Jacob's "Early Warning" Against Sin - Book of Jacob, Chapter Two (Jacob 2)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/jacob/2?lang=eng     

This is truly a remarkable chapter. For the first time, Jacob addresses the Nephites as their primary spiritual leader—their prophet—following his brother Nephi’s death.

We can detect there is something different in how he approaches his responsibility as a servant called and ordained by the Lord to minister unto His people. He specifically refers to two responsibilities he holds: (1) to magnify his duty with soberness, and (2) to rid his garments of the people’s sins (verse 2). 

Both of these references show that he takes very seriously his new position as the Lord’s representative to this fledgling branch of Israel, and that he has no doubts about what is at stake. As Nephi said in the words he left in farewell, “you [meaning all the Nephite people] and I shall stand face to face before [Christ’s judgment] bar” (2 Nephi 33:11). In the previous chapter, Jacob has written that he and his brother Joseph are teaching their people at the temple to prepare for the last day when they all will come before Christ.

Why does Jacob choose to instruct his people at the temple? The obvious answer--that the temple is the place designated for worship because of the practical advantages of a having a single gathering place--may sometimes mask the primarily spiritual meaning that temples and meetinghouses should hold for us. In these buildings, sacred ordinances take place that can help reconcile those who receive the ordinances to Christ, through the process of faith in Christ’s power to save and sincere repentance. For example, most Christian congregations commemorate some form of the sacrament of the Last (or the Lord's) Supper, where bread and water, juice or wine are blessed and partaken of as a sign that worshippers remember Jesus, are willing to represent Him in their daily lives and to keep His commandments, and seek His Spirit (the Holy Ghost) to be with them.

Because of the real power of the ordinances and what they represent, having the Lord’s ordained servants speak from the sacred places where the ordinances take place carries special resonance. So that is where we pick up with Jacob here.

And we witness Jacob striving to live up to what a true leader of his flock should be. A warning voice for the people who also represents the Lord to them, knowing that what he says might not be very popular. The key passage in the chapter is in verse 11, where we learn that Jacob has sought to know what the Lord would have him say, and that the Lord responded to Jacob’s inquiry by telling him to “get thou up into the temple on the morrow, and declare the word which I shall give thee unto this people.” The wording of the verse indicates that perhaps the Lord didn’t tell Jacob exactly what He wanted him to say beforehand, but that He expected Jacob to act in faith by going to the temple to speak, and that what the Lord wanted Jacob to say would be revealed to him in the very moment he needed it.

And what is the message the Lord has Jacob share? It is that the Lord’s servants play a powerful role for His people as discerners of their thoughts, as inspired leaders who are capable of providing the people an “early warning” before the temptations they are pondering in their minds turn into actions they can’t take back. Here, we see that those who act as prophets and witnesses of the Lord function as a kind of radar system to ensure we are not forsaken. Certainly, each of us has access to our own early warnings from the promptings of the Holy Ghost, but sometimes we may miss the messages we are receiving—whether from distraction or inattention.

So the Lord, in His infinite genius, and more importantly, His infinite love for us, has built in a redundancy to make sure we are provided with as many chances as possible to recognize when we are inclining ourselves toward ruinous sin. If we can catch ourselves in the “thought” phase of sin, and repent at that point rather than at the “word” or “action” phase, we are in a much better position, and with practice and fixed determination, we can learn even to snuff out those thoughts as Jesus was able to when He encountered different forms of temptation.

Some of the most painfully honest and sensitive passages of scripture are found in this chapter. Jacob affirms that the people have “as yet” remained obedient to the word of the Lord, but tells them that the “all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth” has helped him know they are beginning to “labor in sin” in their thoughts (verses 4-5). He then laments that he must lay bare this “wickedness of your hearts” (verse 6) and enlarge the wounds of wives and children instead of sharing the “pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul” (verses 7-8). But Jacob is duty-bound to do what the Lord wills, and he knows it is the only way forward.

He then proceeds to call upon the people to lay aside the pride that comes with an attachment to material things for their own sake, and to forsake the “grosser crime” of giving license to their lustful temptations by using the examples of earlier kings of Israel (David and Solomon, in particular) to justify having more than one wife.

