Jacob 4:2 whatsoever things we write upon anything save it be upon
plates must perish and vanish away
The fact that the Nephite
record was recorded on metal plates is a testimony that the work was commanded of
the Lord. The Lord knew that the record must be preserved in its perfect form
for translation by the power of God. Consider the difference between the record
of the Book of Mormon—a perfectly preserved record, and the Dead Sea
Scrolls—written on parchment that has suffered the effects of time and aging.
Although written hundreds of years after the small plates of Nephi, the scrolls
were found in thousands of pieces. The larger ones were put together like the
pieces of a puzzle to restore the record. A considerable amount of time and
effort goes into arranging the pieces, restoring the original lettering, and
deciphering faded images. Joseph Smith didn’t have to spend any time in such
endeavors. The wisdom of the Lord had preserved the golden plates in a stone
box. Of the thirteen people who witnessed the plates, none of them ever
mentioned seeing any signs of aging or corrosion on the record, only that the
characters themselves seemed to be of ancient origin.
Jacob 4:3 hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will
receive them with thankful hearts
The appropriate response to
receiving the word of God in the Book of Mormon is a feeling of great gratitude
for those who took the time to laboriously engrave the characters on the plates
in what must have been a very tedious process. Note the Lord’s disgust with the
Christian nations who received the Bible from the Jews but completely lacked
this gratitude, what thank they the Jews for the
Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they
remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their
diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles? (2 Ne
29:4) We should not be cavalier in our attitude towards the Book of Mormon. It
was created for us at great pains and personal sacrifice by many great and
wonderful men and should be received with thankful
hearts.
Jacob 4:5 we keep the law of Moses, it pointing our souls to him
“The
law of Moses was the type, Jesus the antitype; he was that toward which all
creation looked and waited. The law was
the symbol, Jesus the ultimate reality toward which it pointed. The law was the means, Jesus the end. These simple but pertinent verities are all
but lost in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament. Only through the clarifying and illuminating
lenses of the Book of Mormon do we come to know that the law was anything more
than a schoolmaster or teaching device.
The law of Moses-including the intricate system of animal sacrifices-was
the prophecy; Jesus was the grand fulfillment of the prophecy.
“’Behold,’ Nephi stated, ‘my
soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ;
for, for this end hath the law of Moses been given; and all things which have
been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying
of him’ (2 Nephi 11:4). After
having explained the need for ‘the great and last
sacrifice’ of the Son of God, Amulek said, ‘this
is the whole meaning of the law [of Moses],
every whit pointing to that great and last sacrifice; and that great and last
sacrifice will be the Son of God, yea, infinite and eternal’ (Alma
34:14).”
(McConkie and Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol.
2, p. 34)
Jacob 4:5 Abraham…offering up his son Isaac, which is a similitude
of God and his Only Begotten Son
Many are familiar with the
similarities between the story of Abraham and Isaac and the story of Elohim and
Jehovah. What is sometimes underappreciated is how atrocious the practice of
human sacrifice must have been to Abraham. Abraham had revolted from his father
because of his father’s idolatrous practices. While still in Chaldea, he knew
that the idolatrous priest had sacrificed three
virgins at one time…these virgins were offered up because of their virtue
(Abr 1:11). Abraham himself was laid on the altar of the priest of Elkenah and
narrowly escaped becoming a human sacrifice himself. Human sacrifice must have
been a repugnant concept to him. It was these atrocities against which Abraham
was rebelling when he sought to be a follower of
righteousness (Abr 1:1).
Nevertheless, when Abraham
receives the commandment from the Lord to offer up his son, Isaac, there is no
wavering. He does not question the Lord even though the offering of Isaac was
in many ways similar to all the pagan rituals of his father. He did not
question. He proceeded with faith saying, My son,
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering (Gen 22:8).
