S2 E43 (Nov. 9-15) “Rend That Veil of Unbelief”

We've made it to the book of Ether! Why do we not call the Brother of Jared by his actual name? How does the Lord show compassion towards us (like He did to the Brother of Jared)? How did the Brother of Jared make the stones? Why did the Lord say "never before have I shown myself"? All this and more on this week's episode.

Listen at:
Podbean: https://thesaviorsaid.podbean.com/
Spotify: http://ow.ly/Zpg650uuNjg
iTunes: http://ow.ly/RGeQ50uuNjb
Stitcher: http://ow.ly/H4Lu50uuNja

First of all, why is he the BROTHER of Jared? From Wikipedia:
Etymologies have been proposed but remain largely speculative.[13]

According to Daniel H. Ludlow, it is not clear why the name of the brother of Jared does not appear in the Book of Mormon. However, the following are possible reasons:


The brother of Jared may have omitted his name out of modesty (John the Beloved did essentially the same thing in the Gospel of John, which he wrote).


The Book of Ether is clearly a family record of Jared, not the brother of Jared; Ether, the final writer and perhaps the abridger of the record, was a descendant of Jared and might naturally have emphasized the achievements of his direct ancestor rather than the brother of his ancestor.


Moroni may have omitted the name in his abridgment because of difficulty in translating (or "transliterating") the name into the Nephite language.[14]


In the Roman practice of damnatio memoriae, names were intentionally removed from the record. Egyptian factions also wiped out names and statues of heretical rivals. In Ether 11:17–18, a direct descendant of the Brother of Jared, and rival king, is also not named.[15]
____

The Book of Mormon is only 1% of the Nephite record?

Words of Mormon 1:5 Wherefore, I chose these things, to finish my record upon them, which remainder of my record I shall take from the plates of Nephi; and I cannot write the hundredth part of the things of my people.

____

Ether 1:33–43 tells of three prayers of the brother of Jared. What do you learn from the

Lord’s response to each of these prayers?


1. BoJ cried to the Lord to not have his family (or at least him and his brother)’s language confounded.


2. BoJ cried again to the Lord to not have his friends and their families’ language confounded.


3. BoJ asked the Lord about where they should go when they left Babel.


Compassion is mentioned 3 times in Ether 1!

35 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon Jared; therefore he did not confound the alanguage of Jared; and Jared and his brother were not confounded.


37 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon their friends and their families also, that they were not confounded.


40 And it came to pass that the Lord did hear the brother of Jared, and had compassion upon him, and said unto him:

From Compassion.com: To have compassion means to empathize with someone who is suffering and to feel compelled to reduce the suffering.

_____

Ether 2:14 And it came to pass at the end of four years that the Lord came again unto the brother of Jared, and stood in a cloud and talked with him. And for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord.

18 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared cried unto the Lord, saying:

22 And he cried again unto the Lord saying:

3:1....cried again unto the Lord, saying:

_____

Do you see similarities to your life in Ether 2:16–25? 

He lead BoJ step by step. 

He does that in our lives too. 

Sometimes He requires effort: 

“No, the Lord loves effort, because effort brings rewards that can’t come without it.” Pres. Nelson in Joy D. Jones’ conference talk.

_____

Primitive Bellows (from Wikipedia):[edit]

In archaeological ruins of the Levant, archaeologists have found primitive pot bellows, consisting of a ceramic pot to which a loose leather hide had been attached at the top. Such pot bellows were constructed with a wide rim, so that the hide covering would transmit a maximum amount of air when pumped. The covering was fastened to the pot with a cord under an out-turned rim, or in a groove just below the rim exterior. An opening near the base served to insert a pipe of pen shapable material whose purpose was to direct the air blast to either the furnace or crucible, and which was usually done through the mediation of a tuyère.[9] Tuyères used in conjunction with pot bellows had the function of protecting the ends of perishable tubes leading from the pot into the fire. Places in Saharan Africa still make use of primitive pot bellows.

_____

About the stones of the Brother of Jared (from https://stepbystep.alancminer.com/ether_6):

However, Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico has recently developed radioluminescent lights that invite some interesting comparisons with the Jaredite stones. The radioluminescent lights are made from a highly porous silica matrix --"aerogel" -- in which a phosphor such as zinc sulfide is dispersed. The radioactive source of the lights is tritium gas, which when incorporated in the aerogel, actually becomes chemically bonded to the aerogel matrix. The radioactivity of tritium results in beta particles (electrons) striking the phosphor particles and causing them to emit light while not escaping the matrix. Their life expectancy is about 20 years and their light is described as being "bright" and very "intense." Even the possibility that the Jaredite stones were created according to similar physical laws should be enough to quiet the critics.

_____

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland about the Brother of Jared's faith:

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke about the childlike, simple faith that the brother of Jared showed when he said, “Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this” (Ether 3:5): “Surely God, as well as the reader, feels something very striking in the childlike innocence and fervor of this man’s faith. ‘Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this.’ Perhaps there is no more powerful, single line of faith spoken by man in scripture. It is almost as if he is encouraging God, emboldening him, reassuring him. Not ‘Behold, O Lord, I am sure that thou canst do this.’ Not ‘Behold, O Lord, thou hast done many greater things than this.’ However uncertain the prophet is about his own ability, he has no uncertainty about God’s power. There is nothing here but a single, clear, bold, and assertive declaration with no hint or element of vacillation. It is encouragement to Him who needs no encouragement but who surely must have been touched by it. ‘Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this’”

_____

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland discussed six possible explanations for Jesus’s statement that He had never shown Himself to man prior to showing Himself to the brother of Jared:
1. “One possibility is that this is simply a comment made in the context of one dispensation and as such applies only to the people of Jared and Jaredite prophets—that Jehovah had never before revealed himself to one of their seers and revelators. …
2. “Another suggestion is that the reference to ‘man’ is the key to this passage, suggesting that the Lord had never revealed himself to the unsanctified, to the nonbeliever, to temporal, earthy, natural man. The implication is that only those who have put off the natural man [and are] sanctified (such as Adam, Enoch, and now the brother of Jared)—are entitled to this privilege [see D&C 67:10–11].
3. “Some believe that the Lord meant he had never before revealed himself to man in that degree or to that extent. This theory suggests that divine appearances to earlier prophets had not been with the same ‘fulness,’ that never before had the veil been lifted to give such a complete revelation of Christ’s nature and being.
4. “A further possibility is that this is the first time Jehovah had appeared and identified himself as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with the interpretation of the passage being ‘never have I showed myself [as Jesus Christ] unto man whom I have created.’ That possibility is reinforced by one way of reading Moroni’s later editorial comment: ‘Having this perfect knowledge of God, he could not be kept from within the veil; therefore he saw Jesus.’
5. “Yet another interpretation of this passage is that the faith of the brother of Jared was so great he saw not only the spirit finger and body of the premortal Jesus (which presumably many other prophets had also seen) but also some distinctly more revealing aspect of Christ’s body of flesh, blood, and bone. …
6. “A final explanation—and in terms of the brother of Jared’s faith the most persuasive one—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. Said Jehovah, ‘Never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast; for were it not so ye could not have seen my finger. … Never has man believed in me as thou hast.’ 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” (Christ and the New Covenant, 21–23).
_____