Isaiah 43-44

Isaiah 43-44 Study Guide – to be discussed March 15
Day 1: Read Isaiah 43:1-7 (with footnotes 1a, 6b, 7a), Genesis 1:27, Genesis 2:7
1. Read Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:7 with Isaiah 43:1 and Isaiah 43:7. What verbs, used in Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:7 in the context of God’s relationship with man, are repeated in both Isaiah 43:1 and Isaiah 43:7? What does this tell you about the Lord? About you?*


2. From Isaiah 43:2 and Isaiah 43:4, how do we know we can trust God?


3. Read Isaiah 43:5-7. What do these verses teach about the gathering of Israel and the power of Christ’s atonement to save and renew?


Day 2: Read Isaiah 43:8-13 (with footnotes 10a, 13a)
4. According to Isaiah 43:8, what two groups of people were/are being gathered? What rhetorical question is asked in Isaiah 43:9?


5. Read the footnote to Isaiah 43:10a. Who is being addressed, beginning in Isaiah 43:10? What are they/we being called to do or to be?


6. From Isaiah 43:10-13, list what the Lord said he has done for his people.



Day 3: Read Isaiah 43:14-21 (with footnotes 17a,b, 20a, 21a), Exodus 14:15-18, John 7:37-39
7. How does the Lord identify himself in Isaiah 43:15?


8. Read Exodus 14:15-18 with Isaiah 43:16-17. When, in Israel’s history, did the Lord make “a way in the sea” and extinguish “the chariot and horse”?


9. Looking forward, what did the Lord promise to do for his people in the future? (See Isaiah 43:19-20, also John 7:37-39.)


Day 4: Read Isaiah 43:22-28 (with footnotes 23a, 24a,b, 26a, 28a,b), Isaiah 1:11-13, Mark 12:28-34, D&C 97:8-9,
D&C 20:77, D&C 58:42-43
10. In Isaiah 43:22-24, the Lord reviews Israel’s history of disloyalty. How are we disloyal when we forget to pray (v. 22)?


11. Read Mark 12:28-34 and Isaiah 1:11-13 with Isaiah 43:23-24. Why were Israel’s ritual offerings scorned by the Lord? How can we make our offerings acceptable? (See also D&C 97:8-9.)


12. Compare Isaiah 43:25-28 with D&C 20:77 and D&C 58:42-43. List keys to repentance.

Day 5: Read Isaiah 44:1-8 (with footnote 3a), Deuteronomy 33:26, footnote “a”
13. Read the footnote to Deuteronomy 33:26a. What does “Jesurun” mean? To whom, then, is Isaiah 44:1-8 addressed?


14. List promised blessings from Isaiah 44:3-5.



15. Isaiah 44:6-8 issues a challenge to false gods to care for and prophesy for Israel as God has. How can we be “witnesses” (v.8) of who God is?


BONUS: List names or titles of Christ in Isaiah 44:6.


Day 6: Read Isaiah 44:9-20 (with footnotes 9b, 11a)
16. Isaiah 44:9-20 deals again with the evils of idol worship. List messages regarding the foolishness of idol worship from Isaiah 44:9-11.


17. In Isaiah 44:12-17, the Lord points out the simple facts of idol manufacture. Who fashions worldly idols? Out of what are they made?


BONUS: Read about how careful and precise idol makers are in their craft (Isaiah 44:13). How might exactness in worship of God overcome idol worship?


18. In Isaiah 44:18, the Lord points out that idol worshippers are as blind and numb as the graven images they worship. How are those whose hearts are set on things of this world living a lie, or feeding on ashes?


Day 7: Read Isaiah 44:21-28 (with footnote 21a)
19. Once again, who forms idols and of what are they made? Now, who formed man? Who formed the earth? Who remembers and redeems you? What are you made of?


20. How does the Lord support his own?


21. List the very specific promises in Isaiah 44:28.


*From the Institute manual: Isaiah 43:1–7 . A Shadow and a Type for One Who Is Called, Before He May Be Owned by the Lord. In these verses, as Isaiah promised the eventual restoration and regathering of Israel, he compared it to a person’s walking on a perilous journey where fire and flood threaten. The metaphor is as valid for an individual as it is for the house of Israel. The Lord called her by name, for Israel is the name given her by covenant and symbolizes the fact that she would eventually be preserved and belong to Him (see Genesis 32:28–30 ). He then promised that as she passed through the perils of her journey back He would be with her. Neither waters nor flood nor the fires of trial and persecution could take away His protection of His chosen people. There may also be a spiritual symbolism in these promises. When Israel escaped from Egypt, she passed through the water (the Red Sea) and was overshadowed with fire, the pillar of fire, and smoke (see Exodus 13:21–22 ; 14:21–22 ). Paul saw these phenomena as types or symbols of the baptism of water and the Holy Ghost (see 1 Corinthians 10:1–4 ). Here Isaiah showed Israel being gathered. One is gathered into the fold by becoming baptized; thus, the symbolism is both spiritually and temporally significant.

