Isaiah prophesied that God would do "a marvellous work and a wonder" among His people. The NIV stays closer to the Hebrew, rendering it: "wonder upon wonder." One thing that makes God's work wonderful is that He allows ordinary people to carry it out.
Hearing the Words of the Book
God warned Isaiah that the people wouldn't understand him because their ears would be heavy and their eyes shut. But Isaiah later prophesied that a book, which Nephi identified as the Book of Mormon, would overcome this spiritual blindness and deafness. Personal scripture study can help us to perceive and understand more accurately.
The Sealed Book
Isaiah illustrates the spiritual blindness of Israel with two examples: an educated man who can't read a book because it's sealed, and an uneducated man who protests that he isn't learned. In Nephi's version of the story, God helps the uneducated man read, affirming that He is able to do His work.
From the Dust
The Book of Mormon reinterprets Isaiah's imagery of defeat as a conduit of spiritual power, and then adopts it as a self-description. Its authors view themselves as speaking "from the dust," both literally and symbolically, but testify that God will make their weak words strong, even as it invites Jerusalem to "arise from the dust."
Reading Isaiah 29 with Nephi
The overall shape of the prophecy contained in Isaiah 29 is drowsiness giving way to clarity because of a book. Nephi makes the prophecy more vivid by identifying the book as the Book of Mormon and by distinguishing between the learned, who reject the book, and the unlearned, who help God perform His marvelous work.
A Marvellous Work and a Wonder
Isaiah pronounced a collection of "burdens," weighty prophecies of affliction, upon multiple nations. But among these burdens, he included messages of hope. Then he foretold a marvelous work which God would perform on behalf of all people. Nephi emphasized that work, seeing Isaiah's message as a hopeful assurance of God's blessings.
Nephi’s Isaiah Synthesis: 2 Nephi 30
In 2 Nephi 30, Nephi quotes an extended passage from Isaiah 11, which he quoted earlier, but this time, he provides context for Isaiah's words. Nephi's main message is that knowledge brings peace, so God will fill the earth with knowledge in order to fill the earth with peace.
Finding Jesus in Isaiah 2-14
Nephi quotes thirteen chapters from the book of Isaiah in a row, saying that Isaiah saw his Redeemer. These chapters begin and end with a divinely appointed place of refuge, and they speak of a promised child who will bring stability and peace in a chaotic world. Nephi identifies that child as Jesus Christ.
Unchangeable and Responsive
The author of 1 Samuel tells us that God "repented" for making Saul king. But Samuel testifies that God doesn't repent. The Book of Mormon clarifies this apparent contradiction. God is unchangeable, both Nephi and Moroni testify. But the Savior was responsive to the needs of the Nephites, changing His plans on their behalf.
Contents of the Brass Plates
Eight of the 39 books in the Old Testament were definitely in the brass plates, and another 16 may have been included. For Book of Mormon prophets, the brass plates were an essential part of their identity: connecting them to intergenerational covenants, testifying of the Savior, and bringing them closer to God.