Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - 2 Kings 2-7 Part 1 • Dr. Don Parry • July 6-12 • Come, Follow Me

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

What if you’ve been reading the Old Testament your whole life and missed the most important name on every page? Dr. Don Parry opens the Hebrew Bible with a scholar’s precision and a testimony revealing how Elisha’s miracles, his very name, and 6,800 attestations of Jehovah converge into one stunning, Christ-centered portrait of a God who never stops showing up.YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/s7MPgm2gLooFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookBook of Mormon: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastBMBook WEEKLY NEWSLETTERhttps://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletter SOCIAL MEDIAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastTIMECODE0:00 - Part 1 - Dr. Don Parry5:27 Bio 8:01 Elisha’s name “My God is salvation”15:41 The prophetic mantle: Elijah to Elisha19:58 Elisha as a type of Jesus Christ and chariots of fire24:48 Chariot mysticism, temples, returning to God’s presence30:36 Restoration-era chariot visions–Joseph Smith and angels36:04 Old Testament metaphors in Restoration scripture40:04 Elisha heals the waters at Jericho46:09 The mocking young men and she-bears55:06 Don’t mock the Lord’s anointed1:00:10 Jehoshaphat, Moab, and seeking God through a prophet1:04:23 Music invites revelation, and Elisha calls for a minstrel1:09:29 Water miracle without rain1:10:45 End of Part 1 - Dr. Don ParryThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsAmelia Kabwika: Portuguese TranscriptsHeather Barlow: Communications DirectorSydney Smith: Social Media, Graphic Design "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Coming up in this episode on Follow Him. I want to remind everyone when we read these passages about the She-Bearers not to superimpose our culture on these ancient cultures. Welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith. I'm your host. I'm here with my not-so-bald-headed co-host. John, by the way. John, right out of Second Kings, they're mocking Elisha, saying, go up there.

thou bald head. And I didn't think of you. Oh, I appreciate that. But I am receding. I realize I was getting older when it was taking longer and longer for me to wash my face because the forehead just cubic inches were growing. That's so funny. John, we are privileged to be joined today by Dr. Don Perry. Don, welcome to follow him. Thank you very much. Now I know why you invited me is because I have been bald for over 20 years. Thank you very much. Oh, that's beautiful, actually. I've heard that the Lord made very few perfect heads and the rest he put hair on. That's correct. Absolutely. You look fantastic. John, we spent last week with Dr. Lily Anderson talking about Elijah. Now this week we're going to talk about Alicia. What comes to mind? You see Elisha, you see a type of Christ, not what he said, but what he did,

feeding multitudes, raising children from the dead. When you think about Jesus, don't you love that idea? A healer, one who feeds us and nourishes us. I love that his life, his actions were foreshadowed and what the Savior would be like. I love it. Don, what are you looking forward to today? Where are we going to go?

First and foremost, the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament is Jehovah Focused. What do I mean by that? There are 6,800 attestations, or the name Jehovah, or Lord in uppercase, appears 6,800 times in the Old Testament. It's astounding. As with a group recently, they were trying to determine talks for sacrament meeting. What should we talk about for the congregation? And I said, whatever you talk about, put Jesus Christ in the title. Jesus Christ and tithing, Jesus Christ and faith, Jesus Christ and temples, whatever, put Jesus Christ first. And I propose we do that with all texts in the Old Testament, including the Elisha text. So when we talk about Elisha's miracles, they're powered by Jesus Christ or Jehovah. We're going to talk about Elisha, his name. His name is Jesus Christ focused. We're going to look at the word mantle in Hebrew.

I don't think a lot of people know that it has a special meaning in Hebrew. Don, that is fantastic. We are so excited. This is your first time on the show, but you have been quoted many times. So we've had you here in spirit, and we're grateful to have you now in person. John, there might be someone out there who doesn't know Don, but you do, so tell us all about him. This is an exciting bio to read. Perry is a professor of the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls holds the Abraham-O-Smoot

professorship. As a B.Y.U. Professor, Dr. Perry teaches students how to read and translate the Hebrew Bible, including the more difficult biblical works, such as the Book of Isaiah. He's the first and only Latter-day Saint author to have written and published a grammar textbook on biblical Hebrew. Learn biblical Hebrew easier and faster. He's authored or edited more than 40 books and written more than 100 articles which have appeared in encyclopedias, journals, conference proceedings, and other venues. For the scholarly community, Dr. Perry treats various topics like paleography, lexical, meanings, orthography, ancient scribal practices, textual affiliations.

I was thinking about this last night. And corpus-based examination of linguistic features. Well, most of his books are dedicated to the academic community, to scholars and universities and libraries. Many are written for the Latter-day Saints. These include 175 temple symbols and their meanings. You got to get that one. Angels, agents of love, light, and power.

I'm going to talk about that one in a minute. Understanding Isaiah, understanding the Book of Revelation, symbols and shadows, unlocking a deeper understanding of the atonement. Most significantly, Don is married to Camille, his college sweetheart. They have six children and 11 grandchildren. He enjoys activities and outings with his family. And Hank, I just have to tell you, this book, I've got my library plastic on it because I want it to be preserved. This book about angels, I loved it so much. I wrote something to Deserate book and they stuck it on the top of the back what I wrote because I seriously had a hard time putting it down. So, Don, thank you for being with us. On a personal note,

I emailed Don a question a couple of weeks ago about Spirit World Visit or something like this. And not only did I get an answer, I got this answer that was outlined with references. It was like, oh, my goodness, this is beautiful. I'm a big Don Perry fan. Thank you and welcome to follow him. That was so kind of you. Thank you very much for those things that you said. I wonder if you can call my wife and tell her those things.

