Old Testament Scriptural Summaries and Commentary

The Book of Isaiah, Selections from chapters 22-30

Gospel Doctrine Class, Sunday School Lesson #37

"Thou Hast Done Wonderful Things" Isaiah 25:1

Reference: Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Teacher's Manual, (2001), 179-82

Selections from the Book of Isaiah

            As stated in lesson #36, for Isaiah all things point to Christ.  In lesson #37, the Sunday School Gospel Doctrine Manual stresses the writings of Isaiah that teach what Christ has done for all mankind.  Using these scriptures the manual lists nine "wonderful" ways that our Savior provides for us to "come unto him."  These teachings will be quoted with the corresponding scriptures from Isaiah along with scriptures from other holy texts, and some commentary from the manual.  We are again reminded that  Isaiah's words are filled with symbolic language. "This language does not teach directly, so we must examine and ponder Isaiah’s words to discover the truths they teach" (Old Testament: Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, (2001), 179–82).

1. The Savior opens the door to Heavenly Father's presence

Isaiah 22:22 - "And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open."

"This is a symbolic way of saying the Savior has the power to admit or exclude any person from Heavenly Father’s presence" (Old Testament: Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual, (2001), 179–82). 

Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 9:41 - "O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name."

2 Nephi 9:45 - "O, my beloved brethren, turn away from your sins; shake off the chains [spiritual death] of him that would bind you fast; come unto that God who is the rock [Jesus Christ] of your salvation."

2. The Savior shows mercy for those in spirit prison

Isaiah 24:21-22 - "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

 22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited."

Isaiah 42:5-7 - 5"Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:  6  I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;  7  To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house."

Doctrine and Covenants - 138:32 - "Thus was the gospel preached to those who had died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets."

3. The Savior is a strength and a refuge

Isaiah 24:4 -  "For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall."

Isaiah 32:1-2 - "1 Behold, a king [the Savior] shall reign in righteousness, and princes [leaders] shall rule in judgment.  2 And a man [see v. 1] shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."

4.  The Savior will prepare a feast and destroy the “vail.”

Isaiah 25:6-7 -  6 "And in this mountain [symbolic of the temple] shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined (A feast of the words and teachings of Christ, OT Gospel Doctrine Manual).  7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations." (Symbolically it often represents the unbelief that prevents people from truly coming to Christ) (OT Gospel Doctrine Manual).

Pearl of Great Price - Moses 7:26 - And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced.

5. The Savior wipes away our tears

Isaiah 25:8-9 - 8 "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke [reproach, blame] of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.  9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."

"[To wipe away our tears suggests] a tender gesture that is shared only by people who love and trust each other deeply" (OT Gospel Doctrine Manual).

New Testament - Revelation 21:4 - "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

“All fear of this death has been removed from the Latter-day Saints. They have no dread of the temporal death, because they know that as death came upon them by the transgression of Adam, so by the righteousness of Jesus Christ shall life come unto them, and though they die, they shall live again. Possessing this knowledge, they have joy even in death, for they know that they shall rise again and shall meet again beyond the grave. They know that the spirit dies not at all; that it passes through no change, except the change from imprisonment in this mortal clay to freedom and to the sphere in which it acted before it came to this earth” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 428).

Death, Physical: "The separation of the body and the spirit. The Fall brought mortality and death to the earth (2 Ne. 2:22; Moses 6:48). The atonement of Jesus Christ conquered death so that everyone will be resurrected (1 Cor. 15:21–23). Resurrection is a free gift to all people regardless of whether they have done good or evil in this life (Alma 11:42–44). Each person suffers only one physical death since once we are resurrected, our bodies can die no more (Alma 11:45)." (LDS.org, The Guide to the Scriptures.)

6. The Savior will bring the Resurrection

 Isaiah 26:19 - "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise [be resurrected]. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."

New Testament - 1 Corinthians  15:20-22 - "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.  21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (resurrected to immortality).

"The Prophet Joseph Smith said: When the voice calls for the dead to arise, … what would be the first joy of my heart? To meet my father, my mother, my brother, my sister; and when they are by my side, I embrace them and they me” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 295–96, quoted from OT Gospel Doctrine Manual, 179-82).

Resurrection: "The reuniting of the spirit body with the physical body of flesh and bones after death. After resurrection, the spirit and body will never again be separated, and the person will become immortal. Every person born on earth will be resurrected because Jesus Christ overcame death (1 Cor. 15:20–22)."  (LDS.org, The Guide to the Scriptures.)

7. The Savior is our sure foundation

Isaiah 28:16 - "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste."

Book of Mormon - Helaman 5:12 -  "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."

D&C 50:44 - "Wherefore, I am in your midst, and I am the good shepherd, and the stone of Israel. He that buildeth upon this rock shall never fall."

New Testament - Ephesians - 2:19-20 - "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;  20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;"

8. The Savior will restore the gospel to the earth

Isaiah 29:4, 9-10, 13, 14, 18, 24 - 4 "And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust" [The Book of Mormon].

Book of Mormon - Moroni 10:27 - "for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust?"

9 - Isaiah prophesies of a time of spiritual darkness: "Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 10 For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. 13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:"

Pearl of Great Price - Joseph Smith History 1:18-19 - 18 "My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.

 19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: 'they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.'”

11 - Isaiah prophesies of a "sealed" book - "And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: 12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned."

Joseph Smith History 1:63-65 - 63 “Sometime in this month of February, the aforementioned Mr. Martin Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates, and started with them to the city of New York. For what took place relative to him and the characters, I refer to his own account of the circumstances, as he related them to me after his return, which was as follows:  64  ‘I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated, and he said that they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters. He gave me a certificate, certifying to the people of Palmyra that they were true characters, and that the translation of such of them as had been translated was also correct. I took the certificate and put it into my pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr. Anthon called me back, and asked me how the young man found out that there were gold plates in the place where he found them. I answered that an angel of God had revealed it unto him.  65 He then said to me, "Let me see that certificate." I accordingly took it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and tore it to pieces, saying that there was no such thing now as ministering of angels, and that if I would bring the plates to him he would translate them. I informed him that part of the plates were sealed, and that I was forbidden to bring them. He replied, "I cannot read a sealed book." I left him and went to Dr. Mitchell, who sanctioned what Professor Anthon had said respecting both the characters and the translation.’”

14  - Isaiah prophesies of the Book of Mormon - "Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid."

D&C4:1 -  "Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men."

18 - "And in that day [the latter days] shall the deaf hear the words of the book [of Mormon], and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of [spiritual] darkness."

Book of Mormon - 1 Nephi 22:12 - "Wherefore, he will bring them again out of captivity, and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their inheritance; and they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is their Savior and their Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel."

24 - "They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine."

9. The Savior knows our trials and directs our paths

Isaiah 30:19-21 - "For the people [who] shall dwell in Zion [the pure in heart] at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he [the Lord] will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry [prayers]; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:  21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."

Book of Mormon - Alma 37:37 - "Counsel [pray] with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

Book of Mormon - Mosiah 23:21 - The hard crust on the bread of adversity - “Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith” (See lds.org, CR,  "Irony: The Crust On The Bread Of Adversity," Neal A. Maxwell Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, April 1989.)