Enter the Prophet-Historian Mormon - The Words of Mormon

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

We fast forward to about 385 A.D. Lehi, Nephi and Jacob have prophesied about the destruction of the Nephites if they fall into iniquity, and now we learn that the prophecy is in the last stages of being fulfilled.

The voice of Mormon, the namesake of the entire record, appears for the first time. We will get to know him well. From this point forward, until near the end of the record when he turns the plates over to his son Moroni, Mormon’s point of view dominates what we read. He abridges the records that were made and handed down through the generations from the time of King Benjamin (about 130 B.C.) to that of the record-keeper (and probable Nephite leader) Ammaron (about 321 A.D.). Then Mormon supplies his own record (running from about 321 A.D. to 385 A.D.). This comprises the heart of the book, and 338 of the book’s total 531 pages, spanning about 515 years. At various points throughout, Mormon takes the narrator’s prerogative to add inspired words of clarification and emphasis. When he does that, it’s a good sign that the Lord wants us to pay special attention to something.

So what does the Lord want us to pay attention to at this point in the book? Maybe first what is mentioned above about the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Nephites’ destruction. As we get into the heart of the book, we will be able to follow the cyclical course of the Nephites’ prosperity, and how often they use their favorable material circumstances as false justification to disengage from the Lord and—through ingratitude and pride—hurt each other and ultimately themselves. Mormon’s casual reference to the destruction as a done deal in the first two verses points up for us the ruinous path of earthly prosperity without regard for the Lord—the true source of all good things.

Secondly, it seems the Lord wants us to recognize—once again—the great miracle that is the unbroken chain of custody over the sacred record. Somehow, each of the men who kept the plates was able to pass it on to someone else who remained faithful to his task and was able to keep alive the promise that eventually it would resurface and awaken future generations to the unrealized promises made to their fathers and still on offer to them (verses 10-11). This is the overarching continuity of the Book of Mormon. Through all the ups and downs, the faithfulness and faithlessness, that record remains intact and in good hands for a thousand years.

And we are reminded that the Lord is very particular in how the record would be received by future generations. Just as Nephi was told by the Lord to make small plates alongside a larger historical record as a way of preserving and transmitting the most precious of his people’s prophecies and teachings, for a “wise purpose” unto the Lord (1 Nephi 19 and 2 Nephi 5), the “workings of the Spirit” whisper to Mormon to organize the small plates with the portion of his abridgment of the larger historical record (with the abridgment on plates made by Mormon himself) in such a way that where the small plates end chronologically, he has inserted this “chapter” to provide us a bridge from the small plates to his abridgment of the larger ones (verses 5-7).

In the last third of this chapter, Mormon returns to the narrative. If you remember from Amaleki’s record in Omni, the Nephite king Mosiah was warned by the Lord to flee the land of Nephi to a new land called Zarahemla. Mosiah died and his son Benjamin inherited the kingdom. Mormon tells us that the Lamanites threaten the Nephites in their new dwelling place, but that Benjamin and his people repel the Lamanites in the “strength of the Lord” (verse 14).

It’s not absolutely clear, but it is possible that the Nephites’ contentions among themselves (verse 12) had made them vulnerable to the Lamanites. Mormon refers to false Christs and false prophets and teachers among the people who instigated the contentions and even dissensions unto the Lamanites. This will be a common pattern we see as the book continues, where the Nephites are their own worst enemies. Those who are raised as Nephites, with the true record of their covenant relationship with the Lord and their family’s heritage of faith, often end up as the most implacable foes of their people—willfully rebelling from that heritage and inciting the Lamanites to come against the Nephites as means of revenge or the acquisition of power or wealth.

Mormon tells us that King Benjamin countered the negative effects of the false prophets and teachers on his people in two main ways. Those propagating falsehoods and blasphemy were punished under the Nephites’ laws. But recourse to law and force only stopped the active spread of error, it did not reverse it. We learn that—as is always the case—the only truly effective way to disabuse the people of their false notions and to bring about true peace in the land was to preach the gospel. In verses 16-18, we find out that Benjamin relies on holy men (prophets and those operating under their authority) to “speak the word of God with power and authority” with “sharpness” to counteract the “stiffneckedness of the people.” With labor, love, the Spirit of God and hope that the people will respond of their own free will and choice, this is the only truly time-tested remedy to roll back spiritual darkness in a society.

