Come Follow Me LDS- Ether 1-5, Part 2
Nov 17, 2020
'Flesh & Blood'
- The Brother of Jared uses works, faith and boldness with humility to 'wrestle' with the Lord.
- Knowledge - Faith - Perfect Knowledge
- Faith = Trust
Raw Transcript
all right
all right welcome to the quick media
come follow me series we are covering
ether chapters one through five this is
part two
for this week and we're going to be
covering chapters three
four and five remember we last left our
hero
in chapter two the brother of jared
who he was speaking with the lord
and and we get here really a great
example and this has been covered many
times appropriately so
we get the great example of faith along
with
works here right the brother of jared
is being told that they're going to
build the barges in a certain way
they're going to go across the sea and
go toward a promised land looking at how
these barges are going to be built
the brother of jared begins to be
inquisitive with the lord
this is a natural thing this is an
appropriate thing
and i i may have said it in the last
episode but what i
love about this example of the brother
of jared
speaking with the lord is his boldness
and and i don't mean that in a way that
would be opposite of
humility i i mean that in a way that is
based on
faith and on building a relationship
through trust which is faith
i'm reminded of jacob wrestling with the
lord this is a wrestle this is a
a a sense of building a relationship
the same thing happens with enos as he
struggles right in his prayer
all day going through repentance and
beyond
he there is a wrestle that that happens
there
this is how i would see that wrestle
very similar here
and and i think that maybe we should
take some lessons from the brother of
jared
on his interaction here with the lord
not just
obviously in some theophany here some
display of the lord himself but in our
prayer
in our relationship with the lord so
he he asks the lord okay i see how
you're going to want these built i see
how we're going to travel but
how do we get air and how do we get
light
and and so he takes a step right it's
like a dance right he takes
a step out with these questions he
knocks on the door
and and the lord answers and says well
look this is up to you how do you think
you should do it
and and so again the lord is leading the
brother of jared along here in a way
that
is for him to grow and to learn he he
gets to take
charge a little bit here the lord's
giving him that responsibility that
stewardship
now the lord does tell them about the
holes where he's they're going to be
able to
stop up these holes and be able to
breathe bring air in
but here in chapter 3 we get
the brother of jared now going to the
mount of shalom here
and he moltens out 16 small
stones and when we say small stones we
should probably think of these
as pretty small stones about what size
maybe precious stones about the size of
what we would see
with the urim and thumb a lot of times
we see these illustrations with these
these these rather like small boulders
almost that are are put into these
barges
but i think we ought to be thinking in
my mind i don't know
obviously but we ought to be thinking of
a smaller
precious stone not the size on a ring
but the size may be of a urim and thumb
and and uh we get a little bit of a
description of that from the early
saints of the
urim and thumb that was buried with the
gold plates right there were
two diamond-like stones
you know of i'm on video here i'm giving
a little bit of a size here i
that i'm estimating here but they are
they were in a try each of them are in a
triangle shape
so we might think of that and of course
if that's the case he's easily able to
carry
all 16 of these at once to the lord
right we even get a little bit of a
description here about these stones they
were white
and clear even as transparent glass
right that would be a lot like
a diamond now in verse 2 we get a little
bit of a precursor to what we're going
to go over a little bit more in chapter
12
of ether we've covered this a little bit
before i'll go
much more extensive in that when we get
to chapter 12
but here in verse 2 it says o lord this
is the brother of jared speaking to him
thou hast said
that we must be encompassed about by the
floods
right well that's how we are in this
mortality right we're encompassed about
by the floods
now behold o lord and do not be angry
with thy servant
because of his weakness so again there's
a rustling there but there is an
acknowledgement
of humility by the brother of jared
because of his weakness this is
key to all prophets and and we'll go
over that again in chapter 12.
