Some twenty complete chapters from Isaiah—plus large portions of one additional chapter and many scattered references—are included in the Book of Mormon (see sidebar chart). Readers sometimes come upon the frequent passages from Isaiah in the Book of Mormon as if encountering a daunting cliff. These passages are clearly there for a divine purpose—not to serve as perplexing obstacles (as Laman and Lemuel perceived them—see 1 Nephi 22:1), but rather as the means of ascending to a loftier perspective of gospel insight from which vital covenant truths can be confirmed. How can teachers and parents apply Isaiah’s lofty themes and poetic language to everyday living? Here is one idea I have used over the years in my teaching.
Many of us remember watching our television screens on July 20, 1969, spellbound as Neil Armstrong stepped from the Eagle lunar module onto the surface of the moon, uttering the now historic phrase: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The spectacular color imagery of the earth’s orb taken on that Apollo 11 mission and on other space flights allowed men their first recorded glimpses of their magnificent blue-green, cloud-shrouded home from a heavenly perspective. But these views of earth were not the first to be discerned by mortals. As Moses was being instructed of the Lord millennia before, he “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). Similarly, with a spiritual eye, Moroni saw his future readership—one and all: “Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing” (Mormon 8:35).
Of all the ages of mankind, we are the first generation to cultivate a firsthand sense of space travel and a truly universal perspective. Our modern telescopes can see farther into the reaches of the universe than ever before, even detecting, for the first time, planets such as ours circulating around distant stars. Thus we should understand better than any other generation what is hinted at in the Lord’s statement that “all things are present with me, for I know them all” (Moses 1:6).
What is continually before the Lord is shared freely with His sons and daughters through His Spirit, at least “all things that are expedient for them” (D&C 75:10; compare 2 Nephi 3:19). Thus Nephi was able to experience and share his magnificent panoramic vision of the unfolding of Israel’s destiny, stretching in great arches of time from his day even to the Second Coming (see 1 Nephi 11–14). How carefully he must have selected thereafter his themes and illustrations for the small plates of sacred engravings so that precisely the right message would be conveyed to future generations, in precisely the right way. How keenly he must have felt the need to help his audience understand the scriptures, especially Isaiah, and “liken them unto yourselves” (1 Nephi 19:24).
What a harmonious kinship Nephi must have felt for his predecessor Isaiah. Isaiah, of all the Lord’s prophets, was perhaps the consummate navigator of the grand arches of time that interlock the human experience from beginning to end, and one of most accomplished in articulating what he saw with power and urgency. Isaiah, as the Lord’s prophet, could crisscross the milestones of history from the foundations of the earth to the meridian of time and on to the millennial reign and back again.
Here is the analogy: Once you have seen the extraordinary images of the earth as perceived from the moon, you will never again ponder the earth in the same way; once you have read Isaiah with the guidance of the Spirit, you will never again ponder God’s plan of salvation and Israel’s covenant calling in the same way. You will have been lifted to a higher level of understanding and enlightenment from one of the greatest of God’s anointed.
Like Nephi, we can integrate the words of Isaiah into our thoughts and aspirations. We can then rise spiritually far above Babylon into the freer atmosphere where “greater views” (D&C 10:45) of our destiny and calling are imparted by our Lord. (Richard J. Allen)