Tuesday, December 4, 2012

125: FOR GREAT ARE THE WORDS

 “Behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these things.
Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently;
for great are the words of Isaiah.
For surely he spake as touching all things concerning my people
 which are of the house of Israel;
therefore it must needs be that he must speak also to the Gentiles.
And all things that he spake have been and shall be,
even according to the words which he spake”
(3 Nephi 23:1–3).

This is the Lord speaking. He is recommending a book for us to read. Anytime Oprah recommends a book, or Glenn Beck for that matter, the book becomes an instant NY Times Bestseller. Funny how when the Lord not only recommends, but gives us a commandment to search these words.. we still don't read it. I am not immune.. I need to be more diligent.

A friend of mine sent me a link today of an essay written by Hugh Nibley. Here are a few key paragraphs that I liked.

 "The book of Isaiah is a tract for our own times; our very aversion to it testifies to its relevance. It is necessary to remind us of its importance, however, because Isaiah’s message has not been popular, and he tells us why. The wicked do not like to be told about their faults. Every society, no matter how corrupt, has some good things about it—otherwise it would not survive from year to year. Isn’t it much pleasanter to talk about the good things than the bad things? The people of Zarahemla, said Samuel the Lamanite, wanted prophets that would tell them what was right with Zarahemla, not what was wrong. There is a great danger in that: the many things that are right with any society can hardly damage it, but one serious flaw can destroy it. One goes to the physician not to be told what parts are functioning well but what is making him ill or threatening him with the worst."

"For the rest of the time I want to talk about those human qualities Isaiah describes as pleasing to God and those qualities He despises. They both come as a surprise. As to the second, the traits and the behavior Isaiah denounces as the worst of vices are without exception those of successful people. The wickedness and folly of Israel do not consist of indolence, sloppy dressing, long hair, nonconformity (even the reading of books), radical and liberal unrealistic ideas and programs, irreverence toward custom and property, contempt for established idols, and so on. The wickedest people in the Book of Mormon are the Zoramites, a proud, independent, courageous, industrious, enterprising, patriotic, prosperous people who attended strictly to their weekly religious duties with the proper observance of dress standards. Thanking God for all He had given them, they bore testimony to His goodness. They were sustained in all their doings by a perfectly beautiful self-image. Well, what is wrong with any of that? There is just one thing that spoils it all, and that is the very thing that puts Israel in bad with the Lord, according to Isaiah. The Jews observed with strictest regularity all the rules that Moses gave them—”and yet . . . they cry unto thee” and yet they are really thinking of something else. “Behold, O my God, their costly apparel, . . . all their precious things . . . their hearts are set upon them, and yet they cry unto thee and say—We thank thee, O God, for we are a chosen people unto thee, while others shall perish” (Alma 31:27–28; emphasis added).

 “Great are the words of Isaiah” (3 Nephi 23:1). We have been commanded to search them, study them, ponder them, take them to heart, and understand that the calamities and the blessings therein are meant for our own generation. May the words of this great prophet prepare us for these calamities and blessings is my prayer."

full text

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I have believed for a long time now that most all the 'active' members & leaders of the LDS Church are just like the Zoramites, completely blind to their own pride and the evil they do & support, & their neglect and persecution of the poor, especially the widows that the fatherless, all the while feeling so very righteous and better than others of other faiths or better than those who leave the LDS Church because of all the evil being preached & practiced from the top to the bottom.

I know so many more non-LDS who are more Christlike and live the Gospel better than LDS. In fact I don't think I know any LDS person or leader today who is righteous and not easily deceived to support or do evil.

Anonymous said...

Three ways Isaiah will be understood: 1) If we are taught in the ways of the Jews. (Very rare.) 2) If we have the spirit of prophecy. (Even more rare.) 3) Once the events come to pass, we will finally see. (Maybe too late, to our dismay and regret.)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 5:06PM,
I couldn't agree with you more! In my previous ward I personally saw the HP Group leader and a band of his cronies persecute elderly widows who had the temerity to come to Home Owner Assn meetings and ask to have the very same "rights" (such as pruning trees, weeding, shoveling driveways, repairing sprinklers, etc.) that those "brethren" were receiving from the HOA fees. Yet, on Sunday those same "righteous brethren" would stand up in F&T mtg and in PH mtg and proclaim their testimonies of the Lord and His Prophet. Hypocrites, pharisees, liars!
The HP Group Leader eventually came to my home one evening to ask why I stopped attending PH mtgs. I told him it was because I couldn't stand to sit in the same room with a bunch of hypocrites who persecute elderly widows. He never came back after that.
JR

AndEva said...

