Ether 9-11

Ether 9

The epic drama of betrayal, rebellion, and power-seeking continues. Jared and Akish take over the kingdom of Omer through their “secret combinations” – BUT the Lord is merciful to Omer and warns him to escape before he can be murdered.

You can continue to read the story for yourself, but here are a few “morales” of the story I can see:

• If you do a deal with the devil, expect him to turn around a do a deal with someone else against you (vs. 4-5)

• Eventually people who choose evil will get a taste of their own medicine (vs. 5-7, thinking of the daughter of Jared, who was the one who suggested the secret combinations in the first place to her father so he could gain power. Now her father has been murdered by her husband, and her husband has killed her son as well. I doubt she realized the mess she was getting herself into.)

• Wicked nations often destroy themselves (v. 12)

• The Lord preserves the nations that love and follow Him (vs. 13-22, 35)

• It’s easy to judge these people for “flip flopping” back and forth between good and evil so quickly. But really it’s not that quickly, it’s just a very condensed version of the story that makes it feel quick. Every person is at risk of flip-flopping within their own life time. Are you changing for the better or the worse?

Ether 10

It makes my head spin to read this chapter because it covers so many generations of rulers and people and is such a rollercoaster of righteousness and wickedness, prosperity and trouble. I guess one big message is that people can change – for good or for bad. I’m actually impressed at how often in this chapter the king switches from a bad king to a good king, because I feel like in the Book of Mormon it’s a lot more common for the people to be happy and righteous and prosperous and then a bad king comes in and spoils everything.

Another clear lesson in this chapter is that when people are righteous, and when people treat each other well (and rulers treat their people well), they prosper.

28 And never could be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord. And they were in a land that was choice above all lands, for the Lord had spoken it.

I also noticed, it isn’t always the king’s fault if the people are righteous or wicked. At the end of this chapter, the King is good and does everything he can to stop the spread of the “old plans” of darkness but he “did not prevail against them.” I'm not sure if I find that discouraging or encouraging…?

What other lessons or highlights stand out to you?

Ether 11

Things are headed downhill fast. God sends prophets to give serious warnings to these people, that they need to straighten up or their days are numbered. And every time, the people reject (and even kill) the prophets:

5 And it came to pass that the brother of Shiblom caused that all the prophets who prophesied of the destruction of the people should be put to death;  6 … for they had testified that a great curse should come upon the land, and also upon the people, and that there should be a great destruction among them, such an one as never had been upon the face of the earth, and their bones should become as heaps of earth upon the face of the land except they should repent of their wickedness.

In this chapter, I count three different rounds or generations of prophets that the Lord sends to try to warn the people. To God’s credit, He doesn’t send destructions or punishment without lots and lots of warning and pleading for people to change and choose a better path. 

Spoiler alert… the prophets have been warning the people of destruction so great that “their bones should become as heaps of earth upon the face of the land.” Remember that we are reading a record (the Book of Ether) that was found by Limhi’s people among the bones and ruins of an unknown people. Can you guess if the people repent or not?

Ether 7-8

Ether 7

At the end of chapter 6, Jared and his brother are getting old and they gather all their people together to count them (they’ve really multiplied!) and to ask what else they can do for them before they die. The people want one of their sons to be their king, but kings tend to lead to trouble, and the brother of Jared warns the people that having a king will lead to captivity, but the people still want a king. None of the sons want to be king except for Jared’s youngest son, Orihah, who luckily is a good and humble man. Jared and his brother both die of old age, and the reign of Orihah begins.

Now to chapter 7. Believe it or not, the story in this chapter is even crazier than the election that just happened in America this week! I think this chapter could make a great plot outline for a movie, actually. I’ll let you read it yourself, but I did a very scrappy sketch/diagram of the people involved to help you keep track of who’s who.

I’ve also sketched out Ether 8, but let’s make it clear I only want to make a movie at out of Ether 7… because that story ends happy. Ether 8 starts getting ugly and evil as the people introduce the secret combinations of old, and I hate that (leads to the destruction of an entire people… every time).

Ether 8

A very similar pattern of rebellious sons and redemptive sons continues in this chapter, but then the fate of the people takes a turn for the worst when a conniving woman gets involved. Jared, who is pining for the crown, works with his daughter (whose name we don’t even know) to overthrow the kingdom through secret combinations. Her plan is to dance for a man named Akish so he will want to marry her, and Jared will only agree if Akish will murder the king. You'll see that this woman's wicked plan to help her father gain power backfires on her in many awful ways.

18 And it came to pass that they formed a secret combination, even as they of old; which combination is most abominable and wicked above all, in the sight of God... 

19 For the Lord worketh not in secret combinations, neither doth he will that man should shed blood, but in all things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man. 

21 And they have caused the destruction of this people of whom I am now speaking, and also the destruction of the people of Nephi.

Ether 5-6

Ether 5

Moroni prophesies there will be “three witnesses” who get to see these plates as they “assist to bring forth this work” in translating them. When Joseph Smith was translating the Book of Mormon in 1829, he was allowed by God to show the plates to 3 witnesses. Actually, an angel showed them to the witnesses. You can read their witness statement at the beginning of the Book of Mormon:

TESTIMONY OF THREE WITNESSES  

All three of these men stayed true to this account, even though some did not stay with the church. I wish there was time/space to tell you more stories about the translation of the Book of Mormon and the Three Witnesses. Church history is very, very cool and full of miracles.

Ether 6

I’ve been thinking about this chapter all week and the improved perspective it has given me on my personal challenges.  

The Jaredites' journey begins as they load up their barges and set sail into the open ocean. God was their only navigator, and he caused that “there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind (vs. 5).”

So the wind is good, because it’s whole purpose is to get them to where they are trying to go. But it isn’t pleasant. “They were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind (vs. 6).” And get this: “the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters (vs. 8).” I don’t know about you, but this sounds like torture to me. They are being blown and rocked and dunked across the entire ocean, non-stop. Makes you sea-sick and claustrophobic just reading about it!

Why was the fierce wind necessary? Well, it says by the time they get to the promised land that they’ve been on the ocean for almost a YEAR! If God didn’t send the fierce winds, they probably would have been stuck and sea sick in these cramped, semi-lit, dish-like boxes for double the time.

I think the Jaredites must have known and remembered that the obnoxious wind was actually a blessing from God because it this was their attitude during the journey:

9 And 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.

Wow! What a beautiful, constant attitude of gratitude they had in a really uncomfortable (and frightening!) circumstance. I’m really touched by this, and this week whenever something frustrating or difficult has occurred, I’ve tried to remember the wind. I’m on a journey, trying to become the person God wants me to be and make the life He wants me to make, and the winds are blowing me in the right direction. So rather than resenting the winds, I want to let them move me!