Isaiah, Who Doesn’t Make Very Much Sense

2 Nephi 11-25

2 Nephi 22:4-5 And in that day shall ye say: Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things. 

Do you remember how Jacob was reading from the prophet Isaiah? Jacob and Nephi really liked Isaiah. Of course, they had never met Isaiah. All they had was a book. A book God had given them. A book they almost left in Jerusalem, but God really wanted them to have this book so he sent Nephi and Laman and Lemuel and Sam back to get it. Do you remember that book? Well, Nephi and Jacob really liked the book, and in particular, they liked Isaiah.

Of course, Isaiah wasn’t the only prophet in the book. There were a whole bunch of prophets, but Isaiah was their favorite. Isaiah wrote a lot of stuff we call poetry because it doesn’t make much sense right away. But Jacob and Nephi really liked Isaiah’s poetry because they felt that they could relate with it.

Relate, a definition:

To relate is to put on the same pair of shoes as someone else. So if you have ever tried on your mother’s heels and slipped and tripped and said, “Wow, these are slippy, trippy shoes.” Your mother could reply, “Child, I relate with you.”

And if dark clouds are twirling and thundering in the distance — big and dark and empty like your stomach before dinner, rumbling and tumbling and maybe a little grumpy — then you could say, “Clouds, I relate with you.”

Well, Nephi and Jacob could relate with Isaiah. Isaiah kept writing about his people, his city, and his family. They were doing all sorts of bad things. God had made them wealthy but the people were using their money to buy big and unnecessary treasures for themselves rather than helping the poor. God had given them a land full of animals and resources. But they had taken the horses and the resources and turned them into weapons, like chariots. God had given them life and a body like his own body: legs, shoulders, head, and hands. But the people had used their hands to make sculptures of pretend Gods that didn’t even look human. In short, they had taken everything God had given them and walked away without even thanking him for it.

This made Isaiah sad. The people believed they had made their own wealth because they were smart. They believed that they won their own wars because they were strong. And they believed that they were successful because they were righteous. But it wasn’t any of those things. It was because of God.

And because Isaiah was sad he talked to God. “God,” he said, “I am sad because I think you must be angry. The people have forgotten about you, and they have forgotten that without you, they are not actually very smart or strong or righteous. That without you, they are nothing at all. I’m trying to help these people, God. But sometimes I wonder if they’re worth helping at all.”

And God said “You are right. The people have forgotten me, and they are being very bad right now. And they are hurting each other and hurting you, and that is very sad. But, Isaiah, I have not given up on this people. Go back, and teach them how to repent so they can be happy.”

You see, God knew that when people start believing that they are their own reason for success, then they start believing that they are their own reason for failure. They begin to think that they deserve what happens to them. And living like this is very sad and very lonely because it misses grace.

Grace, a definition:

Grace is realizing that everything is given to you like a birthday present. It’s not really deserved. It’s not really earned. It’s a gift. And it’s given by someone who loves you. And knowing this makes all the difference. And so no matter what it is, whether it’s fame and money or baldness or cancer, you can have the strength to unwrap it and say, “Thank you, God.”

Grace is what the people were missing. Even Isaiah got so caught up in what his people were doing wrong that he too was missing grace. But when God asked for someone to go and preach to the people, Isaiah was willing. And God told Isaiah that if the people listened, they would hear the truthfulness of God. And then they would repent. And Isaiah knew God well enough to know that if the people repented, God would heal them, no matter what.

And this is what Isaiah wrote:

The earth will be dark for a night, and in that night the towers will fall and the hills will tumble down into the canyons and lakes and even the fire will burn black, and you will think that God has left you to the fire and to the falling. But if you look up you will see that God is reaching out to you, to pull you up. And he carries morning in his hands.

And when the sun rises, the trees and the rocks and the mountains and the birds and the people will all open their mouths and sing together. And the song they will sing is this song:

God, I was scared during the night, but I will trust you, and I will not be afraid now. I will sit at your feet and you will bring me clean water out of the deepest well. And I will think “God is always doing excellent things.”

If you ever read Isaiah, you will realize that he often doesn’t seem to make much sense. Well, part of the reason is because he was writing about two or three things at the same time. And it’s hard enough to write about one thing very well. So while Isaiah was talking about his own people and his own time and his own children, he was also writing about Jesus who would come several hundred years later. And while he was writing about Jesus who would come seven hundred years later, he was also writing about Jesus when he would come again thousands of years after that. And while he wrote about Jesus coming again thousands of years in the future, he also threw in some stuff that happened before anyone was ever born. Before the earth was even created.

The only way to write about all these things at the same time is to write poetry. And so it’s no wonder that it’s hard for any of us to know what Isaiah is talking about. Sometimes you might doubt if Isaiah even knows what he’s talking about. And you’d have a point because sometimes that’s what poetry is good for — writing something you feel but don’t understand. So what good is poetry if poets don’t know what they’re even talking about?

Well, while poetry doesn’t always make much sense right away, it can also be beautiful. Because when something doesn’t make normal sense, we can spend more time noticing how it sounds and how the words and dots and spaces fit together, and how all of that makes us feel. Which is to say, we begin to notice how it means instead of just what it means. And we begin to use something we don’t always use when we read: our heart. And sometimes, when we’re using our hearts, God speaks to us. Not always with words, but he speaks to us. And suddenly we begin to understand what Isaiah is talking about.

We realize that he is not just talking about all those other things, but he is also talking about us and our past and our future. And he is teaching us to have hope because God is coming. And because we know that God is coming we can stop being scared about monsters, or dragons, or kings, or the devil. And because we don’t have to be concerned for ourselves, we have more room to care about others. And we can start helping to make the world a better place.

Joshua is an award-winning writer and director. His recent book, Ali the Iraqi, was published by BCC press. Sarah is a literature and theology doctoral student studying the Book of Job in the twentieth century.

Artwork by Maddie Baker.