Institute
Lesson 39: Isaiah 13–23

“Lesson 39: Isaiah 13–23,” Old Testament Instructor’s Guide, Religion 301–2 (1994), 77–78

“Isaiah 13–23,” Old Testament Instructor’s Guide, 77–78

39

Isaiah 13–23

Scripture Content Outline

Supplementary Study Sources

  1. Isaiah 13; 14:4–32; 15–17; 19:1–17; 20–21; 22:1–19; 23. Isaiah Prophesied of the Judgments of God That Would Overtake the Wicked

    1. Isaiah spoke of judgments on Assyria, Babylon, and other nations as types of the judgments that would befall the wicked in the latter days (see Isaiah 13; 14:4–11; 21; JST, Isaiah 13:2–5, 15, 22; 14:2–4, 32).

    2. Lucifer’s fall from heaven and his ultimate overthrow were described as a type of Babylon’s fall (see Isaiah 14:12–28).

    3. God’s judgments were pronounced on ancient Philistia and Moab (see Isaiah 14:29–32; 15–16; JST, Isaiah 16:6).

    4. Syria and Israel (Ephraim) would be conquered by Assyria, yet all nations who despoiled Israel would also be laid low (see Isaiah 17).

    5. Egypt was warned of coming judgments (see Isaiah 19:1–17; 20).

    6. The wicked in Judah, particularly in Jerusalem, were warned that they would be trodden down and taken captive (see Isaiah 22:1–19).

    7. Isaiah pronounced judgments on Phoenicia, or Tyre (see Isaiah 23; JST, Isaiah 23:10).

Religion 302 student manual, 14-1 through 14-11; 14-13 through 14-23; 14-26 through 14-29; 14-31 through 14-39; 14-41 through 14-45.

Amos 1–2. The prophet Amos pronounced judgments upon the wicked nations that surrounded Israel (see also Jeremiah 46–51).

Moses 4:1–4. Why was Lucifer cast out of heaven? (see also D&C 29:36–37; Jude 1:6; Revelation 12:7–9).

D&C 76:25–29. What was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith about Lucifer and his status among God’s spirit children?

2 Nephi 2:17–18, 27. Having become a devil, Lucifer now seeks what?

D&C 76:44–48. What is known of the destiny of Lucifer and those who become his sons? (see also D&C 29:28–29; Revelation 20:10).

TPJS, p. 271. Why are the judgments of God visited upon the world?

DS, 3:3–4. What always precedes the judgments of God?

  1. Isaiah 14:1–3; 18; 19:18–25; 22:20–25. Isaiah Spoke of Events of the Latter Days

    1. The gospel ensign would be raised in the latter days, and Israel would be gathered to Mount Zion (see Isaiah 18).

    2. Israel would be joined by individuals from other nations, find rest in their own lands, and rule over their former oppressors (see Isaiah 14:1–3).

    3. Judah would return to the Lord and be joined by Egypt and Assyria (see Isaiah 19:18–25).

    4. The Messiah would appear, receive the key to the house of David, and stand as a nail in a sure place (see Isaiah 22:20–25).

Religion 302 student manual, 14-12; 14-24 through 14-25; 14-30; 14-40.

Isaiah 60:1–11. Isaiah prophesied that Gentiles would join with the house of Israel in the last days (see also Isaiah 56:6–8).

Luke 1:30–33. What did the angel tell Mary about Jesus and the throne of David?

2 Nephi 24:1–3. Quotations from the brass plates give insight into Isaiah 14:1–3.

DS, 3:254–56. What is the ensign of the latter days, and how does the world come to know of it?

TPJS, p. 17. Where will Judah return as part of her restoration in the latter days? (see also DS, 3:67–68).

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 409. What is the “key of the house of David”? (Isaiah 22:22; see also Revelation 3:7).

Some Suggestions for Presentation

You are not expected to teach everything in the scripture content outline. Select those concepts that you feel will be the most helpful to your students.

