Skip to main content

9 - 15 Mar - Learn With Joy and Not With Sorrow - Jacob 1 - 4

Jacob 1 - That We Might Persuade Them to Come Unto Christ I'm taking an online economics class right now, which prompted me to think of the definition of economics in the context of the scriptures. Economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources. In the case of Nephi and his successor Jacob, the plates upon which they engraved their record was a scarce resource. They were costly to make and difficult to engrave, and instilling a tradition of passing them through generations was surely cumbersome.  Recognizing the great importance of spiritual things and the challenge of maintaining records, Nephi instructed Jacob to prioritize religious instruction saying, " if there were preaching which was sacred, or revelation which was great, or prophesying, that I should engraven the heads of them upon these plates, and touch upon them as much as it were possible, for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of our people" (Jacob 1:4).   This priority was not only reflecte...
1 comment

2 Nephi 14 - The Fruit of the Earth


When I was in elementary school, my job was to take care of the yard. I remember spending hours alone weeding, tilling, edging, and mowing and feeling a sense of satisfaction when I would se plants grow. I think that is why the passages of the scriptures that use gardening as a metaphor are so resonant with me. Quoting Isaiah, Nephi prophesies that "In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the earth excellent and comely to them that are escaped of Israel" (2 Nephi 14:2). I like to think of the branch of the Lord as the organization of his followers--His church--and the fruit of that branch as their righteous words and actions. We bear fruit as we try to follow God's will, keep His commandments, and bless others.

 The other beautiful image in this passages reflects the loving protection and guidance that our Heavenly Father offers. Isaiah describes "a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night" that protects the children of God from evil and directs their path (2 Nephi 14:5). The children of Israel received similar help as they left the land of Egypt: "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people" (Exodus 13:21-22). This scene is summarized in the hymn Redeemer of Israel:

 Redeemer of Israel,
Our only delight,
On whom for a blessing we call,
Our shadow by day
And our pillar by night,
Our King, our Deliv’rer, our all!

 I know that God is able and stands ready to help us produce fruit. His protection and guidance does not remove obstacles from our path, but it ensures that events in our lives happen FOR us and not just TO us. 

 Image Credit:  Unknown

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1 Nephi 17 - That I May Find Ore to Molten, That I May Make Tools

Nephi is given the daunting task of constructing a ship to carry his family across the ocean. Like Nephi, the Lord asks us to do things that are beyond our current knowledge and ability with a promise that he will help us: "And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them ( 1 Nephi 17:3 ) From the experience of Nephi and his family, we can also see that the Lord grants us joy in our trials and certainty in his direction when we follow his commandments. When Nephi and his family reached the seashore, a brief respite before crossing the ocean, they enjoyed the break and celebrated their progress: "Notwithstanding we had suffered many afflictions and much difficulty, yea, even so much that we cannot write them all, we were exceedingly rejoiced when we came to the seashore; and we called the place Bountiful, because of its m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mosiah 16 - Speaking of Things to Come as Though They Had Already Come

Abinidi explains how Christ's atonement heals and redeems the righteous, while the wicked remain in their sins to be judged. The remarkable thing to me about Abinidi's teachings, and the teachings of all the Book of Mormon prophets who lived before Christ, is their level of conviction in what where, at the time, future events. Christ had not come yet. They looked forward to the ministry and atonement of Christ and were fully persuaded of its reality and the eternal impact it would have. It is hard enough to believe in Christ and follow His teachings after the fact, even with records of His life, and hundreds of millions of people who share a belief in Christ's divinity. But all that Abinidi and other prophets of his time had were their own revelations and inspiration from the Spirit.  Abinidi also alludes to Christ's own faith saying, "now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there coul...
Post a Comment
Read more

Matthew 3 - Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord Isaiah prophesied of the ministry of John the Baptism and described his role as "t he  voice  of him that crieth in the wilderness,  Prepare  ye the  way  of the  Lord , make straight in the desert a  highway for our God" (Isaiah 40:3). John fulfilled this prophesy and commanded the people to  “prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Matthew 3:3). The way that John prepared for the Savior was by preaching repentance and prophesying of the establishment of the church on the earth: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand“ (Matthew 3:2). In the same way that John helped prepare a people to receive Jesus Christ at his first coming, the preparatory work that we all must do to invite the Savior into our lives is to repent.  I may be taking the metaphor too far to note that our efforts to repent do not in themselves bring the Savior to us, or enac...
Post a Comment
Read more