Jacob received a special blessing from Lehi and was eventually "consecrated" to become a temple priest to the Nephites (5:26). In a lot of ways, Lehi’s blessing prepares him for that sacred calling. Lehi’s blessing covers the topics of the Creation, Fall, and Atonement—all things taught and represented in the Temple. Although our temple ordinances weren’t practiced anciently in exactly the same way that we have them today, the endowment and blessings of the temple have remained standard, being appropriately tailored for the eras and the needs of people over time. But the basic configuration and essence of the ordinances of the temple remain the same.
Many ancient societies included versions of the creation story in their temple worship. The Egyptian temples begin with a lotus blossom and a lotus lily pad coming up out of the Nile River. For the Egyptians, this was the beginning of the emergence of plants and living beings out of the water and the inorganic world. From this came all of the developments and expansions of life. The tall pillars in Egyptian temples are actually lotus stalks, showing how the orderly earth came up out of primordial chaos.
The temple in Jerusalem was not so very different. The Holy of Holies was the inner sanctum where God dwelled. In order to get into the Holy of Holies, one had to go through a room that was twice the size of the Holy of Holies, sometimes referred to as "the holy place" or the hekal. On the walls of that room were scenes from the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life, represented by the candelabra and paintings of plants and other things. We wouldn’t call it the "world room," but it is, in a sense, a representation of the created world. One had to symbolically pass through it to reach the veil. On the veil in some eras were heavenly images: the sun, the moon, the stars, the colors of the light spectrum, and so on. Cosmological elements were present in essentially all ancient temples.
In overview, Lehi’s blessing operates in much the same way. Verse 1 states, "And now Jacob. I speak unto you. Thou art my firstborn in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness." The firstborn male among Israelite children held special privileges or rights. So, it is noteworthy that even though Jacob technically wasn’t Lehi’s firstborn son (Laman was), Lehi describes him as being the firstborn in the wilderness, perhaps signaling that some sort of special privilege or blessing was reserved for Jacob. The firstborn or firstlings of a flock were sacrificed (or consecrated) upon altars, which is a prominent temple theme pointing to Jesus Christ, who is also sometimes referred to as the Firstborn. The wilderness theme is also important to consider. Jacob was the firstborn in the wilderness, and the wilderness—represented as the lone and dreary world—is also a temple theme.
Righteousness (mentioned in v. 3) is clearly a temple concept, as well as holiness (v. 11). As for misery (v. 11), we know that Satan wants everyone to be miserable like unto himself, which is a point brought up in verse 18. Misery is also a temple element—something we must pass through, but which isn’t the end or purpose of life.
In verse 11, Lehi famously pronounced that "it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." The basic opposition of good and evil, pleasure and pain, hot and cold, sin and righteousness, runs through all of this creation. Without opposition, there would have been "no purpose in the end of its creation" (v. 12), so we also know that Lehi is thinking about the purpose of life and creation, something he would have known about from his activities as a prophet in the temple of Jerusalem.
Starting in verse 14, we can see that Lehi’s explanation is not just given to Jacob but to all of his sons: "And now, my sons" In a way, this is quite fitting. It is as if Lehi knows that Jacob will become the temple priest who will officiate for all his people, and therefore he talks through Jacob to all of his sons. Verse 14 discusses things both "in the heavens and in the earth." Verse 15 discusses the creation of "our first parents," Adam and Eve, and of "the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air," and of the tree of life. This verse also mentions the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life, and in verse 18 the devil enters into the scene to entice Adam and Eve to partake of that which is forbidden, promising them that "ye shall not die but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil." Adam and Eve are driven out into the world (v. 19), their days were prolonged that they might repent (v. 21), commandments were given (v. 21), having posterity is central (v. 23), and all are allowed to choose, of their own free will, whether to obey the great Mediator or suffer the captivity under the kingdom of the devil (v. 27, 29). When looked at altogether, Lehi’s blessing to the future High Priest Jacob is a series of temple-related concepts and themes.
Let me relate to you an interesting experience I once had. We had an academic presentation by Douglas Davies, an Episcopalian scholar from England, who had spent a lot of time studying architecture and the way that sacred buildings, such as churches or temples, typically embody a people’s most important values and principles. Architecture of sacred space is not accidental, he insisted. People spend a lot of time and effort to make sacred structures compatible with their religious worldview. Anthropologists and people who study religion evaluate sacred structures and how they relate to the religious ideals of their participants. For instance, architecture in Congregationalist churches emphasizes the presence of the congregation. Catholic churches emphasize the high altar which is up above the ordinary people. In our own temple buildings, there are important designs, symbols and stained glass windows. The décor is thought through very, very carefully, by people who have spent a lot of time studying the importance of symbolism.
Now this Episcopalian scholar had never been in a Latter-day Saint temple, except on a tour through one temple that hadn’t yet been dedicated, so he didn’t know exactly how it functioned. But he knew enough to know that what we enshrine in our temple is the plan of salvation, beginning with the creation room, going into the Garden of Eden, being cast out, finding our way in the lone and dreary world—as anyone can see in the model at the Visitors’ Center in Salt Lake City. As you go from the creation room, you go up a few steps into the garden room; then you go up several more steps into the telestial room, with yet more steps into the terrestrial room. The lights get brighter as you are going up, although many people are almost unconscious of all this. And then you enter the celestial room, representing the highest degree of glory, and completing the cycle in the sealing rooms. What we have here is a wonderful architectural representation of the Plan of Salvation, and understanding all this Professor Davies said, "I know how important the Plan of Salvation is to Latter-day Saints." It was interesting to have him acknowledge that the Plan of Salvation is interwoven with temple-related themes.
How long did Joseph Smith have to figure out these basic principles? How long did he have to translate 2 Nephi 2? Not even half a day. At his standard rate, this occupied maybe two hours of translation. All this came out in a flood of revelation, one idea after another, stitched together in a way that, as you outline and diagram Lehi’s blessing to Jacob, and follow it through, you find interwoven many temple themes, existential axioms, cogent logical arguments, theological propositions, and an understanding of the great big picture of our situation here in this world.
What Lehi has given here, and what Joseph Smith in one fell swoop has revealed to us, is the picture on the box of the puzzle of the Plan of Salvation. It yields a beautiful picture, and the pieces are perfectly clear. They fit together. It talks about the fullness of time and the fullness of the gospel, and it presents the full picture. This is what really matters. How blessed we are to have the fullness of the gospel revealed to us on the pages of the Book of Mormon. These are eternal truths that are fundamental to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to our hope, to our faith, to our motivation to be charitable, and to our opportunity to return back to the presence of God. If you compromise any of these core principles, then the picture begins to blur, pieces are missing, and the sections begin to fall apart.