The Judgments of God upon the World (Sections A–B)

Why do the judgments of God fall upon man? Who is really responsible for them? Write the word burden on the board and ask for a definition. Point out that in these chapters the judgments pronounced on each of the nations is a burden. Much of the pronouncement of these burdens was in symbolism, as is common in Isaiah’s writings. Isaiah 13:19–22 speaks of the eventual destruction of Babylon, the ancient city once believed by many to be indestructible and the most beautiful in the ancient world:

  1. Babylon’s beauty would perish as did Sodom and Gomorrah’s (see v. 19).

  2. Babylon would never be rebuilt or inhabited again (see v. 20).

  3. Only wild beasts would thenceforth live there (see v. 21–22).

Each of these predictions was fulfilled literally. Babylon was destroyed and never rebuilt. Today, Babylon is a desert; the great heaps of sand that cover it may be of interest to archaeologists, but that is about all. Only wild animals can be found in the area today. It is no wonder that the prophets adopted Babylon as a symbol of the wicked and its fall as a symbol of what would eventually befall the wicked (see Jeremiah 51:36–49; Revelation 18:1–10, 20–21; D&C 133:1–7, 14). As ancient Babylon was destroyed and never rebuilt, so will be destroyed all who fight against the Lord (see D&C 64:24; 1 Nephi 22:23).

Isaiah was a prophet very gifted in the use of verbal imagery. He often used one thing to represent another—his representation of ancient Babylon as a type of all wickedness, particularly of the latter days, is a good example. Isaiah used Lucifer’s fall from heaven and his final overthrow to represent the fall of Babylon (see Isaiah 14:4–27). Discuss the parallel between Lucifer’s fall and the fall of all who heed him.

Read Isaiah 17:4–11 and note that Isaiah prophesied that Jacob’s glory would depart and, like Babylon, Jacob too would receive her share of judgments for her iniquities. Then point out the following:

  1. Israel is likened to a garden in which a man plants but reaps only a few ears of corn or gleans only few grapes from his vines (see Isaiah 17:4–6).

  2. Israel would be in need of help and find none. They would see that the groves and altars of the false gods they trusted in would not have power to deliver them (see Isaiah 17:7–8).

  3. Israel’s cities would resemble a bough on a tree that has been forsaken, or remained uncultivated, and is therefore desolate, unfruitful, and unproductive (see Isaiah 17:9).

  4. Israel’s harvest of sorrow would be the result of their forgetting God (see Isaiah 17:10–11).

This prophecy was fulfilled in the captivity and scatterings of Israel. A better description could hardly be found of the land of Palestine throughout the centuries after Isaiah’s time. The land and its people produced neither spiritually nor physically. Only now, as the Jews are gathering from among the nations, is the land once again becoming fruitful. When the Jews begin to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, spirituality shall also increase for Israel once again. Review 2 Nephi 8:9–25. The bitter cup of trembling, which the Jews have been compelled by their sins to drink for generations, shall be removed. Jerusalem shall stand up and awake and put on the beautiful garments with which God proposed anciently to clothe her. She will also loose herself from the bands around her neck (see D&C 113:7–10).

Israel, Scattered and Peeled, Shall Be Restored (Section B)

Israel was scattered and peeled because she had forsaken and forgotten her God. But Isaiah made it plain that the day would come when Israel would be gathered and restored to favor with the Lord. Those who were responsible for Israel’s scattering would themselves see distress and much remorse. Read Isaiah 17:9–14. Here Israel was depicted as a “forsaken bough” (v. 9) and “a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow” (v. 11), but she was promised that her adversaries would be removed. The nations who rushed against Israel “like the rushing of mighty waters” (v. 13) would stand rebuked of God “like a rolling thing before the whirlwind” (v. 13). Those that had despoiled and robbed her would themselves be rendered destitute before the Lord. Refer also to Isaiah 14:1–3 where it is made clear that Israel would one day rise above her oppressors (see also 2 Nephi 24:1–3).

Review Isaiah 18. This short chapter speaks of Israel’s restoration as the people of the Lord:

  1. Ambassadors and swift messengers would approach Israel “scattered and peeled … and trodden down” (Isaiah 18:2).

  2. By means of these messengers God would lift an “ensign on the mountains” (v. 3). He would blow a trumpet, which the people are told to hear (see also Isaiah 11:11–12).

  3. “Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest” (Isaiah 18:4), or a pruner who prepares the grape vine for greater growth, the Lord would prepare his people to bring forth fruit and separate the unproductive from them (see vv. 4–6).

  4. “A people scattered and peeled,” hitherto “trodden underfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled,” would come “to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion” (v. 7).

Use President Joseph Fielding Smith’s commentary in Doctrines of Salvation, 3:254–55, to teach of the role the Latter-day Saints are to have in the restoration of the house of Israel.