"Hearken, O ye people of my church, saith the voice of him who dwells on high...yea, verily I say: Hearken ye people from afar...listen together. For verily the voice of the Lord is unto all men...by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days."
As this is section 1, I haven't done a full analysis of Joseph Smith's various tones and styles or whether there's a through-line boiling them down into a distinct "voice," but I've read these enough to know that a "Messianic" voice is not uncommon. Joseph Smith frequently narrates the revelations he receives as if in character, as if speaking from the position of the Lord or others. Like he's literally a spokesperson whose words are dictated and he is merely animating them. He's not the only one to do this. Many prophets, the most famous aside from the utterly poetic Psalmist being Isaiah, spoke and wrote with a Messianic voice. It may seem a little blasphemous to speak for God in this way if it weren't a longstanding tradition that prophets do so.
What strikes me from this section is the choice of first word, hearken. This word denotes audible communication which, unless you imagine yourself in the room or as the scribe, the message you're receiving is manifestly not--you're reading it through text. Right from the start, we're being prepared to think symbolically, to take visual symbols and use our minds to convert them to a form with more immediate impact, and more fleeting existence in time. This is not meant to be a mere record to us, but a living, motivating, urgent message to take action.
Furthermore, this voice isn't just ringing in our ears symbolically, it's coming to us by proxy. The voice of the Lord is only entering our minds and hearts by representation. We are responsible for our reception of its content as if it were direct, no matter how we feel about its vehicles. In fact, this should be a joyful demonstration because it establishes a principle: if God's voice is heard through prophets, why not us? We all, as mortals, may receive authorization to speak on behalf of the Most High in our sphere of influence, and we should all seek for this privilege.
But it also means that we can't pridefully wait for God Himself to part the veil and remain unwilling to act on His truths until we have incontrovertible evidence compelling our belief. We can't be Naaman before his servant convinced him to listen to the servant of Elisha and bathe in the far inferior river Jordan to be cured of our metaphorical leprosy. We have to be humble enough to take the truth from peers before we can know for certain that the messages weren't really theirs, but His.
The voice of the Lord, except in the case of the very few worthy of it, comes not by acoustic vibration to our tympanic membrane, but through text, through proxies, and through authorized channels. The Spirit, which confirms all truth, is what brings the text to life in our hearts, minds, and will. And this Holy Ghost, through whom we gain conviction and testimony, through whom faith, hope, charity, and all spiritual gifts come, requires action for further prompting. The Lord's first word through His prophet in His preface to other commandments and revelations was not "hear," it was "hearken." It isn't the mere passive and effortless perception of unavoidable sound waves, but rather the active, respectful turning of one's full attention toward the source with full willingness of heart to act upon the truth once received. Hearing comes naturally to all with working ears, hearkening depends on attitude and choice.
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