Jacob preaches with great directness in saying (from verses 18-19):

But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.

And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.

It is a marvelous principle that sets our priorities straight, and has special applicability to our day, a day that features material well-being unimaginable to the civilization Jacob was addressing in 545 B.C. They had no running water, electricity or modern conveniences. Only after we seek for some understanding of the Lord and his plan for us should we seek after riches, because only then will we be able to know how to use those riches and (with the Lord’s help) not let them corrupt us.

Then, turning to the more grievous matter of lust and unchastity, Jacob reveals that the Lord’s primary objective is to protect innocent women. In essence, he tells the men (in verses 31-35), “Whatever you are thinking, watch your step, because God saw the great sorrow of his daughters in Israel when they were subjected to the lustful desires of the men there, and he won’t stand for it in this covenant land. If you follow these temptations, you’ll bring a curse upon everyone. And as it is, can’t you see the consequences already? Your wives and children have suffered broken hearts, and their cries to heaven speak out against you.”

Nephi to Jacob: Change and Continuity in Succession - Book of Jacob, Chapter One (Jacob 1)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/jacob/1?lang=eng   

As we come to the Book of Jacob, Nephi ends his record and hands over the responsibilities both of keeping the plates and continuing the record to his brother Jacob.

To refresh ourselves, Jacob and his younger brother Joseph were actually born after the narrative of the Book of Mormon began. Jacob was the “firstborn in the wilderness” (2 Nephi 2:2) of Lehi and Sariah during the family’s journey to escape Jerusalem and follow the Lord’s direction in finding their promised land.

Although Jacob doesn’t feature too prominently in Nephi’s account of the journey (presumably he was quite young throughout), we already know important things about him because Nephi featured Jacob’s words and experiences in the chapters (2 Nephi 6-11) that come some years after the family has settled in the Americas—just after Lehi’s imparts his final blessings and then dies.

I have wondered to myself, “Why did Nephi give Jacob and his words such a place of prominence in his own record, when he could have filled it exclusively with his own teachings and insights?” Well, first, it’s probably best for me (and us) to remember that the record Nephi was keeping was not really his, but rather the Lord’s, and that Nephi must have felt impressed that he needed to highlight Jacob’s message. By pivoting to this new person (Jacob), Nephi and the Lord introduced us to someone important who would later return as one of the narrators of the record.

But there was more to it. They also helped us realize early on that the branch of Israelite civilization Lehi and Nephi established in the Americas according to the existing covenant with the Lord was not meant to be an imposition by those two individuals on the people around them, but an invitation to involve all who sought to play a role and to receive the vision of salvation and promise that Lehi and Nephi articulated.

So, in some sense, in those earlier chapters Nephi was hinting at the idea of a succession in leadership. It is so important for a young community of faith to have confidence that the initial prime movers do not have the monopoly on heavenly guidance. Much like when Brigham Young stepped into the role of prophet after Joseph’s Smith death in the 1840s during the early days of what we now call the “latter-day dispensation,” Jacob represents that first passing of the torch during the Nephite dispensation. Much of this chapter features Jacob explaining how the succession unfolded. Jacob says that Nephi instructed him to keep the record on the small plates (from which this part of the book is drawn) by recording only the most precious preachings, revelations and prophecies (verses 2-4). Clearly, Jacob is inheriting the mantle of spiritual leadership over the followers of Nephi. The other plates are to contain more of the historical narrative.

Jacob shares two interesting tidbits on events more generally. First, he tells us that before Nephi died, he anointed a successor to carry on the temporal or kingly rule of the people (verses 9-12). Significantly, the spiritual and temporal roles that had been united in the person of Nephi are now being divided, with Jacob taking on the spiritual role, and someone else the temporal one. Second, Jacob relates to us the consolidation of identity that has taken place among the people. They had come to the Americas as one big family, but over the four decades since their arrival, the organizing principle of their identity came down to whether they were “friendly to Nephi” (verse 14)—in which case they are called Nephites—or whether they “seek to destroy” the Nephites (also verse 14)—in which case they are called Lamanites. This sets the stage for the epic clashes, missionary efforts, reconciliations, and ultimate outcomes that play out between these two peoples over the following 950 years.

