Jacob's Foundation of Hope: Infinite Atonement and Resurrection - Second Book of Nephi, Chapter Nine (2 Nephi 9)

Nephi continues recounting a sermon that Jacob delivers to the Nephites. After Jacob calls the people’s attention in previous chapters to their part in the larger story of the scattering and regathering of the different family branches of Israel, and draws from passages of Isaiah to tie this in with the role of the Messiah (Jesus Christ) in redeeming different Israelite branches, Jacob is now ready for a direct appeal to the Nephites. It seems that he has concerns about their moral state, though we don’t receive a direct statement yet of any particular wrongs. But he does not hold back on the need for them to build up their capacity for faith, hope and obedience through Christ’s Atonement and Resurrection.

The chapter is so chock full of Jacob’s doctrinal statements and exhortations to his people that the best way to concisely present a summary is to focus on some high points. He starts in verse 4 by saying that our flesh must waste away and die, but that we will see God in our bodies. Undoubtedly this triggers curiosity among his audience. How can we both die and then later have a body when we are with God?

Jacob proceeds with the sensibilities of both a poet trying to paint pictures with words, and a philosopher trying to prove his point with precise logic. First, he explains that death came into the world by reason of the fall of man (which we know as the choice Adam and Eve made to take their chances on the highs and lows of a mortal existence). If there is death, then to be with God again there has to be a resurrection, right?

It is only through an “infinite atonement” that such a resurrection can take place (verse 7). What does Jacob mean by an infinite atonement? Well, first, the concept of atonement is to bring us into harmony (make us “at one”) with God. And its infinite nature means that the atonement must be able to have full sway to make up for everything that we have ever done to separate ourselves from God through our sins. Infinite in this case also means that the atonement applies to every person who ever was, is and will be.

Jacob then talks about what he refers to as two different types of death. The first type is our physical death—the separation of our body and spirit. Death does not mean that we cease to exist, just that our existence cannot be perceived through the physical senses of others experiencing mortal life. Our bodies are inaccessible to us for a certain period of time.

                                                                                                   
The second type of death that Jacob discusses he also refers to as “hell.” It is very important to recognize that in this case, hell is not what our culture describes—a final destination for bad people who are eternally denied the opportunity to dwell with God. Rather, it is a place where our spirits will temporarily dwell without the ability to progress toward God. In other places in the scriptures, we learn that in most cases, the final state of the soul is one of some kind of closeness to God, though exactly how close will depend on how fully we accept and apply the Atonement.

Verse 12 is extremely important to Jacob’s overall sermon. Much of what he said and quoted from Isaiah in earlier chapters promises the people that the Lord can deliver them from captivity. Now Jacob shows us very specifically what that means. Verse 7 establishes that the infinite atonement of Christ enables the resurrection of Christ. Somehow, by accepting the burden of everyone else’s sin through his own sinless sacrifice, Jesus receives the power to have his spirit and body joined together after he initially “gave up the ghost” on the cross at Calvary. And through this process, Jesus ensures that every single man and woman will have their bodies and spirits brought together again. Hence, the Resurrection becomes a resurrection for all. Death (the separation of body and spirit via the grave) is overcome, and Hell (the obstruction of our hearts’ yearnings to progress back to our Heavenly Father) is as well. Jacob teaches that if these two things are not overcome, Satan would ultimately have power over us. By rejecting God’s plan for humanity, which hinges on love and agency (free will) rather than compulsion, Satan fell from God’s presence as a disembodied spirit. That the Father and Son have glorified, incorruptible bodies joined with their spirits shows us that this is the model of happiness for us to strive for. Left without that opportunity because of his own rebellion, Satan is desperate to have others join in his misery.

Satan won’t be able to prevent our resurrection. Christ’s Resurrection ensures that all those who were born on the earth ultimately receive an incorruptible body. And as verse 15 tells us, we will stand in our resurrected body before Jesus Christ (the Holy One of Israel). But what happens from there, and to what degree we are freed from Satan, does depend on how we have put the Atonement of Christ to work in our lives. Verses 13-14 show that we will have a “perfect knowledge” that the judgment we are receiving—whether we are able to dwell closer with God or will remain out of His presence due to unworthiness—is something that we will know to be correct.

Jacob explains how marvelous it is to have the chance of salvation Jesus provides us. He looks forward to the time (between 500-600 years from that point) when Jesus will suffer for the sins of all. The only things asked of us are (per verses 23-24) faith, repentance (turning repeatedly away from sin), baptism and endurance. How tragic it is when we fall short of the blessings Christ has earned for us because we don’t do these relatively simple things. Jacob says as much when he talks in verse 28 about how so many ignore God’s counsel by assuming (wrongly) they know better. Verse 29 communicates a powerful truth: “But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.”

