Perspective Revisited - Overview of Isaiah 2-14

For those of you who read this blog before I took a 2 year break, or any of you who have been in a class I taught, this picture might look familiar to you.  (See “Back to the Beginning” December 31,2009) 
But if this is the first time you’ve seen it take a minute to think about what is going on in the picture.  At first glance, the essence of what is happening seems pretty obvious. One young man is assaulting another.  There is a villain and a victim who is very aware he is being attacked.  Imagine yourself on a jury to which this picture is presented by the "victim" as evidence against the "villain."  How do you find? 

I've presented this picture and those questions to a variety of classes over the past 14 years, and received a variety of responses, including the possibility of mitigating circumstances, but they all have one thing common- the "villain" is guilty of an unkind act.

But take a look at the exact same picture, with more expanded perspective: It really changes things to get a wider perspective.  It came in a packet I received the first year I taught seminary as a visual to inspire the learner to consider the difference between our mortal perspective and Heavenly Fathers eternal perspective. Over the years I have looked at it many times and felt so grateful that it fell into my hands.  I have often thought of the "victim."  What happened to him the moment after the shutter snapped?  His expression shows surprise, shock, perhaps pain.  My experience tells me that generally when I am surprised by something unexpected and uncomfortable, the easiest and most natural route is anger and, in my view, justified accusations, against those who have wronged me.  What if he, terrified of this unprovoked attack, continued to flee to his nearby house, never realizing that his "attacker" was really a savior?  What if his attacker was never found and he lived in fear of another attack?  Or worse yet, what if he knew his attacker?  What if it was a neighbor from down the street, and he felt duty bound to report and prosecute the assault?  What if the car, after missing both of them, disappeared and there were no witnesses- only the "villains" flimsy excuse that there had been a car?  After all, if a car was there the "victim" would have seen it!

Or perhaps, the "attackers" push sent them both rolling to the sidewalk.  As soon as he gained his feet he turned to confront his "attacker" only to see the car wiz by, missing them both by inches.  He realizes that without the kind, and unselfish act on the part of the other young man, who is busy checking his bleeding elbows, he would have suffered serious injury.  His heart fills with gratitude, and wonder that another would put his own life in danger to save his.

Which brings us to the great question- the great test of each life:  Do I honestly believe that my current perspective is best and has all the details correct?  Or do I honestly admit I lack wisdom-that my limited perspective isn’t sufficient to figure it all out on my own.  Am I willing and do I desire to once again, in this new and advanced course of mortality, take my place as a student of my Heavenly Father, and his appointed instructor, my Savior, Jesus Christ.  Or will I use this opportunity to set up our own school.  To in essence built in my own mind and estimations a seat of equal perspective from which I can critique His teaching, work and wisdom?  I simply cannot be doing both at the same time. 

It is a critical decision because, as the Savior so eloquently taught:

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.  (Matthew 7:24-25)

This imagery translates so well across cultures and generations.  A firm foundation is key to any lasting building.  And as this rather recent mishap from China shows, if the foundation is faulty, nothing can save the rest of the building- no matter how well built it is. (Just FYI, this building was still under construction when this happened so it was not occupied.  Tragically, one construction worker was killed.)

But, the listeners in Christ’s time would have heard so much more because before Moses left the Children of Israel he taught them a song and told them to memorize the words and teach them to their children.  Near its opening words it proclaims:

Because I will publish the name of the Lord…He is The Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment; a God of Truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. (Dueteronomy 32:4)

Christ’s listeners knew Jehovah called Himself The Rock.  They knew he had contrasted Himself with the unreliability (sandish) quality of other “rocks” or “gods” with which they would be tempted to replace Him.  They knew The Rock claimed only His power could truly redeem them. The Rock not only made a firm foundation to build upon, but He was a truly impregnable fortress and protection.  The Rock could crush the most fearsome army of would be conquerors.  And amazingly, The Rock was also, against all we know through experience, a source of living water in the harsh dry desert, as well as a source of food and the sweetness of honey.   But perhaps most incredibly, The Rock declared that He had the power to truly avenge (make right on behalf of another) and even restore life. Yes, Christ’s listeners knew in an intellectual sort of way all these things about The Rock, and yet when He stood before them, and did miracle after miracle to provide concrete evidence of His divinity, for the most part, they rejected Him.  They did no better than their forbears had done in Isaiah’s day.  The test is the same for me today.    

