THOUGHT QUESTIONS

Jacob - Words of Mormon

Thought Questions

Jacob-Words of Mormon

Jacob 1

• How does it make you feel to know that the things written for our advantage are also written to fulfill the purposes of God?

• How do you think this principle applies in our lives when we are ordained to offices or accept Church callings?

• The Lord is Lord of the entire universe—so how do our efforts to help magnify our small callings here on Earth help magnify Him and His glory?

• How serious, do you think, is our charge to magnify our callings?

Jacob 2

• Since God made us and gave us everything we have, what kind of reasoning would lead people to suppose having these God-given things would make them more important than those less fortunate in worldly goods?

• Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, in all their glory, willingly include us in everything they have—and want us to become like them. What kind of reasoning makes people possibly think they are better than others of God’s children who do not have the worldly riches they do?

• Since temporal blessings (or riches) all come from God, what kind of reasoning would make us think these blessings are more important than God Himself and the commandments He has given us?

• If we have been blessed with temporal blessings, what do you think is our responsibility to do with them?

• Since “reasoning” alone will not give us a testimony, what Heavenly Being, who is also a God, will testify to us of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? 

• Who is the evil being who is trying to use any means—even the prosperity that the Lord gives us—to turn us away from our great God and Giver?   

Many righteous Latter-day Saint prophets and leaders throughout the history of the Restored Church descended from families practicing God-sanctioned plural marriage in the early days of the Church.

• Do you think the Lord was raising up seed unto Himself when He commanded polygamy in those early days?

Jacob 3

• Who do you think Jacob meant by “those who seek your destruction” in verse 1?

ü Who would be destroyed by the moral breakdown of a fairly new Nephite nation? 

o   The men themselves?  

o   The wives?  

o   The children?  

o   Young women forced into plural marriage or into being concubines?  

o   Righteous men who chose to honor their marriage covenants and to be good examples to their children?  

o   The whole society?

• Who are those hurt by the moral breakdown of our society today?

• Can we expect the Holy Ghost to enjoy our company and stay with us if we choose to read unclean literature, watch filthy movies, or choose to be in environments containing sinful actions?

• Can we expect the Holy Ghost to be with us if we choose friends who think it is cool to break God’s laws, and then we choose to join them in spiritually unclean environments?

• When we deliberately ignore what the scriptures and our prophets tell us, who do we choose as our companion(s), Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit—or Satan?

• Whose side are our friends on when they make spiritually wrong choices?

• Are we of more influence for good to our friends if we stand up for righteousness in which we believe, or if we go along with them when they make wrong choices?

• Do you think it is significant that Jacob made prophecies that were fulfilled so many years later?

• Do you think that this reminds us that prophecies that were made in our past are for us as well as for the people to whom they were originally given?   

A recent government report found that most teen-agers who drink alcohol get it from their parents or from their friends’ parents.

• Do you think that parents today will be held accountable for what they teach their children—good or bad?

Although Jacob could only fit a small part of doctrine and history onto the Small Plates, this powerful sermon at the temple was highlighted.

• Do you think this was because the sermon was directly the word of God given to Jacob the night before the meeting at the temple?

Among “every kind of sin” Jacob warned the people about, he wrote with painstaking care about the sins of pride, greed, and unchastity.

• Do you think that the Lord had Jacob focus on this part of this great sermon when he wrote an account of it on the Plates because the sins of pride and greed and unchastity are particularly vital sins that we must guard against in our day, now that we have the message from the Plates?

• Since writing on the Small Plates required so much effort and conciseness, why do you think the Lord chose doctrines for our Salvation, rather than a more complete history, for us to read?

Jacob 4

• When we read the scriptures, do you think that we read them with thankful hearts and with joy?

• Why do you think some people think of our lives, which are necessary for our Eternal progress, as “sorrow”?

• How do you think the world today regards the “fall” of our noble first parents, Adam and Eve?  

• Do you think that they realize that the “fall” was a necessary part of our own salvation?

• With the cultural background of idolatry that was second nature to the newly freed Israelites, how do you think God, in giving them the Law of Moses, led them away from the sins they were used to committing, and prepared them to get ready for when He would come to them in the flesh?

• Keeping the consequences listed in verse 6 in mind, how important is it to search the scriptures?

