Jackpot! Our own Treasure Chest

JACKPOT!!!

             This weekend, some three people or more will win big in the National Lotto Mega Power Ball Jackpot sharing over half a billion dollars. As a Latter-day Saint I do not buy lottery tickets because it is a form of gambling.

            I’ve got my own jackpot, my own treasure and so do we all.. “What?” You say.

As bees go in search of their “treasure” each day, they return to the “treasure house” or “hive” and communicate the source of the pollen to others. Now the other bees in the hive can go directly to that same treasure of pollen. That initial bee returns and reports about the treasure using their God-given gift of quantum physics and angles via its waggle dance upon the hive. We have a treasure to share with others also and it is seen in the grand design of our skies and we are in communication with the Grand Designer just as the bees are.

            As stated in the Bible Dictionary, the light of Christ fills the "immensity of space" and is the means by which Christ is able to be "in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things." It "giveth life to all things" and is "the law by which all things are governed." It is also "the light that quickeneth" man's understanding.

SCRIPTURE: “Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—the light which is in all things…even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things.”

--Doctrine and Covenants 88: 6-13.

THE LIGHT VS THE DARKNESS    

This BEE now lives in the desert near the city of Tucson. When I first moved here, I thought it was really dark at night. There were few streetlights. Was this safe? I started asking around and found the answer. For years, in order to comply with requests of local astronomers and the Kitt Peak Observatory, Tucson's outdoor lighting code has called for the use of lights that are dim compared to the fluorescent bulbs that illuminate some cities. Then there are the areas that have virtually no streetlights at all.

Tucson  located in Southern Arizona is one of the best places to get up close to major observatories, where mountain ranges lift huge telescopes closer to the sky, and the arid climate offers many clear nights.

One of Arizona's best known astronomical sites, more than 60 miles west of the city is Kitt Peak National Observatory, the world's largest collection of research telescopes: 23 optical telescopes, including the world's largest solar telescope, and two radio telescopes.

[National Optical Astronomy Observatory]

Kitt Peak National Observatory, part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, hosts a diverse collection of astronomical observatories for nighttime optical and infrared astronomy and daytime sun studies. Kitt Peak is 56 miles southwest of Tucson in the Schuk Toak District on the Tohono O’odham Reservation

A part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, the site was chosen in the late 1950s, when light pollution from Tucson, with a population of around 200,000, was limited. Now the city has expanded to more than a million people, but astronomers still come from all over the world for Kitt Peak's facilities. For the public, it's one of the most accessible observatories — visitors can drop in any day of the year except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

Another nearby location features the observatories on Mount Lemmon. At 9,157 feet, it's the highest peak in the Santa Catalina Mountains, which stretch across the north side of Tucson includes SkyCenter, one of several sites operated by the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The SkyCenter complex, formerly an Air Force radar base, now is home to half a dozen large telescopes.

Mount Lemmon SkyCenter

“Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found together,” in Trifid Nebula, says NASA on its Astronomy Picture of the Day Web site. Mount Lemmon SkyCenter staffer Adam Block took this photo using the 24-inch telescope in the photo at bottom. 

 Two more observatories a few miles away on Mount Bigelow. (The largest, which has a 61-inch mirror, was used to survey the moon for the lunar landings.)

Mount Graham International Observatory

[Photo courtesy of University of Arizona]

Mount Graham International Observatory, northeast of Tucson, is the site of the Large Binocular Telescope, named for its two 8.4-meter mirrors, visible here with the telescope’s housing, about eight stories high, open.

MY LIFE ON KWAJALEIN - PERFECT FOR VIEWING THE STARS

          In the early 1990's my family lived on Kwajalein Island, in the Marshall Islands, where my husband was the head of department overseeing the IT portion of the non-military mission of the US Army base located there. Below is a map showing the location of this tiny island the southern most island of the world's largest atoll, Kwajalein Atoll. The atoll lies in the Ralik Chain, 2,100 nautical miles (3900 km) southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, at 8°43′N 167°44′E.

Located midway between Japan, Los Angeles and Australia

         The island is only a 1/2 mile wide and just two and a half miles long. The ocean just one mile off the western coast is over two miles deep. It is the perfect place for star gazing because of the clear nights with no nearby light pollution. This is a photo at sunset of some missiles entering the skies north of the Kwaj Atoll where major radar tracking stations are located on many islands. No we weren't in any danger. The atoll is over 100 miles long and it really is not close to anything large just the small islands of Micronesia.

Our "quarters" on the island were located on the lagoon side and just a few hundred feet  from it. We would watch the most gorgeous sunsets I've ever seen. When it was the time of the full moon we could go out the front door walk about twenty feet and look to the right to see it rising and look to the left to see the sun setting. This was because of the long distances involved over the ocean with an unobstructed view. It was always a sacred experience even though I was thousands of miles from the temple.
The Cosmos and the Temple
          In Hugh Nibley's "An Intellectual Autobiography" an introductory chapter from  1978 book "Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless" he shows us the path he has taken among the ancient scrolls and texts that have recently come into our lives. He says that these writings , ancient and forgotten legends and traditions of Abraham match the Joseph Smith version very closely. Other learned divines for 60 generations have argued that the scriptures just don't seem to put it all together...the mysteries of Who we Are and What We are Doing Here. Nibley says this, This is where the Temple comes in. Without the Temple any civilization is an empty shell, a structure of custom and convenience only." ..."For thousands of years the stars have gone on sending us their hints, broadcasting unlimited information if we only knew it; now at least we are reacting to a narrow band on the informational spectrum, putting clues together in a way the Ancients never did. But also we are beginning to suspect that there were times when the Ancients reacted to another band of the spectrum which is completely  lost on us. THE TEMPLE, AS THE VERY NAME PROCLAIMS, IS A PLACE WHERE ONE TAKES ONE'S BEARINGS ON THE UNIVERSE." --page xxvii
          "There was one thing every student of the past has overlooked: here at our doorsteps among the Arizona Indians lies the world's best clue to the spiritual history of the race; nowhere else on earth will one find the old cycle of the Year Rites still observed in full force and unbroken continuity form the beginning." He was referring to the Hopi people who have kept alive a language and culture which preserved the practices and beliefs of our own ancestors from prehistoric times until the nineteenth-century industrialism severed the umbilical cord. Here the clues are both exhilarating and depressing, hopeful and sinister as nowhere else." --page xxv

     The other day on PBS I watched a special on the ancient Anasazi ruins in Chaco Canyon, Arizona.
The amazing conclusions were so perfectly understandable when viewed as a temple oriented experience that it took my breath away. The intimate and exact alignment to the sun at the equinox, and the various stages of the moon's path were reflected in the concrete structures and walls of many buildings over many miles.

