Without question, the high priest in ancient Israel had to be especially assiduous about his worthiness and purity. If the Lord was going to be able to bless his people and reveal his will, he had to be able to speak to a high priest who was worthy. We read in Jewish literature about the great lengths that the Jews anciently went to in order to be sure that that high priest was pure, and a lot of it had to do with the family of the high priest. He had to be married, and he had to be living in a righteous home. How can you lead the people if you can’t lead your own family?
This requirement is reflected in Paul’s writings in 1 Timothy 3:1–7, but it is also part of the long-standing Jewish, priestly tradition. They were so concerned about the high priest being righteously married that they had a stand-by bride ready to go, someone designated, that if the high priest’s wife should all of a sudden keel over dead, she would be there and she would be married to him within minutes of the time she died, so he always had a home. Well, there are reasons for this—probably lots of them—and a similar attitude is reflected in Jacob’s writings. He is likewise concerned about righteousness, purity, avoiding abominations, and having a righteous family and home. These themes come up throughout his writings.
It is also worth considering how fragile Jacob’s people were at this time. After Lehi’s death, they must have felt awfully concerned when the group split up into different factions. They likely worried that the Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites would either attack them militarily or weaken them morally through marriages or other social interactions. What happens if somehow Jacob drops the ball? Who is going to pick it up? Who will carry this on? Who will talk about where their people came from? Who will reveal the mind and will of the Lord?
Civilization is actually pretty fragile. Even in the modern day, we think "Oh, civilization will carry on. We have books, and we have a lot of buildings and things that really stabilize who we are." But society changes quickly, and we have seen it in the last 10–15 years. I think the shift was even more dramatic for Jacob’s people. He clearly felt a great sense of responsibility, and I think we can learn a lesson from his diligent concern for his people at that crucial time in their existence.
Jacob and his brother Joseph were set apart by Nephi and consecrated as priests. They were given the responsibility of preaching the gospel to their people, and we see them doing that at the temple. We also see their understanding that if they didn’t preach with all diligence, the sins of the people would be on their own heads. So they are extremely serious about that, and my guess is that when they were set apart they were given clear instructions about their responsibilities.
I think that when a leader knows that the people under his stewardship have a problem, he indeed has a responsibility to address it. Did Jacob know there was a problem? Yes. He makes this very clear. In essence, he says, "You’re not fooling anybody you guys. The jig is up here." He knew exactly what was going on out there, even though he was spending so much time focusing on the temple. He was aware of the problem, and he couldn’t ignore it.
D&C 121:43 speaks well of reproving others "with sharpness, when moved upon by the Spirit." And here in Jacob 1:17 it says that that before addressing the people, Jacob "first obtained [his] errand from the Lord." So he is speaking with sharpness because he has been moved by the spirit to do so. And then D&C 121 says that after we have been moved upon by the spirit and have spoken sharply, we still need to show an "an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy" (121:43). We can’t just say, "God told me to say that, so I can get away with it." We have to show extra love in conjunction with any sharp words that we feel inspired to speak.
Often when people get bad news their reaction is, of course, to kill the messenger. Yet Jacob is so explicit about where he got his assignment that to reject his message would be to reject the Lord. When trying to help people, whether my grandchildren or those I was responsible for in my church assignments, I have never had someone react badly if I have honestly said, "I feel strongly that the Lord would like you to hear this message." No matter how hard the news is, they didn’t blame me. Now they may not accept it, but it makes the message clearer and more understandable. It puts it in the right framework. I’m not telling them they ought to change, but if I in good conscience can say that I have felt inspired to say this, then they take it much better.
Sometimes the Spirit moves you to say things you wouldn’t otherwise say, and maybe even that you would rather not say. In such cases, however, one must be confident that one’s errand truly is from the Lord. The last thing the Lord needs is for members of his kingdom to go forth, without his errand, and unjustly, untactfully, or inappropriately reprove others, whether their faults are real or only perceived.
I think the right way to approach giving reproof is modeled very well here by Jacob. He may have never said anything like this before to these people. If he was just a younger brother to Nephi and kind of tucked away in the temple a lot of the time and all of a sudden he comes out, this probably was really out of character for him. I suspect his people were really quite startled. We don’t know what the outcome was. Jacob doesn’t say, but at least he did his job. That seems to be the important message. He did his job and not only were his people warned, but we get the same warning today because Jacob recorded this important speech.