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LESSON #1 WHY ISAIAH?
OBJECT
For an object I would just bring in a number of tools from home. A hammer, screwdriver, a wrench or two. Just a few tools laid out at the front—which we’ll come back to later.
ICEBREAKER
And for an icebreaker to this lesson, I sometimes like to introduce the Isaiah chapters with what’s called a Magic Eye activity like this one and ask my students if they can tell what it’s a picture of. And many at first will say that it’s a picture of nothing. But that’s not true. There is a real identifiable image in there, and I tell them that I’m going to try and help them to see it. Now it doesn’t work as well on a screen, so I’ll usually print out one of these for each class member and let them try it for themselves. And if you’ve never seen these before, it just looks like a big mass of splotchy colors with no meaning or image in it. But if you know the secret, the right way of looking at it, there is actually something to it. It is a picture of something, and the secret is to stare at it and allow your eyes to relax until your fields of vision kind of cross. It’s a little hard to explain. But when you do that, a 3D picture will emerge out of the image. It’s really cool when you can get it to work. So this one is actually a picture of two hands reaching out to each other with the word TRUST written above it.
And to me, that’s kind of like the Isaiah chapters. At first glance, they may seem like a jumble of meaningless, difficult to understand words, names, and ideas. But, if you know the secret, if you know the right way to look at it, it’s amazing, it’s cool, it’s powerful. And Nephi felt that way about it too. That’s why he includes so many of Isaiah’s writings here.
And I want to ask you how you would fill in the blank in the following sentence. Honestly, how would you complete it with your true feelings?
My soul ___________________ the words of Isaiah
Possible answers: My soul is confused by the words of Isaiah. My soul ignores the words of Isaiah. My soul tolerates the words of Isaiah, can’t stand the words of Isaiah, questions the words of Isaiah. There are many possible ways to word that sentence right?
But how does Nephi fill in that blank? How did he do it in 2 Nephi 11:2.
His soul delighted in the words of Isaiah. My prayer is that by the end of our study of the Isaiah chapters, you will be saying the same thing.
SEARCH ACTIVITY
And using the scriptures I want to first help you to understand why these chapters should even matter to us. Why study Isaiah? Nephi and Jesus are going to help us to answer that question. So as a teacher, here I number my students off from 1-4 and invite them to look up their assigned verse and find and mark any reasons they can find for why we should study Isaiah. First . . .
In 1 Nephi 19:23
Studying Isaiah will more fully persuade you to believe in the Lord your Redeemer. Isaiah has a lot to teach us about Christ, and why we should and would want to believe in and follow Him. So look for Christ in the Isaiah chapters, he’s there.
Also in that verse, studying Isaiah will be for your profit, and learning. When you make a profit, you are getting more out of something than you put it into it. You make a profit. Well that’s studying Isaiah, whatever amount of effort or study you put into it, you will receive back more than you put it. It will reward you fourfold at least and you learn much.
1 Nephi 19:24
Studying Isaiah will give you hope. The message of the Isaiah chapters is a hopeful one. So keep an eye out for message.
2 Nephi 11:8
Studying Isaiah will cause you to lift up your hearts and rejoice. Not only can it bring you hope, but happiness as well.
And then all the way to 3 Nephi 23:1 with perhaps the most compelling reason to study Isaiah. Because Jesus commanded us to. And I think that’s a pretty good reason not to ignore Isaiah. And how are we as a church doing at that one. Are we keeping that commandment? I hope we’re trying. And then he says, “great are the words of Isaiah”. Now that’s quite a compliment coming from the Son of God. Jesus wants us to study and hearken to all prophets, but how many does he specifically single out like this? He’s like “this prophet, you really need to study him, his words are great”.
So hopefully you’re convinced now that the Isaiah chapters are important to study .
And I have one more thing for you to consider and a question.
35 % of the Book of Isaiah is found in the Book of Mormon.
AND, If all Isaiah’s quotations from the Book of Mormon were moved into one place and called the book of Isaiah, it would be the fourth largest book in the Book of Mormon.
So here’s my question:
If God knew that we would already have the Book of Isaiah from the Bible to study from, why would he put so much of it in the Book of Mormon? It’s a duplicate right? Couldn’t we have gotten pretty much the same stuff by reading Isaiah in the Bible with the help of the JST?
