Jacob 1:1-10
I love Jacob, he is one of my absolute favorite Book of Mormon writers. The IM puts into wonderful words, why I feel that he is so unique and special, quoting Elder Jeffery R. Holland, “No prophet in the Book of Mormon, by temperament or personal testimony, seems to have gone about that work of persuasion any more faithfully than did Jacob. He scorned the praise of the world, he taught straight, solid, even painful doctrine, and he knew the Lord personally. His is a classic Book of Mormon example of a young man’s suffering the cross and bear the shame of the world in defense of the name of Christ. Life, including those difficult early years when he say the wickedness of Laman and Lemuel bring his father and mother down to their graves in grief, was never easy for this firstborn in the wilderness.” I love that he said “he knew the Lord personally.” What does it mean to know the Lord personally? Nephi had an interesting transition from boy to prophet, being called of the Lord because of his righteousness, and deeply desiring the righteousness of his family, but he always had his motives questioned by L&L, and that must have been very difficult to deal with. I want to know the Lord personally, I mean, I know that Jacob saw Jesus, and I am clearly not there yet, but he KNEW God, I’m going to have to think about this and maybe look up some conference talks on it or something. As far as “a young man’s suffering the cross and bear the shame of the world…” He was the first born in the wilderness, so he didn’t know Jerusalem, he didn’t know what it’s like to be rich or prestigious, or have social status. Honestly, him and Joseph were probably the lowest on the totem pole. All his nieces and nephews had young parent and grandparents to care for them, lots of cousins, but Jacob and Joseph (J&J) had old parents, who were probably tired and had so much other drama to deal with, and they were probably at an in between age, younger than their siblings, but older than their nieces and nephews. I could imagine it being a lonely existence for them. Then to watch half of the family seek the destruction of the others would be difficult, and then at some point, J&J had to choose sides. They had the counsel and teachings of their father, and the encouragement and protection of Nephi, but the probably had L&L in their ear a lot of the time as well, it was probably like literally having the devil at your side the whole time. J&J eventually would have had to “make a stand” as it were, and choose a side for themselves. And after they chose the side of righteousness, I’m confident that they endured the ridicule and shame from those who chose the other side. He fled for his life, while half of his family tried to kill him. I love Jacob.
1:1-6 - An interesting thing about the way Jacob writes in this chapter is his use of the words “we” “us” and “our.” He was probably like 20 year younger than Nephi, so he was probably mentored personally by Nephi, and after they broke off, surrounded by righteous men, he probably ascended to the leadership roles quickly. What else is interesting to me is that Nephi chose Jacob to take the plates instead of one of his own sons. I think that that speaks to Nephi’s true desire to further the work and his own disinterest in “family legacy” or “birthright” or whatever. In verse 5 Jacob states why the spiritual recordings were so important, “for because of faith and great anxiety, it truly had been made manifest unto us concerning our people, what things should happen unto them.” I wonder if here he is referring to the final destruction of the Nephites almost 1000 years later, or if he had been shown the horror and war and enslavement that would befall the Nephites so many times before then because of their wickedness. It must be because of the natural man’s tendency to gravitate back to the primitive state of doing whatever we want and ignoring the commandments of God, because we can’t just say it’s the Nephites or the Lamanites or the Jews, etc. who have shown righteousness, but then fall away because of pride. Being chastened by the Lord through suffering is a regular human occurrence, regardless of race, ethnicity, culture, etc. The deep rooted desire to just do whatever we want, our ability to so readily believe satan whenever he tells us we can, without consequence. In the IM introduction to Jacob 1-4, it says “Because of pride and exceeding wealth, the Nephites during the time of Jacob succumbed to many sins, particularly the sin of immorality.” So easy we are to believe satan’s lies, so easy. This must have been difficult for Jacob, assuming the role of prophet after Nephi died, especially considering at this point, they are still a small community, they are all cousins, brothers and sisters, children, grandparents, etc. They know each other very well, so by the time that Jacob takes control, it would be like watching your siblings and close family collapse into a heap of selfishness. This is where “feeling the weight of his prophetic calling, Jacob denounced these evil practices and boldly called the people to repentance.” And remember, this sin of immorality is amongst his own immediately family. But the IM reminds us that Jacob, after denouncing these evil practices immediately turns their attention to the atonement. In verse 6, he says that he “also had many revelations, and the spirit of much prophecy; wherefore, we knew of Christ and his kingdom, which should come.” He, like Nephi and Jesus himself, learned at the hand of God, line upon line until he knew, intimately, “Christ and his kingdom, which should come.”