Let's start with the Come Follow Me Manual and then Don, John and I are ready to learn. The title of the lesson this week, there is a prophet in Israel. A prophet's main mission is to teach and testify of the Savior Jesus Christ. Our record of the prophet Elisha, however, doesn't include much of his teachings or testifying. What the record does include is the miracles Elisha performed, including raising a child from the dead, feeding a multitude with just a little food and healing a leper. So while we don't have Elisha's words about Christ, we do have Elishes' ministry and miracles, which do testify of Christ.

They are powerful manifestations of the Lord's life-giving, nourishing, and healing power. Miracles happen more often in our lives than we sometimes realize. To see them, we need to seek the faith Elisha had when he prayed on behalf of his fearful young servant, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. Beautiful. All right, with that, Don, we are ready to learn. Thank you very much. This is a huge, huge privilege to be here to declare the Lord to speak of the First Testament of Jesus Christ, which is the Old Testament. I want to begin by telling everyone the name of Elisha. In Hebrew, it means either God is salvation or my God is salvation. I prefer the second one. Both of these are found in lexicons. My goddess salvation. The EL part of

Elisha is a short form of Elohim. And I want everyone to know there are three appropriate ways to pronounce the name Elohim. That's a Hebrew designation. So L is short for Elohim. The I in Elisha. I want to say Elisha. I that's the Hebrew way of saying it. The I is my. So El-Lee, my God. And then the rest of it is salvation. And the word salvation is from the same root as the name Jesus in the Hebrew language. His name means my God is salvation.

That's his name. That's the way he would have been known among his peers and friends and neighbors and family. We think Elisha, but others would have thought, my God is salvation. When he's in primary or seminary, I'm making that part up, but in school, and someone says Elijah, and he say, here, I'm here, but this is what they would have heard. My God is salvation. And I want to remind everyone that Psalm 22 begins with Elie. Elie. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's a very sacred name. We call it a theophoric name. That's a 50-cent word, theophoric name, meaning a God compound name. There are dozens of these names in the Hebrew Bible. In our Bible, too, I'll give you four or five examples. Elijah, that starts with L, and El Yahoo is Elijah, and Michael. Michael has the L at the end, Raphael. L, Nathaniel, and there are dozens of others of these names, and they all have meaning.

Just his name testifies of Jesus Christ. I love it, love it. Now, Elisha, or in Hebrew, Elisha, is also a common name in modern Hebrew Israel. I have a friend who, he and I co-authored a book in Hebrew in 1998. His name is Elisha, Elisha. Elisha, Kynron. I've been his guest in Bercheva, and he was my guest in Provo at BYU. When he came to BYU, he said, two things, Don, I would like to go trout fishing, and I would like to see some elk.

So we took a day off, and we took him trout fishing on the Provo River, and he's just so formal. He's a Jewish scholar. He's a religious Jewish scholar and still a good friend. So 1998, I mean, that was several years ago. When he showed up fishing, he wore a white shirt and a tie. Oh. No one told him this is a relaxed effort, wear a t-shirt and so on. He did catch a great trout in the Proval River.

Then we took him to see a herd of elk, and we kind of fudged a little bit. We told him this. We took him to a ranch of elk. elk, many miles west of Lehigh. We drive there and we say, here are your elk. This is a ranch. We know it's a little fake. You wanted to see them out in the wild, but this is what you get. So anyway, it's a common name. It's a very sacred name, Elisha. I think what we'd like to do is begin with the mantle. Is that a good place to begin? Yeah, absolutely. Let's do it. I don't know if you talked about the mantle of Elijah.

There are five episodes of the mantle. Before we do, I want to tell you what the Hebrew word means. It is astounding. It opens up the whole idea of mantle. In Hebrew, the word for mantle is Adairat. I don't expect people to know that, but I know that there will be some Hebrew speakers who listen to this episode, Adairate.

And it occurs 12 times in the Old Testament. It comes from the verb Adar, which means to be glorious. Right there that gives us some information about the mantle, to be glorious. I looked up this word in my three favorite lexicons. A lexicon is just a very fancy term for a dictionary. These are scholarly. One says Adderate means glory. Take thou alone, and that's worth a lot. The mantle means glory. Another one says splendor. And the third one says majesty. I want to remind everyone that when President Dallin H. Oakes spoke February 10th, 2006, within the first two or three paragraphs, he mentioned the mantle of Elijah. And I want to pause and testify that our prophet and seer, President Oakes, has the mantle. Absolutely, positively. That's a witness from the spirit. have that quote from President Oaks right here. He talked about when President Nelson was called as a

prophet. He witnessed that. He said, I had sat beside this apostle in the meetings of the quorum of the 12 for 34 years, but when the mantle of the prophet settled upon President Nelson, I felt his prophetic gifts were magnified. We all have witnessed his profound leadership. Upon President Nelson's death, I experienced another meaning of the mantle. To observers, it symbolizes a transfer of priesthood authority, to the person who receives that authority, it is very different and very real. Within a few minutes after learning of our president's death, I felt the heaviness of responsibilities settle upon me, along with important impressions of what I was required to do now. It's beautiful. He says, we need one another's prayers. I feel the positive effect of your prayers. I am thankful

and I love you. I used to hear my parents say that when over the years watching General Conference seeing a new president of the church, oh, you can see the mantle. And I'm not sure back then I fully understood what that meant. So grateful that President Oaks would go into such detail about what that meant and felt like.

In our family history, I think it was my fifth great grandfather and grandmother were in Navu when Brigham Young began to speak and suddenly started to look and talk like the prophet Joseph Smith and they saw this mantle. I imagine that's what it is. Just to put it in the proper context of God, it's not the splendor of God's prophet.