Isaiah 41-42

Isaiah 41-42 Study Guide – To be discussed March 1
Day 1: Read Isaiah 41:1-7 Note: Isaiah 41:7 has reference to those who manufacture idols.
1. Why might it be a good idea, when the Lord speaks, for scattered Israel (the islands) to “keep silence”?


BONUS: How does listening to general conference renew your strength?


2. The “righteous man from the east” in Isaiah 41:2 may refer to both Christ and Cyrus, who was a conquering king of Persia. It may also refer to an unnamed or composite Elias. Regardless of who is meant, what is the question in Isaiah 41:2 and the answer in Isaiah 41:4?


3. Isaiah 41:5 indicated there will be fear associated with the coming of Cyrus’ army and with Christ’s Second Coming. Who will have reason to fear at Christ’s coming?


Day 2: Read Isaiah 41:8-16 (with footnotes 14a, 15a), D&C 33:3-6
4. List promises to gathered Israel in Isaiah 41:9-13.



5. In Isaiah 41:15, the Lord said he would make his people into “a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth.” What does a threshing instrument do?


6. Read D&C 33:3-6. What “threshing instrument” today has power to gather, sift and save?


Day 3: Read Isaiah 41:17-24, D&C 133:27-29, 2 Nephi 9:37
7. Read Isaiah 41:17-18 with D&C 133:27-29. How can an individual be like a desert? Can a family, a ward, or a nation be like a desert?


8. What are the promises to all who thirst in Isaiah 41:17-20?



9. Isaiah 41:21-29 was addressed to idol worshippers. The Lord asked if false gods can prophesy or expound, do good or evil, or anything at all. What kinds of thirst can idols quench? (See also 2 Nephi 9:37.)


Day 4: Read Isaiah 41:25-29, D&C 133:50-51
Note: Although Cyrus of Persia was from the east (see Isaiah 41:2) he conquered from the north. He may have been the “one from the north” mentioned in Isaiah 41:25. We will look at Cyrus more closely in Isaiah 44-45. Again, a dual interpretation indicates the one from the north may also refer to Christ (see D&C 133:50-51).
10. How will Christ be like a conquering King when he comes again?


11. List some of the false gods we worship today. Have any of these false gods prophesied of Christ’s divinity or brought good tidings?
12. How are false gods and idols like “wind and confusion”?



Day 5: Read Isaiah 42:1-8 (with footnotes 2a, 3a), Matthew 12:14-21
13. Read Matthew 12:14-21 with Isaiah 42:1-3. How did Christ, in his earthly mission, fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy?


14. From Isaiah 42:5, what qualifies the Lord to “set judgment” (v.4) and administer righteous laws?


15. List what Christ does for us, as given in Isaiah 42:6-7.



Day 6: Read Isaiah 42:9-18 (with footnote 13a), D&C 84:99-102
16. Read D&C 84:99-102 with Isaiah 42:10. What “new song” will we sing at Christ’s coming? What is new about it?


17. Isaiah 42:11-12 indicates even the most remote places on earth will praise the Lord. How is this being accomplished today?


18. List what the Lord does for the blind, as recorded in Isaiah 42:16-17. Who are the spiritually blind?



Day 7: read Isaiah 42:19-25, JST Isaiah 42:19-23 (p. 801 in Bible Appendix)
19. How can we be perfect, notwithstanding our blindness?


20. Historically, how have the children of Israel been “a people robbed and spoiled,” snared and imprisoned?



21. Why did the Lord allow his people to be robbed and spoiled?



From the Institute Manual: Isaiah 42:9–16 . The Restoration of the Gospel in the Latter Days Foretold
The prophet Isaiah introduced the vision of the restoration of the gospel in the latter days by explaining that the truths and the keys of former days were to be restored. He also observed the restoration of new keys in the dispensation of the fulness of times (see v. 9 ). Using the metaphor of childbirth he described the restoration of the earthly kingdom following a long period of apostasy, during which the heavens had been sealed (see v. 14 ; compare Revelation 12:1–2, 13, 17 ). The Church will be restored in the last days, before the destruction that will make the mountains as plains and dry up the waters, and before the return of the scattered tribes of Israel, when they will come on paths they have not known, and the light of the gospel will dispel the darkness they have so long endured (see Isaiah 42:15–16 ). Isaiah reiterated the Lord’s promise that the restored gospel would not be taken again from the earth and that the Lord will not forsake His own. (See v. 16 ; compare Isaiah 2:2–3 ; 11:11–16 ; 29:14–15, 18–19 ; Daniel 2:44–45 ; Joel 2:25–29 .)