• Do you think that the so-called learned men of early Israel possibly “despised” what the prophets told them because they did not want to change the way they lived?

• Do you think that they wanted a Messiah who would give them military and political freedom more than they wanted one who would give them forever-lasting Eternal Life?

• Do you think that they eliminated many references to the Savior and took out many prophecies from what we now call the Old Testament because the prophets had spoken and written plainly of Jesus Christ?

• Do we today sometimes try to put our own interpretation on the plain talk of modern-day prophets to make it more easily fit our own beliefs?

•  By re-writing the scriptures the way they wanted them to read, do you think that they were seeking to excuse their own arrogance and pride and possibly other sins?

Jacob 5

• Why do you think the Master of the vineyard continued to “prune, dig about, and nourish” the “decaying tree” that represented the Lord’s covenant people?

• Have you ever been hurt or rejected by people you thought should be your friends?

• Can you imagine how the Savior must have felt as his own covenant people—those He had taught and protected over many centuries—who should have recognized Him from the words of the prophets, and also should have been His closest friends—rejected Him and the wonderful blessing of Eternal Life He offered them?

President Joseph Fielding Smith said that the Lord put the Children of Israel all over the world and nourished them (Ibid.).

• Do you think the “nourishments” included prophets and other great pre-mortal leaders born into many lands to help “the young and tender branches” keep the covenants?

• Do you think some “nourishment” was scripture, now unknown to us, that was given to people of other lands?

• Do you think some great works and inspirational ideas that come from lands throughout the whole world could be remnants of the “nourishment” that the Lord, at times past, revealed to His covenant people?

• Could the fruit Christ laid up for Himself in His own season be some of the good, ethical, and spiritual truths found in fragments throughout the world which will, as people are taught the Restored Gospel, fit together with new revealed truth like a seamless and Eternal puzzle. . .at last completed?

• Do you think some Lamanites and some Nephites brought forth wild fruit?

• Do you think righteous Nephites were bringing forth tame fruit?

• Do you think the fact that the Lamanites had strayed from the true belief of the Savior caused them to continue to bring forth wild-fruit?

• Why do you think it would it be necessary to “pluck off the branches,” destroying the wicked people on the land?

• Could wicked people persuade others to also be wicked?

• Is the “ripple effect” of iniquity one of the devil’s tools to spread his lying messages?

• Could verse 45 teach us a lesson of not tolerating evil in our lives?

• Sometimes we think we want to spend time with people who we know are not living good lives so that we can “set them a good example.”  According to verse 45, what might be a danger in this way of thinking?

As missionary efforts increase throughout the world, bringing in new converts, other missionaries, such as older and couple missionaries, help can strengthen these new converts, teaching them how to conduct wards and stakes and progress in the Gospel.

President David O. McKay counseled, “every member a missionary”—even though everyone is not necessarily ordained to this calling.

• When new converts come into wards, do you think it is essential that ward members fellowship them, helping them progress in their knowledge and testimonies of the Gospel?

• Do you think that as all of us work diligently to help ourselves and others strengthen in righteousness, wickedness will be cleared away more quickly and easily?

ü According to verse 63, does it matter if we are among the first group or among the last group to be taught and to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then come unto Him?

ü Do you think that both first and last groups of Christ’s believers will be nourished and blessed with the same covenants and promises?

ü Are we honoring and living up to the covenants Christ has already blessed us with?

• Would laboring with the Lord in His vineyard, and then to see Israel gathered, and to finally see evil vanquished be a greatest desire?

Jacob 6

• Do you think it is frustrating for the Savior, who not only keeps His Hand outstretched to us, offering us everything He has, but who suffered the infinite Atonement for our sins and died for us so we could all be resurrected, when we do not obey and follow Him—especially consideringHe does it for our own Eternal happiness?

Jacob 7

• What type of “flattering” things do you think Sherem might have said? 

• Could he have told the people that because they were so intelligent, they could interpret the scriptures much better than an aged man such as Jacob?

• Could he have said that Jacob was either a mistaken or a fallen prophet and that he was belittling the Law of Moses?

• Could he have bolstered the pride of some Nephites, telling them that they were so much better than the Lamanites—or than the “less educated” Nephites?

• Can you identify any supposed “learned or educated” people today who think they know more than the prophets and try to lead others away using a similar type of flattery?

