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
King Noah faced internal political opposition and was nearly killed by a man named Gideon. At the climax of the conflict, Noah was temporarily spared when Lamanites invaded the land, took the people captive, and required them to pay an annual tribute in exchange for their lives. In the course of battle Noah and his priests left their wives and children and fled into the wilderness. Outraged, King Noah's priests turned on him and burned him to death, fulfilling Abinidi's prophecy. Noah's son Limhi ruled in his father's place and the people lived peacefully for two years as vassals of the Lamanites.
What an interesting position for Limhi. We learn that despite his father's wickedness he was a "just man" and worked to reestablish peace for his people as subjects to the Lamanites. The record states "Limhi was desirous that his father should not be destroyed; nevertheless, Limhi was not ignorant of the iniquities of his father, he himself being a just man" (Mosiah 19:17). Limhi regarded his father with objectivity and love. He maintained a desire for his father's well-being without denying the demands of justice. We can use a similar approach to consider the difficult people in our lives.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks explained risks inherent in making final judgements and the approach we should take instead in making righteous judgments in a talk given on 1 March 1998 at Brigham Young University. He said:
"Since mortals cannot suppose that they will be acting as final judges at that future, sacred time, why did the Savior command that we not judge final judgments? I believe this commandment was given because we presume to make final judgments whenever we proclaim that any particular person is going to hell (or to heaven) for a particular act or as of a particular time. When we do this—and there is great temptation to do so—we hurt ourselves and the person we pretend to judge. The effect of one mortal’s attempting to pass final judgment on another mortal is analogous to the effect on an athlete and observers if we could proclaim the outcome of an athletic contest with certainty while it was still under way. A similar reason forbids our presuming to make final judgments on the outcome of any person’s lifelong mortal contest."
He went on to explain the criteria of righteous judgments as follows:
- First, a righteous judgment must, by definition, be intermediate.
- Second, a righteous judgment will be guided by the Spirit of the Lord, not by anger, revenge, jealousy, or self-interest.
- Third, to be righteous, an intermediate judgment must be within our stewardship. We should not presume to exercise and act upon judgments that are outside our personal responsibilities.
- Fourth, we should, if possible, refrain from judging until we have adequate knowledge of the facts.
Obviously must make intermediate judgments to exercise our agency and protect ourselves and our family. Our righteous intermediate judgments may require us to distance ourselves from certain people or situations, establish boundaries, or dole out punishments, but in all cases we can do so from a place of love and goodwill.
Application Questions
How can you make judgments and set boundaries that ensure you care for your own needs and those of your family? What helps you do so from a place of love?
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