The Book of Isaiah The Vision (The Passion Translation (TPT))

One of my favorite passages is the one in which Jesus is quoting Isaiah or reading from the book of Isaiah when he says that the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to open the eyes of the blind, to set the captives free, to preach the year of the Lord's favor or the year of the Lord's freedom.

the Book of Isaiah as part of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

the Book of Isaiah.

They haven't rewritten the book on how the election is going to be conducted in North Carolina.

Looking back to AJ Brown reading a book on the sideline after a game, do you look back at that and think, okay, that was ridiculous?

But he does it all the time. You know, he tries to find ways to keep himself in the game.

And, you know, that's just the way the game flows. It always changes. And I think that's just a way that he found that he can stay calm, stay in the moment.

It was cool to see everybody else buy the book and all the, you know, he even brought it out at the Super Bowl, which was pretty funny.

A few years ago, I published my book and Sheryl Sandberg, who's a friend of mine, threw me a book party.

for everything I know about perceptual psychology there's a great book called Vision as a oh god now I can't remember the name of books that's a memory trouble I'll remember it no worries

for everything I know about perceptual psychology there's a great book called Vision as a oh god now I can't remember the name of the books that's a memory trouble I'll remember it

I'm so proud of the new book and I'm so excited about it. And congratulations for getting it out.

I feel like I never really could have anticipated in my life before now to be a person banned from entering Russia.

Same.

I'm saying exactly getting the handoff from somebody who is banned from entering Russia.

We're both banned. We can't do our shows. We're currently in the same studio. We can't do our shows in Moscow. So we know that. Let us never take spring break in Siberia together, Jen. We can't. We can't.

The books of the Bible, like Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Matthew, and Revelation.

We've talked about this f**king ad nauseum in the book go check it out it's all in there

The book of the prophet Isaiah chapter 11, the shoot from the stump of Jesse and the peaceful kingdom.

The book of the prophet Isaiah is hit after hit. I mean, it's so good.

Overall, when you're looking at the book of the prophet Isaiah, it is both before the exile and during the exile, right? Now Isaiah is, he's primarily a prophet to the South, right? He's primarily a prophet to the kingdom of Judah.

Now remember back in second Kings and in second Chronicles, we had Isaiah. Isaiah was present and he was present there with King Hezekiah when Hezekiah had to face down the Assyrians.

As we might've noted is the book of the prophet Isaiah can kind of sort of be divided into, we'll say two main sections. Some people divide it into three. We're gonna divide it into just two main sections. The book of condemnation, you might call it the book of woe, yeah, book of woe, we'll call it book of woe and the book of consolation.

So the book of woe would be from chapters one to 39. So you guys, for the next number of days, we're gonna stay with that book of woe and it's gonna be that kind of stuff of just come back. Why aren't you repenting?

And then after that, from chapter 40 to chapter 66 to the end of the book of prophet Isaiah, we're having the book of consolation where there's so much consolation going on of like, yes. So God has not abandoned you.

In fact, chapter 11 begins with this incredible, chapter 11 and 12, but chapter 11 begins with this consolation. What's it say? There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

And so even in the book of woe, we have this consolation and even more consolation because right after that, it says, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

Remember when Jesus goes into the synagogue in Nazareth, he enrolls the scroll and he teaches and he proclaims from Isaiah, but it's Isaiah chapter 61. So 50 chapters from here that Jesus quotes from where he says the spirit of the Lord is upon me.

And we realize that the spirit of the Lord here in chapter 11 is the same spirit of the Lord prophesied in chapter 61 and is the same spirit of the Lord that is upon Jesus as he is preaching and proclaiming the good news to the people in Nazareth.

And he stood up to read and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.

But here we get to see it in the context of, as you said, here is the king.

And it's just wow. So good. I mean, we recognize that God's justice and his mercy are not opposed to each other, that God's justice and his mercy are completely commensurate with each other.

It says here it says that you burn with lust among the oaks under every green tree.

