Cause and Effect - Isaiah 2-4

Cause and effect.  It is one of the first things we learn.  We drop a toy off our high chair and it falls- every time.  We shake the rattle and it makes a noise.  We fall down and it hurts.  We smile and other people smile back.  It is how we learn to navigate the world and it is the underlying principle for how we discover what we consider scientific truth.  However, our experiences here are finite and often we come up with stories for explaining cause and effect that later, when we’ve gained more information, prove to be untrue.  For instance, in the mid-19^th century, scientists and doctors “knew” that infections were caused by miasmas in the air.  So hospital wards were aired out periodically to try and mitigate infection spreading.  However a doctor by the name of Ingnaz Semmelweis noted in the 1840’s a marked difference in mortality rates between the two maternity wards he oversaw.  One, run by midwives had a much, much lower rate of infection and death than the one run by student doctors.  In fact, he noted, women who gave birth on the streets had a better chance of not getting an infection!  He began looking for any differences between the two wards that might be the cause of the higher infection and mortality rate.  He isolated each difference to see if it was the cause, but the disparity in mortality rate continued.

In 1847 a friend and coworker died from an infection after cutting himself with a scalpel used to autopsy a patient who had died from what appeared to be the same infection.  There was no doubt the cut itself was the origin of the infection.  It occurred to him that the scalpel had somehow transferred the infection, and if so, hands could also be a medium for transferring infection.  The one difference between the two wards he had not considered or changed was that student doctors did dissections on deceased patients as part of their medical training.  He had those student doctors wash their hands with a solution with similar properties to our chlorine bleach prior to tending to the patients in the maternity ward.  Mortality rates immediately dropped to below 2% and, as long as the washing procedure was followed, did not rise.

Of course, Semmelweis was excited to share his discovery- just think of all the patients that could be saved!  But, despite the evidence, the idea that there were “corpse particles” too small to be seen on unwashed hands was considered ludicrous by the medical community.  He wrote letters asking doctors to just try hand washing and telling them they were, in fact, murderers if they insisted on ignoring his findings.  Semmelweis’s frustrated insistence and the derision it drew, eventually led him to breakdown and his wife and contemporaries committed him to an asylum where he died, ironically, from an infection.  After his death, others, including Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister were deeply influenced by his work.  But despite the fact that everyone who experimented on what Semmelweis’s conclusions found them to be accurate, it was well over half a century before the medical community in general accepted that their hands could indeed be the cause in transmitting infection.  Which brings me to another important concept, rhetoric.

Rhetoric is effectively using language to persuade.  It can be an effective tool for sharing discoveries and truth, but it can be just as effective in spreading lies or fighting against the acceptance of an unexpected or unwanted truth.  For instance, there have been several philosophers over the years that have written quite persuasively that if a person seeks their own happiness above all else society will prosper.  People who aren't restricted by duty and commitment are free to be creative and that creativity will mean a vibrant, increasingly powerful society.  Interestingly, most of these philosophers lived in what anthropologists call declining societies and they overwhelmingly blame the decline on traditionalists who stifle, or hold back, the society and cause conflict – in today’s rhetoric they are less evolved.  Perhaps one of the most interesting individuals to espouse this type of theory was an English anthropologist by the name of Joseph Daniel Unwin.  Prior to 1935, he espoused, very persuasively, that marriage was an antiquated social construct that at best was irrelevant, and at worst harmful to the building a truly powerful and vibrant society.  Being an anthropologist he decided to use evidence from past civilizations to prove his point.  He studied 86 civilizations and when he stood before the British Psychological Society to present his findings he said,

“The evidence is such as to demand a complete revision of my personal philosophy; for the relationship between the factors (man/women marriage with complete monogamy and cultural prosperity) seemed to be so close, that if we know the sexual regulations a society has adopted, we can prophesy accurately the pattern of its cultural behavior...This type of marriage has been adopted by different societies, in different places, and at different times.  Thousands of years and thousands of miles separate the events; and there is no apparent connection between them.  In human records, there is no case of an absolutely monogamous society failing to display great (cultural) energy. 