Jacob continues by warning his audience to avoid all kinds of sin, and pleading with them to approach the Lord by the straight and narrow way he has taught. We know that the Lord employs many servants, but Jacob tells us something important in verse 41 when he says that Christ is the only one patrolling the gate into His kingdom. He does not delegate that duty because it is only He—aside from ourselves—who truly knows our hearts and who loves us with the perfect love we so desperately want and need.

From there, we hear familiar, prophetic words of encouragement: Prepare, hearken, come, remember, give thanks, let your hearts rejoice. Jacob exhausts himself in promising his people that the Lord will find a way to preserve the descendants of Lehi and restore them to righteousness, so much so that he ends his discussion for the day and invites the people to come back tomorrow to hear more from him.

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/9?lang=eng

Waking Us Up to Who We Really Are - Second Book of Nephi, Chapter Eight (2 Nephi 8 and Isaiah 51-52:1-2)

Jacob continues Isaiah’s account in this chapter. To review, previously Isaiah established that the Lord had power to deliver his covenant people, the Israelites, from those who would harm them, even after many generations had gone by and both the Israelites and their tormentors might have reason to doubt.

Here, Isaiah wants to share his vision with the Israelites so they can know what lies ahead if they can just put their faith and trust in God’s power to deliver. In explaining this, Isaiah shows that the Lord doesn’t simply settle scores on behalf of his people. He looks to have the “enemy” join the ranks of the “chosen” if at all possible, and when the time comes for everything to be set right, there’s a spectacular way of life that He is waiting to help us embrace.

So if the previous chapter was about convincing Israel of the Lord’s power to prevail over their hardened foes, this chapter is about showing them that the victory and regathering is not a single event, but a way to transport the Israelites to a more inspiring realm of existence than they thought possible. In verse 3, we are told that the Lord will make Israel’s “wilderness like Eden,” and “her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.”

Underpinning it all are Isaiah’s confident proclamations that in this new realm, the Lord’s judgment and law will reign. Verse 4 states that “a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light for the people.” Clearly, the implication is that God, having perfect knowledge, will lead us in the right path if we trust Him enough to follow His commandments, even if it’s hard to see the end from the beginning.

He comes back to the previous theme that His power is greater than that of mortals, telling His people that the tyrannies and injustice that seem so permanent in our world will vanish when the time is right at the Lord’s command (verses 6-10, and several more verses throughout the chapter). In verse 10, he reminds them (and us) that there’s already precedent for this, by referring them back to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt by the parting of the Red Sea.

There is this powerful and at the same time tender and serene passage in verse 16 that perfectly captures what Isaiah is communicating:

“And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion: Behold, thou art my people.”

This runs completely against the caricature of the God of the Old Testament as a severe, wrathful, distant ruler. No, instead Isaiah paints a picture of a gentle nurturer and protector who gives shade and safety to His people, and patiently plants and lays the foundations for the lands where He wants us ultimately to dwell.

What does He ask in return? For us to wake up to who we really are. In three places (verses 9, 17, and 24) we read the call: “Awake, awake!” We are His children, his heirs, and can function right here and right now as His “arm” and his “strength” (verses 9 and 24). We should look up to His qualities to define ourselves rather than emulating the petty selfishness and intrigues of so many in the world. The Lord, through Isaiah, has just shown us the fruitlessness of acting in such a reproachful way, with the end result distance from rather than closeness to the true source of happiness—the Lord Himself. He wants us to “shake thyself from the dust” (verse 25) and “put on thy beautiful garments” (verse 24).

Speaking for the Lord, Isaiah refers to two specific places that he seems to expect will be especially holy—Zion and Jerusalem. From leaders of my Church, we have been taught that someday, through the power of Jesus Christ, righteousness will flow from these places to fill the earth. In several cases, prophets through the ages have referred to Zion and Jerusalem as the same place, and “Mount Zion” is a geographical area located in present-day Jerusalem. But the prophets of our Church teach that another place called Zion will be established to work in parallel with Jerusalem. This Zion is related to the Zion that is found in the account of Enoch (Enoch is Methuselah’s father and is mentioned in Genesis 5) that was revealed to Joseph Smith. In this account, “Zion” refers to a community of people so holy and unified in righteousness that they were elevated or “translated” from earth to heaven. Enoch’s translation is mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 11:5).