It also goes on to say among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion they are your lot of to them you poured out a drink offering you have brought a cereal offering.

and that same remember all that stuff in Leviticus all that in Numbers and Deuteronomy about the the drink offering you know the drink libation that that cereal offering here's God saying you're still doing that but you're doing it to false gods.

It also goes on to say that you offered your sacrifice and you journeyed to Moloch with oil and multiplied your perfumes.

So Moloch remember that that false god we mentioned before they'd often have a metal statue of Moloch with arms outstretched in his hands or where his hands would be would be this receptacle area and people would hyper heat heat up the statue maybe put even embers or fire in the hands area and then place their own children their own infants babies into this place.

So we have some crossover but in 10 days we are going to come to a conclusion in some ways, not a conclusion, we're coming to a let's call it a marker and that marker is going to be taking a deep dive into the works and the words of the prophets. But today it is day 181 we're reading 2 Kings 15 all of the book of the prophet Jonah 1 through 4 and praying Psalm 138.

as it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, Do you understand what you are reading?

Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this, As a sheep led to the slaughter, or a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth.

Daniel has some incredible prophecies for Jesus just like Isaiah had prophecies of the anointed one who would come and Ezekiel talked about you know that the heart in us and same with with Jeremiah.

It is the Lord's suffering servant and if nothing else, it is one of the most clear proclamations and prophecies of Jesus Christ in his suffering for us, for our sins.

