Isaiah plays a profound role in the Book of Mormon. His inspired word accompanies Lehi and his family upon the plates of brass obtained from Laban, and it continues to travel to all points of the globe in the pages of the Book of Mormon, a modern witness for Christ. The Savior’s commandment with reference to Isaiah still rings with great force: “AND now, behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah. For surely he spake as touching all things concerning my people which are of the house of Israel; therefore it must needs be that he must speak also to the Gentiles. And all things that he spake have been and shall be, even according to the words which he spake” (3 Nephi 23:1–3).
The style of Isaiah is unique. The Lord gave him a profound gift to express with resounding power the message of the visions accorded him as the spokesperson for the Lord in his day. His humble response to the call of the Lord is recorded in Isaiah 6 (see 2 Nephi 16). He wrote in the period 740 b.c. to 701 b.c. at a time when Israel had incurred the anger of the Lord to an especially high degree through her wanton behavior, pride, and idolatry. Isaiah intermingles references to events of his own day with those of coming events, often within the same passage. His is the age-old prophetic message that “wickedness never was happiness” (see Alma 41:10), that Israel will suffer by persisting in her prideful and ungodly walk, and that good will eventually triumph in the last days as the faithful are gathered together in holy places of refuge.
Isaiah continually reminds us of our covenant obligations before the Lord. If the Book of Mormon is a “Another Testament of Jesus Christ,” then Isaiah is the bridge that helps to unite the voice of the Old Testament and the voice of the New Testament (in which Isaiah is quoted more than any other prophet) and then, in turn, the voices of prophets from the Book of Mormon. We can be grateful that Isaiah is so often cited in the Book of Mormon, which serves a greater role in interpreting and unfolding the words of Isaiah than any other book.