Jacob 4:6 we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very
trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea
Jacob must have had faith as
the grain of a mustard seed. This is how much faith it takes to move mountains,
if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye
shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall
remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you (Matt 17:20). There
were others with this great power:
1) The Brother of Jared, For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin,
Remove—and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it would not have moved (Ether
12:30).
2) To Nephi the brother of Lehi, the Lord
said, I will bless thee forever; and I will make
thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all
things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask
that which is contrary to my will…ye shall have power over this people, and
shall smite the earth with famine, and with pestilence, and destruction,
according to the wickedness of this people…And if ye shall say unto this
mountain, Be thou cast down and become smooth, it shall be done (Hel
10:5-6).
3) Of Enoch Moses wrote, And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people
of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of
the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his
command (Moses 7:13).
Jacob 4:7 it is by his grace…that we have power to do these things
Jacob exercises the appropriate
humility by not taking credit for the great power given to him. Were he to take
credit himself, he would exhibit pride and would thereby lose his ability to
command the elements. For the powers of heaven
cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness…when
we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride…the heavens withdraw
themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen
to the priesthood or the authority of that man (DC 121:36-7). Also
notice the similarities between the language of Jacob in this verse (the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that
it is by his grace) and the oft quoted scripture in Ether, I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my
grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me (Ether
12:27). In summary, whenever the faithful, mortal man exhibits weakness, the
grace of God is sufficient to make up the difference.
Jacob 4:8 despise not the revelations of God
Neal A. Maxwell
“The
perspective-yielding truths of the Restoration did not come by research,
debate, or discussion, nor by communiques from councils. Direct, divine
revelation was required, and precisely for the reasons Jacob gave: ‘Behold, great and marvelous are the works of the Lord. How
unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of him; and it is impossible that
man should find out all his ways. And no man knoweth of his ways save it be
revealed unto him; wherefore, brethren, despise not the revelations of God.’
(Jacob 4:8.)
“We
cannot determine by using radio telescopes, for instance, that there is a plan
of salvation operating in the universe, helpful as radio telescopes are for
astrophysical purposes. Salvational truths are obtainable only by revelation.
“The
faith-yielding truths flowing from the ‘miraculous miracle’ have come in rich
abundance, in ‘good measure,’ like a harvest basket whose contents are ‘pressed down, and shaken together, and running over’
(Luke 6:38). In fact, as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has pointed out, more books
or pages of scripture have come to us through Joseph Smith than from any other
prophet-more even than from Moses, Luke, Paul, and Mormon combined! (Letter to
author from Jeffrey R. Holland, February 18, 1986.)
“Many
more scriptural writings will yet come to us, including those of Enoch (see
D&C 107:57), all of the writings of the Apostle John (see Ether 4:16), the
records of the lost tribes of Israel (see 2 Nephi 29:13), and the approximately
two-thirds of the Book of Mormon plates that were sealed: ‘And the day cometh that the words of the book which were
sealed shall be read upon the house tops; and they shall be read by the power
of Christ; and all things shall be revealed unto the children of men which ever
have been among the children of men, and which ever will be even unto the end
of the earth’ (2 Nephi 27:11). Today we carry convenient quadruple
combinations of the scriptures, but one day, since more scriptures are coming,
we may need to pull little red wagons brimful with books.” (A Wonderful
Flood of Light, p. 17-8)
Elder Alvin R. Dyer
“Again
Moroni, another Book of Mormon prophet, speaks of those who would deny
revelation.
‘And again I
speak unto you who deny the revelations of God, and say that they are done
away, that there are no revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts nor healing, nor
speaking with tongues, and the interpretation of tongues;
Behold I say unto you,
he that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ; yea, he has not
read the scriptures; if so, he does not understand them.
For do we not read that
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no
variableness neither shadow of changing?’
(Mormon 9:7-9.)
“The
revelations from God are a great expediency in leading man unto eternal life
and exaltation. Yet in every age where God's will has been expressed unto his
people, there have been those who have failed to obey and who have in some
instances rebelled against the revealed word of God.” (Conference Reports, Oct.