Gosh you guys how phenomenal is chapter 53 of Isaiah that is it is worth going back you know it's the very first thing we read today and so um it's one of those things where you could go back and just listen again and again or open up your bibles and just underline these things that the reality of here's Jesus Christ the Lord's suffering servant prophesied 600 years 700 years before he was made incarnate on this earth he was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and he goes on talking about how he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows that he looked abandoned right struck down by God he looked afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities and it is just bonkers as i said at the beginning of this it is crazy to realize the goodness of God and and what he's done for us now that's that chapter 53 and chapter 54 mercy and comfort is offered and and that's this massive message here that you know so many of us experience shame right we experience the guilt of our sins and that's accurate that's what we should we should if i've done something wrong i should feel guilty if i don't feel guilty that means i am a sociopath right um but we also experience shame and one of the things that shame wants to do you know guilt is i know i've sinned against the standard shame is often i know that you know that i've sinned against the standard right when guilt is i know i i've failed uh shame is when i've failed in your eyes right that's one of the ways you can maybe define it and yet in chapter 54 God says to his people through Isaiah fear not you will not be ashamed be not confounded for you will not be put to shame you will forget the shame of your youth and the fact that you were abandoned at one point and i love this is God's word for your maker is your husband it's that sense of like here's your creator is your beloved and and just like here's a wife that was cast off you'll be gathered back by the one who loves you the one who knows you more than anyone else and it's just incredible God's offer of mercy his offer of compassion his offer of comfort remember this is the book of comfort the previous book 1 through 39 of Isaiah the book of woe and 40 through 66 this is the book of comfort and says God's promise we only have i think 11 chapters left in Isaiah but just what a gift to be able to to hear God's word that offers so much comfort because you know we jump over then to Ezekiel which is remember he is writing to people who are in Babylon they're already exiled and one of the things that he's letting them know again this is again and again remember he's had his visions in chapters 8 through 11 Ezekiel had his vision of being transported to Jerusalem and seeing that the people who still remained in Jerusalem had not turned back to God yet they had they had abandoned him and so here is God abandoning his presence leaving the temple and this is going to be very important one of the things that i did not highlight and i should have when it comes to chapter 11 again even in the midst of God's taking his spirit taking his his presence that glory cloud and leaving even in the midst of that is a promise and i didn't mention this promise i mean read it but i didn't point it out but it's chapter 11 verse 19 it says this it says i will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them i will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them and they shall be my people and i will be their God and that is so incredible you know if you haven't underlined that one that's a good good piece to underline is chapter 11 verse 19 and 20 and it just again why because God's people have been false to him and we have been false to him that's why the next couple chapters are all about judgment will not be delayed you keep thinking this is not going to come to you but it's going to come to you false prophets are condemned the ones who are just saying here's what i think as opposed to here's what God is saying and then we have today idolatry condemned and what what does it say it says that you've taken your idols and put them into your heart these things that are outside of you now we don't necessarily have idols in the sense that we have you know an image of a God or a goddess that we will give our hearts to but we do have idols in terms of the things that we love more than anything else in fact our relationship with God is meant to be such that he tolerates no rivals to his place in our heart now there's a lot of things in our lives that you can have rivals to it like you have more than one friend you can have more than one new child you know you can have more than one aunt or uncle or cousin you have more than one you know buddies whatever but you can't have more than one spouse and God has said like listen you can your maker will be your spouse and God is saying that you know just like any good spouse would say like no i don't tolerate any rivals to my spouse in this relationship and so whenever we allow something to be God's arrival in our lives God's arrival to our heart his place in our heart that's what he's talking about when taking his idol into his heart and putting the stumbling block of iniquity before his face and that's what the people of Israel are doing but they're actually doing it by turning away from God they're actually intentionally turning away from the Lord God to false gods we sometimes slip into this and we end up giving our lives and spending our lives for things that do not are not worthy of your life right there might be things you need to do maybe work might be family might be the things that just yeah they're important but they have taken the place of God in our lives and because of that our lives then end up becoming useless and this is what the message of chapter 15 is the useless vine the Lord God says speak to speak this what good is wood from vines you can't do anything with it you can't make anything with it you can't do anything with it now take that vine branch and put it in fire and the ends get burned the whole thing gets charred it is even more useless and what God is saying through Isaiah is that's what Jerusalem has become like that's what the inhabitants of Jerusalem have become like no they were chosen not because they were great not because they were they were wise or more beautiful or more powerful than all the nations God says so many times I chose you because I chose you I chose you because I wanted you I chose you because I can take how small you are and how ineffective on your own you are how weak you are and make you glorious because of my glory but now if you've turned away from me you're even more useless right yeah there's even less that someone can do with you and that is just so remarkable last little note here in chapter 14 God mentions through Isaiah three people Noah Daniel and Job now Daniel Ezekiel would have known Daniel remember Daniel was in the first exile first deportation from Jerusalem to Babylon and he was known as a righteous person right he was known as a Jew who remained faithful even in the midst of exile and so he's a good example Job again righteous man of God Noah obviously righteous man of God and one of the things God is saying through Ezekiel that even these three men who are incredibly righteous that when judgment comes even their righteousness won't even save their own kids even their righteousness won't even save their own kids it'll save their lives but it won't even save the lives of their children and one of the things that that highlights is yes we need to pursue righteousness we need to pursue right relationship with the Lord but also we need to just pray that the people around us you know we can't make anyone do anything we can only control ourselves but we also recognize that we just ask okay Lord you're drawing me closer and closer to yourself on these 216 days of reading your Bible reading your word listening to your word proclaimed God I want to intercede on behalf of my own kids and we're going to intercede on behalf of my parents my siblings my nieces nephews my cousins my aunts and uncles like all the people in my life my my co-workers because I want them to choose you the way that you've allowed me to choose you and that's the prayer we just got to pray for each other because yeah the people who are us who are journeying in this Bible and here this this community we're so grateful to the Lord but there's also people we know that um this would change their life this would change their life and so we're just praying for them that at one point God sparks that that desire that hunger for his word and they were able to just you know someday just press play so I'm praying for them let's pray for them please pray for me I'm praying for you my name is Father Mike and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow God bless

It is the Lord's suffering servant and if nothing else, it is one of the most clear proclamations and prophecies of Jesus Christ in his suffering for us, for our sins.

It is crazy to realize the goodness of God and and what he's done for us.

