Ether 1-5: Come Follow Me Book of Mormon with Sam

 Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! This week kicks off studying the Jaredites, which is a major picker-upper from the last chapters, although Moroni still starts out with the spoiler alert that they are destroyed. There is so much happening in Ether that I have chosen to be selective on these chapters. While I really couldn't say that Nephi's words, Alma's witness, Christ's teachings, or Mormon/Moroni's last testimonies were better than the the other, or better than Ether, I would rank Ether as a hidden gem too-often ignored.

The book of Ether is interesting to me for 2 reasons. The first is that we have almost no historical record for a civilization that lasted much longer than the Nephites. We just don't have the details or information to get a good picture of the civilization. The second is that this sparse history is interspersed with commentary, many times I believe inspired to be given on the spot by the spirit rather than premeditated.

An interesting historical connection if you want to research it is the connection between the Jaredites and the Olmecs. There is a good chance that they are indeed one and the same civilization, but I haven't really looked into it myself so I couldn't say I have any core knowledge on the issue.

One last thing is the great differences and the surprising similarities we see between the Jaredite civilization and the Nephite civilization. Their method of travel, their hierarchy of rulership, their way of waging war, their geo-natural irregularities all make a strangely unique story while at they same time, the message of the prophets, their secret combinations and subsequent demise are quite similar to the Nephite story. I think Moroni felt the loss of the Jaredites after seeing the loss of his own civilization.

Heritages and kings and Ether

Here is a fun exercise - go through the Jaredite record and match it up to the genealogy that Moroni presents. seeing as it is the record of Ether, it is not too surprising that it is the genealogy of Ether but what most people miss is that this is the line of kingship as well. I traced this out in one copy of the Book of Mormon, then lost it, but my recollection is that Ether had a bloodline claim to the throne, through his captive descendant Coriantor. He obviously did not exercise that, probably so Coriantumr didn't lop his head off and also because he was a prophet, but this may have put him in a somewhat protected status with access. Possibly he was under some sort of continued watch, and neither Shiz nor Coriantumr wanted him as a belligerent because of his ties to the throne. That is pretty close to pure speculation, but I think there is a lot more to Ether's personal story than we know.

Ancient civilizations

The Jaredite civilization goes way back. It is basically proto-post-diluvian (ppd, my own terms, don't use this at an academic conference), or one that emerged very early after the flood. We don't know that much about what was going on during this time. We have the book of Abraham as scripture, which I believe came some time after the Jaredite exodus, we have some Egyptian writings, we have some Ebla writings, maybe some others (orient?), and the rest is mostly some old artifacts and ruins and that is about it. I don't know of any artifacts that we can accurately say came before the flood (except maybe Noah's ark itself, and hey, I'm sure there's at least a few buildings somewhere) so everything there is basically a complete mystery. Those civilizations that came right after the flood are quite mysterious as well. They think and act differently than we do today. As we liken the scriptures, we need to be extra careful to not assume too much, and to really try to understand how they thought. We have the added help that Moroni acts in some respects as a civilization translator, not just a language translator through his summary and commentary of the material.

Jaredites and Adamic?

Perhaps the most exciting revelation (in the sense that we now know it, not in the heavenly sense) is that there was a civilization that spoke Adamic, possibly all the way through their history. Adamic was the language that Adam spoke, and presumably what all antediluvian people's did as well. This is a highly pure language that we don't know much about. Moroni mentions how the writing on the plates of Ether is incredibly powerful, much greater than what Moroni himself could write. It is possible, if we can find more Jaredite records and were given that gift of translation, that we could start to understand Adamic. In any case we will be taught it again in the Millenium.

The ease with which the brother of Jared communes with God

Notice how easy it is for the brother of Jared to commune with God. Like Moses, he cries unto God, and God answers him. God even chastises him for 3 hours for not calling on his name and having that communication. Imagine if God told you 'hey, I haven't seen you for a while, and you know better than that. Why didn't you come and talk to me?'

This is so strange to think about because I don't know anyone that I could confidently say has this kind of walking with God. I think it may be very difficult to do this in the society we have created for ourselves. It may be  is definitely time to rethink where our focus goes. We have zeroed down on school, sports, jobs, dating, family, and fun and you can see that these are necessarily bad things but we have so little focus on peace, prayer, meditation, stillness, quiet, and hearing God in the wind. I think we can do better.

The Promise of the Land

These two continents, North America and South America, truly are a land of promise and freedom. Even back to the earliest times after the flood, God 'had sworn in his wrath that whoso should possess this land of promise should serve him. the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fullness of his wrath should come upon them.' In a way this is a land of risk. It is not enough to simply believe in God, one must serve Him. I think the best definition of serving him comes from James 1:27 under pure and undefiled religion.

There are other promises to other lands and other peoples. For those in Europe, Africa and Asia, you can seek through scripture study and through prayer what those may be. I'm not sure if there are specific promises to Australia and Antarctica, but for the Australians, God made that continent for some reason, and He placed you there for some reason, so I'm sure if you seek diligently one day you'll discover the purpose and destiny of your Island Home. Maybe when the whole earth gets wiped out Mistborn style, Australia will be where we all go to be safe! (That is a joke, by the way. Definitely a joke)

The waves of the Sea.

There is such hope in the message of the Jaredites, commensurate with the great struggle. God knew the people would be thrust in the midst of the sea, and He told them he would deliver them out of it, because he made the sea, he knows the affliction coming out, and he knows the people in their barges. in chapter 6, it says they were buried in the depths of the sea, and the wind never ceased to blow, and for 344 days, 

'they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord.'

Moroni is moved to Prophesy

The story of the the Brother of Jared is a wonderful story of the power of faith and trust in God, and of learning like a child. The brother of Jared had all things revealed to him. Check out chapter 3:25-28 very closely. Notice how the promise goes to everyone that this is possible, and the language is such that if you live your life a certain way, the Lord could not help but reveal the same to you.

Moroni then begins to prophesy based on revelation given to him. 

13 Come unto me, O ye Gentiles, and I will show unto you the greater things, the knowledge which is hid up because of unbelief.

14 Come unto me, O ye house of Israel, and it shall be made manifest unto you how great things the Father hath laid up for you, from the foundation of the world; and it hath not come unto you, because of unbelief.

15 Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel.

Then he has a call to repentance. Check out verses 16-18. the part that gets me is when he says the revelations of John will be written in very deed.

Moroni will do this often. He will write something of the Brother of Jared, He will be moved to say something, and he will show to us what he receives as he writes this record. I encourage you to very carefully observe what Moroni writes about when this happens, then look at what Moroni receives as a consequence of what he is writing about.