What could you do with unshaken faith and how do you obtain it? I'm Jared Halverson and these are the questions I want to ask the Book of Mormon Prophet Jacob as we study chapter 4 of his inspiring book.

In a previous episode we studied Jacob Chapter 7,

Jacob's encounter with the anti-Christ-Sharram. As I read it, the climax of that

narrative is verse 5, where we see the supposedly irresistible force,

Sherram's anti-religious attacks,

falling powerless to the immovable object,

Jacob's faith, which could not be shaken.

We discussed the tactics, Sherram used,

and the ways that Jacob responded to, but one thing you need

to know about Jacob is that this was not uncharted territory for him.

He'd grown up in a family that endured all kinds of shaking.

Economic loss and social displacement, removal from familiar surroundings, physical trials in the wilderness,

the emotional trauma of deep division and even open conflict within the family, and the

sorrow of losing loved ones, either to physical death or to spiritual rebellion.

Jacob's siblings covered the spectrum, from shakers like Lehman, to the shaken like Lemuel, to the unshaken

like Sam, to the apparently unshakable like Nephi, with his own parents showing

moments of movement in both directions along that spectrum.

So when Sharham came along hoping to shake him from the faith,

Jacob responded with well-earned confidence.

This wasn't boastful bravado, born of cocky self-assurance.

This was humble faith, forged in the furnace of affliction.

Jacob speaks of shaking more often than most Book of Mormon writers.

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