It's the splendor that comes from God to the prophet. Always giving credit and power to our God. All right, five episodes. I'm going to go through. Some of these a little briefly. Episode 1 is Elijah on Mount Horib. And remember the context is a strong wind and earthquake and fire. I'm quoting from 1st Kings 19,

But the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, and when Elijah heard it, now here's the mantle. He wrapped his face in the mantel. mantle, and he went out and stood in the entering of the cave. That's episode number one. Episode number two is a mistranslation in the King James Version. It's 2nd Kings 1, verse 8. He was a hairy man and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins, and he said, it is Elijah the Tishbite. But instead of Harryman, it's interesting, if you look at medieval painters and paintings of Elijah.

They have a big beard and a lot of hair. I'm jealous of the hair on the top of the head. Let's go to the ESV, the English standard version, or the Hebrew. I prefer the Hebrew. I'm just going to an English version so people can follow. Instead of, he was a hairy man as he wore a garment of hair with a belt of leather about his waist. So instead of saying Elijah's hairy man, and that's a description of him, he's wearing the mantle, which is made of hair. That's episode two.

Episode three is 1st Kings chapter 19, verse 19, and Elijah departed fence from this other place, and he found Elijah the son of Shafat. Shafat means he judged, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxenobah. oxen before him. That's a mistranslation. He's plowing with two yoke, but there were six farmers total, each with two yoke of oxen. This is episode number three. And Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. So Elijah took his mantle off and put it on cast or through or put it on, Elisha. This was symbolic to all the farmers and whoever's out there, and they would say, oh, look, the mantle is going to go to Elisha. He's going to be the next prophet.

Then episode four is found in 2nd Kings 2, verse 8. It says Elijah took his mantle. They're standing there at the waters of the Jordan River and they're down near the Jericho end of the Jordan River. The Jordan River is many miles long. And it says Elijah took his mantle

and he wrapped it together. He rolled it up. He took the mantle and smote the waters of the Jordan River, meaning he hit the waters. They were divided hither and thither. Then the two went over on dry ground. The Hebrew word for dry ground means it was literally dry. No mud. There's no mud there. It's not like the waters were divided and they have to slop through on the mud. It was dry ground. This is a huge miracle, give credit to Jehovah, to our God. God is all-powerful. The prophet used the mantle. That's episode four. To the Israelites, this would have called to mind Exodus 14, where it says Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind, and made the sea dry land. And it's the same Hebrew word, and the waters were divided. So,

you have God's prophet, you have water, you have dry land, and the division of waters. People who witnessed Elijah doing this might have thought, oh, he's got the same powers as the prophet Moses. And this is number five. This is Second Kings chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. This is after Elijah now has the mantle, and Elijah had ascended in the world. whirlwind and the chariot of fire. We're going to talk about that next. First, let's look at this, Second King's 2, 13, and 14. Elisha took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, from Elijah, and went back. He's retracing his steps. He stood at the bank of the Jordan, and he took the mantle of Elijah. Elisha now has it. He smote the waters. And then he says this,

Where is the Lord God of Elohim? Lord God here is Jehovah Elohim in the Hebrew. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? He did this in front of an audience. And when he had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither. And then Elisha went back over. He did the same miracle with the mantle, but going the opposite direction. That's number five.

John, I'm thankful that you brought up. up the idea that Elisha was a type and shadow of Jesus Christ. I want to look at the chariot of fire. I want to look at both the Old Testament chariot of fire, then some references to the chariot of fire in our dispensation. First, I want to point out the word for chariot is Merkava. We're going to talk about chariots for a minute, but I wanted to put this in the context of different Jewish traditions.

This is very powerful. Mirkeva, or chariot mysticism, is very old. It's focused on Ezekiel chapter 1, which is a fascinating chapter, but it's hard to read. It has a lot of symbolism in it. It does not mention a chariot, Ezekiel chapter 1, but it speaks of or refers to a four-wheeled vehicle, not a four-wheel drive. but a four-wheeled vehicle driven by living creatures. Jewish mysticism, they focus on heavenly ascents, ascending to heaven.

They want to visit the heavenly palaces there and to reach God's throne. This is my opinion. I cannot back this up, but I have studied Jewish mysticism with a man named Joseph Dan. He passed away recently in 2002. He was a scholar of Jewish mysticism. He's an author of some 60 books. He's a top scholar.

Now, here's my opinion. Jewish mysticism, for the most part, started after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. A lot of us think that mystics desire to go up into heaven, have a vision, and to reach God's throne. That's what the temple does. and so many words. The temple gives us this great knowledge and great power of how to approach God in the celestial kingdom. That's a goal of Jewish mystics. So the chariot mysticism, the chariot is what is going to carry you back to the presence of God,

which is what all of our temples are about. How we get back to God on God's terms, not on our own terms, but on God's terms. Yes, and Ezekiel 1 talks about God on this four-wheeled vehicle. It's the powerful vision that Ezekiel had of God in heaven through a celestial vehicle, like a chariot. The whole idea of chariot mysticism is based on Ezekiel 1. It's very powerful. Let's please read 2, 2, verses 11 and 12. and it came to pass. By the way, that's a Hebraism. There are 30 Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon,

30 categories, and one of those is, and it came to pass. A lot of people aren't aware of that. And it came to pass is a Hebrew structure. That's one of 30 categories in the Book of Mormon. And it came to pass, as they still went on, this is Elijah and Elisha, and talked. I wish I knew what they were talking about, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted them asunder. I'm going to pause here for a second, meaning the chariot separated Elijah and Elijah. It parted them. Some translations say it separated them. It separated Elijah. Elijah's on one side and Elijah. There's some important symbolism. there. Elijah is going to be separated from you. Elijah, you're the prophet. You're the successor.