Another specific reference in this chapter is to “two sons” who will come unto Jerusalem at a time when there will be “none to guide her among all the sons she hath brought forth” (verse 18). Because this passage discusses Jerusalem facing desperate circumstances (“famine and the sword” – verse 19), one possibility is that these two sons are the two witnesses mentioned by the Apostle John (about 750 years after Isaiah and 600-some years after Jacob) in Chapter 11 of the Book of Revelation. In 1832, the prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation stating that the two witnesses in Revelation 11 are “two prophets that are to be raised up to the Jewish nation in the last days, at the time of the restoration, and to prophesy to the Jews after they are gathered and have built the city of Jerusalem in the land of their fathers.” Revelation 11 envisions that these witnesses will prophesy for 1,260 days (around 3½ years) and miraculously protect “the holy city” after a siege or attack on Jerusalem of similar duration (42 months). Then, after the two prophets are killed and their enemies delight, they will return to life 3½ days later and ascend to heaven in the midst of a destructive earthquake (Revelation 11:7-13). The prophecy in Revelation itself directly references the Old Testament prophecy of Zechariah (who preached in around 520 B.C., around 600 years before Revelation) of two olive trees that represented two “anointed ones” who stand by the Lord (Zechariah 4:11-14).

You can read the entire chapter, and the analogous chapters/verses from Isaiah, at the following links: https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/8?lang=eng and https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/isa/51?lang=eng and https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/isa/52?lang=eng.

Isaiah Shares the Secret of True Power - Second Book of Nephi, Chapter Seven (1 Nephi 7 and Isaiah 50)

In the previous chapter, Jacob established himself as a teacher very much after the pattern of his brother (and current temporal and spiritual leader) Nephi, and their deceased father Lehi.

Jacob’s topic is the destiny of his people, the Nephites, who are a scattered branch of Israel, and he now plunges into a passage from Isaiah to remind them of their identity. Jacob’s quotes from Isaiah come from the brass plates his family brought from Jerusalem, which Nephi also used in some chapters near the end of the book of 1 Nephi.

The key thing that distinguishes the tribes of Israel from everyone else is their very special relationship with God. Why is God interested in “delivering” them from their trials and their tormentors? Because He is bound to the people of Israel by the covenant He made with their ancestors (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). How is God bound? By the love, goodness and absolute reliability that define Him.

Isaiah is writing in a style that we call “messianic,” meaning that he takes on the voice of the Lord as though there is no separation between the two of them. In the chapter’s first verse, he reassures the Nephites that despite their sins and other shortcomings, the Lord has not abandoned them. Isaiah compares the Lord’s relationship to His people as a husband to his wife, and says that the Lord has not and will not “divorce” them even though the Nephites have distanced themselves from Him and become in debt to others through their sins.

By reminding the Nephites that they remain bound to the Lord, Isaiah lays a foundation of hope. He then explains how the Lord will honor His continuing covenant with His people by referring to the Lord’s power. After all, if God can dry the waters of the earth at a word, or darken the skies (verses 2-3), He can surely help His sons and daughters get back on the right path.

This power seems to me to be the power of example that Jesus Christ provided us by his life on earth. In verses 4-5, Isaiah (again, speaking messianically) refers to having the “ear” and the “tongue” of the learned. The reference teaches us that although Jesus was beset by temptation, He made every effort to listen to what His Father wanted Him to hear, largely so that He could take lessons from what He heard and then speak to men and women as a true and authorized representative of His Father. If we interpret these verses as also describing Isaiah’s characteristics, we realize that Isaiah is telling us that God gave Isaiah some very specific gifts (in particular, an ability to communicate in timeless, sacred poetry) to inspire the people of Israel.

Beyond the power of example, Jesus exercised power in a way very different than we are accustomed to seeing ordinary people use it. Instead of grabbing glory for Himself by conjuring a miracle of earthly force against the ruling Romans or Jewish elite, or seeking to gain favor with the people of Judea and Galilee by satisfying their appetites for comfort, position and wealth, Jesus humbly endured the full injustice of being tried, tormented, and crucified for doing good and teaching truth. He “gave his back to the smiter” without losing his bravery and dignity (verses 6-7). It’s still hard for us mere mortals to fully understand the process by which Jesus’ humble suffering led to Him gaining ultimate power—the same power that His Father has. But it’s clear that through His endurance, He displayed a type of strength unmatched by any other human. A strength born of love for His fellow men and women that somehow qualified Him to receive all power from the Father. Only faith beyond words, and God’s own grace, can help us accept what our minds find difficult to comprehend about the mechanics of the Atonement of Christ.

Having established that God has all power, in the chapter’s final verses Isaiah warns those who oppose the Lord or His people that their efforts are doomed to frustration and unhappiness. He goes even further in verses 10-11 to say that those who try to do things their own way, who are unwilling to acknowledge their need for the light only God can provide them, shall “walketh in darkness” and “lie down in sorrow.”

As ever with prophecy, it is a warning joined with a message of hope, a lamp showing the way toward happiness and salvation.  A way defined by our willingness to follow the pattern Jesus Christ established: a life of love for God and other people exemplified by sacrifice, sharing with others what we believe or know to be true, and openness to hear and follow God’s continuing direction.

You can read the entire chapter and the analogous chapter from Isaiah at the following links: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/7?lang=eng and https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/isa/50?lang=eng.