Jacob 6-7

Jacob – Lesson 3: Jacob 6-7
Day 1: Read Jacob 6:1-5
1. What was Jacob’s witness concerning the allegory of the olive tree?



2. How has the Lord “set his hand again the second time”? What is being done to nourish and prune today?



3. Jacob wrote that the Lord is merciful because he remembers both Israel’s roots and branches. What might the roots and branches represent in Israel as a nation? as individuals?



Day 2: Read Jacob 6:6-13; Ezekiel 18:25-32
4. What is the “good word of God” with which we can be nourished?



5. How do people “make a mock of the great plan of salvation”? What will happen to those who do?



6. Why do you think Jacob left us the allegory of the olive trees? What is our responsibility now that we understand it?




Day 3: Read Jacob 7:1-5
7. Jacob seemed to close his record at the end of chapter 6. After some years, he added chapter 7. Considering his message in the first six chapters, why do you think Jacob wanted us to know about Sherem?



8. How did Sherem indoctrinate so many Nephites? Look up “Antichrist” in the Bible Dictionary. What qualities of an antichrist did Sherem possess?



9. Why couldn’t Jacob’s faith be shaken?




Day 4: Read Jacob 7:6-9
10. What law did Sherem advocate? Use Galatians 3:24-26 to tell what the purpose of this law was. Why do you think Sherem was willing to listen to dead prophets but not the living prophet?



11. By what power did Jacob confound Sherem?



12. How do Sherem’s statements at the end of verses 7 and 9 contradict each other?



Day 5: Read Jacob 7:10-16
13. From Jacob 7:10-12, what three witnesses did Jacob give for the reality of the Savior who was to come?



14. What did Sherem ask for? Why didn’t he ask for the scriptures or the Holy Ghost?



15. If Sherem knew the truth, as Jacob said, why do you think he asked for a sign? In what ways was Sherem “nourished” by the Lord?




Day 6: Read Jacob 7:17-22
16. Of what did Sherem bare witness in his post-sign address?



17. What happened to the Nephites who heard his witness?



18. Why was Jacob pleased?



Day 7: Read Jacob 7:23-27
19. After their branch had been “pruned” of its bitter fruit, what marvelous fruits did the Nephites produce?




20. To whom did Jacob pass the responsibility for the small plates? What was his hope?




21. Do you have a favorite verse from the writings of Jacob?

Jacob 5

Jacob – Lesson 2: Jacob 5: The Allegory of the Tame and Wild Olive Trees (see additional study links in column to the right)
Day 1: Read Jacob 5 chapter heading, verses 1-3, 1 Nephi 19:10-16, Alma 33:3-15, Helaman 8:19
1. From 1 Nephi 19:10-16 and Helaman 8:19, what do we know about the prophet Zenos? Where might Nephi and Jacob have read Zenos’ prophecies? Why do you think these prophecies are not in our current Bible?



2. Alma quotes Zenos in Alma 33:4-11. In this quote, when does Zenos say he has felt the mercies of God?


3. From Jacob 5:3, to what is the house of Israel likened? Use footnote 3d to explain how the House of Israel could “decay.”


Day 2: Read Jacob 5:4-14 (First visit of the Master to His vineyard)
4. What did the master of the vineyard do first to save his vineyard?



5. When the “main top… began to perish” what did the Master and his servants do with the branches of the tame and wild olive trees?



6. Use footnotes 8a, 10a and 14a to help explain what the grafting of branches of the tame olive tree into the nethermost parts of the vineyard represents. What do the wild olive trees represent? Why was it necessary to scatter Israel?




Day 3: Read Jacob 5:15-28 (Second visit of the Master to His vineyard)
7. Why did the Lord and his servant revisit the vineyard? What was the state of the tame olive tree (Israel)? What brought strength to the wild branches?



8. What was the state of the tame branches grafted into trees in poor ground?


9. What part of the world have we been taught is “choice above all lands” (see 2 Nephi 1:5, Ether 2:7-10)? What was the problem with the branches grafted into good soil, and how was it addressed?



Day 4: Read Jacob 5:29-40 (Third visit of the Master to His vineyard)
10. What kind of fruit did the Lord find on the tame olive tree during his third visit? Use footnote 30a to explain what happened spiritually.



11. How were the roots kept vital? Why was the tree (the House of Israel) beginning to perish?



12. What had happened to the natural branches of Israel that had been scattered, or planted in the nethermost parts of the vineyard?



Day 5: Read Jacob 5:41-50 (Third visit continued)
13. Why did the Lord weep?


14. What does verse 47 tell you about how the Lord cares for the inhabitants of the earth?



15. From v. 48, what was the cause of the apostasy? How does the bad fruit of apostasy corrupt individuals and nations?



Day 6: Read Jacob 5:51-60 (Fourth visit of the Master to His vineyard)
16. According to footnote 52a, of what is the re-grafting of the natural branches back into the original tree symbolic?