1959, p. 22)
Jacob 4:9 earth was created by the power of his word
Some of the fundamental
questions of the creation are “what is the process by which the creation takes
place?” or “how exactly is it done?” That God the Father created the heavens and
the earth by his Son, Jesus Christ is clear enough. But what did the pre-mortal
Jehovah do? Did he physically gather unorganized matter, mold it with his hands
and produce life in a cosmic test-tube? Obviously not! The scriptures tell us
exactly how it was done—by the power of his word.
This phrase has two
implications. First, the scriptures clearly demonstrate that “the Word” is
another synonym for Jesus Christ. The most famous scripture which teaches this
is John 1:1-3, In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with
God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that
was made. Therefore, God the Father created the earth by the power of his word—or by the power of Jesus
Christ.
The second and less obvious
implication is that the process of creation takes place by the power of the
spoken word. How did Jesus Christ gather the elements? He simply commanded that
the unorganized matter become earth. The power of his priesthood had force over
the elements which obeyed his every command in the creation. This pattern of
creation is apparent from the book of Abraham, And
the Gods watched those things which they had ordered until they obeyed…And the
Gods saw that they would be obeyed, and that their plan was good (Abr
4:18, 21). How much more simply could it be stated? The process of creation is
to order the elements to combine into land, sea, sun, moon, atmosphere, plants,
animals, etc. Once commanded, the elements respond to the priesthood of the
great Creator, and obey as commanded. As Jacob states, God was able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was
created.
Jacob 4:10 seek not to counsel the Lord
A very common tendency among
self-righteous Mormons is to question the way the Church handles its affairs.
This insubordination, when expressed, is effectively seeking to counsel the
Lord.
Boyd K. Packer
“Some
among us would rather criticize the Lord and His church than concentrate on the
problems. That is a symptom of impenitence.
“Follow
the Brethren.… If you don't understand a problem or a position of the Church,
restrain your tongue. Check the mote in your own eye before you criticize.…
There is nothing in your lives that will destroy you if you will follow the
Brethren. Enough evil doesn't exist in the world, even if it were brought
together and focused on you, to destroy you except you consent to it."
(Lucille C. Tate, Boyd K. Packer: A Watchman on the Tower, p. 158)
Harold B. Lee
“Mark
well those who speak evil of the Lord’s anointed, for they speak from impure
hearts. Only the ‘pure in heart’ see the ‘God’ or the divine in man and accept
our leaders and accept them as prophets of the Living God…
“I
want to bear you my testimony that the experience I have had has taught me that
those who criticize the leaders of this Church are showing signs of a spiritual
sickness which, unless curbed, will bring about eventually spiritual death. I
want to bear my testimony as well that those who in public seek by their
criticism to belittle our leaders or bring them into disrepute, will bring upon
themselves more hurt than upon those whom they seek thus to malign. I have
watched over the years, and I have read of the history of many of those who
fell away from this Church, and I want to bear testimony that no apostate who
ever left this Church ever prospered as an influence in his community
thereafter. (In Conference Report, October 1947, p. 67.)” (Brent L. Top, Larry
E. Dahl, and Walter D. Bowen, Follow the Living Prophets, p. 167-8)
Neal A. Maxwell
“Church
members will live in this wheat-and-tares situation until the Millennium. Some
real tares even masquerade as wheat, including the few eager individuals who
lecture the rest of us about Church doctrines in which they no longer believe.
They criticize the use of Church resources to which they no longer contribute.
They condescendingly seek to counsel the Brethren whom they no longer sustain.