The Lord's Plan Plays Out Over Time - Book of Omni

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

The Book of Omni is unique in the Book of Mormon as a compendium of records from several different record-keepers down the generations—from Omni to Amaleki. It helps us trace the passage of time (more than 200 years elapse from start to finish), and makes us wonder about what else we might learn about these interesting chapters in the Nephites’ history at some future point. The lack of detail in Omni should not discourage us, however. As we prayerfully acquaint ourselves with the entire Book of Mormon, we can come to realize that what the Lord includes (and doesn’t include) in the book is suited for our needs in this generation. It’s helpful to remember that even though there is great drama and historical curiosity in the Book of Mormon—as with the Bible—it is first and foremost a source of sacred knowledge setting forth principles that can lead us to salvation and eternal life.

The book is named after the first record-keeper it mentions: Omni, the son of Jarom. Here is a rough timeline of all the record-keepers of the small plates of Nephi:

Nephi (son of Lehi): 599 B.C. (in Jerusalem) to 544 B.C. (in the land of Nephi on the American continent)

Jacob (son of Lehi, younger brother of Nephi): 544 B.C. to sometime presumably in the 500-420 B.C. range (in the land of Nephi)

Enos (son of Jacob): About 420 to 399 B.C. (in the land of Nephi)

Jarom (son of Enos): About 399 to 361 B.C. (in the land of Nephi)

Omni (son of Jarom): About 323 to 317 B.C. (in the land of Nephi)

Amaron (son of Omni): About 317 B.C. to 279 B.C. (in the land of Nephi)

Chemish (son of Omni, brother of Amaron): About 279 B.C. to ?? (in the land of Nephi)

Abinadom (son of Chemish): ?? (in the land of Nephi)

Amaleki (son of Abinadom): ?? (in the land of Nephi) to about 130 B.C. (in the land of Zarahemla)

Amaleki delivers the completed small plates into the hands of the Nephite king Benjamin (verse 25).

So the first two record-keepers cover a total of 135 modern printed pages spanning maybe 100-180 years, and the last seven (of those, the last five are covered in the Book of Omni) cover a total of eight pages spanning maybe 290-370 years. But again, we learn that the plates themselves were nearly full after Jacob completed his record. What we don’t know, at least not yet, is what these record-keepers or the Nephite kings might have recorded on the other (the larger) plates Nephi created to keep the people’s history. Also, we don’t know whether the Lord provided any instruction to the record-keepers about whether they should create additional plates if they had more to say. We know that Mormon, the principal compiler of the plates and the abridger of the large plates of Nephi, created a new set of plates during his time in the 4^th century A.D. My assumption is that if Nephi could make plates in the 6^th century B.C. after arriving on the American continent, and Mormon could make plates nearly a thousand years afterward, the raw materials and technology probably existed for the other record-keepers to make plates in the time in between, if they had chosen to.

From the different accounts of the record-keepers, we are able to feel the sense of duty that these men inherited and, in turn, passed on. After all, assuming each of them read the records of Nephi, Jacob and Enos, it would have been pretty clear to them that the fate of future generations of Nephites and Lamanites depended on their ability to safeguard and preserve the records for future use. We should also recognize the possibility that the Nephites’ language changed over time, and that these record-keepers’ understanding of the “reformed Egyptian” used by Nephi had become specialized knowledge that was not common among all Nephites in these later generations. In Mosiah 1:2, for example, Mormon hints that King Benjamin had to make sure his sons were taught in the language of his fathers to ensure they could know earlier prophecies.

So hopefully we can appreciate the magnitude of the task these men carried out. Presumably it was not only their responsibility to safeguard and preserve the records, but also to share the records’ content and meaning with the Nephites as they taught rising generations and faced various challenges.

Omni’s brief record is unlike those of his predecessors in that he openly confesses to be a “wicked man” who has not followed the Lord’s teachings as he ought to have. This makes us wonder whether Omni truly was someone who substantially strayed from the path of righteousness, or whether he was just holding himself to particularly high standards of conduct because of his leadership role among the people. Omni writes of fighting “much with the sword to preserve my people,” as well as of “many seasons of serious war and bloodshed” (verses 2-3).

Amaron writes that by 279 B.C., the “more wicked part of the Nephites were destroyed” as a consequence of their disobedience to God’s commandments, while also writing that the Lord delivered the righteous part of the people out of the hands of their enemies (verses 5-7).

Abinadom, like Omni, writes of seasons of war and of his own personal part in those struggles.

Despite being named after its first author, the Book of Omni is principally written by its last author, Amaleki (verses 12-30). Amaleki tells us a number of significant things. First, that a Nephite king named Mosiah was warned by the Lord to flee with his people (presumably because of threats from the Lamanites) from the land of Nephi. Next, that the Lord’s word and power led Mosiah and his people until they came to a land where they discovered another branch of Israel who had come separately—by the Lord’s hand—from Jerusalem at the time of its capture by the Babylonians. These people—known as the people of Zarahemla after their leader—join with the Nephites and give their name to the land where both peoples now settle. They are also known as the Mulekites because their first leader was a son of Zedekiah (who was King of Judah at the time of the Babylonian invasion) named Mulek, as is later revealed (in Helaman 6 and 8).

