(Isa. 5:26–30)
In fixing the time of the great gathering, Isaiah seemed to indicate that it would take place in the day of the railroad train and the airplane (Isa. 5:26–29).
Since there were neither trains nor airplanes in that day, Isaiah could hardly have mentioned them by name. However, he seems to have described them in unmistakable words. How better could “their horses” hoofs be counted like flint, and “their wheels like a whirlwind” than in the modern train? How better could “their roaring … be like a lion” than in the roar of the airplane? Trains and airplanes do not stop for night. Therefore, was not Isaiah justified in saying: “none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken”? With this manner of transportation the Lord can really “hiss unto them from the end of the earth,” that “they shall come with speed swiftly.” Indicating that Isaiah must have foreseen the airplane, he stated: “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? (Isa. 60:8).
(LeGrand Richards, Israel! Do You Know? [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1973], 182.)
Isaiah saw many other things in connection with this gathering. He saw that the Lord would gather Israel quickly and with speed, that they would not even have time to loosen the shoe latchets of their shoes, or to slumber or sleep. (See Isa. 5:27.) Imagine a statement like that way back in the days of Isaiah, thousands of years ago, with their means of transportation at that time!
(LeGrand Richards, Ensign, Nov. 1975, 50.)
“Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows?” Sure enough we come with great speed. As Isaiah has said in the fifth chapter … they should come with speed swiftly; just as you emigrants do when you get on board of these railroads, when, instead of being ninety or a hundred days coming to this elevated region, as was the case for several years, you come in two or three days.
(Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 16:84.)
They saw … our automobiles, our railroad trains; they saw, very probably, the communication that was taking place upon the face of the earth so wonderfully by wireless communication… . They saw, I believe, the airplanes flying in the midst of the heavens… . (Isa. 5:26–30; Nahum 2:2–5; Rev. 9:6–10.) …
The prophets saw the time in the latter days when an ensign should be lifted up that those gathering to Zion should come with speed swiftly; they should not be weary, neither should they be under the necessity of slumber, nor the loosing of their girdle or the shoes from off their feet… .
Not because we are any better or more worthy than the saints of former time, nor because we have greater intelligence, but because we are living in the dispensation of the fulness of times, when the Lord is gathering all things in one and preparing the earth for the great millennial reign… .
The Lord gave inspiration to Edison, to Franklin, to Morse, to Whitney and to all of the inventors and discoverers… . Without the help of the Lord they would have been just as helpless as the people were in other ages.
(Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation: Sermons and Writings of Joseph Fielding Smith, ed. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–1956], 1:146–47.)
I think that Isaiah was privileged to live almost more in our day than in the day he was actually here upon this earth. He was able to see so much of what the Lord would do in the latter days… . Isaiah saw the railroad train and the airplane and how the people would be gathered to Zion without even being able to loosen the latchets of their shoes.
A few years ago President McKay went to Scotland to help organize the first stake in his bonny Scotland. When he returned, he reported to us brethren of the Twelve, telling us that he left London at two o’clock in the afternoon, stopped for a short period in Chicago, and was here in Salt Lake City that night to sleep in his own bed. Then he compared this to the time his family crossed the ocean; they were 43 days on the water with a sailing vessel and then had to cross the plains the best they could.
Just think of the day in which we live.
(LeGrand Richards, Conference Report, Oct. 1966, 42–43.)
As promised in verses 26–30, the nation and people who are gathered to Zion will come so quickly that they will require neither rest nor a change of clothing. During Isaiah’s day, any long journey required frequent rest stops and resulted in worn out clothing and sandals… .
Whereas verses 26–28 vividly describe nations (or missionaries) coming swiftly and powerfully from afar and verse 29 says that they will seize their prey (or converts) and take them safely away, verse 30 provides a perplexing conclusion to this section when interpreted in this way. It says that the nations will roar (or speak with authority) against their prey “in that day” (or in the last days), and as one looks upon the earth, there is “darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.” … The “darkness and sorrow” might refer either to physical or spiritual conditions as destruction and apostasy rage upon the earth. The light “darkened in the heavens” seems to suggest the gospel or the Messiah himself coming forth out of obscure darkness. The verse describing the contrast between light and darkness follows the verse in which the ensign is raised by the Lord to the nations. Whereas one would expect that the ensign (v. 26), the manifestation of the Lord’s army (v. 27–29), and other events of the Latter-day dispensation would bring forth glory and brightness over the whole earth, instead much evil and darkness will shroud the light of God’s work in the last days (v. 30).
(Victor L. Ludlow, Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1982], 123–24.)