Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Isaiah 50-57 Part 1 • Dr. Jennifer Platt • Sept. 26 - Oct. 2

Episode Date: September 21, 2022

How can Isaiah help Latter-day Saints remember their covenants? Dr. Jennifer Brinkerhoff Platt examines the Servant Song in Isaiah and the power of remembering covenantsPlease rate and review the podcast!Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/old-testament/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the follow HIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producers, SponsorsDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-h

Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study. I'm Hank Smith, and I'm John, by the way, we love to learn, we love to laugh, we want to learn and laugh with you. As together, we follow him. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith. I am your host. I am here with my beautifully footed co-host John by the way John you have beautiful feet because

Isaiah says how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that bringeth good tidings. That's you John You are a beautifully footed person because you bring it good tidings. Honestly, say I've never been called that before, but I'm gelatin with my doctor's goals today. So I feel a beautiful feet. John, we are in another section of Isaiah and we needed an expert to join us. Who is here with us today? Well, this is fun, Hank, because years ago, we worked on a book with a bunch of friends this suit up book in the book in 2013 for preparing for a mission. And Jennifer joined us on this book. We're with Dr. Jennifer Brinkerhoff,

Platte. Let me just share a little bit of information with our listeners about her. She earned a PhD from Arizona State University and the educational psychology, focusing on lifespan developmental psychology of women in ritual contexts. Her passion is to learn and live the gospel of Jesus Christ from the ground up, has taken her around the world from rural villages of Ethiopia to the floors of primary classrooms. Her happy place is in the temple. That's a that's a great happy place. She was a seminary in the institute, Structure for 10 years prior to joining the religious education faculty at BYU. And now teaches at BYU Idaho. She's an author and public speaker. She's presenter for BYU women's conference education week. She currently serves as the relief society president

in her stake. With 50 years worth of collective dating experience, she and her husband, Jed met and married at the age of 41. They love life and Rex Brigadahoe. They have an eight year old daughter and a six year old son. You can follow Jennifer. She has a blog called Connecting with Christ. And one of her more recent books, Living Your Covenants, Every Day.

She's spoken at BYU Easter conference. All of those you can find online. But we're really happy to see you again, Jennifer. Welcome. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks. It is so good to see you guys. It's fun to be together. Yeah, we're grateful you're here. And I would be remiss if I didn't do a shout-out to my sister Jennifer Johnson, a doors Jennifer Bringer, Dr. Platt, just a doorsher. And I do as well. For my sister, it's this short of idolatry, a little bit too much. So Jennifer, hello from Jennifer. And Jennifer, if you're out there listening, I did my due diligence and said, hi to your favorite person.

She did tell me to make sure to tell you that she is my favorite person too over the two of you. So. Yeah, okay. I understand. I have beautiful feet, but other than that, it's not a whole lot though.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Jennifer, we are in the book of Isaiah and so many members of the church when they hear Isaiah they think oh no I can't do it. So we're counting on you to walk us through these chapters Isaiah 50 through 57 and to show us how they really can shine for readers. I think that's important. One of my gifts is to be ordinary and to be pretty simple and clear. And I hope that we do that today. One thing that I want to bring our viewers attention to is the timing. The timing of when we are studying, come follow me. We're in the week prior to general conference.

And for us to think about that, my invitation would be to use Isaiah 50 through 57 as a primer and a preparation, that this is really a chance to have a direct experience with Jesus Christ to prepare us for general conference. In fact, I loved the way that President Nelson in his last talk, he pled with us, he's stunning in the way he pleads with us to give God a fair share of our time. And he promised that as we do we would see positive spiritual momentum. And so I would think that if nothing else, let's invite Isaiah to tutor us, and to help us to be prepared to receive his living profit, and to be prepared for Jesus Christ. I love it. What a great intro. What do you usually tell your students before they study Isaiah?

Is there any background? Is there anything that you're like, here's what you need to know before you read Isaiah chapters? Do you ever do that? Or should we just jump right in? No, you bet. With the Isaiah chapters, one is to take it slow. The sweetness of Isaiah is in the slow. And so to not feel frustrated by the number of chapters and to be satisfied to just take a couple of verses, so take it slow, read it out loud. And so that's where the family study becomes so powerful and to use the Book of Mormon. Our chapters today are in the Book of Mormon and the greatest commentary on Isaiah is in the Book of Mormon. We've got a great set up here.

