Day 5: Into Isaiah

5 days in, are you keeping up? :-)

As I'm reading, I frequently find myself wanting to stop and linger over certain passages, and normally that's exactly what I do. And normally, it takes me much longer to read through the Book of Mormon. President Hunter once said something to the effect that we may sometimes find an hour spent studying a single verse. That said, challenges like Presiden't Hinckley's and NaBoMoReMo are a nice chance from time to time to get the "panoramic view" of the Book of Mormon.

So in the mean time when I find something that's worth pondering, I'm making a little note, hopefully to come back later and spend some more time with it.

Today takes us into the "Isaiah chapters." Why when room on the plates was so precious did Nephi feel compelled to include a large number of Isaiah's words? When the Savior visited the Nephites he told them to "search these things"--not just a suggestion to do so but--"a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things dilligently; for great are the words of Isaiah." (3 Ne 23:1)

Why so much emphasis on Isaiah? In 2 Ne 6:4, Jacob says "I would speak unto you concerning things which are, and which are to come; wherefore I will read you the words of Isasih." I think the value of Isaiah's words is their applicability to the past, present, and the future. His words have multiple layers of meaning, in that they can be applied to the Israelites of his own time, they can be likened unto ourselves in our day, and they teach us of things to come in the latter days and the millenium. Before Nephi begins the long stretch of Isaiah's words in Second Nephi, he says "ye may liken them unto you and unto all men." And I think that is the great key to gaining value from Isaiah, likening his words (and all the scriptures for that matter) to our own lives and situations. As Nephi says earlier, "but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." (1 Ne 19:23)