Latest / Scripture Central / Jacob 1–4 | April 1–7 | John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson | Come Follow Me Book of Mormon

Transcript

Jacob 1–4 | April 1–7 | John W. Welch and Lynne Hilton Wilson | Come Follow Me Book of Mormon · Scripture Central

0:00
Hello, welcome back to Scripture Central.
0:02
I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson and this is John W Weltz to talk about
0:06
the wonderful Book of Jacob. Jacob is an amazing book.
0:11
I think he is one of my absolute favourites of all scripture.
0:15
You like to think of Jacob as Nephi's little brother, but he
0:19
excels. He's not only a poetic prophet,
0:23
but he distills the most important messages about coming
0:28
unto Christ. Jacob hadn't really known
0:36
anything about Jerusalem. Just from the words of his
0:39
father, I mean he learned it second hand.
0:41
He probably learned a different story from Lehmann and Lamuel
0:43
and so on, but he is the first Nephite leader to really have
0:48
been born as a part of this great mission where Lehigh had
0:55
said we need to go and separate from the old world, and maybe
1:00
Jacob is blessed by not having the baggage of the old world.
1:03
He also is blessed by having a powerful witness of our Savior
1:09
from a very young age, and it sustained him during his very
1:12
difficult mission. But in his organization of his
1:15
book, I'm fascinated how carefully he follows Nephi's
1:19
advice and how carefully he creates his words.
1:24
He crafts them, He puts them in chiasmus, He puts them in
1:27
parallels. He puts them in beautiful ways
1:31
that you can tell have been edited and rewritten many times
1:34
before he actually put them on the plates.
1:37
In doing this, he is able to convey his inner thoughts and
1:42
feelings. I think Jacob is a very tender
1:45
person. He talks not only about his own
1:47
tenderness, but he notices the underdog and others remember.
1:50
He talks about the wives and the children, the tender, delicate
1:53
feelings, you know? All the way to the end, his
1:57
final farewell is a very emotional farewell.
2:00
He lets his emotions show. We don't know what his younger
2:04
brother Joseph was like. No, we don't.
2:08
We'd like to have Joseph, but it was Jacob who was called to be
2:12
the high priest and was given responsibility over the small
2:15
plates. And the temple.
2:17
So he's the high priest. Joseph is the teacher.
2:21
And so a lot of the teaching, I'm sure the reading of the law
2:24
and explaining things would have come through Joseph, the
2:27
youngest brother. So Jacob, I think, is a very
2:31
interesting character, positioned as kind of the
2:35
favorite young son. He's much younger than Nephi,
2:40
born in the wilderness. Well, we already have 4 chapters
2:44
of Jacob back in second Nephi chapters 678910 or 55 chapters
2:50
and now we have 7 more chapters. And and remind me, why does
2:54
Nephi put those five chapters of his little brother in second
2:59
Nephi? What's that all about?
3:01
He says, Jacob, you have seen the Lord as I have seen the Lord
3:05
and I want to now share Isaiah's words because he has seen the
3:08
Lord. I think it's all about providing
3:10
3 witnesses. That's.
3:12
Yeah, that's right. Second, Nephi 11 begins by
3:14
saying we have these three witnesses.
3:16
Jacob we don't know when he was actually, you might say, called
3:23
and set apart as the high priest of the new temple.
3:27
But in 2nd EBI 5 we learned that they build this temple after the
3:31
manner of Solomon, and we do learn there about the
3:35
consecration of Jacob and Joseph.
3:38
So it must have been fairly early, right after second Nephi
3:42
five, that they begin temple ordinances and officiating.
3:48
And so it's quite possible that Jacob, even as a fairly young
3:53
person. Was officiating.
3:55
Was and was maybe the High Priest from the very beginning.
3:59
It's a small, it's a small group.
4:00
We just have a few family members together.
4:02
You know, it's probably less than 100 when it starts out in
4:06
in Jacob, you know, there's not many people here.
4:08
So there in second ephi we have the young Jacob.
4:12
And now in the book of Jacob, we have the wiser, mature.
4:15
It's been 55 years since my father left Jerusalem, so he's
4:18
probably 50 years old or so. Yeah, we see some continuity,
4:21
but in his younger years, he spent two chapters quoting
4:27
Isaiah, and they're good chapters.
4:30
But do we have any Isaiah quoted in the book of Jacob A?
4:32
Little bit we have. A very small.
4:34
It's it's it's interesting because Nephi quotes a lot of
4:38
Isaiah and a little bit of Zenith, and Jacob does just the
4:42
opposite. He quotes a little bit of Isaiah
4:45
and a lot of Zenus. Yeah, I hadn't thought of it
4:48
that way. Yeah, but that's not till next
4:50
week. This week chapter one to four.
4:52
Let's save for next week. But people can be thinking about
4:56
how different is Zenus as a prophet was than Isaiah and
5:01
maybe Jacob is giving us his favorite prophet.
