What is this sermon Jacob is presenting to the
Nephites?
[T]he new legal order was
traditionally submitted by way of covenant to a "ritually prepared
community." Significantly, Jacob's ensuing speech is a covenant speech:
"I have read these things that ye might know concerning the covenants of
the Lord" (2 Nephi 9:1). Jacob's purpose was to purify the people, to
shake his garments of all iniquities and have his people turn away from sin
(see 2 Nephi 9:44-45), to motivate them to act for themselves—"to choose
the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life" (2 Nephi 10:23).[1]
Jacob takes of his cloak and shakes it before the
people. He does this to represent
shaking the people’s “iniquities from my
soul, and that I stand with brightness before him, and am rid of your blood” (2
Nephi 9:44). “Having one's garments
washed white through the blood of the Lamb was an important religious concept
for the Nephites (see 2 Nephi 9:44; Jacob 2:2; Mosiah 2:28; Alma 5:21; 13:11;
34:36; 3 Nephi 27:19). It may well have had something to do with their temple
ceremony, vividly typifying the purifying and cleansing power of the atoning
blood of Jesus Christ.”[2]
Years later, Jacob would remind the people of his words he
spoke this day.
And
we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility,
answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them
the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their
blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon
our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.
Jacob 1:19
Now,
my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, according to the responsibility which I am under
to God, to magnify mine office with soberness, and that I might rid my garments
of your sins, I come up into the temple this day that I might declare unto you
the word of God.
O
that he would rid you from this iniquity and abomination. And, O that ye would listen unto the word of
his commands, and let not this pride of your hearts destroy your souls!
Jacob 2:2, 16
In his final sermon to his people, King Benjamin would refer
to Jacob’s words. “I say unto you that I have caused that ye should assemble yourselves
together that I might rid my garments of your blood, at this period of time
when I am about to go down to my grave, that I might go down in peace, and my
immortal spirit may join the choirs above in singing the praises of a just God”
(Mosiah 2:28).
In King Benjamin’s words, we say a theme that is present
throughout the Book of Mormon. King
Benjamin refers to God as “a just God.” Nephite prophets would constantly remind
the people the God is just. Whatever
judgment we face will be just and fair, based on our actions and nobody else’s.
We again see an image that is frequently used in the Book of
Mormon. When we sin, we become bound in
the chains of the devil. “Shake off your chains” Jacob tells the
people (2 Nephi 9:45). When Alma2
recounted the vision that led to his conversion, he told his son, Helaman2,
“Now, as my mind caught hold upon this
thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me,
who am in the gall of bitterness [IE in extreme remorse], and am encircled
about by the everlasting chains of death” (Alma 36:18).
“The liberties of the life of sin are only illusory when
properly understood. For they in fact constitute captivity and death in the
power of Satan. Jacob calls on his brothers to ‘turn away from [their] sins’
and to ‘shake off the chains of him that would bind [them] fast’ (2 Nephi
9:45).”[3]
[1] Kingship
and Temple in 2 Nephi 5-10, John M. Lundquist, and John W. Welch, Provo,
Utah: Maxwell Institute, accessed September 17, 2013.
[2] The
Temple in the Book of Mormon: The Temples at the Cities of Nephi, Zarahemla,
and Bountiful, John W. Welch, Provo, Utah: Maxwell Institute,
accessed September 17, 2013.
[3] The
True Points of My Doctrine, Noel B. Reynolds, Provo, Utah:
Maxwell Institute, accessed September 17, 2013.
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