Post by Joseph –
Though I haven’t contributed much to this blog, I do want to take an opportunity to sustain and support my brother Jacob in his recent messages where he has been firm in calling our people to repentance. First, please indulge me as I attempt to help you understand how he so deeply feels responsible for the spiritual welfare of our people.
Jacob is the fifth son of Lehi and Sariah, Jacob is the older of us two boys born in the wilderness, which was not long after our family left Jerusalem about 599 B.C. Jacob grew up during intense family strife caused by the rebellion of Laman and Lemuel, our two oldest brothers. Their rebellion was against the Lord, our prophet-father, and our obedient brothers, Nephi and Sam. The ship board mutiny of these two older brothers almost cost the lives of our grieving mother and our distraught father, Lehi. We were very young and didn’t fully understand what was happening but I remember being grieved because of the afflictions of our mother.
The family conflict and its consequences has greatly influenced Jacob’s life. By the time Jacob was approaching forty, Nephi had recorded in his writings, “We had already had wars and contentions with our brethren”. When my father Lehi, pronounced his patriarchal blessing on Jacob, he acknowledged the impact of the terrible conflict upon Jacob: “Thou art my first-born in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren”
For a long time my brother Jacob has been saddened by his failure to reclaim and restore the Lamanites. Jacob seems fearful for the future of our people, and he somehow feels personally responsible for the shortfall. Sometimes Jacob gets profoundly melancholic and poignant as he describes our condition. I have read what he as written, “Our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream: we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days”.
All of these afflictions however have no doubt played a key role, in spiritually attuning Jacob for his early appointment as a dynamic teacher, minister, and prophet to our people, and will probably be considered as one of the great theologians of my day. In fact, my father Lehi not only promised Jacob that God “will consecrate your afflictions for your gain” and foresaw that Jacob’s “days will be spent in the service of our God” but taught Jacob the principle of opposition, so vital to his grasp of the plan of redemption. Hopefully you remember the blog post where Jacob taught that there needs to be an opposition in all things. I love my older brother, he is so spiritually sensitive and obedient and faithful, and because he is, Jacob learned early “the greatness of God”. In blessing Jacob, my father Lehi reminded him that “thou hast beheld in thy youth his [the Redeemer’s) glory”, an event which Nephi affirmed by testifying that “Jacob, also has seen him [the premortal Christ) as I have seen him”. I am so very proud of my brothers – I guess you can tell why I love them so very much, what a righteous example they have set for me.
(l Nephi 18:7)(1 Nephi 18:17-18)(l Nephi 18:19)(2 Nephi 5:34)(2 Nephi 2:1).(Jacob 7:24)(Jacob 7:26)(2 Nephi 2:2-3)(2 Nephi 2:11)(2 Nephi 2:2)(2 Nephi 2: 4)(2 Nephi 11:3)