5:06
And I think it does resonate with his situation and his
5:09
personality. Well, let's start with an
5:11
overview of Jacob looking at his themes, looking at his outline.
5:14
Where does he get his outline? Jacob follows his brother's
5:18
advice from beginning to end. Yeah.
5:21
Nephi gives 4 responsibilities for the small plates.
5:25
These small plates are supposed to only contain what's #1.
5:30
If there be any preaching which was sacred.
5:32
OK, that's number one, sacred preaching.
5:35
And what's the second thing? Or Revelation, which was great.
5:40
And preaching revelation and prophesying.
5:44
And that's the third thing that Nephi mentions.
5:48
The 4th is the most important. All of them here touch upon them
5:51
as much as it were possible. For Christ's sake, for the sake
5:56
of our people. You know, he He doesn't
5:58
necessarily want us to touch much on history.
6:01
He wants us to touch on these sacred things to bring us to
6:05
Christ. I feel like everything he does
6:07
is to come unto Christ. And he takes this idea from last
6:11
week. Where Nephi closes up his book
6:14
with the doctrine of Christ, and Jacob repeats it.
6:17
He uses that phrase and he builds on it.
6:20
And so much of Jacob is following in the footsteps of
6:23
his brother. His brother tells him what to
6:25
do. Here and now his book is
6:26
outlined to show exactly those things, the preaching, the
6:31
prophesying, or the revelations, the prophesying.
6:33
And all of them come unto Christ.
6:35
As a priest he would have been especially interested in sacred
6:40
things, and we'll see that in his speeches.
6:43
And holiness He uses holiness too, which is part of this
6:47
priesthood. Responsibilities in the temple
6:49
is to keep things holy. Of the prophets in the Book of
6:53
Mormon, it's Jacob who loves to use the phrase the Holy One of
6:57
Israel. So we do have a little insight
7:00
here into the background of this great prophet Jacob.
7:09
But then he continues on and right before he starts his
7:11
sermon, he tells us a little bit.
7:14
You know, only 10% of the book is history because Nephi told
7:17
him touched lightly on history. So he only gets 10% of all of
7:20
his writings are on history. But one of those is verse 12.
7:24
Nephi dies. And that's touching briefly on
7:26
that. Yes, yes it is.
7:29
We don't even get an obituary. Verse 13 reads, Now the people
7:34
which were not Lamanites were Nephites.
7:37
Nevertheless they were called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites,
7:39
Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, Nishmelites.
7:42
But I, Jacob, I'm going to separate them into just two
7:45
camps. If you follow Nephi, if you
7:47
don't. We talked a little bit about
7:49
this and 2nd Nephi chapters one and two.
7:53
When Lehi divides his estate and establishes these seven branches
7:59
of his posterity. Here we have these seven, and I
8:04
think it's an interesting number.
8:06
You know, you have like the seven days of the week.
8:08
Well, 7 means whole or complete in Hebrew.
8:11
Maybe it just worked out that way, but I think it was more
8:14
than that because Ishmael had several sons and we don't have a
8:17
whole bunch of Ishmael tribes, but Ishmael only gets the
8:22
Ishmaelites only get one tribe. And more importantly to me is
8:26
that Sam is not mentioned and I thought perhaps it meant that he
8:30
passed away or did not have posterity or something, but Sam
8:33
is not included in these. And we suggested before another
8:37
possibility, and that was that Sam who is to be taken care of
8:42
by Nephi. And because Sam needs some kind
8:46
of care, his estate goes with Nephi.
8:50
But it's interesting these 7 tribes are mentioned again later
8:53
in the book in the exact same order, so there's a lot of
8:56
continuity between Lehigh and Jacob.
8:59
In fact, you know where that is later.
9:01
How? Late Mormon, Mormon or
9:02
something? Back in the Book of Mormon, when
9:05
Mormon is beginning to say, all right, I've been abridging this
9:09
book, Now I'm going to write my story and in verse 8 of chapter
9:14
one, Mormon says it came to pass.
9:16
In this year there began to be a war between the Nephites, who
9:20
consisted of the Nephites and the Jacobites and the Josephites
9:24
and the Zoramites. And this war was between the
9:27
Nephites and the Lamanites and the Lemuelites and the
9:31
Ishmaelites. So once again, those seven in
9:35
exactly that same order. So that tells us for almost 1000
9:40
years the Nephite world was divided into these 7 tribes.
9:48
And yet, for the sake of the Book of Mormon, for simplicity,
9:50
they're choosing to use just two.
9:52
And that's repeated now. Yeah, and there's a subtle
9:57
parallel with Israelite history here.
10:00
Oh, is there? Well, you have 12 tribes.
10:02
But even though there were. Two kingdoms.
