If you’ve been reading the Book of Mormon along with me, you’re now ready to start the Book of Jacob. Jacob was the brother of Nephi, the second Book of Mormon prophet. Let’s take a look back at his background.
Jacob’s father was Lehi, a prophet in Jerusalem around 600 BC. Lehi had been a successful man of wealth when he was called to be a prophet in a time when there were many prophets warning the people to repent or Jerusalem would be destroyed. When the people threatened his life, God instructed him to take his family and flee. They were later joined by another family and a man who would become a friend. Eventually, God led them across the water to a promised land of their very own.
Lehi and his wife Sariah had four sons when they fled Jerusalem. The oldest two broke their parents’ hearts by being disobedient and rebellious. They cared nothing for the faith of their parents or the well-being of their family. Over time, their wickedness increased until they were periodically trying to murder their younger brother Nephi, and sometimes other family members as well.
These wicked older brothers, Laman and Lemuel, had a particular animosity toward Nephi, whom God had designated to become the family’s leader when their father died. This call to leadership came from angels while Nephi was still a teenager.
After the family began their travels, two more sons, Jacob and Joseph, were born. Jacob was the oldest of the two, and he is the author of the next book in the Book of Mormon.
He had a very challenging childhood. He’d never known a real home, since he was born in the wilderness to a homeless, traveling family. He’d never known the relative stability that might have existed when Laman and Lemuel were merely badly behaved teens. Instead, he came into the world with two older brothers who were cruel and uncaring, bent on destroying those who were good. By then the older brothers had married into the other family journeying with them. This family had some children who were also wicked. Think how frightening his childhood must have been, with the constant violence or threat of violence, never having a home or the security of stability.
In spite of all this, Jacob grew to be a good man. His father had designated Nephi to care for the two youngest upon his death. After Lehi died, Nephi was forced to take his family, including Jacob, and those who wanted to live the gospel, to find a new homeland. The violence of the two oldest sons placed the others in too much danger. Jacob grew up in his brother’s care and soon took on important leadership roles in the church.
It might be that a childhood spent wandering gave Jacob a special understanding of the Israelites, and their long journey through the wilderness. This was a favorite theme for him, as was the atonement, which promised joy however challenging his life on earth had been.
He grew up with both the best and worst examples and had a clear understanding of the price of sin and of the blessings of obedience. His trials, rather than making him bitter, made him spiritually strong, and he was permitted to see the Savior in a vision. In fact, Jacob was the first of the Nephites to know what Jesus’ name would be. Although someone else was named king, he appears to have become the head of the church after his brother’s death.
Near the end of his life, he wrote:
“And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days.” (Jacob 7:26)
Despite this sad summary of his life, we see throughout Jacob’s story that he made the most of a challenging life, to become a devoted servant of God, and the father of prophets. He is a lesson to us about how to cope with lives that don’t go as they ought to. Jacob, while accepting that he’d had a hard life, made good use of his trials to bless and teach others.
The late Terrie Lynn Bittner—beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend—was the author of two homeschooling books and numerous articles, including several that appeared in Latter-day Saint magazines. She became a member of the Church at the age of 17 and began sharing her faith online in 1992.
