Jacob 2:6-13
I was hoping to get more done tonight, but I've been busy, so that's a bummer.
2:6-7 - I wonder why Jacob is personally feels "shame" before God for having to "testify unto (the people) concerning the wickedness of (their) hearts." Maybe it goes back to his humility, maybe he feels personally responsible for the down fall of the people. He is most upset that "I must use so much boldness of speech concerning you, before your wives and your children." There's a good chance that most of the women did not know that their husbands desired to commit adultery in their hearts, and surely most children had no clue that their fathers had such wicked intentions. It's like the ultimate Maury reveal, deep dark secrets uncovered in front of everyone. I can understand how that would be a responsibility that would be grievous to be born. But one of my main reasons that I love this chapter is because of the following phrase, "many of whose feelings are exceedingly tender and chaste and delicate before God, which think is pleasing unto God." Not when I read this the first time, I was a bitter, angry teenager. My feelings were not tender and delicate before God, they were relatively chaste, I guess, for a 13 or 14 year old. But I had daddy issues and I desperately wanted a boyfriend who would love me, and I guess even as a grown woman, sometimes I go back into that, I just want to be loved, but I'm a little bit more picky about the men this time around. Anyway, I read that and thought "does this mean that I'm not pleasing unto God?" Yet one more man rejecting who I was. And please understand that I wasn't born a naturally terrible, mean bitter person, it sort of happened to me, that's what rough childhoods do, and it makes me sad, but I am who I am because of all that and more and I'm grateful for that. So let's play a game I play with my kids, satan or Jesus, which feelings are from God and which feelings are from satan? The tender, chaste, and delicate feelings talked about here, or the angry, bitter, skeptical feelings that I had? So if my hurt feelings came from satan, then it's not because I'm a bad person. I think when I read this in that state, I was jealous, because the opportunity to have those feelings that were "pleasing unto God" was taken from me, and I was bitterly jealous of those who had them, who didn't have to constantly protect themselves emotionally. I think this makes me sound like I have big daddy and self esteem and anger issues, but believe it or not, I don't anymore, those terrible beliefs have been buried for a while, and you know how? Through obedience to the commandments of God. I'm confident that I wrote a post on that before. The CI references a talk by Margaret D. Nadauld from the October 2000 general conference called "The Joy of Womanhood." What she said struck me "women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity." When I read this, I knew that the attribute desired here could not be achieved through feelings that were rough and tumble, that sought to protect themselves, feelings of desire for love at any cost, or the feelings of apathy that come through years of heartache. She also says "when you observe kind and gentle mothers in action, you see women of great strength. Their families can feel a spirit of love and respect and safety when they are near her as she seeks the companionship of the Holy Ghost and the guidance of His Spirit." The Spirit speaks softly, and hardened feelings or people who are "past feeling" can not basically, feel the promptings, feel the lessons. This is why hurt and hardened feelings is not pleasing to God, because it makes it very difficult, if not impossible for the Holy Ghost to speak and teach, and if we as women and mothers can't be receptive to the Spirit, then it's possible that generations can be lost. And that is pretty serious.
2:8-10 - Jacob is burdened even more by the fact that he believes that those who's feelings are so precious have come to be uplifted spiritually, and not only are they not going to be fed spiritually, but they are about to have a kick in the face when they learn what the true desires are in the hearts of their husbands. Even when you're pretty much expecting it, learning of your spouse's adultery is indescribably painful, but to be unaware and learn of it, is so so so terrible. As the prophet Jacob probably would have been a main source of comfort and facilitator of healing, and he recognizes that there must be those in his congregation who so desperately crave the healing balm of Gilead. But he not only can not give them comfort, he must "enlarge the wounds of those who are already wounded, instead of consoling and healing their wounds." It seems to me that he completely understands how devastating this would be and deeply desires to bring peace to those who are the innocent victims of other people's selfishness. So he basically says "instead of making them feel better, I'm only going to make it worse." It appears from this passage that there have been some who have taken the lust from thought to action and that there must have been several families "wounded" from the infidelity, and it also appears that Jacob understands that by bringing up this subject to the general public, there is going to be humiliation for those who have remained faithful, and for those who are working to move past the infidelity, this is going to pour salt in the wounds. And what's even worse than having many people dealing with this problem already is having many who don't even know that it's a problem within their own marriage and Jacob here gets to tell them. Realizing at a public meeting that your husband is, at a minimum, desiring to have an affair is earth shaking , for "those who have not been wounded, instead of feasting upon the pleasing work of God have daggers placed to pierce their souls and wound their delicate minds." But maybe I'm reading too much into this, maybe it's not that everyone is having affairs, because statistically that doesn't make sense, but maybe it's implying that those who are not aware of the situation yet, and who don't have this problem personally, will be devastated by the pain that it will cause those of their friends and family. Maybe Jacob is just saying that this is going to cause everyone pain either because they are the guilty, the victims, or the loved ones who will help pick up the pieces. It just occurred to me that I know that he's going to talk about adultery because I've read this before, but so far, I don't believe that he's given any suggestions that that will be his topic as of yet.