10:05
So you have the North and the South, so that there is a
10:08
division, so that we can talk about the Jews in the South and
10:13
the Josephites in the north. So these the words Nephites and
10:17
Lamanites are used politically, but that doesn't mean that
10:20
people have forgotten their lineage.
10:22
And it's like your patriarchal blessing, you know where you are
10:26
in your lineage within the House of Israel and the people of the
10:31
covenant. And I think that's why this
10:33
continues, because they remember their their spiritual lineage.
10:40
Jack, I just have to step back and say all these little details
10:43
that you point out and you've taught for decades are such an
10:47
evidence that this book was not written by Joseph Smith in 63
10:52
Days in Harmony and Fayette, NY. I mean, this book is packed with
10:58
evidences. I can't go more than two
11:01
sentences without finding something that links to a very
11:05
powerful message of its antiquity and its beauty.
11:11
Absolutely. It is such a dear book.
11:14
There's more here than I ever realized, and I've read it more
11:17
than once. That's right.
11:19
Isn't it fun to discover new things and we haven't thought
11:22
about before? You can open and almost any
11:25
page. We'll have something that will
11:27
speak to you. But Jacob gives a little
11:35
overview of what his sermon is going to be about.
11:37
So chapter two and three are this beautiful sermon at the
11:40
temple, and he gives us a little bit of information on it.
11:43
He says, OK, we've got this second king, and unfortunately
11:46
we don't even know his name, but he's called Nephi.
11:50
Nephi, just like the Caesars were.
11:52
Always Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Tiberius, Caesar, Domitian.
11:57
So here they're all called Nephi.
12:00
And unfortunately though, this king and I don't know who's he
12:04
is because he just called him a man.
12:07
Now if it were Nephi son, it should have been his nephew, but
12:10
he sort of distances himself from him.
12:12
Well, I think that's wise. Oh yeah, if you're criticizing
12:15
somebody, you better distance yourself.
12:17
But that's good wisdom today. Too name?
12:20
Calling is a problem and the issue isn't the name, the issue
12:25
is the problem that has been created.
12:29
And he says the problem is created that during this time of
12:32
this second king, they began to grow hard in their hearts and
12:36
indulge themselves somewhat in wicked practices.
12:40
And then he talks about the problems of pride and plural
12:43
marriages, and that's exactly where he goes in his text, in
12:46
his sermon that we'll start in Chapter 2.
12:49
Pride especially manifested in wealth that wanting to separate
12:54
the society by those who have lots of gold and they've found
12:57
gold somewhere out in the the rivers and places.
13:02
And some people have been out doing that, and they now have
13:05
something that they think makes them better than other people.
13:07
And and they're not sharing it with others.
13:09
And Jacob really goes into that in chapter 2.
13:11
Exactly. Now let me point out one thing I
13:14
don't know. Have you noticed how many times
13:16
the word began is in these two verses?
13:20
No, I hadn't. I think when I read I, you know,
13:24
people kind of wonder, does Brother Welch do anything but
13:28
count words? Oh yes, you do.
13:31
I do but. But words count, and when we
13:35
count them, we begin to see emphasis.
13:39
And so we know what the authors are trying to say.
13:41
And So what we have here, Jacob says.
13:45
People began to grow hard in their hearts.
13:47
They indulged somewhat in wicked practices.
13:51
They began verse 16 to search for much gold and silver and
13:55
began to be lifted up in pride. I think he wants us to get the
13:59
point. Stop it right at the beginning.
14:01
Exactly. Don't let it get out of control.
14:03
It's going to be a real problem here, folks.
14:05
And when in our lives might that be helpful to us?
14:09
Oh, in everything. Especially parenting.
14:12
How does that work? Man, yeah, you got to stop it
14:14
right at the beginning or else it gets totally out of control.
14:17
Yeah, you don't want it to become a habit.
14:19
You you, you need to fix things When they are, you know, we say
14:24
nip it in the bud. Yeah, but this is interesting.
14:26
It's only been about 40 years and they're already having these
14:29
problems. And so I just have to ask the
14:32
question, is it just this tiny little group, you know,
14:35
anthropologists do these studies to say if you've only got
14:38
12/14/18 people that are coming down because we don't know how
14:41
many sisters are there and their spouses and their children.
14:45
You know, when you do the math, if no one dies, you've got a
14:48
couple of 100. But usually a lot of people died
14:52
earlier in the ancient world. So we don't have an enormous
14:56
group of people. And yet he's talking about
14:58
people separating from wealth. And Jacob, I think is trying to
15:01
create a Zion society. He's calling on people to live
15:04
the law of consecration. He wants them to share and share
15:07
alike, and yet they're separating as if the group is
15:12
larger than 50 to 100 to even 100, even 200 people.
15:15
It seems like the people are larger than that and I think
15:18
this is an example within the text if we read between the
15:21
lines that this group of people are.
15:24
Assimilating with other peoples in the area.