Gosh you guys how phenomenal is chapter 53 of Isaiah that is it is worth going back you know it's the very first thing we read today and so um it's one of those things where you could go back and just listen again and again or open up your bibles and just underline these things that the reality of here's Jesus Christ the Lord's suffering servant prophesied 600 years 700 years before he was made incarnate on this earth he was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and he goes on talking about how he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows that he looked abandoned right struck down by God he looked afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities and it is just bonkers as i said at the beginning of this it is crazy to realize the goodness of God and and what he's done for us.

Remember this is the book of comfort the previous book 1 through 39 of Isaiah the book of woe and 40 through 66 this is the book of comfort.

Awake, awake, put on your strength, oh arm of the Lord, awake as in days of old, the generations of long ago.

Awake to good tidings of redemption.

Awake awake put on your strength O Zion put on your beautiful garments O Jerusalem the holy city for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.

For thus says the Lord you were sold for nothing and you shall be redeemed without money.

My servant shall prosper he shall be exalted and lifted up shall be very high as many were astonished at him his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and is formed beyond that of the sons of men so shall he startle many nations kings shall shut their mouths because of him for that which has not been told them they shall see and that which they have not heard they shall understand.

Isaiah is a book with 66 chapters, chapters 1 through 39, book of Woe, even though in the midst of the Woe, we had Consolation, 40 to 66, we have the book of Consolation.

And so it begins with what? The word Consolation, essentially, comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

God gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

It is going to be incredibly important. So I was reading a commentary that said that chapter 18 of the book of Isaiah is the most vague and obscure of all of the chapters.

And once again, there's always this call, get rid of your idols, because what's going to happen is the Lord says, I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians. They'll fight, they'll fight against each other, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

And they'll get rid of all of, I need to get rid of all of these idols. And in fact, those false gods of the Egyptians, they have to be defeated at some point, they have to be defeated.

It's almost, it's so powerful that it's confusing because the Lord says in that day, this is the end of chapter 19. The Lord says in that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed.

blessed be Egypt, my people and Assyria, the work of my hands and Israel, my heritage.

we're going to go through all of Isaiah, all of Ezekiel, all of Jeremiah and all the minor prophets as well.

And Isaiah lived at that time.

And he actually speaks to Ahaz in Isaiah chapter seven, I believe it is.

And later on in Isaiah, we're going to hear about Uzziah again.

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face who shall prepare your way.

We shall realize the prophecy of Isaiah. There will no longer be stealing at your borders and your gates will be of glory.

Including the new Speaker of the House, which we'll get into specifically with that reference to we will fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah.

But it also without coming out and directly saying it is an indication of the entire land from the river to the sea, as they said, should be our land.

For those who are Christians, I'm sorry. I didn't grow up Christian. You know, I don't know anything about the Bible or the prophecy of Isaiah or whatever.

It is why evangelical Christian groups often make pilgrimages to Israel because it's described as like the final battleground.

Reverend White was reading from the book a loop to a tall drunk trucker about the puke he had John 316 memorized trying to dry his ass out to get him baptized.

This book, on the other hand, is 66 chapters long. ... Isaiah's prophetic ministry spanned 40 years, so that's a lot of time to say a lot of things.

In one of the ancient clay pots, they discovered the entire book of Isaiah on one long scroll, 21 feet long. And today's Hebrew version of the book of Isaiah is the very same as that ancient copy, to the very letter.

Joe Biden also had in a very similar matter classified documents, though Biden admitted he had classified documents intentionally to make money off of, to write a book.

This has been the thing that is, I know I wrote a book about this, I'm supposed to know, and I'm supposed to be the one that the experts, but it's the thing that's most flummoxed me.

I did one with Maggie Smith, who is a poet whose book is on the bestseller list right now.

Isaiah 117 says, 'do good, seek justice, take care of the widow, take care of the orphan.'

That just became our family verse, Isaiah 117.