Elijah went up, and I really want to emphasize he went up in the verb in Hebrew, because we're going to see this when we look at the two she bears, the same verb, where the young men say, go up, baldhead, go up. It's the same verb. This is important to understand this. So Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, so he's a witness. And he cried. To cry, it doesn't mean he's weeping it. He's shouting. He cried out. My father, my father, this is symbolic. Elijah was not his dad. My father, my father, the chariot of Israel. Elisha is adding to our knowledge of what the chariot is. In the first verse, it doesn't say it's the chariot of Israel, but now he says the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. The first verse doesn't say there were horsemen. And here it's plural,

and the horsemen thereof, and it's horsemen. It's not Elijah. I don't know if he's running the chariot, if he's got the reins, but there are horsemen there. Then it says, and he, Elisha, saw him no more, and he took hold of his own clothes and he rent them in pieces. Means he tore them. This is Elijah in the whirlwind, where it says, My Father, My Father, I know I'm jumping forward to 2. King's 1314. Elisha was fallen sick of the sickness whereof he died. He died of a sickness.

And Joash, the King of Israel, came down unto him and wept over his face and said, Now notice what the King of Israel is saying. He's saying the same thing that Elisha said. He says, oh, my father, he throws in the vocative, the O. Oh, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horseman thereup. That became an important phrase to the ancient Israelites, I think, at least to the king. He's saying the same thing that Elish had said. The phrase, my father, my father, he's a father to him, a mentor, not necessarily a blood relative,

but it became, oh, captain, my captain type of a thing. Yes, not a bloodline, but an expression of great respect and love. Am I reaching too far here that Joash, that Elisha might have been picked up the same way a lie Joe was and that we don't get a big description of it? Or is it just a saying that was important to them? That's an excellent question. I'm thankful that you asked. I'm going to give a statement in a few moments where someone in our dissonation sees a chariot and he says the chariot of Elisha. You might be on to something. We don't know if the person who said that, the chariot of Elisha, Elisha is slipping, like I've done two or three times, and I say Elijah or Elisha, they sound similar,

or if you're on to something. I don't know. I wanted to point out two scriptural passages where it speaks of the Lord's chariots in this context. One is in Isaiah 66, verse 15. It says, for behold, the Lord will come with fire. So here's the reference to fire. With his chariots, here's reference to chariots, like a whirlwind. So here's a reference to whirlwind. Now, the Hebrew word for whirlwind here is different than the one we saw in Second Kings. Then it says to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire.

That's one reference. A second is found in Psalm 68 verse 17. The ESV is a better translation than the KJV. The ESV here fits better with the Hebrew. So I'm going to read that one. The chariots of God are twice 10,000. And that means there are 20,000 chariots of God. Then it says thousands upon thousands.

The Lord is among them. whatever these chariots are, he's among them. Then it says Sinai, which is a mountain, is now in the sanctuary. That doesn't make any sense. Sinai is now in the sanctuary. As you all know, I teach Hebrew Bible, BYU. So I'm going to render what I think the translation reads here for the last phrase. Instead of Sinai is now in the sanctuary, it's like this.

Sinai! exclamation mark. in the sanctuary. Remember Sinai, one of the earliest papers I ever wrote was Sinai as a temple. This connects it to Sinai and the sanctuary. That's as an exclamation. Sinai. And everyone think back about Sinai. The temple. The experience with God. There it is. In here. I love it. I'm going to jump to our dispensation. I've got three or four accounts. I'm going to try to keep them down to three or four. At some point, I want to write a paper on these. The first one is a remarkable letter. It's fairly unknown. It's found in the Joseph Smith papers. It's Joseph Smith's letter to the presidency at

It dates March 29th, 1838. So you can find this on the Joseph Smith papers. Joseph writes, I would just say to Brother Marks, we're speaking of William Marks, that I saw in a vision while on the road, that whereas he, Brother Marks, was closely pursued by an numerable concourse of enemies. And as they pressed upon him hard, as they were about to devout. him and had seemingly obtained some degree of advantage over him. I'm going to rephrase this. Brother Marks is being pursued by a huge concourse of enemies, and they're pressing him hard, and they're almost ready to devour him.

Now back to the quote, but about this time, a chariot of fire came, and near the place, and the angel of the Lord put forth his hand unto Brother Marks, and said unto him, quote, thou art my son, come here, end of quote. And immediately he is caught up in the chariot and rode away triumphantly out of their midst. Wow. Is that a good one?

Wow. You don't hear this one very much. Yeah, not at all. Here's the next one. This is January 22nd, 1836. It happened to be a Friday. This is also in the Joseph Smith papers. then, and then the end is struck out.

The twelve then proceeded to anoint and bless the Presidency of the Semte. Here's the sacred setting as anointing, and the twelve are anointing and blessing the Presidency of the Sembting, and sill upon their heads power and authority to anoint their brethren. The heavens were opened upon Elder Sylvester Smith, and he leaping up exclaimed the horsemen of Israel and the chariots thereof. I want to remind everyone of the astoundingly powerful hymn called the Spirit of God. How blessed the day when the lamb and the lion shall lie down together without any ire,

and Ephraim be crowned with His blessing in Zion, as Jesus descends with his chariots of fire. And then this powerful, we'll sing and will shout with his armies of heaven. Hosanna, Hebrew, Hosanna to God and the Lamb. I want everyone to remember when the Hosanna shout was sung at the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple under the direction of President Wilford Woodruff, The next day after the dedication, President Wilford Woodruff said there were armies of heaven there. When we shouted Hosanna, they joined in and they shouted with us.

