Jacob 2

There are two great sins that the people of Nephi are committing. One is pride because of their riches and the other is adultery brought on by polygamy. In both cases, it seems it is the men who are sinning. Their pride has come because they have sought for riches without first seeking to be spiritually grounded and they use their riches to have position and power. We know this because they persecute the poor and do not take care of the sick. In contrast, I think of people like John Huntsman who have become extremely wealthy while being a member of the church. He has used his money to support the church, to build the Huntsman Cancer Center, among many other philanthropic efforts. The people of Nephi obviously have their priorities wrong. We should never feel bad because others have more and seem to be in a position of power over over us because of their wealth. If they are prideful, they wealth will not bother us. If they are, they are soon to suffer because they will be brought down in humility by the Lord.

The Nephite's worst sin is having plural wives and concubines. They use the sins of Solomon and David in the Old Testament as an excuse. Jacob says that the hearts of the women have been pierced with deep wounds and have died. Their suffering was evidence that the men were in sin. The Lord has heard the women's prayers and seen their sorrow and will not let them suffer any longer. Plural wives, Jacob teaches, will only happen when he commands a people to raise up more posterity. I think the question of plural wives will always haunt the church to some extent. Partly because it was begun in secret, partly because it goes against modern society's traditions of marriage. Not the tradition of having one wife that our society used to have, but the tradition of not marrying at all that pervades society now. If there is no need to marry and have a single wife, to have more than one is even more extreme. As the church's promotion of a traditional family becomes less and less important, the idea of a traditional wife in the home with children will become more foreign. It will require more and more courage of those women who are traditional wives in traditional families.