Interestingly, in a section of the Book of Mormon that emphasizes the importance of record-keepers through the generations, we are introduced to the people of Zarahemla, who had gone adrift into contention, unbelief, and general confusion largely because they had no written records. This shows us that even with the problems the Nephites are facing, things could have been much worse without the record Nephi and his brothers obtained some 450 years previously. And the Nephites’ ability to preserve their beliefs, language and culture become the means of saving the people of Zarahemla from drifting further into darkness.

Also, we learn of the existence of yet another civilization. The people of Zarahemla provide King Mosiah a stone with engravings that Mosiah is able to translate with help from the Lord beyond his own linguistic abilities. The engravings tell the account of a man named Coriantumr, who had stumbled into their midst some time ago. We later learn that Coriantumr was one of the last surviving members of a group of people who came to the Americas from the Middle East centuries before. These people are known as the Jaredites, and the Nephites later (we find out a few more chapters along, in Mosiah 8 and 21-22) discover a fuller record of their civilization, and through the inspired translation efforts of Mosiah’s grandson (also named King Mosiah) and the diligent abridging of the final Book of Mormon prophet Moroni, this fuller record becomes the Book of Ether (the penultimate, or second-to-last book within the Book of Mormon).

So the Book of Omni serves as this unique section of the Book of Mormon where time passes quickly, and we discover the intersection of narratives and timelines from each of the three main groups whom we know were led by the Lord from the Holy Land (the Middle East) to the new Promised Land (the Americas): the Nephites/Lamanites, the Mulekites (people of Zarahemla) and the Jaredites.

Finally, Amaleki relates the story of a group among the Nephites who appear zealous—and in many ways overzealous—to recover the land they lost the generation before. How often do we see these disputes materialize today among warring nations and peoples? Human nature changes little, unless proactively and persistently turned in the direction of the divine.

And, poof, we have been transported to a time only a few generations (130 years) before Christ’s birth, and about 160 years before Christ’s appearance to the Nephites. This allows us to dig in to the detailed drama that is to come in the rest of the book, maybe foreshadowing the cycles of obedience and disobedience and the moral challenges to society that we have faced in the 190 or so years since Joseph Smith restored the Gospel, as we anticipate the decisive return of Christ to the earth. 

Great Blessings for Small Acts of Obedience - Book of Jarom

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

We’re in a section of the Book of Mormon where the record-keepers are taking a very long view of events and developments. With Enos and Jarom, we don’t get the same vivid detail that Nephi and Jacob provide. That makes it a little more difficult to apply directly to our personal lives. But by pulling back and helping us understand how civilization under covenant to the Lord gets along over time, Enos and Jarom open a window for us into how the Lord’s love and mercy operate.

What stands out to me in the account of Jarom (Enos’ son) is that the Nephite people are clearly imperfect. Jarom tells us that much needed to be done—presumably in reminding the people of the gospel law and of their covenants—because of their general blindness, deafness, and stiffneckedness (verse 3).

And yet, despite these weaknesses, the Lord showers the Nephites with blessings. Why? According to Jarom, it seems to come down to two things in particular:

1)   Some portion of the Nephites continued to exercise abundant faith and receive the communion of the Holy Spirit. Notably, this includes their kings and leaders, who were mighty in faith and taught the people in the Lord’s ways (verses 4 and 7).

2)   Even though the people had trouble with openness to the word of the Lord, at a certain level, they remained obedient to fundamentals—what we know as the Law of Moses. This of course includes the Ten Commandments as well as many of the other practices governing worship and daily habits that are spelled out in the Books of Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and that many Jews continue to this day (verse 5).

We know that the Nephites’ prosperity in the land is based on their obedience (verse 9). It appears as though their willingness to keep the Law of Moses and their basic respect for the Lord (Jarom also specifies that the Nephites did not use profanity or engage in blasphemy) was sufficient to help them multiply on the land, become exceedingly rich and sweep away the invading hordes of their bloodthirsty Lamanite cousins (verses 6-8).

Underlying the Nephites’ prosperity is the continual effort put forth by the Lord’s prophets and those assisting them to remind the people of the Law of Moses and that it points the way to the Messiah. Devoid of that context, we may face challenges in understanding the “why” of the Law of Moses beyond its utility as a code of ethics to provide order on earth. With it, the law is tied to the great work of salvation personified in Jesus. It points us in the direction of His divine qualities, and ultimately, His willingness to sacrifice His entire will to that of His Father because of His love for us. Under Jarom, the prophets, priests and teachers persuaded their people to believe in the Messiah to come “as though he already was” (verse 11).

