“Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God; but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.[1]”
The writings of Nephi become a ‘key’ as it were, to unlocking the mysteries of Isaiah. Full comprehension is therefore relegated to those who accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God. For those whose pride blocks the insights provided by divine intervention, the clarity of Isaiah is looking through a glass darkly[2] and the precepts are coded in a script or tongue undecipherable except to those carrying the blood of Israel.
Complicating the key to deciphering the writings of Isaiah is the poetic license taken by a genius mind. Isaiah moves in all directions within a single verse and can change personages without warning. In other words Isaiah writes as a wife to her mind-reading husband, but to all others, she is a barrage of multi-syllabic prose with too much depth and a lack of clarity. As for Isaiah, he can confidently write to his future audience because the Lord provides those of His children who want to mind-read a big screen TV with subtitles.
Modern-day prophets speaking through satellite transmission enable the Lord’s word to be as a big screen and the Book of Mormon and the many prophetic utterances provide the subtitles. Isaiah thought nothing of addressing a current 8th century BC problem and without warning couch it in a cataclysm he knew would occur in our day. He would identify the enemies of God in the latter-days by their names, nationalities, and geographical locations of his day. He would not receive very high marks by his English, or should I say, Hebrew teacher for tense usage.
