Interlude - prophecy of Isaiah

I recently read a book on the Vietnam War by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns. It was published years ago. The last quarter of the book was like reading in vivid detail about current events happening in Afghanistan. 

The corruption of the South Vietnamese government as it, and the economy, collapsed while President Thieu fled the country. U.S. president Gerald Ford wanting nothing to do with Vietnam as he faced problems with inflation and unemployment at home. Lieutenant Colonel Bui Tin of the North Vietnamese army celebrating America's withdrawal in 1975 saying, "Today is a historic day, it is the first time in one hundred years there are no foreign troops on the soil of Vietnam" (Almost an exact headline from the Taliban today). 

The rapid fall of the military and flight of hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians. CIA analyst Frank Snepp in 1975 said, "Who would have believed the country would be lost by March? ... This was breathtaking. The refugee problem was overwhelming ... over a million people are homeless ... huge stocks of ammunition and hardware have been abandoned." 

When Danang fell (second largest city in Vietnam), "it was not captured, it disintegrated in its own terror" said a US reporter. Airliners and military planes evacuating were mobbed as jeeps, cars, bikes, and mopeds drove across runways. People clung to planes as they took off (and fell to their deaths). 268 people crammed into a 727 meant to carry 189 passengers, with about 60 more in the cargo hold. Many in the South Vietnamese military fled to other countries. 

As America watched South Vietnam fall with mixed emotions, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee called on the president at the White House. A young, US Senator from Delaware, who was receiving Top Secret briefings on events overseas, told President Ford, "I will vote for any amount for getting Americans out. I don't want it mixed with getting the Vietnamese out." His name? Joseph Biden. 

Want to know what happens next in Afghanistan? Just read a history book. You can predict with a large degree of accuracy the future of their economy, culture, government, and those formerly loyal to the USA, as well as the moves China and Russia will make in the aftermath. 

Knowing the past is useful to predict the future. There is one author in particular that should be paid attention to, and I was especially mindful of these verses during this time. 

For reference, these match RE 2 Nephi 8 starting in verse four. 

The words of Isaiah, son of Amoz, he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

 4               In the last days, the Lord’s house will be established in the top of the mountains and exalted above all the hills, and all nations will come to it. Many people will go and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and visit those of the house of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths.” Out of Zion will go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge among the nations and mediate peace between many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nations will be at peace and cease their preparations for war. 

5               House of Jacob hear this: gather and walk in the light of the Lord. Come, for you have gone astray and pursued your wicked ways. We think the Lord has forsaken his people, but in reality, we abandoned him when we sought deceiving wisdom from proclaimed experts and listened to worldly predictions as they did of old with soothsayers. We sustained as leaders those who are strangers to God. Our land is full of idols, wealth and riches, endless budgets and spending, vast armies of workers and soldiers. We admire that which our hands have made, we look up to our tall works and glory in our achievements and vain accomplishments. We are all brought low when we shame ourselves like this and look to accomplished men instead of God. Do not gather with people who do this.

6              You who are wicked- flee into the rocks and hide in the dust from the magnificent presence of the Lord, for fear of him and his glory will smite you. The haughty gaze of the proud who once looked down on others will now be bowed down and humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted. The day of the Lord of Hosts will soon come upon all nations, and everyone will feel its wrath, the proud and lofty, and everyone who elevates themselves over others, will all be brought low. At that day the Lord will come down on the cedars of Lebanon, who are high and lifted, and on all the oaks of Bashan, and all the high mountains, the hills, all nations that are proud, and every people with their high towers, every fenced wall, all the ships of the sea and pleasure crafts- all of this will be brought down. The arrogance of man will bow down, and the conceit of men levelled to the ground, and only the Lord will be exalted at that day. He will completely abolish the idols, and he will depose the false gods. Those once called great and looked to as icons and leaders will hide in caves from his wondrous presence and the brightness of his glory when he arises and strikes terror on the earth. Everyone will cast the objects of their adoration, that which they created themselves or bought with money to worship, to the rats and the vultures. They will flee into caves and bunkers for the fear of the Lord will be on them when he arises to shake the earth terribly. Resist the ways of mankind, in whose nostrils is but mortal breath, for they deserve no consideration. 

7               The Lord of Hosts will take away from Jerusalem and Judah the wisdom to rule and spirit to lead. He will take the food and water rations the earth normally grants them, and he will take away their mighty leaders, soldiers of war, wise judges, prophets, the prudent and ancient, the captain of fifty and honorable men, sage counselors, creative engineers and eloquent teachers. Instead, they will have those with the disposition of adolescents to rule over them, and criminals to enforce their laws. Everyone will oppress one another, and dig pits of debt for their neighbors, and the youth will rebel against the wisdom of their elders, and the immature will scoff the honorable. Families will turn to one another and say, “You have standing, be a ruler and let not this desolation come upon us!” But the response will be, “I am not a healer, for I have nothing to feed you with or clothe you, do not make me a ruler of this people.” Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because they turned from the ways of the Lord and their words have been against him- they have provoked him openly to his face. The look on their faces exposes their lies and they openly sin as did they at Sodom, they don’t even try to hide it anymore. Woe to their souls, for they have earned evil in return for their doings. Let the righteous know it will be all right, for they shall be rewarded with good blessings. Woe to the wicked, for they will perish, they have brought their own ruination upon themselves.   