As the Apostle Paul wrote more than 400 years after Jarom’s time (by Jarom’s own timeline, he finishes his record and entrusts the plates to his son Omni in 361 B.C.), and after the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ had been accomplished (in Galatians 3:24):

Wherefore the law [of Moses] was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

The Law of Moses recognizes that the rest of us need to learn obedience and sacrifice gradually, while showing that the ultimate goal of emulating the Savior remains the same. The great lesson of Jarom—that we can still find great blessings while we are in the process of feeling our way toward the higher law that Jesus kept—is extremely comforting and shows how much the Lord wants to bless us for even the smallest acts of obedience. It also reinforces the inseparability of the Law of Moses from who Jesus is and what He did and still does. Let us never forget that the Passover deliverance of the Israelites from mortal death—so powerfully represented by the Israelites’ reliance on the blood of the unblemished firstborn lamb—points directly to the Lamb of God’s ability to deliver us all from both the grave and our own sins by His own willing sacrifice. 

Expanding Our Circle of Love - Book of Enos

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

We turn now to the Book of Enos. Enos is Jacob’s son and Jacob—before his death—has entrusted him both with the plates and with the charge to record sacred words and occurrences on them. It appears as though Enos has waited until later in life to summarize those things he has felt are most important and sacred to share with future generations—including us. Based on his own statement (in verse 25) that 179 years have passed from the time Enos’ grandfather Lehi left Jerusalem (599 B.C.), we calculate Enos finishes his record around 420 B.C.

Enos begins a pattern of succinctness in making his record on the small plates of Nephi that is followed by those who come after him. Why do we only get a chapter’s worth of material from Enos, and even less from those who keep the record after him? There could be a few reasons.

• No more room on the plates. We learn from Amaleki, the last keeper of these plates, in Omni 1:30, that after Enos’ record, there are only 45 more verses of material (of course the actual division into verses is a modern thing) recorded on the plates (in the books of Jarom and Omni), so it appears space was already getting pretty tight when Enos inherited the plates from Jacob. That probably ensures that Enos and those who follow him are going to only share things that are particularly compelling.

• It’s already there. Nephi already related the crucial “origin stories” of the Nephites and Lamanites, and he and Jacob also communicated key visions, principles, and teachings. So, rather than being slackers, Enos’ and his successors’ restraint may be explained by their humble recognition that the purposes of the small plates have largely been fulfilled by those who came before.

• More recorded on the other (large) plates. In fairness to Enos and his successors, we only know half the story. We don’t yet know what and how much each of them recorded in the large plates of Nephi. Those plates were meant to be more of an historical record anyway, so it stands to reason that they might contain a fuller account of post-Jacob Nephite civilization. There was apparently ample space on those large plates (or perhaps additional plates were created when the original ones were filled) because the account Mormon provides us—from the Book of Mosiah down to Mormon’s final words near the end of the book—is an abridgment of those plates, starting with the reign of King Benjamin about 300 years after the time of Enos. Many of us hope to learn more about what took place during those 300 years at some point in the future when the Lord sees fit to reveal more of these accounts. Some of it may have been translated by Joseph Smith as part of the 116-page manuscript that was lost by or stolen from his scribe Martin Harris in 1828.

Our description of the record of Enos is prelude to its amazing substance and message. After a life filled with much action—prophesying among the people, witnessing wars and contentions—the key experience Enos wants us to know about is a prayer that appears to have had a profound effect on his life and subsequent ministry.

Of the precise time in his life when the prayer occurred, we don’t know. It could be Enos relating the first serious encounter he had with repentance before the Lord as a young man. Or it could be one of many experiences that stood out in power and resonance. He speaks of having to wrestle before God in order to receive remission of his sins (verse 2).

We know that Enos was mature enough at the time of the prayer that he was intently pondering the words and mission of his father Jacob. In verse 1, he shares that he was brought up in the “nurture and admonition” of the Lord. This saying evokes Nephi’s reference (from 140-150 years before) at the very beginning of this record about being brought up by “goodly parents,” while also providing an echo (500 years before) to encouragement by Paul for parents to bring up their children in the “nurture and admonition” of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). Perhaps Enos’ prayer took place after Jacob had already left Enos the plates and he was pondering the meaning of his new responsibility as prophet and record-keeper?

Whatever the precise situation, Enos relates it in dramatic style. Apparently, he had gone into the forest to hunt, and while in these natural surroundings, he was overcome by two things: a recollection of sayings from Jacob about eternal life and joy, and an intense desire to commune with God (verses 3-4). This desire was so intense that it appears to have sustained him in prayer for many hours—from the day into the night.

The first answer Enos receives is about his own personal worthiness before God. I’m not sure there’s a more powerful and straightforward account of how our Heavenly Father can communicate forgiveness to us, and how we can feel our sins leave us, than in verses 5-6:

Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.