So, how does this all relate to an overview of Isaiah 2-14?  Two words: Infinite Atonement.  Those are the words Jacob uses in trying to help his people see the significance of what Isaiah taught. (2 Nephi 9:7)  Those are the words Nephi used when trying to help us see the importance of these very chapters, so laboriously rerecorded in 2 Nephi 12-24. (2 Nephi 25:16)  It is faith in, and allowing the Holy Ghost to indelibly impress on our souls the reality of a truly infinite atonement, that gives us the power to stay and build upon The Rock.  It is the power we can rely on when our own limited mortal vision doesn't comprehend the whole picture.  We are given Isaiah’s words with the promise that if we will study them we will be “more fully persuad(ed) to believe in the Lord (our) Redeemer.” (1 Nephi 19:23)  And Jacob tells us he delights in the words of Isaiah because he delights in “proving unto (his) people the truth of the coming of Christ…and all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifiying of him…that whoso… shall see these words may life up their hearts and rejoice for all men.”  (Jacob 11:4,8) 

I appreciate Jacob’s words.  I used them to adjust the perspective of the lens through which I read these words and saw a remarkable pattern emerging.  If you take the section as a whole, including Nephi’s commentary directly relating to Isaiah prophecies (2 Nephi 12-30), it begins and ends with the promise of the latter-day restoration leading to the Savior’s millennial reign.  And forming an incredible centerpiece are the prophecies of the Saviors first coming and the unseen and rejected power avialable to all of mortality.(2 Nephi 17-19, Isaiah 7-9)  Isaiah recognizes in the awful circumstances of his time a pattern common in humanity and every chapter thrums with descriptions of the obviously irreparable mistakes and tragedy we repeatedly make. Interspersed along the way like shining jewels are repeated proclamations that what seems so obvious does not take into account that the Lord doesn’t work in mortal impossibilities, only infinite eternal possibilities.  But he won’t force His ways upon us. We are invited to liken ourselves, recognize the sand in our foundation, so to speak, and learn to “stay” upon the Lord. 

He then goes on to illustrate how difficult the last days will be by pointing to common things between them and the conquests of Israel and Judah.(Isaiah 10-14, 2 Nephi 20-24)  Again, like shining diamondswe are given information about the restoration of Israel- how even the great, horrible, evil power of the devil himself (or any of his minions) cannot stop it. To me, Isaiah has become an illustrative, perspective expanding gift of immense value.  A personalized invitation from my Savior to understand and do exactly what another Book of Mormon prophet, Helaman, instructed his beloved children to do:

And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.  (Helaman 5:12)

Prefacing Isaiah- Notes on Isaiah 1

On December 26, 2004, a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, creating a deadly tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people. It was a terrible tragedy. In one day, millions of lives were forever changed.

But there was one group of people who, although their village was destroyed, did not suffer a single casualty.  The reason?  They knew a tsunami was coming.

The Moken people live in villages on islands off the coast of Thailand and Burma (Myanmar). A society of fishermen, their lives depend on the sea. For hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, their ancestors have studied the ocean, and they have passed their knowledge down from father to son. One thing in particular they were careful to teach was what to do when the ocean receded. According to their traditions, when that happened, the “Laboon”—a wave that eats people—would arrive soon after.

When the elders of the village saw the dreaded signs, they shouted to everyone to run to high ground. Not everyone listened. One elderly fisherman said, “None of the kids believed me.” In fact, his own daughter called him a liar. But the old fisherman would not relent until all had left the village and climbed to higher ground. (“Sea Gypsies See Signs in the Waves,” CBS News, 60 Minutes transcript, Mar. 20, 2005, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/18/60minutes/main681558.shtml.) 

This story perfectly illustrates one reason the Lord calls prophets.  They serve as mouthpieces through which eternal-life saving information, based upon the Lords perfect knowledge and understanding, can flow to us even though- just as the younger villagers- no mortal experience could give us the insight to see and understand on our own.   Two things remain consistent in the pattern of warning through prophets the Lord has given.  1) The warnings start well in advance. 2) Because His only purpose is our happiness and eternal welfare, he, like the elders in the tsunami example, is not deterred by being mocked or called a liar- he continues to warn and call for a return to the safety of His higher ground. 

