Post by Joseph –
The “Allegory of Zenos” as taught by my brother Jacob outlines various aspects of the history of the house of Israel from its beginning to the end of the world. Jacob uses the allegory to teach how those who reject Jesus Christ as their foundation stone can return and build on Him. As it fits into the history of the world, you can imagine it is long. So to summarize the history of God’s relationship with the House of Israel in one sentence – “God, loves His children so much that He gives them every chance to repent and return unto Him, and He will never give up on us, doing everything in His power, to preserve us and He uses the house of Israel and the covenants He has made with them to bless all of His children.” Jacob didn’t think that summary was sufficient, so let me continue.
Consider for a moment what this allegory must mean to our people. You’re right – practically nothing. Jacob has struggled with His might to encourage our people to abandon the many sins which come by way of pride and immorality and he wants so much for our people to live after the manner of happiness as described by Nephi. As Jacob looks at our pride and he compares our position in the history of the world as outlined in the allegory, he fears “because of pride, we have begun to take strength unto ourselves and thereby we will overcome the roots which are good.” (5:48) Jacob gets it, our people don’t. Thus, his trying to put our lives in perspective with this allegory which Zenos so profoundly used to teach us God’s dealing with the house of Israel, is one of Jacob’s efforts to encourage our repentance.
I mentioned this means very little to many of our people right now. Consider this: Very few of our people are not my direct blood relations – Zoram’s children are really the only ones. Yet through marriage, they are. If you recall, Zoram married Ishmael’s oldest daughter, and together they had several children, including some very special daughters who were also born in the wilderness. Needless to say Jacob and I are very close to the children born with us in the wilderness, but they are not all as interested in the things of the Lord as we are. Their interests and concerns really center around the things of today. How God planted an olive tree and dunged about it because it was bearing bad fruit doesn’t mean much to them. Even my children don’t completely get the picture. For this reason I have convinced Jacob to let me share this allegory – in a way my children will get it.
In the next few blog posts I will share the actual Allegory of Zenos – my way.
