Ep 393 | Isaiah 58-66, Come Follow Me 2026 (Oct 12-18)

Bryce Dunford (0:03)

Hey everybody, welcome to Talking Scripture, a podcast where we illustrate relevance and application of 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 finishing Isaiah, chapters 58 through 66

Three things I really want to talk about in this podcast, and one of them is the bit on fasting in Isaiah 58, and then all the rich temple imagery in the 61st and 62nd chapter to me is beautiful. Jesus is going to quote that. So I really love that. And then the third thing I want to talk about is the new heaven and new earth and some of the millennial prophecies. So those are my big three. If I had, you know, 45 minutes in front of a gospel doctrine class and I had these chapters, those are the big three that I would tackle.

Bryce Dunford (1:00)

And while I was doing those big three, I would make sure that they, at the back of their mind, are hearing the voice about the Latter-day Saints, the righteous group that's the remnant that will gather in the latter days to usher in the Second Coming prior to all these millennial prophecies. So we need to walk away from Isaiah clearly saying who Jesus is and who we are as Latter-day Saints and the work that we will accomplish in the end as he comes back to earth.

Now there's a bit of a question as to whether or not Isaiah is the author of these specific chapters.

Mike Day (1:39)

Typically scholars look at these last few chapters of Isaiah as having been written after the exiles returned to Jerusalem around 520 BC.

As someone who loves the Book of Mormon, we're safe. These chapters are not in the Book of Mormon. So whether they were originally written by Isaiah back in 740 to 700 BC or they were written by his followers after the return of the exiles, it really, to me, it doesn't matter. But just know that typically in scholarship, they view this as, often it's called the Pridot Isaiah or Third Isaiah, as if the followers of Isaiah who came back to Jerusalem wrote this at the time when they are deciding to build the temple, which was right around 516 BC.

Bryce Dunford (2:21)

Now, the thinking is, well, clearly Isaiah wasn't there when this subject matter occurred and therefore he didn't write it. But there is the possibility, and I'm going to shout it out, that his Syric eyes, that Isaiah, with his Syric abilities and in that role of prophet, is in the future, writing to those people, and they actually had the writings of Isaiah to a future group of people. So I think there's room for all of that in this, that maybe it was Isaiah prophesying of future events, or maybe it really was a prophet in that event, who's speaking to the people and maybe representing or a follower of Isaiah. I think there's room for all of that in this argument.

But before we jump in, let me do another big picture look for this theme throughout this week. Last week, the theme was kind of Jesus the faithful husband. This week, we kind of have a similar theme. It's almost as if Jesus is talking to two groups of people at the same time. That he's speaking to a rebellious group that he has turned his back on.

But at the same time, he's speaking to a righteous group.

Now who was that righteous group? Because if this time period is kind of the Babylonian captivity, or at least going into, or post-captivity, if that's the time period, then I think we could clearly identify the rebellious people that caused all of that. So was there a righteous branch of Israelites that maybe were forced underground at that time? Were there righteous people then that Jesus is speaking to? You're going to hear their voice coming out. It's kind of like this verse in chapter 65

Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not. For a blessing is in it, so will I do for my servant's sake, that I may not destroy them all. There's that hint about a good righteous branch that I'm going to preserve. So was it a righteous branch of Israel that was kind of living in the shadows of this more rebellious group, or perhaps is he referring to the Nephites that he sent to America, that there's my righteous branch, while you Israelites here in Jerusalem have kind of gone astray? Or perhaps is it our voice? Are we the righteous branch? Are we the cluster of grapes that's causing God to preserve Israel? Is it our voice that you're going to hear in these verses? A voice beyond the apostasy of a group of Israelites who will call Christ their king and be faithful to him. So watch for that tension as he talks to the rebellious group, but he also talks to and about this righteous group and the blessings he has in store for them.