Anasazi Pueblo Bonito ruins at Chaco Canyon

Several nights ago I watched another documentary on the observatories of the ancient Mayan people in the Yucatan. Orientation to the skies and to the stars is found in the ruins of temples in Egypt, Machu Pichu in CuscoPeru pictured below:

(The Intihuatana stone is one of many ritual stones in South America. These stones are arranged to point directly at the sun during the winter solstic) 

Stonehenge and other stone circles in England also telling the story of  the sun and moon and other planets in our universe. These remnants of temple ruins and annual year stories are found all over the world. 

Abraham learns about the sun, moon, and stars in Chapter 3 of the Book of Abraham in our Pearl of Great Price.

SCRIPTURE: "It is given unto thee to know the set time of all the stars that are set to give light, until thou come near unto the throne of God." --Abraham 3:10 

          Then God tells the story of His plan of Creation to Abraham in Chapter 4 with the explanation of man's part in it. This is such a treasure for the understanding of our place in the universe.

SCRIPTURE: "And the Gods organized the lights in the expanse of the heaven and caused them to divide the day from the night; and organized them to be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years; And organized them to be for lights in the expanse of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so."

--Abraham 4:14-15

          We have been promised that in the latter days that all things will be restored and hidden things will be revealed. The prophets have all focused on the temple and the message that they specifically were supposed to impart as part of their earthly mission. They wrote these things down and we have them as our scriptures. They have hidden treasures of knowledge within them, but we must dig for these treasures. We must desire that God will open the understanding of our minds with the Light of Christ.

          This BEE is returning to the important book of Isaiah as a genealogist to report where you can look to find the hidden treasures in his writing that I have found. I hope you can stay with me as we wander from one pollen laden flower to another in search of the light and truth there. I will dance my heart out at the hive to communicate where the sources of this treasure are buried within the scriptures.

Cross Pollination - Bee and Quantum Physics; BEE and Isaiah

What is Cross Pollination?

          There seems to be little difference in the definitions of "pollination" and "cross pollination" defined as the transfer of pollen from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another, as by the action of the wind or insects; the genetic exchange of information in two different plants to reproduce more members of the same species, or a cross of the two.

          In my life I have seen the cross pollination that can occur to produce amazingly beautiful roses that are sensitive to the sun and change color as they open from a pale yellow bud to a brilliant fluorescent orange flower. I've seen it in life where two widely divergent specialists begin to talk and collaborate. Their talks and research help look at a subject in a new or different way. Pollinators whether people or wind or animals perform a necessary act of creativity in our lives. Fruit is the natural result and totally new concepts are another.

          The United States Post Office honored Pollinators with a beautiful series of stamps that show four different important pollinators. The wind and man were not included here, mind you. 

Butterflies, bats, birds and bees are featured here. All "B"s. 

The Story of Bees and Quantum Physics Parallel my Studies of Art during College

          In the November 1997 issue of "Discover Magazine" Adam Frank tells a story of the amazing story of Barbara Shipman, a mathematician at the University of Rochester. She tells of how her father, a bee researcher for the Department of Agriculture, used to keep his books on honeybees on a shelf in her room. "It may have just been a convenient space. I remember looking at a lot of these books, especially the one by Karl von Frisch." She and her brothers learned all about the honeybee's dance when she was about nine years old.

          Although Von Frisch's Dance Language and Orientation of Bees took over 40 years before being publishing in 1965, beekeepers and entomologists all over the world had been intrigued and frustrated by his findings. Adam Frank goes on to describe the dance saying "It is easy to see why this beautiful and mysterious phenomenon captured Shipman's young and mathematically inclined imagination." He describes the way this choreography coveys the direction of a food source by varying the angle the waggling run makes with an imaginary line running straight up and down. This line connecting the beehive to the food source, and another line connecting the hive and the spot on the horizon just beneath the sun turns out to be the same as the angle of the waggling run to the imaginary vertical line. Frank says, "The bees, it appears, are able to triangulate as well as a civil engineer.

        It turns out, however, that even when the shape or geometry of the dance changes as the distance to the food source changes, it gets very weird if the food source is closer than a particular critical distance! The bee stops doing the waggle dance and switches into the round dance, running in a small circle, reversing and going in the opposite directions after one or two turns or sometimes after only half a turn. Surprisingly, there are a number of variations between species. Wow, dialects in bee communications. I wonder what happens when a European honeybee mates with the aggressive Africanized bee. 

Quantum Bees

          Barbara Shipman entered college as a biochemistry major and studied the blood (hemolymph) of honeybee larvae, but became much more attracted to the beauty of mathematics and switched majors. She began working on a set of geometric problems associated with an esoteric mathematical concept known as a flag manifold (manifold means space) in graduate school while working on her doctoral thesis." This obscure type of mathematics is known only to a small coterie of researchers well-versed in the minutiae of geometry," Frank explains., "she stumbled across what just might be the key to the secrets of the bee's dance."

          The article by Frank is absolutely fascinating...to a mathematician. He does write so that a lay person can understand a very, very complex subject matter. It turns out that Shipman saw by viewing a three dimensional experience using up to ten or a hundred dimensions, how mathematicians can see "shadows" of a different reality. Shipman was busy projecting the six-dimensional residents of the flag manifold onto two dimensions and it made a hexagon, the shape of a bee's honeycomb. Then she found a group of objects in the flag manifold that when projected onto a two-dimensional hexagon, formed curves that reminded her of the bee's dance. The more she explored the manifold the more she found it precisely matched the bee's dance. "I wasn't looking for a connection between bees and the flag manifold," she says, "I was just doing my research. The curves were nothing special in themselves, except that the dance patterns kept emerging."

     Shipman's research captures both the waggle and circle dance characteristics and shows the relationship that includes those really close distances to a food source. "When you have a physical phenomenon like the honeybee dance, and it follows a mathematical structure, you have to ask what are the physical laws that are causing it to happen." Frank says, "She doesn't believe the manifold's presence both in the mathematics of quarks and in the dance of honeybees is a coincidence. She suspects that the bees are somehow sensitive to what's going on in the quantum world of quarks, that quantum mechanics is as important to their perception of the world as sight, sound, and smell."     

SCRIPTURE: "And it came to pass, as the voice was still speaking, Moses cast his eyes and beheld the earth, yea, even all of it; and there was not a particle of it which he did not behold discerning it by the spirit of God." --Moses 1:27

SCRIPTURE: "...but there is no God beside me, and all things are present with me, for I know them all." --Moses 1:6

          Moses saw the earth as God saw the earth, every particle of it; he saw as God sees everything present all at once, from the beginning to the eternities. Obviously this is how revelation can take place as God allows his prophets to see as He sees.

