Post by Jacob –
By now you know me, I’m the older of Nephi’s two younger brothers. I think it may help for you to know why I am becoming more involved in Nephi’s blog. The Holy Priesthood of God is not something we take upon ourselves. Those who will act in the name of God must be ordained and consecrated by those with authority to do so. My brother Nephi, who we look to be our king and protector, ordained me to this great responsibility.
Although I have written many other things, I write again because I am very anxious for the welfare of your souls. You know I care greatly for you. I have encouraged you with diligence and have taught you the words of my father. You probably think I have spoken about everything that has ever been written since the creation of the world. Well, you’re right. I have. Therefore, I am now going to write about things as they are and as they are to come. To do so, I will share the words of Isaiah.
Nephi has asked me to write these words and I do it for your sakes, so you can learn and glorify the name of our God. Isaiah spoke considerably about the house of Israel, and since we too are of the house of Israel, we should liken his writings to our life.
Before I get into Isaiah’s writings, permit me to talk a bit about him and why his writings that we find in the plates of brass are so dear to us.
From the plates of brass we learn that Isaiah ministered to the Kingdom of Judah nearly 200 years ago for around 50 years during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He served during times of great wickedness where apostasy was rampant with idolatry. Isaiah labored to turn the people back to Jehovah. Sadly his message was largely rejected. As I read his writings I am impressed with the complexity of his writings. Nephi understands Isaiah better than all of us since he is more familiar with the manner of the Jews. I never lived in Jerusalem and don’t have that background. It therefore takes me considerably more effort to figure Isaiah out.
What I do read and enjoy is Isaiah’s elegance in writing, his poetic elements of metaphor, parallelism and with his seeming elevated language he must have been an educated man. We learn that he and his wife had two children and must have had somewhat of a high social station because he found audience with kings and aristocracy. Isaiah was respected by Hezekiah but not necessarily by the other kings. He was mostly a prophet to the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, he also prophesied about most of the neighboring nations such as Philistia, Moab, Phoenicia, Assyria, Babylon and Egypt. But what makes him a little challenging to read and understand is his ability to prophesy not only about his time period, but he prophesied about future dispensations, and sometimes at the same time. He spoke as touching all things concerning God’s people which are of the house of Israel, but he also spoke about and to the gentiles. And to all these, he spoke about things that have been and which are yet to come. In my next blog I plan on writing about Isaiah’s writings. I think it is better for me to do so rather than have Nephi do so. Nephi thinks this Isaiah stuff is simple, I will try to make it so for you.
(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 6:1 – 5)
