LATEST POSTS

Miracles

Wonder Upon Wonder

Isaiah prophesied that God would do “a marvellous work and a wonder” among His people. The NIV stays closer to the Hebrew, rendering it: “wonder upon wonder.” One thing that makes God’s work wonderful is that He allows ordinary people to carry it out.

Scripture

Hearing the Words of the Book

God warned Isaiah that the people wouldn’t understand him because their ears would be heavy and their eyes shut. But Isaiah later prophesied that a book, which Nephi identified as the Book of Mormon, would overcome this spiritual blindness and deafness. Personal scripture study can help us to perceive and understand more accurately.

Scripture

The Sealed Book

Isaiah illustrates the spiritual blindness of Israel with two examples: an educated man who can’t read a book because it’s sealed, and an uneducated man who protests that he isn’t learned. In Nephi’s version of the story, God helps the uneducated man read, affirming that He is able to do His work.

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

COME, FOLLOW ME

  • Comfort Ye My People

    Christ in the Land Bountiful, by Simon Dewey

    This week’s reading includes the first two chapters that Nephi quotes from the book of Isaiah. Nephi introduces Isaiah 48 and 49 as chapters that he used to “more fully persuade” his brothers “to believe in the Lord their Redeemer” (1 Nephi 19:23).

    These two chapters, in fact, repeatedly refer to God as our Lord and our Redeemer. Similar references appear throughout the chapters we will study this week. For example:

    • “Fear not, … I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 41:14).
    • “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine” (Isaiah 43:1).
    • “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee” (Isaiah 44:22).
    • “Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob” (Isaiah 48:20; compare 1 Nephi 20:20).
    • “All flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob” (Isaiah 49:26; compare 1 Nephi 21:26).

    The chapters collectively convey a message of hope: God is powerful, and He will rescue us from oppression, including the self-oppression caused by our own sins.

    This week, as we study Isaiah 40-49, let’s look for Isaiah’s assurances that the Lord is our Redeemer, that we can rely on Him to deliver us from everything that holds us captive.

FEATURED POSTS

  • A Hundredth Part: Mormon’s Editorial Decisions

    A Hundredth Part: Mormon’s Editorial Decisions

    Book of Mormon authors made it clear how much they were leaving out as they wrote this “abridgment” of their history. Here’s a diagram showing how many words are dedicated to each of the 103 decades in the book.

  • Jesus Christ’s Sermon at the Temple in Bountiful – 3 Nephi 12-16, 20-22

    Jesus Christ’s Sermon at the Temple in Bountiful – 3 Nephi 12-16, 20-22

    Following His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ visited a group of people in the Americas. He taught them principles to help them deepen their discipleship, and He expanded their perspective by teaching them about God’s global, multigenerational work.

  • Names and Titles of Jesus Christ

    Names and Titles of Jesus Christ

    In March, 2019, I studied 20 different names or titles of Jesus Christ which appear in the Book of Mormon. I was particularly interested in the way each name was used, both in the Book of Mormon and in the Bible.