Diagnosing Problems with the Corrupted Trees in Jacob 5

In Zeno’s allegory of the olive trees that Jacob quotes, there comes a point when the Lord of the vineyard finds all the trees are corrupted and giving bad fruit. It is interesting to see his and his servant’s diagnosis of the problem.

First the servant tries to find the silver lining in the cloud:

And the servant said unto his master: Behold, because thou didst graft in the branches of the wild olive tree they have nourished the roots, that they are alive and they have not perished; wherefore thou beholdest that they are yet good. (Jacob 5:34)

The servant observes the roots are still good, but notice—it is a bit backward to think that the branches are nourishing the roots. It is supposed to be the other way around.

In verse 37, the Lord of the vineyard has a different take on it:

But behold, the wild branches have grown and have overrun the roots thereof; and because that the wild branches have overcome the roots thereof it hath brought forth much evil fruit; and because that it hath brought forth so much evil fruit thou beholdest that it beginneth to perish; and it will soon become ripened, that it may be cast into the fire, except we should do something for it to preserve it.

The Lord of the vineyard says the branches have overrun the roots and overcome them. (So the branches may have thought they were nourishing the roots, but they were overrunning them instead.)

Then the servant gets a brainwave in verse 48:

And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard—have not the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good? And because the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. Behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted?

Loftiness of the vineyard is a great way of describing pride. Also, I notice it says when the branches overcame the roots, they grew faster than the roots and took strength to themselves. This is what happens in individuals too. When a person with no authority gets a notion they can nourish the rest of the church, they are actually overrunning it. But they think the overrun means they are stronger and better than everyone else (taking strength to themselves) and corruption follows.

I think there’s a hint of what to look out for in ourselves. If we think we are growing faster or are spiritually stronger than others around us, we may have a problem with pride. (I had this issue some years ago. It makes me shudder to think about it. I am so grateful for the Lord's mercy that He brought me to recognize my error. Because of that experience, my blogging is more to benefit me than for anyone else because the writing I do helps me learn. If anyone else benefits, that is icing on the cake.)

If we have the problem of loftiness and pride, it might be good to open our ears and see what nourishment we are missing while we think we have the answer to everything. It might be good to just focus on the basic principles and practices of the gospel for a long while to make sure we are doing all we can.

There are a few more warnings I notice in this chapter that are part of the diagnoses of the corrupted trees.

In verse 40:

And the wild fruit of the last had overcome that part of the tree which brought forth good fruit, even that the branch had withered away and died.

We might easily apply this to the Nephite civilization and point to how the Lamanites eventually overcame the righteous Nephites. However, it is true in individual life as well. If we have both good fruit and bad fruit in our lives, the bad tends to take over. It’s invasive, so we need to remove the bad branches, otherwise the good branches will wither away.

In verse 46:

…the trees thereof have become corrupted, that they bring forth no good fruit…But, behold, they have become like unto the wild olive tree…

Without good fruit, the good olive tree is just like the wild olive tree. We can’t be like other people who don’t have the gospel. We have to be different. With good fruit.

Jacob trying to keep his people from provoking God

 

Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest, lest by any means he should swear in his wrath they should not enter in, as in the provocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness. (Jacob 1:7)

Here Jacob tells us his major concern about his people—that with their stubbornness they would provoke the Lord into decreeing that they would not enter the rest of the Lord.

It is clear to me that Jacob used the stories of the children of Israel in the wilderness as an example of the consequences of rebelling, murmuring, and not believing the Lord. He realized that this wasn’t an isolated incident, but there was a danger it would happen in each generation of Israelite descendants. (And of course that means there is a danger it can happen today in the church.)

Jacob's words seem to have been influenced by Psalms 95:7-11:

7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

In Psalms it is pointed out that the Israelites saw the Lord’s work, tested Him, but apparently hardened their hearts anyway. That provoked the Lord.

We also gain more insight about what might have been taught if we read Hebrews 3:7-19:

7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;

15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?