And my answer to that question. Well, by putting so much of his writings in the Book of Mormon, it almost forces us to take him seriously, to focus on his writings like he commands us to do in 3 Nephi. If there were no Isaiah chapters, do you think we would study him much? I mean how much time do you spend studying Jeremiah, or Ezekiel? Without the Isaiah chapters, he would probably get as much attention as they do, which I’m afraid is not much. So I’m grateful that they're in there and we can get them twice in our study of the standard works.
How to Study Isaiah
But how do we study Isaiah? Like the Magic Eye activity, is there a more effective way of looking at them to understand more of their meaning? Well I’m going to let Nephi teach you how. He does just that in the first portion of 2 Nephi 25 at the end of the Isaiah chapters. So I know that that’s a chapter that makes up part of next week’s lesson, but I just think it makes so much more sense to start here first, because this is where Nephi really comments on understanding the writings of Isaiah and what made it easier for him to do so. So that’s where I’m going to take you now.
The first thing I’d like to do is give you a few tools for working with the words of Isaiah. You and I know that certain jobs require specific tools to accomplish a project efficiently and successfully. And this is where I point to the tools that I set up at the beginning of class. We’re going to do a brief review of Nephi’s top 7 tools or suggestions on how to get more out of our study of the writings of Isaiah. To engage my students in that study even more, I might give them this bookmark activity for them to fill in Nephi’s 7 suggestions as we go. You may even want to print it on cardstock so that it will last longer for them. You can encourage them to use it as they study Isaiah and have it there as a ready reference. And we’ll fill that in together now.
And just look how Nephi begins this. He acknowledges that Isaiah is a little tougher. He says that even his people found Isaiah’s words “hard to understand”. Which is kind of comforting. We’re not the only generation to struggle with Isaiah. But he also tells us why they struggled with them. It’s because they knew not concerning the manner of prophesying among the Jews. And what does that mean? What is the manner of prophesying among the Jews? It’s poetry. It’s figurative and symbolic language. Much like the Book of Revelation, God uses imagery and metaphor to teach his people. So if you want to understand Isaiah better, approach it like poetry. Don’t look so much for the literal as the allegorical. When he presents you with a symbol, stop and ask yourself why he chooses to represent that idea with that object. Be prepared to approach Isaiah the same way you would Shakespeare, or Wordsworth, or Dickinson. It’s serious poetry and needs to be read slowly, carefully, and deliberately. So Nephi’s first suggestion to SEEING Isaiah. Know the manner of prophesying among the Jews.
Nephi’s second suggestion comes in vs. 4
Isaiah’s words will become plainer to you if you are filled with the spirit of prophecy. Well what does that mean? You might say, I’m not a prophet, so do I have any hope? Yes. John tells us what the spirit of prophecy is in Revelation 19:10. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So if you have a belief and testimony of Jesus Christ and you seek the Spirit, Isaiah will be easier for you to understand. So be sure to have a mind and heart open to the Spirit while you seek the Savior on each page. So suggestion #2 Seek the Spirit of Prophecy (the testimony of Jesus)
#3 at the end of verse 5.
There is none other people that understand the things which were spoken to the Jews like unto them, save it be that they are taught after the manner of the things of the Jews.
So suggestion 3 is to be taught after the manner of the things of the Jews. It really helps if you have an awareness of their history, their culture, their geography, their religion. The better understanding you have of that background, the better able you will be to know what Isaiah’s message for us is. No, you don’t have to have a degree in Ancient Hebrew studies to appreciate Isaiah, but you should do a little bit of homework to get your bearings. And I’ll help you with some of those things here, but the church has provided manuals, and articles, and the Bible Dictionary to help you with some of the “things of the Jews” you would do well to understand. And let me briefly give you a basic understanding of the setting of Isaiah’s writings. I think that just this little bit of information will do wonders in helping you comprehend a lot of what you will read in the Isaiah chapters.