And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.

Next, Enos asks the Lord how his sins were forgiven. The answer comes back: because of Enos’ faith in Jesus Christ, who will live on earth many years after Enos’ time.

This is where things really get interesting, and one man’s prayer for forgiveness turns into a universal plea for all mankind.

The powerful feeling of purification and sanctification that has swept over Enos leads to his deep desire that the same feeling can be poured out upon others. I call how Enos responds to this desire “expanding the circle of love.” To me, it is one of the four or five most instructive moments in the entire Book of Mormon.

What does Enos do? First, in verses 9-12, something that might come naturally to any of us. He thinks of his family and friends. The focus of his prayer turns to all the Nephites, and after additional effort on his part, the Lord promises that He will “visit them” according to their righteousness, in line with the promises the previous prophets had shared regarding the covenant attached to the lands of the Nephites’ New World inheritance.

What comes next, in verses 13-18, is much more impressive. Despite the fact that Enos lives in a time of great violence and contention between the Nephites and their estranged cousins, the Lamanites, he recalls the prophecies of Lehi, Nephi and Jacob, and prays fervently to those who seem him as an enemy. The humility of spirit this requires cannot be overstated.

And significantly, Enos’ prayer for the Lamanites is very specific. He knows what the prophecies say, and my own read is that he wants to feel that prophecy leap off the gold plates of Nephi in such a way that he is able to rest easy in the sure knowledge that the Lord will extend His love to even those who seem to be most lost. Specifically, once the Nephites fall into irredeemable iniquity after many generations, and are destroyed, the record on the plates will be preserved and eventually come forth to give the very destroyers of the Nephites (the Lamanites) a chance at eternal salvation through Christ.

In his own account, Enos tells us that through this process of understanding of his heart’s own desire and then trying to align it with what he already knows the Lord has planned, his faith “began to be unshaken in the Lord” (verse 11), showing us that as we keep the two great commandments (love the Lord and love thy neighbor), the Lord’s mercy and grace are showered upon us in great abundance. We literally get closer to God by becoming a bit more like Him as we learn to love people who don’t naturally endear themselves to us.

As with any obedient disciple of the Lord, after this great spiritual experience, Enos goes back to his people (the Nephites) and shares what he has learned. He seems to inspire the Nephites to “seek diligently to restore the Lamanites unto the true faith in God” (verse 20). But that is not the Lord’s plan for Enos’ time. Instead, he and his people encounter harshness and contention, and it takes everything within Enos’ powers of inspired persuasion to prevent the Nephites themselves from “going down speedily to destruction” (verse 23).

Despite the challenges of life in a remote wilderness facing bloodthirsty adversaries while dealing with his own borderline rebellious people, Enos’ last two verses reveal how God strengthens us as we follow what we know to be true. Enos talks of rejoicing of the truth that is in Christ above that which is in the world. Then he writes with a certainty that could only come from one who has felt the comfort of sin being swept away, testifying as had his father, uncle and grandfather before him of the reality of the life beyond this one. Only Enos’ testimony is startlingly personal, about his own face-to-face encounter with Jesus.

Jacob Thwarts the Deceiver Sherem - Book of Jacob, Chapter Seven (Jacob 7)

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/jacob/7?lang=eng

The final chapter of Jacob is a curious thing. In some ways, it seems out of place. It seems like Jacob had already provided us his message of repentance, his testimony of the prophets and the the direct application to us of the parable of the vineyard, as we contemplate how to use Christ’s atoning sacrifice to obtain eternal life. He had even bid his audience farewell in chapter 6, promising to meet us in the next life.

But in another way, this chapter is the perfect end to Jacob’s record and the perfect transition for us to the records of the other Book of Mormon prophets. It provides us a picture of Jacob in action, and helps us understand why he is such an important leader to the Nephites. Indeed, it appears that the episode is pivotal to helping accomplish a return of a great part of the people to “peace and the love of God” (verse 23). We know Nephi first from his part in the larger story of his family’s journey to the promised land. Only after that does he focus on teaching principles and doctrine. But until this point, we had really only known Jacob from his famous sermons and writings.

The story of how Jacob vanquishes the deceiver Sherem by trusting in the Lord is also a perfect cautionary tale to reinforce what Jacob teaches in the previous chapters. In essence, he gets to put the exclamation point on his prophecy. “Guys, if you don’t heed me, if you don’t heed the other prophets from the scriptures, and if you don’t heed the Holy Ghost when we all point to Christ and His way of faith, repentance, and obedience, you’re going to make things needlessly difficult for yourself. And how tragic, when happiness is within your grasp!”

