We've hit the dreaded "Isaiah chapters" in our Sunday School study of the Book of Mormon. Even Church leaders know that most of us, due to intimidation, lack of effort, or whatever reason, get little from this section. It seems they would consider it a victory if we just skipped over these chapters and continued studying what comes next, as opposed to quitting reading altogether. Seriously. Check out the bare bones study guide material for this week's lesson.
Lest you think the curriculum developers are just trying to avoid being repetitious with Old Testament lessons, here's the OT study guide for (most of) the corresponding chapters--not a whole lot more to work with.
And I don't have much to add, either. The very first mass Sunday School email I sent out (and of course those emails have morphed into these BASOTRUSSL blog posts) was back in September of 2010, when the upcoming lesson was the same early-Isaiah scripture block linked to above. This is what I had to say then:
"You know those chapters you always skip when you read The Book of Mormon? Well there's no avoiding them now! This Sunday will be the first of five straight Gospel Doctrine lessons on the book of Isaiah. The curriculum for this week, along with some questions to guide your study, can be found here.
In addition to all the good stuff about temples and the fate of the world in the latter days, this scripture block contains one of my all-time favorite random scriptures, Isa. 3:21. Look that one up, and make time to study all the chapters. Sunday School is much more interesting and meaningful if you've studied in advance and come to class prepared to contribute."
That was it. A simple "rings and nose jewels" reference grew into all kinds of weird scriptural tangents. This post is pretty unremarkable, but hopefully it won't cause you to quit reading. Just like the "Isaiah chapters" will soon be in our rearview mirror, I'll do my best to come up with some more interesting posts in the coming weeks.
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