Jacob 5
This is an exceptionally long chapter, 77 verses in all, and I was thinking about breaking it down like I usually do, but I feel that this time around it's going to be best to just discuss this whole chapter as one episode, in the spirit as taught by the IM "al allegory or parable should not be stretched too far in an attempt to correlate every item precisely with some symbolic meaning." Reading the IM teaching on this chapter is quite in depth and that shouldn't surprise me, as the chapter is very long, and there are two distinct facets, the actual history, scattering, and gathering of Israel and then the spiritual over reach, and while the historical aspect is very interesting, I'm going to focus on the overall spiritual teachings, because getting into the details of the historical aspect right now is going to be a little bit too much for me. It's very interesting, very Hebrew in nature, the vineyard, the olive tree, the Master, the servant, etc. I know that I've found it interesting before, but this time on a much deeper level.
The first lesson in this chapter is the need of an atonement and God's immense love for his children. This is taught by the IM and was a total shock to me. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is quoted saying "in spite of cuttings and graftings and nourishing that mix and ingle trees in virtually all parts of the vineyard, it is bringing them back to their source that is the principal theme of this allegory. Returning, repenting, reuniting -at-one-ment- this is the message throughout... One student of the allegory says it should take its place beside the parable of the prodigal son, inasmuch as both stories 'make the Lord's mercy so movingly memorable." Throughout the story, the Lord of the vineyard goes many many times down into the vineyard and performs hard manual labor to try and save trees. Elder Holland continues "clearly this at-one-ment is hard, demanding, and at times, deeply painful work, as the work of redemption always is. There is digging and dunging. There is watering and nourishing and pruning. And there is always the endless approaches to grafting - all to one saving end, that the trees of the vineyard would 'thrive exceedingly' and become 'one body.'" What's interesting to me here is that the Lord of the vineyard is rich, he doesn't need the fruit of the trees to survive, so his concern for the vineyard is completely philanthropic, is doesn't make or break his livelihood at all, one way or the other. His grief over losing the trees and his all out work to make them successful is totally for their own benefit. Applying it to us as the house of Israel, God is already God, he already has everything, I'm sure that he doesn't get an extra hand stamp for every soul that he saves, this is the way that true love can be measured, how committed the other person is even when they stand to gain nothing from your success. God loves us and deeply desires our success, not because it makes him look awesome, but because he wants us to be happy just like he is. This is newish to me, most people, even most good people, won't engage you unless it benefits them in some way, and I'm no exception to that rule either. There are many people who I truly desire to be successful, and some special ones I will even help them to achieve that, but our time and energy and resources as human beings is so limited that it's not possible for us to love and serve on the scale that God does.
Which brings us to another point in the story, that of servant leadership. The Lord of the vineyard went down among the trees to do the work himself along with his servants. He didn't just tell them to go and let him know when they were done. How would that have looked if he were to do that? Like the vineyard wasn't that important, but he demonstrated his vast, immense love and devotion to the vineyard by going in himself to help and lead the work. This is similar to when Jesus washed the feet of the apostles, he was the greatest among them yet served them in a very personal way, in Matthew 23:11 "but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." If Christ, the greatest of all served tirelessly, if the Lord of the vineyard was so devoted that he himself went into the field to get dirty, then clearly we, as sinners and debtors, can tirelessly serve each other.
Next, this story illustrates that God is no respecter of persons. The original tree, or the house of Israel, is scattered throughout the vineyard, or throughout the world, the IM teaches "Zenos's allegory helps us understand that the scattering of Israel all over the world was a blessing to Israel and to the rest of Heavenly Father's children." I've never been able to connect the dots between Israel being God's chosen people and God's love for everyone. God chose Israel, so does that mean that those who are scattered from Israel are more likely to believe the gospel. Was that a foreordination thing? I guess that would make sense seeing if the descendants of Israel were hand picked in the preexistence and/or given special spiritual gifts that would allow them to recognize the truth more readily. Their job is to serve and take the gospel to others, who then become the house of Israel and it becomes their responsibility to take the gospel forward. But does that mean that God loves everyone else any more or less? Of course not. President James E. Faust teaches "the scattering throughout the world sprinkled the blood that believes, so that many nations may now partake of the gospel plan." Another aspect of the story that demonstrated this principle was when the Lord of the vineyard grafted in the healthy natural branches of the original tree into different spots of the vineyard. Several were put in good, healthy soil, some even the best soil there was, and he tended and cared for them. But he also chose to put a graft into the worst soil that he had, and it still managed to bring forth good fruit. To me, this is a demonstration that all people are important no matter where they come from. Those who are given choice lands and opportunities are no better or are not guaranteed any more success that those who are given harder circumstances. There are many stories of people who thrived in the gospel despite their almost impossible obstacles to overcome. One example came from this weekend's general conference, from the Saturday morning session from Elder Ulisses Soares, who talked about an African man who wasn't allowed to attend church inside the building, so for years, he listened through an open window, and there he learned and loved the gospel. What an amazing example of a man who was truly planted in the worst soil there was in the vineyard, given so many almost insurmountable hurdles, but yet thrived. This is where we must learn to recognize that God loves all his children and those of us who are blessed with much have much responsibility.
