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1 And now, behold, my brethren, as I said unto you that I would prophesy, behold, this is my prophecy—that the things which this prophet Zenos spake, concerning the house of Israel, in the which he likened them unto a tame olive-tree, must surely come to pass.
Structural: Jacob says that he will prophesy, and he does. virtually his entire prophecy is included in the affirmation that the allegorical events "must surely come to pass." For Jacob, prophesy is more than giving word of the future. In Jacob's use of the term, utterances under the power of his prophetic position are included under the umbrella of "prophesy," not because they foresee the future, but because they declare truth of God. This chapter will shift from this very succinct "prophecy" to admonitions to his people. Those admonitions will be the bulk of the text of the discourse, and fall under the rubric of true statements by a prophet - and therefore "prophecy" in this much wider definition.
2 And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people, is the day, yea, even the last time, that the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his power, to nourish and prune his vineyard; and after that the end soon cometh.
3 And how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard; and how cursed are they who shall be cast out into their own place! And the world shall be burned with fire.
4 And how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel, both roots and branches; and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long; and they are a stiffnecked and a gainsaying people; but as many as will not harden their hearts shall be saved in the kingdom of God.
5 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts.
That the allegory places this event in the last days, and that Jacob certainly understands that the events to which the allegory alludes are far into the future, he nevertheless personalizes and makes immediate the message of repentance. As a people of Israel, the eschatological future will be as the allegory depicts it, but for the individual, such decisions are perforce immediate. No man who has received the gospel can assume that judgement comes only at some faroff point, and happens to far distant peoples. Each of us will come to our own individual judgement regardless of how the timeline of our individual lives meshes with the great timelessness of eternity. It is to our own individual salvation that Jacob turns, reminding his people, and through the, us, that we are accountable ourselves, and this ultimate judgement between good and evil for the world in general will inevitably happen for our own lives.
6 Yea, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; for why will ye die?
Jacob does not tell us what it is that would require their repentance. This discourse appears to come at a very different time that the discourse of the early chapters of Jacob. At the end of chapter 3 he concludes that first discourse with a very determined ending: "Jacob 3:14 These plates are called the plates of Jacob, and they were made by the hand of Nephi. And I make an end of speaking these words." The intervening chapter discusses the plates and the reason for writing upon them, and now we have this sermon. It is quite likely that the problems explicitly discussed in his first sermon (pride and particularly the multiple wives) are sins that remain with the people. Jacob would not be the first, and certainly not the last, prophet to admonish his people and have only a limited effect upon changing their behaviors. In the absence of other specific sins, we may assume that the same conditions exist, and that Jacob continues to call to repentance, though no longer needed to elucidate the specific sins. They would have known what concerned Jacob, and the repetition was superfluous for them. It was the continued call to repentance that was important. If this hypothesis is correct, then the question Jacob asks "why will ye die" refers very specifically to their choice to continue practice which Jacob has declared against the will of God.
7 For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good word of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be hewn down and cast into the fire?
In this they are the main tree whose branches are producing evil fruit. they have what they need to turn to God and live, yet are choosing to turn to evil in God's eyes. Sociological: Jacob does not delineate his audience, but we may assume that this is a general speech to the community, such as the others that have been recorded. When we attempt to visualize early Nephite communities, it is tempting to depict them as a tight community of believers. Jacob's two recorded sermons will not allow that picture. Certainly some of the seeds of Jacob's current religious problem were sown in the days of Nephi, but they have come to bloom during Jacob's ministry. Returning to the reconstruction of the social pressures on these early Nephites, their rise to some renown and wealth has placed them in the path of other cultures and competing cities. The economic competition has opened the door for practices that are contrary to the will of God, but probably modeled on acceptable behaviors for these other communities. Where Nephi' original rulership certainly combined the religious and the secular, it appears that society is making some tacit separations, and redefining themselves away from the Israelite cultural roots and towards their non-believing neighbors. Jacob sees this process as the branches of the natural tree becoming wild. The allegory of Zenos is made very personal by the events around him as he sees elements of the Israelite religious/cultural core slipping into apostasy before him.
8 Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you?
In spite of his powerful preaching, it is also apparent that he is speaking to an unrepentant audience. We know that this is not the first time he has called them to repentance, but the urgency and anguish in this post is extreme. The conclusion of this address suggests some finality, and a rather sad one for Jacob. He has seen a people who have, during his lifetime, changed from a community built on faith in God and following the inspired leadership of Nephi, to a secular community following the customs and practices of the world. Even more painful to Jacob is his inability to sway them for the course that he sees they have set upon.
9 Know ye not that if ye will do these things, that the power of the redemption and the resurrection, which is in Christ, will bring you to stand with shame and awful guilt before the bar of God?
