The beginning of this discourse addressed Jacob, but it ends with an address to all of Lehi’s sons. The message is not for a single person, but for all humanity. All need to understand the purpose of life, that the importance of the redeeming Messiah is the purpose of our existence.
Lehi’s sons are exhorted to look to the Messiah. They must look forward to a time promised, but not yet arrived. The theme of needing to look forward to a promised time will be repeated by later Book of Mormon prophets. The Messiah would not come for nearly six hundred years, but the important aspect of His coming was the divine promise that the sacrifice would occur and that the demands of justice and mercy would be reconciled through this firstfruits offering. The divine promise of the future allowed for the possibility of repentance even before that sacrifice occurred.
Lehi’s sons are faced with the choices he listed in his discourse. They have the ability to choose good or evil, and he exhorts them to choose eternal life over eternal death. While that does not appear to be a difficult choice when we hear it in the context of a sermon, it becomes much more difficult when it arises in the small actions and choices of everyday life.