Wanna go to 50, you wanna start in 51? Actually, can I take a minute? I wanna talk a minute about this conference prep. I've had this really sweet thought that is I've been going through Isaiah 50 through 57 and preparing for general conference that I'm seeing these really powerful connections that what we're studying today has to do with the gathering of Israel. It's very much about the gathering of Israel and that's President Nelson's focus. It's every prophet's focus. Go back a little bit to April 2017 and President Monson's last talk.

He invited the church to read the Book of Mormon. He said, I want you to study and ponder the Book of Mormon every day. And as we do so, we will be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome down fear, and to receive heaven's help in our lives. Now, six months later in the October General Conference, President Nelson and the President of the quorum reported on his experience of reading the Book of Mormon. Here's what President Nelson said in the talk was called the Book of Mormon. What would your life be like without it? Since President Monson's challenge six months ago, I've tried to follow his council. Among

other things, I've made lists of what the book of Mormon is, what it affirms, what it refutes, what it fulfills, what it clarifies, and what it reveals. As we're studying Isaiah, that's exactly what the Book of Mormon does. Then he goes on, looking at the Book of Mormon through these lenses has been an insightful and inspiring exercise. I recommend it to each of you. Well, it wasn't, but a few months later, that President Nelson's now the prophet and President of the Church, he's sitting at the Salt Lake Temple, President of the Church, he's sitting at the Salt Lake Temple pleading with us to get on the covenant path and to stay. Now we've all been pretty thrilled to watch what we might call changes, but they're actually

just clarifications of truths that we find in the Book of Mormon. I've been paying attention to this over these years and saying, I wonder if President Nelson's experience with the Book of Mormon was his preparation to be the President, ministering the name of the Church, worship in the home. So many things that we're emphasizing and focusing on now are found in the Book of Mormon. So my point is, if I can piece this together, one, even the prophet is benefiting from general conference and obeying the prophet. Here's President Nelson obeying President Monson. Two, the book of Mormon is going to give us so much clarity

that there's going to be this focus and direct truth that's going to bring us to Jesus Christ like no other thing. And so when we're studying Isaiah, I would say even, I'm old school, I use paper scriptures still. Go into the scriptures and before even start, mark every book of Mormon reference. Go to the chapter heading of chapter 50 and you're going to see that this is in the Book of Mormon. This is Jacob. And so, write Jacob in there. Get into Isaiah 53 and you're going to see Moses, I have 14,

mark it and say, this is a benedite. And then you get to the next and here's Jesus himself. That he's going to give that to us in Isaiah 54, that here's Jesus himself. So we can take the Book of Mormon inside by side, say, let's study this, let's see what they have to teach us and how they're going to be the very best commentary. There's just no better commentary than the Book of Mormon. I love that we have a profit commenting on a profit. So when a Benadai quotes Isaiah 53, and we'll talk about this, and then afterwards gives this additional insight.

It's like, oh, how wonderful is this to have a Benadai comment on that? But I want to go back to what you said about President Nelson because he talked about, if I remember right, they even showed a picture of President Nelson that looked like out on a patio just with his book of Mormon out and his yellow pad and everything. And I thought, look at that. Here is President Nelson listening to President Nelson and just doing it literally and it kind of made me feel like, I need to take that as seriously.

Like you just said, here's President Nelson listening to President Monson. I'm going to do it. The prophet just said this and what I pointed out to my students that talk, October 2017, is that if you look in the conference edition of the ensign or online at that talk, at the end, we have, it just says President Nelson's Book of Mormon lists. And they're all there, bullet points. The Book of Mormon confirms, and then he has these items.

The Book of Mormon refutes, and then he has a bunch of items. Boy, go find that, because it wasn't part of the talk, but it's in the conference issue. And you can see the Book of Mormon confirms, refutes, reveals new things, clarifies, and those bullet points are really helpful to have President Nelson comment on. This is why we've got the Book of Mormon treasure at the end of that talk.

You have to go to the ensign or online to find it. It's now called the Leah Honour, but then it was the ensign. We can link that in our show notes, I bet, John. Follow him.co. But I bet we could find a link to that so it could be easy for people to find. I use that to begin my religion to 75 class. Here's President Nelson saying, what are the doctrines and teachings of the book more? And here's a bunch of really concise bullet points about it.

