My Beloved Brethren

Yesterday evening I walked with my two youngest children to the church building. My wife joined us in the car with a couple other children, and I practiced the organ while the kids played on the stage in the gym. When it was time to go home those two youngest insisted on walking back. It was dark and I had to get somewhere else soon, and so we told them no. They did not like that answer and we had to chase them down outside multiple times until we finally got them in their seats. I had my five-year-old and she was so mad at me for not letting her walk that she hit me pretty hard in the face while I was trying to get her buckled. I was a bit taken aback by that, but nonetheless we got them home and I got off to the other place I had to go. Later that night as I was reading to my boys in bed, she walked into the room and said to me, “Sorry.” Having already forgotten the previous event, at first I didn’t know what she meant. So she explained she was saying sorry for hitting me in the car and gave me a hug. Once more I was taken aback, this time in awe that she would, without any prompting from anyone else, come and apologize over two hours later. It reminded me of what we had been studying that week and I think that moment gave me a greater appreciation for these words about the Savior, “And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance. And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!” (Doctrine and Covenants 18:12-13) I caught for a moment a glimpse of that joy in a child who repented and saw better the love He must have for all of us who come to Him in humility and repent like my daughter did. I had no desire at all to punish or scold her; I was simply filled with joy that she would apologize and wanted only to express my love to her. I believe that is how He feels towards each of us as we repent and come unto Him: how great is His joy! Repentance is meant to be a joyful moment for both Him and for us.

                In the Book of Mormon, the prophet Jacob spoke of joy and repentance as he contemplated the reception of his words by future generations. He wrote, “We labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents.” I have always assumed that the joy which he spoke of there would be due to that future generation seeing the righteousness of Jacob’s generation and judging good things of them. In other words, they would look back and be happy to know that their first parents had loved the Savior. But I think we could also understand it to be that the future generation would find joy as they were changed by those words of their first parents and found repentance. Jacob continued, “For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming;… Wherefore, beloved brethren, be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son, and ye may obtain a resurrection, according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ” (Jacob 4:3-4, 11). Jacob yearned for them to find joy through their reconciliation with Christ; in other words, he hoped that his words would help the descendants of the Lamanites find repentance and happiness in Christ. Jacob labored diligently to engraven his words upon plates so that his witness of Jesus Christ would be carried to future generations to help them repent.

                As I studied these words of Jacob today, I was struck with the way that he spoke to his “brethren” the Lamanites. He mentioned at the beginning of the chapter that he was writing words that would last for a long time to “our children, and also our beloved brethren” and again to “our beloved brethren and our children” (Jacob 4:2-3). I interpret that to mean that his “children” were the Nephites and his “brethren” were the Lamanites. He later used the word “brethren” to refer directly to the Lamanites, confirming I believe here that he was speaking to the Lamanites who “had an eternal hatred against [the Nephites], their brethren” (Jacob 7:24). Given that hatred the Lamanites showed towards Jacob’s people, I find it incredible that he would speak with such love towards them, using the word “beloved” multiple times to describe them. He was able to look past their current situation in which the Lamanites were causing wars and trying to kill the Nephites, hoping someday that they too would find joy in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jacob, not wanting to condemn his brethren, looked forward with joy to the day they would repent, just as the Savior rejoices when we change and come unto Him.