In one of only two places in the scriptures where the Lord gives a preface to a collections of prophetic words, He says He gave them because He “ know(s) the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth,”  and to be “the voice of warning.”  (D&C 1:4,17)  If you check the footnotes in that one revelation, 39 fairly short verses in length, you find 19 direct, and many more indirect, references to the other book of scripture the Lord dictated a preface for- Isaiah.  In fact the beginning verses of each preface are cross referenced to each other, and each calls for all the inhabitants of heaven and earth to “listen together” or “give ear.”  (Isaiah 1:2, D&C 1:1-2)

Perhaps, this is not such a startling find when you consider Nephi tells us that it is in our day that the prophecies of Isaiah will be fulfilled and that he went to such work to rerecord large chunks of it because he knew “they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days; for in that day shall they understand them; wherefore for their good have I written them.” (2 Nephi 25:8 )  But realizing this did help solidify a lens in my eye open to applying the words of Isaiah personally to me. (See “Approaching Isaiah”)  And while the words written in the D&C and Book of Mormon are easier for me to understand, Isaiah provides in words (my favorite thing) something I love almost as much as the written word, pictures!  After all, doesn’t the saying go “a picture is worth a thousand words!”  In Isaiah 1 the Lord outlines, in written pictures, the main themes he will develop throughout the Book of Isaiah.

Theme 1 – Man’s true relationship with God, as opposed to man’s insistence on building his own ‘god’ after his own image. (Cross reference: D&C 1:16)

Word picture:  The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know , my people doth not consider. (Isaiah 1:3)

I am a dairy farmer’s daughter, so I have personally observed one breed of domesticated cattle.  They are not animals renowned for their intelligence and they are extremely dependent on the care provided by their owners.   They simply do not have the capacity to survive on their own.  Likewise, we can’t create this earth which provides all we need; in fact we are completely reliant on the Lord for our next breath. But the comparison is also a pointed observation and wake up call.  The Lord (who doesn’t seemed to be too concerned with what we now term “political correctness”) is telling Israel they have shown less intelligence than their domesticated animals, because with very few exceptions, these animals readily recognize and become obedient and loyal to the hand that provides food, care and shelter to them. Yet Israel, blessed with intelligence and abilities “little lower than the angels” and treated as beloved “children,” refuses to use those gifts as intelligently as a dumb domestic animal.   Instead they have used it to “laden” or “heavily burden” themselves with “iniquity.”  (The word “iniquity” literally conveys the idea of turning away from a straight path leading to eternal life (or God’s life) into a twisted, crooked, impossible path that leads to nowhere, but is sure a lot of misery and pain to build and maintain. (Isaiah 1:4))

This twisted path includes doing much more than just not “acknowledging” the “hand that feeds;” it means “biting it,” quite badly. The last three lines in verse 4 are not translated as, um, clearly, as they could be. (Let’s face it, the scribes who worked on King James Version (KJV) had a pretty clear picture of God as a being who would inspire and condone things like the Inquisition and Crusades. Occasionally their word choice shows this bias.)  The word translated in the King James Bible (KJV) as “provoked to…..anger” is just one word.  It is better translated as to “spurn” or “abhor” or “despise.” The way it reads in the KJV it sounds like we are talking about the Lord’s reaction to Israel, but it is still describing Israel’s actions towards the Lord.  “They have spurned (or despised) the Holy One of Israel; they have turned their backs on Him.”  

That last phrase could also be translated as “they have estranged themselves from Him,” but I prefer the first one because it helps me see in myself the things that are putting distance between me and the Lord.  If you look at the footnotes to this verse you will see Isaiah 57:4, which also dwells on this theme, but has a particular visual that when combined with the idea of turning your back on a parent (so they can’t see what you’re doing), brought back some childhood memories. I am in our kitchen and seething inside as my mom lectured and pronounced a punishment for my wayward behavior; and then being dismissed and turning the corner out of her sight and being disrespectful in the same manner Isaiah described.  Fortunately, I was an older child, and circumstances meant I was very involved in the care of my younger siblings, so I also remember coming to realize the “why” of my mother’s loving discipline.  This visual helped me identify how much there is in common between my childhood experiences and my life experiences- a parallel hardening of my ears and heart- a certain childish approach to being corrected and counseled.  It has been very helpful in helping me become… more teachable, I hope.

But just because Israel has “turned their back” or “estranged themselves” from Him, doesn’t mean the Lord hasn’t continued to reach out- keep an all seeing eye on them, so to speak- and he knows exactly the current state they find themselves in.  In the next verses he outlines that, as well as addressing Israel’s unwritten defensive replies to the Lord’s pronouncements.