• How do you think a man could suddenly come among the people and have such success in leading them away from Jacob’s teachings?

• Could Sherem’s success be because God’s truth, as Nephi taught (1 Nephi 16:2) is “hard” for the “guilty”—or for those who desire to live wickedly?

• Could we be in the same kind of spiritual danger today as were the people of Jacob’s time by listening to and being persuaded by people who talk “with the power of the devil”?

• Are there people of “charm or charisma” who speak to us as “silvered-tongued devils,” telling us things that seem logical and sophisticated, even though it is contrary to the teachings of our prophets?

• Are there politicians, mocking comedians, and other media-people who use sophistry?

• Are there teachers in schools and universities who use sophistry?

• Are there authors in books, magazines, on the internet, or in other places who use types of sophistry—perhaps giving half-truths and expecting us to swallow the whole?

• What armor do we need to wear to protect ourselves against the sneaky and insidious tricks Satan plays on our minds and on our souls?

• Can you see the many fallacies (see ‘fallacies’ in Vocabulary Tips and Review) in Sherem’s arguments?

Enos

• What did both Nephi and Enos say about the importance of “language”—meaning language and literacy?

ü Have you ever prayed so fervently that you could use the metaphor Enos used—“I did pour out my whole soul”?

ü What kind of love must Enos have had for his fellow-citizens to care so much for their welfare?

ü What manner of lives do you suppose the general Nephite population were living at Enos’s time that Enos had that level of concern for them?

ü What does D&C 130:20 & 21 tell us about following particular Gospel laws?

ü We often pray for our own faith and for the faith of our families as well as for the welfare of our friends—but do we usually stop short before praying for those who would do us injury?

ü How does it make you feel to live at a time that was foreseen so many years ago, and to be a recipient of the blessings of these sacred records?

ü As we live our lives, do we seek the peace and satisfaction Enos felt, knowing that what we are doing on Earth is sanctified by God, and that we will someday experience Heavenly “rest”?

Jarom 

The Holy Ghost “maketh manifest,” or “shows,” His holy Power to “the children of men,” or the people of Jarom’s time and us and people of all time, according to our faith (verse 4).

• If we want more of the Holy Ghost’s blessings in our lives, what do we need to develop?

• Will the Holy Ghost help us develop more faith if we are open to His Power? What about if we pray, and if we keep God’s commandments—will the Holy Ghost be able to help us even more?

• Do you think that our major intent should be to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming—and to do our best to help prepare for this great event?

Omni

• How would you feel if you had to write in your journal, toward the end of your life:  “I of myself am a wicked man [or woman], and I have not kept the statutes and the commandments of the Lord as I ought to have done.”?

ü How willing would we be to follow our prophet if it meant giving up every Earthly thing?

ü What can you think of that Amaleki did not tell us about king Mosiah?

The people of Zarahemla overwhelmingly welcomed the Nephites.  Zarahemla himself was excited about the Brass Plates, scriptures from the land of Jerusalem. Yet, his people, we will discover, did not even still speak “the language of the Jews,” as did the Nephites, and they had forgotten their God.

• Do you think God prepared Zarahemla in some way for the Nephites’ coming and also inspired him that there would be scriptures to help guide his people?

• Do you think Zarahemla, at first, was only excited about the Brass Plates because it was a record of his ancestors?

• Do you think that God prepared the Zarahemlans’ hearts for the Nephites’ arrival?

Words of Mormon

Living in a horribly wicked era, and reading intensely about the many times Nephites before his time slipped into a downward spiral of wickedness after being blessed and prospered by God in every way, must have been discouraging for the good man, Mormon.

• Do you think finding the Small Plates might have buoyed him up during one of these periods of discouragement?

• Do you suppose it was either an accident or a coincidence that Mormon searched for and found the Small Plates?

• Do you think the Lord planned exactly when Mormon would find the Small Plates?

• Since we will be judged from the scriptures, do you think it is important for us to diligently search and study them?

• Do you think it is important to remember our “judgment” will be positive if we learn and obey our Heavenly Father’s commandments?

• Are we willing to do what the Lord wants us to do even though we do not know His “wise purposes” for doing them? Are we willing to be “instruments in God’s Hands”?

• Do the righteous king and many holy prophets in verse 14 remind you of the Lord “nourishing branches of the olive trees” with prophets and scripture?  

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