Shaping Up Isaiah

As the Bible has come down to us—in both the Jewish and the Christian traditions—the Book of Isaiah serves as the gateway to the reading of the prophets. We’re intended, it seems, to make sense of this prophetic book before feeling fully prepared to make sense of the other prophetic books. And that can seem a daunting task! The Book of Isaiah is long, its historical setting is complex, and its language and imagery are foreign to modern readers. Add to that the fact that scholarship on the Book of Isaiah has raised more questions than provided answers for Latter-day Saints, and one might feel especially at sea here. What can be done?

My approach to reading scripture—not in hopes of taming it, but with the aim of making it possible to begin exploring its depths—is always to ask about its shape and structure. If we know how what we’re reading is organized, we might begin to find our way. And this proves to be a good way to get started with the Book of Isaiah. Of course, there’s much to say about the shape of the whole, and of all the various parts, of Isaiah. But what I’ll offer here are just a few short reflections on the shape of just the first part of the book: Isaiah 1–12.

Perhaps the very first thing to reflect on in these twelve opening chapters is that Isaiah’s commission to prophesy—his famous encounter with the Lord and the seraphim in the temple—appears some six chapters into the book. It’s perfectly apparent that the prophecies and oracles that believers attributed to Isaiah were assembled into a book only after his death. Why didn’t those editors and scribes put Isaiah’s story of his commission first in the book? What effect does this belated introduction to the prophet’s call have on a careful reader?

For my part, I’d suggest at least this: that the delay in introducing Isaiah’s commission forces readers to reflect on the problems in Judah and Israel in Isaiah’s day before learning anything about how the Lord plans to intervene. Isaiah 2–5, in particular, paints a bleak picture of Israel and Judah’s worldly aspirations, the suffering of the poor among the Lord’s people, and the corruption of justice that prevails among the covenant people. Thus, when readers come to Isaiah 6 and learn of Isaiah’s vision in the temple, they’re better prepared to learn with the newly commissioned prophet that, although he must preach, his divinely appointed words will largely fall on deaf ears, with devastating consequences.

As for Isaiah 2–5, this preliminary picture of how bad things are in Judah and Israel might be best read as a single block of text. This is something the early editions of the Book of Mormon suggest to us. Beginning with the very first edition in 1830 and continuing for half a century, the Book of Mormon presented these four biblical chapters as just one chapter in Second Nephi (the original Chapter VIII, today’s 2 Nephi 11–15). And when we see the scathing portrait of oppressions in Judah and Israel as one total picture, we’re less inclined to fret over whether we’ve understood any one image and more inclined to receive the full assessment. Things were bad, and something had to be done.

Further, when we read Isaiah 2–5 as a single unit, we might notice an alternating pattern in it. The long tirades against wickedness in Judah and Israel are regularly punctuated by brief words of promise (as in Isaiah 2:2–4 and Isaiah 4:2–6) about a time to come when the covenant people will be cleansed and prepared to fulfill their responsibilities. Although goings on among the Lord’s people are clearly problematic at the time of Isaiah’s call and commission, and although destruction and exile loom on the horizon, there’s always the promise of God’s graceful purposes. Consequently, when readers come to Isaiah 6, they’re meant to be aware not only of the problem the prophet is sent to address, but also of the promise that such problems can ultimately be solved by a faithful, covenant-keeping God.

By the way, exactly this double message appears with stark clarity in Isaiah 1, which serves as a straightforward introduction to the larger Book of Isaiah. It was apparently written after Isaiah’s death and assumes the perspective of someone who has witnessed all the events prophesied of in the book. It explains that although things have indeed gone as badly as Isaiah said they would, God has also fulfilled Isaiah’s words of promise and retained a remnant of the covenant people. There’s always healing and possibility, despite human sinfulness.

At any rate, the question readers are prompted to ask, by the time they come to the story of Isaiah’s commission in the temple in Isaiah 6, is just how God might go about fulfilling his promises when things in Israel are so obviously off track. The answer to that question appears in Isaiah 6–12, which can also be read as a single unit. Here again, the Book of Mormon is an excellent guide. For the first fifty years of its circulation, it also presented these seven biblical chapters as one (the original Chapter IX, today’s 2 Nephi 16–22). And they really do tell a single, coherent story. If read as a unit, Isaiah 6–12 clearly moves from the point when Isaiah receives his commission from the Lord (Isaiah 6) through a series of challenges and disasters shot through with glimpses of hope and promise (Isaiah 7–9) to the final redemption of Israel despite everything (Isaiah 10–11), all of this capped off by a hymn of praise for the God who has seen his promises through to fulfillment (Isaiah 12). What begins with a prophet’s call concludes eventually with gathering, peace, and redemption.

Of course, making one’s way through the story of Isaiah 6–12 is difficult for many readers. It’s thick with historical and geographical references, characterized by twists and turns, loaded down with challenging imagery, and interlaced with passages that have been overinterpreted by the larger Christian tradition. Getting the basic shape of the text—seeing that it’s a continuous story from God’s first intervention among a rebellious people to his final recovery of his covenant servants—is only a first step, and I lack the space here to provide a detailed guide to what each part of the story contributes.

Perhaps, however, even a simple table of contents might be useful. Here’s an attempt:

• 6:1–13: Isaiah’s Commission: A Call to Preach to People Who Won’t Receive the Message
• 7:1–25: A First Illustration of the People’s Failure to Receive, with Consequences
• 8:1–15: A Second Illustration of the People’s Failure to Receive, with Consequences
• 8:16–22: Looking Past His Wicked Day, Isaiah Seals His Prophecies for a Remnant to Come
• 9:1–7: A Twist in the Story: A New King in Judah Brings Deliverance to a Remnant
• 9:8–10:5: In the Meantime, Northern Israel Falls Because of Its Continued Wickedness
• 10:6–34: Assyria, Having Conquered and Scattered Israel, Can’t Conquer Judah
• 11:1–16: On the Other Side of Disaster, Then, the Remnant of Judah Is Redeemed
• 12:1–6: A Concluding Hymn of Praise for the God who Keeps Covenant

This table of contents might serve as a starting point for readers hoping to find a coherent story in Isaiah’s prophecies. The prophet’s compilers and editors gave his stories and oracles a theologically significant shape as they put them together, one clearly glimpsed by at least Nephi in the Book of Mormon. With a sense for the shape, we might begin to explore how the Book of Isaiah guides us through the pattern of God’s handling of a wayward people to whom he has bound himself by covenant. And we might come to see better that all the glory, in the end, is God’s.