Jacob's Anxiety and Joy

I have written before about the great anxiety of Jacob in the Book of Mormon.  Four times he used the word anxiety to describe his feelings.  He told his people: “Mine anxiety is great for you; and ye yourselves know that it has ever been” (2 Nephi 6:3).  He described how “because of faith and great anxiety, it truly had been made manifest unto [them] concerning [their] people, what things should happen unto them” (Jacob 1:5).  When he was particularly worried about their sins, he told his people: “I this day am weighed down with much more desire and anxiety for the welfare of your souls than I have hitherto been” (Jacob 2:3).  And then before giving the allegory of the olive tree he spoke of how he feared to “stumble because of [his] over anxiety” for his people (Jacob 4:18).  He clearly worried a great deal about his people to the point that he felt great anxiety concerning their welfare.  This was a feeling expressed also by his father Lehi towards Laman and Lemuel: “I desire that ye should remember to observe the statutes and the judgments of the Lord; behold, this hath been the anxiety of my soul from the beginning” (2 Nephi 1:16).  Jacob seems to have inherited that feeling of anxiety and worry for his people to choose righteousness and this likely contributed to his feeling so down at one point as to suggest that his people did “mourn out [their] days” (Jacob 7:26). 

               Jacob’s anxiety led him to focus a great deal on teaching his people and to work diligently in their behalf.  On one occasion he told them, “I have exhorted you with all diligence” (2 Nephi 6:3).  On another he wrote, “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” (Jacob 1:7).  Part of his motivation was his feeling of “responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence.”  So he did “magnify” his office and “labor with [his] might” that “their blood might not come upon [their] garments” (Jacob 1:19).  He also explained that he did “labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates” (Jacob 4:3).  When he gave them the difficult sermon recorded in Jacob 2-3 he described how he was seeking to “magnify [his] office with soberness” and he told them, “I have hitherto been diligent in the office of my calling” (Jacob 2:2-3).  Clearly he sought to do everything in his power to teach his people, to lead them in the way of righteousness, to warn them against sin and iniquity.  He seemed to have felt a constant burden to fulfil his duty as their teacher, describing his feelings once this way: “It burdeneth my soul that I should be constrained, because of the strict commandment which I have received from God, to admonish you according to your crimes” (Jacob 2:9). 

               Certainly it is admirable how diligently Jacob labored for his people and how much responsibility he felt to help and teach and support them, but was he able to find peace in his soul despite the constant stress of magnifying his office?  Was he able to find comfort despite the anxiety for his people that seemed to be with him so often?  I think that he did leave some indications as well that he also knew how to go to the Lord for strength and peace.  We know that he spoke often to his son Enos “concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints,” words that motivated Enos to gain a witness from the Lord himself (Enos 1:3).  When he taught the people the plan of salvation he rejoiced in “how great the goodness of our God” and exclaimed, “O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace!” and “O how great the plan of our God!” and “O the greatness and the justice of our God!”  He seemed to take hope in the fact that for those who are righteous and endure, “Their joy shall be full forever” (2 Nephi 9:8, 10, 13, 17-18).  He also gave these words of encouragement to his people: “The Lord remembereth all them who have been broken off, wherefore he remembereth us also. Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life” (2 Nephi 10:22-23).  When he faced the difficult challenge of dealing with Sherem, Jacob described how he received help from the Lord: “The Lord God poured in his Spirit into my soul.”  He also wrote that on this occasion the Lord “heard [his] cry and answered [his] prayer” (Jacob 7:8,22).  At a time when he seemed to need it just as much as they did, Jacob told his people how to obtain consolation: “Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause.”  He described how they could have His love with them: “Lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever” (Jacob 3:1-2).  Though Jacob was often weighed down with feelings of anxiety, I believe he was also able to go to the Lord in prayer with exceeding faith, to receive His consolation and to feast upon His love.  Notwithstanding the sorrows he experienced, surely in eternity Jacob’s joy will indeed be “full forever.”