19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Paul’s warning to the Saints is that they make sure they don’t depart from the Lord, follow the deceitfulness of sin, become hardened, and die in their sins.  Instead, they were to hold their confidence steadfast to the end.  In short, this appears to be about the need to endure to the end.

The Cunning Plan of the Evil One

27 But wo unto him that has the law given, yea, that has all the commandments of God, like unto us, and that transgresseth them, and that wasteth the days of his probation, for awful is his state!

28 O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.

29 But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God. (2 Nephi 27-29)

It’s a well-known scripture, memorized by many seminary students over the years.

Recently I was reading it over, and I noticed some things.

I noticed Jacob observes on the cunning plan of the evil one, but he doesn’t seem to elaborate on what that cunning plan is, but goes on talk about “the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men.”

I realized that we have to infer some things. We have to realize it is the devil who tries to use those things. He also tries to make us think our learning makes us wise enough that we don’t have to listen to the counsels of God.

Learning doesn’t automatically translate into wisdom, as I’m sure many of my readers know. “Learning” in the gospel is like knowing in your head that stealing is a sin, but “wisdom” could be represented as the point where you can realize when you’re being tempted to steal and you can resist it successfully once and for the rest of your life.

Jacob mourns over the vainness, frailties, and foolishness of men. It hit me this time reading that after having had a number of temptations recently targeted specifically at my vanity, frailties, and foolishness.  Satan really does try to use those things against us.

Vainness is our pride.  Because of our divine nature, we know we have the potential to become something so much greater…  But Satan tries to use that against us, twisting it into a desire for ascendency, hostility toward authority, notions that we are better than others.  He tries to use it to destroy any notion that we need to be humble. He wants to keep us from achieving the meekness that we need to turn to Christ, to repent, and to grow, and to learn from anyone else. 

Frailties represent our mortal weaknesses and limitations. We can’t live long without discovering we have these, yet Satan will try to conceal them from us.  Or he will try to make us think that we can’t overcome them, to make them into our prison. Or he will stress us in moments of weakness (hunger, loneliness, fatigue, discomfort) to get us to sin.

Foolishness.  Today we think this means “stupidity,” but it had a different meaning before, evoking the tendency to backslide, to err, to go apostate, to wander from the truth, or even to rebel.  Mormon observed on man’s falseness and unsteadiness, quickness to do iniquity and slowness to do good, how quick to be proud and slow to be humble. (see Helaman 12:1,4-5)  We all have a tendency to wander or divert, which we have to recognize and curtail whenever we notice it starting to take over. Satan tries to use it and exacerbate it.

Our best weapons against vanity, frailty, and foolishness are probably humility, grace, and repentance.

Kings and Queens as Nursing Fathers and Mothers

In 2 Nephi 6, Jacob discusses some verses of Isaiah in the context of prophesying about the future of the house of Israel, and he paraphrases Isaiah in an interesting way as he discusses. First the Isaiah quote:

6 And now, these are the words: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

7 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. (2 Nephi 6:6-7)

In these verses, the Gentiles seem to have a kind character, even humble, as they carry members of the house of Israel in their arms, nourish them, and bow to them. But Jacob’s reworking shows a different side:

Wherefore, they that fight against Zion and the covenant people of the Lord shall lick up the dust of their feet; and the people of the Lord shall not be ashamed. For the people of the Lord are they who wait for him; for they still wait for the coming of the Messiah. (2 Nephi 6:13)

Jacob interprets the dust-lickers as those who fight against Zion. It is possible he gets this from the similar language to how God cursed the serpent in Eden that it would eat dust all its life. Eating dust is a metaphor for sampling and consuming the gross filthy stuff that isn’t nourishing.

I think that the Isaiah verses describe a mixed set of behaviors—some of the Gentiles helping the house of Israel, and some others of the Gentiles fighting against Zion and ending up licking the dust off their feet.

A very interesting thing I noticed in Isaiah’s verses that I hadn’t seen before is that there is a mutual feeding going on, but the quality is not the same going each way. The Gentiles are nursing the house of Israel (mothers milk = nourishing), but licking the dust of the feet of Israel (gross, filthy, dirty = not nourishing).  The dust-lickers have perverted taste.

