Hi! I’m Brianne and I’m guest posting today. My first thoughts when I realized which chapters I agreed to post about were:
- Augh! Most of the Isaiah chapters!
- I’m glad we’re getting through the bulk of the Isaiah chapters in one day.
- This will give me a good opportunity to really study these chapters since I am writing about them.
Since there is so much information in this section, I decided to focus on:
- Why is it important for us to study Isaiah?
- Why are parts of Isaiah included in the Book of Mormon?
Why is it important for us to study Isaiah:
- We are commanded to read Isaiah. 3 Nephi 23:1 states, “. . . Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah.” Really, this is the only reason we need.
- Isaiah prophesied about our day. It is in our best interest to know and understand his prophecies.
- Isaiah is difficult to understand. We need to seriously study his words. To more fully understand the meaning of his prophecies, we need to know the history of the people and events that took place in Isaiah’s time. We need to know about the social, political, and religious events of his day.
Why are parts of Isaiah included in the Book of Mormon:
1. I hope Cortney doesn’t mind, but I am going to include a verse from 2 Nephi 25 since it explains why parts of Isaiah were included in the Book of Mormon. 2 Nephi 25:8 says, “. . . I know that they shall be of great worth unto them in the last days; for in that day shall they understand them; wherefore, for their good have I written them.” Many of the prophecies have meaning in Isaiah’s time as well as in our time and in the future. We have the knowledge available to us to understand it.
2. Nephi states in 2 Nephi 11:2-3 that Nephi, Jacob, and Isaiah all saw Christ. Having Isaiah’s account of seeing Christ (2 Nephi 16) included in the Book of Mormon adds a third witness. “Wherefore, by the words of three, God hath said, I will establish my word” (2 Nephi 11:3).
Nephi understood the importance of the words of Isaiah. We often learn by repetition. Having Isaiah’s writings in the Bible as well as the Book of Mormon intensifies their importance. These words are so vital that they needed to be in multiple books of scripture. I hope that we can more fully understand the words of Isaiah and take the time to study them.
Thank you Cortney for the 30 day challenge and for asking me to guest post! I have enjoyed the additional study time and I know my testimony will be strengthened through this process.
3 comments:
Oh man, you are so right. It's important to read these chapters, but boy are they hard to get through! I had a tough time staying focused, but it's worth it. :)
Thank you, Brianne--I read your post and then listened to the chapters today and it was very good I read your post first! :) Thank you so much!
I took a Book of Mormon class from a really awesome teacher. He told us that when reading Isaiah we should imagine that there are two groups of people sitting in a large room. On one side are the ancient Jewish people and on the other are the people of our day. In the center of the room is the prophet Isaiah and he is speaking to us. Sometimes he speaks to the Jews and sometimes he speaks to us and sometimes he speaks to both groups together. When I use this perspective, it really helps me to understand Isaiah's words better.
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