          Hugh Nibley (from my notes many years ago thus source not correctly annotated that said, p154 only) "Moses cast his eyes and beheld the earth, yea even all of it." That he could see, all of it, every particle. Notice we are dealing with particles, particle physics is is very important today...He saw quarks; he saw protons; he saw neutrons. If he knew all the particles, then he knew of what the earth was composed. "And there was not a particle of it which he did not behold, discerning it by the spirit of God."  

          "In the books of Enoch and the books of Abraham (not just ours, but the newly discovered ones also) the special knowledge was passed to Seth and from him to Noah; hence from Abraham to the Egyptians, it was the secret of mathematics and astronomy, according to Jewish tradition accepted by the doctors of the Middle Ages right down to Thomas Hood in modern times."

          Nibley goes on to say "In particle physics a professor told about how to account for the action of certain particles, it must be assumed that there is a force that moves with eight times the speed of light. Until now C, the constant, has always been 186,300 miles a second. That sets the boundaries, the limits beyond which we can't go. Now it seems there must be forces to account for reverses especially in certain mirror effects and the "arrow of time" and the like, that must go much faster than light. We see things in terms of the earth." We don't see things from above or with the eye of God that embraces all things at once."

QUOTATION:  by Hugh Nibley from my notes many years ago (source not correctly annotated that said, p39, Treasures in Heavens, pp 82-83) ""Reduced to its simplest form, creation is the action of light upon matter. Matter itself has no power, being burnt out energy, but light reactivates it. Matter is incapable of changing itself--it has no desire to, and so light forces it into the recycling process where it can again work upon it--for light is an organizing principle.

BEE and an Electromagnetic Theory of Viewing Nature

        I have always had a fascination with light and science. My original course of study during my Junior year was to become a scientific illustrator, combing my two interests. However, my inability to memorize was my downfall. Actually learning to draw scientifically correct came in a special studies class with my biology professor. It was also here that I learned that the stress of meeting the deadlines and that most of the work was graphs and calligraphy or printing in scientific illustration. I I didn't like this so I switched completely to a painting and drawing emphasis in fine art for my Bachelor's degree. My love of science didn't go away. When I began my M.A. project and thesis it started something like this: To produce a series of paintings using a newly emerging electromagnetic theory of viewing nature. My professor's didn't quite understand what I meant so I used the words "vibrational" motif and talked about the halo in ancient religious art. It turned out to be a bit prophetic because within the following year, vibrations were all around everything in the psychedelic art of the late 60's and early 70's.

          My fascination with light and art has continued through the years, especially as it relates to the gospel of Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the light of the world."--John 8:12.  In the Bible Dictionary it says that the Light of Christ comes upon mankind because of Jesus Christ. For instance, Christ is "the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (D & C 93:2; John 1:9). The light of Christ fills the "immensity of space" and is the means by which Christ is able to be "in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things." It "giveth life to all things" and is "the law by which all things are governed." It is also "the light that quickeneth" man's understanding. (This is not to be confused with the Holy Ghost.)

SCRIPTURE: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss (signal, call for) the ...bee that is in the land of Assyria." --Isaiah 7:18

          I've never been particularly interested in the fly so that's left out of the verse above (maybe a study for another day) and I'll just ponder all that I've learned about the bee. Shipman concluded back in 2007 that "I think the physics of the bees' bodies, their physiology, must be constructed such that they're sensitive to quantum fields--that is, the bee perceives these fields through quantum mechanical interactions between the fields and the atoms in the membranes of certain cells."  

          Shipman's ideas and my own college experience converge as Frank tries to explain that bees have a sensitivity to an effect known as nuclear magnetic resonance, or nmr, when an electromagnetic wave impinges on the nuclei of atoms and flips their orientation. nmr is considered a quantum mechanical effect because it takes place only if each atom absorbs a particular size packet, or quantum, of electromagnetic energy. My thesis was to show the "life force" or light that all living things emit. We can communicate subtly with each other as one spirit to another. When this spirit is removed, our body dies. I suspect that a bee has this same type of light or spirit within their bodies. If this is how God communicates with the bee or a rock or a fly and it obeys, maybe we should also. 

          I think we as humans also have the ability to "see as God sees" because of the "light which is in all things, and through all things and around all things." If we desire for this ability, pray for this gift, live worthy of this gift, and it's God's will and desire for our lives to be enhanced as well as for the benefit of the world and help build His kingdom upon the earth, then we will receive it. 

          The bee is in communication with the same "light" and "quantum mechanics" that we are, so that if the Lord hisses or signals for them to come, they will. Shouldn't we be found in that same position? If God asks us to do something, shouldn't we DO IT? Isaiah warns us over and over again, not to become too involved in our idols, but to do what God asks us to do. Are we busy searching and understanding Isaiah, then applying our own backgrounds, interests, hobbies and experiences to understand our part in building the kingdom of God upon the earth. That is why I am blogging about "A Genealogist Looks at Isaiah."

The Bee Hive and it’s Symbolism

Deseret or Honey Bee and the HIVE

 Recently I came across this blogger who named his domain Hive-Mind.

“Why “Hive-Mind”?  A hive mind is the emergent property of apparent sentience that arises from the behaviors of a colony of individuals. Just as your neurons, without individual intelligence, interact as a unit to become a brain, so one can view a hive of bees or a colony of ants interacting as a unit to become a mind.  The whole has behaviors, memories and characteristics that could not be predicted by studying an individual.”

“OK, cool, but why choose it as a domain name? Well, I kept bees and was fascinated by their behaviors at the same time that the World Wide Web was breaking into public consciousness.  Partly in response to the writings of Kevin Kelly, a founder of Wired magazine as well as publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, I became entranced with the idea that the behaviors of the individuals in a society, on a planet or on a network, might interact as a whole to exhibit behaviors that were beyond the ken of parts.”

Note: Whacky, creative and a proud dad, Jordan Schwartz lives with his wife Michelle and son Ziv live in Wallingford Washington. His last post about bees was the one in  June 2011. Did his bees die?

Recent Sunspot Activity with Predictions of 

World Wide Web Upsets

            Colony Collapse Disorder has happened worldwide and although it was hinted at in 1994, the buzz about disappearing bees really peaked in 2007. It is curious that I was interested in bees in relation to serious sunspot activity, or lack thereof, in 2007 as was this this zaney blogger, Jordan Schwartz, a Washington beekeeper, wrote:

"March 31 2007

By Hive Mind blog

"The solar probe Ulysses’ circumpolar orbit took it below the south pole of the sun this past winter. While there, sunspot 938 put on the most energetic performance of any sunspot in four years, ejecting a particle storm that would have been a “ground-level event” (penetrating the entire atmosphere) had it been directed at earth…"

"If we consider such a particle stream to be a secondary stream to the “imaginary” component of the solar field that would be dominant during a solar minimum, then the quantum field to which the bees may be sensitive could have been disturbed. Or, the bees could have lost navigation, possibly abandoning the hive as one of the directional components of either the quantum field or local terrestrial magnetic variations moved drastically closer to the sun. They may have flown skyward, attempting to keep up with the rapidly moving target of home in six dimensions. Or, hyper-dimensional bee-eaters could have emerged from the sunspot, phasing the bees out of existence on contact (given the evidence, anything is possible, and equally strange. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t consider this to be very likely to say the least)."

