Isaiah is brilliant and humble. He had to be during mortality because the positions he took were so opposite those of the elite of his time – so simpleton. He preached a return to virtue, to living according to the commands of Jehovah, as a means to return to economic stability as well and national security. I recently heard comments of that nature by a sincere Christian called, by a public news figure, intolerant, outdated, unthinking, and without taking into consideration the current social and political climate. I imagine Isaiah’s words were dismissed just as contemptuously. In fact, the Lord tells him very few of his generation will benefit from his words and inspired Isaiah to use his considerable talents so that those who diligently search see him using the historical events and places of his day to illustrate eternal patterns, but those who already dismiss the Lord’s words through other prophets find him easy to dismiss. (Nephi makes it clear diligence is required- In my case I think the Lord’s definition of diligence is very generous to have already given so much for what I've put in. He is so good to me.)
The Lord’s promise to us is that (He) “will give unto you a pattern in all things, that ye may not be deceived; for Satan is abroad in the land, and he goeth forth deceiving the nations.” (D&C 52:14) How well this promise and warning are illustrated by the words Isaiah was inspired to record in this beginning chapter. It is a rich word picture of “things as they really are.” (D&C 93:24, Jacob 4:13) 
It begins by prophesying that the “mountain of the Lord’s house will be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.” First, the word “top” is also the word for “head”, as in he will be the head- the leader. There are other words for “peak” or “summit.” So this is a play on words about Christ’s millennial reign. (2 Nephi 2:2, Isaiah 2:2) Second, did you know that in Hebrew the word translated as temple doesn’t, as in English, mean a place dedicated to worship, but just a large public building, usually a temple or palace. But the imagery of a “mountain of the Lord’s house” would have been very clear phrase indicating what we call a temple – and not just to the Israelites. The idea that mountains were the original place God (or the gods) communed with man, and that temples were authorized buildings with specific directions given by the god to make it so man could be elevated enough to qualify for communication and learning from God, was very prevalent in the ancient world. (For a really good, brief and understandable discussion of this follow this link www.fairlds.org/fair.../2009-the-temple-as-a-place-of-ascent-to-god. Believe me, after what I’ve waded through, it was a find.)
But the really intriguing part about what Isaiah prophesies is the second part of that verse. The Lord’s house will be “exalted” above all other mountains and hills. What are the other mountains and hills? The rest of the chapter expounds how “Jacob” has treated other apparent powers, such as nations, idol gods, wealth, their own strengths and other people, as their “head”-the power they put their trust in instead of God. 
I love the word used for “exalted.” (Isaiah 2:2) It means to “lift a load or burden and carry it.” Which brought me to ponder, once again, on Nephi’s words about the rise and fall of nations, and the generations upon generations that would pass from his time until the time prophesied here. (1 Nephi 11-15, 1 Nephi 22, 2 Nephi 25) And how the suffering, the rise and failing of nations would go on until “they shall be persuaded to believe in Christ, which is the Son of God, and the atonement which is infinite for all mankind.” (2 Nephi 25:16) I am struck again by how impossible it is to fathom the depth of what has been done for mankind, for me. I cannot truly comprehend it, but I can let the affirmation of its reality grow as I ponder the enormous cost to “heal the nations” in conjunction with the Savior’s words, “But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; which suffering caused myself even God, the greatest of all to tremble because of pain, and bleed at every pore and to suffer both body and spirit.” (Revelations 22:2, D&C 19:17-18) Oh, to be an instrument through which all that has been done can be put to good use!
