Ether 1-11

Quotes of the Week:

I don’t know how to get anything done except getting on my knees and pleading for help and then getting on my feet and going to work.

--Gordon B. Hinckley, as quoted by Russell M. Nelson, Ensign, 11/97, 16

Even the good can become careless without the Lord’s being there to chasten.

--Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, 11/87, 31

Further Reading:

Henry B. Eyring, "The Brother of Jared: An Expert at Learning," Ensign, 7/78
Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, chapter 2

Handouts:

Book of Mormon Student Manual, p. 361
The book of Ether covers over 1700 years of history from 2200 BC down to the time of Coriantumr.  We don’t know exactly when Coriantumr lived, but it was somewhere between 500 and 250 BC.

Unlocking the Book of Mormon, p. 487
Moroni says that he had not written the hundredth part of the record, and as it is we have 15 chapters or about 31 ½ printed pages.

Ether 1:34-35--Brother of Jared
Book of Mormon Student Manual, p. 362
“While residing in Kirtland Elder Reynolds Cahoon had a son born to him.  One day when President Joseph Smith was passing his door he called the Prophet in and asked him to bless and name the baby.  Joseph did so and gave the boy the name of Mahonri Moriancumer.  When he had finished the blessing he laid the child on the bed, and turning to Elder Cahoon he said, the name I have given your son is the name of the brother of Jared; the Lord has just shown [or revealed] it to me.

 Ether 1:43--Prayer

Book of Mormon Student Manual, p. 363
Joseph Smith taught, Come to God, weary him until he blesses you.

Marvin J. Ashton, “Personal Prayer,” Prayer, p. 77
If a contrite spirit and a broken heart are united with faith unwavering, our prayers, no matter how simple the words, will be significant.

Neal A. Maxwell, “What Should We Pray For?” Prayer, p. 45
There is a lack of realization on our part that we can actually be guided in terms of what we should pray for.  We tend to pour out petitions without letting inspiration pour in. God can truly prompt us in our prayers to ask for that which is right to not ask amiss.  God can educate our desires. . . . We too often pray in generalities rather than specifics.  A vague prayer is hardly a prayer at all.

Spencer W. Kimbaal, “Prayer,” New Era, 3/78, 17
Do you get answers to your prayers?  If not, perhaps you did not pay the price.  Do you offer a few trite words and worn-out phrases, or do you talk intimately to the Lord?  Do you pray occasionally when you should be praying regularly, often, constantly?  Do you offer pennies to pay heavy debts when you should give dollars to erase that obligation?  When you pray, do you just speak, or do you also listen? . . . Should we ever fail to get an answer to our prayers, we must look into our lives for a reason.
 

Ether 2:7-9, 12,15—Conditional Land of Promise

J. Reuben Clark, Stand Fast by Our Constitution, 176
From that day until now, the price of the promised blessing has always been, and will ever be, the serving of Jesus Christ, the God of this land.  There is no other way to get the blessing nor to escape the judgment.  This fact must never be forgotten.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 3:321-22
These passages of scripture from the Book of Mormon are true:  Ether 2:7-12 this nation is not exempt, and the people, if they continue to pursue the course of evil and ungodliness that they are now treading, shall eventually be punished.  If they continue to disregard the warning voice of the Lord, deny their Redeemer. . . . The judgments of the Lord will come upon this land, and this nation will not be saved; we will not be spared from war, from famine, from pestilence and finally from destruction, as a nation.

Discourses of President Gordon B. Hinckley, 2:523-24
I hope that there is not a day that passes that you and I, every one of us, does not get on our knees and pray for this land of which we are a part and those who preside here, that they may be guided and blessed to do that which the Lord would have done.

Ether  2:14—Rebuked

Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, p. 15
It is difficult to imagine what a three-hour rebuke from the Lord might be like, but the brother of Jared endured it.  With immediate repentance and prayer, this prophet again sought guidance for the journey they had been assigned and those who were to pursue it.  God accepted his repentance and lovingly gave further direction for their crucial mission.