I do not know of a case on which great energy has been displayed by a society that has not been absolutely monogamous….If during or just after a period of (cultural) expansion, a society modifies its sexual regulation, and a new generation is born into a less rigorous tradition, its energy decreases…If it comes into contact with a more vigorous society, it is deprived of its sovereignty, and possibly conquered in its turn.”  (Sexual Regulations and Cultural Behavior, Joseph Daniel Unwin, Ph.D., in and address given to the Medical Section of the British Psychological Society.  Library of Congress No. HQ12.U52)

What I found most fascinating when I read Dr. Unwin findings was that I was well aware of the type of theory he wanted to prove- I had read it as “proven” with great rhetoric in academic writings, taken for granted in sitcoms and dramas, and praised as a sign of our society being evolutionarily advanced. What surprised me was to realize how far back there was truly credible, empirical evidence that it wasn’t a new, untried theory and that in every case it had proven false.  The first time I saw Dr. Unwin mentioned, it was to credit him with being one of the European liberal thinkers who helped start the cultural and sexual revolutions in Europe.  He wrote two books in an attempt to make his findings more widely known.  But, if not for groups who have formed to present a unified defense of the traditional family, what is contained in those books would be unknown.  However, the persuasive rhetoric he originally, freely espoused before and during his study- that was so appealing to what the scriptures call the “natural” of “fallen” man that it flourished- just like it flourished in many of those “less advanced” societies, until shortly after the third generation (roughly 75-100 years), when a combination of internal economic and social turmoil and outside pressure led to what historian’s refer to as the “fall” of a civilization.  However, Dr. Unwin also noted that the reverse would also be true- three generations of a “return to virtue” could bring vibrancy back to a civilization. (See "A Return to Virtue," Elaine S. Dalton, Ensign, November 2008) 

For instance, did you notice the amount of time that passed between Dr. Semmelwies findings and the medical community accepting what he had discovered as truth?  The established elite of the medical community shunned and ridiculed him.  But he had student doctors, who had participated in his study, and they quietly adopted the practice of hand washing in their practices.  Other young doctors paid more attention to his study, and some, like Joseph Lister, were able to use social influence to weather the abuse of the establishment when they became convinced he was right.  It helped that those, like Lister, who did try Semmelwies’s methods didn’t have as many patients die.  After all, patients prefer a doctor with a low mortality rate.  The next generation heard lectures and read academic works by these untraditional, but successful doctors and – well truth prevailed. 

And God is truth and he is the same yesterday, today and forever.  He knows what builds and destroys both individuals and societies.  He also knows perfectly what deadly spiritual infections are highly contagious and exactly how we can purify ourselves so that we don’t become instruments in spreading them to others.  Helping us understand and act on truth is why he calls prophets.  It is a main reason we have the words of Isaiah.  Like many prophets, Isaiah teaches us what actions we need to take (the cause) to obtain joy, hope, and knowledge in this life and eternal life in the world to come (the effect).  He uses a mixture of historical examples (which anyone can verify with the basic 5 senses) and prophetic promises (which do require humble inquiry of the Lord in order to receive spiritual confirmation of their truth.) Isaiah 2-4, if looked at as one “conference talk,” is a perfect illustration.  It opens and closes with a hopeful true glimpse of the most vibrant and successful society possible- Zion.  (Isaiah 2:1-5, Isaiah 4:2-6)  One of the most important “plain and precious” insights from the Book of Mormon on this topic is found in Nephi’s commentary on Isaiah in 1 Nephi 22:26:

And because of the righteousness of his people Satan has no power; wherefore he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; for he hath no power over the hearts of the people, for they dwell in righteousness, and the Holy One of Israel reigneth.