There’s another reason Nephi introduced Jacob to us early on in his record. It is the law of witnesses. The book of Second Nephi is remarkable in that Nephi very methodically develops an unassailable case for the fact that Jesus Christ is our Savior and is at the center of a plan that can save each and every one of us. Nephi weaves in his own prophecies and step-by-step explanation of how the plan works, in his characteristic “plainness,” with accounts from (1) Isaiah, from beyond the grave through his writings; and (2) the very alive and vibrant Jacob, through his preachings. The common thread among all three is what Nephi says in 2 Nephi 11:2-3:

And now I, Nephi, write more of the words of Isaiah, for my soul delighteth in his words. For I will liken his words unto my people, and I will send them forth unto all my children, for he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him. And my brother, Jacob, also has seen him as I have seen him; wherefore, I will send their words forth unto my children to prove unto them that my words are true.

The fact that each of the three had a personal vision of Jesus Christ is a powerful means of convincing fair-minded, open-hearted seekers of truth that He really is “Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

But there’s also something more. Jacob’s witness complements Nephi’s and makes it more powerful because the two brothers clearly have different personalities and styles of communication. Nephi likes to explain the steps toward salvation with a simple yet profound—almost mathematical—elegance and logic, while Jacob really focuses on the necessity of repentance. In that sense, Jacob’s passage in 2 Nephi 9 about the “consequences of sin” serves as a warm-up for his own record in the coming chapters of this book, where he very bluntly calls his people out on their iniquities—not to embarrass them, but to give them the dose of reality they need to change their pathway before it’s too late.

As Jacob says in this chapter, after observing that the Nephites are heading down lustful, greedy, prideful paths of wickedness, “I, Jacob, gave unto them these words as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained mine errand from the Lord” (verse 17). Jacob is able to carry out this errand, together with his younger brother Joseph, and tells us that “by laboring with our might their [the Nephites’] blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day” (verse 19).

The messages of Nephi and Jacob are not in conflict, but they emphasize various aspects of the plan of salvation differently. The genius of the Lord is to make sure that both their messages shine through, because the Lord knows that some readers will respond better to one than the other, and also that most readers will benefit from the way the two messages reinforce one another.

Nephi Seals His Testimony and Mission: To Serve (and Save) Man - Second Book of Nephi, Chapter Thirty-Three

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/33?lang=eng.

  

Let us not lose sight of the significance of this chapter. To this point in our study of the Book of Mormon, all that we have known is what Nephi has written. Before entrusting his record to another (it will be his brother Jacob), he is summing up and sealing his record with his personal testimony that what he has shared is accurate and applicable in the lives of all who read it.

Nephi starts with a curiously humble assertion where he acknowledges the limitation of his own words to convert us, to change our hearts. First, he tells us that he is better at speaking than at writing, and explains that when a speaker has the power of the Holy Ghost with him, that power carries his words unto the hearts of the children of men. But even so, the hearer still needs to be receptive. If he “hardens his heart,” even the most sincerely shared and spirit-filled message of love and truth will not take hold. One of our Church’s apostles, David A. Bednar, has taught that the scripture here (verse 1) teaches that the Spirit carries a message unto but not necessarily into the heart without the receiver’s help.

Despite his limitations, Nephi knows that his writings are of great worth because they speak of Jesus, persuade the reader to believe in Him, and teach us to endure to the end, “which is life eternal” (verse 4). And Nephi’s confidence regarding his words’ ultimate effectiveness is bolstered by his many prayers and tears. “And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people” (verse 4).

Nephi also knows that his words speak “harshly against sin,” and may provoke those with the “spirit of the devil” (verse 5). But it is a sign of his charity, not his enmity, toward temporarily lost souls. Nephi has faith that by pricking the hearts of those who need to repent, and setting them on the Lord’s path of obedience, that he will meet many souls “spotless” at the judgment seat of Christ (verse 7).