Yeah. The other thing I thought Jennifer is when the Savior comes to the Nephites that he could say of course and he quotes a full chapter of Isaiah and it's Isaiah 54. So as much as we love Isaiah 53 with Abinadi just as much we should love Isaiah 54 and what the Savior has to say about it and why he would even quote it to them. These chapters come alive again in this recent study, has been in the latter days. That Nephi tells us that, he invites us that, that he says these are gonna be plain unto all those

that are filled with the spirit of prophecy, and then he keeps telling us how much he loves plainness. And so again, the Book of Mormon is gonna be that commentary to help us to make Isaiah a planer. The other thing, this is 2nd Nephi 25, 8 from Nephi, he tells us that we need to know that there are worth into the children of men and he that supposes that they're not and confine the words unto my own people. For I know that they will be of great worth unto them in the last days. for I know that they will be of great worth unto them in the last days. For in that day, shall they understand them, wherefore for their good I have written them.

And so as much as we want to know the context of Isaiah and his time, we need to know our context. And to be able to say, here we are in the latter days, this is it. And what am I doing to fulfill these prophecies? What am I doing to be a big player in this gathering that's being taught about here? Do I know what we're being invited to do? And am I getting really clear in the way I'm living my life? That's fantastic.

All right, Jen, how do you want to jump into Isaiah 50? I'm guessing you want to start in the book of Mormon. Yes, I do. I want to invite the Holy Ghost to help us and administer to us that we can live in the gift of prophecy. And that I would hope every one of us right now is pleading for his influence. I would also hope that we would desire a straightforward experience

with Jesus Christ today. That we're going to have that chance. Elder Holland said this. Do you remember this? He said, my desire today is for all of us, experience with Jesus Christ today. That we're going to have that chance. Elder Holland said this, do you remember this? He said, my desire today is for all of us, not just those who are poor in spirit, but all of us to have more straightforward personal experiences with the Savior. Sometimes we seek heaven to obliquely, focusing on programs or history or the experience of others. Those are important, but not as important as personal experience, true discipleship

and the strength that comes from experience firsthand, the majesty of his touch. That's what Isaiah is bringing to us today. Jesus, straight forward. And so I just want to be so clear that that's our objective is him. And that the Holy Ghost will minister to us. He's going to deliver that to our hearts. We'll each recognize it in our own unique ways. Be still in that and to know that we are experiencing the Savior and His work. So let's go backward. I know last week we studied Isaiah 49, but we need to tack these chapters in to Isaiah 49. It can't just pick up an isolation.

We've got to find Jesus and let's begin there. In fact, even Isaiah 48, the first chapter so again, using this Book of Mormon theme, then we'll go back there. And this is Isaiah 48 is, we're getting Judas apostasy. And then we're gonna get into chapter 49, which is gonna establish the scattering and gathering. Monty Neiman, he said that chapter 49 is one of the most important chapters in the whole book of Isaiah. Why? Because it's going to foretell the mission of the Latter-day Saints and the destiny of the land of America. This is

where we're going to come in on the scene with the restoration. Nephi is going to commentate on Isaiah 49. We'll tack it on. They'll free too. Yeah. So Nephi, when he talks about Isaiah, he calls him the prophet, right? And again, I mean, we talk about a lot of times for Nephi that Isaiah was for him like Joseph Smith is to us and that there's this kinship connection. Let's look at first Nephi 22. Well, one of you read us that 22, 15 through 17. And this is going to give us a segue between the scattering and the chapters we're about to jump into.

First Nephi, 22, 15 through 17. All right, John, you're up. For behold, saith the prophet, the time come of speedily that Satan shall have no more power or the hearts of the children of men, for the day soon comeeth that all the proud, and they that do wickedly, shall be as stubble, and the day comeeth that they must be burned, for the time soon comeeth that the fullness of the wrath of God shall be poured out upon

all the children of men, for he will not suffer that the wicked shall destroy the righteous. Wherefore, he will preserve the righteous by his power, even if it so be that the fullness of his wrath must come, and the righteous be preserved even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire. Wherefore, the righteous need not fear, for thus sayeth the prophet, they shall be saved, even if it so be as by fire. Yeah, this establishment, Nephice, giving us that we're going to be in this battle, and here we are right now in the latter days But there is going to be salvation. We're going to be saved