 Did you get that?  The effect is the Satan has no power and the cause is the righteousness of his people.  That is why Zion in not just a place or a people, but it is also an individual state.  The scriptures do give us a couple of tantalizing glimpses into civilizations that, at least temporarily, reached this state, but the Book of Mormon also gives us several examples of individuals who lived through war, civil strife, and persecution because of their faith in Christ – in short, times when the choices of the others around them meant Zion as a nation they were not!  But such circumstances didn’t prevent one such individual, Moroni, from becoming such a man the“if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” (Alma 48:17)

I feel such a deep conviction that the example of Moroni, as well as those “no less serviceable unto the people,” are meant by the Lord to be considered, no devoured and deeply internalized, in conjunction with verses like Isaiah 3:10- Say unto the righteous, that it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.” (Alma 48:18)

The rest of the material in Isaiah’s “talk” lists the causes (the wicked choices of the people) and the increasingly growing evidence of the effects of those choices.  As, I wrote a few weeks ago, Isaiah 2 is all about “Jacob” delighting in worshiping “his” own wisdom, the work of his hands, riches, and those more sensually pleasing gods next door.  The first two words in the King James Version of Isaiah 3:1 read, “For Behold.”  In other translations it is translated as “Even, now” or “See, now.”  In other words: you don’t have to wait until “the day of the Lord” to experience the effects of these choices; (but everyone who intentionally chooses evil will feel the full effects then) you are even now experiencing the chaotic effects of evil choices. 

First, they lose “stay and staff.”  The “stay,” as it illustrates in verse 1 are the most basic necessities of life- food (bread) and water.  Weather (yea, they did tell the Lord to keep enough distance they could party in the groves like a Philistine and when he withdraws so does the organizing power that brings the rains, which in turn affects the harvest), war and pure greed on the part of the “upper class” has combined to rob many in the population of any temporal security. 

Next, the choice of previous generations to encourage a  “less rigorous tradition” as far as what was considered  moral and obedient to the commands of Jehovah, meant there are no Moroni’s to rise to the occasion and serve their people.  Moroni is described as “a strong and a mighty man of perfect understanding; yea, a man who didn’t delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery…a man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people.” (Alma 48:11-12)  Those are the type of individuals who are described as the “staff” (symbol of legal, righteous power and authority) that is also being taken away.  (Isaiah2:3)  Instead positions of political, legal, military, and religious leadership are held by childish and selfish men.  They use their authority to “eat up the vineyard” or use the resources of the nation for their own selfish ends, which includes “grinding on the face of the poor.”(Isaiah 3:5,9,14-15)  Things are getting so bad that someone with a decent set of clothes is begged to take on leadership, but he refuses, stating he can hardly take care of his own house.  (Isaiah 6-7)

Nor is it just the men.  After all, women are generally half of the population and, as Ghandi noted “when you educate a women you educate a nation.”   Nor is he alone in noting this.  Brigham Young was once asked if he could only educate boys or girls, whom would he choose.  His reply was, in essence, that he would choose the girls because they would be the mothers and teachers of the next generation and then only one generation would suffer the effects of lacking education. But, that only holds true if that education, both temporal and spiritual, runs hand in hand with motherhood, whether they marry and have biological children of their own or not, being a worthwhile and honorable goal for women. 

No wonder Isaiah spends almost half the verses in Isaiah 3 talking about how women valuing being proud (stretched out necks), sexy,(wanton eyes) and beautiful (Isaiah 3:17-18 are a list of beauty and fashion accessories) as primary life goals is an equally contributing cause in the collapse of their society.  Historically speaking, Isaiah is pinpointing the primary effects of that collapse on the women.  More men than women will die in both civil war and foreign invasion (Isaiah 3:25).  More women will become captives and slaves, with all that it can entail- including their fine clothes being ripped away to be replaced with slaves clothing and the customary shaving of the head.  (Not only was glorious hair a great source of pride, so shaving a captured slave humiliated them, but it was also practical because a bald head doesn’t make a good home for lice. )