Theme 2 – Things as they really are- a description of the state of Israel’s people and land.  (Cross reference: D&C 1:2-3,15)

Word Picture:  The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint.  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.  (Isaiah 1:6)

The gift of life is so precious.  And our bodily senses are such an innate part of the joys and sorrows of life.  The feel of the sun on your skin, a beautiful sight, a delightful smell, the sound of a favorite piece of music – and the impossibility of enjoying any of that when you are seriously injured and in pain.  No matter what our spiritual state, we can recognize how consuming it would be to have our entire body covered with open, infected, inflamed wounds.  To have the ideas of sin, evil, or wickedness presented as self-inflicting wounds certainly opened up my lens to entertain more deeply my Heavenly Fathers only motive – my happiness and well-being (as well as that of all his children, of course.) 

There are many scriptures which center on the Lord’s desire for us to “be healed,” but one of my favorites is will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted that I may heal you. (3 Nephi 9:13)   Which is a parallel invitation to the one given in Isaiah 1:18 - Come now let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be like crimson, they shall be wool. (Also see Isaiah 19:22;61:6, Hosea 6:1, Jeremiah 30:13, Ezekiel 18:23, and Matthew 9:12. It might also be helpful to review the origin of the words for good, evil, sin, etc. in the Bible.  I found it very helpful and discussed it a little in the entry “Powerful Good” (2-3-2010.))

Theme 3- The Lord addresses Israel’s accusations that they did so do what he said to do- never mind the modifications and additions they made or why they made those modifications- they did so do what he said to do! (Cross reference: D&C 1:31-33)

Word Picture – Bring no more vain oblations…they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them….Thy silver is become dross, the wine mixed with water. (Isaiah 1:13-14,22) 

All right so I admit it.  It is almost impossible to really “see” this picture without a bit of word study. First, “the root of the word (for “vain”) comes from the Latin "vanus" which means empty and void of purpose….One of the Hebrew words for "vanity" expounds the meaning a bit. It literally means a "flowing away" and indicates a vessel that is "emptied of contents or usefulness." (Believe That He Is, 1-20-2010)  The actual word used here is particularly strong- it doesn’t just indicate waste, but “destruction” or “complete uselessness.” In other words, Israel’s modified version of the Law of Moses is a grotesque, destructive parody of what the Lord intended.

The word “weary” doesn’t just mean tired, but relates specifically to how one would feel if they kept getting failure instead of successful results after extensive labor.  It centers on the idea of the Lord as our Father and master teacher and us as his children, students, and disciples.  He is doing all the work He promised to do to provide us with the opportunity for growth, knowledge, and success, but we are throwing away most of what he gives, and replacing it with wasteful, destructive, evil replacements.  It is so critical, for our eternal welfare, that we realize how “vain” our replacements are, so he cannot accept an offering which includes these replacements.  Thus he tells Israel He is “weary” (what they are actually offering will lead to failure) to “bear” (accept, lift up, approve of) their offerings. Instead he likens the very best and most esteemed part of their society, the leaders, to silver that has become nothing but dross- the worthless metal that is left over after silver has been refined.

Theme 4 – Sacrificing the welfare of others so you can “own” more of the gifts the Lord has given to all his children is a sure, easily discernible sign you are on the wrong track (wicked) and not uprightly walking the Lord’s path (righteous). (Cross reference: D&C 1:10)

Word Picture – This theme will be explored often and in depth, but here we get one of the most vivid and sobering pictures. Your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:15)  

It can be easy to brush this off as only applying to actual murderers, but what follows indicates that, like the description of Israel’s body in verse 6, this is the Lord’s illustrating Israel’s spiritual state. Remember the whole point of there being a nation of covenant people, Israel, was for them to have the privilege and joy of being instrumental in taking the blessings of the Gospel to all the families of the earth. (Abraham 2:11)   Instead they are not even caring for each other.  One particularly illuminating cross reference is Alma’s description of that pre-repentance moment when he stood in the truth revealing presence of the Lord:  I was racked with eternal torment...I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments.  Yea, and I had murdered many of his children, or rather led them away unto destruction. (Alma 36:13-14)

