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
The devil must have known that he was facing his most powerful adversary when he came to tempt the Savior. In fact, the sting of his defeat in the war in heaven might still have been fresh in his mind. While Satan's temptations were surely intense and relentless, the passage in Matthew 4 seems to be a defining moment in Christ's triumph over evil. I like to imagine that the devil pulled out all the stops, and unleashed his most corrosive and poisonous venom in tempting the Savior. Maybe the temptations Jesus faced are not the most fatal weapons in the devil's arsenal, but they are diabolical. By learning to recognize and thwart similar devises, we can avoid the destruction he has prepared for us. Jesus Was Led up of the Spirit, into the Wilderness, to Be with God The Joseph Smith Translation (JST) of Matthew 4 makes and important clarification regarding Christ's purpose for going to the wilderness. Verse 1 reads, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into