Isaiah 4:1 is a continuation of this list.  It deals with those not taken in slavery.  Those who survive now do desperately want to focus on building a family, but there is a dearth of men. They promise to take care of all the responsibilities of raising a family if a man will just give them his name (give them a standing in society so they are not considered low or base) and take away their reproach (this refers to being childless).  Isaiah uses that phrase “in that day” at the beginning of this verse and again at the beginning of verse 2.  This is the signal that he has presented the “case studies” so to speak and we now can apply it to our day.   A few weeks ago I heard two statistics on the evening news that made me think of this verse and think of these effects and how they are already showing up in our society.  The first was that over 40% of women under 40 in our nation have never been married.  Women interviewed in connection with this story commented that not marrying is now a choice with no stigma attached and that there is a dearth of acceptable marriage partners.  The second one was that over 50% of children born in our country last year were to unmarried women. (Also see M. Russell Ballard,"That the Lost May Be Found," Ensign, November 2012, p.98)

These stories, stuck with me because I grew up the oldest daughter in a family of 10.  I loved books and learning and had some resentful feeling about being called away from my books to help with family responsibilities.  I found much of the rhetoric that has influenced these trends in our society inviting.  In fact I know I was very clear with my young women leaders and parents that I had better things to do with my life than change diapers and wipe snotty noses.   In short, I know if I hadn’t grown up surrounded by the gospel, and if others in my life hadn’t made the choices they did- especially the incredible man I married and some very special "sisters" – I have no doubt I wouldn’t have the joy in the gospel and my family I do now.  I have watched the same miracle happen in lives of women from a variety of backgrounds.  And I begin to see what Isaiah meant when he taught of the Lord “wash(ing) away the filth of the daughters of Zion.” (Isaiah 4:4)  To me it means a conviction that has grown bone deep that, as President Gordan B. Hinckley declared “mothers can do more than any other group to reverse todays sobering trends.” (As quoted in “Are We Not All Mothers,” No One Can Take Your Place, Sherri Dew, Deseret Book 2004) 

And, as Sister Dew, an educated, successful business woman who has never married or had children, wrote, I too am sure:

As mothers in Israel, we are the Lord’s secret weapon.  Our influence comes from a divine endowment that has been in place from the beginning.  In the premortal world, when our Father described our role, I wonder if we didn’t stand in wide-eyed wonder that He would bless us with a sacred trust so central to His plan and that He would endow us with gifts so vital to the loving and leading of His children.  I wonder if we shouted for joy (see Job 38:7) at least in part because of the ennobling stature He gave us in His kingdom.  The world won’t tell you that, but the Spirit will.

Climbing Up

Along the border between the country of Nepal and China lie the Himalayan Mountains, and the world’s highest mountain, which we in the western part of the world refer to as Mount Everest.  Its summit is over 29,000 feet high and was first reached, with the aid of scuba tanks, in 1953.  Since that time, attempts numbering in the several thousands have been made to reach the summit.   Most succumb to the high altitude and have to turn back before the final ascent. Over 2000 individuals have succeeded, some several times, and most within the last 10 years.  Government regulations, high fees (estimate for the budget contentious start at $40,000), small portable oxygen, and expert expedition organizers have made it much less dangerous to try and make the climb.  Still there has never been a year without at least a 4% mortality rate.  Most of those who do die, die above 26,000 feet, where the oxygen is so thin expert mountaineers often need oxygen tanks, so many who have died on the mountain remain there.  One thing is certain, those who sign up to climb Mount Everest do not expect it will be cheap or easy. In fact they expect it to be, physically and mentally, one of the hardest and most time consuming things they will ever prepare for and do.

