44 O, my beloved brethren, remember my words. Behold, I
take off my garments, and I shake them before you; I pray the God of my
salvation that he view me with his all-searching eye; wherefore, ye shall know
at the last day, when all men shall be judged of their works, that the God of
Israel did witness that I shook your iniquities from my soul, and that I stand
with brightness before him, and am rid of your blood.
45 O, my beloved brethren, turn away from your sins;
shake off the chains of him that would bind you fast; come unto that God who is
the rock of your salvation.
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.
[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.
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