but he says lord again he's he's
pleading his
case here with these stones right he's
saying
and suffer suffer not that they shall go
so he pleads his case here before the
lord this wrestle
right he says oh lord look upon me in
pity
and turn away thine anger from this thy
people
so he's acting as an advocate right just
like moses did with the children of
israel
as one kind of in a sense maybe taking a
little bit of the burden
atoning a little bit for his people
which we can all do for our friends and
our family etc
and suffer not that they shall go forth
across the raging deep in darkness okay
there's
that's boldness but it's built in faith
and humility
he is advocating for his family and his
friends for his people i think that's
what the lord would want
not a docile approach to this
so he says behold these things which i
have molten out of the rock
touch these stones o lord with thy
finger
and prepare them that they may shine
forth
in darkness now there may be some
precedent to this
other examples where this might have
happened that we're not aware of in
scripture
that would not be surprising here but
regardless the brother of jared is
bringing forth a solution
and asking for the lord's participation
in that solution he
is reaching out he is creating the works
to reach toward the lord and the lord
reaches down to him
with his finger and brings light
to these stones right we can think of
that as i would think of that as
the holy ghost i'll get into that a
little bit later
so this is the example that moroni here
in his narrative is giving us
that leads to the veil being dropped
between the lord and the brother of
jared
so this is very specific it's very
important i think for us to understand
this boldness of the brother of jared
the way that he is operating through
faith the way that he is trying to
create solutions
and doing his own works to reach out
toward the lord
and then asking for the lord's help
this to me builds richness context
understanding to the idea of faith
so then down in verse six it says and it
came to pass that when the brother of
jared had said these words
behold the lord stretched forth his hand
and touched the stones
one by one with his finger
we get other examples of the the this
perhaps metaphor perhaps not this does
not seem to be a metaphor
but of the lord for example writing the
tablets
for moses on sinai with his finger
right or the hand of the lord
writing on the wall of the temple as
explained in daniel or the hand of the
lord
writing on the temple wall in the book
of mormon something we don't
talk a whole lot about he says and
prepare them that they may shine forth
in the darkness
and they shall shine forth unto us in
the vessels
which we have prepared that we may have
light while we
shall cross the sea so again going back
a little bit into the idea of creation
we've done that in the last episode
this is all about creation this is you
have noah and his
his creation right his new creation you
have adam and eve and and
what happens with them in the garden of
eden you have the actual genesis story
starting in genesis 1
and we get it in abraham and we get it
in the book of moses and we get it in
the temple
this is all about us right it is it is
about
us and this is another example here's an
example brought to a people through a
prophet
about the creation process so how we
would we apply this to us again i see
these vessels here we can consider the
vessel being us
our bodies our temples and these
stones of light are what are going to
give us light that have been touched by
the finger of the lord as we cross a
across the sea of mortality
and that i would see as the the
the upper the the uh the higher law
right the vessels are our body it is the
temporal it is the physical it is the
lower law
the stones of light are the higher law
they are the blessings the grace the
mercy
all things that come down from heaven
the holy ghost
inspiration revelation uh the sacrifice
of the savior right this is
this is what guides us and guides our
vessels that we have hopefully we allow
through faith to create light
within our bodies that comes from
the lord so that we can cross mortality
with light all right following up in
verse six it says
and the veil was taken from off the eyes
of the brother of jared
why this isn't even in a way
the lord is bound here the lord doesn't
say well
i kind of like you mohan ryan
moriancomer
i i'm going to do this right that's not
how it works
he is compelled to drop the veil or the
veil
itself is compare compelled to drop
and the veil was taken from the off the
eyes of the brother of jared and he saw
the finger
of the lord and it was as the finger of
a man that's important it was as the
finger of a man
like unto flesh and blood
this is this is think of moroni writing
this
and and the brother of jared writing
this why
why are they specific about this and the
brother of jared fell down before the
lord for he was struck
with fear all right what strikes them
with fear of course
it is the idea of seeing the finger of
god itself right
but look at the specificity that moroni
is giving us here
about this whole idea about looking like
a man
and being of flesh and blood
what does that mean this to me
is all about the condescension of god
this is all about the doctrine of christ
right this is this is saying look
i am god i am jehovah
but when i come to the to the earth
i will be as you i will look like you
i will have flesh and blood
and that's important for you to
understand because of the condescension
of god
that is my doctrine that i will lower
