Wednesday, October 4, 2017

2 Nephi 2:2 -- On Afflictions and Opposition Leading to Gain

"And now, Jacob, I speak unto you: Thou art my firstborn in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren.
Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain."
2 Nephi 2:2


This is Lehi, talking to his sons before his death, both individually and collectively I think, since although he is addressing Jacob here, later in the chapter he teaches many gospel lessons and addresses his sons in the plural.  He mentions the afflictions and sorrow that Jacob has suffered at the hands of his brothers (if they are also present during this blessing, this is probably a reminder to them as well), and then Lehi tells Jacob that God will "consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain."  I think this whole idea is amazing.  It is similar to the make weak things strong idea.  God makes our trials into blessings, and through hardship and pain, we become glorious.  And that's all of life, right?Instead of the unchanging Garden of Eden where they stayed as they were, we are in a world where change and growth became possible.  It's hard and painful to do those things, and so we often shy away and wish we could go back to the garden, but we're here for a reason... a good one. :)  So we can grow and learn and become more than we were before.

I think that we can learn in other ways than pain, but there is opposition tied to all of it (see verse 11).  We don't have to feel pain to study and pray or work hard at something... but we still have to fight against our own inertia and distractability.  We have to start a project and follow through with it, for a loooooong time sometimes, not just jump ship when we get a little impatient.  That's tough too.  I think most of all though, this is cool because God really does care, and he makes every second of every moment  of our lives MORE than worth it, no matter what we go through.  He makes it count for something... something amazing and something that gets us to change and be better, and if we follow through and never give up, something that qualifies us (with his help) for heaven. :)

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