The Scripture Study Project

Ezekiel - Watch

Hebrew prophets were valued because of their ability to foresee coming events and, then, warn people in the present. However, the true test of this foresight is, of course, whether or not these visions materialize. Today we study some of the prophet Ezekiel's most far-reaching declarations and see clear fulfillment in our own day.
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Music: by Steve Oxen

Jeremiah 30-Lamentations: Shepherd

I used to play a game with my seminary students called "Boo Speak" where I would invite a student to leave the room and then, with the students left in the room, pick a word that we would try and eliminate from that student's vocabulary by sheer peer pressure. Once we had decided on a word we would invite that student back in the room. I would have a conversation with the student and whenever he would say the word we would all say "boo" and/or provide other negative feedback. It was fascinating to watch as some students really did stop using the chosen word where other students became more adamant about using it. This week we finish our study of Jeremiah the prophet who was, for lack of a better phrase, "boo-ed" for his message and ministry by the very people he was trying to save, and ask ourselves what can we learn from a "boo-ed" prophet?
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Music: by Steve Oxen
 

Jeremiah 1-20: Derision

I love art museums, and in recent years, I've had multiple chances to attend a few and one thing I've noticed, repeatedly, is the vast breadth of color and emotion represented in the displayed art. Incredible paintings of bright flower gardens on warm days are balanced by emotional paintings of dark caverns or shrouded faces. I've come to appreciate the tug on my emotions as I feel, often in the same room, enlightened and pained, lifted by beauty and confronted with ugliness.
In our study this week we figuratively walk through the Art Gallery of Jeremiah and feel many of those same emotions as we search for truths that can sustain us in moments of needed perseverance.
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Music: by Steve Oxen

Isaiah 58-66 - Ways

There are some pressing questions we must address this week: how can you make shapes and animals out of pancake batter, what's the best way to eat a strawberry, and how cay you maximize the milk-to-cookie ratio of an oreo. These questions, as outlandish as it sounds, will help us better answer other questions. How can I fast with my eye single to God's purpose? How can I truly delight in the Sabbath? How can I better recognize and emulate the Savior's ministry? This week we study our final block of scriptures from Isaiah in search of answers to these questions.
 
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Music: by Steve Oxen

Isaiah 50-57 - Servant

Years ago I studied Isaiah 53 with a group of teenagers in a seminary class. As part of our experience I gave students a small piece of cardstock with a silhouette of Jesus printed on it on which I had asked them to write descriptions of the Savior they had found in their study. After class, as I was picking up the room, I noticed one card lying on the ground. I picked it up, turned it over, and read the words, "Are you really there?" That question has lodged in my mind and heart and has dramatically shaped the way I seek to study and teach the scriptures. In this episode, we have perhaps some of the best text in the Hebrew Bible answering that exact question.
 
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Music: by Steve Oxen

Isaiah 40-49 - Comfort

I once watched as someone illustrated Isaiah's visions and prophecies by drawing him as a stick figure then drawing a telescope in front of his face which indicated that Isaiah could see, both what was really close at hand, but also what was coming in the near future (for him, 150 years away) and the distant future (our day). In our study this week we dive into what scholars often call 2nd Isaiah because his focus seems to shift to the future. While some contend that this shift indicates a different author writing at a later time, many others, including our Book of Mormon prophets, knew him to be visionary and blessed with the spirit of God.
So what happens, then, when you take a telescopic prophet and combine it with a microscopic lens? In our episode this week we look deep at a few aspects of Isaiah's writings that have powerful and immediate impact for us.
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Music: by Steve Oxen

Isaiah 13-35 - Fat Things

When Krista and I were first married she introduced me to the idea of "empty calories"--foods that you could eat but that would give little to no nutrition (this was how she described many of the things I had grown used to eating in college). This week we Isaiah 13-35 and look at the things Isaiah describes that are the spiritual version of empty calories and, conversely and much more importantly, the things truly feed the soul.
 
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Music: by Steve Oxen

Isaiah 1-12 - Delight

Some commentators have described the book of Isaiah the climactic book of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Isaiah's writings were certainly important to many later writers, including Nephi, Abinadi, Mormon, and Jesus Christ himself. When describing his own passion for the words of Isaiah, Nephi said, "my soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people, . . . for he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him. . . . 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. Now these are the words, and ye may liken them unto you and unto all men" (2 Nephi 11: 2, 8). This week we begin our study Isaiah and aim for both excitement for and skill at studying the words of this pivotal prophet.
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Music: by Steve Oxen