The house of Israel at this point has been divided into two nations. They’ve split, and you have the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom or the Kingdom of Israel (which is sometimes referred to as Ephraim), and then you have the Kingdom of Judah in the South. And Isaiah is living at a time of military threat. It’s a military or "threat of war” setting. There are three major threats that it will face during Isaiah’s time as prophet. 1. A confederacy or an alliance of the Kingdom of Israel and Syria. 2. Then Assyria. And then 3. Babylon. Well Israel and Syria will not succeed in overtaking Judah and Isaiah reassures them that the real threat is not Syria, but Assyria. Well, Assyria, will come in and destroy the Northern Kingdom and carry them away captive. That’s how they become the lost ten tribes, it’s because of that attack. But Assyria is not going to be able to take over Judah. The people humble themselves and are righteous and they trust in the prophet and King Hezekiah, and they’re spared. And a quick suggestion here, you really should read that story in 2 Kings. It’s phenomenal. But Isaiah is then going to warn them that the real threat, the biggest threat that they are going to face is Babylon. Babylon is eventually going to be the one that will overtake Jerusalem and scatter the kingdom of Judah. And that’s why the Lord warns a certain prophet named Lehi to flee into the wilderness with his family. So that is a very oversimplified setting for the Isaiah chapters. But I think that even that much is going to help you grasp it a little bit more.
Suggestion #4 comes in vs. 7
In the days that the prophecies of Isaiah shall be fulfilled men shall know of a surety, at the times when they shall come to pass.
So the suggestion is to look for fulfillments of prophecy. When Isaiah speaks of the Mountain of the Lord’s house being established in the tops of the mountains, ask yourself how that may have been fulfilled. When he speaks of an Ensign being lifted up to the nations and an army answering it’s call to go out and conquer, ask yourself how that might be fulfilled. When he speaks of establishing a vineyard with a fence and building a tower in the midst of it, ask yourself if and how that prophecy has been fulfilled. Isaiah’s writings are there to help instruct us about the Latter-days. And that’s part of what makes him difficult. He speaks about his time, Christ’s time, and our time, all at the same time. So there’s a reason he’s doing it.
Suggestion #5 vs. 8
I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days; for in that day shall they understand them.
Nephi tells us that we in the last days will be able to value Isaiah’s writings more in the last days because we will understand them. Now I hope that this isn’t too much of a stretch, but I have to ask myself, why will we understand them better in the last days? I think the reason is because we have so much more help and resources to understand his writings. We have prophetic commentary to help us, we have manuals that explain and clarify, we have the study aids right there in our scriptures, the footnotes, the chapter headings, the Bible Dictionary. Use these things. We really don’t have much of an excuse not to understand Isaiah’s writings. The resources are out there, resources that previous generations had no access to. For us, they’re right at our fingertips. And I promise that if you’ll use those things, you will better understand the words of Isaiah and they will become of great worth to you.
Suggestion #6
Is all over Nephi’s writings. He says it again and again. In fact, let me put all these verses up here at once and you tell me what they all have in common. What is Nephi’s (and Jacob also) #1 suggestion to studying Isaiah? Do you see it? It’s to liken his words to yourself. Seek to find personal meaning in the Isaiah chapters. Look for its relevancy to your life. How does it change you? How you act? What you believe? Compare Isaiah’s time to our time and heed his warnings and counsel.
Suggestion #7
And the last suggestion comes from the Savior himself and it’s from a verse we already looked at. But how does Jesus suggest we study him?
Diligently. Be diligent in your study. It takes effort, it takes time, it takes pondering, it takes digging deep.
Which leads me to say that really the best way to study Isaiah is verse by verse, because if you skip around, you’re going to miss all kinds of meaning. But that’s not realistic when it comes to teaching him, we have a limited time. So the best thing to do is to pull out major themes and big picture ideas with the hopes that it inspires our students to go in and study verse by verse on their own. And that’s what I’ll try to do for you here. We can’t do it all, but let me point out some big ideas and themes.
LESSON #2 THE GAME
OBJECT:
Bring in a chess board and set it up at the front of the class.
ICEBREAKER
And for an icebreaker, I like to give my students the following challenge. I’m a big fan of the game of chess. The classic war game of military strategy, right. And if I have any chess enthusiasts out there, can you solve the following puzzles? I’ve got an easier one and a harder one. Here’s the easy one. White to move and mate in one. The answer is to move your rook to following square, checkmate!
Now the harder one, try this out. And here you’re going to move your pawn forward which allows you to promote him. But you wouldn’t promote him to a queen as usual, but to a knight, which will end the game immediately. Checkmate!
