Jesus of Nazareth was a master teacher. As did all the great Hebrew poets and prophets before him, Jesus consistently drew from his geographical milieu to illustrate his teachings. A favorite oratorical and literary technique of ancient writers was to demonstrate how something in nature was comparable to something in the human experience. The more people become acquainted with the land of the prophets and the Messiah, the more they will understand the imagery and symbols drawn from that holy land.
After Nephi wrote that his soul delighted in the words of Isaiah and that he understood them, he explained why: “I came out from Jerusalem, and mine eyes hath beheld the things of the Jews, and I know that … there is none other people that understand the things which were spoken unto the Jews like unto them, save it be that they are taught after the manner of the things of the Jews… . Behold, I, of myself, have dwelt at Jerusalem, wherefore I know concerning the regions round about” (emphasis added). Nephi could understand and appreciate Isaiah because of his personal knowledge of Isaiah’s environment.
Nephi also understood his mentor-prophet because he knew the history of his homeland (“the judgments of God, which hath come to pass among the Jews”) and taught those basic lessons from history so his children could learn from them.