Sherem himself provides us with a very important example of the type of people we encounter in our day. He is a smooth talker, and knows how to appeal to people’s pride and egos through flattery. He is clever in that he takes something of sacred value to the people—the scriptures (plates of brass)—and instead of trying to completely undermine them, he looks to obscure their true meaning by planting seeds of doubt regarding the Savior’s coming. He actually wants them to overemphasize the law of Moses for its own sake, because anything that distracts from Christ distracts from salvation.

It makes me pause to think about how important it is that I am continually connecting my gospel study and my efforts to follow truth to the Savior Himself, because if I get casual in doing that, and if I neglect to pray with regularity and sincerity to Heavenly Father in Jesus’ name, I am slowly becoming a philosopher of the ways of men rather than a disciple of the living God.

Jacob’s composed and unassuming response to Sherem’s provocations also provides guidance and comfort. We don’t have to be the smartest person in the room to successfully fend off attacks on our faith. Don’t get caught in a tangle of words. Use the strength you have available to you, which is the testimony of the prophets from the scriptures and your own living testimony from the Holy Ghost. That will be enough. As Jacob says about his own experience, the Lord will “pour his Spirit into your soul” (verse 8).

Ultimately, we see from Sherem that a steady testimony based on true principles will outlast the self-destructiveness of flashy falsehood. Sherem leads himself into his own demise by thinking he could confound Jacob and the Lord by demanding a sign, only to learn that the Lord’s plan cannot be frustrated. In fact, His plan anticipates Sherem’s treachery, and it is used to great effect in proving God’s greatness to the Nephites. Poignantly, after the Lord smites Sherem in response to Jacob’s humble and straightforward entreaty, Sherem’s own testimony of the truth as he lies dying is what astonishes the Nephites and enables the power of God to transform their hearts back to righteousness (verses 17-21).

And not only did Jacob’s efforts help recover many of his people from the effects of Sherem’s false teachings, but it may have reclaimed Sherem himself for the Lord. Jacob doesn’t talk of being motivated by love for Sherem, but Jacob seems to have been such an effective instrument in God’s hands that what took place may have been a spiritual blessing to Sherem even though it killed him physically. By making some form of restitution for his wickedness, Sherem gives us cause for hope that his case might not be not beyond the grasp of Christ’s Atonement, even if Sherem fears that his sin is unpardonable (verse 19).

But the chapter doesn’t end there. Importantly, we learn that one result of the Nephites’ reconversion under Jacob is that they now seek to reclaim the Lamanites. Not since Nephi was able to continually help Laman and Lemuel to repent following their hard-hearted actions toward him had the record documented such Christlike overtures by the Nephites in response to Lamanite treachery, aggression and resentment. In the wilds of America, the previous Nephite impulse appears to have been to survive the Lamanites’ depredations and, when necessary, to vanquish them in battle with the Lord’s help. In 2 Nephi 30:3-6, Nephi points to a longer view (shown to Nephi in vision several years before, and explained to him by an angel in 1 Nephi 13:38) in which many of the Lamanites’ descendants (some of those descended from native American peoples, including those from Latin America) will receive the record of the Nephites (the Book of Mormon) and thus turn to the Lord after centuries in the “spiritual wilderness.”

We don’t know what means Jacob and the Nephites devised to reach out to the Lamanites (verse 24), but these efforts are an interesting precursor to the prayer of Jacob’s son Enos in the next book and to the miraculously successful efforts of the sons of Mosiah (in the book of Alma) in turning significant portions of the Lamanites back to Christ and His gospel. For now, however, we learn that the Nephites’ efforts were in vain, and Jacob reminds us of how strange and lonely it can be when you are only a generation or two removed from your ancestral homeland (verse 26):

…our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days.

Jacob's Prophecy: Repentance and the "Pleasing Bar of God" - Book of Jacob, Chapter Six (Jacob 6)

Before moving on to Jacob 6, I have a brief postscript for Jacob 5. It is quite interesting to note that Paul’s epistle to the Romans in the New Testament (Romans 11:13-25) has reference to a parable essentially identical to Zenos’ parable of the olive tree in Jacob 5. When reading one after the other, it’s hard for me not to come away with the impression that Paul probably was well-versed in the account from Zenos. If that’s the case, then the record of Zenos had been preserved to at least 600 years after Jacob’s time before subsequently being lost to history (until Joseph Smith’s translation of the Nephite plates in 1829).

It’s a shining example of how the stick of Joseph (the Book of Mormon coming from Joseph’s descendants) and the stick of Judah (the Bible coming from the descendants of Judah) complement and reinforce one another—as referenced in 2 Nephi 3 and 2 Nephi 29, as well as in Ezekiel 37. Clearly, the account from Jacob 5 is the fuller one, and a common-sense reading of it alongside Romans 11 indicates that Paul’s New Testament reference is derived from what we find in the Book of Mormon, not the other way around.