I love to read Isaiah, I would love even more to comprehend and understand it. May the scales of my eyes be removed.

Anonymous said...

Good for you JR. I'm glad you spoke out about what you see. I have seen it in every ward, I have never been able to find a righteous Bishop or Stake Pres. All the one's I have had have supported the vilest of evils and not done their most important duty, that of providing for and protecting women, especially widows & single mothers.

Even the things I see and know that the President of the Church and the other G.A.'s are doing and supporting also disgust me terribly.

But for years I couldn't figure out how this all could be going on and how leaders could be so evil if this was the Lord's Church, then a few years ago I found out that Joseph never preached or practiced polygamy and it all made sense, the Church had gone completely astray & lost it's Priesthood power & authority & keys because of wickedness at the top, starting with early leaders like Brigham Young. Thus Christ no longer led this Church.

After Joseph died, the Church went into the deep latter day apostasy that BoM prophets saw & foretold of today. Brigham Young was a false or fallen prophets that led many of the Saints to dwindle in unbelief & to commit abominations, and it has only got worse since then.

The leaders and members, except a few, are so corrupt because they have been completely deceived by false prophets and false doctrine, so they can do evil and still act righteous. They all seem past feeling.

So the Church isn't true anymore, the LDS Church is just another apostate break off from the original true Church, like the RLDS or FLDS are. Yet the leaders keep the members so dumb down by telling them that they can never lead them astray. Those who have the Spirit though and who study Church history and the words of true prophets like Joseph Smith, know that this is totally false and that anyone even Prophets can and do usually fall too and teach falsehoods and led people astray.

Most all of the apostles in Joseph's day fell, why would we think it wouldn't be the same today? Yet most blindly believe that it could never happen, for they don't study church history, so they are doomed to repeat it.

The few righteous around the world have to just wait for Christ and Joseph to return to restore the truth and true authority to the earth.

Fortunately we have the Holy Scriptures and personal revelation to help us see & do right until then.

Anonymous said...

Did Isaiah preach about this latter day apostasy too? Like the Prophets of the BoM did?

I do wonder where the true Prophets are today, for there must be some upon the earth. I do believe God will keep trying to send us true prophets to get us to repent, even though the Saints & world rejected the Prophet Joseph Smith and refused to listen to and heed his counsels & thus they lost him, for they wanted to follow false prophets like Brigham Young and commit whoredoms instead, for its so much easier.

The 2 true prophets that are foretold to preach in Jerusalem will probably show up soon.

I do not believe they will have anything to do with the LDS Church, except that they will accept the BoM as true and Joseph Smith as a true prophet.

Anonymous said...

good blog essay--

I've met good bishops, but most of them are mainstream (I've even known some good stake presidents; I don't think it's accurate to say that everyone who is LDS is 'wrong' or 'bad')--

there aren't many in the church who weren't raised to follow the mainstream American culture, which is ruthless and cruel and Babylonian and very success-oriented--

sometimes some of us wake up and try to break away, but I don't know anyone who doesn't have a job--

it's a constant hard work and effort to keep focused on Zion in this very fallen world--

Hugh Nibley's words were very good, and I love Isaiah--

I keep looking for and thinking about the City of Enoch; can't get it out of my mind--

I'm ready to go there and drop all my coins before the city gates--

and go in empty-handed . . .--

Anonymous said...

"I'm ready to go there and drop all my coins before the city gates--
and go in empty-handed..."

It will never be handed to us on a silver platter. We must rise to the intelligence of the City of Enoch who lifted their city, land, animals, homes, every dog and cat, everything from this planet and transported it to the abode of God. We are nowhere near that level of intelligence and those who think otherwise, or that the Second Coming could be any day now are setting themselves up for the false Christs.

