Chapters 1–3 constitute Jacob’s temple sermon. Little wonder, then, that he spent so much time discussing marriage and family life. Stunningly, every one of the principles and doctrinal points Jacob discussed is grounded in the temple endowment as we know it today.
Jacob felt a serious responsibility, as he said, “to magnify [his] office with soberness,” so he taught his people in the holy temple (Jacob 2:2; 1:17). It becomes clearer and clearer in the next verses that Jacob was a sensitive person and felt the burden of denouncing their sins: “I this day am weighed down with much more desire and anxiety for the welfare of your souls than I have hitherto been.” God had revealed to him their thoughts, how they were “beginning to labor in sin” and turning to things abominable; “I must testify unto you concerning the wickedness of your hearts.”
The sensitivity of Jacob’s righteous soul is evident in the vocabulary he used and the way he expressed himself quite differently from any other writer in the Book of Mormon: “It grieveth me that I must use so much boldness of speech concerning you, before your wives and your children, many of whose feelings are exceedingly tender and chaste and delicate before God … ; and it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul.” This Book of Mormon record is indeed full of the pleasing word of God that heals wounded souls.
With some of the most gentle, sympathetic, and loving words in all of scripture, Jacob lamented, “It burdeneth my soul that I should be constrained, because of the strict commandment which I have received from God, to admonish you according to your crimes, to enlarge the wounds of those who are already wounded, instead of consoling and healing their wounds; and those who have not been wounded, instead of feasting upon the pleasing word of God have daggers placed to pierce their souls and wound their delicate minds.”
As hard as it was, Jacob had to bear down on their wickedness, even in the hearing of “the pure in heart, and the broken heart, and under the glance of the piercing eye of the Almighty God.”
Elder Dallin H. Oaks explained the intent of Church authorities as they teach members: “A message given by a General Authority at a general conference—a message prepared under the influence of the Spirit to further the work of the Lord—is not given to be enjoyed. It is given to inspire, to edify, to challenge, or to correct. It is given to be heard under the influence of the Spirit of the Lord, with the intended result that the listener learns from the talk and from the Spirit what he or she should do about it.” 2