2 Nephi 9:45-54
I can't believe I might actually be finishing chapter 9 tonight! It's a Christmas miracle! It's been 10 days, and don't get me wrong, they have been fantastic, lots learned but on the other hand my goodness this has been a long chapter. I shouldn't be concerned with the numbers, I know that, but, really, who's not even a little bit interested in them.
9:46 - One thing I love about Jacob is his bluntness in speech. In his book, he uses this, but here is our first taste of his "if you guys weren't being naughty I wouldn't have to talk to you like this." Definitely a different teaching style than his brother, but like I said, I love Jacob. I guess in that way, he kind of reminds me of myself, it's funny because in verse 46 after he says "let's be righteous so that we can look forward to judgement day" he continues, in my own words of course "otherwise you will be forced to say: God, you are right, I know I was an idiot and did stupid things, and now I belong to the devil." It was just funny to me because it sounds like, I don't know, sometimes to prove a point I will go over the top dramatic or obvious, and it's usually taken in a humorous way though the point still comes across and it kind of sounds to me like that's what he's doing here. I might be wrong, but I like it anyway. An interesting point in verse 46 is that he says to repent "that ye may not remember your awful guilt in perfectness." This almost makes it sound like, on the day of judgement it won't be the Lord making a tally of our deeds, good and bad. I always had envisioned the day of judgement to be me cowering away from the Lord as he reminded me of all the terrible things that I had done, even the ones that I had forgotten about, and saying basically "sorry, looks like you did more bad things than good things so off you go to hell." And now that I know a little bit more about God and who He is that doesn't make sense, because he wants us to succeed, this verse describes a God that is more inline with who I've come to know and love, and also in line with the teaching from God that "their iniquities will I remember no more." Now I read somewhere that it's not possible for God to passively forget something, but it is possible that he can actively NOT remember something. Like when my son is trying to tell me some super surprise and his sister wants to have all the attention and so she screams out what he was going to say and he starts crying and I tell him, "no dude, you tell me, I didn't hear what she said." Did I actually hear what she said, of course, who couldn't, she was screaming, but did I listen to what she said? No because I wanted to hear it from him. It's probably the same principle for God, he knows what we did, but he's going to let it go because he forgives us when we repent. But verse 46 sounds like we are condemning ourselves. "I know my guilt, I transgressed thy law, and my transgressions are mine; and the devil hath obtained me." No where in there is God saying "you did this now go to hell" we are the ones saying "I did this so I must go to hell." It's really interesting, it's not so much God keeping a tally, but us keeping our own.
9:47-48 - This is where Jacob really shines in his unique teaching style of bluntness, in my own words of course. "Do I really have to tell you the awful reality of these things? Would I really make you feel bad about this stuff if you were pure? Would I have to be blunt and in your face with the truth if you were freed from sin? Look, if you were righteous, we could talk about righteousness, but you are not righteous so as your teacher I must teach you the consequences of sin." It's like Jacob realizes that they should be operating at a higher level and is irritated beyond measure that they are wallowing in sin, and as a reminder, this is written for us as well so he's probably irritated that we are wallowing as well. I just love his "seriously? Do we really need to have this discussion?" attitude.
9:49 - In a 2 Nephi 4:31 Nephi laments his wretched nature and asks God to "make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin?" I'm sure that at this point Jacob and Nephi are both very righteous, and that they're both on equal footing, so I wonder if it is significant that Jacob says "my soul abhorreth sin" and Nephi asks to "shake at the appearance of sin?" I wonder if it's just two different ways of expressing the same sentiment, or if they really are in contrast with each other. It also makes me wonder at what level to you abhor sin? I abhor sin, I think. I'm clearly not on the same level as Jacob spiritually, but it just makes me wonder, I think sin makes me sick, but then again, maybe it doesn't all the time. Maybe I really need to look into myself and see if I have a secret stash in there.
9:50-51 - The IM talks about the concept of "without money and without price" as meaning that God desires salvation for all of us, Elder Bruce R. McConkie says "Salvation is available to all men, not just a select few. Eternal life if not reserved for apostles and prophets, for the saints in Enoch's day, or for martyrs of the Christian Dispensation. 'All mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws of ordinances of the Gospel.' (Third article of faith.) God is no respecter of persons; 'he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him." It would seem that through out most of time satan has convinced many that only the rich could have salvation. With the discrepancy between rich and poor, it would seem that the thing that has the most eternal worth and be most precious above all would be excessively expensive, so only those with money could have access to it. And also the imagery of "waters," "wine," and "milk" implies expensiveness and luxury, and then when the Lord says "come and get it for free" it almost seems counterintuitive. It's all part of satan's ploy to make us think that surely we are not good enough for the kingdom of God. As the metaphor with food continues, he says "feast upon that which perisheth not... and let your soul delight in fatness." Implying that God has that which can fill one's soul and never run out, the human fear of starving or simply running out of food or money to buy food can be overwhelming but the Lord says "I have plenty and just come to me and you can eat forever." Very comforting but also a constant reminder that we are on an eternal path and even though this life can be all we focus on most of the time, there is a lot more going on in the story than just our lives here.
9:52-54 - Gratitude is a major theme of verse 52, "pray until him continually by day, and give thanks unto this holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice." This is kind of a switch from his "really? Serious?" statement a few verses ago. Kind of like a motivational speaker, Jacob might be conveying the "come on you can do better than this, God is great and deeply desires your salvation, pray all day and be grateful at night, and be happy." It's interesting that perhaps he's laying out a couple of steps to a Christ-like life, the steps of constant prayer, gratitude, and a good attitude. Verse 53 expands on the theme that "God is great" he makes amazing covenants with us, and is good and powerful and merciful." Then says "come back tomorrow and I will tell you the rest." It will be interesting to see what he has to say tomorrow.