Sociological: It was noted in the discussion of Jacob's first discourse in the book of Jacob that he appears to have to legal power to compel the people. That separation from the seat of power is even more apparent here. To fully comprehend the significance of the pleading Jacob before the congregation, we need to rehearse the nature of many ancient societies. For the ancient world, the realm of religion and politics were not that far separate. The Jerusalem inheritance of the Lehites would have been a political king, but a king serving under at least the presumption of the support of religion through the anointing ceremony. In addition, much of the other political offices would have been occupied by priests. In the subsequent years after the fall of the first temple. the priestly class exerted even more political power. In Mesoamerica, rulership was also presumed to be sanctioned by the gods, and ruling families were also likely to supply priests in the smaller city states, though this situation changes with the larger state-like Aztec empire. Nevertheless, the ability to rule even in the late Aztec empire was dependent upon tracing legitimacy to a line sanctioned by the gods. In societies with such strong religious underpinnings of social structure, the threat of religious sanction was extreme. The Jerusalem example from the time of Christ indicates the power of a priestly class to effect a death sentence, even when they themselves could not pronounce it. So in other ancient cultures, the variety of religious sanctions could easily range from death or exile to milder forms of control. In a society as closely intertwined with religion as were most ancient cultures, the violation of a rule of god was a violation of the rule and sanctity of the community itself. For many cultures, violating a rule of god risked the wrath of that god, a condition which could not be tolerated. We have in Jacob a situation where a number of the people are violating a command of god, and Jacob exercises no direct authority over them. He does not threaten exile/excommunication, which would be a typical way of handling a major threat to the social organization. He does not declare them under sanction of the ruling body of the religion. Jacob pleads. We may read into this situation a couple of principles. First, the concept of the personalization of religion was instituted very early in Nephite society, such that the moral responsibility for religious orthodoxy was individual rather than social. For the modern world this may seem all too obvious, but it is a significant departure form most smaller ancient cultures. Perhaps this is the heritage of Jerusalem showing in the way the gospel was preached, for this is a religious principle typically advanced for ancient communities, but was present to a fairly great degree in the practices of Israel. Biblical Israel was often decried by the prophets for her attraction to the high places, a reference to foreign worship. Thus the nature of religion among the Nephites was significantly different from that of surrounding communities not only in the doctrines, but in the individual versus community emphasis on the way religion was implemented. We may next infer that Jacob has no political/religious power. While he is able to decry the actions of his population, there is nothing he can do about it directly. This suggests a greater division between religion and political power than would have existed when both Nephi and Jacob were together. In the time period after Nephi's death, Jacob continues to appear marginalized in his direct authority over his people, even when (as is the case in this discourse) when he is declaring prophetic authority for his words. With the hints from the earlier discourse, and the continuous nature of what Jacob clearly sees as a major apostasy from the right way, we may see a picture of a community under rapid social transformation in the years after Nephi's death, with a consequence being the alteration of the lines of political and religious power. Most clearly, we will see that Jacob's lineage will be increasingly marginalized, and when we emerge from the small plate tradition to rejoin the large plates, the nature of politics and religion will perforce be of a different character than pictured in the small plate tradition. Certainly the good news is that the schism between politics and religion becomes healed, with a return to the king as prime religious figure (such as King Benjamin), but the lineage paths for the description of power will have altered such that Jacob's lineage is no longer part of the priestly tradition, with that focus returning to the regnal line. It is not as clear how the social fabric will fare through this transition, but if the inability of Jacob to effect a change at this early stage is a telling model, then we may expect that the continued affluence of these Nephites with their external sources of wealth will continue to alter the expectations of the social structure. By the time of Benjamin, we will likely be dealing with a thoroughly Mesoamericanized physical culture, with a unique religion that remains attached to the central government. Since Benjamin is also involved in the transition to Zarahemla, we will also see that the Zarahemla manifestation of religion will probably represent a renewal of the earlier religion.
10 And according to the power of justice, for justice cannot be denied, ye must go away into that lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever, which lake of fire and brimstone is endless torment.
11 O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life. Jacob 6:12 12 O be wise; what can I say more?
13 Finally, I bid you farewell, until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear. Amen.
Sperry suggests: "It is very probable that Jacob meant to end his book at this point; the quotation seems to imply that fact. However, later events caused him to add the historical matter now found in the last chapter of his record." (Sperry, Sidney B. Book of Mormon Compendium. Bookcraft, 1968, p. 266). The problem with this analysis is that it recognizes the finality of the statement, but misses the intended audience. Jacob is speaking to a present audience when he delivers that statement, unlike his actual final statement at the end of chapter 7: " Jacob 7:27 And I, Jacob, saw that I must soon go down to my grave; wherefore, I said unto my son Enos: Take these plates. And I told him the things which my brother Nephi had commanded me, and he promised obedience unto the commands. And I make an end of my writing upon these plates, which writing has been small; and to the reader I bid farewell, hoping that many of my brethren may read my words. Brethren, adieu." In his actual final statement there is no question but that Jacob is speaking to the readers of his text. In the present case, however, this is the final statement of a recorded sermon. It is that present context that makes the statement most fascinating, and suggests a rather different explanation. This is complete speculation built on a very few fragments of evidence, but I suggest that we have in this discourse the final discourse of Jacob as a head priest. What is final is not his life, but his position, and the termination of his functioning in that position is the reason for the finality of the benediction. His farewell is a formal one, which places his position as a mouthpiece for God against their actions, and declares that the ultimate judgement between them (the congregation he is exhorting and himself) will be at the bar of God. What evidence may be presented for this hypothesis? The first is the discussed marginalization of Jacob. He has little power, and exerts none but the power of personal testimony in this discourse. Secondly, there is very clearly a cultural shift occurring in the population, evidenced by the social divisions occasioned by the practice of multiple wives (and probably wife-exchange, as noted earlier). This influx of ideas from outside influences has been sufficiently powerful that not only have many followed in these foreign cultural practices, but those who have done so are the wealthy who apparently are gaining greater say in the governance of the community. The gulf between the practices of the community and the exhortations of Jacob as chief high priest would have been tremendous, and certainly Jacob intended to make them as obvious and painful as possible. Since the evidence of this sermon suggests that there was little or no repentance after his first sermon, we would have the situation of a prophet verbally attacking the character of the leaders of the community. That is a situation that such leaders would not long endure, and since they have not conformed themselves to Jacob's requests for repentance, the next logical step would be for the removal of Jacob from an official position. This suggested removal of Jacob from a position in the official religious structure explains some interesting subtleties in the story of Jacob and Sherem in the next chapter. |
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| by Brant Gardner. Copyright 1999 |
Jacob
6:1
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