So with this framework with this background of saying okay, we've got scattered Israel and we're going to need something to piece this together Jesus we need Jesus and then Jacob's going to come on the scene. I want to jump to second Nephi 6. We see Lee Heiz family fractured. He's died and the family's divided. And really, that's such a great metaphor for understanding the scattering and the gathering that God's family's fractured. And that only through Jesus Christ

can the family be brought back together and redeemed. So Jacob is now appointed as a prophet, as a teacher, and he says in 2 Nephys 6 verse 3 that he's anxious, he's worried about us, and he's desired for the welfare of our souls. And so he says, this is the middle of 2 Nephys 6 3, I've exhorted you with all diligence, and I've taught you the words of my father. And I've spoken unto you concerning all things which are written from the creation of the world. This is such a good bookend for what he's going to do in second Nephi 9,

which is the other side of the Isaiah chapters that he's using to be able to see we've got to get a big picture of the plan and All that the mortal experience is about so he's taking him back to creation now Behold I would speak unto you. This is verse four concerning things which are in which are to come Wherefore I will read you the words of Isaiah and They are the words which my brother has desired that I should speak unto you. Do you see this, President Monson, President Nelson, Jacob and Nephi, that there's this obedience,

there's this brotherhood that I wanna do what I've been asked to do. They are the words which my brother has desired that I should speak unto you. And I speak unto you for your sakes that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God. Wouldn't that be a good conference question? What do I need to learn? And how can I better glorify the name of God? And now the words which I shall read verse five,

are they which Isaiah speak concerning all the house of Israel. Wherefore, they may be likened unto you for ye are of the house of Israel. And there are many things which have been spoken by Isaiah, which may be likened unto you because ye are of the house of Israel. What strikes you guys in there? Like when you see that and think, okay, here we are going in Isaiah, anything catch your attention? Verse 23, I think before he goes into those first two Isaiah chapters. This one always makes me laugh when Jacob stands up and says, I got an assignment from my

brother and I can just hear the audience going, let us guess, you're going to speak on Isaiah because if Nephi gets a chance that's who he's going to use. And now he's he's passed that onto his brother. If you get a chance to talk to the people, use Isaiah, talk to them about Isaiah. It's so interesting to me that they're so excited about it. And yet for modern day Israel for some members of the church, including me sometimes, I'm like, really? Did you have anything else that you could use? So when Jacob starts out, he says, these are the words. Where does he go? He goes, thus say at the Lord God, behold, I will list up my hand to the Gentiles. Where is that then? Does Jacob start in 49, 22? Yeah, and then he's going to give us a little more context. And I think even understanding we're going to hear this a lot

a year of the House of Israel, I don't know what that means to all each of us. But I think this is a good chance to say, I need to go get out my patriarchal blessing. And remember that I have a declaration of lineage there and that that lineage affirms that I am of the house of Israel and that there are associated gifts and blessings and warning stated there to show me how to do the work of the gathering. And to remember that, there's another thing Jacob's going to do here that matters.

Verse 10, I think, is a very succinct definition of scattering, and it's hardening hearts and stiffening necks. And so it doesn't have to be physical. It's very much about the condition of my heart and where I'm at. And then in 11, that he tells us the gathering is when we come to the knowledge of the Redeemer, we'll be gathered together again to the lands of our inheritance. And so knowledge of Christ, knowing Christ, and we've got to really articulate what does knowledge mean, to be able to say, okay, I want to be gathered, okay, I need to know Him.

And I think that that connotes an intimacy, a closeness, a familiarity. And again, this really tees up where we're going with these Isaiah chapters. Yeah, so he only quotes a couple of verses there and then he goes on to give a commentary about what he's just read. So that testifies to what you told us before,

which is, if you want to understand Isaiah, read the book of Mormon. Yeah, yeah, if you want to understand Isaiah, read the book of Mormon. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. The best commentary. And Jacob, to me, is a good old friend. He's one when I need a good doctrinal boost. He's one that I need to sit with Jacob that he gets anxiety even. And I don't know that he would describe it the way that I might describe it. But he's familiar. He's a friend. And so his commentary is clear and helpful in understanding where to go with this.

Yeah, that's interesting because he quotes the Isaiah section that the Lord will lift up a standard and that kings shall be the nursing fathers and queen shall be the nursing mothers, their faces towards the earth, the lick up the dust of thy feet and now Jacob says Let me talk somewhat about those two verses. I just showed you there's going to be a Scattering it we're living it that seems to be what he's saying. We are living this scattering, but one day They'll be there will be a gathering that's verse 11 I see that one day there will be a gathering He's he's getting that from Isaiah there will be a gathering. He's

