Ether 6:1-11

6:1-3 - After the instructions to Joseph Smith Moroni will not "proceed to give the record of Jared and his brother." The IM says, as an introduction to Ether 6, "In Ether 6-10, Moroni told of the Jaredites' journey across the ocean to the promised land. He then summarized the reigns of several generations of kings, contrasting periods of righteousness with periods of wickedness and conflict. Moroni observed many similarities between the Jaredites and his own people, the Nephites. He described the cycle of pride, prosperity, wickedness, and repentance that he had seen in the two nations. He outlined the grave danger we put ourselves in when we allow pride and secret combinations to get control in our society. Both the Nephite and the Jaredite civilizations illustrate the truth that what we sow, we shall reap. Following the Lord brings happiness, while straying from His commandments brings strife and misery." The Nephites and the Jaredites are the main examples in the Book of Mormon of how to live and act, this will also be interesting because the Nephites became Nephites because they had to separate themselves from their brothers the Lamanites, thus creating two distinct groups of people. The Jaredites on the other hand never really have an official break up, so we can see how the lessons and the downfall are the same whether we have an actual enemy to contend against or if we just fight amongst ourselves. MM takes the stones that the Lord touched and "put forth the stones into the vessels which were prepared, one in each end thereof; and behold they did give light unto the vessels. And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness." The IM sees this statement as a metaphor and explains, "The Lord Jesus Christ is the source of light for our world and for our lives. The Lord touched the stones the brother of Jared presented to Him 'to give light unto men, women, and children' as they crossed the ocean. The Lord also provided light to guide us through the darkness of mortality and toward the brightness of the celestial kingdom- our promised land. Our way is lit by the light of apostles and prophets, the standard works, and inspired leaders and teachers. We too can be a light- we can light the way for others when we hearken to the Lord's counsel and keep ourselves worthy of His Spirit. Sister Ardeth G. Kapp, former Young Women general president, counseled: 'You have the light within. You can shine in darkness. You can light up the world. You can hep dispel the darkness. You can make a difference." I like the idea that the celestial kingdom is our promised land, and that it's not just us walking in a generalized direction of "light," it's a much more descriptive phrase. I didn't see this metaphor when I first read these verses, so it's interesting to go back and to look at it.

6:4-8 - So let's get into the ship design a little bit here, this is the generic image I found for "Jaredite Barges." I had honestly never really considered this as important or really very interesting before this, but HN has some pretty impressive insights about these ships. He starts out by saying that the account of the Jaredites and their barges "has caused more merriment and mockery than any other aspect of the Book of Mormon.... Why don't the critics laugh their heads off at the ark? We now know what it looked like. Can these nonbiblical documents really tell us? Or course they can... Not trusting our own interpretation, we'll quote Hilprecht throughout." The Hilprecht he is referring to is Hermann Hilprecht in "The Earliest Version of the Babylonian Deluge Story and the Temple Library of Nippur." Apparently Hilprecht discovered the ancient Sumerian account of the description of Noah's ark. In verse 7 HN points out that we get a clue that these barges were patterned after Noah's ark. As HN quotes Hilprecth, he goes through 12 points of "the magur boat that Ut-napishtim (Noah) built to survive the flood." Not all the points are helpful as far as the Jaredites are concerned but there are a few that are interesting. Point 8 says, "The boat has... a door to be shut during the storm flood and at least one air-hole or window. N∂fāshāh means air hole. NPS is a verbal root meaning 'to breathe.' Nefesh is spirit, breath, life or soul. So it had an air-hole. The word nappashu means 'a breather or ventilator.' It doesn't apply to window at all. That's the word we use in the book of Ether, too. Nine: 'The vessel built by Ut-napishtim being such a 'house boat' or magur, this work could subsequently be rendered ideographically by MA-TU, a 'deluge boat.'... A magur boat, then is a 'house boat,' in which gods, men, and beasts live comfortably, fully protected against the waves washing overboard, the driving rain from above and against the inclemencies of wind and weather. The fact that the magur boat was built to be completely submerged gives strong support for his. Eleven: In a magur boat 'men and beasts live comfortably.' Nineveh 2: Ut-napishtim is to take 'domestic animals of the field, with wild beasts of the field, as many as eat grass.' Of course that's the whole story of Noah and the ark. He got all the animals in. He got a lot more animals than the Jaredites got. The Nippur version mentions 'the beasts of the field, the birds of heaven.' C.S.Coon, writing of the earliest water transportation says, 'Dogs howled, pigs grunted, cocks crowed on these seagoing barnyards.' The idea that the oldest sailing vessels may have been built for a specific purpose of transporting men and animals together, often for vast distances seems strange to us, but the Asiatic river boats mentioned in point one keep the whole household afloat for months with their animals and poultry." There's a lot more information here, but that's good enough for me, it's really interesting to learn that this wasn't some fantastic design that had never been used before or since, but that they were functional. 

