Even the Book of Mormon was written around the teachings and prophecies of Isaiah. In the Book of Mormon, Jesus commands us to read and study the Book of Isaiah. How many of us do that? In the Old World, Jesus referenced Isaiah to launch His ministry.
In these last days, and as our prophet has told us to gear up, shouldn't we be studying this book?
episode on Isaiah this is brought to you
by the Isaiah Institute and they're
restoring the Covenant conference which
is on October 19th at 900 a.m. this is
something where uh I'm very excited
about it I'm one of six speakers a uh a
guest speaker speaking after uh Abraham
iotti an expert on the book of Isaiah I
I want to talk about this and you know
I've brought this up before because we
don't study Isaiah enough and and that
includes me we we need to be delving
into Isaiah we're told to do this this
conference on October 19th allows us a
chance to pull back the wool a little
bit and and take a closer look into the
meaning of
Isaiah and this is one example of many
that you where you can doing this but
this conference will give you the chance
to get a basic idea of several things
about the conference the conference this
virtual conference is called the
restoring the Covenant and we've heard a
lot about covenants lately this is the
Covenant that is given by God in the
latter days it is something that uh I'm
very excited to talk about and it's not
something I've talked much about before
so this will be something very different
um that uh I've been studying on but but
have not touched on myself on this so
Isaiah institutes fundraising virtual
conference called restoring the
conference and uh this is the subtitle
of this is Isaiah's road map for
reversing our awful situation and that
situation is well we always have hope
the the situation around us is is not
getting much better right now and this
is on October 19th I'm going to put a
link to this in the description box uh
in in uh on both the video at YouTube
and also on the podcast okay now having
said that I want to get into Isaiah just
a little bit here and and talk to you
about why this is something that is just
so very very important if we go directly
to the Book of Mormon and again the Book
of Mormon is I think it's important to
understand the Book of Mormon is written
around the book of Isaiah and I cannot
stress that enough to you when Lehi
leaves Jerusalem and he has the brass
plates with him he is
unbelievably focused on one specific
book obviously they're pulling from the
entire breastplates but that book is the
book of Isaiah and obviously Nephi is
the same way and they are going to liken
their situation to the prophecies and
the words of Isaiah and the book that
they have with them in in the brass
plates which is not the Old Testament
it's important to understand all right
so the book of Isaiah is Central to this
they write around it right they're they
Visions are pulling from the book of
Isaiah Nephi's Vision at the beginning
is pulling from Isaiah uh they are they
preach about Christ wrapped around
Isaiah and Isaiah is a very peculiar
figure because he is called in in many
times the Messianic Prophet now the word
Messiah never shows up in the book of
Isaiah but of course he talks about
several things about these these
Messianic prophecies but there's a
reason why he is the messian a prophet
in my mind I think that they have a loss
of Christ happening around the time of
Hezekiah and previously with uh
hezekiah's father and they're having a
very strong
deuteronomic um
encroachment of losing the Son of God
and we can see this as they throw out
the nushan right from the temple the
Brazen serpent is thrown out of the
Temple of course this is a
representation of Christ and from then
on out at this time of Isaiah we never
hear about the Brazen serpent again
right we we don't hear anything else
about it why what is happened we get
this lost
tradition about Christ as the Healer and
it's not brought up again and yet we go
to the Book of Mormon and you see this
Brazen serpent everywhere and and
Illusions to the Brazen serpent you get
it in the New Testament in the very
famous scripture of John 3:16 for God so
loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son right
that is put in context by Jesus
himself as the Brazen serpent just two
verses before this in John
3:14 and so this is at the time of
Isaiah there's this tumult that is
happening and in my mind I think that
the reason that Isaiah is considered
kind of the Messianic Prophet because we
get these Illusions to the Messiah is
because he wrote in
code and he wrote in a way that I think
he probably had to This is Gospel by
Greg but I think he wrote in a way that
he had to so that he could be
preserved he was probably in some danger
that's how I would look at that and so
he writes this way and then you get this
tradition of those that grab on to
Isaiah understanding what he was writing
about and looking at the prophecies and
you get as David Butler would say you
get this uh tradition of the Visionary
men who are kind of these Isaiah ites
and Lehi is one of them and so Isaiah
becomes this this great unbelievable
book that these these individuals are
pulling from as they believe in in in
Jesus Christ but Jesus is one of these
men so when you go to the Book of Mormon
and you see here as we look in our
scripture notes Here you you see uh
chapter our third Nephi chapter 2 3 with
Jesus's visit to the new world what does
he say in verses 1 through3 he says and
now behold I say unto you that ye ought
to search these things okay he's talking
about the prophecies that he's going
over with the Gentiles and other
otherwise and he says y a commandment I
give unto you that you search these
things diligently for Great Are the
words of Isaiah so this is laid out as a
commandment to to search these things
out in the book of Isaiah how many of us
do this remember in 19 I think it was 84
or maybe it was later in the 80s when
um I see this as being similar to what
president Benson said about the Book of
Mormon in section 84 where he had said
that we do not study the Book of Mormon
