In Book of Mormon, I felt like we did a lot more academic studying than we usually do. A lot of it had to do with learning the history and the culture of that time. It was utterly fascinating. We talked about how Isaiah prophesied of Assyria's domination even though it was coming 150 years later. We also talked about how Isaiah tended to prophesy for three separate time periods: his, Christ's, and our time. Such as in 2 Nephi 11:2. This has happened in every one of these different times.
Mr. Griffith also talked about how Isaiah was a poet, and therefore had a lot of culturally beautiful aspects to his writings. He pointed out to us how in Hebrew, much of Isaiah's phrases and words were not only repeated three times (as was very poetic in that time) but they looked extremely similar to each other.
Different cultures have always fascinated me. I love studying what everyone's different beliefs are and why. I also love observing how that affected what we do in our day to day lives. It's incredible that we can also see this in the scriptures! It shows that Isaiah was reaching to his people on a very personal level. The fact that he knew of our time and was prophesying for us as well just makes it all the more special.
Also, being able to dive in such a way into the scriptures makes these prophets and their people feel more real to me. I can see that they were real people with struggles just like the people in our time. And that is why Isaiah can prophesy the way he does! Times through history are similar, and just as they needed to study Isaiah's words, we need to study his words and heed them. 3 Nephi 23:1-3 isn't just for Nephi's time or just our time, it is for all times.
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