But when all went awry with the trees the Lord of the vineyard is not fooled when the original tree that he loved so much became evil, he recognized it and for the sake of the tree, he cared for it in a manner that sought to preserve it. Likewise in our own lives, the Lord is not fooled when we become corrupted, even as an overall healthy tree he is constantly pruning us, giving us more soil, digging, dunging, and sometimes, transplanting us to facilitate our growth, both in new directions and redirection. In this manner the Lord is able to develop "a deep spiritual root system" within us. President Spencer W. Kimball explained why it is important to develop this attribute by discussing verses 47-48 "the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves." This is a very obscure verse to me, big heavy branches on a tree with little tiny roots, kind of like a palm tree with it's big coconuts and palm leaves, but with the little bity worm like roots, beautiful, but unstable. President Kimball continues, "it seems that some (Latter-Day Saints) among us have this same problem; they want bountiful harvests - both spiritual and temporal - without developing the root system that will yield them. There are far too few who are willing to pay the price, in discipline and work, to cultivate hardy roots." He goes onto discuss his own upbringing as a farm boy doing chores as a way for his parents to help him begin to cultivate his own deep roots. This was very powerful to me, this has been a difficult concept for me to deal with, as I've felt quite overwhelmed lately. I wonder what it means to have deep spiritual roots, to support the branches. It seems in this explanation, the branches are blessings or "the desired fruits of our welfare labors." So we need a strong spiritual grounding in order to support bountiful blessings? Hmmm... makes sense. If we are given "fruits" without any commandment or perspective, it would be easy for us to make poor choices, let the "fruits" corrupt us or change our attitudes. I heard something a couple of months ago, I think my personal trainer posted it, it was something to the effect that you have to earn what you get because of who it will make you in the process. It was a lot smoother than that, but that's the general idea. And it seems like that is in line with this teaching here, we must be grounded and settled into gospel truths and embrace them with 100% full commitment before we can handle the load of many blessings, otherwise, instead of them actually being blessings, they will become burdens that will overwhelm and crush us spiritually. Wow, that was quite deep, and just the lesson that I needed to hear. My blessings are there, I'm just building strong spiritual roots first, so that I can fully enjoy them when they get here. That is quite profound.
The first lesson in this chapter is the need of an atonement and God's immense love for his children. This is taught by the IM and was a total shock to me. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is quoted saying "in spite of cuttings and graftings and nourishing that mix and ingle trees in virtually all parts of the vineyard, it is bringing them back to their source that is the principal theme of this allegory. Returning, repenting, reuniting -at-one-ment- this is the message throughout... One student of the allegory says it should take its place beside the parable of the prodigal son, inasmuch as both stories 'make the Lord's mercy so movingly memorable." Throughout the story, the Lord of the vineyard goes many many times down into the vineyard and performs hard manual labor to try and save trees. Elder Holland continues "clearly this at-one-ment is hard, demanding, and at times, deeply painful work, as the work of redemption always is. There is digging and dunging. There is watering and nourishing and pruning. And there is always the endless approaches to grafting - all to one saving end, that the trees of the vineyard would 'thrive exceedingly' and become 'one body.'" What's interesting to me here is that the Lord of the vineyard is rich, he doesn't need the fruit of the trees to survive, so his concern for the vineyard is completely philanthropic, is doesn't make or break his livelihood at all, one way or the other. His grief over losing the trees and his all out work to make them successful is totally for their own benefit. Applying it to us as the house of Israel, God is already God, he already has everything, I'm sure that he doesn't get an extra hand stamp for every soul that he saves, this is the way that true love can be measured, how committed the other person is even when they stand to gain nothing from your success. God loves us and deeply desires our success, not because it makes him look awesome, but because he wants us to be happy just like he is. This is newish to me, most people, even most good people, won't engage you unless it benefits them in some way, and I'm no exception to that rule either. There are many people who I truly desire to be successful, and some special ones I will even help them to achieve that, but our time and energy and resources as human beings is so limited that it's not possible for us to love and serve on the scale that God does.