enough and therefore the church is under
condemnation and and and I think that
you know you see a commandment here from
Jesus himself to search these things out
to study Isaiah how many many of us do
this and yes I understand the book is
difficult it's like how do I understand
all of this um how do I get through this
well you've got to start get your nose
in there get your eyes o you know in on
on the text this conference is a great
way to do that to start off if you
haven't done that yet and start looking
at Isaiah one of the beautiful things
about this is as you understand Isaiah
you will understand the scriptures
better you will especially understand
the book of morm
better and that is a wonderful thing
right so Jesus goes on here and he says
for surely he spake talking about Isaiah
as touching all things concerning my
people which are of the House of Israel
right so all of the prophecies that
includes all our Latter-Day prophecies
that we have in regards to the the the
tribes of Israel the Gentiles coming in
right the the ephra call we might call
them the ephraimite Gentiles of the West
and so that's what he's going over and
of course again that's what Nephi is
preaching about that's what his Visions
are about that's what so much of second
Nephi is about so he says of the House
of Israel therefore it must needs be
that he must speak also to the
Gentiles right being Isaiah and all
things that he spake have been and shall
be even according to the words which he
spake all right now again all and all
things that he spake have been and shall
be
right so he is all of the prophecies
that he goes over in the book of Isaiah
and it's it's all it's full chalk full
of prophecies we we are supposed to
understand those that doesn't mean we
need to be Dooms
Dar right that doesn't mean we need to
change our values and our views on on
how we live or anything else but it does
mean that we've been commanded to read
that book and that means that we should
understand the prophecies because that's
primarily what we get in there right
Jesus Christ in the Prophecies of the of
the House of Israel and that the
covenants there that are given and look
at the words that we got the
really almost surprising words you don't
usually hear a prophet of the Lord speak
the way he did about the second coming
in conference just
yesterday that was like wow he he he and
he hit it not once like several times
about the second coming of Jesus and you
better be ready and we need to get ready
and and that to me is a call to study
the book of Isaiah interestingly so this
is what he goes over when he comes to
the Americas right well of course when
he comes to when he comes to uh is
preaching in his Mortal
Mortal uh in his mortality in in Galilee
how does he start off his ministry okay
well here we get in Luke
4 he is going around the synagogues and
in this one synagogue here we get this
in Luke
4:18 uh let's go back to 17 and there
was delivered unto him the book of The
Prophet ASAS right that's Isaiah and
when he had opened the book he found the
place where it was written so he's
searching specifically for a passage
he's going to go to chapter
61 and quote it and look what it says
it's very similar to about the Gentiles
all right it's it's about the house of
Israel and the Gentiles and the need to
bring the Covenant of these two things
back back together again he says in 18
the spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor right there's a
specific person who is being called to
this he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted to preach Deliverance to
the captives and recovering of sight to
the blind to set at Liberty them that
are bruised so in many ways he's not
talking about the elite in Judah to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord
and then he closes the books uh he goes
and sits down the eyes of all them that
are were in the synagogue were fasted on
him and then he begins to say this day
this scripture fulfilled in your ears I
am that guy I and what what guy let's
look at this again here the spirit of
the Lord is upon me because he hath
anointed me what is Anointed anointed is
the Messiah the anointed is the Messiah
the anointed is the Christ that is what
anointed
means right he is saying I am the
Messiah I am the Christ and then he goes
on and says this day is the scripture
fil fulfilled in your ears now I want to
say something here because I think that
it goes beyond this beyond the idea of
just saying oh I'm the Messiah and
that's who I claim to be I think that
that's certainly true but there's
something something else he's making a
statement of here I
believe I don't believe it's possible
that it goes
unnoticed that several people are
hanging on to certain traditions of
Isaiah and other books that are not
mainstream in
Jerusalem and he is maybe going outside
of that mainstream and saying no I am
one of the what Jeremiah calls the Old
Paths I I am one who is going off here
on this other tradition not on the
tradition that you're following and
that's why I'm quoting Isaiah and that's
why I'm talking about the Covenant
between God Israel and then and then the
Gentiles right and this is so much of
what the Book of Mormon is about so many
of the prophecies look at Jacob 5 and
the and the allegory of the olive trees
right all all of this about the the
natural branches and the and the wild
branches right it's it's it's all this
idea of perhaps the tree of life that is
being an allegory that's talking about
this
Covenant that is going to be fulfilled
and that is a big part again of what
this conference is about so I think it's
important to
understand that Christ himself in both
appearances in the old world and
starting his ministry and in his sermon
at Bountiful at the temple is is
referencing
Isaiah and it's for a very good reason
and and I hope that this is just a
little bit of something that motivates
us to delve more into Isaiah I will put
that link in the description box and I
hope to see you there online thanks for
listening
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