Jacob 7
7:1-15 - Here is Jacob's encounter with the first anti Christ in the Book of Mormon. My first question when this comes up is "what does he gain by teaching that there is no Christ?" He would probably not be very popular in the beginning so it probably didn't start as a way to get famous, especially in this small community. I wonder if it started in the small simple way that we must be so careful with, I wonder if it started as a way for Sherem to justify himself in committing sin. He wanted to do something contrary to God's law, and the righteous part of him knew it was wrong, so he kept rationalizing until he not only silenced his conscience but then began rationalizing to all those around him. Especially in light of Jacob's teachings in chapter 6, I would imagine that Sherem was one of those who desired wives and concubines, and after Jacob's denunciation of that practice, Sherem tore apart God's teachings as a way to excuse himself. The Lord doesn't give us all the answers in this life, you can fault find and pick apart everything with our limited knowledge in this life and that's done on purpose, both to keep our mission simple so we won't be distracted and to enable us to act in faith. There is enough to convince those who will be convinced, but there's still enough to allow us the gift of faith, in stead of the gift of omniscience. And just as Lucifer did, he desired others to join him, and I would imagine it was because the more other people embraced his logic and teachings, the more it validated his own position and "quenched" the Spirit, as was taught yesterday. Like the prophets have taught, the road to hell is slippery, and once you start on that path, satan has more and more influence and ultimately, power over you. The more he rationalized, the more the devil told him he was right, and there were people who were all too eager to join his cause because they wanted to live a life without God's "restrictions" or as I like to call it God's "protection." His behaviors eventually escalated to the point where he was seeking out the prophet of God, Jacob himself, and if he could get Jacob shaken just a little bit, if he could make him stumble over his words just once, that's all that Sherem would need to validate his sinful lifestyle for the rest of his life. This would be the devil's ultimate victory. Jacob says that he would not be shaken in his faith because he had had many revelations, seen angels and been ministered to by them, and heard the voice of the Lord. What I find interesting though is the fact that he didn't mention that he had actually SEEN the Lord, which we know because Nephi told us, but here would be the perfect opportunity for Jacob to throw that in there but he doesn't, indicating to me that he deeply treasures that experience and it is truly sacred to him. Very very aggressive to go directly after the prophet. But I love that Jacob doesn't say "I confounded him" or that "I taught him" in fact, he's never said this, even when he was rebuking the people, it was all about "the word of the Lord is..." in verse 8 Jacob demonstrates his humility again when he says that "the Lord God poured in his Spirit unto my soul, insomuch that I did confound him in all his words." The Spirit is the one who confounded him, Jacob recognizes that he was simply the vessel for that, and maybe that is one of the key aspects of being a prophet, that level of humility. In their back and forth, Sherem shows that he has torn apart the teachings of God in order to excuse himself as he professes belief in basic principles such as the scriptures and the prophets, but when taken a step further, he has a totally warped "understanding" of them. These are the steps from humble believer to apostate and blasphemer. The IM quotes President Ezra Taft Benson on how to avoid being deceived, I'd imagine both when the devil himself is trying to convince you otherwise, or just when someone else is trying to do it, and I find this to be a very practical guide. "1. What do the standard works have to say about it?" In Sherem's case, he said that he believed the scriptures, but Jacob said that he didn't understand them, which I will give to Sherem because the scriptures can be difficult to understand at times. "2. What do the latter-day Presidents of the Church have to say on the subject?" Here's where Sherem loses, Jacob is clearly teaching to the contrary, so he should have stopped himself at this point. "3. The third and final test is the Holy Ghost - the test of the Spirit," at a minimum I'm confident that Sherem felt in his heart that he was wrong as he rationalized away all his guilt, but he didn't heed that counsel because as the IM continues "this test can only be fully effective is one's channels of communication with God are clean and virtuous and uncluttered with sin." Then the IM teaches that Sherem's desire for a sign came in the wrong order, Sherem desired a sign to believe, but the signs come AFTER one already believes. Elder Bruce R. McConkie teaches "signs flow from faith. They may incidentally have the effect of strengthening the faith of those who are already spiritually inclined, but their chief purpose is not to convert people to the truth, but to reward and bless those already converted." Sherem could have had a sign if he would have been faithful first. The IM gives an example of the Prophet Joseph Smith giving a sign to a Quaker in Philadelphia, who kept on insisting. "I told the congregation the man was an adulterer... and that the Lord had said to me in a revelation, that any man who wanted a sign was an adulterous person... the man afterwards confessed, when he was baptized." I wonder what it is about adultery specifically that seems to destroy a critical piece of one's spirituality. I guess it would seem that after all the examples of the downfalls of great people leading up to, during, and after committing adultery, it would seem that the spiritual consequences would support the teaching that adultery is a grievous sin and second only to the shedding of innocent blood. Interestingly enough in verse 15, Sherem is smitten of God and then "he was nourished for the space of many days." It would seem to me that it wasn't a physical nourishment, but more a spiritual nourishment, much like Alma the Younger, in his 3 day coma, except that apparently Sherem didn't receive the remission of his sins at that time like Alma did.