In what ways does that image describe reality? If we teach Christianity and the restored gospel, but then get excited about other philosophies and nature worship or some other –isms, that’s an unequal exchange.  Or, if we try to teach the gospel and write books on it, but all anyone ever wants from is the fiction we’ve written, then there’s some dust-licking going on there too. 

I think there lesson for us in these verses is we need to think carefully about the quality of what we nourish our minds and spirits with. Are we getting a good daily diet of milk and meat of the gospel, or are we eating dust?

The Greatness of the Task

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I was feeling burdened a few days ago by the demands of my particular leadership calling in cub scouts, and I felt I needed some scriptures to help buoy me up. I headed for my scriptures with a prayer in my heart that Heavenly Father would help me flip instantly to something that would help me.

Here’s where I turned to:

8 And it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul.

9 Wherefore, it burdeneth my soul that I should be constrained, because of the strict commandment which I have received from God, to admonish you according to your crimes, to enlarge the wounds of those who are already wounded, instead of consoling and healing their wounds; and those who have not been wounded, instead of feasting upon the pleasing word of God have daggers placed to pierce their souls and wound their delicate minds.

10 But, notwithstanding the greatness of the task, I must do according to the strict commands of God… (Jacob 2:8-10)

This was from Jacob, who was about to deliver a chastity talk and an anti-pride-and-materialism talk to the Nephites.

At first I wondered whether I was going to be admonished for sins that I didn’t realize I had. 

But then what suddenly struck me were Jacob’s words of how burdened he felt by the constraint of the Spirit to follow the commandment to admonish the people. But notwithstanding the great task and the overwhelm he felt as a leader, he waded into it determined to do what the Lord asked of him.

Aha! I thought, Another leader has felt overwhelmed by the demands of their calling. I’m not alone. Not that I’m required to admonish people for their sins right now, but it is neat to 1) find this openness in the scriptures about the burden of leadership and 2) find it right when I needed it.  Heavenly Father had answered my prayer, and that gave me just the encouragement I needed to get back to the stuff I needed to do.

See? Heavenly Father answers our prayers to receive knowledge and encouragement from the scriptures.

I honor and salute the church leaders, past and present, who do their duty despite their overwhelm, and who do it with such grace.  Sometimes it can seem like I am the only one who struggles. Maybe you feel the same in your calling.  Jacob’s words show us his struggle, and then we see his obedience and we can see how the Lord magnified his efforts. That gives hope that the Lord can also magnify our efforts.

Afflictions consecrated for our gain

1 And now, Jacob, I speak unto you: Thou art my firstborn in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren.

2 Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain. (2 Nephi 2:1-2)

That part about God consecrating our afflictions for our gain has to be one of those very comforting, but often overlooked principles.  We often repeat that bit from D&C 122 about our suffering being but for a small moment and how we will be exalted if we endure it well, but this adds the principle that our afflictions can become advantages to us and that we can profit from them.

I ran across this scripture at the end of May and I wrote about it in my scripture journal because the week before I read it I had taken a fall while mountain biking.  I scraped up my right palm pretty badly and I had a pretty bad gash in my right knee, along with a sprain that I didn’t notice until my cut was healing.  I found myself limping about, trying to keep my right knee straight so that the gash would have time to close.  I had to spend some time on crutches to give it a rest. Bending my knee was uncomfortable, and I yearned the day it would finally heal, when I’d be able to bend it normally and be active again. 

I wondered how that affliction would be consecrated for my gain, and I can now look back and say that I feel more sympathy for those who injure in those places.  (I’m sure we all wish we could have the proper sympathy without having to suffer something like that, but experience really is a great teacher.)  I also learned that it is possible to persevere and do things anyway when they have to be done. 

When our afflictions help us learn greater charity and perseverance, that certainly consecrates our afflictions for our gain.

How else might it help?

How the scriptures build our faith

I ran across these verses that I think perfectly capture the process by which reading the scriptures regularly builds our faith and testimony.

6 Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea.