15:27
I think so. They don't ever talk about that.
15:30
No, they don't. I wonder if it was in the other
15:32
plates 'cause that's history. That's a great.
15:33
It's not his point. I think on the large plates we
15:38
have the political history. Which would have been there.
15:42
And that's where that kind of thing, dealing with other people
15:47
where you have maybe a treaty with some other local people
15:52
that would have been a political or historical matter and would
15:55
have been found there. What we have here is just
16:00
focusing on the the core people, the people of Nephi.
16:07
He's not even talking to the Lamanites here.
16:09
Well, the sweet thing is, he says in verse 17, I taught them
16:14
in the temple, having first obtained mine errand from the
16:18
Lord. So he's just speaking to his own
16:20
people at the temple. And he says that there are
16:22
children and women there too. There's families gathered at the
16:26
temple. I wondered if it could have been
16:27
one of these Mosaic pilgrimages to the Temple, Passover,
16:30
Pentecost for the Tabernacle. Probably.
16:33
Because everybody's there, families are there.
16:36
That's right, when you have a a feast, a temple day like you
16:42
come for the Day of Atonement, or you are there for Rosh
16:46
Hashanah for the New Year. And King Benjamin will, of
16:49
course, have his people in their tents surrounding the.
16:53
Which is consistent with the Feast of Tabernacles.
16:56
The every man with his wife and children.
16:59
Yeah, and it sounds like that to me here in Jacob chapter 2.
17:02
So as we look at this, he begins his sermon in Jacob chapter 2,
17:07
verse two, and he feels a great responsibility is to magnify his
17:12
office. This is 1 phenomenal disciple of
17:15
Jesus Christ. I see that he has already been
17:18
ordained by the Holy Order of God.
17:20
We already talked about the priesthood is not coming through
17:22
the Levitical line here. They're receiving the higher
17:24
order of the priesthood. But he says that he has.
17:29
He's weighed down much with the desire and anxiety for the
17:32
welfare of your souls, and you know, he's so worried about
17:36
them. And he says in verse five, I
17:38
know your thoughts. That's an example of his
17:41
revelations. And then we have a beautiful
17:44
chiasmus, which lets me know he prepared his talk ahead of time.
17:48
Or at least he prepared it before he wrote it in the
17:50
plates. So what do you see here that is
17:53
interesting in the way of a structured beginning of this
17:58
this important sermon? So in verse 63 starts out, it
18:01
grieves my soul. He repeats this phrase and
18:04
causeth me to shrink with shame. That idea is again at the end
18:10
where he says in the presence of God I'm under the glance of the
18:13
all piercing eye of the Almighty God.
18:16
But his second thought in verse six is before the presence of my
18:20
maker, and we heard that at the end.
18:22
Again he continues on down talking about the wickedness of
18:26
their hearts, and he has to use bold speeches.
18:29
He in verse seven he starts out I must use, and he repeats that
18:33
phrase twice in parallel fashion.
18:37
But the most tender part for me is the next phrase.
18:40
He doesn't want to say these unkind things in the presence of
18:43
the tender and delicate feelings of the people who are going to
18:47
be hurt. And I this tells us so much
18:50
about who Jacob is. He's just a gentle human, and he
18:53
cares for these younger people that are sometimes overlooked in
18:58
in ancient cultures. But the main thing he wants to
19:02
talk about is healing their wounds.
19:04
And in verse nine, he says, because of the strictness of the
19:07
commandments of God, I want to admonish you according to the
19:11
crimes. And you had talked about crimes
19:13
already to enlarge the wounds of those who have already wounded
19:18
instead of consoling them and healing their wounds.
19:22
And I, one of my favorite phrases here comes in verse 9
19:27
where he talks about feasting upon the pleasing words of God.
19:31
How do we make our scripture study the pleasing word of God,
19:35
and how do we make it a healing source?
19:38
It's it's it requires prayer. It requires the Spirit.
19:42
I really do like what you say sensitively about how he's
19:46
delivering messages here about money and about sexual fidelity
19:51
which are integral to a successful family life, and how
19:55
he has to be sensitive about not saying too much and he doesn't
19:59
doesn't go into it too far. He's very sensitive.
20:02
And also I think when he talks about in the presence of
20:06
children, he doesn't say little children.
20:09
I'm sure the little children were there, but he might also be
20:12
saying, I'm talking to the teenagers, they are at a stage
20:16
in their life where they're going to be making decisions
20:18
about how they're going to live. And am I going to be like, you
20:24
know, this man or this father I know or what you know?
20:29
Am I going to go out and search for a lot of gold?
20:32
What will my objectives be in life?
20:34
And I think he wants to and knows the importance of speaking
20:38
in a way that will be beneficial to the rising generation.
20:43
And I see in this also a pattern in general conference.