getting that from Isaiah. Right. And that the gathering is knowing Christ. But it's not enough to know him. And I think that a lot of times we want there to be a social Jesus where we need to know a doctrinal Jesus, knowing him is knowing, yes, his love, but also his law. And that will include entering into covenants and living covenants. So then Jacob makes that commentary and then he jumps to quoting Isaiah 50. So he has quoted from 49 just a little bit and then he's like, now let me go to 50. This is where you can have some fun and set the book of Mormon and the King James version side by side. I love the book that Sean Hopkins and Ann Madsen did where they harmonized Isaiah. That's such a cool tool to

be able to say, what does it look like from the Dead Sea Scrolls, just Smith translation, the Book of Mormon, what else did they use in their, the new inspired version? I think for our sake, we'll just go into the Bible because it's what we're doing with Come Follow Me. What we're going to see out the gate with chapter 50. Well, first, I think we pay attention to the chapter headings. Isaiah is going to speak as the Messiah, and there's going to be some shifts in the way Isaiah uses the language of the Savior, but this time he's going to be as we're going to get a servant song in here. Let's see. We've had a few others, haven't we?

So we'll have a servant song in here and some beautiful metaphors. And for me, I pay a lot of attention to anything that has to do with family. My work, my research, my teaching is focused on the family proclamation. And so anytime I see anything, any sort of metaphor about the family, you've got my attention. Again, this idea that we're God's family and we're fractured and he wants us back.

And that's the mortal state and condition, salvation and exaltation is our work. We do it through the gathering, through helping people to come to know Jesus Christ. So what's the first thing that we see? Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement? Whom have I put away? Or which of my creditors is to whom I have sold you?

So a divorced woman is a metaphor. It's not exactly what Isaiah is trying to say here is I'm going to talk to you about one single divorced woman, though the Lord cares about one single divorced mother. He's saying Israel scattered. I use this little metaphor or this little couplet in my teaching. I start my first day of the family proclamation class and say welcome to Godhood 101. God wants us back. He wants to exalt us. Jesus is the way through salvation and that the family is the context. And when we see it that way, that's gathering and we're all in process with this class. It can come sometimes to be painful. The study

of the family can be hard. But when we see this big picture that it's the study of God's family and belonging there, anyway, my point is pay attention to these metaphors and maybe they won't interest you the way they do me, but I really love seeing what God does with people that might be marginalized, lonely, isolated, or feeling like they may not fit or belong. It sounds to me like he's saying in Isaiah 50 verse 1, I don't remember me getting rid of you. I don't remember me kicking you out. It's almost sarcastic. When was it that I kicked you out? When was it that I sold you? I knocked on the door. Nobody answered, right? I tried to friend you on Facebook. No one friended me back.

What happened to these like, oh wait, now I remember Well, and he's saying my covenant is still intact. Yeah, I'm still here, right? My covenant is still intact and it always will be we have agency and we get to choose we get to decide where we stand with God and if we will We get to decide where we stand with God and if we will connect So the idea is I think in chapter 50 verse 1 isn't it Jen? I Want to be connected you you chose otherwise For your iniquities you sold yourselves for your transgressions is your mother put away I didn't divorce you. I had never left the covenant you left the covenant

Well, look at the questions in verse two that the power of asking the question. You think how many times how many of us are drawn to Alma five because we love the the questions and we love this inquiry. So break it down that way. Wherefore when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Those questions are good. What do you say to those? I'm pretty sure you're pretty good at this. And even reminds them about the drying up of the Red Sea in the Jordan River. You say, can anybody remember those big moments when I when I had you walk through the the Red Sea or across the Jordan Rivers? Anybody remembering that?

The covenant is always intact. He wants us back. It's the work of exaltation and that he's very interested in us becoming gods. In fact, have you guys learned that phrase, Lord God is gonna show up. Do you see it there? If you see it in verse four, five, seven, nine. When I first heard or read, Don Perry, he wrote an article called Hebrew School. It's in the BYU magazine the summer of 2013. I wanna read this to you because this idea then of saying, look, the covenant's still intact.