8               As for my people, children are their oppressors and the weak rule over them. They who lead my people cause them to err and destroy the righteous paths founded on ancient wisdom and truth. The Lord will contend with them, he will rise to judge the nations. He will put on trial the elders of his people, and those who ruled over them, and say, “You have taken everything for yourself, and built your wealth by depriving the poor. Why do you oppress my people, and openly torment the faces of the poor?” Not only this, but the Lord has said, “The daughters of Zion are haughty, looking down on others and judging with their eyes, they are provocative in their dress and flirt in their walk.” The Lord will smite them with baldness and expose their private works. In that day he will take away their jewelry, and the ornaments of their dress they adorn to hide their insecurities, their bracelets, necklaces, earrings, nose rings, glasses, fine linen, hoods, veils, shawls, purses, elegant dresses. Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench; instead of a full set of clothes, several pieces of twine; instead of beauty there will be shame; instead of well-placed hair- baldness; instead of festive dress in celebration they will wear clothes of mourning. Your men will fall by violence, and your mightiest in war. Your gates will lament and mourn as you sit in desolation on the ground. 

9              In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own food and clothe ourselves, just let us take your name to remove our shame.”

10               In that day the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, the fruit of the earth will be excellent to the righteous who escaped Israel. All who are left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem will be called holy, and all who are accounted and recorded as citizens of Jerusalem after the Lord has purged the filth of those at Zion and the blood of Jerusalem by his spirit of judgment using the wicked to punish the wicked. Over Mount Zion, and the solemn assembly gathered there, the Lord will create a cloud by day and illumination by a flaming fire at night, and the glory of Zion will be its own defense. This will provide shelter from the heat and a refuge from the storm (or from those who destroy the world through chaos and violence). 

11              Let me sing to my Beloved a song about his vineyard. My Beloved has a vineyard on a very choice hill. He fenced it in, and took out the stones, and planted the choicest vines in it. He built a tower in it, and also made a winepress. He looked forward to the choice grapes the vineyard would bring, but instead it brought forth wild grapes. Now inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all you men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done than what I have done? When I expected wonderful grapes, instead it brought wild grapes. I will tell you what I will do, I will remove the hedge, and the vineyard will be eaten up; I will take down the wall, and it will be stomped on, and I will lay it to waste. It will not be pruned nor cared for, instead there will be briers and thorns. I will command the clouds not to rain on it. The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his precious plant. He expected justice, but there was none, he expected righteousness, but instead there was an outcry of rebellion. 

12               Woe to them that join houses together so that there is no room for fields in the midst of your dwellings. The Lord told me, “Many houses will be desolate, and great cities without inhabitants. Ten acres of vineyard will only produce a few gallons, and several bags of seed a miniscule crop.” 

13            Woe to those who rise up early in the morning to drink liquor, or who party all night drunk on wine. There are harps, stringed instruments, drums, and music at their feasts, but they are willfully ignorant of the ways of the Lord and don’t consider his works on the earth. My people are in blindness and captivity and don’t know why, they have no perception on the reality of their state, and their esteemed leaders are famished, and the multitude dried up with thirst. Hell has enlarged herself with them, and her gates are wide open to receive them. While still in their pomp, glory, and self-adulation they march steadily into hell. We are all brought low by debasing ourselves like this, and those who esteem themselves above others will be hewn down. Those who are mighty will be humbled, and the Lord will be exalted above all when righteousness judges, and God who is holy will be sanctified. Then will the lambs feed in the pastures and those formerly shunned by the elite will eat in their places.

14            Woe to those who sin by vainly attaching themselves to the pleasures of the world, hitched to transgression like a trailer. They say, “Hurry up Lord! Let us see you hasten your work! Tell us your secrets and let your plan unfold- then we will believe!”

15           Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. 

16           Woe to those who think they are wise and prudent, blinded by their pride and ignorance.

17            Woe to those who boast in their drinking wine, or mix strong drinks, who are bribed to let the wicked go free and punish the innocent in their righteousness. As the fire burns the stubble and flame consumes dry brush, so will their roots become rotten, and their blossoms fly up as dust. These judgements will come to pass for they cast off the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despise the Holy One of Israel. The anger of the Lord is kindled against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and smitten them. The hills trembled and their carcasses lie about the streets. Even so, his anger is not abated and his hand is still stretched out.

18            He will lift an ensign to the nations and call to the ends of the earth. His people will hear and come from far off lands swiftly, they will not be weary in their journey nor stumble, they will not be sleepy, their clothes will be fastened securely and their shoes remain firm and not come undone. Their arrows will be sharp, their bows ready, their horses’ hooves like flint and their wheels turn as fast as a whirlwind, their roaring like a lion. They are vigorous like young lions, they roar and seize their prey, and carry it away and none will take it from them. In that day, the roar will be like the roaring of the sea, and if they look to land, it will be dark and heavy with sorrow, the light from the heavens blocked by a gloomy haze.