Henry B. Eyring, “The Brother of Jared: An Expert at Learning,” Ensign, 7/78, 62
The numbers in that sad account are keys to the brother of Jared’s problem and to the Master’s solution: four years and three hours. The brother of Jared, and his caravan of people and animals, had been stopped four years in a journey they knew was to take them over many waters to a promised land. And the Master took not a minute, not five minutes, but three hours of His time to rebuke inattention. What do those four years and three hours show us about barriers and gateways to learning? . . .
How could Moriancumer—a man able to accept his brother’s counsel, a man blessed by the Master’s personal attention for his mighty prayer, a man strong enough to lead people and flocks of every kind across trackless wastes and seas and finally reach the edge of the great ocean—how could he pitch his tent and, four years later, be chastened for forgetting the Lord? . . .
If we will open ourselves to learning, as the brother of Jared did, we can someday share the record of his spiritual blessings. The story seems to suggest that the main barrier to such blessings is our inability to feel the danger we are in if we do not receive spiritual counsel—if we forget to call on the Lord. The story also aptly illustrates the main gateway to these blessings, which is faith. Clearly shown in the time and care which the Master lavished on rebuking and teaching Moriancumer is the lesson that mighty prayer is heard and answered. . . .
Since few of us will have spectacular manifestations as the brother of Jared did, we might well add to that frequent picture of Moriancumer that pops into our minds (the blinding light from the stones on a mountaintop) the quiet scene of four years by a lovely seaside and the image of a three-hour interview. The tents by the sea could remind us that our dependence and gratitude must be unending, not just when we are in the “trackless wastes” or buried in some raging spiritual ocean. And a three-hour interview, longer than we may ever give our child or brother or husband or wife, could remind us of the availability, the patience, and the love of our Teacher. And with that sense of need and with that faith in God’s availability, we will have learned a crucial lesson from the brother of Jared, a master learner.

Ether 2:19-3:6--The Stones

Harold B. Lee, Stand Ye in Holy Places, 243-44
This is the principle in action. If you want the blessing, don’t just kneel down and pray about it.  Prepare yourselves in every conceivable way you can in order to make yourselves worthy to receive the blessing you seek.

Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, 16-17
Things.  The Brother of Jared hardly knew what to call them.  Rocks undoubtedly did not sound very inspiring.  Here, standing next to the Lord’s magnificent handiwork, the impeccably designed and marvelously unique seagoing barges, the Brother of Jared offered for his contribution rocks.  As he eyed the sleek ships the Lord had provided, it was a moment of genuine humility.
For all of his self-abasement, the faith of the Brother of Jared was immediately apparent—in fact, we might better say transparent in light of the purpose for which the stones would be used.  Obviously, Jehovah found something striking in the childlike innocence and fervor of this man’s faith.  “Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this.”  In a sense there may be no more powerful expression of faith spoken in scripture.  It is almost as if the brother of Jared was encouraging God, emboldening him, reassuring him.  However uncertain the prophet was about his own ability, he had no uncertainty about God’s power.  This was nothing but a single, assertive declaration with no hint of vacillation. It was encouragement to him who needs no encouragement but who surely must have been touched by it. 
What happened next ranks among the greatest moments in recorded history, surely among the greatest moments in recorded faith.  It established the brother of Jared among the greatest of God’s prophets forever.

Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, 18-19
Preparatory faith is formed by experiences in the past—by the known, which provides a basis for belief.  But redemptive faith must often be exercised toward experiences in the future—the unknown, which provides an opportunity for the miraculous.  Exacting faith, mountain-moving faith, faith like that of the brother of Jared, precedes the miracle and the knowledge.  He had to believe before God spoke.  He had to act before the ability to complete the action was apparent.  He had to commit to the complete experience in advance of even the first segment of its realization.  Faith is to agree unconditionally—and in advance—to whatever conditions God may require in both the near and distant future.

Ether 4:15—Rend the veil of unbelief

 Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, 29
The Book of Mormon is predicated on the willingness of men and women to “rend that veil of unbelief” in order to behold the revelations—and the Revelation—of God.  The brother of Jared may not have had great belief in himself, but his belief in God was unprecedented.  In that there is hope for us all.  His faith was without doubt or limit.
From the moment of that utterance, the brother of Jared and the reader of the Book of Mormon would never again be the same.  Once and for all it was declared that ordinary people with ordinary challenges could rend the veil of unbelief and enter the realms of eternity.  And Christ, who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem his people, would stand in all his glory at the edge of that veil, ready to receive the believers and show them “how great things the Father had laid up” for them at the end of faith’s journey.

Ether 3:14--Light/Life

Robert J. Matthews, The Book of Mormon: From Zion to Destruction, 25
In all editions of the Book of Mormon from 1830, the Lord said in Ether 3:14, “In me shall all mankind have light and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name” . . . . However, since 1981 the word light  has been replaced with the word life. . . . .
The change of wording from light to life was brought about in the following manner.  During the preparation of the 1981 edition, it was brought tot the attention of the Brethren that even though all printed editions of the Book of Mormon to this time had read light, the printer’s manuscript, from which the type was set for the first edition of the Book of Mormon, clearly said life. The Scriptures Publications Committee, consisting of three members of the Twelve, unanimously agreed that life was a stronger word than light, and since the manuscript read life, the correction should be made.  An examination of the context also justified this correction, for they who believe will become the sons and daughters of Christ.  They are thus spiritually begotten by him and are given eternal life, which includes having eternal light, but is far, far greater.