9:46 - One thing I love about Jacob is his bluntness in speech. In his book, he uses this, but here is our first taste of his "if you guys weren't being naughty I wouldn't have to talk to you like this." Definitely a different teaching style than his brother, but like I said, I love Jacob. I guess in that way, he kind of reminds me of myself, it's funny because in verse 46 after he says "let's be righteous so that we can look forward to judgement day" he continues, in my own words of course "otherwise you will be forced to say: God, you are right, I know I was an idiot and did stupid things, and now I belong to the devil." It was just funny to me because it sounds like, I don't know, sometimes to prove a point I will go over the top dramatic or obvious, and it's usually taken in a humorous way though the point still comes across and it kind of sounds to me like that's what he's doing here. I might be wrong, but I like it anyway. An interesting point in verse 46 is that he says to repent "that ye may not remember your awful guilt in perfectness." This almost makes it sound like, on the day of judgement it won't be the Lord making a tally of our deeds, good and bad. I always had envisioned the day of judgement to be me cowering away from the Lord as he reminded me of all the terrible things that I had done, even the ones that I had forgotten about, and saying basically "sorry, looks like you did more bad things than good things so off you go to hell." And now that I know a little bit more about God and who He is that doesn't make sense, because he wants us to succeed, this verse describes a God that is more inline with who I've come to know and love, and also in line with the teaching from God that "their iniquities will I remember no more." Now I read somewhere that it's not possible for God to passively forget something, but it is possible that he can actively NOT remember something. Like when my son is trying to tell me some super surprise and his sister wants to have all the attention and so she screams out what he was going to say and he starts crying and I tell him, "no dude, you tell me, I didn't hear what she said." Did I actually hear what she said, of course, who couldn't, she was screaming, but did I listen to what she said? No because I wanted to hear it from him. It's probably the same principle for God, he knows what we did, but he's going to let it go because he forgives us when we repent. But verse 46 sounds like we are condemning ourselves. "I know my guilt, I transgressed thy law, and my transgressions are mine; and the devil hath obtained me." No where in there is God saying "you did this now go to hell" we are the ones saying "I did this so I must go to hell." It's really interesting, it's not so much God keeping a tally, but us keeping our own.
9:47-48 - This is where Jacob really shines in his unique teaching style of bluntness, in my own words of course. "Do I really have to tell you the awful reality of these things? Would I really make you feel bad about this stuff if you were pure? Would I have to be blunt and in your face with the truth if you were freed from sin? Look, if you were righteous, we could talk about righteousness, but you are not righteous so as your teacher I must teach you the consequences of sin." It's like Jacob realizes that they should be operating at a higher level and is irritated beyond measure that they are wallowing in sin, and as a reminder, this is written for us as well so he's probably irritated that we are wallowing as well. I just love his "seriously? Do we really need to have this discussion?" attitude.
9:49 - In a 2 Nephi 4:31 Nephi laments his wretched nature and asks God to "make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin?" I'm sure that at this point Jacob and Nephi are both very righteous, and that they're both on equal footing, so I wonder if it is significant that Jacob says "my soul abhorreth sin" and Nephi asks to "shake at the appearance of sin?" I wonder if it's just two different ways of expressing the same sentiment, or if they really are in contrast with each other. It also makes me wonder at what level to you abhor sin? I abhor sin, I think. I'm clearly not on the same level as Jacob spiritually, but it just makes me wonder, I think sin makes me sick, but then again, maybe it doesn't all the time. Maybe I really need to look into myself and see if I have a secret stash in there.
9:50-51 - The IM talks about the concept of "without money and without price" as meaning that God desires salvation for all of us, Elder Bruce R. McConkie says "Salvation is available to all men, not just a select few. Eternal life if not reserved for apostles and prophets, for the saints in Enoch's day, or for martyrs of the Christian Dispensation. 'All mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws of ordinances of the Gospel.' (Third article of faith.) God is no respecter of persons; 'he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him." It would seem that through out most of time satan has convinced many that only the rich could have salvation. With the discrepancy between rich and poor, it would seem that the thing that has the most eternal worth and be most precious above all would be excessively expensive, so only those with money could have access to it. And also the imagery of "waters," "wine," and "milk" implies expensiveness and luxury, and then when the Lord says "come and get it for free" it almost seems counterintuitive. It's all part of satan's ploy to make us think that surely we are not good enough for the kingdom of God. As the metaphor with food continues, he says "feast upon that which perisheth not... and let your soul delight in fatness." Implying that God has that which can fill one's soul and never run out, the human fear of starving or simply running out of food or money to buy food can be overwhelming but the Lord says "I have plenty and just come to me and you can eat forever." Very comforting but also a constant reminder that we are on an eternal path and even though this life can be all we focus on most of the time, there is a lot more going on in the story than just our lives here.
9:52-54 - Gratitude is a major theme of verse 52, "pray until him continually by day, and give thanks unto this holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice." This is kind of a switch from his "really? Serious?" statement a few verses ago. Kind of like a motivational speaker, Jacob might be conveying the "come on you can do better than this, God is great and deeply desires your salvation, pray all day and be grateful at night, and be happy." It's interesting that perhaps he's laying out a couple of steps to a Christ-like life, the steps of constant prayer, gratitude, and a good attitude. Verse 53 expands on the theme that "God is great" he makes amazing covenants with us, and is good and powerful and merciful." Then says "come back tomorrow and I will tell you the rest." It will be interesting to see what he has to say tomorrow.
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