I want you back. But then he's gonna speak as always the Messiah. Lord God, this is Don Perry, is Hebrew, Yahweh, Elohim, or Jehovah, Elohim. The M, I am at the end of Elohim, indicates a plural word. So words like cherubum, syrufum, yurrem, thumum. Elohim literally means gods. Some non-LDS biblical scholars maintain that Jehovah originates from the Hebrew to be verb. Thus, Jehovah Elohim, some scholars assert, may be translated, he will cause to be Elohim, meaning he will cause gods to be. For Latter-day Saints this literal translation of Lord God is significant because of our doctrine. The translation signifies that the Lord is a creator of gods or the idea that females and males in mortality

can become like God in eternity. Lord God has found hundreds of times in the Old Testament. He will cause God's to be. That's fantastic, yeah. Isn't that so cool? And that when you think about that, that in this context, it's through covenants. It's this idea that, yeah, I want to be gathered. Every single day, I need to be regathered. I need to regroup and say, where am I? I'm all in in covenant living. And that I want to become a God. He that I want to become a God. He will cause me to become a God. So, let's play with that for a minute using those verses. Again, I don't know if you see him there for,

for through nine is where you see him. So, what do you see about this Lord God and he stand out there? I almost hear Isaiah saying, he wakes me up every morning to teach me. This God who can make gods has given me the tongue of the learned. He said that I should know how to speak a word in season. He wakes morning by morning. He wakes my ear to hear as the learned. He wakes me up every morning to teach me. Isn't that fun? Well, and that coming and gathering, if we use the definition that we've just articulated to come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, and I've got to be learned, there needs to be continuous learning of him in order to become like him.

Jennifer, sometimes we refer and you use this phrase a servant song. Can you kind of explain that more? Because we see them throughout Isaiah. And that might be new to some of our listeners. It was to me when I first started studying Isaiah, hearing scholars call it a servant song. My understanding of the servant song is that he's speaking as though he's Jesus. Do you know what I think of? Is a talk that Elder Holland gave?

In convenient Messiah. The idea of the servant song is that here's this poem or this expression of my service. Am I getting that right? Is that your understanding? Yeah, I remember the first time I heard that, I thought, what's a servant song? And then I thought, okay, songs in the Old Testament,

like a song, he's being poetic, he's describing something. But it's about this servant. And because we have this chapter heading, Isaiah speaks as the Messiah, we know who the servant is. And sometimes because it's Isaiah, he may be being dualistic and talking about the house of Israel is the servant, all of us covenant Israel is the servant, other times it's the Savior is the servant, or maybe both because he's Isaiah. So I just thought that our listeners might now, what's a servant song might want to know? I think the important thing with that again if we're seeking application is to see that it is in the service that we become. That there is, and we're gonna say it in Isaiah 53,

to be broken, to be malable, to be taken to the dust, and that he'll exalt and lift, but that it's in his work. And one of the things that's been really stunning to me in this study is the number of times the Holy Ghost's been really stunning to me in this study is the number of times the Holy Ghost has just nudged me and said, do you see your covenants in here? Even in this with the Lord God, like Hank, you're talking about the work we need to do to learn, but even in verse 5, God, he's opened my ears and I was not rebellious. I gave my back to the smiders.

It's a surrendering. It's the use of agency that so often we go in a negative mindset instead of the power within us because we are divine, because we have this potential to be able to own up to that greatness. He will help me in verse 7 and in verse 9. He will obey if in verse 10, who is among you that fear the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light. I get to choose that. In contrast to verse 11, to Kindle a fire that compass yourself about with sparks and walk in the light of your fire. Yeah, you try to do this yourself. It's not going to work. You try to walk in the

light of your own fire. You're gonna lie down in sorrow. Chapter 50, I love how he gets stronger and stronger. He starts to see if the Lord is with me, who's going to confound me? Verse 8, he is near that justifiath me. God is near. Who will contend with me? Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.

I love Isaiah's confidence. Once he sees, I've got the Lord God on my side. I'm going to win. I'm going to be redeemed. I'm going to be humble. I'll turn my back to the smiders. But in the end, I'm going to win because I'm going to be redeemed. I'm going to be humble. I'll turn my back to the smiders, but in the end, I'm going to win because I know who I have on my side. That seems to me to be the message of chapter 50, their excitement builds. Well, by virtue of covenant. And we're going to

get here with talking about the Sabbath when we get into chapter 56, but this idea, I think all the time, when do we start preparing for the sacrament? The moment it finished, the moment we finished, we're preparing again for that next time to get to renew and remember and that thinking about him, that blessing to always have his spirit, if we will remember him, that's to be taken at face value. And that power is every one of ours, if we'll claim it, to be able to be strong like that. Now, Jennifer, I don't know if there's a natural chapter heading here. Sometimes those chapter headings, they get in the way. Because it, it goes right to follow. He says, you, you're walking in your own light. that's chapter 50, verse 11,