7 Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things. (Jacob 4:6-7)

So first, we read the scriptures and search the prophecies in them.  In the process of doing that day after day, the Holy Ghost gives us daily revelation and even prophecies of Christ (testimonies of Christ).

Those revelations and prophecy join with the scriptures to become a cloud of witness to us, certifying that those things are true. Then we obtain a hope of a future day that we will be rewarded if we diligently obey God’s commandments as written in the scriptures.  We also hope for something better than the present.

With this hope, we act with faith and over the process of time our faith becomes unshaken through our diligence.

And with unshaken faith, anything becomes possible, even (according to Jacob) commanding the elements that they obey.  Verrrrrrrry intriguing.

And yet, our reading (and revelation) shows us also our weaknesses and we realize that we still have so much to learn. We see that none of these things is possible without the power of Christ.

It is neat to see this process all laid out for us in black and white.  Without it, we have a hard time articulating exactly what the blessings of studying the scriptures are. And in fact, we can see that there is much more to be gained than simply a knowledge of the gospel or a testimony.  We see hope, faith, and even power over the elements through the grace of God.  Those are blessings to look for and strive for.

Looking at Jacob’s quotations of Isaiah

Looking at 2 Nephi 8 in which Nephi quotes Jacob’s quotation of Isaiah, I noticed there were different sections that started with “Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness,” or an equivalent, and that each section had its own principle that Isaiah was trying to get across and which Jacob (and Nephi) wanted their own people to internalize.

I want to look at the first of these sections:

1 Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness. Look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged.

2 Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah, she that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him.

3 For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. (2 Nephi 8:1-3)

First, what does Isaiah mean when he tells the righteous to look to the rock they were hewn from and the hole they were dug from?  I suspect this is a metaphorical expression similar to saying someone is a chip off the ol’ block.  It’s exhorting them to look to their parentage.  In the second verse, Isaiah confirms this with an elaboration, “Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah, she that bare you.”   Isaiah wanted to encourage his people to follow the righteous example of Abraham and Sarah, Israel's great ancestor and ancestress.

But follow their example how?  I think Isaiah wanted his people to consider a particular feature of Abraham and Sarah’s example and the third verse gives a clue—that the Lord would turn Zion’s wilderness into an Edenic garden and make it a happy, thankful place.  Something can’t become a garden unless it first was a wilderness.  So we might ask ourselves what part of Abraham and Sarah’s life this promise is analogous to.

I think Isaiah is hinting at the Lord’s command to Abraham (and Sarah) to leave their families and the home they were used to and sojourn in the wilderness in a strange land.  We take it for granted that Abraham obeyed the command to leave, and we don’t think too carefully about what obstacles, fears, and real dangers they faced to obey.  The Book of Abraham tells us they left an idolatrous family after Abraham came into conflict with idolatrous priests who tried to kill him.  But to leave the family network and go someplace totally different was stepping into the unknown.  Would they find peace?  Would they find good pasture for their animals?  Would they find friends?  Would they be safe?

I think the principle Isaiah was trying to teach was that although it probably looked to Abraham like he was walking into a desert, and although it looked to others as though he would have a terrible, hard life, the Lord helped Abraham so that he had a very good life (although it was also criss-crossed with trials).

Thus, by extension Isaiah wanted to teach Israel the spiritual lesson that while calls to repentance seemed to require them to leave all the pleasure behind and go into an ascetic desert, denying themselves of all ungodliness, the Lord would make that wilderness into an Edenic garden, with much that is good and beautiful and holy to be happy about.

That promise continues for us today.  From Babylon’s viewpoint, Zion always looks like a cheerless waste, a desolate solemn place where no one has any fun at all.  But the Lord makes Zion a garden, a place of joy and thanksgiving, which none but the holy can enjoy.  So we should never be afraid to give up our favorite sins and vices because there are much better things awaiting us, things that we will not be able to appreciate without the sacrifice.

So what will you leave behind?  I’m going to give up certain media choices that haven’t been very uplifting.  I’m going to trust that the Lord will help me find better things with which to entertain myself.

