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.
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