myself
below you and every other person on
earth
because i love you and i will not only
lower myself
below you and to you but i will take on
all of your sins and all of your burdens
and be lifted up on the cross
judged by men right so so that's what i
see here this
this is to me a revelation
right smack between the eyes for the
brother of jared
of the doctrine of christ manifesting
itself to him
really telling him who jehovah
slash jesus christ is
and we get a little bit more of an
explanation about this here right the
lord saw
that the brother of jared had fallen to
the earth and the lord said unto him
arise
why hast thou fallen that's an
interesting point here we see this
oftentimes with covenant
and with vision right the the idea of
arising
arise why hast thou fallen there's a
little bit of
metaphor i think in that phrase and he
saith unto
the lord i saw the finger of the lord
and i feared lest
he should smite me for i knew not that
the lord had
flesh and blood now here's key
right we're tying faith to the
condescension of
god we're tying tying faith to the
atoning sacrifice of jesus christ here
verse 9 and the lord said unto him
because of thy faith thou hast seen
that i shall take upon me flesh and
blood you see how those are connected
now
and never has man come before me with
such exceeding faith
as thou hast so this is why he is
the faith his great faith is allowing
him to see more
of the doctrine of christ for where not
so you could not have seen my finger
sauced out more than this that's an
interesting question
as if he doesn't know he's leading the
brother of jared along here
and he said nay lord show thyself
unto me there's the boldness
can you imagine right i mean being in
that circumstance and
and and feeling that you could be that
bold lord
show thyself unto me right so he
wants the revelation but he's ready for
it right as we've seen as moroni has
outlined here
the type of person that the brother of
jared is his
willingness to wrestle with the lord in
humility
and boldness and faith
right he he can do this they said this
is a statement of faith show thyself
unto me
and the lord said unto him believeth
thou the words which i shall speak
this is exactly how the angel who
appeared to nephi
reacted to him right here it says
believeth thou the words which i shall
speak
the angel that appears to nephi before
anything is shown to him
asks nephi believeth thou the words
of thy father lehi that he spoke about
the tree of life
which is what the doctrine of christ
so when he had said these words behold
the lord showed himself
unto him and said because thou
knowest these things ye are redeemed of
the fall this is we get into knowledge
and faith here
therefore ye are brought back into my
presence right
arise why hast thou fallen
being brought back into his presence
here therefore i
show myself unto you this is this is
like going through the endowment
that's exactly what this is right
remember they're on a mountaintop
a temple setting this is a temple
setting and we should
think of it in that way and then he goes
on here and says
a little more explicitly who he is who
the lord is right think of
being at the veil right passing through
the veil
behold i am he who was prepared from the
foundation of the world
to redeem my people behold
i am jesus christ
so i i you know who knows what words
were actually used here
in the original jaredite language
that would have you know uh
been used for jesus christ we know that
in the english version of
and all the other modern versions of the
book of mormon right even starting with
nephi
we start getting the term jesus christ
or whatever term that is in your
language
this is well before right you know over
500 years before
the birth of jesus christ so
the title here though is is what we
ought to look at here
jesus christ is a title jesus means
savior
christ means anointed one he says i am
the father and the son
that's what we get from abinadi right we
get a clear explanation of what that
means and he goes into that a little bit
here he says
in me shall all mankind have life and
that eternally
even they who should shall believe on my
name and they shall become my sons and
my daughters that's how he is the father
he's not father in heaven but that is
how he has
the title of father remember the
scriptures
use titles all the time it's not
necessarily
a specific person it's a title
and then moroni interjects himself here
in verse 17 he says and now as i
moroni said i could not make a full
account of these things this is what
happens on
mount sharom here of these things which
are written therefore it sufficeth me to
say
that jesus he's calling him jesus of
course
moroni's time is after the mortality of
jesus christ
but he's calling him jesus here who was
jehovah appearing to
the brother of jared that jesus showed
himself unto this man
in the spirit even after the manner and
in the likeness of the same
body even as he showed himself unto the
nephites
right in other words the resurrected
body he's showing himself again
as this is we're in his image
and in a sense he lowered himself to us
right this is
this is the doctrine of christ this has
to do with us being in the image of god
because
we are to become like him and then we
get to the big
verse here about faith and knowledge
here in in ether 3 19
and because of the knowledge
of this man he could not be kept from
beholding within the veil
right again it's just it's a natural
consequence the fail the veil drops
and think of your endowment experience
it's the same thing