He shares his serene confidence with us that his view of things will be proven right when we “stand face to face” before the Lord after this life (verse 11). He insists that even if we don’t believe Nephi’s words, we should believe in Christ, because if we can do that, somehow the Lord’s influence will work on us so that we recognize at some point down the road that Nephi’s words are in fact Christ’s own (verse 10).

In his final statements, Nephi’s love for plainness is clear. He wants us to know that we are accountable by stating without any equivocation that his message is for all (Jew and Gentile) and that those who will not “partake of the goodness of God” and respect the words of Christ will be condemned by those very words (verse 14). As much as Nephi loves all men and women, he has understood through revelation from the Lord and his own recognition of our freedom to choose that not all will be saved. But he is serious about making sure that as many as possible can be (verse 12). And that is an effort that is well for us to emulate.

Feasting on the Words of Christ and Praying Always: Principles for All Times - Second Book of Nephi, Chapter Thirty-Two (2 Nephi 32)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/32?lang=eng  

In the previous chapter, Nephi lays out a vision of the steps to take on the pathway leading us to the Lord. This chapter builds on the inspiring rhetoric Nephi uses of pressing forward with a “perfect brightness of hope” after we have received the initial ordinances of baptism and confirmation.

Nephi senses that his audience is interested in a more detailed explanation of the types of practices that will keep them on the pathway and help them feel close to God. Kind of a “how-to” guide to important steps.

Although Nephi wants to oblige the audience’s wishes, we detect an undercurrent of concern. In both verses 1 and 8, Nephi appears to be quizzical about why his audience (both the people from his day and we in ours) needs more specific guidance, remarking on how they “ponder in their hearts” the things he is sharing. Nephi seems to feel as though he has already told them everything they need. In noting this, Nephi seems to be communicating that he won’t be able to hold their (or our) hands the entire way. At some point, we will need to become self-reliant in the steps necessary for our happiness and salvation.

But, Nephi does bring himself to share two extremely important principles with us. It is important for us to recognize that these are the final points of admonition Nephi is making on the plates he created decades earlier for the purpose of transmitting sacred information across generations. Information that he knows will prove critical in bringing to pass the climactic events in God’s relationship with the world. So it stands to reason that we carefully and seriously reflect on these two principles.

The first principle is to feast on truth. Truth, as Nephi explains, is interchangeable with the “words of Christ.” The more we study these teachings, the more they will become a part of us. In the same way that our physical body will come to reflect what we eat, how we exercise, and when we rest, our thoughts-words-actions will surely reflect the ideas we take in and the heed we give to them. Nephi says that the words of Christ “will tell you all things what ye should do” (verse 3). He tells us that angels speak the words of Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost, and that we can speak with the tongue of angels as well once we have received the Holy Ghost. So Nephi, in laying out this principle for us, is showing that what we do can help us become something greater than we are now. We can be more like the angels who are God’s most trusted messengers.

The second principle is to pray always (verse 9). This is a concept that is simple to understand, but extremely challenging to put into practice. Praying “always” literally means that our faith and our capacity to accomplish the challenges before us will be stronger if we can remember all the time to call out in some way to the Lord—whether it be with our heart, our mind, or our voice. I know that when I follow this principle more closely, my level of concentration increases, and I find myself elevated in capacity and in the ability to perceive how the Lord is communicating with me in my thoughts. So I have learned why Nephi pleads with us to hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, and to reject the evil spirit which “teacheth him he must not pray” (verse 8).

There is another aspect of this second principle that is just as important as constancy. It is connecting the words of Christ that are for all of us to feast upon with an understanding of how we as individuals are supposed to act on those words. Constant prayer includes the process of asking the Lord or “knocking” at His door in order to know the specific application of truth to my life right here and right now. It is perhaps the most miraculous thing there is—that ages-old wisdom can be made totally relevant in our present circumstances through direct revelation. And then, once we have prayed to know what to do, prayer further fortifies us (as mentioned in the previous paragraph) to have the strength to follow through.