Which brings us to another point in the story, that of servant leadership. The Lord of the vineyard went down among the trees to do the work himself along with his servants. He didn't just tell them to go and let him know when they were done. How would that have looked if he were to do that? Like the vineyard wasn't that important, but he demonstrated his vast, immense love and devotion to the vineyard by going in himself to help and lead the work. This is similar to when Jesus washed the feet of the apostles, he was the greatest among them yet served them in a very personal way, in Matthew 23:11 "but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." If Christ, the greatest of all served tirelessly, if the Lord of the vineyard was so devoted that he himself went into the field to get dirty, then clearly we, as sinners and debtors, can tirelessly serve each other.
Next, this story illustrates that God is no respecter of persons. The original tree, or the house of Israel, is scattered throughout the vineyard, or throughout the world, the IM teaches "Zenos's allegory helps us understand that the scattering of Israel all over the world was a blessing to Israel and to the rest of Heavenly Father's children." I've never been able to connect the dots between Israel being God's chosen people and God's love for everyone. God chose Israel, so does that mean that those who are scattered from Israel are more likely to believe the gospel. Was that a foreordination thing? I guess that would make sense seeing if the descendants of Israel were hand picked in the preexistence and/or given special spiritual gifts that would allow them to recognize the truth more readily. Their job is to serve and take the gospel to others, who then become the house of Israel and it becomes their responsibility to take the gospel forward. But does that mean that God loves everyone else any more or less? Of course not. President James E. Faust teaches "the scattering throughout the world sprinkled the blood that believes, so that many nations may now partake of the gospel plan." Another aspect of the story that demonstrated this principle was when the Lord of the vineyard grafted in the healthy natural branches of the original tree into different spots of the vineyard. Several were put in good, healthy soil, some even the best soil there was, and he tended and cared for them. But he also chose to put a graft into the worst soil that he had, and it still managed to bring forth good fruit. To me, this is a demonstration that all people are important no matter where they come from. Those who are given choice lands and opportunities are no better or are not guaranteed any more success that those who are given harder circumstances. There are many stories of people who thrived in the gospel despite their almost impossible obstacles to overcome. One example came from this weekend's general conference, from the Saturday morning session from Elder Ulisses Soares, who talked about an African man who wasn't allowed to attend church inside the building, so for years, he listened through an open window, and there he learned and loved the gospel. What an amazing example of a man who was truly planted in the worst soil there was in the vineyard, given so many almost insurmountable hurdles, but yet thrived. This is where we must learn to recognize that God loves all his children and those of us who are blessed with much have much responsibility.
But when all went awry with the trees the Lord of the vineyard is not fooled when the original tree that he loved so much became evil, he recognized it and for the sake of the tree, he cared for it in a manner that sought to preserve it. Likewise in our own lives, the Lord is not fooled when we become corrupted, even as an overall healthy tree he is constantly pruning us, giving us more soil, digging, dunging, and sometimes, transplanting us to facilitate our growth, both in new directions and redirection. In this manner the Lord is able to develop "a deep spiritual root system" within us. President Spencer W. Kimball explained why it is important to develop this attribute by discussing verses 47-48 "the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves." This is a very obscure verse to me, big heavy branches on a tree with little tiny roots, kind of like a palm tree with it's big coconuts and palm leaves, but with the little bity worm like roots, beautiful, but unstable. President Kimball continues, "it seems that some (Latter-Day Saints) among us have this same problem; they want bountiful harvests - both spiritual and temporal - without developing the root system that will yield them. There are far too few who are willing to pay the price, in discipline and work, to cultivate hardy roots." He goes onto discuss his own upbringing as a farm boy doing chores as a way for his parents to help him begin to cultivate his own deep roots. This was very powerful to me, this has been a difficult concept for me to deal with, as I've felt quite overwhelmed lately. I wonder what it means to have deep spiritual roots, to support the branches. It seems in this explanation, the branches are blessings or "the desired fruits of our welfare labors." So we need a strong spiritual grounding in order to support bountiful blessings? Hmmm... makes sense. If we are given "fruits" without any commandment or perspective, it would be easy for us to make poor choices, let the "fruits" corrupt us or change our attitudes. I heard something a couple of months ago, I think my personal trainer posted it, it was something to the effect that you have to earn what you get because of who it will make you in the process. It was a lot smoother than that, but that's the general idea. And it seems like that is in line with this teaching here, we must be grounded and settled into gospel truths and embrace them with 100% full commitment before we can handle the load of many blessings, otherwise, instead of them actually being blessings, they will become burdens that will overwhelm and crush us spiritually. Wow, that was quite deep, and just the lesson that I needed to hear. My blessings are there, I'm just building strong spiritual roots first, so that I can fully enjoy them when they get here. That is quite profound.
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