So how did I get from the words of Isaiah to climbing Mount Everest?  Well it all started three weeks ago when I found myself on the floor, unable to move without excruciating pain beginning in my lower back, waiting for the rest of the house to wake up and help me.  Having experienced it before, though not quite so extreme, my first thought when I felt the pain and my legs giving out, was “Please, no, I have too much to do!”  And then I sincerely prayed for help and listened, and almost immediately, much to my dismay, there came into my mind’s eye the picture of Nephi, hands bound, praying for increased strength to handle his circumstances.  It was an illustration used in the April issue of the Ensign, for the reprint of Elder Bednar’s address on “The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality.”  I also remembered, as clearly as if I was rereading it, the words I had underlined,

It is especially interesting to me that Nephi did not pray to have his circumstances changed.  Rather, he prayed for the strength to change his circumstances.  And I believe he prayed in this manner precisely because he knew, understood, and had experienced the enabling power of the Atonement….

(The Savior) felt and bore our burdens before we ever did…He can reach out, touch, succor—literally run to us – and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power.

I also thought of President Monson’s expressing the same principle in a quote I have memorized and often pondered, "Do not pray to tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks.  Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle. (“Three Goals to Guide You”, Ensign, November 2007)

I admit, for many of my waking hours I have been hard pressed to see the eternal benefits of the last few weeks.  As I’ve said, I’ve had something like this happen before, and I have worked hard to not let it happen again.  So, I admit to battling intense feelings of fear, frustration and anger as the days passed by and the pain and my lack of ability to do for myself or others was more extreme and lasted longer than ever before.  But those first few moments of this particular “celestial training session” have combined with my past experience, which has taught me that those feelings are best thrown out as quickly as possible. One of the best tools to accomplish that, and open my mind and heart to the Lord’s teaching and purpose, is to spend time in His words. It did not change the pain, nor how slowly this healing process seems to be going.  But it did change the way it feels- at least part of the time.

It was a few days after my back gave out, and I could, with a lot of huffing and puffing make it the short distance by myself.  I had been optimistically preparing a lesson for the next Sunday- which I didn’t get to teach.  But as I slowly made my way, I was thinking, tongue in cheek, that to hear my breathing you would think I was climbing an “exceedingly high mountain” and it hit me. (1 Nephi 11:1)  There is one very obvious, readily understood meaning behind the symbol of the temple being called “the mountain of the Lord’s house” that we are often culturally inattentively blind to.  My labored breathing indicated that I was working- working hard, like I have on some steep hikes I’ve taken in better days.  Bottom line--nobody “ascends” a mountain without effort.  And the more “exalted” the mountain the more time, resources and labor that is required.  And this is very much an aspect of the ancient symbol of mountains being temples – I’ve read it several times, but never once talked of it or passed it on.   Why?  As I mentioned, I think it was a bit of spiritual inattentional blindness.

For anyone who doesn’t know,  inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully-visible, but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object.  Experiments have been done which show a majority of people if given an assignment, like counting how many times a jogger in front of them touches his hat, will focus so much on that task they will miss a knock down drag out fight happening in plain sight.   Likewise, we live in a culture that defines “prosperity” as “thriving, successful, especially in economic success.”   It focuses on outward circumstances being pleasant.  And in our scriptures the Lord repeatedly promises that prosperity is what those who obey him will have.   So, when we are really trying to obey the Lord and live righteously, but our success, or health, or financial well-being is damaged, we are naturally tempted to cry foul.  Our focus is so solely on the idea of promised blessings and prosperity meaning the fulfillment of the “American dream” that we just block out all the evidence to the contrary.

In hindsight, I see that it was just that kind of reasoning that led to that very dark time in my life.  When I came to understand that the real problem was that I “lacked wisdom” and began to really study what the Lord teaches, I couldn’t help but notice that those who have loved the Lord have not had easy lives – fantastic, meaningful lives, yes, but not easy.  Some, like Mormon and Moroni, died alone in poverty.  Others like Abinadi, Isaiah, John the Baptist, and even the Savior himself, died gruesome deaths.  I could go on and on in naming scriptural characters whose righteous lives do not coincide with our cultural definition of prosperity.  It occurred to me that our current definition of prosperity didn’t quite match the Lord’s definition.  The word used in the Old Testament, like so many others I’ve brought up, is rooted in the idea of following the Lord’s straight and narrow path.  It literally means “to move ahead” or “to move forward on the path.”  The Lord’s promise is that if we obey him, he will send his enabling power to ensure that no obstacle, problem, choice of another, injury, illness or anything else will do other than move us forward on the path towards eternal life.    