17. What is the fate of any branch that continues to bear bad fruit after all the pruning, grafting and nourishing it needs to survive?


18. What are some things the Lord has done in your life to “prune” and “nourish” you?



Day 7: Read Jacob 5:61-77
19. Why do you think the Lord instructs his servants in the last days to prune the trees so that roots and tops are equal in strength?



20. Who do the servants in the vineyard represent? From vv. 71-72, who works with them? What is their reward?



21. What might the fruit of the tree represent?



BONUS: What were olives used for in ancient Israel? How are they used today?

Olive Culture
"Jacob's (or rather Zenos's) treatise on ancient olive culture (Jacob 5�6) is accurate in every detail: Olive trees do have to be pruned and cultivated diligently; the top branches are indeed the first to wither, and the new shoots do come right out of the trunk; . . . the ancient way of strengthening the old trees (especially in Greece) was to graft in the shoots of the oleaster or wild olive; also, shoots from valuable old trees were transplanted to keep the stock alive after the parent tree should perish; to a surprising degree the olive prefers poor and rocky ground, whereas rich soil produces inferior fruit; too much grafting produces a nondescript and cluttered yield of fruit; the top branches if allowed to grow as in Spain or France, while producing a good shade tree, will indeed sap the strength of the tree and give a poor crop; fertilizing with dung is very important, in spite of the preference for rocky ground, and has been practiced since ancient times; the thing to be most guarded against is bitterness in the fruit. All these points, taken from a treatise on ancient olive culture, are duly, though quite casually, noted in Zenos's Parable of the Olive Tree."39
39. Nibley, Since Cumorah, 238�39. See Nibley, Temple and Cosmos, 244�52.

Jacob 1-4

Jacob – Lesson 1: Jacob 1-4
Note: Jacob 1 is a preview of what Jacob would address further in chapters 2 and 3, which comprise the text of a sermon he gave at the Nephite temple.
Day 1: Read Jacob 1:1-8; 1 Nephi 18:7; 2 Nephi 2:1-4
1. Review 1 Nephi 18:7 and 2 Nephi 2:1-4 to explain who Jacob was and why he was qualified to preach and to continue Nephi’s record.



2. When did Jacob begin his record? What did Nephi tell Jacob to write on the small plates?


3. What do you think it means to “view [Christ’s] death” (see D&C 6:36-37), “suffer his cross” (see Luke 9:23-25), and “bear the shame of the world (see Matt. 5:11-12). How can the sacrament help us remember these things?



Day 2: Read Jacob 1:9-19
4. How did Nephi’s people feel about him at his death? Choose one verse of scripture from Nephi’s writing that you would have liked to quote at his funeral.



5. What are the two grievous sins Jacob tells us his people began to practice after Nephi’s death?



6. How did Jacob and Joseph magnify their callings and ordinations in their service to God and their people?



Day 3: Read Jacob 2:1-19
7. How did Jacob know that his people, although outwardly obedient, were “beginning to labor in sin”?


8. Why was Jacob’s soul burdened by the subject of his discourse?



9. According to Jacob, what should we seek before we seek riches? How would this change our motivations?


BONUS: Jacob refers to the “eye” of God in 2 Nephi 9:44, Jacob 2:10 and 15. What three qualities does Jacob attribute to God’s eye?


Day 4: Read Jacob 2:20-35; D&C 132:34-39
10. According to Jacob, what is a “grosser crime” than pridefully seeking riches?


11. Why did the Lord constrain Jacob to address this particular sin?



12. Why do you think the Lord (through Jacob) said that the Nephites had “done greater iniquities than the Lamanites”? (see also Jacob 3:5-8.)



Day 5: Read Jacob 3
13. What are the promises to the pure in heart who look to God for comfort in affliction?



14. What was the cause of the Nephites’ filthiness? What was the cause of the Lamanites’ filthiness?




15. What does Jacob say will happen to those who do not repent of their lasciviousness?



Day 6: Read Jacob 4:1-9
16. Why did Jacob “labor diligently” to engrave his words on the plates? What is his hope regarding the effect of the plates on his posterity?



17. In Jacob 4:6-7, underline the words “search,” “revelations,” “prophecy,” “witness,” “hope,” and “grace.” How can we attain unshakable faith?



18. By what power was the earth and all in it created? (see also Moses 1:30-32.)



Day 7: Read Jacob 4:10-18
19. In what ways do we sometimes seek to counsel the Lord?



20. What are the promises to those who are “reconciled” unto Christ through his atonement?



21. What “mystery” will Jacob explain by quoting Zenos’ allegory of the wild and tame olive trees in chapter 5?