Because literary structures and patterns form an integral component of the prophecies of Isaiah, it is essential to learn them if we would understand these prophecies’ meaning. Those who balk at the idea of their having to “analyze” them, who are scared off by the word “literary” and want Isaiah’s words reduced to their lowest common denominator, entirely miss the reason why Jesus made it a commandment and deliberate challenge for his people to “search” them (3 Nephi 23:1).
When Hugh Nibley first came out with a priesthood manual on the Book of Mormon, and the church’s equivalent of the Correlation Committee in those day protested that it was over people’s heads, President David O. McKay overruled them saying, “If it is over their heads, let them reach for it.” Nibley’s manual thereafter became a standard among church publications. It is anyway unlikely that people unwilling to “reach” for the words of Isaiah would ever profit from them.
Such people would therefore never learn that all of God’s creation—from the Fall to the final fruition of his plan of salvation and exaltation—is structured in the sense of having a sequenced order. Isn’t that what Isaiah’s literary structures symbolize? Learning them teaches us about the nature of God. As for the word “literary,” it signifies God’s word or “that which is written.” We can thus see why those accustomed to being spoon fed with God’s word would resist searching.
Understanding Isaiah’s literary structures helps understand other scriptures such as the Book of Mormon. Witness the story of the Alma the elder and his people from the time they repented of their sins, became a church of Christ at the Waters of Mormon, suffered bondage in the Land of Helam, and became the nucleus of the church in Zarahemla among the Nephites. Wasn’t that a structured order of events exemplifying the process of justification followed by sanctification?
When Alma’s people cried to God as they suffered severe bondage, acknowledging that “none could deliver them but the Lord their God” (Mosiah 23:23), wasn’t that a type of our inability to deliver ourselves from bondage to sin except through the atonement wrought by the Lord our God? Would such understanding of the one not deepen our understanding of the other, inspiring us to acknowledge “that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23)?
Witness also the fruits of those who have paid the price of searching Isaiah’s words and now understand them. Surely, it is no coincidence that they are receiving an increase in visions and dreams—that is, after having internalized Isaiah’s message and applied it in their lives. Are these not blessings that follow keeping Jesus’ commandment? And we haven’t even yet touched on Isaiah’s literary structures themselves! Perhaps these words may encourage you to search them!