More About the Hive and the Role it Plays in Bee Communication

            Perhaps the most fascinating example of insect behavior is that of one of the most familiar, the honey bee. Like other social insects, honey bees live in societies in which survival is dependent on mutual co operation and division of labor. A colony consists of a queen (reproductive female) and her offspring. Drones (males) are few, existing only to mate with queens. Once their duty is performed, they are driven away from the hive before winter. Workers (sterile females) fill virtually all other roles. Larvae develop in the cells of the comb that the workers construct from wax secreted from specialized glands. If a new queen is needed to replace one that has died, or to lead a swarm from a colony that has out-grown its hive, a larva is selected by the workers and fed royal jelly. This regal diet alters the larva's development, and a queen bee develops. The vast majority of larvae do not receive royal jelly in their diet and thus are destined to become workers.

Almost All Bees are Female – How Can there be a King Bee?

            This is from an article about the bees way of communicating. “The tasks performed by workers change as they age. Upon emergence as an adult worker, her first job is that of a maid, cleaning the cells in which the queen lays eggs and where food is stored. As the worker ages, she spends less time cleaning and begins caring for young larvae. After several more days, as her wax secreting glands mature, she enters the construction business, building the cells the comb.”

“Two weeks or more into her adult life the worker serves as a guard for a short period, protecting the entrance of the hive from would-be intruders such as mice, ants, and marauding bees. The last, and most hazardous job in the short life of the worker is that of a forager: a collector of nectar (from which they make honey, their source of energy) and pollen (their source of protein) from flowering plants. How a worker communicates the location of a pollen and nectar source to other workers in the hive may be the most incredible and complex form of social behavior existing outside of the human race.”

The Bee’s Waggle Dance – Hive is All Important 

Notice here that the angle of the vertical surface of a comb in the hive to the sun is the unique positioning the bees use to tell other workers where the source of pollen and nectar is located in reference to the hive: “Upon her return to the hive with pollen and nectar, the worker bee performs an elaborate dance on the vertical surface of a comb. If the source is relatively distant from the hive (as it generally is), the dance takes the form of a figure-eight. The forager waggles her body from side to side as she moves forward in a straight line, then circles to the right, back to her starting point, waggles ahead again, and then circles to the left (Fig. 1). 

This dance pattern is repeated a number of times. The angle of the straight run, or "waggle," from vertical is equal to the angle from the hive between the sun and the nectar/pollen source. If the flowers are located 45 degrees to the right of the sun, the dance will be oriented 45 degrees to right of vertical. The distance of the straight waggle run is proportional to the distance from the hive to the source. Details of this behavior can be found in many books, including an excellent discussion in Gould and Gould (1988), an easily read and comprehensive reference on the honeybee.

A curious thing happens however when the source of pollen is much, much closer. In my next blog I am going to go into more depth on a very important concept quoting extensively from an article appearing November 2007 in Discovery Magazine. There is that year, 2007, again. Bees were really in the world wide mind that year.

Cross Pollination of Fields of Research Produce Amazing Insight

 SUMMARY: What a glorious time to be living, to have access to books and magazines, via the internet or cyberspace or in other words the highways in the wilderness in all of the wildly divergent areas of study that I've pondered and researched. I've come to realize that God knows it all; he knows what has been, is being, and will be written on every one of these topics. He is the perfect fount of truth and light. All I have to do is be worthy then listen and he will direct my thoughts that I might write what is needful at this time in my blog. What I write may not be the final truth or the final word, but may just be the thought provoking idea that motivates another person. Isn't that what a BEE does? Pollinates so that another can bear fruit?

SCRIPTURE: "And I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom. Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand; 

          "Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wrs and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms--

          "That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you.

          "Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor." --Doctrine and Covenants 88:78-81

          This is our Stake's theme for the year. As a people we must prepare so that we can share the saving doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ, including the salvation of all those who have ever lived upon the earth.

Is There a Bee in Azerbaijan?

I’ve looked over my blog’s statistics primarily because I hit the magic 60 on this one today.  I was amazed at where people lived who were looking at my blog. One of my very first viewers was in Russia… that was back in December of 2011. Today, the following are listed:

United States 16 views

Brazil               8 views

Russia              4 views                        

Canada            2 views

France              2 views

Nigeria             2 views

Ukraine            2 views

Argentine         1 views

Australia          1 views

Azerbaijan       1 views

The Mystery of Blog Audience

Of course, since I don’t understand how anyone in most of these other countries could even find my blog, except by accident, much less read it in English or even care what I write, or about the topics that I’m writing about, I can not say much about the above list.

What I can say is that it got me thinking about the wilderness that is cyberspace. Then I began wondering about whether the bees disappearing was a worldwide event, thus my question, “Is there a bee in Azerbaijan?

View Larger Map

Azerbaijan is located in what was once Russia at 40.30 degrees North of the Equator on the Caspian Sea. You can look for it centered on a peninsula jutting out into that sea; that peninsula is located about 240 miles to the west of the northern most part of the Assyrian empire in 721 bc. It was only 300 miles NE from Nineveh to that peninsula. (look on map 5 in the back of the appendix of the  Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible with explanatory notes and cross references to the Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints copyrighted 1979)

SCRIPTURE: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.”

 –Isaiah 7:18

The word ‘hiss’ usually means whistle according to the footnote; i.e. signal, summon (Isaiah 5:26) The context here, as well as the parallel construction seems to indicate that Lord summons the bee that is in the land of Assyria (a parallel to the king of Assyria) and his attacking forces will depopulate the land. Only a few self-sustaining survivors shall remain. When we look at what the remaining people will eat, it is:

SCRIPTURE: “And it shall come to pass in that day (usually indicates a latter-day time frame) that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give, he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is in the land.” –Isaiah 7: 21-22

WHICH BEE IS IT? MILITARISTIC OR SELF-SUFFICIENCY & SURVIVAL?

 In Isaiah, does the bee stand for the symbol of a militaristic, attacking force out of "Assyria" and does verse 19 show that the fly from Egypt and the bee from Assyria will “rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes,” mean their swarms will cover everything. That’s quite an invasion of flies and bees. Since the fly and bee are singular in the previous verse possibly it refers to a leader, thus the they would be the invading minnions under their leadership.