Now, I’ve known the meaning of that word for some time, and if you’ve ever heard me speak or read what I’ve written, it’s pretty obvious I think of life as a journey.  I even once used the analogy of my mortal journey being a hike.(From Where I Stand) But for all that, I’d never put it together with the imagery of the “mountain of the Lord’s house,” or “the Lord’s mountain” or “my holy mountain,” and somehow this insight opened up the Lord’s promises like never before. 

King Benjamin’s admonition that our part is to “become as a little child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father,” melded with image the Lord uses of Him being “as an eagle (which) stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; So the Lord alone did lead “Isreal.”  (Mosiah 3:19, Deuteronomy 32:11-12, Also see “On His Wings”, April 16,2010) 

And, because that image was part of the song every Israelite was to have memorized, the learned Isaiah knew it, and he brings it together with the imagery that those who follow the Lord are those who “scale the mountain heights” and “wait upon the Lord,”  and they will eventually become beings  who “mount up with wings as eagles.”  (Isaiah 40:9,30-31)  See the progression on the path?  When Israel was led out of Egypt, he compared them to tiny eaglets – unable on their own strength and ability to ascend to the heights that their parents call home, but not without the potential to become creatures just as at home in the heavens.  The “flight” they tasted was to encourage them, when the path felt steep and difficult to “be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the lord they God is with thee withersoever thou goest.” (Joshua 1:9) 

“It is as if men and women are given, as part of their next step in development along the path to godhood, raw physical and spiritual ingredients—“natural” resources, if you will.  Those resources are not to run rampant but are to be harnessed and focused so that their power and potential…can be channeled…(Jeffery R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, p.207)

Our choosing to “channel” those resources is our earnest attempt to do what is so difficult now and strive to keep his commands—to stand firmly in defense of the Lord’s plan and affirm that we do want to be His children and receive His instruction.  That choice is our use of agency affirming we want the Lord’s grace to strengthen and enable us to become what he, in his infinite love for us, always hoped we would choose- to be transformed through his power from beings for whom such heights are unreachable, alien and dangerous, to beings for whom such heights are a natural habitat. Like John taught:

Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”  (1 John 3:2-3)

The scriptures are filled with mere mortals who followed this path and came to know what I think I have barely tasted. Take Paul for example. Considering the beatings he took, I think it safe to say he knew physical pain well.  But, despite the fact that after his conversion his life reads like a constant cliff climbing expedition he wrote things like:  “For all things are for your sakes…for which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”  (2 Corithians 4:15-17)

I have particularly thought about that phrase “light affliction” over he past few weeks.  Particularly as I’ve continued to read Isaiah, and the “afflictions” he prophesied were coming, which would affect the righteous as well as the wicked, are heavy indeed.  But despite the heavy wading of the material, the only day I really lost it- all over my hardworking and supportive husband- was a day, when in an ill-advised rush to get my life back in order, I kept putting off my time with the Lord.  At the end of the day I was in agony (again) and so frustrated with how little I had accomplished.  I saw my open scriptures lying near and suddenly knew that this pain and the limitations it brings are obstacles, but not deciding factors in whether I can experience real joy in life.  In those moments when I forced my thoughts away from how much I don’t like this, and instead directed them to the things I was learning, my perspective widened to consider a fuller picture and purpose.  Peace replaced frustration, and, for a moment the pain actually seemed swallowed up in the joy.  I might still have been flat on my back, but my soul took flight.

It leads me to consider what life would be like if I were more diligent in my part to “always remember him,” so that I would “always have his spirit to be with” me.  (D&C 20:77,79) What an exciting—no that is far too mundane of a word—magnificent, awe inspiring, hope filled, joyous thought!