and he says instead of doing that, it seems to me in 51, verse 1, look back to the original covenant, look back to Abraham and Sarah. Don't walk in the light of your own fire, come get into the fire of the covenant. That's right. And to go back to Abraham, what do we know about the Abrahamic covenant? And what does that mean to us to have the blessings of posterity, to the power of the priesthood in our lives, the promises that are available to us by virtue of the covenant living? This is really where family history comes in that, yes, knowing that we belong to Abraham,

go back to your patriarchal blessing I'll say it again and see that blessing of belonging that there is a declaration of lineage that says you are the seat of Abraham Like you're saying in verse two of chapter 51 Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bear you for I called him alone and blessed him and increased him and the same blessing as ours to be increased when I know my generations when I know the names this is one of the things I've done is I've taken five generations of grandparents and great grandparents and so forth and I've got them all on my calendar on my phone so that I know when their birthdays are,

and I know when their anniversaries are, and then I'll get the pop up, and that's the reminder today's the day to especially study that person, to know them, to connect to who I am and my lineage, same as true with Abraham, to connect back and to know Abraham. Yeah, so instead of walking in the light of my own fire, why don't I

walk in the light of the fire the Lord is provided. He reminds them of the promises he gave to Abraham in like verse three, for the Lord shall comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places. He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. What can the world offer? What can the light of your fire from 50 verse 11 offer that compares to 51-3? What the Lord has to offer? Right and in fact look at those words, me and my and I, verses four through 16. I'd say we go circle and highlight those words, me, my, to be able to see that Hank is so sweet. Here's what he offers. And harken unto me, my people verse four, give ear unto me, O my nation for a law shall proceed from me and to learn to love that law to cherish and live God's law

My righteousness is near in verse 5 my salvation is gone forth and on it goes Wait upon me and on mine arm shall they trust? In the middle of verse 6, but my salvation shall be forever and my righteousness shall not be abolished. You get to choose, right? Walk with me and this is all yours. Walk on your own. Pfft. Yeah, walk with the light of your own fire.

Give it a try. He calls it sparks. Walk with your own sparks if you want them. But look what the Lord offers. And sparks are so brief, they have so little illumination and then they're gone. And the light of God is much more constant. I like the verse one, is maybe an Isaiah way of saying, you're a chip off the old block. But you know what I love about verse two here is, the Abrahamic covenant doesn't happen without Sarah. And I love that he says,

look on the Abraham, your father and unto Sarah, that bury you. I love that this Abrahamic covenant, maybe we could call it Abraham and slash Sarah covenant. Just I love that he mentions, this doesn't happen without Sarah. And we know their story, and we know that he was promised

this posterity, and then Sarah for a long time didn't have children. And so I love that he mentions both of them there. I think that's significant. Yeah. Hey, it carries on that family metaphor that I love so much that in such a contrast of the bill of divorcement of your mother, here's an intact family, but that it didn't come easy for them, that there was time and work. And I do think sometimes we forget the purpose of a fallen state that were meant to struggle. Were meant to become gods, and that there's going to be a lot of work

to get there. Hank, tell us about verse seven. I like what you said there. When you look to Abraham and Sarah, you don't look to perfection. They struggled. Yeah, it wasn't an easy thing. They were blessed tremendously, but they were blessed through their struggling. It's almost as if he's saying, can you go back and read Genesis and really learn, don't forget their story. And then I just love where he says in verse seven, hearken to me. Harken to me.

What are you looking? Other places. Harken to me. I can give you what you want. Ye that no righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law, right? You know it, I know it. Stop worrying about what other people think.

Fear ye not, the reproach of men need to be afraid of their revilings, that that's gonna go away. But put on the strength of the Lord. This does seem like a big pep talk. And huge reminder, a huge reminder of what it means to be a covenant people. I've gotta check myself all the time

that there's this constant worry about the horizontal influences instead of going vertical, and that vertical connection that gets in my heart that your law is here and that I have to slow down and be still and really receive that power instead of the distraction all around me. Look vertical don't look horizontal that's verse seven. Yeah go vertical on this and that's the challenge that I think, present-monson said that once, it's better to look up. Isn't that right?

Wasn't it present-monson? It's better to look up. You're gonna note, while we're lifting up our eyes, was one of them, in fact, then we're gonna get awake, awake a couple of times. It's gonna come up three times, 917 and 521. Jen, does that tell you Lehigh read idea totally. I think so.