Ether 3:15—“Never Have I Showed Myself unto Man”

Kent Jackson, Studies in Scripture, 252-54
It seems from the scriptures that with one exception, in all the recorded manifestations of Jehovah prior to his birth in the flesh, he appeared in his role as God the Father, speaking the words of the Father.  The exception is this appearance to the brother of Jared in Ether 3. . .
It appears that the uniqueness of this situation, brought about because of Mahonri Moriancumer’s unparalleled faith, was the fact that Jehovah appeared to him in his role as Jesus—whereas to others he had shown himself as the Father. . . .  Nowhere else in the scriptures do we have an example of Jehovah appearing in his role as Jesus until his coming in the flesh.

Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, p. 21-23
A final explanation . . . is that Christ was saying to the brother of Jared, “Never have I showed myself unto man in this manner, without my volition, driven solely by the faith of the beholder.” As a rule, prophets are invited into the presence of the Lord, are bidden to enter his presence by him and only with his sanction. The brother of Jared, on the other hand, seems to have thrust himself through the veil, not as an unwelcome guest but perhaps technically as an uninvited one.  . . . Obviously the Lord himself was linking unprecedented faith with this unprecedented vision.  If the vision itself was not unique, then it had to be the faith and how the vision was obtained that was so unparalleled.  The only way that faith could be so remarkable was its ability to take the prophet, uninvited, where others had been able to go only with God’s bidding.

Ether 3:14-15—Jesus as Creator

Selected Writings of Gerald N. Lund, p. 161
Someone calculated that if we took the distance from the earth to the sun, which is 93 million miles, and reduced that in scale down to where it was the thickness of a single sheet of paper, the distance from our earth to the nearest star would be a stack of paper 71 feet high!  On that same scale, the diameter of the Milky Way, our own galaxy, would be a stack of paper 310 miles high.  And if we carried that same scale on to the edge of the known universe, we would have a stack of paper 31 million miles high—a stack of paper that would stretch from the earth nearly one third of the way to the sun.
When we consider the incredible vastness of the numbers of creations, all of which were completed under the direction of the Father by the Only Begotten, we begin to sense the position, the majesty, and the power that were his before his coming to earth.

K Douglas Bassett, The Barber’s Song, 37-38
[The] body is a wonderful, personal gift from their Heavenly Father—custom made by the Master.  Within its less-than-perfect features and functions will be the divine lessons that will connect each child to our Father in Heaven.  Can’t all of us bear witness that life’s greatest personal lessons have come not only through the body but also because of the very body we are wearing?   Is this not perfect proof of the divine tutoring of our God through his great gift of a body, designed individually for each of us?
The body, then, becomes a type of classroom in which the Lord tutors us individually, giving us celestial lessons through the classroom we will wear from the moment we are born until the day we die.  This individual tutoring is one of the reasons that the Lord can promise each of us that we will not be tested more than we can withstand.

Ether 4:4; 5;1--Sealed portion of Book of Mormon

Unlocking the Book of Mormon, p. 494-95
It is not absolutely clear what portion of the plates of Mormon was sealed. Joseph Smith simply said, “ The volume was something near six inches in thickness, a part of which was sealed.” . . .
[When will the sealed record be revealed?] it is not clear . . . However, some of the prior conditions that must exist are enumerated.  For example, the Lord said that before the record is revealed the people must exercise faith in him “even as the brother of Jared did.”(Ether 4:7) Also, . . . the people must “become sanctified” in him.

Ether 5—Three Witnesses

Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, 5/99, 37
[The testimony of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon] stands uncontradicted by any other witnesses.  Reject it one may, but how does one explain three men of good character uniting and persisting in this published testimony to the end of their lives in the face of great ridicule and other personal disadvantage?  Like the Book of Mormon itself, there is no better explanation than is given in the testimony itself,  the solemn statement of good and honest men who told what they saw.

Ether 6:3—Light

Ardeth G. Kapp, The Joy of the Journey, 69
You have the light within.  You can shine in darkness.  You can light up the world.  You can help dispel the darkness.  You can make a difference.

Ether 7:23-27--Prophetic Warning

Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, 11/98, 32
Because the Lord is kind, He calls servants to warn people of danger.  That call to warn is made harder and more important by the fact that the warnings of most worth are about dangers that people don’t yet think are real.

Ether 8:25-26--Satan

Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 214
The devil has no power over us only as we permit him; the moment we revolt at anything which comes from God, the devil takes power.

Ether 9:19--Animals

Unlocking the Book of Mormon, p. 503
These animals were unknown either to the Nephites or to us (probably both), according to Hugh Nibley, so their names could not be translated. Nibley also said that elephants became extinct in Asia sometime between 1500 and 500 BC, as they did likewise in the Americas.

Ether 9:28-31--Natural Disasters

Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 55
We believe that these severe, natural calamities are visited upon men by the Lord for the good of his children, to quicken their devotion to others, and to bring out their better natures, that they may love and serve him.