Jacob considers how God is keeping the covenant

At the end of Jacob’s life, he talks to his son Joseph in Egypt and we see in the JST of Genesis 48 what his perspective is about the events of his life and how they fit with the covenant God made with him so long ago.

7  And Jacob said unto Joseph, When the God of my fathers appeared unto me in Luz, in the land of Canaan; he sware unto me, that he would give unto me, and unto my seed, the land for an everlasting possession.
8  Therefore, O my son, he hath blessed me in raising thee up to be a servant unto me, in saving my house from death;
9  In delivering my people, thy brethren, from famine which was sore in the land; wherefore the God of thy fathers shall bless thee, and the fruit of thy loins, that they shall be blessed above thy brethren, and above thy father’s house; (JST Genesis 48:7-9)

Jacob realized that in order for the Lord to keep the covenant to give the land Canaan to Jacob and his posterity, the Lord saved Jacob and his family from the famine.  (After all, if there are no people left to inherit, then the Lord can’t keep the covenant.) 

It must have given Jacob a good feeling to know that even if the Lord’s covenant hadn’t been fulfilled in his lifetime, he could still see how the Lord was working to prepare the way for it to be fulfilled in the future.  This gave him the hope that it would be fulfilled as the Lord said.  That’s a really faithful attitude—to not be angry that it wasn’t being fulfilled in his own lifetime.

Looking at it from another perspective, even though Jacob would die soon, his spirit would get to see over generations how the covenant would be fulfilled.  It would give a righteous spirit something to look forward to, wouldn’t it, seeing the culmination of all the promises and prophecies fulfilled little by little throughout the history of the world.

Both Jacob and Joseph had great spiritual maturity to see how their mutual suffering and grief was turned to the good of themselves and families.  I hope that at the end of my life I’ll be able to look back and see how my suffering 1) turned to my good and 2) helped prepare the way for the Lord to fulfill His covenant.

Jacob’s Witness of the Future

In 2 Nephi 6 we are given a talk Nephi recorded that Jacob gave to Nephi’s people.  In it we find out Nephi requested Jacob talk about some verses of Isaiah which prophesy of how the Gentiles would carry Israel’s sons and daughters in their arms and nourish them. 

In the verses directly afterward, if we’re alert, we can notice that Jacob seems to have had his own vision of world history similar to Nephi’s.  Notice how often he says the Lord showed him or an angel spoke to him.

8 And now I, Jacob, would speak somewhat concerning these words. For behold, the Lord has shown me that those who were at Jerusalem, from whence we came, have been slain and carried away captive.

9 Nevertheless, the Lord has shown unto me that they should return again. And he also has shown unto me that the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, should manifest himself unto them in the flesh; and after he should manifest himself they should scourge him and crucify him, according to the words of the angel who spake it unto me….

11 Wherefore, after they are driven to and fro, for thus saith the angel… (2 Nephi 6:8-9,11)

Three times Jacob says the Lord showed him events that were to happen, and twice he speaks of things an angel told him. 

It seems to me that Nephi includes Jacob’s words as yet another witness that what Nephi saw in vision about the future of the house of Israel was true.  (Nephi also summarizes his father’s prophesies earlier on the same stuff, in 1 Nephi 10, to witness the truth of his vision.)

Thus, we see that Nephi is intent upon proving the truth of his words (as he said) with as many witnesses as he can gather who have also seen the future of the house of Israel.  (Perhaps somewhere there is a full account written of Jacob’s vision, but it would probably be very much the same as Nephi’s, though perhaps with instructions targeted to Jacob’s level of comprehension, whatever that might be.)

What are we to do with these prophecies?  They are to help increase our faith in the Lord that He knows the end from the beginning and that He will bring to pass the events that are still in the future for us, just as He has brought to pass the events so far that He showed to Lehi, Nephi, Jacob (and Isaiah).

All the Blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

There is a certain phrase we hear in a certain place—“all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” that I decided I wanted to look through Genesis and see if I could pick out all the blessings so I can know what we can expect to receive.