1:7-8 - The IM quotes Elder Holland again as teaching “Jacob seems to have been particularly committed to presenting the doctrine of Christ. Given the amount of space he gave to his witness of the Savior’s atonement, Jacob clearly considered this basic doctrine the most sacred of teachings and the greatest of revelations.” Jacob fully embraces his role as prophet, though not in an exciting "look at me, I'm the prophet," kind of way, in more of a "wherefore, I, Jacob, take it upon me to fulfill the commandment of my brother Nephi." The other day we talked about how Nephi loved everyone, and how did he get to that point, well it seems that Jacob is right there as far as his love of God's children as well, in verse 7 he "labored diligently... that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest." Only someone who has had the the great change of heart can watch his own family members degenerate into a pile of immoral mess and STILL deeply desire their happiness through the atonement. But like always, there's the carrot and the stick. He continues "lest by any means he should swear in his wrath they should not enter in, as in the provocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness." I have no idea that this means, obviously he's saying that they does not want them to provoke God to anger, because God is patient and slow to anger, so you know if he gets there it's bad and the consequences will probably be generational. But what event is Jacob referring to with the "temptation..." I'm going to have to look into that. Interestingly in verse 8, Jacob pleads with his people to not "rebel" against God, which I think is an interesting way to phrase this point here. Usually it's conveyed in the "keep the commandments" or "harken unto the words of the Lord" or something like that, I guess it's kind of hard to explain, but those other ways, infer that you need to stop what you're doing and actively change your lifestyle, "harked" to me means "listen up and obey" and "keep" means do what you're told. But "don't rebel" to me means "hey just chill out and don't get crazy", it infers that the status quo is righteousness and there's just a little bit of wobbling into the side of wickedness, so he wants them to just keep on the strait and narrow, where as the other phrases are more calls to repentance from a wicked state, if that makes sense. He asks his people to not rebel "but believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world," to take on the full mantle of Christ, to experience the mighty change of heart as he did. I wonder in what ways we can "suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world" in everyday life. Yes, of course, there are the grand gestures, the martyrs, but most of us won't be asked to die for Jesus, we will be asked to live for him. Is this sentence the reference Elder Holland made to Jacob's character "he scorned the praise of the world?" That would make sense. "Bear the shame of the world" instead of "embracing the praise of the world," yeah I can make that connection.
1:9-10 - Nephi is difficult for me to read, but I think that these two verses speak volumes of Nephi's life. He recognizes his own limited mortality, appoints another man to be king, even while he's still alive, and the people loved Nephi very much. It takes a lot for a people to love their king, many times they fear him exceedingly, but for a whole people to love their king, is unusual, it takes lots of love, and untiring service. "He having been a great protector for them, having wielded the sword of Laban in their defence," this is sad to me because if he's protecting his own extended family, then it also means that he's defending them against the rest of his family. This verse just illustrates to me that it didn't take long for death and violence to take hold of the heart of the children of L&L. But it almost makes it seem like he might have been their sole protector, or their "general," and of course because I'm totally military, I love stuff like that. This is kind of like Nephi's eulogy, "having labored in all his days for their welfare," constant, unending service of others, that's what made the people love him. Very inspiring.