Paul, as he does with most of his sources, expertly weaves the narrative of the olive tree into his teaching to the Gentile Christians (the adopted children of Israel), focusing on the part of the parable that talks about the wild branches (the Gentiles) being grafted into the original tree. Paul’s overriding point is to say that even if many Gentiles of his time were taking over the covenant promise that some of the children of Israel had rejected, they needed to realize that this was not due to some inherent superiority on their part, but only insofar as they were willing to acknowledge their dependence on the roots (the truth that flows from humility and obedience to the divine sources of righteousness we know as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost). Indeed, Paul uses the example of the Israelites who had lost their way as a reminder that no one can skate by to salvation on some false notion of inherited righteousness.

And finally, a helpful graphic providing a summation of the entire parable can be found at this link: https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/content/images/gospel-library/manual/32506/32506_000_016_02-olivetree.pdf

Now on to Jacob 6.

You can read the entire chapter at the following link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/jacob/6?lang=eng

First, let’s assess whom Jacob is addressing in the brief account he left us on the small plates of Nephi. In Jacob 1, he introduces himself to the audience (which includes us) as the inheritor of Nephi’s role and legacy as prophet. In Jacob 2-3, he shares a powerful sermon to his people in which he issues a very plain and plaintive call for repentance. In Jacob 4, he shifts focus back to the audience at large, and begins to share his own prophecy (starting at verse 15) after establishing that all prophets testify of Christ and that those who search the prophets can receive the spirit of prophecy themselves (verse 6).

In Jacob 5, Jacob shares Zenos’ parable of the olive tree, and in Jacob 6, he tells us that his prophecy is that this parable “must surely come to pass” (verse 1). He focuses on the final passages of the parable, in which the Lord recovers the scattered branches of Israel, or grafts them back into the original tree.

As he does so, he gives us a hint about who will be counted among the virtuous (or the strong branches) as the world prepares for the Savior’s Second Coming. Verse 3 shows that the surest way to be with the Lord and to avoid being cast out and burned with branches that produce evil fruit is to be actively engaged as a fellow laborer in the Lord’s cause:

And how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard; and how cursed are they who shall be cast out into their own place! And the world shall be burned with fire.

As I read this passage, Jacob gives us great hope by showing us that through our desires, actions, and faith in Christ, we can qualify ourselves to become fellow laborers with Him. Even though Jacob 5:70 tells us that the servants the Lord brings with Him to tend His vineyard in the last days are “few,” we can be comforted that the Lord will not arbitrarily exclude us from the opportunity to serve with him according to some sort of elite worldly criteria. Rather, the selection process is based on whether we choose to be actively faithful.

With this promise comes also a warning. Repentance is not simply ideal, it is absolutely required if we are to stand before the “pleasing bar of God” without “awful dread and fear” (verse 13).

Jacob is applying to his broader general audience (us) the same teaching he gave to his specific Nephite audience in chapters 2-3 (see, for example, Jacob 3:11, where he pleads in his sermon to the Nephites for them to avoid the “pains of hell”). And, in doing so, he makes it unmistakable that the parable of the olive tree is not just a story for us to analyze from a distance, but actually very much our own story.

He does this by using the imagery we commonly associate with hell—namely, fire and brimstone. But he describes this much more as a state of being than as some kind of ultimate geographical consignment. Without repentance and humility before Christ, justice finds us consumed with “shame and awful guilt” and “endless torment.”

Allusions to the bar of God and the pains of sin come again and again throughout the Book of Mormon, often as a departing testimony (Nephi in 2 Nephi 33, Jacob here, Abinadi in Mosiah 16, Alma the Younger in Alma 5, Alma and Amulek together in Alma 11-12, Moroni in Mormon 9 and at the book’s very end in Moroni 10). Clearly, the Lord finds value in deploying several witnesses and using repetition to emphasize the importance of the principles involved.

And though we might recoil from the harshness of the teaching, that harshness is necessary to drive home the urgency of this subject. We simply cannot put this off to a later date. Getting right before the Lord is the number one priority of our lives. That is why members of Christ’s church meet every week to partake of the sacramental bread and water to remind us of the constant and immediate need of repenting and renewing our earlier covenants by reference to the life, suffering, death, Resurrection, and godly attributes of the Savior.

The Lost Prophet and the Parable of the Vineyard - Book of Jacob, Chapter 5 (Jacob 5)

You can read the entire chapter at this link: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/jacob/5?lang=eng

In this chapter, Jacob shares what has become known as the “parable of the vineyard” from a “lost” prophet of Israel known as Zenos. We have little precise information about Zenos other than he likely ministered in the land of Israel sometime between the time of the kings and the Babylonian captivity (1000-600 B.C.), and some his writings were preserved on the brass plates that Nephi and his brothers obtained from Laban.

