Jacob 2:14-22
2:14-17 - In no uncertain terms Jacob makes it clear that the Lord "condemneth" those who "suppose that ye are better than they." He continues saying that the Almighty God can "with one glance of his eye he can smite you to the dust!" Here I believe that he is illustrating the power God has to punish those who "persist in these things" and that to the guilty "his judgements must speedily come unto you." And I absolutely see that he needs to do the stick more than the carrot right now, and making sure that the people know that not only is God not pleased with their attitudes, he has the power to instantly destroy them instantly and at will. But maybe another point that can be taken here is that the people are prideful over their riches, but if God has all power to destroy them at will, he also has all power to devastate them financially. And it's not just those who are disobedient, so I guess what I'm trying to say is Jacob demonstrates God's all powerful ability to make massive changes in a moment's notice, so if he could destroy them at will and change their situation at will, why would they for one second think that they are better than anyone else because they are wealthy at that moment. If the Lord gave them those riches, and the Lord is having the poor go with out for now, the Lord is in control, not them, I know amazing people who have great skills and who are spiritual giants and sometimes they are poor, and I know complete scumbags who are rich beyond reason. Like President Packer said from yesterday "wealth and prominence do not always come fro having earned them." When cross referencing verse 7, there came up from the manual Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, Chapter 21. In it they ask "who shall say that the rich, or those that possess many talents, have any better hope or prospect to inherit these blessings than the poor, or those who have but one talent? As I understand it, the man who works in the shop... and who lives according to the law of the Gospel, and is honest and faithful in his calling, that man is just as eligible to the receiving of these and all the blessings of the New and Everlasting Covenant as any other man; through his faithfulness he shall possess thrones, principalities and powers, his children becoming as numerous as the starts in the firmament or the sands on the sea shore. Who, I ask, has any greater prospect that this?" This is the true eternal perspective. He doesn't say anything about castles or cars or money, he talks only of exaltation, and I took his last question as "what reward is there that can be better than that?" I love how he said it. And really if the greatest reward in eternity is exaltation and rich and poor alike can attain it, independent of their social status and wealth, then what is there that separates us? Only our willingness to be arrogant. Earlier in the lesson he teaches "the gospel binds together the hearts of all its adherents, it makes no different, it knows no difference between the rich and the poor... Now let me ask the question, who (does) possess anything, who can really and truly call any of this world's goods his own? I do not presume to, I am merely a steward over a very little, and unto God I am held accountable for its use and disposition." So not only is the level of wealth we have governed by God, but what and how much gives us NO advantage for more potential for eternal blessings than anyone else, AND we are held accountable for our stewardship over the things that we have been given. So that changes the perspective a little bit from "look how awesome I am because I deserve this" to "oh wow, look what the Lord has entrusted me with, guess I need to be extra mindful of who might need my help."
2:18-19 - I've told this to myself many times, because I grew up poor and I've worked very hard my entire life, sometimes I can find myself a little bit money obsessed, and not like "oh I want to buy this fancy car or anything like that, but I want to be comfortable and I want to be able to provide things for my kids that would be cool. So whenever I get to a place where I might be taking it a little bit too far, I tell myself "seek ye first the kingdom of God." It's interesting that Jacob says that "if ye seek (riches) ye will seek them for the intent to do good." And I know that I've written about this before, but I would love to be set enough financially to be a foster mom, or to run an orphanage in Cambodia, or take clothes to the poor in Mexico, etc. That would be SO fulfilling for me. When I was younger and first learned the story about the people of Enoch, that they were so righteous they were taken away from the earth, and in the story they say "and there were no poor among them." And I thought "well of course they were righteous, they were all rich!" And it didn't occur to me later than in fact it was because they all loved and served each other, and were "free with (their) substance," that's why there were no poor, not because they had some unearthly obscene wealth that no one else has had before or since. Like I said, I was very poor growing up, and I remember one year we couldn't even buy food, there was no way that w were going to have a Christmas, and of course, the 5 of us kids had no problem letting people know that we were screwed this year, and guess what? We had people leave Christmas trees at our door anonymously, boxes and boxes of presents, we had never had a Christmas like that before. I remember how it felt to open those boxes and see all those toys, and know that it was because someone loved us and more importantly loved the Lord. I want to do that, and to a certain extent we do, but I think I'm going to make this one of our family mission statements now, because the time has come, my kids are old enough. The IM quotes a story about President Marion G. Romney as teaching "be liberal in your giving that you yourselves may grow. Don't give just for the benefit of the poor, but give for your own welfare. Give enough so that you can give yourself into the kingdom of God through consecrating of your means and your time." So really, it's not about the "riches" at all, it's about salvation, the wealth is simply a tool to use, just as creative talents are, or intellect, or optimism, all just tools for our own spiritual growth. We don't give because someone else needs it, we give because we need it.