Well remember that I told you that Isaiah wrote his chapters at a time when the kingdom of Judah was under military attack. And just like the game of chess, in war, you have attacks, offense, defense, a winner, and a loser. And that is how I would like to approach the Isaiah chapters, with that theme in mind. And we are going to liken their situation to ours in the Latter-days. We too are under attack, aren’t we? We are on the battlefield of life, the great chess game of life. And who is our opponent? Satan of course. And you can liken yourself to the kingdom of Judah being under attack from an enemy.
And I’d like to give you a broad overview of where we are going to see these different aspects of this conflict and the scripture blocks you can read to see that theme.
We have:
Satan’s Attack: 2 Nephi 12: 7-8, 2 Nephi 13, 2 Nephi 15:8-25
Our Defense: 2 Nephi 12:1-5, 2 Nephi 14:5-6
Our Offense: 2 Nephi 15:26-30, 2 Nephi 16
The Winners: 2 Nephi 21:6-16, 2 Nephi 22
The Biggest Winner: 2 Nephi 19:1-7, 2 Nephi 21:1-5
The Losers: 2 Nephi 12:9-22, 2 Nephi 23
The Biggest Loser: 2 Nephi 24
SATAN’S ATTACK
Let’s start with Satan’s attack. See if you can do this matching activity. A lot of the problems that the Kingdom of Judah are having are spiritual problems that we still have today. Satan has started to get a hold on their hearts. Read each verse and match it with the problem they are having. And we are going to be likening the scriptures as we go. With each match, we’re going to ask ourselves: Does Satan still use these same attacks in our day? How?
2 Nephi 12:7
7 Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.
The Answer is F Materialism. They’re obsessed with riches and having more. Certainly a problem, especially in the United States and other first world countries.
2 Nephi 12:8
8 Their land is also full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.
The answer is K Idolatry. We may not struggle as much these days with worshipping statues, but an idol is anything we place before God. Money is an idol, popularity is an idol, our own appearance can be an idol, power is an idol, success is an idol. I believe that idolatry is just as much a problem today as it was back then. It’s just manifested differently.
2 Nephi 12:9-12
9 And the mean man boweth not down, and the great man humbleth himself not, therefore, forgive him not.
10 O ye wicked ones, enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for the fear of the Lord and the glory of his majesty shall smite thee.
11 And it shall come to pass that the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
12 For the day of the Lord of Hosts soon cometh upon all nations, yea, upon every one; yea, upon the proud and lofty, and upon every one who is lifted up, and he shall be brought low.
The answer is L Pride. This is perhaps one of Satan’s most underestimated yet powerful attacks. You may remember Ezra Taft Benson’s famous talk entitled “Beware of Pride” where he said that “Pride affects all of us at various times and in various degrees. . . Pride is the universal sin, the great vice”
(Conference Report, April 1989)
2 Nephi 13:1-3
1 For behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem, and from Judah, the stay and the staff, the whole staff of bread, and the whole stay of water—
2 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient;
3 The captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
The answer is D Relying on man instead of God
2 Nephi 13:5
5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor; the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable.
The Answer is E Persecution and Disrespect. Is that a problem nowadays? I’ll let you decide.
2 Nephi 13:14-15
14 The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people and the princes thereof; for ye have eaten up the vineyard and the spoil of the poor in your houses.
15 What mean ye? Ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor, saith the Lord God of Hosts.
The answer is A Taking advantage of the poor
2 Nephi 13:16-24
16 Moreover, the Lord saith: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet—
17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts.
18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments, and cauls, and round tires like the moon;
19 The chains and the bracelets, and the mufflers;
20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the ear-rings;
21 The rings, and nose jewels;
22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping-pins;
23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and hoods, and the veils.