The next one is President Joseph Smith, found in the history of the church. And this will apply to everyone who loves our temples and who goes to our temples. Elder Roger Orton saw a mighty angel riding upon a horse of fire. No mention of chariot here, but we're mentioning a horse of fire and a mighty angel, not any old angel, a mighty one, with a flaming sword in his hand, followed by five others, encircle the house, the Kirtland Temple, and protect the saints. Notice, everyone, protect the saints, even the Lord's anointed, those who attend the temple, from the power of Satan and a host of evil spirits which were striving to, disturb the saints. I love that passage. Six horses, six angels with six flaming swords, going around, encircling the Kirtland Temple, keeping Satan and his host out so the saints can worship. I want to tell you about Harrison Burgess. He attended the dedication of the

Kirtland Temple. It's March 30, 1836. Here's what he recorded, quote, The Spirit of God rested upon me in mighty power. I beheld the prophet Joseph and Hiram Smith and Roger Orton enveloped in the light. Joseph exclaimed aloud, I behold the Savior, the son of God. Hiram said, I behold the angels of heaven. Brother Orton exclaimed, I behold the chariots of Israel. Here's the reference to chariots. All who were in the room felt the power of God to that degree that many prophesied

and the power of God was made manifest, the remembrance of which will remain with me while I live upon the earth. One more that I'm going to share. This is an individual named Benjamin Brown. He was born in 1794. In a letter to his wife, I'm going to read the quote. He doesn't use complete sentences. I'm still quoting from Stephen Harper.

Some have seen the heavens opened and seen the Savior. Others have seen angels on the four corners of the house of the Lord withdrawn swords. and also stood thick on the ridge, Elisha with his chariot of fire, Elisha. Peter, James, and John in the highway cast up the ten tribes returning in chariots. As far as the eye could extend,

some saw the redemption of Zion. April 29th, an angel was seen over the elders, the heavens was opened, two saw the Savior, some saw chariots. End of quote. This is fantastic. Isn't it interesting, Hank and Don, that these visions are with Old Testament metaphors. I know that one of our favorite things we've been talking about this year is how much of the restoration is not just New Testament Church, but Old Testament priesthood and power. hear symbols, it chariots all over the place.

And the doctrine and covenants includes scores of references to the Old Testament and Old Testament prophets and individuals. Next episode, are we ready? Let's do it. Everyone please turn to Second Kings 2, Chapter 2 versus 19 through 22. This one is where Elisha hills the poisonous waters, and it's sets us up for the next episode about the bears. Let's read this one first, just the three or four verses.

Verse 19, and the men in the city said unto Elisha, behold, I pray thee. Now the Hebrew term for I pray thee literally means please. So some translations say, behold, please. I pray thee is a King Jamesism, and I love it because it's so polite, I pray thee. So behold, please. The situation of this city is pleasant as my Lord seeth. Lord is lowercase. We're not speaking of God as my Lord seeth, but the water is not. Now this is King James. In the Hebrew, it's the water is evil. It's Raim. Maim waters,

but waters in Hebrew is plural. In English, we can have the plural, but we do have the collective plural water, or we can say waters, but in Hebrew it's waters, rain, waters, evil waters. If you say, how can they be evil? Well, let's read on. Evil can also be bad. Then they say, and the ground barren. This is so fascinating.

there's what we call a Hebrew participle here, Mechalit, that literally means, and I'm citing from one of my dictionaries, cause an abortion. When we say the ground barren, we should be saying the ground and the waters cause an abortion, or to make childless. This is what the Hebrew says.

Apparently these waters are so bad, and they're calling them evil waters. Apparently, They're so bad that they're causing women to lose their fetus. People can read up on this. Read the scholars. Verse 20. And he said, Elijah, bring me a new cruise or a bowl and put salt in it.

This is really an unusual miracle because we're going to heal waters by putting salt in them. Put salt therein and they brought it to him, verse 21. and he went forth into the spring of waters and cast the salt in there and said, notice this formula, Koamar Adonai, thus saith the Lord. Here again, this is a Lord-centered text. This is the Lord's power through his prophet. I have healed these waters.

There shall not be from Thence any more death, Mavet, or Mesheckelit. It says barren land in the King James, but it's, waters that caused an abortion. Verse 22, so the waters were healed unto this day, whoever's writing, this text is saying, even to this day, according to the saying of Elijah, which he spoke. Now, before we discuss this a little more,

I want everyone to know I visited this spring many times. It's in Jericho. It's across the street from the tail, I mean 40 feet. It is still flowing after the 2,800 years when Elisha had uttered this. It's sweet, wonderful water. I have tasted it. I have drunk from it. And this is a testimony of the power of God's prophet.

So the tell is an artificial hill that's built on the city. Yeah. Yeah. Ancient Jericho is right across the street. there's actually a paved street between the ancient tell and the spring of waters. And the spring of waters, you can go there and taste it, and I recommend everyone do it. They don't cause a problem. They're no longer evil. Contrast this to the living waters, Maim Chaim Jehovah, the living waters, that brings life.

Well, I take my groups to Jericho for lunch, so I'll just say there's a drink with the meal, We're just going to go across the street. Go over there and take a drink. We're going to bring the scriptures to life. So you don't have to get in the water and cup your hands. You can just drink from the water fountain. That's fantastic. If you're thirsty, throw that in, tell your groups.

This is a bonus. There's probably a gift shop close too. Got always a gift shop. Always a gift shop. Yep. Can you comment on the salt? Why salt? Is it a symbol? It's a symbol.

Salt is a preservative. We're preserving waters, and here it's an opposite. Throw salt in water, and now it's good to drink. No. It makes it more of a miracle. Try this on the Great Salt Lake. It just gets saltier. We don't need to.