Anonymous said...

10:29 a.m.

Give me your scriptural proof of that; all Jesus asks for is a broken heart and a contrite spirit--

I can't raise myself to anything, sir or ma'am--

Jesus can raise me, and I am His.

Your perspective is very darwinistic for a blog that talks about Zion--

I won't need coins in the city of Enoch--

and in the D&C *we* are told that the City of Enoch will come down, and we and they will weep on each others' necks--

that doesn't sound like people who are arrogantly superior to me--

Most of the time when people say that the Second Coming is far away, I have to wonder to myself if that person is someone who does not want Christ to come, for whatever reason.

Anonymous said...

sorry, that last comment to the person who used the term "silver platter" should have been addressed to:

10:50 a.m.

This anonymous (*me*) was 10:29 a.m.--

Anonymous said...

All I know is that if the 2nd coming doesn't come very soon, there will be no one left to save, as the scriptures say.

For it seems almost impossible to find a righteous person even today.

Unknown said...

In my opioun the most amazing teacher of Isaiah is Avraham G. Just read below tesistomys and feel the spirit as you read them.

Check out Avraham Gileadi's exceptional in-depth commentary on Isaiah.

http://isaiahexplained.com/

Be sure to click on the Flash Presentation of the Analytical Commentary of Isaiah.It opens a window with a flash presentation player, letting you to listen to Dr. Gileadi teach each chapter. TESTIMONIALS


“Dr. Gileadi’s work will render obsolete almost all the speculations of Isaiah scholars over the last one hundred years, enabling scholarship to proceed along an entirely new line, opening new avenues of approach for others to follow”—Professor Roland K. Harrison, Wycliffe College, Toronto, Canada.

“Only one who is truly at home not only with the Hebrew but with the ancient manner of biblical thought could have produced such an insightful and ground-breaking book”—Professor S. Douglas Waterhouse, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.

“Dr. Gileadi has achieved a major breakthrough in the investigation of a book of such complexity and importance as the Book of Isaiah”—Professor David Noel Freedman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“Dr. Gileadi has clearly demonstrated his mastery of the Book of Isaiah and of the scholarly literature dealing with it”—Professor Ronald Youngblood, Bethel Theological Seminary, San Diego, California.

“Dr. Gileadi is the only LDS scholar I know of who is thoroughly competent to teach the words of Isaiah”—Professor Hugh Nibley, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. (1. 6. 2003)

“Dr. Gileadi’s translation [of the Book of Isaiah] is clear and smooth, allowing the reader to appreciate the power and beauty of Isaiah as conveyed in the Hebrew original”—Professor Herbert M. Wolf, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.

“Dr. Gileadi has produced a translation of the Book of Isaiah which is modern in its linguistic approach, but which also preserves all the values of more traditional renderings. This constitutes an advance upon other modern translations”—Professor R. K. Harrison, Editor-in-Chief, New King James Version.

“Isaiah Decoded is a huge breakthrough for the seeker of truth. Gileadi has brought to light eternal truths about the nature of God and our relationship to him that have lain buried for centuries in the dust of time”—Guy Wins, fifth-generation Jewish diamond dealer from Antwerp, Belgium.

“Gileadi is the only scholar I know who has been able to express the Jewish expectation of the Messiah in relation to the life and mission of Jesus of Nazareth”—Daniel Rona, Israeli tour guide, Jerusalem, Israel.

“Dr. Gileadi has awakened a whole new depth of my understanding of Isaiah’s prophetic message. His books and tapes illuminate the urgent relevance of Isaiah’s writings to our own day”—Becky Douglas, supervisor and sponsor of three orphanages in India, Atlanta, Georgia.

“Gileadi has uncovered an amazing message written in a divine code by the prophet–poet Isaiah. This will give comfort, hope, and joy to masses of people as they cope with the perplexing events now unfolding before their eyes”—Fenton Tobler, thirty years school principal, Las Vegas, Nevada.

“What power of understanding Dr. Gileadi has brought through the Book of Isaiah! He is surely to Isaiah and the end-time as Isaac Newton was to science and the Age of Enlightenment”—Kaye Bullock, midwife of over 2,000 home births, Tucson, Arizona.