah(1998), the LDS authors interpret,

Following a lengthy prophecy concerning Babylon’s fall (13:11-22), Isaiah extends hope to us (the house of Israel) that we will be gathered to our promised lands and eventually rest from sorrow.  Certainly our (Israel’s) return to our covenantal lands is a prominent sign of the times.  After we have gathered to our promised lands, we will eventually “exercise dominion domestically (menservants and maidservants), militarily (take . . . captives), and politically (rule over/ ‘dominate’)” (14:2).  We who follow Christ and make his atonement effective in our lives will, in the end, rest from sorrow, fear, and hard bondage (14:3) (140).

 Is this the standard LDS position?  Is this what you believe?  Because I like the guy, I would love to get a response from Mitt Romney regarding his personal view of this chapter.

Verse 3

The JST and BoM change the KJV text.

I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones, for mine anger even is not upon them that rejoice in my highness.

While I am thinking about the Mede-Persian warriors (separated out for a work) in the beginning of this verse, Don Parry, Jay Parry, and Tina Peterson in Understanding Isaiah, declares the identity of the “sanctified ones”: 

Jehovah’s sanctified ones (Josh. 3:5) are those who are temple worthy, who actually attend the temple, and who are made holy by Christ’s power.  In ancient Israel the soldiers prepared for the holy war by participating in holy rituals connected with the temple (Deut. 23:10-15).  In this dispensation, Jesus Christ’s soldiers (members of the Church) prepare for the battle against Babylon by participating in temple rituals (131).

Verse 15

And in this verse, the JST and BoM seem to try to make the wicked Mede-Persian warriors more saintly than they really are.

Every one that is found proud shall be thrust through; yea, and every one that is joined unto them to the wicked shall fall by the sword.

But reading on in the context, you will find that the soldiers are vile and awful.

I love the emotional response commanded in Isaiah 12:6, “Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion:  for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”

John Bytheway writes: 

2 Nephi 22:6.  “Cry out and shout”  Normally we don’t condone shouting in Church, but our joy will be such in the millennial day that perhaps shouting praises will be appropriate, as it is on those rare occasions when we participate in the thrilling “hosanna shout.”  (Isaiah for Airheads, p. 146)

In the margin, the KJV translators pegged this personification of Israel as a woman, the “inhabitress”.  Let this woman sing high and clear that all may hear.  She didn’t deserve it.  But this God—who is infinite, eternal, unchangeable, and characterized by wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, truth, love, peace, faithfulness, mercy, kindness, and love —this God has saved her!

She had everything to fear; but by clinging completely to the Holy One, she is completely secure.

Once again the ancient words of the prophet (Is. 12:3) connect our church family in Idaho Falls to the words of the apostle John (John 4), which we will soon be feasting upon this Lord’s Day.

Upon reaching chapter 11, I walked joyfully into a mountain meadow, bathed in golden rays of sun and filled with wildflowers.  This chapter occupied my mind with brilliant rainbows of color, vividly connecting precedent studies about the Messiah in Romans 15:12 and latter meditation in John 3:34.  The Spirit brought the pieces together for me in three biblical books of my investigation to drive home to my heart the supreme exaltation of Jesus Christ as the rod, the branch, and the root.  He is everything to mankind, both Jews and Gentiles. 

Obviously, the natural concern of any missionary heart, especially when he or she looks around, is this question:  “Will Gentiles glorify God?”  The answer is yes!  Paul tells every Christian who is yearning for people to glorify God for his mercy, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:13).

The work of the Triune God (Spirit, Father, Servant-Messiah) in Isaiah 11:2a is actually fulfilled right in front my eyes with such verses as John 2:32-33 and 3:34-35.  No wonder the wrath of God is involved for unbelief (John 3:36).

So with the Spirit teaching me such amazing things about the Christ in Scripture, I become astonished when later reading LDS interpretations of verses like Isaiah 11:1 and 10. (more…)

Because I live in the I-15 Idaho/Utah corridor, this entry by John Bytheway in his book, Isaiah For AirHeads (2006) is interesting on Isaiah 20:28-32:

Elder Gerald N. Lund described the enemy that covenant Israel in the kingdom of Judah faced at this time:  “The Assyrians are renowned for their brutality in warfare.  They tortured their captives.  Their armies were seemingly invincible!”  Elder Lund suggested that we imagine ourselves as covenant Israel, hiding not in Jerusalem, but on Temple Square in Salt Lake City (geography with which we are more familiar).  Then Elder Lund described the volume of territory already conquered by Assyria: (more…)

 Miscellaneous Musings

Verse 3

The word “not” in Isaiah 9:3 is a matter of textual debate among conservatives.  I see that II Nephi 19:3 contains every word from the KJV translation except “not”.  It is puzzling when The Old Testament for Latter-day Saint Families (Deseret, 2005) expresses in a footnote related to Isaiah 9:3:  (more…)