Yeah. Try it on the Great Salt Lake. Yep. So it's a symbol of the covenant. It's a preservative, but whatever it is, it healed the water sweet. And it reminds me of, aren't we looking forward to the waters of the dead seed being healed? Yes, Ezekiel 47. Exactly. It's kind of a paradox, isn't it? You lose your life, you'll gain it. Put salt in the water, you'll be able to drink it. And remember,

Christ taught year the salt, you have that image too. To remind everyone in Exodus 15, which is the Song of the Sea, it says that the Israelites, no water. They went three days in the wilderness. They came to Mara. This is Exodus 15. Mara. They could not drink the waters of Mara, for they were bitter. Therefore, they call it Mara. Mara, in Hebrew, means bitter. And the people murmured against Moses, what shall we drink? He prayed to the Lord. The Lord showed him a tree. He cast the tree into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There you have a later prophet, Elisha, somewhat following the pattern of Moses of healing bad waters. And turning them into living water, which is a great symbol.

I like that verse 23 mentions that he was going up by the way. I really appreciate the shout out there. That's in my translation too. I put your name there wherever I can. A true friend. Thank you. In honor of you. Can you tell me, I've never asked this question before, but is there a Hebrew equivalent of that phrase going up by the way?

Yes, there is. I can tell you exactly what it says in Hebrew if you want. I think I looked it up once, and it was something like 142 times, by the way, appears in the standard works. Yeah, it never says going up by dawn or by Perry or something. The Hebrew is the preposition bet, which is combined with the definite article the, the, and then the word Derek. Derek means way or path, in the path or in the way, translated by the way. So that's the literal Hebrew. John, that's what your dad used to call you.

That's my joke. I thought for years my name was in the way because my dad kept saying you're in the way when I followed him around. Don, I'm excited for you to talk about this next. story. Go up thou bald head. Go up thou bald head. Yes. The reaction to it is like, I mean, I've had people object to the whole Old Testament because of this stories like this. How can that be? We need some backstory on this one. I have a lot of information on this story. We'll read it and then we'll discuss it. I do want to say it's one of my favorite passages. It has some deep, powerful means. meanings in it. So let's read 2nd Kings 2. Start with verse 23. And he, Elisha, went up from

thence unto Bethel. Remember, they were down by Jericho, which is the lowest city on earth. Jericho is just north of the Dead Sea, which is the lowest place on earth, much lower than Death Valley in California. He went up from thence unto Bethel. It doesn't say whether he made it to Bethel or not, but Bethel is all the way uphill. In Bethel, it's a sacred, sacred place. Bethel in Hebrew means house of God. There's an L name. See the L there, Bethel.

Another theophoric name. He went up from thence unto Bethel, and as he was going up, by the way, there came forth little children. Clarify, they're not little children. In Hebrew is Neharem Ketanim, which is young men. So these are not eight-year-olds or six-year-olds. They came out of the city, which city? Probably Jericho. And I'll tell you why in a minute.

Elisha is traveling to Bethel, but he's just getting started. And they mocked him. I looked up the word in Hebrew. It does mean mock. They're mocking him, and they said unto him, go up. Now, remember when we talked about Elijah going up in a chariot of fire, this is the same Hebrew verb, go up. What they're doing, here's the overall story, these youth are challenging God's prophet, they challenge him to go up, not go up to Bethel, not get out of town, but go up like

Elijah. We want to see a manifestation. We want to see if you really have the same prophetic powers as Elijah, go up. And when they say bald head, it could mean that he's literally bald, but it could have the sense. I'm going to give you two meanings here. One is very ancient. It's from the Jewish Talmud. It's a commentary on this, and it says, they said to him, go up away from here, for you have made the place bald, bald for us. Meaning, we're out of work. I'm going to quote, they, the young men had previously earned their living by providing the city of Jericho with water. Remember, the spring has waters that caused death. They had been hauling water from the Jordan River to Jericho. Then the Talmud says, Elijah sweetened the city's own water. He healed the waters, and he

rendered their services unnecessary. That means he put them out of work. They were water carriers from the Jordan River to Jericho to give the inhabitants of Jericho water. But Elisha, the prophet, comes to town, he hills the waters, and now they're out of work. That's one meaning that you've made the place bald for us. When it says, go up bald, they're saying, you've made the place bald for us. That's the Talmud.

It's Sota 46B, colon 20, the Talmud. The other one I like a little better. When it says, go up, thou bald head. Go up, thou bald head. It's like they're not saying it twice. They might be chanting this for several minutes. They might be following him. When it says bald head again, does that mean he's bald?

Or is there a deeper meaning? Does it mean you that he literally had the mantle? We know he had the mantle, but are they saying, you really don't have the authority of the mantle? The mantle, remember, was a hairy mantle. They're challenging his prophethood. You're not the prophet like Elijah. Prove that you're the prophet, go up in a chariot of fire, thou that lacks the authority of the mantle. Those are two possibilities. A lot of us don't think that they're making fun of his bald head. And he turned back and looked on them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then it says there came forth two she-bearers out of the wood, out of the forest,

and tear 40 and two children. Now, where it says little children in verse 23, this is a different word for children. This really does mean children, and I'll comment on that. in just a minute. So 40 and two children of them, and he went from thence to Mount Carmel, which is near the coast. From thence he returned to Samaria. Why does the text first say young men, and then it says children. I'm going to look at that Talmudic reference. The Talmud is a Jewish text at dates. We don't know the exact dates, but third, fourth, fifth century AD. It says the Sages taught, meaning the rabbinic authorities, they were lads.

That means young men. That is already of age, but they disgrace themselves like young children. Whoever wrote this text first said they're young men, then he says, children, because they disgrace themselves for mocking the prophet. Does that kind of make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so two things.

first the go up was not just go up the mountainside not just go up from jericho it was go up like elijah did show us a sign yes yes prove that you are a prophet yes and the you've made the land bald in one of those not necessarily yes mocking the guy's hair or lack thereof right yep okay and then and then they were acting like children yes yes 40 and And to men who acted like children. Yes, I love it. That was so well said. Couple of other things on this account.

