Here We Go Again, Whining About Isaiah

We are at week two of Isaiah, with three more to go—and I’ve already had my fill of the collective whining echoing across every chapel, Sunday School, and living room in the Church. Every two years, it’s the exact same broken record.

“Oh no, not Isaiah again.”

“It’s too hard to understand.”

“Why do we have to wade through all these ancient Hebrew poetic metaphors, parallelisms, and obscure Middle Eastern geography?“

“Oh, but Pop, the poetic metaphors are so obscure!’ Give me a break. You can memorize complex sports stats, intricate video game lore, or every line of your favorite movie, but the moment an ancient prophet uses a bit of parallelism, suddenly everyone’s brain shuts down?

Listen, as Pop Isaiah, I get it. The imagery can feel as thick as mud, and the language isn’t intended for passive, light afternoon reading. But as a self-described curmudgeon who has spent decades digging into these pages, let me give it to you straight: if you’re skimming past these chapters, skipping ahead, or constantly complaining about the struggle, you are missing the entire point of your Come, Follow Me lessons.

You don’t throw away a treasure chest just because the lock is rusty. You grab a bigger crowbar and go to work.

Stop Looking for Shortcuts in LDS Scripture Study

If your strategy for this week’s Come, Follow Me assignment is to skim through the headings, glance at a picture, and call it a day, do us all a favor and don’t pretend you’re actually studying. Too many readers treat LDS Scripture Study like a fast-food drive-thru. They want God’s truth handed to them pre-chewed, lukewarm, and wrapped in paper so they don’t have to break a sweat. Isaiah doesn’t cater to lazy readers. He demands you sit down, grab a spade, and start digging

When you complain about the complexity, what you’re really saying is that you don’t want to invest the mental sweat required to understand God’s chief witness of the Old World. Nephi didn’t quote entire blocks of these chapters in the Book of Mormon just to fill up gold plates or test your patience. He included them because his soul delighted in them—and more importantly, because they provide an ironclad, prophetic witness of Jesus Christ.

He Wasn’t Writing to Confuse You—He Was Pointing Directly to Jesus Christ

Isaiah’s very name isn’t just a label; it’s a mission statement: “Jehovah is salvation.”

When you open these chapters in your LDS Scripture Study, you aren’t reading a dry ancient history book or a collection of cryptic riddles meant to baffle scholars. You are looking at a masterfully crafted roadmap of redemption centered squarely on Jesus Christ and His ultimate sacrifice.

There is a reason nearly 90 percent of the Isaiah verses quoted in the Book of Mormon focus directly on the Savior, His mortal ministry, and the gathering of Israel in the last days. Nephi didn’t delight in these writings because he liked difficult poetry—he delighted in them because his entire soul delighted in proving the reality of Jesus Christ. In fact, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said:

Isaiah is by every standard the messianic prophet of the Old Testament and as such is the most penetrating prophetic voice in that record.

Jeffrey R. Holland in Christ and the New Covenant:
The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon.

In the chapters of the Book of Isaiah, the prophet saw it all with astonishing clarity:

• The Savior’s Ministry & the Atonement: Long before the New Testament was ever recorded, he laid out the suffering, mercy, and victory of the Atonement with such vivid emotion that reading his words feels like standing right at the foot of the cross.
• The Latter-day Restoration: He foresaw the gathering of Israel, the coming forth of modern scriptures, and the establishment of Zion in the last days—the very covenant work we are actively participating in today.
• The Second Coming & the Millennium: He wrote the definitive preview of the peace, justice, and millennial reign that will conquer world chaos when the Lord returns.

The Doctrine and Covenants Proves the Point

If you think this is just an Old Testament issue, think again. Isaiah’s writings permeate roughly two-thirds of the sections in the Doctrine and Covenants. Modern revelation is practically built on the foundation of his ancient prophecies. The Savior Himself didn’t just suggest we read him—He gave a direct commandment in 3 Nephi: “Great are the words of Isaiah.“ He didn’t say “easy are the words”; He said great.

Drop the Excuses and Put in the Work

So, as we dive deeper into Isaiah for Come, Follow Me this year, leave the complaints at the door.

Stop expecting the scriptures to do all the work while you sit back on autopilot. Put in the effort. Grab your footnotes, look up the parallelisms, use your study guides, and ask yourself one non-negotiable question every single time you read a chapter: How does this page point me to Jesus Christ and His Atonement?

So stop looking for the easy way out. Put away the excuses, pick up your scriptures, grab your footnotes, and do the actual work. You’ll either find Jesus Christ in these pages, or you’ll prove you weren’t really looking for Him in the first place.