Theme 5– Even if we decide to permanently leave the Lord and walk another path, he never gives up, never slacks in his efforts, never considers us other than infinitely precious and worth it. As part of that effort He clearly outlines the consequences of staying on any other path.  (Cross reference: D&C 1:7,12-13,24-25,34-35)

Word Picture- All right, we do get the Lord’s promise of Israel being re-refined into silver- a picture I think better explored in depth, when it reoccurs later.  And he likens those who refuse to be refined to a garden with no water, a vivid, easily understood picture.  These images are combined with Israel's being redeemed and restored. Not much of a picture in those words, but let’s remember this chapter is a preface and summary and this particular theme receives more attention than any other so there are lots and lots and lots of pictures in the future. (Isaiah 1:25-27,30)  But for now, experience has taught me it is critical after “seeing” these colorful, corrective pictures, to review what the Lord truly expects of Israel- expects of me.  

At a very young age, I had a friend describe her understanding of God as an all-powerful being who gives you instructions on how to “walk right” and “talk right,” and then watches you to see if you make a mistake so he can “squish you like a bug.”  She paraphrased several scriptures from the Old Testament, including Isaiah’s comparison of people to bugs, to show how the Bible supported that view. I carried a fear that her assessment was at least somewhat correct for years- until I began to really search the scriptures for myself.  Remember, within a few lines after the Lord pronounces Israel’s hands as full of blood, He promises that even sins that are as scarlet, He can make white as snow.  The same God who reveals Israel’s position has heavily “laden” with “iniquity” offers this invitation:  Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.(Matthew 11:28-29) 

 We must keep in mind that Our birthright—and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth—is to seek and experience eternal happiness.(President Uctdorf, “Happiness, Your Heratige, Ensign, November 2008)  Remember Alma’s radiant testimony immediately following his description of his iniquities. 

And oh what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain! Yea…there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains.  Yea…and there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy….Yea and from that time even until now I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.  Yea…the Lord doth give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labor. (Alma 36:20-24)

What Alma describes is what the Lord wants every one of his children to experience- and it is why we have the often brutally honest, vividly illustrated words of Isaiah.

Approaching Isaiah

In Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice finds herself coming to a crossroads with two paths before her, each stretching onward but in opposite directions. She is confronted by the Cheshire Cat, of whom she asks, “Which path shall I take?”

The cat answers: “That depends where you want to go. If you do not know where you want to go, it doesn’t really matter which path you take!”^{1  (Crossroads, President Thomas S. Monson, Liahonna, April, 2004)}

This quote has recently been one thread weaving around my mind in connection to this story:

“A young man came to Socrates one time and said, ‘Mr. Socrates, I have come 1,600 miles to talk to you about wisdom and learning.’ He said, ‘You are a man of wisdom and learning, … and I would like to have you teach me how to be a man of wisdom and learning.’ Socrates said, ‘Come follow me,’ and he led the way down to the seashore. They waded out into the water up to their waists, and then Socrates turned on his friend and held his head under the water. His friend struggled and kicked and bucked and tried to get away, but Socrates held him down. … And after this man had stopped struggling, Socrates laid him out on the bank to dry, and he went back to the market place.

“After the young man had dried out a little bit, he came back to Socrates to find the reason for this rather unusual behavior. Socrates said to him, ‘When your head was under the water what was the one thing you wanted more than anything else?’ And the man said, ‘More than anything else, I wanted air.’ Socrates said, ‘All right, when you want wisdom and learning like you wanted air, you won’t have to ask anybody to give it to you.’” (Elder Sterling W. Still,“The Five Fingers of Leadership Success,” in Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [9 Feb. 1965], 9).

What common thread made these two quotes weave together in my mind?  I think it is what author Steven Covey calls the 90/10 principle – that only 10% of how life unfolds for us is determined by things outside of our control.  The other 90% depends on what we decide to do with what we are given- our approach to surprises, thwarted plans, and difficulties.  I am not sure the percentages are exact, but I have seen study after study confirm the underlying principle.  (For example one released in 2010, which followed 60,000 Germans for 40 years and concluded that happiness came through consistently putting a high priority on relationships and altruistic goals.  Material wealth and ease of lifestyle did matter- those who put the highest priority on those goals were consistently unhappy. ( http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life/happiness-is-a-matter-of-choice-study-finds-20101004-164b3.html))

But I digress, because the center thread to these weaving thoughts is, believe it or not, Isaiah.  Yes, Isaiah.  I recently had a chance to teach only two short lessons on the large block of Isaiah quoted in the Book of Mormon.  I had a wonderful time preparing, though I admit I knew much of what I was having fun doing would not make it into the Sunday discussion.  My husband came into the office one day as I was exploring and asked what I was doing.  I replied “Having fun with Isaiah. Want to join me?”  He left and a while later my son came in asking the same thing and receiving the same answer.  The looks on their faces were similar, and reminded me of a comment I once heard regarding Isaiah- that his writings were among the things the Lord was thinking of when he said we must “endure to the end.” 

