What was your relationship like with Jacob?

I met Jacob and the dark man shortly after I was shipwrecked.  I was tricked into trying to kill Jacob, but he stopped me and asked me to help him.  He never tried to trick me.  He showed me compassion and asked me to choose freely.  This is all he has ever done.
I only ever met Jacob at the fallen statue, where he had a home inside the stone base.  Sometimes I could see signs he had been elsewhere on the Island, but that is the only place we ever met.  He asked that I camp some distance away from him, and pointed me to areas where previous visitors had settled, so I was able to gather together some shelter, pots, knives and other hunting items.  Through each group of new visitors, my group would keep and use whatever was left.  I never returned to the Black Rock, mostly because I didn't want to see the dark man again, but also I was afraid for myself and my soul should I see Isabella again.
Jack and Kate, Ben, all them always thought that I knew what Jacob was planning, that I knew his reasons.  But that was never true.  I was given some orders and lists of names, but when I asked why, he would always say it was to protect the Island.  From what, he would not say, but I could see the greed and agression and destructiveness in the groups of people he variously would bring to the Island.  Things seems to get progressively worse, with the Army and then the Dharma Initiative arriving.  It seemed that Jacob was saying these people were why we needed to protect the Island.  But I did not learn until the end that it was all done, entirely done, to protect against and destroy the dark man, the Smoke Monster.
Jacob needed to find people that had a strong streak of good in them.  The Island was a place that put that to the test, and it was easy for those who were morally weak to do bad things.  Even without the help of the dark man.  But Jacob could not interfere.  And now I see why he could not tell even me - he could not risk his search resulting in someone not worthy.  So he could not influence one way or the other.  Imagine, letting the things you love destroy each other.  This is the sadness and compassion I saw, and why I stayed helping him.