Our Errand From the Lord

Jacob recorded this in preface to his importance discourse to the people recorded in Jacob 2-3: “Wherefore I, Jacob, gave unto them these words as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained mine errand from the Lord” (Jacob 1:17).  The word errand in this context means “a special mission or function entrusted to a messenger,” and I think it is significant that Jacob received this commission from the Lord before embarking on his difficult task to call his people to repentance.  He did not preach to them because he wanted to; rather he told them, “Yea, it grieveth my soul and causeth me to shrink with shame before the presence of my Maker, that I must testify unto you concerning the wickedness of your hearts” (Jacob 2:6).  But he knew that it was what the Lord wanted him to do, and so he did it.  He had learned how to obtain revelation from the Lord to direct his actions, and he was able to put the purposes of God above his own desires.  It seems that this ability to receive revelation and know what the Lord wanted him to do came from his focus on the words of the scriptures, both their own scriptures they were recording and those from the brass plates.  He wrote, “Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations” (Jacob 4:6).  He also explained his focus on recording revelation: “If there were preaching which was sacred, or revelation which was great, or prophesying, that I should engraven the heads of them upon these plates, and touch upon them as much as it were possible, for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of our people” (Jacob 1:4).  Perhaps the key phrase here is “for Christ’s sake”—Jacob did what he did for Christ.  It was not that Christ needed scriptures written for Him, but rather that this was the Savior’s will and Jacob was determined to do that, no matter what the cost (and he explained in Jacob 4:1 that engraving those words on the plates was indeed difficult).  Jacob had learned how to obtain his errand from the Lord and could not do otherwise. 

                In our dispensation the Lord similarly spoke about His servants being on His errand.   The Prophet Joseph revealed this about two of the Lord’s servants who had received an assignment: “Wherefore, it is expedient that my servant Sidney Gilbert and my servant William W. Phelps be in haste upon their errand and mission” (Doctrine and Covenants 61:7).  He also told some of the Elders of the church in 1831: “Wherefore, as ye are agents, ye are on the Lord’s errand; and whatever ye do according to the will of the Lord is the Lord’s business” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:29).  And in the Lord’s appendix to the Doctrine and Covenants, He said this about His servants in the last days: “To prepare the weak for those things which are coming on the earth, and for the Lord’s errand in the day when the weak shall confound the wise” (Doctrine and Covenants 133:58).  In our service in the kingdom and in our personal lives, we must first understand the Lord’s errand for us personally.  That comes both formally through callings, such as a call to serve a full-time mission, but also informally as we seek to know what the Lord would have us do personally to best serve Him.  Sometimes, like Alma, that errand may not be what we expect.  When he left Ammonihah the first time he thought his work there was done, but the angel turned him back around: “I am sent to command thee that thou return to the city of Ammonihah, and preach again unto the people of the city” (Alma 8:16).  Similarly Samuel the Lamanite left the land of Zarahemla after preaching there and being rejected, but the Lord turned him around too: “But behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, that he should return again, and prophesy unto the people whatsoever things should come into his heart” (Helaman 13:3).  These two prophets obtained their errands and did not hesitate to return, even though, like Jacob, it was surely not what they desired to do.  But their example should encourage us to similarly seek for the Lord’s errand in our own lives and “be in haste” to fulfill it with all our hearts.