At the time I heard that comment, I was comforted by it because I did find reading the words of Isaiah to be difficult and rather pointless.  But I obviously don’t feel that way anymore.  (In fact this post came about because my recent lesson preparation ignited within me a desire to study the whole Book of Isaiah again and that coincided with a dear friend letting me know she was beginning to focus her personal study around Isaiah- and so we decided to do it together, along with anyone who would like to join in-hint hint.) 

So how did I get from feeling the words of Isaiah were a difficult burden, to finding them an endless source of spiritual treasure I really enjoy exploring?   I don’t deny there was an investment of time and some research on the life and times of Isaiah involved, but I really don’t think either of those are the most important thing.  I think it is a gradual ongoing process that started when my approach to scripture study became, as I wrote here to envision (my)self first and foremost as a student, with complete confidence in (my) instructor, at the Savior's feet. Think about what a priceless treasure it is to have the opportunity to learn from the master of all creation, a Being of perfect eternal perspective, and a Being who infinitely treasures and loves you. Then open the scriptures daily, even if for only a few moments, and listen. It works.(Perspective, 10-14-09)

This brings me to the significant title the Lord uses for Himself in the opening words of the Book of Isaiah: The Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 1:4)  Nor is this an isolated occurrence.  That title is used 34 times in the Old Testament, 29 of which are found in the words of Isaiah.   And in the Book of Mormon, in the chapters of 1 and 2 Nephi where 19 chapters of Isaiah are quoted from- and we are offered key information for understanding those quotes-that title is used 38 times.  It was the Nephite prophets’ repeated emphasis that caused me to stop and ponder on it, and what I discovered felt like … well, “being encircled… in the arms of his love.” (2 Nephi 1:15)

I first reviewed in my mind what I knew of what the word “Israel” means.  Literally it means “One who prevails with God.”  It breaks down into two root words: “El”- Which means ‘strength’ or “mighty one” and in its proper form is a title for God; and “sar-ah”- which, yes, did become the name of Abraham’s wife, and does, in the feminine form mean “princess,” as in “one who rules ” or my favorite “one who ‘turns the head’ of others in a particular direction.” The same root is used in words meaning ‘’chastise” “correct” “instruct” ”taught” and “to bind.” 

As I thought about what the word means, I came to realize how significant it is to remember that before Israel was a nation, it was a name given by the Lord to an individual -an individual who was already a grandson of Abraham and heir to the birthright.  I used to wonder why Jacob was given that name instead of Abraham or Isaac.  To me, one reason is that he, in the midst of a very difficult time, outcast from his family, and uncertain of his future, went personally to the Lord.  Not because of who his biological father was, but because of his personal choice, he became individually what our Heavenly Father wants each of us to become- One who prevails (learns, grows, is instructed, strengthened and enabled) with and through the incomparable strength of the Lord.  If we leave Jacob/Israel and follow the term Israel through the scriptures we are taught that “in another sense Israel means the true believer in Christ, regardless of their lineage or geographical location.”(Bible Dictionary, p708)  In short, what I came to realize is that I am “Israel” on just as individual and personal basis as Jacob was Israel. 

This means that as I explore the words of Isaiah, I am hearing the Lord’s side of a very personal conversation with me, a latter-day Israel.   A conversation in which he identifies and addresses all the fears, concerns and desires that might “turn (my) head” in a direction that leads away from Him.  I can hear him clearly explaining the choices before me, and giving me insight into the eternal consequences of those choices. “Come” he invites “let us reason together that ye may understand.”  (Isaiah 1:18, D&C 50:10)  And through his reasoning with me, using the magnificent symbolic pictures given through Isaiah, I am beginning understand ever more deeply his infinite power, wisdom, love, strength, and above all, sacrifice for His children -for me.  How can I not love spending time in the words of Isaiah?