          This scenario would result in  the few surviving individuals in the wilderness (cyberspace) must be self sufficient and although they live in a land of milk and honey, they'd really be surviving on the nomad's diet of milk, curds and honey. Hmmmmm. Is this where Isaiah tells us about a latter day type? I may wander around a little in this thought about desolate valleys, holes in rocks, thorns, and bushes because I see them every day. If cyberspace is a desolate valley, the holes in the rocks may be the dark places we hole up in to get online; I really get thorns: these are the virus invasions, or even the learning of new skills that for older people are a thorn in our sides, so to speak. If the bees and flys are on bushes that means there are some delicious sweet things to attract them to that bush, whether it's flowers with nectar or smelly stuff like a dead pack rat. Those of you involved in computer life can tell me what "bushes" attract you, I already know the smelly stuff of porn, etc.

            Since I live in a desolate valley and in the midst of Picture Rocks, I take notice of this scripture in Isaiah. I ponder it. Not real deeply, but I keep coming back to it, sniffing around and researching more and more about bees. I guess I'd better give equal opportunity to the fly, hadn't I?

          Am I prepared for a last days scenario of this type of invasive event? Probably not. I don’t own a young cow or sheep and quite frankly, the cactus and vegetation here couldn’t support them. But can I store dried milk and honey.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) – Is Our Society Collapsing?      

             I researched the disappearing bee phenomenon and found some absolutely fascinating facts about what is happening to bees in our world today: Under an unlikely online article entitled "Getting Rid of Bees" they talk about the fact that most people who come to this site are looking to get rid of bees, but it is important to understand that bees are vital to American agriculture.  Farmers often own their own hives, or they rent hives from beekeepers because bees play a vital role in the pollination of plants.  It depends on the type of plant, but in some cases bees are responsible for 80% of all pollination

            That is why it is such a serious problem that bees are literally disappearing due to a condition known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).  The population of bees has taken a serious dive in the last 20 years, and it has reached a point where a lot of people are worried.  No one knows for sure why bees are disappearing, but there are a lot of theories.  About 34% of commercial bee hives have disappeared during the past 4 years according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

          Hives that are undergoing Colony Collapse Disorder will have all the worker bees from European beehives abruptly leave the hive without any warning or signs of distress.  They are not dying in the hive, but simply abandoning it for no apparent reason.  This does not happen to just one colony at a time, but instead multiple hives that a beekeeper owns will suddenly disappear.  The queen bee, along with capped brood (baby bees), and all the honey and pollen will remain in the hive untouched.  The only thing that is affected is the worker bee.

Theories On Why Bees are Disappearing

          There are a lot of theories why bees are disappearing at such an alarming rate.  Scientist have proposed everything from diseases, parasites, pesticides, and electromagnetic radiation, but recently there have been a lot of brand new developments.

          Recently, there have been new developments related to Colony Collapse Disorder.  The current theory is that bees are turning into zombies! Yes, we are not joking, but let’s get a bit more serious.  The Parasitic Phorid Fly, Apocephalus borealis, lays its eggs in the abdomen of honey bees.  The eggs have very negative effects on the honey bees.

         (Here we have a fly and a bee  responsible for the collapse of the hives)

           Besides the fact that it will kill the infected honey bees, the eggs will make the worker bees behave like mindless zombies.  They will walk around in circles with absolutely no sense of direction.  The bees will then leave the hive at night, and never return because the parasite will kill them shortly after.

          Scientists are still not 100% sure that this is the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, but it is looking like a likely culprit.  They are unsure what the parasite does exactly, but they believe that it messes with the bees’ internal clocks.  The bees are then disoriented, not knowing what they should be doing, until they finally fly off by themselves to die.

Why Bees Disappearing is a Problem

           There are a lot of reasons why this is a major problem.  Yes, bees can be a bit annoying during your lovely picnic, and getting stung can hurt a lot.  But the truth is that honey bees will rarely hurt anyone who is not severely threatening them or their hive.  They are really gentle creatures, who just happen to have huge stingers.

          Honey bees, like we mentioned before, are responsible for a lot of the pollination for a lot of the fruits and vegetables that we all enjoy.  Without bees, farmers would have a really tough time growing some of our more delicious fruits and vegetables, like watermelons.  It depends on what a farmer is growing, but bees can be responsible for up to 80% of a field’s pollination.

          Colony Collapse Disorder is currently responsible for a loss of approximately 50% of the world’s honey bee population.  That is no small or laughing matter.

So yes, there are bees in Azerbaijan but they too are disappearing.

It Can All Change in a Twinkling of an Eye

They say most accidents happen within a few blocks or miles of your home. Today, I got a taste of that.
Normally, our neighbor, Mike, brings up the newspaper from our driveway and puts it in the container on our porch. This is because neither my husband nor I can easily walk that distance. We both use either canes or walkers and the drive is full of rocks and stones, making it difficult for us and somewhat unsafe because it would be easy to trip and fall. So this morning I told my husband we'd get in the car and he could get out and get the paper. That delighted him, because a day without the daily paper is like a day without sunshine to him.

Our mailbox is just this side of the saguaro in the center.

Our property apparently has an easement just to the west of us for people who have built their homes behind the properties down there. There are no houses directly behind us. I've noticed over the past few months that there is more traffic using our driveway to exit onto the main road. But since we do not go out that much, I've never actually been present outside when the used our driveway to exit. Driveway is a very loose term. There is dirt where people drive on several sides of cactus and saguaros between our house and the one next door.

As I pulled up to the mail box area for my husband to get out, I looked in the rearview mirror and there was a white truck pulled up right behind us. My plan was to just back up when my husband had picked up the paper and gotten the mail, then circle our house to where we park, never leaving our property. Now I couldn't. I then pulled out across the street so that I could return into our drive, and I was just a little aggravated. The white truck driven by a woman pulled out to the west. I looked for traffic, because this is a dangerous road to live on, and began to go across the road back into our driveway when I caught movement off to the right and a car came SPEEDING at us. I jammed on my brakes and they missed us by inches, swerving off the road a little. "Where did that come from?" I asked.  Both of us were quite shaken by the near miss. No, our lives didn't flash by in those seconds, but we really could have been quite dead out there right in front of our house. Whew!!!

Our neighbor was out front and came over to see how we were. He said this was why he was moving, because the people just speed along here and ignore the law that says stop when a school bus is stopped whether you are on one side of the street or the other. His son, who just turned seven today, has had several near misses of being hit because cars just didn't stop. The family couldn't take the anxiety of there cute little boy being hit by a speeding care. You say, "But that's illegal!" and you are right! But they do it anyway. The car that barely missed me was absolutely speeding down from the small hill and curve to our west ... definitely NOT going the 35 mile per hour speed limit.

