Isaiah 53

What fun I've had teaching Isaiah to the Freshmen this past month.  Yes, I really did say FUN!  It has helped that a few years back (before I had any inkling I would EVER be a seminary teacher) I decided to study Isaiah.  After all, we are COMMANDED to study Isaiah.  So it has really made a difference that I already have a strong testimony and love of this book of scripture.  I make the kids say, "I love Isaiah" every day.  They usually mumble it and roll their eyes, but I can tell you I have seen light bulbs in class.  Seriously.  Light bulbs above their heads.  As things have started to mesh and make sense and even be interesting. 

Today was my favorite chapter, Isaiah 53.  It's only 12 short verses.  If you read verses 3-5, which just so happens to be scripture mastery verses, and put in "I, me, my" instead of "we, us, our" you will read a very powerful message to yourself. 

Here are two quotes from today's lesson:

"There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever confront in mortality that the Savior did not experience first.   In a moment of weakness we may cry out, "No one know what it is like.  No one understands!"  No human being perhaps know, but the SON OF GOD knows and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual burdens before we ever did."   Elder David A. Bednar

I gave them each a card today with this quote and they are supposed to carry it around with them and look at it throughout the day.    I told them how our Stake President said, "Jesus Christ knows what it feels like to be me."  I love that quote.

Here's the second one - this one is hard for me to read.

James E. Talmage:  "Jesus suffered and was crucified for men's transgressions.  But few details of the actual crucifixion are given us.  We know however that our Lord was nailed to the cross by spikes driven through his hands and feet, as was the Roman method, not bound with cords.  Death by crucifixion was the most lingering and most painful of all forms of execution.  The victim lived in ever increasing torture, generally for many hours, sometimes days.  The spikes so cruelly driven through sensitive nerves and quivering tendons.  The welcome relief of death came through exhaustion caused by intense and unremitting pain."

I am so thankful for my Savior.  I'm thankful that he bought me with the price of His blood.  And all I have to do is keep the commandments and I can share in his eternal glory.  (See vs. 12).  He kept the nail prints in his body so that he would remember US.  Not that we would pay honor to him.  He wants no honor or glory for himself.  He wants us to have the honor and glory of becoming all that He knows we are capable of.  Can you imagine if we felt this way towards everyone?  That we want them to reach their very highest and full potential?  Instead we feel jealous and we tear others down thinking it builds ourselves up; we feel bitterness when others succeed.  So opposite of our Savior.

If anyone is interested in further study into Isaiah, I have looked at many books, and my own best choice is "Isaiah Made Easier" by David J. Ridges.  He only uses quotes by Apostles and Prophets.  It is in an easy to read format. 

By the way, if you read Acts 8:26-39, you will read a wonderful little conversion story about a man who was reading in Isaiah 53.  As was that Ethiopian man, so am I converted by Isaiah 53!