Look unto the Rock
In the manual: Come, Follow Me lesson 41, “He Hath Borne Our Griefs, and Carried Our Sorrows,” on Gospel Library
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The Lord told discouraged people to look back at the quarry they were cut from. “Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn,” he says in Isaiah 51:1.
Read Together
Isaiah wrote these chapters for the people who would one day be captives in Babylon, far from home. A quarry is a place where builders cut stone out of a hillside.
1Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 2Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. 3For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
11Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. 12I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
What It Teaches
In verse 2, the rock is Abraham, and the quarry is Sarah. “I called him alone,” the Lord says, “and blessed him, and increased him.” An old man and an old woman with no children became a whole people. If the Lord could do that, he could bring the captives home.
Verse 3 promises that the Lord will make Zion’s desert “like Eden,” with “joy and gladness” and “the voice of melody.” In verse 11, the redeemed come home singing, and sorrow and mourning flee away.
The Lord who speaks in this chapter is Jehovah, the premortal Jesus Christ. In verse 12 he says, “I, even I, am he that comforteth you.” Then he asks why his people should fear “a man that shall die.” The rulers of Babylon would pass away, and the Lord’s salvation lasts forever (verse 6). That is why he tells his people to stop fearing what others say about them (verse 7).
Talk About It
What do you know about the faithful people our family came from? How can remembering them help when the future feels uncertain?
Take to Church
The Lord turned one faithful old couple into a nation. He can build a bright future out of small beginnings in our lives too.