1:1-6 - An interesting thing about the way Jacob writes in this chapter is his use of the words “we” “us” and “our.” He was probably like 20 year younger than Nephi, so he was probably mentored personally by Nephi, and after they broke off, surrounded by righteous men, he probably ascended to the leadership roles quickly. What else is interesting to me is that Nephi chose Jacob to take the plates instead of one of his own sons. I think that that speaks to Nephi’s true desire to further the work and his own disinterest in “family legacy” or “birthright” or whatever. In verse 5 Jacob states why the spiritual recordings were so important, “for because of faith and great anxiety, it truly had been made manifest unto us concerning our people, what things should happen unto them.” I wonder if here he is referring to the final destruction of the Nephites almost 1000 years later, or if he had been shown the horror and war and enslavement that would befall the Nephites so many times before then because of their wickedness. It must be because of the natural man’s tendency to gravitate back to the primitive state of doing whatever we want and ignoring the commandments of God, because we can’t just say it’s the Nephites or the Lamanites or the Jews, etc. who have shown righteousness, but then fall away because of pride. Being chastened by the Lord through suffering is a regular human occurrence, regardless of race, ethnicity, culture, etc. The deep rooted desire to just do whatever we want, our ability to so readily believe satan whenever he tells us we can, without consequence. In the IM introduction to Jacob 1-4, it says “Because of pride and exceeding wealth, the Nephites during the time of Jacob succumbed to many sins, particularly the sin of immorality.” So easy we are to believe satan’s lies, so easy. This must have been difficult for Jacob, assuming the role of prophet after Nephi died, especially considering at this point, they are still a small community, they are all cousins, brothers and sisters, children, grandparents, etc. They know each other very well, so by the time that Jacob takes control, it would be like watching your siblings and close family collapse into a heap of selfishness. This is where “feeling the weight of his prophetic calling, Jacob denounced these evil practices and boldly called the people to repentance.” And remember, this sin of immorality is amongst his own immediately family. But the IM reminds us that Jacob, after denouncing these evil practices immediately turns their attention to the atonement. In verse 6, he says that he “also had many revelations, and the spirit of much prophecy; wherefore, we knew of Christ and his kingdom, which should come.” He, like Nephi and Jesus himself, learned at the hand of God, line upon line until he knew, intimately, “Christ and his kingdom, which should come.”
1:7-8 - The IM quotes Elder Holland again as teaching “Jacob seems to have been particularly committed to presenting the doctrine of Christ. Given the amount of space he gave to his witness of the Savior’s atonement, Jacob clearly considered this basic doctrine the most sacred of teachings and the greatest of revelations.” Jacob fully embraces his role as prophet, though not in an exciting "look at me, I'm the prophet," kind of way, in more of a "wherefore, I, Jacob, take it upon me to fulfill the commandment of my brother Nephi." The other day we talked about how Nephi loved everyone, and how did he get to that point, well it seems that Jacob is right there as far as his love of God's children as well, in verse 7 he "labored diligently... that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest." Only someone who has had the the great change of heart can watch his own family members degenerate into a pile of immoral mess and STILL deeply desire their happiness through the atonement. But like always, there's the carrot and the stick. He continues "lest by any means he should swear in his wrath they should not enter in, as in the provocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness." I have no idea that this means, obviously he's saying that they does not want them to provoke God to anger, because God is patient and slow to anger, so you know if he gets there it's bad and the consequences will probably be generational. But what event is Jacob referring to with the "temptation..." I'm going to have to look into that. Interestingly in verse 8, Jacob pleads with his people to not "rebel" against God, which I think is an interesting way to phrase this point here. Usually it's conveyed in the "keep the commandments" or "harken unto the words of the Lord" or something like that, I guess it's kind of hard to explain, but those other ways, infer that you need to stop what you're doing and actively change your lifestyle, "harked" to me means "listen up and obey" and "keep" means do what you're told. But "don't rebel" to me means "hey just chill out and don't get crazy", it infers that the status quo is righteousness and there's just a little bit of wobbling into the side of wickedness, so he wants them to just keep on the strait and narrow, where as the other phrases are more calls to repentance from a wicked state, if that makes sense. He asks his people to not rebel "but believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world," to take on the full mantle of Christ, to experience the mighty change of heart as he did. I wonder in what ways we can "suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world" in everyday life. Yes, of course, there are the grand gestures, the martyrs, but most of us won't be asked to die for Jesus, we will be asked to live for him. Is this sentence the reference Elder Holland made to Jacob's character "he scorned the praise of the world?" That would make sense. "Bear the shame of the world" instead of "embracing the praise of the world," yeah I can make that connection.
1:9-10 - Nephi is difficult for me to read, but I think that these two verses speak volumes of Nephi's life. He recognizes his own limited mortality, appoints another man to be king, even while he's still alive, and the people loved Nephi very much. It takes a lot for a people to love their king, many times they fear him exceedingly, but for a whole people to love their king, is unusual, it takes lots of love, and untiring service. "He having been a great protector for them, having wielded the sword of Laban in their defence," this is sad to me because if he's protecting his own extended family, then it also means that he's defending them against the rest of his family. This verse just illustrates to me that it didn't take long for death and violence to take hold of the heart of the children of L&L. But it almost makes it seem like he might have been their sole protector, or their "general," and of course because I'm totally military, I love stuff like that. This is kind of like Nephi's eulogy, "having labored in all his days for their welfare," constant, unending service of others, that's what made the people love him. Very inspiring.
Comments
Post a Comment