7:16-22 - So Sherem knows that he is going to die, this might have been revealed to him as he was being "nourished." I could imagine, as a man who devoted his life to destroying a people's belief in God, suddenly brought face to face with his own mortality, that there would be quite a bit of regret here. I'm also curious if Jacob was a little bit nervous letting this man speak to the people directly, wondering what he might say. I'm trying to think of someone who doesn't believe in God and who actively teaches against His existence, and I'm trying to think of the most spiritually knowledgable and convincing person that I know and I'm trying to imagine them being the same person. I feel like my love and commitment to God and the gospel is at a certain level because I have lived on the "other side," and I would imagine that it is the same here for Sherem. It doesn't say how long he was "teaching" the people for, probably for at least several years, I'm sure that in this small community, everyone knew him and had an opinion about him, and he probably had quite an impact for his boisterousness and selfishness. So when he was given his sign, not a wonderful one like I'm sure he was expecting, and then calls all the people together and tells them "I'm going to die tomorrow and I was wrong about everything" I'm sure that this was powerful beyond belief, because it's one thing to believe in something deeply, but to completely turn away from it abruptly, and to publicly announce your own idiocy, and predict your immediate demise, these are very unusual events, and with them being based in the battle of good and evil, it's easy to see how there could be a significant impact on the populous. I'm thinking of my own spiritual mentor, who I've known for probably 25 years, who has taught so many of my Sunday School classes when I was young, whom I've learned from extensively, and who has counseled me in many things wisely, and been very supportive of me when I made good choices. He, like me, has lived on the "other side" and I feel that it his teachings are quite powerful because he understands what it's like to be there. He has tasted the fruit of satan's trees and turned away, and this is like Sherem, but a little bit less dramatic. I wonder how many of us are like Sherem in our own little ways, I know that I am, if we look at it like that. I planted seeds poisonous to the gospel by my example when I was living my own life, and now I'm back. But I also think that being loyal to God and the gospel one's whole life is so admirable, I didn't do it, so I know what it's like to leave and then come back, but it's just recently that I've learned to just stay and be comforted the Lord's way. I've learned much and am grateful to those who have shared that part of their lives with me for my benefit. Jacob calls Sherem a "wicked" man, he worked to destroy the church of God, was shown a sign, then changed his ways, but there are many examples of this happening to others and they in turn became prophets, so I wonder if truly Sherem had committed the "unpardonable sin." I don't really understand what that is anyway, but it would seem to me that in his final teachings and in his death he turned and strengthened hearts and testimonies toward righteousness. And perhaps in the next life he has worked tirelessly teaching the gospel of Christ to those who have passed on. Nothing cements loyalty like a betrayal, I just think it would be interesting at the judgement day to get there and see how everything has shaken out.
