Jacob's Anxiety

It seems to me from the information that we have in the Book of Mormon that Jacob, the brother of Nephi, had a lot of struggles and stress and sorrow.  He was born in the wilderness, and according to Lehi, in Jacob’s “childhood [he] suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of [his] brethren” (2 Nephi 2:1).  We get one glimpse of that when the group was on the ship and they were about to all perish at sea because of the actions of Laman and Lemuel: “And Jacob and Joseph also, being young, having need of much nourishment, were grieved because of the afflictions of their mother” (1 Nephi 18:19).  Those days as a young child traveling across the desert and the ocean—suffering hunger and thirst and fatigue often, seeing the family strife caused by their brothers, and coming close to death likely on multiple occasions—surely must have had a lasting impact on Jacob.  And knowing what we know about how Laman and Lemuel treated Nephi, it is likely that their treatment of Jacob who followed after the ways of Nephi was no better.  We don’t know hardly anything about Jacob until Nephi and the faithful left and established themselves as their own people, but I think we catch at least a glimpse of the worry and pain and struggles he had in a few of his comments in his teachings to the people. 

               One of the words to describe his feelings that Jacob repeated three times was anxiety.  In the first teachings that we have of him, he said at the beginning, “Yea, mine anxiety is great for you; and ye yourselves know that it ever has been” (2 Nephi 6:3).  Later after Nephi had died and he had to face the wickedness of his people, he said, “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).  Sometime after this as he was continuing to preach to the people he told them, “I will unfold this mystery unto you; if I do not, by any means, get shaken from my firmness in the Spirit, and stumble because of my over anxiety for you” (Jacob 4:18).  He clearly had great anxiety for his people and surely suffered through a lot of worry and stress and pain over them.  He not only had to worry about their spiritual welfare—which he did, telling us that he worried the “sins of the people” would be “on our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence”—but he also had great concern about their physical safety.  By the time that Nephi died the people had already had “wars and contentions with our brethren” (2 Nephi 5:34).  Jacob told us many years later that the Lamanites “delighted in wars and bloodshed, and they had an eternal hatred against us, their brethren. And they sought by the power of their arms to destroy us continually” (Jacob 7:24).  Surely that “continual” threat from the Lamanites was a cause of great concern and anxiety for Jacob as he tried to protect and bless his people. 

               Perhaps the most telling verse about the inner struggles and anxiety and sorry of Jacob were what he wrote at the very end of his account in the Book of Mormon: “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).  That’s strong language to suggest that they did “mourn out” their days, and it’s likely that we know very little about the true struggles that Jacob faced that cause him to write these words.  So, it is all the more powerful to hear his words of rejoicing over the Savior and the eternal blessings that come from Him.  To quote just one of Jacob’s many teachings, “O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell” (2 Nephi 9:10).  Jacob surely had great challenges, but he also knew that his ultimate hope was in the Savior who would deliver him from them all.