What did Jacob really want his people to learn from the long parable? He concluded, "O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, … and continue in the way" (6:11), which may be an allusion to Psalm 1:3, 5, 6), promising the righteous that they will be "like a tree … that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, … for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish."
"Finally," Jacob says, "I bid you farewell until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear. Amen." Here Jacob is saying goodbye to his people. He tells them that God’s judgment will be pleasant and pleasing for the righteous, but it will be awful for the wicked. Jacob used the word "pleasing" six times in this sensitive book, referring to the tenderness and chastity of wives and children as "pleasing unto God" (Jacob 2:7), three times to describe the word of God as "pleasing" (2:8, 9; 3:2), once here speaking of the "pleasing bar of God," and finally that the outcome of Sherem’s case was "pleasing unto me, Jacob, … for the Lord had heard my cry and answered my prayer" (7:22).
It seems that, at the time Jacob gave his speech and long allegory in Jacob 4–6, he was sick or old, for it seems that he saw himself as being close to dying. But yet he would live long enough to withstand Sherem’s strong confrontation, which Jacob reports in his one remaining chapter. Perhaps Sherem took advantage of Jacob’s old age or poor health. Perhaps Sherem was previously well-known to Jacob, and possibly Sherem was the one Jacob had in mind when he warned people not to "reject my words" or "reject the words of the prophets; and … all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ" (Jacob 6:8). Indeed, Sherem opposed Jacob specifically on his prophecies and teachings about Christ and his way.