24 And it shall come to pass, instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; burning instead of beauty.
These are really interesting verses. And by the way, this may seem directed at women, but I think this idea applies to both sexes. This is not just a “daughters of Zion” problem. But Isaiah is going to mention the sons of Zion issue as well in the succeeding verses, and we’ll take a quick look at that too before we move on. But can you see how’s describing them? How they’re walking. Seductively, taking mincing or small little steps. That means they won’t be able to hide their sins anymore. The key word there is bravery. These things that they have are giving them a sense of superiority or self-worth. And where are they getting that bravery? Their ornaments, their chains, their bracelets, and etc. Do you see what Isaiah is doing here? That is a really long list, and we may not understand all those words, and look at how long that is, he’s doing that on purpose, he wants you to get exasperated with it, like, look at what you have to have in order to be considered beautiful. You’ve got to have the right look. It’s all about the outward appearance, the way you dress, and there is no end to that list. And if you stop and think about it, what would our list be today. Is there a list of things that we would come up with that women feel they need to have in order to be considered beautiful. How much money they have to spend. How much makeup they have to wear. The exact look that they have to try and achieve.
The answer to that one would be B. Obsessed with having the “right look”, Outward appearance is everything.
But then, look at what’s going on with the men. Verses 25-26
25 Thy men shall fall by the sword and thy mighty in the war.
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate, and shall sit upon the ground.
And then we’re going to jump down to verse 1 of chapter 14, there really shouldn’t be a chapter break right there. Verse 1 is continuing the thought of verses 25 and 26.
1 And in that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach.
That isn’t a reference to polygamy. The reason seven women are taking hold of one man is because so many of the men are dead. They’ve been slain in battle, so there’s not enough men for the women to marry. If we’re looking at this spiritually, likening the scriptures to ourselves, then the message is, these poor women can’t get married because there just aren’t enough righteous men to go around. It’s going to be hard to find a good man in the latter days, because so many of them have been slain spiritually be the adversary. They’ve fallen by Satan’s swords, his attacks.
2 Nephi 15:11-12, 22
11 Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink, that continue until night, and wine inflame them!
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands.
And then 22
22 Wo unto the mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink;
The answer is C. Drinking and partying. Is that a problem in our day?
2 Nephi 15:18
18 Wo unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope;
The answer is G. The problem here is that they have sins, but they’re not trying to hide them. They’re Open and proud of their sins. They’re drawing or pulling their iniquities with cords of vanity. Their sins with a cart rope. Like they’ve got their sins in a big cart and their pulling them around for everyone to see. It’s one thing to commit sin, and be ashamed of it, and seek to hide it. But I think we’ve entered into a deeper phase of iniquity when we begin to sin openly, or exhibit pride in our sins, and wear them as a badge of honor. Like the guy in the locker room bragging about his sexual exploits to everyone.
2 Nephi 15:20
20 Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
This is one of Satan’s most deceptive tactics and one that is most in your face. HE takes the good things and makes them seem bad. And he takes the bad things, and sets those things up as good. I mean, just look at the media these days. What is glorified. What’s set up as good. What movies are the ones that often get all the awards? And then what kinds of things are often mocked or put down, considered childish. Satan is so good at switching things on us. But the answer is I. Calling good, evil, and evil, good.
2 Nephi 15:21
21 Wo unto the wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight!
J Learned but not wise. Like Jacob warned us back in chapter 9.
2 Nephi 15:24
24 Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, their root shall be rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
This might just be the root problem for each of the others. They despise the commandments of God and the gospel. H
So I think we’ve pretty much shown that Satan is still using the same attacks today that he’s been using on mankind for millennia. And you can probably figure out why. They work. He’s a great spiritual chess player and he knows the moves and the attacks that are most effective.
A class discussion question then, with an answer that seems painfully obvious but is worth highlighting. Why do you think the Lord would want us to see all the ways Satan tempted people in the past? So that we will know how to defend ourselves from them. We’ll be prepared for them. It makes so much sense to study and know his tactics. The better you know your opponent, the less likely you are to be fooled by them. When football teams prepare to play their opponents, they watch film of the other team and how they play. We need to do the same kind of thing. The scriptures are one of the greatest places to see how Satan works. So now that you know what to look for, you’ll be ready. You won’t be fooled.
TRUTH
Satan uses many different methods to draw people away from God. The more aware we are of these methods, the better we will be able to resist them.
THE TAKEAWAY
Beware the attack. Know your enemy. Understand how he works and be ready for him. Because he’s coming after us, and he’s a formidable opponent. Don’t underestimate him. He’s won a lot of matches against others. But he’s not invincible. We can beat him if we’re prepared.
LESSON #3 OUR DEFENSE
Which leads us naturally into our next lesson which forms the second part of our strategy. Our defense. More than just knowing his attacks, we must also be prepared to defend ourselves from those attacks. And thankfully, we do have a defense available to us. God has provided us with holy places of safety.
