Modern Tools For Understanding Isaiah: Wikipedia and Google Maps!

I was reading through Second Nephi again (the Isaiah chapters), and found that my mind was glossing over it.  I wasn't getting anything out of it.  We know that Isaiah's words are important:

And there are many things which have been spoken by Isaiah which may be likened unto you, because ye are of the house of Israel.

The Lord Himself asked us to study Isaiah:

And now, behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah.

I find, however, that my mind wanders and I tend to just push through it.  And yet we're supposed to rejoice over them:

And now I write some of the words of Isaiah, that whoso of my people shall see these words may lift up their hearts and rejoice for all men.

How can we rejoice over something we do not understand?  Nephi said that even those one generation removed from living at Jerusalem had trouble understanding his words:

For behold, Isaiah spake many things which were hard for many of my people to understand

They had Nephi there to give them a frame of reference!  What hope do we have?

I was musing on this problem while reading the 20th chapter of 2 Nephi (Isaiah 10).  The chapter heading says, "The destruction of Assyria is a type of the destruction of the wicked at the Second Coming".  While that is interesting, it doesn't help with verses such as:

9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus?

The problem with this verse is context.  With no context, it's akin to taking one of those word-game tests in school (apple is to helicopter as golf club is to ....?).  Meaningless.

It occurred to me that I could look these things up in Wikipedia.  They are names of cities in Syria that were destroyed by the Assyrian army.  I suppose you could use a World War II analogy:  "Isn't Amsterdam as Warsaw?"  (both taken over by the German army)  Or: "Isn't Hiroshima as Nagasaki?", "Is not Dresden as Tokyo?" - far away cities completely decimated by the incoming forces.  The news of the destruction of these cities and the ruthlessness of the Assyrian invaders was spread far and wide, causing a panic.

The same context problem shows up later in the chapter, starting in verse 28:

28 He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages.
29 They are gone over the passage; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramath is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.
30 Lift up the voice, O daughter of Gallim; cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.
31 Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
32 As yet shall he remain at Nob that day; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

I looked up these name in Wikipedia - I wasn't familiar with any of them.  They are names of towns along the invasion route from Assyria to Jerusalem, each closer than the last.  I tagged each of them in my scriptures with the relative distance from Jerusalem.  I then had the idea to plot these places on Google Maps.



View Isaiah in a larger map

There you have it!  The Assyrian army is invading, the people are scared, and these "lines in the sand" are falling, one by one before the conquerors.

"The passage" is a crossable point over the ravine just south of Michmash.  The ravine's walls look pretty difficult for an army to cross anywhere but over "the passage".

Nob is right by the Mount of Olives, adjacent to the city.  Can you imagine the panic of the inhabitants of Jerusalem?  Here they've swept across vast portions of the country, and have reached the outskirts of the capital city.  Assyria's army is figuratively "shaking its hand" or "waving its raised fist" at the city.

The army taunts the people (who are under the rule of a good king, Hezekiah), as it says in 2 Kings 18:

28 Then Rab-shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and spake, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria:
29 Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you: for he shall not be able to deliver you out of his hand:
30 Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
33 Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
34 Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?
36 But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king’s commandment was, saying, Answer him not.

Hezekiah goes into the temple, and seeks the Lord's help (chapter 19):

1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
4 It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh (he's the general of the Assyrian army sent to intimidate them), whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
5 So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

Isaiah's response from the Lord:

6 And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to your master, Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
10 Thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Hezekiah prayed again:

14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.

Isaiah's response from the Lord, a great promise:

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.
27 But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
28 Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
32 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.
34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.

The Lord fights the battle, and the army retreats and goes home:

35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.

Wow, after all that, and as the Lord said, not a shot was fired into the city!

So what's the point for us?  We live in an age where there are wars, and rumors of wars, and where men's hearts shall fail them out of fear.  We live in an age where there is ruthless mocking of those who have faith, and there is an incoming tide of filth.  It's scary!  We've seen what has happened to other people distant to us, and now we're seeing it approaching our doors.

The Lord will fight our battles, if we put our trust in Him, and if we live as He would have us live.  Satan's bounds are set.  We can take courage - we know that God will protect us.

Wow, what was once a mind-numbingly painful chapter to read has become a powerful chapter for me! Thank you, Wikipedia and Google Maps!