One is scholars think these are what kind of bears? Probably Syrian brown bear. Not to be compared with the brown bears from Alaska. Syrian brown bear. Did they have bears in antiquity? Yes. And the last sighting, according to one source of bears in the Holy Land, was 1215 AD. 1215.

Then they disappeared. Remember that there's a bear in one of the King David narratives. Amos, the prophet, talks about a bear and a lion and a snake. These are all items of interest regarding bears. Now, why two she-bearers? She-bearers protect their cubs. We can imagine this is not stated in the text that these mockers, maybe they came across some cubs, and then as part of the curse of the Lord,

it wasn't Elisha. Elisha said, I curse you, let she-bearers come and eat you or whatever. Elisha cursed them in the name of the Lord, and then the Lord. Lord decided. Yeah, the Lord's in charge, and the two she bears came out of the forest, probably to protect some cubs. When it says in verse 25, it went from thence to Mount Carmel, from thence he returned to Samaria, these are journeys of weeks. Journeys of days. Of days. That's a long ways. I've been to all those places. It's a pretty long ways to walk from Jericho to Carmel. I have too. So, yeah, we're talking days to get.

get to Mount Carmel, and then he would have come back to Samaria. Do you both know the etymology of Samaria? This is going to be a little joke, but I love it. When Abraham came to the promised land, and he looked around and he stood on a hillside, and he looked to the north and south in the cardinal directions, and saw how beautiful it was, and he said, some area. Boy, that's some area. Brigham said this is the place. Abraham said this is some area. Just thought you'd want to know where that Hebrew word came from. This is the kind of fun we like to have here, unfollow him.

Before we leave this conversation, I want to cite from Leviticus 26 versus 21 and 22. If ye walk contrary unto me, Jehovah, and will not hearken to me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. And then notice this, I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children. We think that these young men were probably from the tribes of Israel. They were in Jericho at this time. We don't think they were foreigners. This fulfilled the words of the Lord through Moses. I will send wild beasts among you. which shall rob you of your children and some of the children died. Wow.

Does that help a lot with the idea of bears tearing 42 children apart? Gives a lot of context. Yeah. Don't go up against the Lord's anointed. This matters to him. Yes. Am I okay, Don, in saying that's sign seeking to say go up? Yes.

That's the way I would view that. They were seeking a sign. and seeking proof that Elisha was the successor of Elijah, not some guy that's really upset about having a bald head. Interesting. These men acted like children going against the prophet. Jesus was pretty hard on people seeking a sign in the New Testament. The House of Israel, very likely it sounds like from Leviticus. You walk contrary to me, you will not hearken unto me.

The old send wild beasts among you. I got to write that footnote in there. That sounds unpleasant. Which shall rob you of your children or these men who act like children. Wow. Uh-huh. Don, the way you said, look, Elijah didn't choose this consequence. This was the Lord.

That's an important point right there. It's one thing if the prophet says, I curse you in the name of the Lord and let animals get you or whatever. the prophets usually leave the judgment up to the Lord, the category and the amount and so on. Don, we've had you here for quite a while. We've only looked at one chapter, and it has been an incredible chapter, by the way. I have nowhere else to write. I literally have filled up every spot on Second Kings 2. Can we move on to Chapter 3?

Chapter 3 has some fascinating, powerful passages, truths in it. Let's look at Elish's role in the three kings that battle the king of Moab. What a fascinating culture. I want to remind everyone when we read these passages about the she-bearers not to superimpose our culture on these ancient cultures. They were far different. Their understanding was different. The people, places, times, clothing, food, everything was different.

There were three kings, the king of Israel. and the king of Judah and the king of Edom. They went forth to battle against the fourth king, the king of Moab. The three kings went out. We're in chapter three of second kings, and they marched for seven days. In the Hebrew, it sounds like they're wandering around, maybe without a direct plan, but they didn't have sufficient water for their soldiers and animals. Start with verse 11. Jehovah Shafat.

Jehovah, that means Jehovah has judged. His name, there are a thousand names in the Old Testament, and most of them have meanings. Jehovah Shafat. Jehovah has judged. That's what his name means. Verse 11, remember, he was the king of Judah. Here's this famous, famous quote, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord that we may inquire of the Lord by Him? Now, both times it says, Lord, the underlying root is Jehovah.

I know if someone says, well, wait a second, that's not exactly what the Hebrew is. The Hebrew is Yodhye Vovhe. I get that. That's an ineffable name. We don't say that name out of respect to our friends who do not pronounce it. It's just so powerful. Anyway, where it says, Lord, and uppercase, there are 6,800 of these in the Hebrew Bible. This is Jehovah, and Jehovah is Jesus Christ.

So 6,800 of these in the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible is indeed Jesus Christ focused. In the name alone. Is there not here a prophet of the Lord that we may inquire of the Lord by Him, using the prophet as a mediator. And one of the king of Israel's servants answered and said, Here is Elisha, the son of Shafat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. That meant Elijah was mentoring him.

Verse 12, and Jehochefat said, The word of the Lord is with him. This is good for a king to recognize that the word of the Lord is with. with one of the Lord's prophets. The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. If you can imagine these three kings going to your place and knocking on the door, and hi, may we have a few words with you. What should we do when we battle against Moab?

What is the Lord's word concerning this? Verse 15, they're standing there. They probably have their generals and their visors and other officers with them. Maybe their bodyguards. Some of them had bodyguards, the kings, we know. They're waiting for Elisha to speak. And instead, verse 15, now bring me a minstrel. Minstrel is old English for a musician.