20:48
All of the speakers know that whole families will be
20:51
listening. They have to say things that are
20:54
going to be significant and correcting and and directing to
21:01
both the adults and also the children, and they do a
21:04
wonderful job. And I think Jacob is a good
21:07
model for speaking in a way that is aware of the range of ages
21:14
and genders and needs of people in the audience generally.
21:19
So even though Jacob says I want to stay away from history and
21:22
just focus on the prophesying and the revelations, I want to
21:26
go into history for a little bit.
21:27
Because I see verse 12 as an evidence of the Book of Mormon
21:30
that we have some powerful witnesses of when they start
21:34
talking about these monies and the gold and the silver and all
21:38
these things. Because the metallurgy in the
21:40
ancient world was not known when Joseph was doing this,
21:43
translating in 1829. So between 1830 and 1844.
21:47
And as far as looking for metals in the Book of Mormon, they
21:50
didn't think they were any. But by the time we get to the
21:53
period of time from 1846 to 1966, there are a few examples,
21:59
about 7%, that there were ancient metals that were being
22:02
used for precious things like money in the ancient world.
22:06
Now you're what you're saying is they start finding examples of
22:11
this that go back. The time of 605 hundred 400 BC
22:17
in the ancient world. The dating of this is the
22:19
important issue. Of course.
22:21
When the Europeans came, they took a lot of the gold and
22:27
artifacts that they found in Mexico and Central America and
22:33
South America, but most of those were from a later time period.
22:38
The Aztecs. The Aztecs and the Incas and so
22:41
on. So we want things dating back to
22:44
the Book of Mormon. That's the question.
22:46
Can we find things that go back that late?
22:49
Up to the middle of the 19th century, the answer was there
22:51
was a lot of unconfirmed things, you know, maybe some steel,
22:54
maybe some brass, maybe some iron, you know.
22:56
But when we get up to the last fifty 60-70 years, so from 1966
23:02
to 2023, we have confirmed the presence of steel not only in
23:08
the Old world and and early brass, but in the New World.
23:12
They found brass, the new world. I'm meaning the American
23:15
continents and iron and iron working and iron in practical
23:21
usage and an abundance of ore, copper and gold.
23:25
I mean, this is really amazing. Joseph had no idea so many
23:28
people attacked Joseph because they didn't think any of these
23:31
things could be proven. And there are dozens of things
23:34
the book tells us about ancient archaeology that were not known
23:37
for several generations in the Church.
23:40
Don't leave the church over archaeology.
23:43
Keep waiting and digging deeper. But as far as progress we're
23:48
making on finding evidence in the Book of Mormon, it's just
23:50
powerful, yeah. The problem with copper, of
23:52
course, is that it rusts very quickly.
23:55
Especially in an environment where there's humidity.
23:58
OK, let's jump in. Now to the sermon in the message
24:02
of this problem With pride and money he refers in verse 13 to
24:07
the costliness of their apparel, and that they persecute their
24:11
brethren. Because you suppose that you are
24:13
better than they. But Jacob gives them hope.
24:16
In verse 18. Before ye seek for riches, seek
24:20
ye for the Kingdom of God. If we put as much energy into
24:25
our testimonies as we put into our livelihood, we would keep it
24:29
bright and shining in. 19 he says, After you have obtained
24:32
hope in Christ, ye shall obtain riches if you seek them, and you
24:38
shall seek them for the intent to do good.
24:41
So if we're going to use riches to bless the poor, the Lord will
24:45
maybe open that way that you can have the opportunity to clothe
24:48
the naked, feed the hungry, liberate the captive,
24:51
administered relief to the sick. This is verse 19.
24:54
It tells me they're trying to live the law of consecration.
24:57
They're trying to have no poor among them.
25:00
They want a Zion society. And liberating the captive.
25:04
That was something that happened on the Jubilee year.
25:07
Oh, of course it's the 49th year.
25:09
And on the end of every sabbatical year, every 7th year,
25:13
there were certain releases of death that took place.
25:16
So this liberating the captive is another evidence that the Law
25:19
of Moses is being lived. Correct.
25:21
They're reading that text. And carrying it through into the
25:24
new world. That's great.
25:25
That's great. Well, this pride keeps going all
25:32
the way down to verse 22, and that's what he says.
25:35
I'm going to talk, stop talking about pride.
25:37
Unfortunately, I've got to talk something worse, he says in
25:40
verse 22. I must speak unto you concerning
25:43
A grocer crime, and my heart would rejoice exceedingly
25:48
because of you. But the word of God burdens me
25:52
because of your grocer crimes and that's when he says you're
25:58
you're sinning because you think you understand them scriptures
26:00
but you don't. I've got to tell you what the
26:03
scriptures mean because you are interpreting them wrong.
26:06
And what is it that they've interpreted wrong?
26:08
Is many wives. And why might they think?
26:13
Because they have the example of David and Solomon.
26:15
David and Solomon, they have the brass plates.
