David Bokovoy writes that due to the Savior's centrality in the plan of salvation, the Book of Mormon teaches that "all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world . . . are the typifying of [Christ]: (2 Nephi 11:4). This declaration demonstrates one of the roles that prophets such as Isaiah fulfill. Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained:
No doubt there are many events in the lives of many prophets that set those righteous persons apart as types and shadows of their Messiah. It is wholesome and proper to look for similitudes of Christ everywhere and to use them repeatedly in keeping him and his laws uppermost in our minds.
From this observation we learn that many of the events that occur in a prophetic life are meant to serve as typology of the Savior. Isaiah's commission to the service of God symbolized the election of Jehovah, the premortal Messiah, as our Lord and Savior. The details of Isaiah's vision suggest the he, like many other visionaries from the ancient Near East, received an invitation to attend a meeting of the heavenly council. Ancient texts from the world of the Bible reveal that the people of the Near East believed in a heavenly council or divine assembly that governed the affairs of the universe.
From Abraham's description of these events, we learn that the Lord needed a savior to resolve the crisis that would occur as a result of humanity's mortal existence. In this grand assembly, the Lord petitioned his council with the question, "Whom shall I send?" (Abraham 3:27).
Like Jehovah before him, Isaiah was addressed by the leader of the assembly with the perennial question, "Whom shall I send?" (2 Nephi 16:8; Isaiah 6:8). Then, with the very words used by Jehovah, the creator of the universe, Isaiah responded with the proposal, "Here am I; send me" (v. 8). This response, first articulated by Jehovah in the premortal council, is often connected with the calling of the Lord's anointed.
The exact verbal exchange between God, Jehovah, and Isaiah during the meetings of the divine assembly parallels statements recently discovered in cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia. An analysis of these tablets reveals that the details pertaining to Isaiah's vision, as well as those featured in the book of Abraham, reflect a well-established pattern in antiquity. In Akkadian, the language of ancient Babylon and Assyria, the phrase mannam luspur, or "Whom shall I send," occurs in a number of documents.
For the people of the Near East, the divine assembly described by Isaiah represented the ultimate authority in the universe. The discovery of several cuneiform tablets from Ugarit and Mesopotamia has allowed scholars to retrace the central features of this institution. A comparative analysis of these traditions suggests several motifs as commonly featured elements in the tales of the assembly. These stories often include the following scenario: first, a crisis would occur; this crisis would then force the high god to call upon the council for volunteers to resolve the dilemma; various proposals would then be considered; when at last, all hope for resolution seemed lost, a winning suggestion was made and a savior commissioned. [David E. Bokovoy, "The Calling of Isaiah," in Covenants Prophecies and Hymns of the Old Testament, pp. 129-136]