right because of your knowledge going
through the process and i'm not going to
go into
specifics here obviously you're not held
back from the veil
the veil is removed in a sense and you
move forward
right because of your knowledge
because of the knowledge of this man he
could not be kept from beholding within
the veil and he saw the finger of jesus
at which when he saw he fell with fear
for he
knew that it was the finger of the lord
and he had faith no longer
for he knew nothing doubting
then we have to follow up in verse 20
here but understand that is a
cycle then a process you're going from
a little bit of knowledge using a lot of
faith
until you get a perfect knowledge in
that thing
right little knowledge faith
big knowledge or perfect knowledge okay
here in 20 then it says wherefore having
this
perfect knowledge of god right that
would be his finger
i'm thinking here he could not be kept
from within the veil
therefore he saw jesus
and he did minister unto him okay
so again that's that's that's a process
here now i think
the best way for me to explain faith
in the way that i think of this and i
believe is right it's
of course that's why i'm here talking
right is to reference this with two
other scriptures on faith
and the first of those is alma 3221 that
you're probably familiar with
and and then we kind of just reference
back and forth between these things now
if you if you read bruce r mcconkey he
will tell you you have to have a little
bit of knowledge before you can have
faith
and that makes a sense right you have to
know for example
the characteristics of god before you
can say well i'm going to put a little
faith
in him what is faith it's
trust i've beaten this as a dead horse
here before
but please try that think of faith
always as trust not as something
ancillary to it not an appendage to it
but actually trust it is trust
right so if i have a little bit of a
knowledge of god and his perfections
his justice his mercy right i i can i
can
say okay well that's something i might
be able to try
and have a little bit of faith in a
little bit of trust in
right i can put that out there a little
bit
and then maybe over time i get feedback
and i get
evidence i get evidence
that this is that this is correct
and i can build this relationship then
of
trust i can build the relationship of
trust
here's alma 32 21 remember the seed here
alma's seed parable here
is not faith the seed is the word
of god and we can look at that or the
way i would suggest you look at that
is knowledge right the seed then
is the word of god or all right
32 21 and now as i said concerning faith
faith is not to have a perfect knowledge
because as we just learned in third
third
in ether 3 19 and 20 faith comes first
then a perfect knowledge they're
different
perfect knowledge in a sense is the
reward for faith
so faith is not to have a perfect
knowledge says alma
of of of things therefore if ye have
faith ye hope for things which are not
seen which
are true that would be the perfect
knowledge that you can
gain it is also looking forward in a
sense that
everything that happens tomorrow and
beyond
as you move through time
is not seen yet
but as you build a relationship of trust
you are able to exist in a different
state
you were able to operate differently
if as we see here in in 21
if these things are true like joseph
smith says you can't have
true faith in something that is not true
faith is really
based on a truth it has to be because
eventually
just like in our own personal related
interpersonal relationships
you can trust someone and then that
trust is broken
right so so your trust you can't have a
a real
faith a real trust a perfect trust
in things that aren't perfect but you
can have a perfect
trust in god so if these things are true
your faith can grow and grow and grow
and never stop
until you gain perfect knowledge in
those things
now the third verse that i would want to
go over here
is in hebrews 11 1. here's what that
says
now faith is the substance of things
hoped for it that's it's not
hope it's the substance of things hoped
for
the evidence it is the evidence
of things not seen right so
so if we look at the jst here the joseph
smith translation of this verse we see
that
instead of substance he replaces that
with assurance and that
substance works but assurance is better
right think of this now again now faith
is the assurance
of things hoped for all right the future
of what you want in that relationship of
what you want from true principles
and faith is the evidence
of things not seen i have been
hit hard sometimes by some people who
will not
and not not allow that idea to enter
their minds and grab hold of it that
faith is evidence because
we've been taught from a protestant
basis
that that is not necessarily the case
right that that evidence is the opposite
and that if we have evidence it's not
faith
that is not true it's all about evidence
let me ask you going back here
to the brother of jared
right he had a great amount of faith and
therefore
gained greater knowledge he received
evidence of that faith when he saw the
finger of the lord
that is evidence right
and then that increased his faith that
much more
that increased his knowledge and then
what happens he sees
all of the savior he sees jesus christ
what is that that is
evidence and that's how trust works
right if you're thinking about a
a relationship that you have with an
employer or an employee
or a friend or a spouse or a child
whatever it might be
you you build trust you build
that you you build trust off of results
you build trust off of evidence