2:11-13 - Maybe Jacob has read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and starts off with the small matters. He says that the people have begun to search for riches, gold and silver, etc. But because "the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly... ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts." The IM teaches that "God does not condemn the wealthy for their riches. Instead, any condemnation comes from their pride or misuse of their abundance. Some of the people of Nephi chose riches rather than God as the center of their lives." President David O. McKay asks "what seek ye first? What do you cherish as the dominant, the uppermost thought in your mind?... You may win in this world almost anything for which you strive... Gold does not corrupt man; it is the motive of acquiring that gold that corruption occurs." It's all about motivation, why do we want to be rich? I believe we talked about this before, but I want to be rich so that I can stay home with my kids, or at least work less. Honestly I don't think that even if I had $100 million I would go out and buy a car that was ridiculous or a 15,000 sq. foot house. I might buy a nice house, a good sized one with some land and a horse, maybe by the beach somewhere nice, but that's about it. But I think President McKay's point here is that "you can achieve whatever you put your mind to, so choose wisely what you focus your mind on." President Boyd K. Pack also teaches in the IM "the choice of life is not between fame and obscurity, nor is the choice between wealth and poverty. THe choice is between good and evil... when we finally understand this lesson, thereafter our happiness will not be determined by material things. We may be happy without them or successful in spite of them. Wealth and prominence do not always come from having earned them. Our worth is not measured by renown of by what we own... our lives are made up of thousands of everyday choices. Over the years these little choices will be bundled together and show clearly what we value." This takes the focus off what we have and points it to who we are, which is infinitely more important. Take Job for instance, when he was rich, he made good choices, but when he was poor his choices, his attitude was crucial to moving forward spiritually. Mostly likely in all our lives there will be times of feast and times of famine, we will be rich sometimes and we will be poor sometimes, it's very important that we take President Packer's counsel to value choosing good over evil, to make our priority not the getting of wealth, but making right choices every single day. Jacob teaches we get our wealth by the "hand of providence" he doesn't say "because you worked hard and are better than everyone else," quite to the contrary, all blessings come from God. I'm very blessed financially, and I'm happy in my job. Is that because I'm awesome, not at all, in fact I don't deserve to be blessed by God at all, after all my rebellion, but he does anyway, and for what purpose, so that I can live comfortably and take care of my children, but also so that I can impart of my substance generously, so that I can pay a full tithe and generous fast offering, and so that I can learn to be wise with my resources. I've been very poor before and there's a good chance that I will be very poor again in this life, but none of that matters as long as I value choosing the right and keeping my covenants more than anything else.
2:6-7 - I wonder why Jacob is personally feels "shame" before God for having to "testify unto (the people) concerning the wickedness of (their) hearts." Maybe it goes back to his humility, maybe he feels personally responsible for the down fall of the people. He is most upset that "I must use so much boldness of speech concerning you, before your wives and your children." There's a good chance that most of the women did not know that their husbands desired to commit adultery in their hearts, and surely most children had no clue that their fathers had such wicked intentions. It's like the ultimate Maury reveal, deep dark secrets uncovered in front of everyone. I can understand how that would be a responsibility that would be grievous to be born. But one of my main reasons that I love this chapter is because of the following phrase, "many of whose feelings are exceedingly tender and chaste and delicate before God, which think is pleasing unto God." Not when I read this the first time, I was a bitter, angry teenager. My feelings were not tender and delicate before God, they were relatively chaste, I guess, for a 13 or 14 year old. But I had daddy issues and I desperately wanted a boyfriend who would love me, and I guess even as a grown woman, sometimes I go back into that, I just want to be loved, but I'm a little bit more picky about the men this time around. Anyway, I read that and thought "does this mean that I'm not pleasing unto God?" Yet one more man rejecting who I was. And please understand that I wasn't born a naturally terrible, mean bitter person, it sort of happened to me, that's what rough childhoods do, and it makes me sad, but I am who I am because of all that and more and I'm grateful for that. So let's play a game I play with my kids, satan or Jesus, which feelings are from God and which feelings are from satan? The tender, chaste, and delicate feelings talked about here, or the angry, bitter, skeptical feelings that I had? So if my hurt feelings came from satan, then it's not because I'm a bad person. I think when I read this in that state, I was jealous, because the opportunity to have those feelings that were "pleasing unto God" was taken from me, and I was bitterly jealous of those who had them, who didn't have to constantly protect themselves emotionally. I think this makes me sound like I have big daddy and self esteem and anger issues, but believe it or not, I don't anymore, those terrible beliefs have been buried for a while, and you know how? Through obedience to the commandments of God. I'm confident that I wrote a post on that before. The CI references a talk by Margaret D. Nadauld from the October 2000 general conference called "The Joy of Womanhood." What she said struck me "women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity." When I read this, I knew that the attribute desired here could not be achieved through feelings that were rough and tumble, that sought to protect themselves, feelings of desire for love at any cost, or the feelings of apathy that come through years of heartache. She also says "when you observe kind and gentle mothers in action, you see women of great strength. Their families can feel a spirit of love and respect and safety when they are near her as she seeks the companionship of the Holy Ghost and the guidance of His Spirit." The Spirit speaks softly, and hardened feelings or people who are "past feeling" can not basically, feel the promptings, feel the lessons. This is why hurt and hardened feelings is not pleasing to God, because it makes it very difficult, if not impossible for the Holy Ghost to speak and teach, and if we as women and mothers can't be receptive to the Spirit, then it's possible that generations can be lost. And that is pretty serious.