The usual ones we know about are the following, which are reiterated multiple times throughout Genesis to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:

·      “this land,” meaning the land of Canaan

·      posterity as the stars in the sky

·      “In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed” (which implies the coming of the Messiah and temple work for families)

Here are the other ones I found:

To Abraham

“I will make of thee a great nation” (Gen. 12:2)

“I will make thy name great” (Gen. 12:2)

“thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2)

“I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee” (Gen. 12:3)

“and the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abrams wife” (Gen 12:17)

“…the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand” (Gen. 14:20)

“I am thy shield, and thy exceedingly great reward” (Gen 15:1)

“he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir” (Gen. 15:4)

“thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age” (Gen. 15:15)

“I will make my covenant between me and thee” (Gen. 17:2)

“[I] will multiply thee exceedingly” (Gen. 17:2)

“thou shalt be a father of many nations” (Gen. 17:4)

“I will make thee exceedingly fruitful” (Gen. 17:6)

“kings shall come out of thee” (Gen. 17:6)

“I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.” (Gen. 17:7)

“I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life” (Gen 18:10)

“At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son” (Gen. 18:14)

“Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do[? No.]” (Gen. 18:17)

“he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” (Gen. 18:19)

“Also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed” (Gen. 21:12-13)

“thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Gen. 22:17)

“he shall send his angel before thee” (Gen. 24:7)

To Isaac

“I will be with thee and will bless thee” (Gen. 26:3)

“I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father” (Gen. 26:3)

“I am with thee” (Gen. 26:24)

To Jacob

“the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed” (Gen. 27:27)

“God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine” (Gen. 27:28)

“Let people serve thee, and nations bow down before thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be everyone that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee” (Gen. 27:29)  (Note: This sounds like Messianic prophecy as well)

“thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south” (Gen. 28:14)

“I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest; and will bring thee again into this land” (Gen. 28:15)

“I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of” (Gen. 28:15)

“I have seen all [the evil or injustice] that Laban doeth unto thee” (Gen. 31:12)

“I will surely do thee good” (Gen. 32:12)

“as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Gen. 32:28) (Note: Also a Messianic prophecy)

“I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes” (Gen. 46:4)

When I read these blessings as ones promised to me, I get a greater sense of what I can look forward to and ways that I can trust the Lord.  I also see that some can be read as Messianic prophecy.  The one from Gen. 46:4 sounds like a typological reference to the condescension of God, the redemption of man, and the restoration of the gospel through descendants of Joseph.  And this doesn't even touch on what latter-day revelation has to add to what Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were promised.

What are your thoughts?

Jacob’s Messianic Blessing to Judah

8 ¶Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.

9 Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

12 His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. (Genesis 49:8-12)

At the end of Jacob’s life, he gave blessings to his children, and the blessing to Judah can be seen as one enormous prophecy of the Messiah to come through Judah’s line.  It is as if Jacob addresses Christ rather than Judah.  Some of the imagery seems very strange, but with a full testimony of Jesus Christ, it can be understood.

thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise:

thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies;

thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.

The praises due to Christ are unquestionable.  Jesus conquered Satan during His life by resisting every temptation thrown at Him and by suffering the sins and temptations of all mankind as well.  Someday He will subdue all enemies under His feet and the earth will be His, and we will have a chance to bow to Him and acknowledge Him King of the earth, since we have greatly benefitted from His victory.  He knows how to help us conquer our enemies as well.

Judah is a lion’s whelp:

from the prey, my son, thou art gone up:

he stooped down,

he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

As the lion is considered the fiercest and strongest of beasts, the king of animals, we can see the “lion’s whelp” as Christ, who was the son of Heavenly Father, the King of the universe.

For a lion to get up and leave the prey just caught would be very unusual.  Likewise, it is surprising to us that Jehovah left His premortal glory to come to earth.

“he stooped down” – This speaks of Jehovah’s condescension to be born into mortality like the rest of us.

“he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?” – To me this image of a couching (lying down) old lion speaks of Christ submitting to death as if He were old (although His death was much more painful and early).  I see Him lying in His tomb.  “Who will rouse him up?” reminds us that Christ resurrected Himself.  None could do it but Him.  In another sense, that question asks who is going to dare to challenge His supremacy.  You don’t want to make the lion mad.