26:17
They know something of the history, and in Deuteronomy they
26:21
even know that there is a paragraph in chapter 17 called
26:26
the Paragraph of the King, that says that the King shall not
26:30
multiply unto himself gold and silver and wives.
26:35
Oh, interesting. And so that was always
26:38
interpreted as not going to an excess, but still having plenty
26:46
of gold, and so they might have justified themselves.
26:49
And Jacob's saying you're misunderstanding it because it's
26:51
wrong. It's going wrong.
26:53
You're going wrong, yeah. And Jacob also has this sweet
26:57
statement for the children and the wives.
26:59
You know, I I don't want to talk about this because it's so
27:01
offensive to them. It's abominable, he says.
27:05
And then he in verse 27. For there shall not any man
27:10
among you have save it be one wife and concubines, He shall
27:15
have none. Now this is so interesting to me
27:17
because if we're a small community, where are the extra
27:20
women coming from? I think this is another evidence
27:23
that we have probably made treaties and had other people
27:26
joining into the Nephite nation. But what does Jacob do with
27:30
Abraham? Isaac.
27:32
Jacob. They had multiple wives and I'm
27:35
sure they are using that to justify what they're doing.
27:39
Jacob gets there. Oh, does he?
27:41
As as the answer always is, keep reading.
27:44
For if I will sayeth the Lord of Hosts raise up seed unto me, I
27:49
will command my people. Otherwise they shall hearken
27:54
unto those things. Jake, this is another example of
27:57
his revelation. Do you see?
27:58
He's quoting the Lord again, so he's praying.
28:01
I have to speak at the temple. What should I speak about?
28:03
The Lord reveals him, and he quotes him directly.
28:06
I want the same balance that I gave to Adam and Eve in the
28:10
Garden of Eden. One man, one wife.
28:12
That is the law. Only occasionally do I ask for
28:16
an adjustment of that, and that is only to raise up seed.
28:19
And as far as we know, this has only happened twice, Once at the
28:24
beginning of Israel with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and
28:29
the other is in the early pioneer period where Joseph
28:34
Smith revealed the need to raise up the new Israel.
28:40
And that's section 132. The first half is on eternal
28:44
marriage and the second-half is on plurality of wives.
28:47
And you and you know this particular verse.
28:49
Verse 30 is quoted in the Journal of Discourses by the
28:56
leaders of the Church about 10 times during the 1860s and 70s
29:04
when they were practicing this law of plural marriage.
29:10
I think the the most important point here to raise is is not
29:16
just raising up lots of children.
29:20
It's not the numbers, but it's the loyalty and the the cultural
29:26
distinction. Where what was accomplished with
29:30
the early Mormon pioneers was they were a different people and
29:36
they became a House of Israel in much the same way that Moses had
29:44
to keep the ancient Israelites out in the wilderness for 40
29:48
years before they were then ready to move into the Promised
29:53
Land. As a people.
29:57
My wife especially has pointed out this We both come from a
30:01
polygamous ancestors. We can appreciate how our family
30:06
is different and is united because of this common
30:10
experience that our ancestors had and they were different.
30:16
Yes, they stood up for who they were and I think even today it's
30:22
close to 1/4 of the church is still descended from this
30:29
original core that made the restoration possible.
30:33
So I'm just saying that when the when Jacob says if the Lord will
30:39
raise up a people, it's not just we need a lot of people but we
30:45
need certain kind of faithful people.
30:48
Well, and it's so abominable to him that this law of chastity is
30:52
being broken under the guise of of the Old Testament, under the
30:57
guise of the brass plates constantly refers back to how
31:00
it's hurting these crying, sobbing women and children.
31:04
But in verse 35 he says this is greater iniquity than the
31:09
Lamanites because you've broken the hearts of your tender wives
31:13
and lost the confidence of your children.
31:15
This to me is so interesting because he earlier talks about
31:18
how because of their lifestyles and the way they dress, they're
31:22
revolting to each other and they don't like each other, he says.
31:26
Can you realize that their filthiness is nothing compared
31:29
to yours? That what you are claiming to be
31:31
doing as under the protection of the Law of Moses is wrong?
31:36
The law of chastity is so important to God and Jacob
31:39
really lays it out clear. And in our generation the law of
31:43
chastity is hardly even known outside of the Church of Jesus
31:47
Christ of Latter Day Saints. Many Christians know of it, many
31:51
other people of the Bible know of it.
31:53
But the majority of the world does not live the law of
31:57
chastity. So as sermon continues now in
32:05
chapter 3, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart.
32:10
So now he turns to the women and the children, and those who are
32:12
living without sin. But he says, look unto God with
32:16
firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he
32:21
will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead
32:25
your 'cause. I love this emphasis of Jesus is
32:30
our advocate and if we can look unto God, and if we can increase
32:36
our prayers and increase our faith, even the things that are
32:39
the hardest to us, that are bringing tears on our pillows at
32:43
night can be comforted by our advocate.
