"the tongue of the learned"

Several posts ago, I detailed a pattern related to Noah. Noah transforms from one who is protected by resting in God's hand to one into whose hands the fulness of the earth in delivered. I connected this to Adam and Eve and the commandment given to them in Genesis 1:28. This concept of receiver becoming giver has been on my mind ever since. This post will outline another example of this divine pattern. Today we'll look at Jacob's sermon at the temple in 2 Nephi 6-10.

A division among the people -- a temple pattern

Covenants are offered following a division of the wicked and the righteous -- those who will kearken are offered further light and knowledge, and those who will not hearken are cursed/cast out/destroyed. It isn't difficult to see the division that took place in the story of Noah. The people were wicked. Noah preached the Gospel to them. They rejected that message. Then Noah and his family was saved by the ark and God covenanted with him.

This same basic pattern plays out in the story of Nephi. Jacob's sermon at the temple immediately follows a description of a great division among the Lehites. In 2 Nephi 5, Nephi describes how his brothers sought to destroy him. Nephi and those who would "hearken" unto his words fled with their "tents .. into the wilderness" (see 2 Nephi 5:5-7, and this series of posts by Stisa (part 1 | part 2 | part 3) to learn more about the significance of this detail). They "did observe to keep the judgments, and the statutes, and the commandments of the Lord in all things" (see 2 Nephi 5:10). Nephi brought three sacred objects associated with their previous journey.

In verses 12 and 14, Nephi mentions that they brought with them the sword of Laban, the plates of brass, and the "compass." Each of these objects bears a direct symbolic relationship to the formation and maintenance of a covenant people. I might expound more about that in a future post, but for now I think it is sufficient to keep in mind that these objects have covenant significance.

This new people prospered. They built a temple. (See vv. 11-16.) A cursing is placed on those who rejected the covenant paradigm. Then, Nephi tells us this:

26 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did consecrate Jacob and Joseph, that they should be priests and teachers over the land of my people.

27 And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness. (2 Nephi 5)

After Nephi gives us this description of the division of the Lehites, he instructs Jacob, his younger brother and one of the "priests and teachers over the land of [Nephi's] people" to teach the people. I don't think this is a coincidence. Rather, it constitutes part of a sacred pattern. Thus, the sermon at the temple is directed at a group of people who, like Noah, have hearkened to the word are are prepared to receive further light and knowledge.

In 2 Nephi 6:4, Jacob spells out exactly what Nephi has asked him to teach:

4 And now, behold, I would speak unto you concerning things which are, and which are to come; wherefore, I will read you the words of Isaiah. And they are the words which my brother has desired that I should speak unto you. And I speak unto you for your sakes, that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God.

The purpose of the sermon is cause the people to "learn and glorify" the name of their God. Again, this is not a coincidence, but rather part of a divine pattern. Those who hearken will "learn" the holy name of their God and then be filled, allowing them to "glorify" that name. 

Like so many pivotal texts in the Book of Mormon, Jacob is making reference to language used repeatedly in the Book of Moses about Adam (presumable found on the brass plates):

1 And Adam hearkened unto the voice of God, and called upon his sons to repent.

2 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son, and he called his name Seth. And Adam glorified the name of God; (Moses 6)

We learn earlier in the Book of Moses that Adam learned to "call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore" (see Moses 5:8). See also Moses 5:10,12.

We also see that later in this same two-day sermon, Jacob teaches the people the name of the Messiah, information he received from an angel on the previous night (see 2 Nephi 10:3).

"The tongue of the learned" 

In the next chapter, as Jacob continues to quote Isaiah, he says this:

4 The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season unto thee, O house of Israel. When ye are weary he waketh morning by morning. He waketh mine ear to hear as the learned. (2 Nephi 7)

The NRSV translates the same verse (Isaiah 50:4) using slightly different wording:

The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens— wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

I love the pattern on display in this verse: the "ear" of a learner connects to "the tongue of a teacher."

"learn and glorify" -- ears and tongues

I believe this is a holy pattern with significant temple implications -- a part of the "holy order" Jacob references in 2 Nephi 6:2. Those who are willing to hearken will eventually be taught how to speak with the tongue of angels.  In future posts, I'll continue to outline additional examples of this. In the next post, we'll look at an interesting version of this same pattern in Alma 12:29-30.