7:23-25 - I love that at this time, after the people had been converted back to the Lord, they desired to go among the Lamanites, their distant cousins, and "reclaim and restore" them to the "knowledge of the truth." They knew that they were happier with the gospel and they wanted that for their brothers as well. I wonder if this was also motivated by the fact that they were lonely and probably desired more people and a more thriving industrious society, and they were probably tired of the constant threat of violence, even though through their faith in God, the Nephites were "conquerors of their enemies," it is still quite an awful feeling and way of life. And I thought that it was interesting that Jacob says that "many means were devised to reclaim" them, so it wasn't just a single time, one single effort, one set of missionaries that they sent out to get this done. To me, this indicates that it was a generational endeavor, one that was probably rooted in deep love and desire for righteousness.
7:26-27 - It is odd to me that Jacob describes the existence of his people at that time "as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanders, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethern, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn our days." I suppose that this takes us back to the idea that there probably weren't many people in the Nephite tribe at this point, being only one generation removed from the departure of Jerusalem, which is interesting to me that Jacob references being cast out of Jerusalem, because he never lived there, and really, he had to take his brother's word that they lived there and what it was like and the status of his family there. The only knowledge of Jerusalem us what Nephi would have told him. When Jacob rebuked the male Nephites for desiring multiple wives and concubines, it would have been a very intimate setting, probably where Jacob knew each individual person in his congregation personally, very closely related. So it is here as a "lonesome and a solemn people." "Wanderers" probably indicates that they haven't had much settlement since they left the original landing place to escape L&L, I would imagine that there are some feelings of instability and unsettlement while living in non permanent dwellings. The transient lifestyle can be quite daunting, constantly at war with the only other people that you know of on your whole continent, yes, I can see how that could be discouraging. But this is what I really needed today, when I referenced verse 26, the only thing that came up is an October 2001 general conference address by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin called "One Step after Another." In it he reminded us that the Prophet "Joseph Smith committed himself to the path shown him by the Father and the Son. Consider how painful his days were. Consider the suffering and the persecution he had to endure. Yet he continued, step by step, never giving up, never doubting that if he only did what he could, his Heavenly Father would make up the rest." Now here's where I turn into a little whiny baby. When I read that last quote I felt so awful because my frustrations are nothing when compared to those of Joseph Smith, but I'm a firm believer that everyone has the right to their feelings regardless, so I'm just going to come out and say it, I was late for work again today. Like really really late, it took me an hour and 40 minutes to get from my house to work, because of the rain and traffic and accidents, and I sat in the car stuck in traffic with NO options except to sit there and I wanted to cry. Since we moved 2 months ago, I've been late for work like 9 times, and I'm never late, and it's because of the traffic, somedays it's great and I make it in 40 minutes then the next day it takes me over an hour because there is traffic. It's SO frustrating and I've tried leaving my house earlier, but at this point I feel like I am doing my absolute best to meet my obligations and I just can't do anything else. I felt SO stuck, SO frustrated, so I just prayed for the Lord to soften the hearts of the people in charge toward me, what else could I do. But then I read the last line of that quote "never doubting that if he only did what he could, his Heavenly Father would make up the rest." This was my shining moment, my epiphany, this is my lesson to learn. My lesson is to do my absolute best, then trust that that Lord will make everything else ok, and if I end up getting fired because I'm late too much, then it is what it is, but I tried. The talk continues "let us walk in the right direction, taking one step after another. That is easy enough. We don't have to be perfect today. We don't have to be better than someone else. All we have to do is to be the very best we can. Though you may feel weary, though you sometimes may now be able to see the way, know that your Father in Heaven will never forsake His righteous followers. He will not leave you comfortless. He will be at your side, yes, guiding you every step of the way." This is what I needed today, to know that my only job is to do my best and be ready and open to the Lord's direction. The last part of this chapter that I found interesting was Jacob's use of the word "adieu" at the end. French wasn't a language back then and surely not known to Jacob, but the IM teaches "the choice of words came through the manner of the language of Joseph Smith, so that we might have understanding. This is why words not known in Book of Mormon times are found in the translated text." Which makes sense, why translate the book at all if only to use words and concepts that no one understands? It's like when the scriptures are translated into other languages, because of the language differences, words that denote different meanings can be used instead, which is why those who can read the Book of Mormon in multiple languages often get insights from the differences in word and phraseology. So here, my feeling is that instead of focusing on the fact that Jacob didn't know French, we can take this as an example of his unique writing style, because he didn't just bid farewell like most others, he said so in a more cultured and unique way.
