The Study

Isaiah 60–66

Practicing the Millennium

A List of Broken Things

Make a list of the problems you wish would change: the reasons people weep or hurt, the violence and unfairness, the influence of Satan. Then, quietly, add one more: a problem in your own life, or in the life of someone you love, that you wish would go away.

Keep that list in front of you. Isaiah is about to answer it. In the middle of these chapters is Isaiah 61, the passage Jesus read aloud in the synagogue at Nazareth before He sat down and said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21). Isaiah 61 is what the Savior came to do the first time. The chapters around it look ahead to what He will do when He comes again, and to His thousand-year reign, the Millennium.

What He Will Fix

Read Isaiah 60:18–20, 62:11–12, and 65:17–25 with your list beside you, and watch the items fall off.

"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise." (Isaiah 60:18)

"The days of thy mourning shall be ended" (60:20). "The voice of weeping shall be no more heard" (65:19). "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain" (65:25). And over all of it, "the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light" (60:19). Because of the Savior, His people will know happiness, peace, and prosperity in the Millennium. Notice why. It is not better laws or smarter leaders. It is Jesus Christ Himself, present on the earth. And the One who fixes everything on your list already knows you.

Elder Neil L. Andersen described that day this way: "The thought of His coming stirs my soul. It will be breathtaking!" ("Thy Kingdom Come," April 2015). Which raises a harder question: who will be ready to live in that world?

The Earth's Sabbath

Picture seven boxes, a thousand years each, the last one shaded. Under them, seven days, Sunday shaded. The Lord drew the connection Himself:

"As God made the world in six days, and on the seventh day he finished his work, and sanctified it ... even so, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years will the Lord God sanctify the earth." (D&C 77:12)

The Millennium is the earth's Sabbath: a thousand years of rest, with Christ there. And the Sabbath is still kept then: "from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me" (Isaiah 66:23).

So every Sunday is a small Millennium. One day in seven, the Lord lets you practice the world He is bringing. The Sabbath is "a sign between me and you ... that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you" (Exodus 31:13). He sanctifies the earth on its seventh day. He sanctifies you on yours.

Same Law, No Opposition

In the Millennium, "Satan shall not have power to tempt any man" (D&C 101:28). Does the Lord ask less of the people there? No. "Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom" (D&C 105:5). The law is the same then as now. What changes is the opposition. President Russell M. Nelson put it this way: "the very things that will make your mortal life the best it can be are exactly the same things that will make your life throughout all eternity the best it can be!" ("Think Celestial!," October 2023).

Then comes the catch: "that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world" (Alma 34:34). The Millennium does not hand anyone a new character. Nobody learns a free throw the night of the game. You arrive with what you practiced here.

Questions Worth Sitting With, and One Thing to Try

If Sunday is practice for the Millennium, start there, one day first. Read D&C 59:9–13 and Isaiah 58:13–14 and mark what the Lord says the day is for: rest, worship, devotion, "singleness of heart," "that thy joy may be full," and to "call the sabbath a delight." President Nelson once leaned on lists of dos and don'ts, until he found a better question: "I simply asked myself, 'What sign do I want to give to God?'" ("The Sabbath Is a Delight," April 2015).

  • Why would having Jesus Christ Himself on the earth bring peace in a way better laws never could?
  • Have you already tasted a piece of that peace this year, through something you chose to obey?
  • Which part of your Sunday could you also live on a Tuesday?
  • Is the Millennium a date you wait for, or a way of living you can start this Sunday?

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come" (Isaiah 60:1–3) is spoken while "the darkness shall cover the earth." The command to shine comes before the darkness lifts, not after. President Nelson has said that "now is the time for you and for me to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ" ("The Lord Jesus Christ Will Come Again," October 2024). So build this coming Sunday like a blueprint, not a list of don'ts. At the top, write the sign you want to give God. Then plan one real block each for morning, afternoon, and evening (rest, worship, delight, service, family), plus one thing you will set up Saturday night so Sunday is not a fight. Live it. Then pick one block to carry into Monday, line upon line. Every problem on your list has an answer, and the answer is a Person. He is coming to a people who already practiced living with Him.

From the Church’s manuals

This lesson is one teacher’s preparation. The Church’s manual is the place to start, and it has more than any one class can cover.

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