Great insights from a member's gospel doctrine lesson
Jacob’s life experiences have been very different from Nephi’s. He is about 20 years younger; he was born in the wilderness and has no memory of Jerusalem and the culture there; his education has come from the brass plates and whatever his family chose to teach him, without exposure to the wider culture and civilization of the Jews.
But he may also have been different from Nephi in another way. One writer notes that:
Half the book’s [i.e., the Book of Mormon’s] references to anxiety occur in Jacob, and over two-thirds of the references to grieve and tender … as well as shame, are Jacob’s. He is the only person to have used delicate, contempt, and lonesome. Likewise, he is the only Book of Mormon author to have employed wound in reference to emotions; and he never used it, as everyone else did, to describe a physical injury. Similarly, Jacob used pierce … frequently … and he used it exclusively in a spiritual sense. (John S. Tanner, “Jacob and His Descendants as Authors”)
What do those details of Jacob’s language suggest to you about his possible temperament and character?
Despite their differences, there is at lease one characteristic that the brother share to an overwhelming degree, which Jacob describes in Jacob 1:7-8:
7 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.
8 Wherefore, we would to God that we could persuade all men not to rebel against God, to provoke him to anger, but that all men would believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross and bear the shame of the world; wherefore, I, Jacob, take it upon me to fulfil the commandment of my brother Nephi. [That commandment concerns keeping the small plates and what is to be engraved on them.]
Think for a moment about differences in personality between President Monson and President Hinckley, or between Bishop Cramer and Bishop Kendrick, or between any other sets of church leaders you have known or worked closely with. How have they been alike, and how have they filled their responsibilities differently?
The Lord, then, would not seem to have a single perfect model in mind as the “ideal apostle” or “ideal bishop” or “ideal choir director,” does he? Or if he does, how often does he find one of us who fits that model exactly? What advantages might there be to the Lord’s work in calling people with different talents and skills and personalities?
Recognizing these differences, and the way different leaders succeed in different ways, what can you say about your own qualifications and responsibilities in filling your own calling, whatever that might be?
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