Ann Madsen – Why the Writings of Isaiah are Difficult to Understand

Kelsey Wilding:  Why is Isaiah written in poetic form?

Ann Madsen:  Because all revelation in the Old Testament is written in poetic form.

Kelsey Wilding: Really?

Ann Madsen: Almost all of it yeah. Jeremiah, all of it.

Kelsey Wilding: So why is Isaiah more difficult to understand than the other?

Ann Madsen: Well, I don’t think it is so much, because I think it’s got bad press. They talk about not understanding the metaphors. Well, the metaphors are the everyday items that were part of his world and he talked about them, he used them, he talked about water. In his world, water…it would rain, in the early rains and the late rains, which were empty dry gulches would fill up with water in the spring and would be empty the rest of the year. Dry, like a desert, and so he could use that metaphor wonderfully if there were water that you could be drowned in it, or you could be given it because you’re in an oasis, and those people knew what thirst was, because they lived in a desert country.