Ep 390 | Isaiah 13-35, Come Follow Me 2026 (Sept 21-27)

Bryce Dunford (0:03)

Hey everybody, welcome to Talking Scripture, a podcast where we illustrate relevance and application to the Scriptures in Come Follow Me.

Mike Day (0:10)

We also dive into the history and cultures of the text.

Bryce Dunford (0:13)

Thanks for taking the time to share and subscribe to this podcast.

Mike Day (0:16)

For show notes, head over to our website, talkingscripture.org. Welcome to Talking Scripture, I'm Mike.

Bryce Dunford (0:25)

And I'm Bryce.

Mike Day (0:26)

And today we are going to be in Isaiah 13 and 14, some in the 20s and then 34 and 35 There's some stuff that Come Follow Me is skipping, but we're going to try and cover most of that stuff.

Bryce Dunford (0:37)

So the best of what's in there, and we're going to try and do the best of what's not. I want to remind everyone some keys that Nephi gave us to better understand Isaiah. We mentioned these in our last podcast, but just briefly, we're going to need all three of these today. Nephi says that he wanted his people to see Isaiah. I think that's absolutely crucial that you picture it. For example, last week we talked about that sacrifice of Christ in the premortal life. Can you just picture the expressions on all of our faces as Jesus was laid on that altar and offered as a sacrifice? Can you picture that? Can you feel what Isaiah must have felt when it touched his lips? And so you've got to jump in there and see it. That will become very critical this week as we talk about some beautiful imagery that needs to be seen. Number two, Nephi said that he had an advantage in understanding Isaiah because he knew concerning the region's roundabout. You've got to do a little digging into, okay, what is a Fitch? What is a Kuman? What did Rai do anciently with their crops? You may need to do a little research. Now that's the beauty of podcasting with Mike Day because he's just going to do a lot of the region's roundabout information and say, here's something that you need to know about that history. But then the third thing that Nephi said multiple times in The Book of Mormon is, you have to like it. You have to find, how am I like that? How am I like this experience of Satan going to hell?

How is that like my life? And you've got to say, how is that like me? So see it, dig a little bit and understand it, and then liken it. Now those are the keys that Nephi gives to better understanding Isaiah. Now, that being said, let's jump into this week's and we'll start with 13, which kind of sets us up for all of these chapters. 13 is a prophecy about the destruction of Babylon. Now remember that Jesus said in 3rd Nephi that Isaiah's writings had been and shall be.

So the destruction of Babylon, think of the Babylonian Empire, this mighty empire that just rolled over their enemies.

Think about the natural arrogance and conceit that kind of comes with that much power.

And then Isaiah's saying, they're going to get wrecked, which is a symbol of every prideful person, every prideful nation and organization is also going to get wrecked. And that Babylon didn't destroy the church, that the righteous survived. So chapter 13 is kind of establishing the millennium or preparing for the millennium or living in a day where there is a lot of wickedness and pride and that the Lord's going to be in charge.

Mike Day (3:22)

Yep.

The very beginning of Isaiah 13 starts with this phrase, the burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amos did see. Now that word burden in the Hebrew is masa, and it can be translated as burden. A lot of translators go with the phrase oracle or message.

Literally it means to raise up. It's this idea that perhaps it's a burden that he's carrying, but also Isaiah is raising up the message to Babylon. Now we have a graphic in the show notes to kind of see the big picture of these chapters. We're shifting from Isaiah 1-12, where Isaiah is speaking to his immediate associates, to the nations. Isaiah 13-23 are the oracles or the burdens to the nations. He's gonna speak to Babylon and Assyria, Philistines, the Moabites, all the way down to Tyre, which is up in the north.

Bryce Dunford (4:13)

The bullies. He's gonna speak to the bullies.

Mike Day (4:15)

All these other nations. And really what he's doing is he's communicating to his people. You see, I don't think the people in Babylon are reading Isaiah's stuff. I don't think the Moabites really care too licks about who Isaiah is. But I think these prophecies are given in such a way so that the people that live in and around Jerusalem that know Isaiah will realize that these nations that are so supposedly powerful are all going to go down. They're just like grass. They can be taken out. They can be mowed. They can be conquered. And so Jerusalem specifically, Hezekiah and the kings that Isaiah works with, the Lord is trying to tell them through Isaiah to trust the Lord, not alliances with these other nations. Because remember, the gorilla on the block, the big gorilla with the stick anciently is Assyria.