Confrontive, except of themselves of course, they leave the Church but they cannot
leave the Church alone. (Ensign, May 1996, p. 68.)” (Cory Maxwell, The Neal
A. Maxwell Quote Book, p. 68)
Jacob 4:11 be reconciled unto him [that] ye may obtain a resurrection
This wording is curious
because it implies that the individual must be reconciled unto God in order to
be resurrected. That is not what Jacob means at all. We know that all mankind
will be resurrected without so much as lifting a finger. What Jacob is saying
is that we must be reconciled unto God in order to receive the resurrection of
the first-fruits, ye may obtain a resurrection…and
be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God. This phrase, “first
fruits”, applies only to the recipients of the Celestial kingdom. Therefore,
Jacob is exhorting us to be reconciled unto God so that we can obtain the
glorious resurrection of a celestial heir. Speaking of the “first fruits”, the
D & C says, They are Christ’s, the first fruits,
they who shall descend with him first, and they who are on the earth and in
their graves, who are first caught up to meet him; and all this by the voice of
the sounding of the trump of the angel of God (DC 88:98).
Jacob 4:13 the Spirit speaketh the truth…things as they really are,
and of things as they really will be
Joseph Smith is credited with
revealing the definition of truth, And truth is
knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come
(DC 93:24). These 19 words give the answer to one of the most fundamental
questions to face philosophers. Pilate asked the same question of the Savior, What is truth? (John 18:38) Unfortunately, Pilate
did not wait for an answer but went to consult with the Jews. We should not be
surprised that the same doctrine had been revealed to the Nephite prophets for
they had communed with the Almighty and learned of those truths that only the
Spirit teaches.
Jacob 4:14 the Jews were a stiffnecked people…and sought for things
that they could not understand
This scripture is of
paramount importance. So many have wondered why the writings of Isaiah are so
obscure and difficult to understand. The prophecies of Daniel, Ezekiel,
Jeremiah, or Zechariah can also be difficult. Why couldn’t these prophets give
their message in language that is easy to understand? The answer is given by
Jacob. Such was the manner of prophecy among the Jews. They actually sought for things that they could not understand.
As always, the Lord granted their request, because
they desired it.
Jacob also gives a classic
description of how it is that the Jews could have misunderstood the meaning of
their own law to the point that they could reject the Holy One of Israel. He
says that their blindness came by looking beyond the
mark. The “mark” that they should have been looking to was Jesus Christ.
The Jews were great at keeping some of the most minute statutes associated with
the Law of Moses, but having looked beyond the mark, they did not understand to
what purpose the Law was given. Hence the importance of Jacob’s previous
statement, we keep the law of Moses, it pointing our
souls to him (v. 5).
Joseph Fielding McConkie
explains the phenomenon of looking beyond the mark which was prevalent among
the Jewish intellectuals:
“So
rigid did the literal and ceremonial become that righteousness was overshadowed
by legalism and salvation became the reward for outward conformity. Pharisaism
and scholasticism ruled supreme. God himself was said to spend three hours a
day in the study of law.
‘All
liberty of thought was abrogated; all Gentile learning was forbidden; no
communion was allowed with the human intellect outside the Pharisaic pale.
Within the circle of Rabbinism the Jew was ‘the galley-slave of the most rigid
orthodoxy.’ The yoke of the Romans was not so exacting as that of the Rabbis,
which dominated over a man's whole existence and intruded itself into the most
trivial actions of life. The weak were tortured by the knowledge that they
could not so much as wash their hands or eat a meal without running the risk of
deadly offences. The ‘ordination’ of the Rabbis made them oracles for every
subject and every action, from the cleaning of the teeth to the last prayer in
which the dying commended their souls to God.’ (Farrar, Frederic W. History of
Interpretation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Co., 1961., pp. 60-61.)
‘The
hedge was made; its construction was regarded as the main function of
Rabbinism; it excluded all light from without and all egress from within; but
it was so carefully cultivated that the shrine itself was totally disregarded.
