Difference between revisions of "Ether 2-6"

Revision as of 00:06, 19 November 2012

The Book of Mormon > Ether > Chapters 1b-6

Subpages: Verses 1:33-2:7, Verses 2:8-12, Verses 2:13-25 • Chaptes 3-5 • Verses 6:1-12, Verses 6:13-7:3

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Outline and brief summary

The relationship of chapters 1b-2, 6 to the rest of the book is discussed at Ether. Chapters 1b-2, 6 can be outlined as follows:

I. Jaredites are established in the land, Jared & Brother (1b-6)

A. Land journey (1:33-2:7)

a. questions about traveling to a land of promise (34-40)

b. preparations for the land journey (1:41-2:4)

c. Lord leads Jaredites toward promised land (4-7)

d. "This land" as a promised land (2:8-12)

B. Journey through many waters (2:13-25)

c. Lord chastises Jaredites for sitting four years, not praying (13-15)

b. preparations for the water journey (16-17)

a. questions about traveling in boats (18-25)

( II. Faith and entering the Lord's presence (3-5))

B. Ocean journey (6:1-12)

a. subsist on food and light from two stones (2-4)

b. wind, protected, Noah (5-8)

c. praise God the whole way (9)

b. light, protected, Noah (10-12a)

a. arrive in promised land and tender mercies (12b)

A. Doings on the promised land (6:13-7:3)

a. multiply, walk humbly, and prosperous (13-18)

b. stewardship accounting of leadership (19-21)

b. allowing the people to choose a king (22-27)

a. prosperous, walk humbly, and multiply (6:27-7:3)

The promise of temporal salvation is obtained in the middle of 1:33-2:7 "because this long time have you cried unto me" (1:43), the statement of what it takes to save a nation temporally occurs in the middle of 1:33-2:25 (2:8-12), and the example of what it takes to save an individual spiritually occurs in the middle of the entire opening narrative (chapters 3-5).

Each of these sections is discussed separately on the following subpages: Verses 1:33-2:7, Verses 2:8-12, Verses 2:13-25 • Verses 6:1-12, Verses 6:13-7:3

Detailed discussion

Relationship between opening and closing narratives

In the opening narrative of chapters 1b-2, 6 there are two main characters: Jared & his Brother. There are also two main characters in the closing narrative of chapters 13b-15: Coriantumr & Ether. In each case one is a political leader and the other is a religious leader who communicates with God. Only in these opening and closing narratives do we have an individual prophet with actual words. In both cases the prophet is closely related to the political leader: Jared & his Brother are brothers, and Ether the prophet is descended from the royal line.

In the opening narrative political decisions are made after seeking out and deferring to the counsel of the heavenly king and the religious leader, and as a result the people are saved from destruction and established in the promised land. In the closing narrative the political leader rejects the unsolicited (and therefore probably very important) counsel of the religious leader, and as a result the people are destroyed. These two narratives illustrate in the principles explained in the promised land speeches of 2:8-12 and 8:20-26. To gain God's assistance, society must seek out and follow God's counsel. And to ignore God's counsel when he offers it unsolicited is to qualify for destruction.

Moroni provides numerous parallels between the opening and closing narratives to highlight their relatedness and invite the reader to compare them to see how they teach the same things. These parallels include the following:

• Plates found by people of Limhi, not write hundredth part (1:2,5; 3:17; also 15:33)
• Lord swore in his wrath, Babel / Jaredites destroyed in fulfillment of prophecy (1:33; 2:8; also 14:24; 15:3,28,33)
• Sweep off the earth, fullness of wrath (2:8-10; also 14:18,25,27)
• A righteous king defers to / tries to kill the prophet (____; also ____)
• Large & mighty men (1:34; also 13:15; 14:10; 15:26) - Shule, ch 11, 14:10
• Two requests that people be saved, where go & how (1:34-37; also 15:4,18)
• Gather supplies for the defining venture (1:41-2:7; also 15:12-15)
• Four years by the large waters (2:13-14; also 15:14; 13:24)
• Travel through many diverse lands (1:42; 2:6-7; also ____)
• Lord contends with Brother of Jared for three hours (2:14)

Two armies contend for three hours (15:27)

• The Spirit strives (2:15; also 15:19)
• Eight boats carry people to safety (3:1) - Riplakish, 3:1, 15:7-32

Eight days of battle destroy people (15:7-32)

• Brother of Jared / Shiz falls to the earth (3:6-7; also 15:32)
• Brother of Jared is a great prophet/Ether, a descendant of Brother of Jared, is a great prophet
• In the opening narrative we are shown who the Lord will help and what he will do for you. In the closing narrative we are shown who Satan will attempt to affect and what he will do to you.
• Four sons/four challengers (__; also __)

The point is that both stories are in fact the same story, and that neither can be fully understood without the other. It is true that one may learn the facts of one story without learning the other. But one must see why God acts both to establish and to destroy before the purpose of the story is understood.

Relationship between opening land journey and journey through waters

Both of these narrative sections (1:33-2:7; 2:13-25) recount question and answer sessions between the Brother of Jared and the Lord, with the last answer of each session running into the next section of Moroni's message. In both cases the Brother of Jared makes increasingly less specific requests for divine intervention until his final request. Finally the Lord tells him to figure it out for himself.

In verses 2:4-7, the last episode before the promised land speech (2:8-12), Jared and his brother are in constant communication with the Lord, who leads them toward the promised land and will not suffer that they stop progressing until they arrive. In the parallel episode immediately following that speech (2:13-15), the Lord chastises the Brother of Jared because they quit communicating with the Lord and progressing toward the promised land.

Questions for further study and reflection

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Footnotes

Additional resources

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