And it came to pass when the minstrel, the musician, played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him. him, Elisha. We have these powerful leaders from three countries standing there waiting to hear from God's prophet, and he says, call in a musician. And it might have taken a few minutes to get a musician or longer, and they're probably saying, we don't care about music. We want help winning this battle. Notice the result of the musician that the hand, to the Lord came upon Elisha. He was calling for a musician, in my opinion, and in my reading the text, to prepare him to prophesy. I want to testify to everyone, proper, appropriate, God-inspired music

does bring out the best in us. I have some go-to music I listen to, for example, if, few hi to Kolob. That one is go-to music. One of my dear friends, a young woman of about 40 passed away, maybe 42 years old. We all suffered. She had children and a wonderful husband and they were friends for years. Why is she suffering? Why did she pass away? Camille and I went to her funeral. the hymn that she had chosen ahead of time for all of us to sing as if you could hide to Kolob. Oh, so powerful in the setting of a funeral and in any setting. Thanks, Don.

The music invites revelation, it sounds like, in this story. Yes. I have an elder Richard G. Scott quotation. Good music, especially sacred music, makes spiritual things more understandable. It prepares emotions, for response to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. For me, my go-to is relatively new,

but I just love this hymn as it is well with my soul. Love it. I like that. They invited a minstrel. That's so interesting. I think our guests that are going to speak to us about the Psalms will like that. Yes. The Psalms were ancient hymns.

There are additional Psalms in the Dead Sea Scrolls that are not found in our sultan. Continuing, we're in the same text. Now, if you go to verse 16, and he, Elisha said, Thus saith the Lord. This is a very powerful, revelatory formula,

Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith Jehovah, who is Jesus Christ. Make this valley full of ditches. A little note on the word make. In the Hebrew, it uses a very old form. I don't want to confuse anyone with grammar, but it's called the infinitive absolute. It's an old form of biblical Hebrew. They quit using it in the Jewish

Mishnah, 200 BC to 200 AD. They don't use it in modern Hebrew. Here it serves as an imperative. You can use Hebrew to help date texts. Right now, I'm studying Isaiah to help date. because some people think the last half of Isaiah was written later. Not so. You use the Hebrew. Anyway, literally when he says, make this valley full of ditches. Now notice he says this valley, it's as if Elisha is now present with them. This valley.

If he was in Samaria or Mount Carmel, he wouldn't have said this valley. because that would be a different valley. So I think Elias is there. When he says, full of ditches, ditches gives the wrong idea. I am from Idaho, and they do use ditches for farming and irrigation. But here it's pools.

When it says valley, it should read wadi. That's not Hebrew, but it's a word meaning it has water during the rainy season in it. So October through March or November, through February. Literally, it's make this wadi full of pools, pools of water. So I want to point this out. Then go to verse 17, for thus saith the Lord, again, he's speaking by the power of the Lord. Ye shall not see wind, which will bring clouds, neither shall you see rain, yet the value will be filled with water. there will be so much water that you may drink, both ye and your cattle and your beast,

and this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord, meaning an easy thing. This is easy for him to do. Notice how he concludes, Elisha, he, the Lord, will deliver the Moabites into your hand. Not only do prophets give us the word of the Lord, but we always get a bonus from prophets. do this and this, you'll get the water, and by the way, you're going to win the battle. The Lord will deliver the mobites also into your hand. What a great bonus from this prophet of God. Now I have a postscript, an important post script. We have some examples of individuals in the Book of Mormon who go to God's prophet to seek counsel.

These three kings sought counsel from God's prophet in ancient Israel. In Alma 16, you have Chief Captain Zoram, verse 5, knowing that Alma was the high priest over the church, and having heard that he had the spirit of prophecy, he consults with Alma concerning the war. What should we do? What should we do? What should we do? This is Alma 16, 6 through 8. The second example is Mroni, and now we're in Alma 43, verses 23 and 24,

Mroni, also knowing of the prophecies of Alma, sent certain men unto him, desiring him that he should inquire of the Lord, whither the armies of the Nephite should go to defend themselves against enemy. Here we have three examples in Scripture of leaders who have gone to the Lord's prophet, to seek counsel. Oh, how I wish that since the times of the restoration in Joseph Smith, the prophet and sear, that emperors, kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, whoever leads, would consult with God's prophet regarding war. What should we do and counsel with the Lord through the prophet? What would the world be like if all emperors, kings, and presidents, since Joseph Smith,

would go to the prophet Joseph Smith, Brigham, Young, John Taylor, President Nelson, President Oaks, and say, there's this battle hand, will you inquire the Lord? What would our world be like under that circumstance? I love that you brought up the Alma 43 reference. Think of applying that to our day. Think of us looking at the prophet, where shall we go to defend ourselves against the enemy?

What is going to be attacked? One of the first things I thought of was the proclamation to the world on the family. Where will the enemy attack? There's a prophet saying this is going to be one of the front lines. It may be that the prophet of God will say this. Now, I'm just making this up. Everyone know that. Open up your doors to your country for our missionaries

and let the powerful young sisters and elders teach the Book of Mormon, that's the answer. And come into Christ, because the Book of Mormon is Christ-focused, one by one. Yeah, it won't be a big military or a new law. It will be hearts being changed one by one that will change the world. We should have sung a song, We three kings will go to the prophet. Because when you said Three Kings, I was like, oh, very Christmas. This is great, right?

I love it. Coming up in part two. I was on a boat, not a ship, in the fjords of Norway. I was with a group of professors of Hebrew, and we were taking a break from our conference. And the break was, let's go out on a boat, and it was organized beforehand. For the afternoon, in the fjords of Norway, we were discussing whether scripture, and in this case is Old Testament was fiction or nonfiction.