and just as you would have a scientific
model
right that that brings about temporal
knowledge through evidence
through supporting evidence our faith
works the same way
spiritual faith works exactly the same
way that is the experiment
in fact that word is used that alma
goes over in alma 32 take a seed
nurture it give it time let it flourish
and see if it is not
sweet to you that if it's not rich right
that is not expand
within you well that that that's
evidence right so
i i i think we get this idea to me it's
a very protestant idea
of of what faith is and i've seen
pastors
go over this exact point and say to
their congregations
that faith is just to choose to believe
it is not evidence it's the opposite of
evidence
well they are completely going against
the author of hebrews here right that
that is that isn't true
we need the evidence not to view things
and we don't get the evidence first
right that's not the point
we can look at sharum in the book of
mormon we can look at korahor
we can look at nehor we can we can look
at all of these
examples of antichrists interestingly
they're antichrists
who want to put the evidence or the
perfect
knowledge ahead of faith that's the
problem
it's not that it's not evidence it's
that they want to put that before
faith in other words that destroys faith
that destroys trust that destroys what
building a relationship
and and and a surety of eternal
principles
so look at those three verses you can
look at
are those three the three scriptures
ether 3 19 and 20
alma 32 and 21 you can even go through
his experiment there in alma 32
and then hebrews 11 1 and i would read
all of hebrews 11
with this understanding and gi you give
it a shot
you take this seed of what i'm telling
you here and try it out
and and and see if your heart doesn't
expand and see if you don't gain
evidences of your faith
right because that faith then grows
because of that evidence
that that is faith that is exactly what
the author of hebrews here is saying
now i did do something on faith already
so i'll put that
at least on the on the youtube channel
here i'll put that as a reference
for that video if you haven't seen that
yet where i go over these things a
little bit more
extensively now then
we get a little bit more about this
ceiling here again the seal of the
brother what looks like to be the
brother of jared
right he says the lord says to the
brother of jared ye shall treasure up
the things which he have seen and heard
and show it to no man why
why why would he see something that as a
prophet he's not supposed to
put out there right why would that
happen well that's what happened with
nephi
and and what was nephi told many of
these things that you see
you cannot write or or at least you
cannot
allow others to see what did he say what
did the lord say or what did the angels
say to him
he said this is for someone else to
write
and who is it it's john the revelator
in the book of revelation where we get a
lot more about
seals interestingly enough
so in my mind and i can't remember if i
went over this in the last episode or
not
in my mind what we see here with
with this is that nephi
holds off writing about these things or
at least putting them out there for us
because it was assigned to someone else
john
after jesus had lived in his mortality
that was important to the lord
these things cannot be revealed until
after
jesus lives in mortality and is raised
up on the cross and resurrected
now here we get it again with the
brother of jared now perhaps there are
many many more things beyond what we
would find in say for example
a vision of the book of revelation that
are being held back
and these things are sealed and more in
the sense that we
think of being sealed as in kind of like
locked
away and that would be part of the
plates
right that that much more of what the
brother of jared saw
we are not able to have access to and it
would probably be things beyond
the book of revelation
but the book of revelation to me i think
here is is something that is
i mean if this is going all the way back
to the brother of jared and some of
those things are supposed to be what are
found in the book of revelation
i'm just drawing that parallel there i
don't know that but it's very similar to
what nephi goes through here
then then this book of revelation and
the things that are going to unfold over
time
is something that was that was assigned
to john the revelator
but known about 2 000 years before the
time of christ
he says and behold when ye shall come
unto me you shall write them and shall
seal them up
that no one can interpret them for ye
shall write them in a language
they cannot that cannot be read and
behold these two stones where do these
two stones come from
i don't know that these are two of maybe
two of this the two stones that
that that the jaredites used
in one of the barges you know there's
eight barges
maybe there's eight families here and
these two would be
to his barge i don't know but it says
and behold these two stones will i give
unto thee
and ye shall seal them up also with the
things which she shall write all we have
seen here is a reference to the
total of the 16 stone so two of these
that go to his barge
maybe that's what's used here for the
urum and thumb
but they're going to be sealed up
right so there are things that still
need to be revealed that we are not
ready for just like the brother of jared
at first is held back from the veil but
then he can't be held back from the veil
any longer
right it's the same with us as we grow
as a people as individuals and we become