2:20-22 - Jacob uses some pretty intense watch words here such as "afflicted" and "persecuted" and in any religion these are usually words used to describe the terrible treatment of believers by unbelievers. But here Jacob tells the proud among them that they are the persecutors, they are the afflicters. The IM teaches "pride is sometimes called the great sin of the spirit; it was Satan's sin in the premortal realm." I had never considered that before. I'm trying to think of how it went in the preexistence, Satan was no chosen to be the Savior, so his feelings were hurt, and instead of accepting and supporting Heavenly Father's plan, he licked his wounds and decided that he really did deserve to be the Savior. And the rest is history, but that's where it started, the unwillingness to be humble. And because he refused to humble himself before God, his thoughts and actions eventually escalated to the point of no return. Following that pattern, when we refuse to humble ourselves we also voluntarily grease up our own slippery slope to hell. Jacob again teaches them in another way that God is the provider of all material substance, by asking "ye were proud in your hearts, of the things which God hath given you, what say ye of it?" I love Jacob, I love his bluntness and just his general phraseology. Jacob also teaches that to God "one being is as precious in his sight as the other... and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever." God created us all for one reason, in this sense, to keep his commandments and glorify him. He didn't create us to be rich, he didn't create us to run wild and do whatever we want, he didn't create us to be workaholics or to be playaholics. He created us to be obedient to the commandments, and whatever our financial circumstances are only our set of tools to use to be obedient and to glorify God at that time. Because like I said yesterday most people people will be rich and then poor several times within their lifetime, so the vast majority of us have the opportunity to be obedient and humble in both circumstances. Then in verse 22, Jacob leads into the next topic. I like how he makes a complete topic switch and lets everyone know, he doesn't weave pride into immorality, but just says "ok guys, next topic" and I think that that makes a nice cut and dry move forward. Like Nephi would flow from one topic to the next and end up somewhere different, which I struggled with, but Jacob seems to definitely not be his brother in writing.
2:18-19 - I've told this to myself many times, because I grew up poor and I've worked very hard my entire life, sometimes I can find myself a little bit money obsessed, and not like "oh I want to buy this fancy car or anything like that, but I want to be comfortable and I want to be able to provide things for my kids that would be cool. So whenever I get to a place where I might be taking it a little bit too far, I tell myself "seek ye first the kingdom of God." It's interesting that Jacob says that "if ye seek (riches) ye will seek them for the intent to do good." And I know that I've written about this before, but I would love to be set enough financially to be a foster mom, or to run an orphanage in Cambodia, or take clothes to the poor in Mexico, etc. That would be SO fulfilling for me. When I was younger and first learned the story about the people of Enoch, that they were so righteous they were taken away from the earth, and in the story they say "and there were no poor among them." And I thought "well of course they were righteous, they were all rich!" And it didn't occur to me later than in fact it was because they all loved and served each other, and were "free with (their) substance," that's why there were no poor, not because they had some unearthly obscene wealth that no one else has had before or since. Like I said, I was very poor growing up, and I remember one year we couldn't even buy food, there was no way that w were going to have a Christmas, and of course, the 5 of us kids had no problem letting people know that we were screwed this year, and guess what? We had people leave Christmas trees at our door anonymously, boxes and boxes of presents, we had never had a Christmas like that before. I remember how it felt to open those boxes and see all those toys, and know that it was because someone loved us and more importantly loved the Lord. I want to do that, and to a certain extent we do, but I think I'm going to make this one of our family mission statements now, because the time has come, my kids are old enough. The IM quotes a story about President Marion G. Romney as teaching "be liberal in your giving that you yourselves may grow. Don't give just for the benefit of the poor, but give for your own welfare. Give enough so that you can give yourself into the kingdom of God through consecrating of your means and your time." So really, it's not about the "riches" at all, it's about salvation, the wealth is simply a tool to use, just as creative talents are, or intellect, or optimism, all just tools for our own spiritual growth. We don't give because someone else needs it, we give because we need it.
2:20-22 - Jacob uses some pretty intense watch words here such as "afflicted" and "persecuted" and in any religion these are usually words used to describe the terrible treatment of believers by unbelievers. But here Jacob tells the proud among them that they are the persecutors, they are the afflicters. The IM teaches "pride is sometimes called the great sin of the spirit; it was Satan's sin in the premortal realm." I had never considered that before. I'm trying to think of how it went in the preexistence, Satan was no chosen to be the Savior, so his feelings were hurt, and instead of accepting and supporting Heavenly Father's plan, he licked his wounds and decided that he really did deserve to be the Savior. And the rest is history, but that's where it started, the unwillingness to be humble. And because he refused to humble himself before God, his thoughts and actions eventually escalated to the point of no return. Following that pattern, when we refuse to humble ourselves we also voluntarily grease up our own slippery slope to hell. Jacob again teaches them in another way that God is the provider of all material substance, by asking "ye were proud in your hearts, of the things which God hath given you, what say ye of it?" I love Jacob, I love his bluntness and just his general phraseology. Jacob also teaches that to God "one being is as precious in his sight as the other... and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever." God created us all for one reason, in this sense, to keep his commandments and glorify him. He didn't create us to be rich, he didn't create us to run wild and do whatever we want, he didn't create us to be workaholics or to be playaholics. He created us to be obedient to the commandments, and whatever our financial circumstances are only our set of tools to use to be obedient and to glorify God at that time. Because like I said yesterday most people people will be rich and then poor several times within their lifetime, so the vast majority of us have the opportunity to be obedient and humble in both circumstances. Then in verse 22, Jacob leads into the next topic. I like how he makes a complete topic switch and lets everyone know, he doesn't weave pride into immorality, but just says "ok guys, next topic" and I think that that makes a nice cut and dry move forward. Like Nephi would flow from one topic to the next and end up somewhere different, which I struggled with, but Jacob seems to definitely not be his brother in writing.
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