He's written a book. And I think it's like the book is telling one side of his life. Like, I lived with this mom who didn't have a lot of money. Don't mention that his dad was super rich and gave him all kinds of safaris to Africa and money to start a business.

the single most irresponsible thing I have ever heard of a prosecutor or special prosecutor ever doing

And then Pomerantz wrote a book about it, which frankly isn't helpful because by Pomerantz writing a book, now Jim Jordan is able to argue, well, you wrote a book about it. So now you can't testify.

The seven year old is probably somewhere around here reading a book.

For instance, when you come to the Book of Moroni, you're not going to find a single and it came to pass. Not one because there's no storyline. It's one of those amazing internal consistencies.

The Bible dictionary is a treasure. Look up the meaning of names and Isaiah, the ya at the end of all those names of so many characters in this time period is Jehovah and the Lord is salvation is the meaning of Isaiah.

We have this chapter in our old Testament, but here Nephi is talking to his family.

We have changed our area code, but we are still the covenant people and we still have a covenant obligation and a covenant promise.

They're going to reinterpret Scripture, reinterpret Isaiah and other places according to their experience.

That's really important to understand because they're seeing themselves as part of the scattering, but they also want to understand Isaiah and not just the scattering, but part of the gathering.

Whereas Isaiah is gathering back to the land, there's this realization that they're never going to come back to this land.

Now they're looking for their gathering in another land and trying to understand it.

We're used to pointing that out in Isaiah. We have these prophecies that come, the destructions and then the blessings.

He's going to be beckoned to eat a book and it's a bittersweet book.

And then another one is called called the Vision of All, 25 lectures on Isaiah in Nephi's record, really bless your life in understanding the book of Mormon,

I don't know if there's a better way to describe the Lord than Isaiah got there in Isaiah 61.

Yeah, he knew exactly where to go. I don't know if they handed him the book or if he chose the one, but I love that that's how it's characterized.

We're in another section of Isaiah and we needed an expert to join us.

And so many members of the church, when they hear Isaiah, they think, oh no, I can't do it.

Isaiah, one of the greatest Old Testament prophets, but he was such a poet and a scholar and an advisor to kings.

And then he says, keep the law of Moses because you were asked to, but salvation comes in Christ. What's Isaiah's name again? Jehovah is salvation.

And that's why I love Isaiah because he reveals the savior. 740 years before Jesus. Yeah. And yet he gives us such detail about Christ so that we would recognize him when he came.

I've heard it said that Isaiah is one of the best writers in the history of the world, if not the best writer in the history of the world.

So good that Jesus himself said a commandment I give unto you that you search Isaiah diligently as we study Isaiah.

It also helps understand the Isaiah passages better. When you get a big stretch like 12-24 in 2 Nephi, you know we always have a hard time dragging Sam through those.

See, we're not used to that. Sometimes I think we overdo, we're here to learn and grow, and we're going to learn something from this.

And that maybe for Nephi, part of it was just the beauty of Isaiah.

Isaiah's wife is called a prophetess.

So, like when you read 2 Kings, right? When you read the Bible, like sometimes you can get a Bible on your phone where it'll put the reference and it'll show you, oh, this is also recorded in this other book and that will give you a different point of view. Or this is quoted by Jesus or Jesus is quoting Isaiah, right?

So, I was clicking around and I found how Isaiah's book, which is, you know, written about many events and different kings that he prophesied to has what Hezekiah wrote after he recovered.

He says, and this is Isaiah 38 verse 17, Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish.

Surely it was for my benefit that I got a new house. Surely it was for my benefit that I got a promotion. Surely it's for my benefit that God gave me the child.

And he starts pouring out his heart to God, not when he was still sick, but after he was made well. So, it's another example of going back. Oh, back. Going back. Yeah, he's going back and he's looking at what he went through, through the experiences of what he learned because he went through them.

In Isaiah 40, verse 31, they that wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount upon wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and not be faint.

You know what verse 28 says? I have to show it to you. It says, 'Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary. In his understanding no man can fathom.'

It's kind of like Isaiah 55, where God says, As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.

Then he took me all the way back to Isaiah, who said, 'My ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts.'