The parable has a panoramic scope that symbolizes the destiny of the people of Israel and their many branches over all generations of time, right up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the destruction of the wicked that will come with it, and perhaps even to the final battle between good and evil. It is a testimony of how precious the Book of Mormon is to us that this important lost prophecy from Old Testament times has been restored to us for our benefit and that of our children.

Rather than me dryly cataloguing the different phases of how the master and chief servant in the parable care for the tame and wild branches of the olive trees found in the vineyard, it may be better for me to run through some key takeaways from the parable, and leave it to you to experience the full sequence of events by your own reading of the account.

Key takeaways:

Takeaway #1: The master and the servant are very hands-on in their efforts to give the branches of Israel every opportunity to prove themselves worthy. I like to believe that the master represents our Heavenly Father and the servant represents Jesus. The passages that make me think of the servant as Jesus come in verses 26-27 and verses 49-50, where the master is ready to destroy the branches that have brought forth bad fruit, but the servant successfully urges him to spare the branches a little longer. After all, we know Christ to be our advocate with the Father. It is possible, though, that the master actually represents Jesus, and the servant is a composite of the prophets the Lord works with at different times to warn his people and enlist them in efforts to warn others.

In any event, we learn that different children of Israel have different experiences based on their circumstances, but that the Lord knows all of them and all will be given the chance to avail themselves of the saving blessings He offers. We detect the tirelessness of the Lord by his repeated cry (in verses 41, 47 and 49), “What could I have done more for my vineyard?”

Takeaway #2: Our origins matter less than our willingness to learn and live by true and saving principles. Especially the first few times we read it, the parable can dizzily confuse us, with its description of grafting wild branches into the tame mother tree, transplanting tame branches into far corners of the vineyard (representing the scattering of Israel throughout the world), and then ultimately grafting those tame branches back into the mother tree.

But at some level it doesn’t matter if we’re able to keep exact track of who went where and when they did so. What matters most is that we see a consistent pattern emerge through cycles of history. This pattern shows us that the true source of our power to (paraphrasing the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians) withstand the power of evil, that we may, having done all, stand by spreading goodness (gospel means “good news”), lies in understanding and continually going back to the source. The source here is the roots of the tree, which clearly represent the foundation that the Lord and his power and qualities provide for us. The whole drama of the parable is based on whether the people of Israel can look to the roots for their strength, or whether they will try to go it alone. In verse 48:

And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard—have not the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good? And because the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. Behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted?

Verses 53-60 show us that the process of bringing scattered Israel back to its roots through the servants of God is the only way to ensure that there will be good fruit on the earth to overcome the bad in preparation for Christ’s coming. The roots provide the ever-present promise of nourishment and healing that comes from the Atonement that Christ wrought for us. It is always there for the taking. Verse 74 makes this explicit by saying that after the grafting back of the natural branches into the natural tree, they “became like unto one body.”

Takeaway #3: The servants will be few. This is sobering and inspiring at the same time. For a number of reasons having to do with how evil can distract and flatter and enrage (see 2 Nephi 28:19-23), thus keeping people away from the truth right in front of them, Zenos tells us that God’s work will depend on the labors of a mighty few (verses 69-72). It is up to us to decide if we are willing to be a part of this most important work—the only infinitely fulfilling work there is. The great comfort we have is that even though we may be few, our efforts will be enough. Whatever we lack personally, the Lord will supply the difference needed to accomplish His purposes.

Takeaway #4: There will be a final reckoning. Every person’s time in their mortal state is limited. With a finite amount of time, every moment becomes more meaningful. The same holds true for the human race more broadly. There is a time appointed when Jesus will come to establish a higher order, and much of the legacy we leave through our descendants and our own actions is about doing our part to share the knowledge and truths our civilization needs to properly prepare for Christ’s coming.

There are two processes through which the parable describes the purification of the Lord’s vineyard. The first is described in verse 66, and seems to show that we have an important role in helping banish evil. As we overcome it ourselves and spread the influence of our goodness (hopefully!), those who cling to evil and falsehood look increasingly small and impotent. Zenos tells us that such shall be “hewn down and cast into the fire.” I can’t help but wonder if this means that our own efforts at building the kingdom of God—through love, not confrontation—have a bearing on the timing of the Second Coming.  

The second process, related in verse 77 as the final stand of evil in the Lord’s vineyard, seems to resemble the account in Revelation 20:8-15 where, once Satan returns after Christ’s 1000-year reign, fire devours Satan and “whosoever was not found in the book of life.”