Life is precious. And your life can change in a twinkling of an eye.

A Bee's Flight of Fantasy - It's all in the Name

In 1992, I wrote a letter to my friend in which I said that because of her anxious feelings about a political power from the East or Asia invading California (today's political scene creates an entirely different feeling of possibility now), that I wanted to share some thoughts about the bee as symbolized in Isaiah’s last days scenario.

            “You mentioned the type and shadow of flies and then bees as orderly, militaristic, etc. Well, the bee has been a favored symobl of mine since childhood because it was my initials. But, recently, like in March, the bee came up significantly again in my studies. Let me share.

            “I love (Hugh) Nibley’s books. Often, I will try to find his comments on a favored subject. I became fascinated with the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. Nibley has written a marvelous book called Abraham in Egypt” 1981, Deseret Book Co. We could spend many delightful hours in a study group on this book, however the discourse I wish  you to consider is on deseret the honeybee, about page 241.(Chapter VII The Deseret Connection pp 225-245)

“The very earliest myths of antiquity hold up the bee to be sacred. So sacred, in fact, that the visual or image of the bee itself is never used as it would profane it. Interestingly, it appears that bee keeping (apiculture) was found nowhere else in the world and was kept as a “trade secret” or monopoly of the kings or Pharoah of Egypt. The bee was translated from hieroglyphics as Dšr and has the basic meaning of “opening the way for someone be it God’s way to the temple or a migration through the desert. [ie. The Lord’s Way] Now when in Egyptian it is written Dš·t it is a name applied to sacred books (the sealed portions?) the secret archives, but especially to the holy land, the land of the gods; as an intransitive verb it means to be holy or glorious; it designates places as “set apart” or “removed to a sacred place.” In this connection it means to honor, praise, exalt, adorn, protect, purify. Of temples it means to make glorious, and beautiful, to sanctify, dedicate.

“ ‘Essene’ means leader of the bees or ‘king bee [ie queen bee]. Legends speak of bee-led migrations at the dawn of history, seeking not commerce but refuge from storm, and starvation – survival. What ties all this together is the story of Asenath, the Eqyptian princess or Queen of the Desert Hive who became Joseph’s wife, the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh. She was married to Joseph in the midst of a swarm of bees, bringing her honey and covering her person to do her reverence.”

Is this Ancient Story the Beginning of the Bridal Veil Custom?”

I was surprised to discover that “There was never any real apiculture” in Mosopaotamia, according to J.R. Forbes’ study, and “wild honey or apiculture do not form a part of ancient Chinese civilization.”(376:79).  Something so basic and elementary as the fact that bee culture should be found in such a limited area of the world, concludes Nibley, is a “definite indication that we are dealing with a single religious tradition and not with a universal primitive expression of biological necessity.” (p 242)

Since the discover of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the name Essene has come into common usage. These were pious communities living in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Greece that had the common requirements of chastity and charity in service to God and man. Nibley says, “The word Essene first appears in the works of a poet who served at the court of a Ptolemid Pharaoh, who remarks in his Hymn to Zeus that the god did not become the “Essene” or supreme ruler of the gods by chance, but by merit.”

Nibley, after going through quite a detailed review of historic studies of the bee by various scholars, draws a conclusion that I wanted my friend Karen to read about and draw her own conclusions. Although reading the story of Deborah (her name means bee) in the Old Testament, one might rightly conclude that because she led the troops to victory, that the bee might be a militaristic symbol. Here is what Nibley concludes:

Why has the Bee Been Brought Back into the Restored Gospel?

“Repeated echoes from the remote past keep reminding us that the office and calling of the bee was to bring about the stirrings of life, reviving the biological cycle in a world that had been totally ravaged by cosmic forces of destruction. Is, then, Deseret waiting in the wings, held in reserve against the day, soon to come, when its salutary services will be required again?”

“From the first the symbol of the bee captivated the imagination of the Latter-day Saints in their migrations and their settlements; the emblematic hive became the seal of the Territory and State and adorned every important edifice within the vast expanse of “our lovely Deseret.” Finally, by what strange coincidence does the History of the Church end with the sign of the bee? After the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, “the bodies…were removed…at Emma’s request, to near the Mansion house, and buried side by side, and the bee house was then moved and placed over their graves.” (Joseph Smith, History of the Church 6:628f.)

This BEE will see whether Isaiah's bee is militaristic or migratory or if after a universal/national destruction, it is salvation in the desert. How on earth is one to "see" what Isaiah is really telling us about today's world. I hope you will keep up with my blog about A Genealogist Looks at Isaiah and ponder along with me as I search the scriptures.

Why are the Bees Dying Today?

There has been a recent mysterious decline or dying off of bees within the United States. Interestingly, the study of this phenomenon is centered right here in Tucson, Arizona at the University of Arizona, located right smack dab in the middle of  MY DESERT. More on this in later blogs.

           

The Righteous Shall Speak Often to One Another

          My Malachi 3:16 scripture above in the title part of this page, is the essence of this blog. It also is the center of my goals this year and is found several places in scripture. As I studied Isaiah and quoted Doctrine and Covenants 133:3 in my last blog, the footnote there is for Isaiah 52:10 that quotes that verse exactly.  Then a verse or down is this quote of scripture about speaking often one to another:

"Call your solemn assemblies, and speak often one to another. 

And let every man call upon the name of the Lord." --D & C 133:6

          Jesus Christ is the author of these books of scripture and he is consistently the same, using the same language and the same key words. As the pre-mortal Jehovah, he taught his ancient prophets how to use words and other literary devices such as chiasm. These become a flag of divine authorship to us. He tells us "Great are the Word of Isaiah," because Isaiah was the very best. He earned the title among the ancient Hebrews as THE PROPHET. Isaiah uses types as one of these literary devices. A type foreshadows a person, event or thing that comes again. He uses the meaning of names to help us better understand what he is trying to say. I've used my maiden name initials here, BEE, to stand not only for myself in this blog, but as a type for what I see my mission in life being. 

BEE in the Desert

          In my childhood I was fascinated with bees and used the Native American symbol of a bee in my Camp Fire Girl headband that was made from beads. I always thought of myself as a busy bee. Later, as I became aware of the danger of bee stings, my thoughts about bees turned away from good things and I viewed bees as enemies. They could indeed sting me, leaving their stinger in me pulsating and injecting venom into my soft flesh. Luckily, I was not allergic to bee stings, no was I stung very often. The one or two times I can remember, I simply stepped on a bee and got stung.