7:16-22 - So Sherem knows that he is going to die, this might have been revealed to him as he was being "nourished." I could imagine, as a man who devoted his life to destroying a people's belief in God, suddenly brought face to face with his own mortality, that there would be quite a bit of regret here. I'm also curious if Jacob was a little bit nervous letting this man speak to the people directly, wondering what he might say. I'm trying to think of someone who doesn't believe in God and who actively teaches against His existence, and I'm trying to think of the most spiritually knowledgable and convincing person that I know and I'm trying to imagine them being the same person. I feel like my love and commitment to God and the gospel is at a certain level because I have lived on the "other side," and I would imagine that it is the same here for Sherem. It doesn't say how long he was "teaching" the people for, probably for at least several years, I'm sure that in this small community, everyone knew him and had an opinion about him, and he probably had quite an impact for his boisterousness and selfishness. So when he was given his sign, not a wonderful one like I'm sure he was expecting, and then calls all the people together and tells them "I'm going to die tomorrow and I was wrong about everything" I'm sure that this was powerful beyond belief, because it's one thing to believe in something deeply, but to completely turn away from it abruptly, and to publicly announce your own idiocy, and predict your immediate demise, these are very unusual events, and with them being based in the battle of good and evil, it's easy to see how there could be a significant impact on the populous. I'm thinking of my own spiritual mentor, who I've known for probably 25 years, who has taught so many of my Sunday School classes when I was young, whom I've learned from extensively, and who has counseled me in many things wisely, and been very supportive of me when I made good choices. He, like me, has lived on the "other side" and I feel that it his teachings are quite powerful because he understands what it's like to be there. He has tasted the fruit of satan's trees and turned away, and this is like Sherem, but a little bit less dramatic. I wonder how many of us are like Sherem in our own little ways, I know that I am, if we look at it like that. I planted seeds poisonous to the gospel by my example when I was living my own life, and now I'm back. But I also think that being loyal to God and the gospel one's whole life is so admirable, I didn't do it, so I know what it's like to leave and then come back, but it's just recently that I've learned to just stay and be comforted the Lord's way. I've learned much and am grateful to those who have shared that part of their lives with me for my benefit. Jacob calls Sherem a "wicked" man, he worked to destroy the church of God, was shown a sign, then changed his ways, but there are many examples of this happening to others and they in turn became prophets, so I wonder if truly Sherem had committed the "unpardonable sin." I don't really understand what that is anyway, but it would seem to me that in his final teachings and in his death he turned and strengthened hearts and testimonies toward righteousness. And perhaps in the next life he has worked tirelessly teaching the gospel of Christ to those who have passed on. Nothing cements loyalty like a betrayal, I just think it would be interesting at the judgement day to get there and see how everything has shaken out.
7:23-25 - I love that at this time, after the people had been converted back to the Lord, they desired to go among the Lamanites, their distant cousins, and "reclaim and restore" them to the "knowledge of the truth." They knew that they were happier with the gospel and they wanted that for their brothers as well. I wonder if this was also motivated by the fact that they were lonely and probably desired more people and a more thriving industrious society, and they were probably tired of the constant threat of violence, even though through their faith in God, the Nephites were "conquerors of their enemies," it is still quite an awful feeling and way of life. And I thought that it was interesting that Jacob says that "many means were devised to reclaim" them, so it wasn't just a single time, one single effort, one set of missionaries that they sent out to get this done. To me, this indicates that it was a generational endeavor, one that was probably rooted in deep love and desire for righteousness.
