Remember in "The man behind the curtain" Ben saw the cabin but he clearly did not see Jacob and as Locke began to walk out the cabin, he heard the words "help me". Now flash forward to "Cabin Fever", Locke couldn't find the cabin until he met a bloody nosed horace in his dream that kept time looping. I think that was an indication that Jacob is trapped in a time loop and is suffering from it. How he got there? well, hopefully we should find out this week! Nonetheless, I think John is following the islands orders and if this leads him to uniting his people to their correct timeline or not, it doesnt matter to him. John's current motivation is the islands safety, however I think we know why Ben tried to kill him so many times. As for Richard, it's going to be interesting to see if he is going to try to get his hands dirty.
