Jacob 2

“My brothers,” I told the Nephites after Nephi’s death, “I have come to the temple today to fulfill my responsibility to God and bring you His word, so that later I will not have to answer personally for your sins. As you know, I have been diligent in teaching you the ways of God, but now I am deeply troubled about the welfare of your souls. Until now, you have observed the word of God as I have taught you; but, now you are beginning to stray into sinful ways which are an abomination to me and an abomination to God. It breaks my heart and embarrasses me before God that I must speak to you about the wickedness I see. It saddens me deeply to speak of these sins so directly in front of your wives and children, when so many of them remain pure before God and have come today to hear God’s healing words.

“Nonetheless, I am strictly commanded by God to admonish you for your crimes and to aggravate your wounds, not to heal them. And I am regrettably obliged to wound those without crimes with my harsh words, rather than feed them with the pleasing words of God. For God has told me, ‘Jacob, go to the temple and give the people my words.’

“Many among you have begun searching for the riches of gold and silver and some of you have found more of these riches than others. The richer ones among you have inflated your importance with expensive clothing and put yourselves above those with less, imagining yourselves to be better than they are. Do you think God justifies you in doing this? No; he condemns you for it, and wants you to know that if you continue, his judgments will be swift. If God wanted to, he could destroy you with a single glance from his eye. I wish that he would do this and rid you of your sins and abominations. I wish you would listen to his commands and give up the pride that is destroying your souls.

“If you share your riches with your brothers and think as much of them as you do of yourselves, you will be on the pathway to the kingdom of God. Christ wants you to have riches if your intent is good, so that you can clothe the naked, feed the hungry, liberate the debtors, and relieve the sick.

“For those of you who are filled with pride, who oppress and despise your neighbors because of your greater possessions, I ask, what do you have to say for yourselves? Don’t you suppose that this behavior is abhorrent to the God who has created you, who asks you to keep his commandments, and sees all of his people as equally precious?

“Now, I am finished speaking about your pride because there is an even grosser crime that needs to be addressed. God has told me, ‘Your people are falling into sin because they misunderstand the scriptures. They make excuses for their promiscuity because they read of David and Solomon’s many wives and mistresses. Even while these things were written, they were abominable before me. I have led your people out of Jerusalem by the power of my hand, to raise up a mighty branch of the family of Joseph, and will not tolerate this behavior.’

“So, my brothers, listen to me and hear the word of God. You may not have but one wife, and further, you must have no mistresses at all. God has said, ‘I am pleased when women are chaste, because sexual fornication is an abomination to me. I hereby order your people to keep my commandments or I will curse the land for their sins. Unless I command otherwise, they must obey this law. I have seen and heard the suffering of my daughters, both in Jerusalem and in this new land, because of their husbands’ promiscuity; and I will have none of it. If men seduce my daughters into sin because of their innocence, I will curse them into destruction. Men will no longer be allowed to be sexually promiscuous as David and Solomon were.’

“My brothers, all of us know that these commandments were given to Lehi and that God condemns you now for doing what you already know is wrongful. Your fornication is a greater sin than the sins of the Lamanites, for you have broken the hearts of your loving wives and lost the confidence of your children, through your bad examples before them. The sorrow in the hearts of your wives has been heard by God, and God’s strict judgment has come down upon you.”