That is the goal here- not to add to suffering and harrow up unnecessary guilt, but to encourage us to choose to “walk in the light of the Lord” so we can receive that healing and peace, first individually and eventually the whole world. (Isaiah 2:5) Which brings me to consider further the words “Zion” and “Jerusalem.” Zion literally means “landmark” – something that visibly marks the correct path. (Christ’s proverbial “city on a hill” from Matthew 5:14) And “Jerusalem” means a “flowing out of peace.” But, again the Hebrew word for peace contains a depth our current word doesn’t usually carry. It doesn’t just mean lack of conflict. Rather it means “complete; to be made whole by adding or subtracting; to be in a state of being made whole.” In the scriptures we are taught that Zion is both a place and a state of being. I apply that to Jerusalem as well because the two things the Lord promises we will be blessed with, here and now, is His peace and the opportunity to be the instrument in His hands in offering that peace to others. (John 14:27, 16:33, D&C 59:23, Isaiah 26:3)
What that state of being definitely does not mean is having total leisure, or lack of responsibilities, work, and cares. This is emphasized by what happens to the “nations” when the law of the Lord is what all nations live by. “Plowshares” and “pruning hooks” are tools used to work- not the destructive kind of work that swords and spears do- but the ordering, planting, growing, harvesting, building type of work. (Does anyone else fill a string of cross references coming on? I’ll spare you here.) Also significant is the word “light,” meaning “to order or organize.” It is the same word used in the creation story. For us, it means to put to effective use, to build with, to profit from the gifts the Lord has given us. The most often used word for “darkness” in Isaiah is just the opposite- it means chaos, disorder, and contention as well as dark.
I further found it interesting that both in verse 3 and verse 5 he uses the ,” name “Jacob,” not “Israel.” “Jacob” literally means “supplanter” or “to hold back as by the heel.” After the invitation for the “house of Jacob to…come…and walk in the light of the Lord,” Jacob is rebuked for turning from the “lifting up” and “light” offered by the Lord and replacing it with so many other things. He, who had the opportunity to become “Jerusalem,” and “Zion,” instead has sought to become like or “usurp” the worldly nations around him. He seeks to “lift up” himself by making things, including weapons and armies (which explains the horses, as that was there primary use in that day), and then looking to them as the source of security, learning, strength, and salvation. In short, instead of taking the path that leads to the “mountain of the Lord,” and helping others find it, they have actually held others back from considering the Lord and his chosen path. They were to help others see that what look like “mountains” are in reality, as history shows repeatedly, an illusion. Instead of being instruments through which God’s reality could be seen, they have helped the human race stay chained down. Sobering thought.
Later, in verses 11 and 17, where it says “the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” the word used for “exalted” means “lofty” or “inaccessible” and was applied to a safe, strong place of defense. In noun form it is sometimes translated as “tower” as in “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress… in Him will I trust; he is my shield…my high tower, my refuge, my savior.” (2 Samuel 2-3) 
Interesting, when one of things Isaiah says will be of no use in the day of His coming will be ‘high tower(s)”. (Isaiah 2:15) This time the word used is the most common word used for “ high tower” and it simply means “a building of great size.” This type of comparison between the true exaltation the Lord offers, and the things man falsely hopes and fools himself into thinking will give him “loftiness” seems to be what Isaiah wants us, for our own eternal benefit, to consider. 
Even the word Isaiah used in verse 5 for “forsaken” seems to emphasize this theme. It is not the same word he uses every other time in his writings, and the word that is used the majority of the time for “forsake” or “forsaken” in the KJV Bible. That word does mean very close to our word “forsake” and it is used both to describe what Israel has done to the Lord and when the Lord denies that he has forsaken Israel. But the word Isaiah uses here means “ to remain behind” when others leave, or to “let fall away” like what happens to leaves when they separate from a branch. Knowing that fits with the idea that “they be replenished” which means “to fill or complete.” So they left the Lord to “fill themselves” or find fulfillment and completion in other places.
The sobering part of personalizing “Israel” to myself, is that I must also personalize Jacob. If what I desire is peace, prosperity, wisdom, truth, order, and to be elevated to and become something so much more than I am now, there is only one way, and that is to get on and stay on the path that leads to the “mountain of the Lord’s house.” It is also sobering to realize, as I was recently reminded in General Conference, that I cannot escape the fact my actions and attitudes do influence others. A dear friend shared with me her thoughts and impressions from this chapter. One thing she shared emphasized how the spirit of this book penetrates our souls, even while we grabble with the language. It was the words of the 5th verse of the hymn “God Loved Us So He Sent His Son.” I was not familiar with that verse and to me the words she shared made Isaiah’s message applicable and the hope he offers accessible through the gift of the Sacrament. As Nephi said, “I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” (1 Nephi 3:7)
In word and deed he doth require
My will to his, like son to sire,
Be made to bend, and I, as son,
Learn conduct from the Holy One.
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