2:8-10 - Jacob is burdened even more by the fact that he believes that those who's feelings are so precious have come to be uplifted spiritually, and not only are they not going to be fed spiritually, but they are about to have a kick in the face when they learn what the true desires are in the hearts of their husbands. Even when you're pretty much expecting it, learning of your spouse's adultery is indescribably painful, but to be unaware and learn of it, is so so so terrible. As the prophet Jacob probably would have been a main source of comfort and facilitator of healing, and he recognizes that there must be those in his congregation who so desperately crave the healing balm of Gilead. But he not only can not give them comfort, he must "enlarge the wounds of those who are already wounded, instead of consoling and healing their wounds." It seems to me that he completely understands how devastating this would be and deeply desires to bring peace to those who are the innocent victims of other people's selfishness. So he basically says "instead of making them feel better, I'm only going to make it worse." It appears from this passage that there have been some who have taken the lust from thought to action and that there must have been several families "wounded" from the infidelity, and it also appears that Jacob understands that by bringing up this subject to the general public, there is going to be humiliation for those who have remained faithful, and for those who are working to move past the infidelity, this is going to pour salt in the wounds. And what's even worse than having many people dealing with this problem already is having many who don't even know that it's a problem within their own marriage and Jacob here gets to tell them. Realizing at a public meeting that your husband is, at a minimum, desiring to have an affair is earth shaking , for "those who have not been wounded, instead of feasting upon the pleasing work of God have daggers placed to pierce their souls and wound their delicate minds." But maybe I'm reading too much into this, maybe it's not that everyone is having affairs, because statistically that doesn't make sense, but maybe it's implying that those who are not aware of the situation yet, and who don't have this problem personally, will be devastated by the pain that it will cause those of their friends and family. Maybe Jacob is just saying that this is going to cause everyone pain either because they are the guilty, the victims, or the loved ones who will help pick up the pieces. It just occurred to me that I know that he's going to talk about adultery because I've read this before, but so far, I don't believe that he's given any suggestions that that will be his topic as of yet.
2:11-13 - Maybe Jacob has read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and starts off with the small matters. He says that the people have begun to search for riches, gold and silver, etc. But because "the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly... ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts." The IM teaches that "God does not condemn the wealthy for their riches. Instead, any condemnation comes from their pride or misuse of their abundance. Some of the people of Nephi chose riches rather than God as the center of their lives." President David O. McKay asks "what seek ye first? What do you cherish as the dominant, the uppermost thought in your mind?... You may win in this world almost anything for which you strive... Gold does not corrupt man; it is the motive of acquiring that gold that corruption occurs." It's all about motivation, why do we want to be rich? I believe we talked about this before, but I want to be rich so that I can stay home with my kids, or at least work less. Honestly I don't think that even if I had $100 million I would go out and buy a car that was ridiculous or a 15,000 sq. foot house. I might buy a nice house, a good sized one with some land and a horse, maybe by the beach somewhere nice, but that's about it. But I think President McKay's point here is that "you can achieve whatever you put your mind to, so choose wisely what you focus your mind on." President Boyd K. Pack also teaches in the IM "the choice of life is not between fame and obscurity, nor is the choice between wealth and poverty. THe choice is between good and evil... when we finally understand this lesson, thereafter our happiness will not be determined by material things. We may be happy without them or successful in spite of them. Wealth and prominence do not always come from having earned them. Our worth is not measured by renown of by what we own... our lives are made up of thousands of everyday choices. Over the years these little choices will be bundled together and show clearly what we value." This takes the focus off what we have and points it to who we are, which is infinitely more important. Take Job for instance, when he was rich, he made good choices, but when he was poor his choices, his attitude was crucial to moving forward spiritually. Mostly likely in all our lives there will be times of feast and times of famine, we will be rich sometimes and we will be poor sometimes, it's very important that we take President Packer's counsel to value choosing good over evil, to make our priority not the getting of wealth, but making right choices every single day. Jacob teaches we get our wealth by the "hand of providence" he doesn't say "because you worked hard and are better than everyone else," quite to the contrary, all blessings come from God. I'm very blessed financially, and I'm happy in my job. Is that because I'm awesome, not at all, in fact I don't deserve to be blessed by God at all, after all my rebellion, but he does anyway, and for what purpose, so that I can live comfortably and take care of my children, but also so that I can impart of my substance generously, so that I can pay a full tithe and generous fast offering, and so that I can learn to be wise with my resources. I've been very poor before and there's a good chance that I will be very poor again in this life, but none of that matters as long as I value choosing the right and keeping my covenants more than anything else.
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