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come;

and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Shiloh is another name for the Messiah and means “he to whom the right belongs.”  Kings of Judah had the throne through much of Israel’s history, and now that Christ has come His first time, He reigns.  The part about gathering the people should be familiar to us.

Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine;

he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

If we remember Christ’s discourse “I am the true vine,” we see that the lines about binding his foal to the vine speak of how Christ’s servants (represented as asses and beasts of burden) and their children (the colt and foal) will be tied (sealed?) to the source of nourishment.  The tying process makes me think of covenants and how they tie us to the Lord.  We also get a sense of Christ acting in two different ways.  He’s the good shepherd, leading his people, and He leads them to Himself, the source of nourishment as the vine.  (Kind of a mixed metaphor, but hey, it works.)

“he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes” – We run into this image also in Isaiah, who asks, when He sees the Lord coming in glory, “Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?” (Isaiah 63:2)  I think the image of Christ washing his garments in wine could convey how His sacrifice for sins sanctified Him.  It may also prophesy of the purple robe He was clothed in as the soldiers mocked Him at His trial.

His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

This is unfamiliar, so it is puzzling, but I think we can get it if we consider the symbolism of the body parts involved and how it relates to Christ’s mission. 

Eyes are about vision and seeing what’s ahead.  The red and wine continues the association with blood and suffering.  Christ constantly had His sacrifice in mind during His ministry and he was always reminding the disciples about it.  We might even say He was drunk with it.

Teeth chew and are needed for starting to digest food.  Milk symbolizes the very basic doctrine of the gospel.  Christ was way into this doctrinal milk (the atonement) and perhaps a modern equivalent might be “he has a milk mustache of doctrinal milk.”

As we can see, Jacob had a thorough testimony of Christ, of His premortal glory, His sacrifice, His ministry, His death, His resurrection, and His final triumphant rule, and he crammed it all in a blessing to Judah using imagery that is so dense with meaning that Isaiah almost seems like a kindergarten reader by comparison.

A Book of Mormon Mystery: Obtaining a Good Hope of Glory, Jacob 4:11-12

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11 Wherefore, beloved brethren, be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son, and ye may obtain a resurrection, according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ, and be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God, having faith, and obtained a good hope of glory in him before he manifesteth himself in the flesh.

12 And now, beloved, marvel not that I tell you these things; for why not speak of the atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him, as to attain to the knowledge of a resurrection and the world to come? (Jacob 4:11-12)

These are interesting verses because v12 hints that Jacob has just said something surprising that his hearers might not have thought of before, something implied in the doctrine that might be considered presumptuous by the strictly conservative.

I suspect that it is the idea of obtaining “a good hope of glory in Christ before Christ manifesteth himself in the flesh” (v11).  To these people, Christ’s atonement was still a future event, and so was the resurrection.  It seems that they knew the resurrection would eventually come to them after Christ’s, but Jacob suggests that the people take things a step further by seeking not just a testimony of Christ and His resurrection, but a testimony of the glorious resurrection they would receive for living faithfully.  He suggests they live their lives with that in mind as well.  Jacob seems to imply that there isn’t much difference between attaining a testimony of Christ’s glorious resurrection and one’s own, though the grammar is missing a “so” that would make it a little clearer, like this:  “why not speak of the atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him, [so] as to attain to the knowledge of a resurrection and the world to come?”

For me, this seems very profound.  I have a testimony of the atonement of Christ, and I have some intellectual knowledge about the resurrection, and I have faith that Christ’s resurrection happened and that many saints also arose.  But to have a testimony of my own resurrection… that seems to imply some sort of spiritual experience.  Jacob continues:

Behold, my brethren, he that prophesieth, let him prophesy to the understanding of men; for the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be; wherefore, these things are manifested unto us plainly, for the salvation of our souls. But behold, we are not witnesses alone in these things; for God also spake them unto prophets of old. (Jacob 4:13)

What do you think?