32:47
I love what Jacob says here in these two verses.
32:51
I'm sure he spent a lot more time developing each of these
32:56
head notes, you might say. Headlines, Yeah, yeah.
33:00
But think of these five things in our own life and how we can,
33:04
whatever the problems are. I mean, the problems that Jacob
33:08
was addressing were unique to his situation to some extent.
33:14
What are the five things? Well, what are these five things
33:17
that we can apply to our lives? Well, number one, look unto God
33:22
with firmness of mind. I think that's very important.
33:28
What does that mean? Why?
33:29
How's that different than firmness of faith, Firmness of
33:32
mind? We have to think about it.
33:34
We have to use our intellect. How about that?
33:36
Yeah, What are we commanded to do?
33:38
We must love God with all our hearts, might, mind, and
33:43
strength. How do you love God with your
33:46
mind? I gave a whole BYU devotional
33:49
once on that. You can find it out there on the
33:51
the web if you'd like to, but it does talk about the way our
33:57
thoughts. Not only will our thoughts
33:59
condemn us, we're told, but our thoughts will exalt us.
34:04
If our desires are righteous at least.
34:06
And if we think clearly, and think righteously, and think the
34:11
way the Lord would, second one is pray unto him with exceeding
34:16
faith. And the more we try to pray in
34:19
faith, the stronger our faith becomes, because then the Spirit
34:22
can come. And sometimes we pray, but.
34:25
We praying with a little faith. We'll have more faith if it's
34:28
not quite work. But what he's telling people
34:31
here, you are dealing with a real difficult social problem
34:35
and I need you to be praying with exceeding faith.
34:39
What do you think he's asking that you would pray for?
34:41
Well, and and here in this situation they're they're in a
34:44
great afflictions and they're praying that the Lord will call
34:47
their husband to repentance. And here he here he's called to
34:49
repentance. And that's never a simple
34:51
matter. And especially if there have
34:53
been these marriages, they're going to have to be dissolved.
34:57
How is that going to happen? But he needs people to pray with
35:00
exceeding faith that they will be committed to carry on. #3 is
35:06
lift up your heads. Why would their heads be?
35:10
Drooping. Oh, of course.
35:11
They're very upset about this. Well, and they're feeling like
35:15
they're being criticized for what they're doing.
35:19
My leader doesn't love me. I'm I'm a bad person.
35:23
But look at the lift up your head, Jack.
35:25
This is verse two. They that are pure in heart lift
35:28
up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God.
35:31
He's telling you how to get out of your state.
35:34
That's number four. Ah, OK, #4 is received, the
35:38
pleasing word. Of God, yeah.
35:38
So first you have to lift up your heads.
35:42
If you don't lift up your heads, you're not going to see.
35:45
But you're lifting them to God. And then you receive the
35:49
pleasing word of God. And then #5 must be this
35:52
beautiful message of feasting on the love.
35:55
How do you feast upon the love of God?
35:59
Wasn't it second Nephi that said feast upon the words of Christ?
36:04
And now they're saying feast upon His love.
36:07
And in the tree of life vision, do you remember?
36:09
The rod of iron is the word of God that leads you to the tree
36:13
which is the fruit of the love of God?
36:15
Or you experience the love of God.
36:17
So I think what he's I hope that we can feast upon His love as we
36:22
feast upon His word, that we can feel love as we feet read His
36:26
words. Certainly Jacob is aware of
36:29
Lehigh's dream. And then when you get to the
36:32
tree, there you feast upon the fruit of eternal life.
36:38
Coming unto Christ is all about feasting on his love.
36:42
Well, I hope everyone listening to this and reading Jacob will
36:47
think of one of these things that they might do a little
36:50
better. Of course they all are
36:52
important, but you can't sometimes just dive in and do
36:55
all five at the same time, no? Not not me at least.
36:58
I got to try one at a time. One at a time, step at a time.
37:02
It's a path that we're on. But Jacob then turns and gets a
37:06
little frustrated and says, except you're going to repent,
37:09
the land is going to be cursed for your sakes.
37:12
And Jacob is asking them to turn around and change.
37:14
And that's how his sermon ends. And he then says in verse 13,
37:18
when his sermon is now over 100th part of the proceedings of
37:22
this people, which now began to be numerous, now just do the
37:25
math. It's not been that many years.
37:27
I think this is different combinations of peoples in the
37:31
area if we've got numerous numbers of people, but Chapter 4
37:41
is part of this week's come follow me.
37:43
But it actually is a prelude to the allegory of the olive tree.
37:47
So this is sort of an interesting time for us to be
37:50
talking about it before we get to the allegory.
37:53
So there's a big break between chapter three and four.
37:56
And he even says that in the first verse of chapter 4.