OBJECT
And for an object to this portion of the lesson, you don’t necessarily need to have anything. You could just continue to refer to the chess board. But if you wanted to highlight this point in the lesson, if have a few additional suggestions. We have a lot of Legos in our house, and so I would probably just bring a Lego castle that my son and I built and place that at the front of the class to highlight the idea of defense. But, Legos are far too expensive to buy a big set just for one lesson, so you may just want to display a picture of a castle. Or, you could bring in an umbrella or a sunshade of some sort. And you’ll see later in the lesson where those objects will come into play.
ICEBREAKER
And a simple icebreaker here. There’s a phrase from the Doctrine and Covenants that comes to mind for me whenever I think about our defensive strategy as a Church or as disciples of Christ. It’s just a word unscramble. They need to figure out the phrase by unscrambling each word in it. If you feel they need some help, you can direct them to Doctrine and Covenants 87 and tell them that the phrase is found in that section. And what’s our phrase? Stand ye in holy places, and be not moved. That’s from Doctrine and Covenants 87:8. Isaiah is going to tell us what those holy places are.
SEARCH ACTIVITY
And there are 3. Three holy places of defense. Can you find them in 2 Nephi 14:5-6. And look, he even uses our word in those verses. Defense in vs. 5. But can you find the three holy places of defense?
In verse 4: Every dwelling place of mount Zion- So our homes. Our dwelling places are our homes.
Also in verse 4: Her assemblies- or any place where Saints assemble themselves together. That would be our stakes, churches, branches, seminaries, and institutes, the conference center, or really any time two or more gather together in his name.
And third, in verse 5: a tabernacle. Now what is our modern-day tabernacle? The temple. The tabernacle in Biblical times was their temple.
So those are our three holy places of defense. Our homes, our churches, and our temples.
Now, what does he promise he will provide on each of these places in verse 4? A cloud of smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Well, does that sound familiar to anyone? Has God ever done that kind of thing before? Yes, remember your Old Testament. During the Exodus, God placed a cloud of smoke by day and pillar of fire by night over the tabernacle, or the temple. And what does that suggest? A lot of things. The warmth, light, and comfort God’s protection offers us. Also, if you drove by somebody’s home at night and saw all the lights on or during the day and you saw smoke coming out of the chimney, what would you assume about that home? Somebody was there. Somebody was home. Well that symbol suggests that somebody is home in these places, the Lord, he’s always there, ready to welcome us. Now to an early Israelite, like Nephi and his family, that’s quite an astonishing promise. In the Latter-days, that blessing and protection isn’t just going to be upon the temples, but upon every assembly and every home of Zion. Probably because we’re going to need that extra protection and blessing in these difficult and spiritually hazardous last days.
And then Isaiah is going to add more symbolic description to the blessings of these defenses in vs. 6. And yes, I understand that this verse specifically refers to the tabernacle, or temple, but I believe they apply to all three holy places. He compares them to what 3 things?
A shadow from the heat
A place of refuge
A covert from storm and from rain
So do you get what he’s saying with those promises? He’s saying that life is like a heatwave, and we’re going to need some shade. It’s 115 degrees and we’re thirsty. And so he calls for us to come in, to cool off, be refreshed, and drink from him stream.
Or life is like a battle, and we’re going to need a refuge. So here we are in the world, day by day, at school, at the workplace, amongst our peers, and we’re swinging our swords, fighting evil, and the Lord calls, “Come home for a moment, come to my refuge, put your sword down for awhile. There are no battles to be fought here. Your enemies can’t reach you here, so rest. Then you can go back out and fight your battles of life with more strength.
Or life is like a terrible storm, and we’re going to need some shelter. A hurricane is moving in, and the Lord says “Come, dry off, find shelter here. Sit by the warmth of my fire and be cheered. The storm can reach you in here.”
Our holy places can provide this for us.
TAKING IT TO HEART
And to take this idea more to heart, perhaps a quick sharing activity. Pick one of the three holy places and one of the 3 symbols and then share how that place has been like one of those symbols for you. So, complete the sentence. The home, church, or temple is like a shadow, a place of refuge, or a shelter from the storm to me because, and then fill in the blank.