          When I joined the Church of Jesus Christ about the age of 21, my first calling was as a Beehive teacher in the Young Women organization of the church. This calling was very similar to what I was doing as a professional field director for the Camp Fire Girls at this time. Yes, my first job out of college hearkened back to my childhood in Camp Fire. (I worked again with this organization in 2002-4 at the other end of my life) It was amazing how the Law of Camp Fire paralleled the gospel. Not having been raised in the church, it was a very subtle yet strong influence on me at a very young age. 

      The funny thing about this Law of Camp Fire is that I never knew I was following anything. We just recited it each meeting. But the reality of it was that I have placed Worshiping God first. I majored in art thus did seek beauty. I've always worked for non-profit organizations and been oriented to giving service, even though as a child I didn't like going to nursing homes, or other service projects, but I did them; somehow I grew up doing this and now love to give service. I was the first in my family to receive a college degree, thus I did and still do pursue knowledge. I am and have always valued being trustworthy; I wanted to work in a bank and kept myself worthy to do that. I don't lie nor cheat. Hmmm there's a pattern here. I do hold tenaciously to health. I love to work and always give full value to an employer, but more than that I have a strong work ethic in anything that I pursue. And Last but not least you will always find me smiling. I am indeed a happy person, upbeat and positive. Well, most of the time.

    

          When I got a little older and began to enjoy symbols in scripture and church history, I found that the beehive is the symbol of Latter-day Saint society and organization.

QUOTE: "The Latter-day Saints, ever settling and ever on the move, adopted the bee symbol from the beginning. It caught their imagination, and they saw in it exactly what the ancients did, the example of a society in which "men lived together like bees," of the authority and order by which they were ruled, and of the industry and organization with which they gathered the sweets of the field and enhanced their growth: in the State of Deseret, "our lovely Deseret," the beehive symbol was everywhere." 

-- Abraham in Egypt, By Hugh Nibley ©1981 Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City,UT

          When I taught the Beehive girls (ages 12 to 14) later in life, I always showed them the various ways bee lore played a part in the life of early peoples. For example: the bee's wax made candles, "Let your light so shine" "Don't hide your light under a bushel," etc. The bee's honey was unique, too, I'd tell them about queen bee jelly and it's medicinal qualities, as well as the fact honey that coming from different sources tasted different (we'd taste some from orange blossoms, from sage,etc.), and so on. 

          In the 1980s I realized that Deborah, a prophetess in the bible, was also called Deborah the Bee. Here is were the symbolism of the bee as an image of war appears. Usually it was used in reference to a migration. Well, think about Noah when the ark landed, it was the bees that led the way to the land where flowers were blooming, indicating fruit and fertile land. This is why early migrating peoples carried bees with them in hives. They needed the sweetener to make bread rise, and so many other things to live an abundant life. 

        This is where I hope that my BEE in the Desert name may mean that I, too, might lead others to discover something that will bring fruit and I fly from one study to another and post my remarks on this blog. My current passion is Isaiah. He mentions bees, too. My next blog will probably give you more about Bee Symbolism than you ever wanted to know, but you might just think it's interesting and lead you into deeper studies of the scriptures, especially Isaiah.

Have You Seen the Hand of the God Reaching Out to Touch You Today?

SCRIPTURE: "Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:"

          " Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid." --Isaiah 29:12-14

           How can I make sure that I am close to the Lord in my thoughts and actions as well as in my words? The scriptural links here suggest that by reading the Book of Mormon and participating in missionary work (many believe this is the marvelous work and a wonder that God will perform in the last days) I can ensure that my thoughts and actions draw me close to the Lord. 

          I see an example of this in a childhood friend, Drake Mariani, of how a man can focus his life on the "words" of God, the bible, yet be only focused on self-gain. He brags about the "gazillions" of customers who use his Mem-lock system of memorizing the scriptures. But, although memorizing scriptures is truly a great thing, it is not the central core thing of coming to know Christ and understanding the great plan of salvation, then participating in that plan to the end. 

         I must totally immerse myself in the scriptures. I must truly have a burning desire to understand what I read, to have the Holy Ghost testify to me that what I understand is what the prophet understood when he wrote that particular scripture under inspiration.

Then I Begin to Apply the Scriptures to my Own Life and Times

Likening the scriptures unto myself is when I begin understanding what this means in the year I am living in then, doing and living it's precepts in my own life. That is how I can be close to the Lord.

Remember to ask each day: 

"Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch me and my family today?"

          In my Journal on 30 Dec 2009 I wrote: "The Lord has commanded his Priesthood holders to write their works, histories, genealogies and dealings with God since the time of Adam. It is no different for us today. Men holding the Priesthood should do the same. Their wives, their eternal companions, should share in this inspired activity also. A journal should be a positive account of our lives, written for our children and our brethren."

          "We will be judged from our books along with our dead. In this day of CD technology it will be simple to keep a copy of our genealogies and photos in a digital format on CD. Our journal can then become a true Book of Remembrance, one that could be grabbed in a time of emergency (tornado, flood, earthquake) to take with you as you flee your home. It is now possible to scan all the paper certificates and copies of civil records that back up your family history research and include these on a CD. This is a personal revelation to me from a loving heavenly father and represents a totally new and interesting concept for me."

          Just two short years later, in Spring of 2012 the technology has leaped ahead of even these advances. Now, using THE CLOUD technology, all of our digital journals, writings, genealogies, and supporting documents can be place in the CLOUD for others to see and use. Genealogical family trees will be linked together going back generations with all the supporting documents tied right to them. This will be available for anyone to see and learn how accurate decisions were made based upon documented research. And THE CLOUD is FAST; it will be available all over the world and people from every nation can participate in creating an accurate database, an accurate Book of Remembrance. This can go back for generations. It will have every person who ever lived upon the earth and left records of themselves during their lives recorded on it. IF people will enter their family's data there. 

"Behold, The Lord rideth upon a swift cloud." --Isaiah 19:1

          This past Monday, I saw the Lord's hand reaching out and touching in my life. As ward family history consultant, I met with a wonderful young mother who had asked me to teach her what I knew about genealogical research. When we both got together that afternoon after a weird series of events, any one of which might have had one or the other of us calling off the meeting, we both said to each other: "Wow, you know who must have not wanted us to get together, this must be really important in a way neither of us can recognize right now." 

