Having assumed the role of spiritual leader of the people and curator of the sacred records following the ministry of Nephi, Jacob is mindful of the responsibility to cultivate and foster among the people an uncompromisingly obedient walk in life. Some fifty-five years have passed since Lehi and his family have left Jerusalem (see Jacob 1:1), and the little colony in the New World is now beginning to grow larger and more susceptible to the creeping malignancies of pride, materialism, and immorality. Blessed with the spirit of prophecy and revelation, Jacob perceives with utter clarity what lies ahead for his people, based on the consequences of their choices in life: “For because of faith and great anxiety, it truly had been made manifest unto us concerning our people, what things should happen unto them” (Jacob 1:5). He fears that the great “provocation” (Jacob 1:7) committed by the Israelites at the time of Moses and the giving of the Ten Commandments is about to be replayed in his day, and thus he prays unto the Lord for guidance and is commanded to assemble the people at the temple and call them to repentance (see Jacob 2:11). This he does with unfiltered frankness, exposing the sins of pride and immorality that are threatening to tear families apart and, as he later observes, causing the “fair daughters of this people” (Jacob 2:32) to cry unto the Lord in anguish. Jacob’s sermon on overcoming wickedness is one of the masterpieces of the scriptures.