For me, I lived in Arizona for 15 years, so I know what heat is like. And sometimes in the summer I would have to go out and mow my lawn. And what was it like to get out of that 115-degree weather and sit in the shade with a glass of water, or to run inside to air-conditioned bliss? It was amazing. It felt so good to get out of the heat. Spiritually, that’s what the temple is like for me. Same feeling. To get out of the heat of the world, and find spiritual refreshing and renewal.
THE ULTIMATE HOLY PLACE
Well speaking of the temple, let’s take a quick look at 2 Nephi 12:1-5 and examine this most holy of holy places. Isaiah has some things he wants us to understand about the Lord’s house. In these verses,
What object does the Lord compare the temple to here?
A mountain
How is the temple like a mountain? This is a great discussion question and in my experience always yields great answers.
They’re beautiful, bring you closer to God, they give you a higher perspective, the problems of the world below become smaller, they require climbing or effort (worthiness). There are plenty of great insights to be garnered with that metaphor. Your students are sure to come up with some powerful ones of their own.
An additional search to perform here. Look in vs. 3-5 and mark as many blessings the temple can bring us as you can find.
What I see?
He will teach of his ways there. The temple is house of learning. The Lord’s university. Much can be learned from the ordinances and covenants and ceremonies performed there.
We will walk in his paths. The covenant path back to the presence of God passes directly through the temple. Making covenants and worshipping in the temple is walking in his paths.
God’s laws and words are taught in the temple.
Verse 4 suggest that the temple will be a source of peace in the world.
And verse 5 suggests that the temple is a place of light. Other words synonymous with light in the scriptures? Truth, spirit, intelligence, and glory. The temple helps us to walk in the light of the Lord.
TAKING IT TO HEART
When have you seen the temple bring one of those blessings to you?
TRUTH
If I stand in holy places (homes, churches, and temples), then I will find refuge from Satan's attacks.
THE TAKEAWAY
I love that word STAND in that scriptural phrase. I believe that “Stand” in this case is an active word, not a passive one. Like Custer's Last Stand wasn't an event where he passively sat there waiting to be defeated. It was his last fight. We need to fight in this battle. The word suggests determination and tenacity. When God asks us to Stand in holy places, I don’t think he meant for us to cower and hide in them. He meant for us to make a stand for our beliefs and standards, actively. President Hinckley once wrote a little book called "Standing for something". We're going to need to stand for something if we wish to "withstand" the evil day. He that stands for nothing will fall for anything. A quote sometimes attributed to Alexander Hamilton. If we are going to survive the attack of the adversary, we are going to need to STAND in our holy places of defense.
LESSON #4 OUR OFFENSE
So yes, it’s true, sometimes the best offense is a good defense. But, we are also going to have to come out of our holy places and into the world. We aren’t meant to just hunker down in our defenses and hope the enemy doesn’t get through. God also has an offense. We get to fight back against Satan’s kingdom.
OBJECT
For an object to this final lesson, I would see if I could get my hands on a missionary name tag, but I wouldn’t pull it out just yet. I would save it for a key portion of this lesson.
ICEBREAKER
For an icebreaker, another simple activity. I’m going to show you some pictures, and I just want you to tell me what words or emotions come to mind when you see them.
So we have a large waving flag on the top of a hill
An archer with his bow bent back ready to let an arrow fly
A chariot with four horses racing around a track
A lion roaring
Isaiah we know is a very visual writer. He uses images or pictures to convey his meaning and evoke emotions in us. Let’s see how he uses those images and others to help us understand our offensive attack against the adversary.
SEARCH ACTIVITY
Isaiah is going to describe that offensive attack in 2 Nephi 15:26-30. It’s very visual and symbolic. I’ll read it to you, and you see if you can figure out what he’s talking about. How do we fight back against Satan? And as a teacher, I would do the same. I would read this section to my students and give them some commentary as I went, explaining some of the more difficult words and phrases to help them to interpret it. But have them wait to give their guesses until the end of the verses.
26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far,
An ensign is a flag, so can you see that somebody lifts up a huge flag for all the world to see
and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth;
Hiss means to whistle. So the flag bearer lets out a loud whistle, you know like some people can put their fingers in their mouths and whistle really loud. I’ve always wished I could do that. But he whistles. And what happens after he’s raised the flag and whistled?
and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; none shall be weary nor stumble among them.