The Oral Law was first exalted as a necessary supplement to the Written Law;
then substituted in the place of it; and finally identified with the inferences
of the Rabbis.’ (Farrar, Frederic W. History of Interpretation. Grand Rapids,
MI: Baker Book House Co., 1961., p. 62.)” (Joseph Fielding McConkie, Gospel
Symbolism, pp. 217-8)
Neal A. Maxwell
“Jacob
speaks of ancient Judah as having rejected the words of its
prophets…Intellectual embroidery seems to have been preferred to the whole
clothing of the gospel—the frills to the fabric. In fact, one can even surmise
that complexity was preferred over plainness by some because in conceptual
complexity there might somehow be escape, or excuse, for noncompliance and for
failure. In any event, this incredible blindness which led to the rejection of
those truths spoken by prophets and which prevented the recognition of Jesus
for who he was, according to Jacob, came ‘by looking beyond the mark.’ Those
who look beyond plainness, beyond the prophets, beyond Christ, and beyond his
simple teachings waited in vain then, as they will wait in vain now. For only
the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us of things as they really are and
as they really will be. There is more realism in the revelations than in
reams of secular research, for secularism is congenitally shortsighted. Without
revelation and its absolute anchors, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints would also follow the fads of the day, as some churches have done; but
as Samuel Callan warned, the church that weds itself to the culture of the day
will ‘be a widow within each succeeding age.’ This is but one of the marks of
the ‘true and living’ Church: it is spared the fruits of faddism” (“On Being a
Light,” address delivered at the Salt Lake institute of Religion, 2 Jan. 1974,
p. 1 as taken from the 1981 Book of Mormon Institute Manual, p. 131)
Hugh Nibley contrasts the
Jews interest in difficult scripture with the lack of interest prevalent among
the Latter-day Saints. This scathing commentary is too insightful to be left
out of this discussion.
Hugh Nibley
“Yet
Joseph Smith commends their (the Jews’) intellectual efforts as a corrective to
the Latter-day Saints, who lean too far in the other direction, giving their young
people and old awards for zeal alone, zeal without knowledge--for sitting in
endless meetings, for dedicated conformity and unlimited capacity for suffering
boredom. We think it more commendable to get up at five a.m. to write a bad
book than to get up at nine o'clock to write a good one--that is pure zeal that
tends to breed a race of insufferable, self-righteous prigs and barren minds.
One has only to consider the present outpouring of ‘inspirational’ books in the
Church that bring little new in the way of knowledge: truisms and platitudes,
kitsch, and clichés have become our everyday diet. The Prophet would never
settle for that. ‘I advise all to go on to perfection, and search deeper and
deeper into the mysteries of Godliness. . . . It has always been my province to
dig up hidden mysteries--new things--for my hearers.’ It actually happens at
the BYU, and that not rarely, that students come to a teacher, usually at the
beginning of a term, with the sincere request that he refrain from teaching
them anything new. They have no desire, they explain, to hear what they do not
know already! I cannot imagine that happening at any other school, but maybe it
does. Unless we go on to other new things, we are stifling our powers.” (Approaching
Zion, p. 75)
Jacob 4:15-17 the Jews…will reject the stone upon which they might build
Apparently, the brass plates
of Laban contained the Psalms. Jacob is quoting Psalms 118:22 which states, The stone which the builders refused is become the
head stone of the corner. (Note that the Jacob uses the phrase ‘the head of their corner’—leaving out the word
“stone.” This underscores the significance of italicized words seen in the
Bible. When a Bible word is italicized, it means that there was no
representation for that word in the original text and that the translators
placed it there so that the phrase would make more sense. Thus we see that
Jacob, quoting from the brass plates, did not include the word, not because it
is not helpful, but because it was not represented in his copy of Psalms.) This
scriptural passage is transcendent because it prophecies that the Jews will
reject the Savior. Granted the language is not plain and simple but the meaning
is unequivocal. The stone is Jesus Christ. It is rejected by the builders—the
Jews. Yet the rejected stone is to become the head
of their corner, the chief cornerstone, or the
great, and the last, and the only sure foundation, upon which the Jews can
build.