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
Jesus taught pragmatism and flexibility in keeping the commandments. When he was criticized for picking grain to eat on the sabbath, he offered an example from the life of King David eating sacred shew bread when he was hungry, and the analogy of priests laboring in their temple duties on the Sabbath to illustrate how there may be exceptions to certain religious rules under extenuative circumstances (Matthew 12:4-6). When Jesus was asked if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath, he used an analogy of a sheep that has fallen in a pit to imply that there is a hierarchy among the commandments of God, and that procedural aspects of the law should not get in the way of higher spiritual priorities. Over the last few years I've had a number of opportunities to interpret for Elder Peter F. Meurs of the Asia Area Presidency while he has conducted training sessions for Bishops and Stake Presidents in Taiwan. I have heard him apply this principle to helping new and returning members of