So who comes, they, come. Who are they? Let’s figure it out. They come quickly, they’re strong and enthusiastic.
27 None shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken;
They are prepared, ready, alert, their belts are cinched up and their shoes tied.
28 Whose arrows shall be sharp, and all their bows bent,
They are archers. Their arrows are sharp, and to have your bow bent means it pulled back, ready to let an arrow fly. So this is an army we’re talking about here. God’s army. Who are they?
and their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind,
They are archers on chariots, they are coming quickly, they are unstoppable. They are powerful. If you’ve ever seen the chariot race in Ben Hur, that’s the imagery here. Can you imagine thousands of those racing towards you?
And then one of my favorite descriptions of this army
their roaring like a lion.
29 They shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry away safe, and none shall deliver.
They are like lions, and they roar their message, and they lay hold of the prey, and carry it away not to devour it, but carry it away safe, never to get away again.
30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if they look unto the land, behold, darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
And they will have to fight and roar during dark times.
LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES
So did you figure it out? What army is being described here? Who are these archers with sharp arrows? Who are these roaring young lions?
They are missionaries (and at that point, I would pull out the missionary name tag).Young men, young women, senior missionaries and couples, and all members who seek to spread the message of the gospel and gather Israel. Isn’t that the coolest description of missionaries ever?! So the prophet stands on the hill and raises the flag, and whistles and says, come all worthy able individuals. Come fight for the Lord, come join his army. And they come, right now they come 62,000 strong. And they are powerful, unstoppable, and effective, like 62,000 chariot archers racing toward you. And they are sent throughout the world to fight against Satan’s kingdom. This is our offense. And we beat him, by winning souls to our side. That’s our attack, saving souls.
TAKING IT TO HEART
And so, our personal question becomes, “What kind of missionary will you be?” And this is so great, you can just list the metaphors. Each one has its own power and impact. Are you a come with speed swiftly missionary? A girdle cinched, shoelatchet tied missionary? Are you an arrows sharp and bows bent missionary? And really I love that image. What is a missionary’s arrow? Their testimony, right. Is yours sharp, is it ready to fly at a moment’s notice. You see an investigator across the way, and out comes your arrow and (make sound) thump! And they’re like, uh baptize me. Your testimony went straight to my heart. Are you a roaring lion missionary. That’s another great one. Missionaries are lions. They are powerful, they roar the gospel, not meow it. Their message is clear, loud, and forceful. I love that. Maybe we shouldn’t ask people where they served their missions, but where they roared. I roared in Brazil. My wife roared in Australia. My brothers roared in Peru and Portugal, and my sister roared in Taiwan. Where will you roar? Maybe right there in your own community, on your own street. The Lord needs his archers, he needs his young lions. Will you answer the whistle? Will you flock to the ensign? I hope you will.
And speaking of mission calls, that’s the theme of the next chapter. This is Isaiah’s mission call. And look for what it teaches you about answering that call when it comes. Isaiah at first says
Wo is unto 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. He doesn’t feel worthy or ready. This is a common fear amongst many prospective missionaries. And so the Lord sends an angel to him with a live coal and places it on his lips. And can you just hear the sound of that? PSSSSSSS. And the angel says:
Lo, this has touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
He cleanses him and makes him worthy. I believe that the Lord will do this for all prospective missionaries that desire to serve him but have fears and insecurities.
Then the Lord asks: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
And how does Isaiah answer now “Here am I, send me” I want to go!
And you can just sense the enthusiasm in his response. That’s the kind of missionary the Lord needs. The “Here am I, send me” missionary, not the “Ok, I’ll go if I have to. I’ll go to make Mom and Dad happy. I’ll try to invite people to church so I don’t feel guilty” missionary.
TRUTH
The way to defeat Satan’s kingdom is to win souls to Christ through missionary work.
THE TAKEAWAY
Our missionary force, which includes all members of the Church, that’s our offense. Isaiah has just given us what I consider to be one of the most inspiring visuals for missionary work anywhere in the standard works. So let’s roar, let’s fight, let’s flock to the ensign, let’s shout “Hear am I, send me” and win this battle for the souls of men and women everywhere.
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