Second, if I won, that's Lehigh's message to Lehman and Lemuel awake awake. Hank, thank you for mentioning Lehigh. This idea of waking up all of these verses that say awake are for people who are already awake physically. And it's a different kind of wake up to remember the words of President Bezrit Havte Benson who said, we must be shaken and awakened from a spiritual snooze. And I love the metaphor of a snooze button. I'm going to get my act together as soon as school's out, as soon as this, as soon as as this and we reach over and hit our spiritual snooze button. And this is this awake is your spirit, you're awake physically because you're

hearing me because you're reading these words. But to wake up spiritually to what's happening and see that's what every general conference I feel like we're being invited again wake up. Your shake is going to come in 52, too. Shake thyself from the dust arise and sit down. I wonder what it would look like for us to really, really live our covenants, that this idea awake and awake and put on strength, that we live so beneath our privilege as covenant members of the Church of Jesus Christ. And there's such power that we have to harness and claim and building Zion.

Zion's going to come up. You know, I think a lot of times we talk about Zion and we just can't wait for Jesus to come and clean this mess up. Forgetting that we've got work to do in building and establishing that. And then he's gonna come and help and be a part of it. But he's already very much present in our lives. He makes this beautiful analogy in 51.9. Again, referring to their history, he says, Art thou not it that have cut Rayhab and wounded the dragon.

If you just know that that's Egypt and Pharaoh, right? So he's arching back to the Red Sea there. Arthal, not it, which had dried the sea, the waters of the great deep. So not only has he now reminded them of Abraham and Sarah, he's now reminding them of Moses and crossing the Red Sea and how he made the way. Do you remember that? Remember how I made the way? I can do that again. Verse 11, the Redeemed of the Lord shall return. He kind of points to this, I'll do it for you too. I'll make a way. Yeah. And joy, do you see the joy that over and over we get this joy? And that verse you were just in, verse 11, there's joy.

It is to be found. And it's attainable. Anything else in there? Verse 16, again, this book end, thou art my people. These chapters so far have been a pep talk reminder, get back on the covenant path. It sounds like a present Nelson talk. If you're off the path, get back on. Remember how good God has been in the past? Get back on that path. Do God has been in the past. Get back on that path.

Do you ever wonder about the covenant path? I love that visual. I love the language of it. Sometimes I hear people talking about it though and they describe an ordinance path. We want to delineate it, make it a checklist. And so, okay, I was baptized. I received the Holy Ghost, the priest showed in the temple

and different things that the reality of the covenant path is that it's work. And in a lot of ways, we're cleaning up a path. I mean, can you imagine, sometimes you see people on the side of the road with their vests on and they're cleaning up the road? The covenant path is more about engagement. It's about living the covenants. It's about practicing and becoming than it is about a delineated process.

And there's a messiness in that because it necessitates engagement with other people. I like that, Jen. Tell me more, what is it? Well, I just like that. The covenant path is not a checklist of ordinances. It's living those ordinances. I never thought of that idea of, you know, I've got my orange vest on and I'm cleaning up the way

because I've made promises. I like that President Nelson has talked about the happiness we have isn't so much the circumstances of our lives as it is the focus of our lives. And I think the focus of our lives can be the covenant path. We're. And I think the focus of our lives can be the covenant path. We're focused on the Savior being where we're supposed to be trying to live the gospel repenting every day. And I love the idea that a path, there's a lot of off-ramps, there's a lot of temptations. But thankfully, because of Lord, there's a lot of on-ramps too. And if you're not on the covenant path or feel that you are, there's on-ramps come back on. And I like what you're not on the covenant path or feel that you are there's on ramps come come back on and I like what you're saying Jennifer that we don't want to make it a checklist or an ordinance thing

But it's that mindset that Martin Harris was told learn of me And listen to my words walk in the meekness of my spirit and then this wonderful promise you will have peace in me I love that that was given to Martin Harris. We talked about this last year, who was some huge decisions. I just should I mortgage my farm to finance the Book of Mormon. Can I take the 116 page manuscript to show my wife? Can I take these characters to Charles Anthony? And here's the Lord saying, Martin, keep it right here. This is where you'll find peace and learning of me and listening to my words, and maybe that's another way to describe the covenant path. Jennifer, thanks for saying that.

You bet. My experience has been, he's never left me on my own. It's never been that life was always smooth sailing, but I know you're happier when you're living your covenants and that there needs to be a really concerted focused intentional effort that I want to live my covenants today. I want to have a straightforward experience with Jesus Christ. I want to draw him into my life and life was pretty fun. I had a good time but that covenant that's arising from an altar of the Temple of Arkott with my sweetheart. Nothing can compare to the chance we have to work it together. Please join us for part two of this podcast.