          As we began talking, I realized this young woman, this Daughter of Zion, was my digital superior in every way. We both are journal keepers, but hers are digitized. We are both photo historians, but hers are all organized and scanned into neatly organized file folders on her absolutely beautifully organized computer system. (No one can ever say that about my own files scattered hither, thither, and yon among whatever folder I happened to be using that particular year) We both recognize the importance of names and naming patterns. We both believe we must teach our children about the important concepts of journals and genealogy and temple work, but she actually keeps journals for her three boys until they can read and write; one is age 5 or so and the twins are 1) We both have photos up in our home, but she has a whole wall at the entrance of her home covered with many, many photos (each labeled on the back; I'm lucky to know who are in my photos, most still in boxes and file folders, mostly unscanned, and I am probably the only one who could label them but haven't got around to it). We both have blogs, hers has great photos she takes and uploads beautifully and my digital camera over ten years old has died and I am now cameraless so I must use photos taken last year or scanned from my files.

God Has Seen Us from the Beginning

He saw my young, digitally savvy friend and me, his Daughters of Zion, standing in His vineyard, in our homes, looking out at what was coming and telling us to tell others, to speak often one to another and let them know what their responsibilities are in helping to prepare the world for the Lord's second coming.

"And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, 

as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city." --Isaiah 1:8

In Doctrine and Covenants 1 the Lord tells us in our day that He'd seen us and described us and shown us to Isaiah and the prophets, then told Joseph Smith even more about us.

"And the arm of the Lord shall be revealed; and the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants , neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people; and they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant; They seek not to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol..." --D & C 1:14-16

Are we in danger of being cut off because we do not seek to establish His kingdom? Are our computers, ipads, iphones etc. our idols today? Do we give heed to Isaiah and the ancient prophets, as well as Joseph Smith and even the living prophets today? 

"Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding.

"And inasmuch as they erred it might be made known;

"And inasmuch as they sought wisdom they might be instructed;

"And inasmuch as they sinned they might be chastened, that they might repent;

"And inasmuch as they were humble they might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time.

"And after having received the record of the Nephites, yea, even my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., might have the power to translate through the mercy of God, by the power of God, the Book of Mormon."  --D & C 1:24-29

The Lord says: "For I am no respector of persons, and will that all men shall know that the day speedily cometh; and the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand, when peace shall be taken from the earth and the devil shall have power over is own dominion."--D & C 1:35

This was written 1 Nov 1831 over 181 years ago and just look. There seems to be nowhere in the earth that is not threatened by wars, civil unrest, rebellions, demonstrations (like the current "occupy" movements around the world); and there is an over riding sense of fear about the December 21st date of the Mayan prediction about the end of their world. People seem to waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. While we wait, natural disasters sweep across our land and people are left reeling and trying to rebuild and recover, only to be slammed with another unexpected disaster.

In D & C 1 the Lord is telling us that it is our responsibility to take the gospel to all the world and we are given power to "seal both on earth and in heaven, the unbelieving and the rebellious; Yea...to seal them up to the day when the wrath of God will be poured out upon the wicked with measure." --D & C 1:8-9 This section has all the familiar language and phrases of Isaiah.

"For He shall make bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of their God." --D & C 133:3

I ponder this scripture in a non war setting of "salvation" and realize that it could be our work for our kindred dead. It is now possible for all the world to be involved in genealogical research and digitizing records. It is these ancient records (whether in the United State, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Germany, Canada, or China) that will make it possible for ALL people who have ever lived upon the earth to receive the saving ordinances of the gospel that are available only in the Lord's temples.

A Genealogist Looks at Isaiah

Liken Isaiah's Writings Unto Yourself

As we study the words of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon this month during Gospel Doctrine class, I decided to "Liken these Scriptures Unto Myself" ... a genealogist... a family historian. I've seen phrases in Isaiah in past years that have drawn me into learning more about what he was talking about. The idea of truly understanding Isaiah has intrigued me for years. In the late 1980s I became familiar with Avraham Gileadi's translation of the book of Isiah and read some of his ideas about what some of the symbolism meant. He introduced me to the concepts of literary devices that were used by the Lord's ancient prophets. This style of writing (often called the 'manner of the Jews') was something that I'd never heard of before. Gileadi said, "many literary features in Isaiah, each of which can communicate a message apart from the literal text..." He went on the say that the ancient prophets "carefully crafted their prophetic writings so that all their words would have meaning, so that even the way they organized their material would carrying a message."  This is the Lord's way of communicating, everything has its likeness in God's creation of the universe: everything counted. I was fascinated by this concept because it carried the hint of something that I already believed. I began to study these devices. The first one I studied was chiasm.

What is Chiastic Structure?

A chiasm (ky'-az-um) represents a writing style that – once understood – clarifies, emphasizes and reveals a deeper meaning in the Scriptures than is revealed in just a surface reading of these same verses. A chiasm is a literary style that some call the “chiastic (ky'-az-tic) approach.” Once you understand how the chiastic structure works, it can dramatically enhance your understanding of those verses in the New and Old Testament where chiasms appear.(article by Thomas A. Clarke)

Clarke goes on to say that a  chiasm organizes themes much like a sandwich: A) a piece of bread on top, B) mustard, C) a piece of meat, C') another piece of meat, B') more mustard, and finally A') another piece of bread on the bottom. Chiasms generally focus on the meat, but the bread and mustard are necessary for a complete sandwich. Some chiasms do not have a mustard layer, other chiasms have lettuce on both sides of the meat, and some have just one piece of meat. 

I thought about this a lot over the intervening years and wondered if I would ever recognize this structure in my scripture studies. In Mexico during the late 1990s I came across a book entitled "Language of the Lord." by H. Clay Gorton. I realized that the familiar turn of phrases used in the Old Testament, quoted in the New Testament and found again in The Book of Mormon were also found in the Doctrine and Covenants. A lightbulb went on!!! It was the same author, the Great Jehovah, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Savior of the World; I recognized his voice. The scriptures tell us that his sheep will recognize his voice (John 10:27)

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."

I even tried my hand at writing a chiastic poem about Isaiah. Every few years I would revisit this piece of creative writing and rework it. It is VERY difficult to write chiastic structure; take my word for it. It is not something Joseph Smith could have done just on a whim. It was the Lord talking through him. Here is the latest version of the poem that I wrote:

Blessed Patriarch

             This a poem to you, Isaiah,          

white haired, bent over your scroll,

weighed down with a vision’s burden.

Ancient prophet, whose life was in a palace,

yet servant of our King.

Your place was unique in time, chosen.

Our Father loved and trusted you.

As I read and ponder your words,

my world changes;

a polar shift occurs.

Your mysterious words

sift into spirit patterns of meaning,

the language of the Lord,

touching the center place of my soul.

Illumination bursts forth,

I know who I am now.

Chosen and set apart in the preexistence,

to write of these last days,

the songs of His heart for me. 

I can see more clearly

the face of my Counselor,

my God and my King.

The heavens unroll as a scroll

because of you,

Oh, blessed of patriarchs,

Great are the Words of Isaiah.

© 2010 by Beverly E. Field