7:26-27 - It is odd to me that Jacob describes the existence of his people at that time "as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanders, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethern, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn our days." I suppose that this takes us back to the idea that there probably weren't many people in the Nephite tribe at this point, being only one generation removed from the departure of Jerusalem, which is interesting to me that Jacob references being cast out of Jerusalem, because he never lived there, and really, he had to take his brother's word that they lived there and what it was like and the status of his family there. The only knowledge of Jerusalem us what Nephi would have told him. When Jacob rebuked the male Nephites for desiring multiple wives and concubines, it would have been a very intimate setting, probably where Jacob knew each individual person in his congregation personally, very closely related. So it is here as a "lonesome and a solemn people." "Wanderers" probably indicates that they haven't had much settlement since they left the original landing place to escape L&L, I would imagine that there are some feelings of instability and unsettlement while living in non permanent dwellings. The transient lifestyle can be quite daunting, constantly at war with the only other people that you know of on your whole continent, yes, I can see how that could be discouraging. But this is what I really needed today, when I referenced verse 26, the only thing that came up is an October 2001 general conference address by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin called "One Step after Another." In it he reminded us that the Prophet "Joseph Smith committed himself to the path shown him by the Father and the Son. Consider how painful his days were. Consider the suffering and the persecution he had to endure. Yet he continued, step by step, never giving up, never doubting that if he only did what he could, his Heavenly Father would make up the rest." Now here's where I turn into a little whiny baby. When I read that last quote I felt so awful because my frustrations are nothing when compared to those of Joseph Smith, but I'm a firm believer that everyone has the right to their feelings regardless, so I'm just going to come out and say it, I was late for work again today. Like really really late, it took me an hour and 40 minutes to get from my house to work, because of the rain and traffic and accidents, and I sat in the car stuck in traffic with NO options except to sit there and I wanted to cry. Since we moved 2 months ago, I've been late for work like 9 times, and I'm never late, and it's because of the traffic, somedays it's great and I make it in 40 minutes then the next day it takes me over an hour because there is traffic. It's SO frustrating and I've tried leaving my house earlier, but at this point I feel like I am doing my absolute best to meet my obligations and I just can't do anything else. I felt SO stuck, SO frustrated, so I just prayed for the Lord to soften the hearts of the people in charge toward me, what else could I do. But then I read the last line of that quote "never doubting that if he only did what he could, his Heavenly Father would make up the rest." This was my shining moment, my epiphany, this is my lesson to learn. My lesson is to do my absolute best, then trust that that Lord will make everything else ok, and if I end up getting fired because I'm late too much, then it is what it is, but I tried. The talk continues "let us walk in the right direction, taking one step after another. That is easy enough. We don't have to be perfect today. We don't have to be better than someone else. All we have to do is to be the very best we can. Though you may feel weary, though you sometimes may now be able to see the way, know that your Father in Heaven will never forsake His righteous followers. He will not leave you comfortless. He will be at your side, yes, guiding you every step of the way." This is what I needed today, to know that my only job is to do my best and be ready and open to the Lord's direction. The last part of this chapter that I found interesting was Jacob's use of the word "adieu" at the end. French wasn't a language back then and surely not known to Jacob, but the IM teaches "the choice of words came through the manner of the language of Joseph Smith, so that we might have understanding. This is why words not known in Book of Mormon times are found in the translated text." Which makes sense, why translate the book at all if only to use words and concepts that no one understands? It's like when the scriptures are translated into other languages, because of the language differences, words that denote different meanings can be used instead, which is why those who can read the Book of Mormon in multiple languages often get insights from the differences in word and phraseology. So here, my feeling is that instead of focusing on the fact that Jacob didn't know French, we can take this as an example of his unique writing style, because he didn't just bid farewell like most others, he said so in a more cultured and unique way.
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