I had always pictured the Jaredite barges as being flying saucer shaped, and the people huddled together in one end and the animals were fenced in at the other and they all tried to hang on for dear life the whole time, but these explanations and speculative images that I found make much more sense. Despite the back and forth about the specifics about the barges, the whole adventure comes down to one phrase, the Jaredites "set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God." It's actually quite amazing that a group of people got into 8 boats for almost a year, then ended up on the other side of the world, still altogether, unharmed. Looking at it from that point of view, there's only one way, divine intervention, especially if we consider that they didn't have the Liahona like Lehi did. Ether 2:19 tells us that MM intended for the ships to be steered, but they didn't know where they were going, I don't believe that they had maps or a compass, or if it would even matter if they did. At the time of Noah, the floods were coming, and if it turns out they were wrong, then they could just get out of the ark, but the Jaredites literally got into a box and pushed themselves out to sea and hoped for the best, that's incredible faith. They weren't in imminent danger, this wasn't their last resort, they could have lived on that beach in relative safety for the rest of their lives, but they chose to follow the counsel of the Lord, even though it appeared exceptionally dangerous. The IM expands on the phrase "The Jaredites commended themselves to the Lord," saying, "In the context of Ether 6:4-9 the word commend means to entrust their care to. In other words, the Jaredites entrusted their care to God. By commending themselves to the Lord, they demonstrated their faith that He could and would deliver them. 'The winds did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters.' Contrast this attitude with the attitude of Nephi's brothers as they crossed the sea with their family. When Laman and Lemuel bound Nephi, the family's compass, the Liahona, ceased to work and their boat was 'driven back upon the waters for the space of four days.' Both the Jaredites and Lehi's family sought to commend themselves to the Lord's care; however, some members of Lehi's family were disobedient. The contrast between these two accounts shows that we must exercise faith and keep the commandments to receive all the blessings the Lord would give us through His care." Pretty intense counsel there, I just keep imagining myself as being one of the people ready to get onto the boat and sail off into oblivion, and I wonder if I could do it. I wonder if I have enough faith to get on a boat, sail off into the sunset and never look back. How do I commend myself to God in my life? That's a good question, I'll have to think about that. I wonder if it's considered commending myself when I do my best to keep the commandments and try to be happy. 

6:9-11 - The trip was pretty intense, they were submerged many times, and I'm not a seafaring person anyway, but I could only imagine how awful this would have been for me. Getting down deep in the water, the pressure could burst your ear drums, the deeper you go the colder it gets, "and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them." This begs the question, how do you know that they were safe from sea monsters and whales unless they were hit by them, oh my goodness, I couldn't even imagine, this is like my worst nightmare, for 344 days. I would have probably spent that time huddled in the corner rocking back and forth crying like a baby, but how did the Jaredites handle it? "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." This definitely would not have been my initial reaction. HN asks, "How did they cross the waters in the sixth chapter? How would they endure those terrible situations? Well, it says they had sing-ins. We just sang all day long and enjoyed it. I was thirty days crossing the Atlantic on one occasion, and the only way we could possibly endure was to sing all day... That's how they lived through it; they had these super sing-ins. It can be quite invigorating, you know, to keep on (singing.)" The IM teaches, "What are the blessings of listening to and singing songs of praise? In modern revelation the Lord stated that He will bless those who delight in righteous music. The First Presidency described the power of inspirational music: 'Hymns invite the Spirit of the Lord, create a feeling of reverence, unify us as members, and provide a way for us to offer praises to the Lord.' ... 'Hymns move us to repentance and good works, build testimony and faith, comfort the weary, console the mourning, and inspire us to endure to the end...' ... 'Hymns can lift our spirits, give us courage, and move us to righteous action. They can fill our souls with heavenly thoughts and bring us a spirit of peace.'" Like Elder Enrique R. Falabella said in the talk "The Home: The School of Life," "a child who sings is a happy child." I've taken that to heart many times when I've been worried about my children, and then hear them sing. Singing in the barges would have kept the Jaredites from spiraling into despair, which I would imagine was pretty easy to do, it's easy for me to do and I'm not even trapped on a boat. It could keep them focused on why they were on the barges in the first place, to go to the promised land. It could keep the Spirit with them so that they wouldn't kill each other, being trapped in close quarters with your family for almost a year would have probably been pushing it for most people. It could also help keep them feeling connected to the Lord. These things can also happen for us when we sing, when we keep the praises of God in our hearts.