Ether 2:1-12

1:1-7 - The Jaredites have left their homes and “went down into the valley which was northward, (and the name of the valley was Nimrod, being called after the mighty hunter) with their flocks which they had gathered together, male and female, of every kind.” A little bit of Noah and the ark there, they are clearly going somewhere prepped for people. They took with them snares to catch birds, and buckets of fish, which is very interesting, and “they did carry with them swarms of bees.” I could only imagine these people carrying many vessels of fish and swarms of bees with them as they left their homes, it’s really kind of an interesting thing. Unlike Lehi who was given the Liahona, “the Lord did go before them, and did talk with them as he stood in a cloud, and gave directions whither they should travel.” God himself, personally led them, that’s pretty impressive. Now comes a point that I had never realized before, but that HN gives some speculation about, “and it came to pass that they did travel in the wilderness, and did build barges, in which they did cross many waters, being directed continually by the hand of the Lord. And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise.” I had not realized that the barges that the Jaredites traveled in to get to the Americas were not the first ones that they had built. Clearly, they had built ships of some kind previous and used them to “cross many waters.” This is very different from the Nephites version of movement through the Arabian peninsula. HN speculates that “as they traveled in the wilderness, they built shallow barges. A very decent National Geographic… shows the shrinking of the great Aral Sea in Central Asia. It’s just east of the Caspian, which is practically shrinking to nothing. That’s a huge sea. There were these huge shallow seas. Then you go further west, and there are many seas. All of western Asia was drying out at this time… It was full of shallow water, and at the time of the Jaredites, just after the flood, they seemed to be much deeper, but they built these barges of shallow draft because they had to cross a lot of water on their passing. Then when they got to the ocean they had to build a different type of boat entirely. But all these things that he’s talking about are geographically correct. You get Pompelli’s book… The Lord talked to him, and they built their many barges. But you’ll notice (verse7). He ‘would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness.’ They had to cross the Caspian, which was a vast sea that the time, twice as large, at least 2,000 miles long. It was huge, and after they’d crossed it, he said, they had to keep going. They hadn’t arrived yet. So that’s the picture we get.” I never knew that they spent so much time on ships while traveling, and it’s interesting to consider that the seas were so much deeper and there was more water on the face of the earth because the flood was so much more recent, that’s something I never really understood, but is interesting to think about. 1:8-12 - There is so much travel involved in this move, this is the first time that we hear the command “that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fullness of his wrath should come upon them,” and that’s repeated at least 3 more times right after that. The IM says, “Ether 2:8-11 states what Moroni called ‘the everlasting decree of God’ concerning this land of promise. Stated three or four times, this decree is that ‘whatsoever nation shall possess (this land) shall serve God, or they shall be swept off.’ President Gordon B. Hinckley taught that obedience is essential if the promised land is to keep its promised blessings: ‘Great are the promises concerning this land of America. We are told unequivocally that it ‘is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.” This is the same promise that is given over and over to Lehi, like in 1 Nephi 4:14 when Nephi remembers “the words of the Lord which he spake unto me in the wilderness, saying that: Inasmuch as thy seed shall keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise,” and also in 2 Nephi 4:4 when “the Lord God hath said that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; and inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence.” This is the theme over and over again and Moroni tells us why in verse 11 saying, “and this cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of God- that ye may repent, and not continue in your iniquities until the fullness come, that ye may not bring down the fullness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done.” The Nephites and the Jaredites are both examples of what’s coming for us if we don’t repent, if we, as a society don’t live with Christ-like love and keep the commandments. It’s interesting to me that the Lord says that we will be “free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if (we) will but serve the God of the land.” And we can probably look at that and say “we must be righteous because we are free, we are not in bondage,” but is that really true? Are we really free? Are we not in bondage? Are we not almost all in debt? As a nation, do we not owe other countries billions of dollars? Are we really not slaves to the secret combinations that seek their fortune from our misery? Especially as women, do we really believe and treat ourselves as daughters of God? Or do we hate ourselves because we aren’t perfect wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, and role models? Is that self-loathing not bondage? Do we not turn to fast food and boxes and cartons to eat? I’m more guilty of that than pretty much anyone else, but it is bondage, I promise you, not knowing how to cook or feed my children or myself healthy food is slavery. I could go on about this for hours, but long story short, we might think we are free, but we are not, the only way to true freedom is keeping the commandments and growing closer to Heaven Father. Then it won’t matter who’s in charge or what society we live in, what the circumstances are or anything else. It’s like Abinadi testifying against King Noah’s wickedness, he didn’t want to die, but he wasn’t afraid to, and was he not free in that moment? Who was afraid to die, Noah or Abinadi? Who had God on their side? And ultimately, who was free?