more and more
ready for things i mean look we haven't
even mastered the book of mormon yet
but once we're ready for that and we
have that kind of faith
then things like the additional records
of the brother of jared will be revealed
to us
the veil will be rent
and then just like with moses and nephi
and many others
and when the lord had said these words
he showed unto the brother of jared
all the inhabitants of the earth which
had been and also
all that would be and he withheld them
not from his sight
even unto the ends of the earth these
prophets
know everything and and don't think for
a second obviously that they don't
understand the role
that jehovah god is going to play as
jesus christ
immortality right this is this is
known from the very beginning right this
is known with adam and eve this is known
with
with enoch and noah and abraham and
everybody
all right then we move over to chapter
four here we get some confirmation on
some of the things that we've been
talking about here
and verse one and the lord commanded the
brother of jared to go down
out of the mount right out from the the
temple experience here
from the presence of the lord and write
the things which he had seen
and they were forbidden to come unto the
children of men until
after that he should be
lifted up upon the cross
right until until his mission the
doctrine of christ is fulfilled here
and for this cause did king mosiah keep
them
right who's writing this is moroni
writing and for this cause did king
mosiah keep them
that they should not come under the
world until after christ should show
himself unto his people
okay so maybe it's the idea of jehovah
as
jesus christ maybe it's showing that he
is a
jehovah is going to be a physical being
i i don't know the exact reason for all
of this but i think that some of this
again i think we might look to the book
of revelation for part of this
now we get a further explanation again
of the difference between the nephites
and the lamanites
right in verse three again this is from
moroni's perspective as he puts this
narrative together
and now after that they have all
dwindled in unbelief
right this is this is the lamanites and
the nephites
and there is none save it be the
lamanites
and they have rejected the gospel of
christ again
confirmation after confirmation that
that's the problem
over and over again that was the problem
it always was therefore i am commanded
that i should hide them up again
in the earth all right then we get the
ceiling again here wherefore the lord
hath commanded me to write them
this is the things here and i have
written them
and he commanded me that i should seal
them up
and he also hath commanded me that i
should seal up the interpretation
thereof that's the urim and thumb
wherefore i have sealed up the
interpreters
according to the commandment of the lord
right now there is some talk about a
distinction between what the
interpreters are and what the urum and
thumim are
but the only thing that we know of that
is buried with
the book of mormon with the gold plates
that would be interpreters is the urum
and thumbium and the breastplate
or at least what we call the uramu thumb
i i like what we get here in verse 12
right it says
and what's the what this is this is
moroni and whatsoever thing persuadeth
men to do good
is of me that is anything that is good
that is things inside the church these
are things the vast majority of good
things are done
outside of the church we should
recognize that
any true good righteous principle
is of the lord for good cometh of
none save it be of me
i am the same that leadeth men to all
good
all right and then finally here in the
very short chapter five verse 1 says and
now i moroni
have written the words which were
commanded me according to my memory i
have told you the things which i have
sealed up
again this would be his words from the
book of
his father's book of mormon up till now
through the
the jaredite place or through his
abridgement of the book of ether
and then he says here that these plates
that he's been physically writing on
unto three shall they be shown by the
power of god
wherefore they shall know of a surety
that these things are true right so
mormon moroni and probably many others
saw
the future they saw these plates being
translated by joseph smith
they saw perhaps moroni himself here
looking in the future that he was going
to be the one that would
reveal them to joseph smith and that the
witnesses would see the plates
these plates that are written in a
reformed egyptian
that are abridged by mormon added to
by moroni adding in also the small
plates of nephi
and which also that reformed egyptian
would include
the abridgement of the the book of ether
that moroni puts in here for us
the plates are real they are very sacred
and we of course are the benefactors of
this incredible
spiritual tool the book of mormon
that we need to learn and absorb digest
and increase our faith so that we can
have
a more perfect knowledge of the savior
and
eternal gospel principles i'll talk to
you again next time
Come Follow Me LDS
Book of Mormon Ether
Cwic Study Group
Checkout our weekly Cwic Study Group!
Delve deeper!
Stay connected with Study Tips & Updates!
Donate
Be a part of our mission! Help us help others increase their understanding of the scriptures and increase their faith.
Cwic Merch!
Check out our Merch Store! Apparell and Accessories.
Cwic Audio Player
All of the Cwic Media podcast episodes on one page!
Recent Posts
Come Follow Me LDS - Doctrine and Covenants 111-114
Oct 11, 2021