37:59
It came to pass that I, Jacob having ministered much under
38:02
this, people in my word. Now I'm going to write a little
38:05
bit because engraving is hard. I mean, he complaints about it
38:08
all the time. Now he's going to focus on
38:11
prophecy and not just use prophecy as a part of delivering
38:15
his preaching. And chapter 4 not only sets the
38:18
stage for Zenith's prophecy of the Allegory of the Olive Tree,
38:23
but then chapter six is the interpretation of it.
38:27
So four and six really are important to read together with
38:32
the allegory of the olive tree. So I think today we'll just
38:35
touch on a few little details. One of them is he really is
38:40
going to write so that he knows that this message is going to go
38:43
to the Lamanites. And he says in verse three, we
38:47
labored diligently to engrave in these things because then he's
38:51
skipping down a ways. He says we want them to know
38:54
about their first parents because the Lamanite story of
38:58
the first parents was different than the Nephite story of the
39:00
first parents. And Jacob loves his parents and
39:04
he loves his Big Brother and he wants it the story to be
39:08
different. So after that little discussion
39:10
on the plates, he goes on in verse four and five to talk
39:15
about the intent of the Law of Moses, and this can also be seen
39:23
as his prophecy. Verse four.
39:25
For this intent have we written these things that they may know
39:29
that we knew of Christ and had a hope of his glory many hundreds
39:34
years before his coming, you know?
39:36
Yeah, and that's important that what he is aware of.
39:40
They know that Christ won't come for a long time because Lehigh
39:44
had said that it'll be 600 years and it hasn't been 600 years.
39:49
You can imagine if a prophet today said, well, in 500 years
39:54
this is going to happen. Yeah, we'd start counting our
39:56
days. Well, not quite.
39:58
I'm not going to be around for that.
40:01
He does, though, want to reinforce this, that we we want
40:06
you to know that we know that something will happen, and we
40:09
will know when we know of Christ.
40:12
I also like his focus on the law of Moses, the intent that we
40:16
keep the law of Moses, Moses. This is verse five.
40:19
It pointing our souls to him. And for this 'cause it is
40:24
sanctified unto us, meaning it will we will become holy.
40:28
And then he talks about how Abraham had to do it in
40:30
similitude of the Savior. And then in verse 6 we search
40:35
the prophets and we have many revelations and the spirit of
40:39
prophecy. And having all these witnesses
40:42
we obtain hope and our faith becomes unshaken, just like his
40:47
brother Nephi quoted. He now says because I study the
40:50
scriptures and I receive witnesses of Christ, my faith
40:54
becomes unshaken. I wonder, as Jacob and his
40:56
people read the scriptures that they have on the brass plates,
41:01
if they aren't now going through and saying, let's see if we can
41:04
find Christ. Ah, just like we do and the
41:08
early Christians did. That hasn't happened yet.
41:11
When we read we look backwards and we can say oh, when Isaiah
41:16
said this we can see that he was Speaking of Christ.
41:19
So the the Nephite reading is always looking for and they are
41:23
there if you are looking with that mentality.
41:26
Beauty of the Book of Mormon. The whole thing is focused on
41:30
our Savior, and I hope that that just infiltrates every part of
41:34
it. And and they must have had that
41:37
same mentality because they are finding things.
41:41
And especially when we talk about Zenith next time and the
41:45
allegory of the olive tree, that's a whole big prophecy
41:50
about the Lord and how he will tend the olive tree which
41:57
represents the House of Israel. And in order to prepare for that
42:00
olive tree, Jacob introduces 2 questions.
42:04
So he's been talking a lot about Christ that we need to take
42:06
counsel from his hand. Don't seek to counsel the Lord,
42:09
especially in our prayers. Don't tell him how to run your
42:12
life. But then in verse 12 he says for
42:15
why not speak of the atonement of Christ and to obtain a
42:20
perfect knowledge of him? And he says, I want to talk of
42:23
Christ, I want to point to Christ, I want to have a see
42:26
him. And Joseph Smith said, the way
42:28
you understand a parable is by going back and looking at the
42:31
questions. And we've got two questions
42:33
right here before the pair, right here before the allegory.
42:36
One's in verse 12 about the Atonement and the other is in
42:40
verse 17. How is it possible that these,
42:45
after having rejected the Schur Foundation, can ever build upon
42:48
it, that it may become the head of the corner?
42:51
And with those two questions, we'll wait until next week to
42:54
talk about the rest of the answer to these two questions
42:59
that are so beautifully described in the allegory of
43:02
Jacob's Olive Tree. And I hope in your scripture
43:06
study this week that this will motivate you to dive deeper into
43:09
the text. We want this to just be an
43:12
invitation to get more out of the word of God.
43:15
It has been a joy to work with you today, and it's always a joy
43:18
to feel the Spirit of the Lord as we study our scriptures and
43:22
leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ.
43:24
Amen, Amen.