Isaiah: "Barrier" in the Book of Mormon

For the record, I DON'T understand Isaiah.

Oh, how I wish I did.

Most of the time I trudge through the imagery, the symbolism, the culture and the history, wishing my brain would just figure things out!

But normally, it doesn't.

However, I do enjoy reading Isaiah . . .

And here is what I DO know about Isaiah (as taught by President Boyd K. Packer):

          “The Book of Mormon is a book of scripture. It is another testament of Jesus Christ. It is written in biblical language, the language of the prophets.
          “For the most part, it is in easy-flowing New Testament language, with such words as spake for spoke, unto for to, with and it came to pass, with thus and thou and thine. 
          “You will not read many pages into it until you catch the cadence of that language and the narrative will be easy to understand. As a matter of fact, most teenagers readily understand the narrative of the Book of Mormon.
          “Then, just as you settle in to move comfortably along, you will meet a barrier. The style of the language changes to Old Testament prophecy style. For, interspersed in the narrative, are chapters reciting the prophecies of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. They loom as a barrier, like a roadblock or a checkpoint beyond which the casual reader, one with idle curiosity, generally will not go.
          "You, too, may be tempted to stop there, but do not do it! Do not stop reading! Move forward through those difficult-to-understand chapters of Old Testament prophecy, even if you understand very little of it. Move on, if all you do is skim and merely glean an impression here and there. Move on, if all you do is look at the words. … 
          “… The Lord had a purpose in preserving the prophecies of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, notwithstanding they become a barrier to the casual reader.
          “Those who never move beyond the Isaiah chapters miss the personal treasures to be gathered along the way” (Ensign, May 1986, 61).

So, everytime I come to those Isaiah sections in the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi, Mosiah and 3 Nephi) I read on with a prayer that maybe, MAYBE, something will penetrate me heart and make me do more than squint my eyes and tilt my head and whisper a faint, "Huh??" 

I just move on.  Move on.  Just like President Packer told me to do.

Well, this week, while I am studying Isaiah (Isaiah from the Old Testament, in the Old Testament), I came across verses. . .

Verses which felt so poetic to me.

But it was more than poetic verses.

They were words which moved me with such emotion to the filling of my heart with adoring thankgiving for a Savior who knows and loves me:

Hast thou not known?

Hast thou not heard,

that the everlasting God,

the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not,

neither is weary?

There is no searching of His understanding.

He giveth power to the faint;

and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that await upon the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings as eagles;

they shall run, and not be weary;

and they shall walk, and not faint.

 - Isaiah 40:28-31

President Packer, Thank you for the promise!