Ann Madsen – Why Study Isaiah

Kelsey Wilding:  What made you interested in Isaiah initially?

Ann Madsen:  I was a master’s degree student and I was studying the Old Testament and I was going to be teaching the Old Testament, and so I studied all of the prophets in the Old Testament, and I particularly liked Isaiah, but I didn’t understand it very well.  It’s funny, I think about my youth, and I think about the first time I tried to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover and pray about it.  And I got to the Isaiah passages and I couldn’t keep going, and it makes me smile now because I think I hope I’m helping other people get through the Isaiah passages so that they can find out that the book is true, because I didn’t get to find out that it was true because I started reading the doctrine and covenants.  And then I finally got to it and I found out for myself that it was true.  And so, then as I was studying the Old Testament, the more I taught the Old Testament at BYU, the more I wanted to learn more about Isaiah.  Isaiah seemed like a wonderful mystery that I could plunge the depths of if I would just make the effort.  So, that’s what I did, and that’s what I’m still doing.  I mean I’ve just finished a book this year on I think it puts together most of what I have learned in all these years.