Ether 9
9:1-7 - We’re in the middle of this murderous plot, Moroni having just warned us about the dangers of secret combinations. Just to reintroduce the players here, we have king Omer, who is the king over all the land. Omer is a righteous king and the son of Shule who was also a righteous king. Omer has many children, but the prominent player here is his son, Jared, and Jared’s daughter. Jared enlisted Akish as a secret ally to regain power over the kingdom and promised to let Akish marry his daughter if he would behead Omer, his father. Akish agrees and enlisted all his friends to get this done, surely on the backs of promises such as “when I’m king, I’ll give you…” So Omer is facing mortal peril, “Nevertheless, the Lord was merciful unto Omer, and also to his sons and to his daughters who did not seek his destruction. And the Lord warned Omer in a dream that he should depart out of the land…. And it came to pass that Jared was anointed king over the people, by the hand of wickedness; and he gave unto Akish his daughter to wife.” So Jared got to take over the kingdom without murdering his father, and this is an excellent example of how the Lord protects his righteous. We are given numerous examples in the scriptures of the Lord warning his righteous people to flee out of the land so in order to remain safe, so really if you think about it, is the most important strategy to staying safe being up to date on all the worldly issues, or to have friends in low places? No, the most important strategy is to be righteous and the Lord will either direct us to safety or allow us to perish for his righteous purposes and we can bask in his glory and love for the rest of eternity, not so bad, honestly. Now that Jared is on the throne, as should be expected, “Akish should the life of his father-in-law; and he applied unto those whom he had sworn by the oath of the ancients, and they obtained the head of his father-in-law, as he sat upon his throne, giving audience to his people.” Honestly, what did Jared expect, if they will plot the murder of the king with you, they will plot the murder of the king when he is you. Come on now. Akish is a pretty awful person, not only did he seek to murder Omer, but he actually did arrange the murder of his wife’s father, and then it gets even worse because “Akish began to be jealous of his son, therefore he shut him up in prison, and kept him upon little of no food until he had suffered death.” I’m assuming that this son was born to Jared’s daughter, and I can’t imagine that an ambitious and manipulative woman like that couldn’t have made some sort of arrangement to preserve the life of her son, and I couldn’t for a million lifetimes imagine being ok with my son being starved to death by his psychotic father.
9:8-12 - We have two different societies here, the first is the incredibly wicked kingdom currently ruled by Akish the crazy. The other society is ruled by the righteous king Omer who left the rule of the other kingdom in order to obey the command of the Lord to flee for safety. Akish starving his son to death didn’t go over very well with Nimrah “the brother on him that suffered death,” and for good reason. Not only was it wildly cruel and murderous, but it also meant that all of Akish’s other sons were in danger of the same fate, so for Nimrah to be angry with his father is not only justice but self-preservation. What does the angry son of a wicked father do historically? Well, so far in the story we’ve seen the son go to war against his father, destroy his father in secret, but Nimrah doesn’t do any of that, Nimrah “gathered together a small number of man, and fled out of the land, and came over and dwelt with Omer.” He left and went to a land of peace, very wise and blood free way of doing it. Akish just can’t seem to get his hands out of the mud because as he was driven for power, this attitude drove his people to be “desirous for gain.” And of course the other sons of Akish who did not flee to peace and safety with their brother, stayed because they desired the wealth and power for themselves. So the sons of Akish exploited the people’s desire for money “wherefore, the sons of Akish did offer them money, by which means they drew away the more part of the people after them. And there began to be a war between the sons of Akish and Akish, which lasted for the space of many years, yea, unto the destruction of nearly all the people of the kingdom, yea, even all, save it were thirty souls, and they who fled with the house of Omer.” This reminds me of the time when the Lord warned Mosiah to flee out of the land of Nephi, away from the wicked Nephites with his righteous followers, and then the Lamanites came and destroyed all the wicked Nephites, so all who were left were the Lamanites and the people who lived with Mosiah, and I remember this because I just read about it with my kids last week. It’s one verse, one little phrase, but it is the extinction of thousands of people who turned from righteous to wickedness, and refused to turn to the Lord in repentance and be saved. And thus ends the sad story of the wicked who refuse to repent, and Akish certainly fits this criteria.
9:13-35 - Now that Akish and his people destroyed themselves with their secret combinations and greed, "Omer was restored again to the land of his inheritance." I don't know why Omer would go back to a place that not only held terrible memories for him, but also was probably littered with bodies and gore, I personally would have stayed in the place where I had worked so diligently to build up, but then again, I wasn't in that situation, it just seemed odd to me that he went back. Anyway, Omer continued his reign in righteousness and anointed Emer, his son, to succeed him on the throne. Omer died "having seen exceedingly many days, which were full of sorrow." Emer was righteous, like his father Omer and his grandfather Shule, and because of his righteousness and that of the people, "the Lord began again to take the curse from off the land, and the house of Emer did prosper exceedingly under the reign of Emer; and in the space of sixty and two years they had become exceedingly strong, insomuch that they became exceedingly rich." The curse that is talked about here isn't specifically identified so I assume would be the same curse that afflicted the Lamanites, meaning the curse of losing the companionship of the Spirit, and the curse of destruction, they began to thrive. Here's a good place to talk about the "Cycles of Great Prosperity and Tragic Wickedness" that is discussed in the IM. Here's the chart
The thing that I thought was interesting about this was that this is the cycle that people follow because they choose to, but because the Lord mandates it. The last paragraph really brings that home by illustrating that it's possible to live in the prosperity and still be righteous. Emer's society is one example, Alma the Older is another example, even when enslaved by Amulon, King Benjamin, Enoch, lots of examples. When Alma teaches the poor people of the Zoramites he tells them that there are people who are compelled to be humble through poverty, famine, war, etc. but that it's also possible to be humble "without
being compelled to be humble; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe." It is possible for us to be blessed and still remain righteous but it's work, spiritual progress takes work but it's worth it. The Jaredites measured their prosperity with "all manner of fruit, and of grain, and of silks, and of fine linen, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious things; And also all manner of cattle, or oxen, and cows, and of sheep, and of swine, and of goats, and also many other kinds of animals which were useful for the food of man. And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms." The IM comments on the Jaredite Animals, and it's really lengthy, so I'm going to screenshot it, I started typing it out and I was like "umm... no."
The awesome thing about Emer is that in his righteousness, he was not only able to maintain a peaceful society, but "he even saw the Son of Righteousness, and did rejoice and glory in his day; and he died in peace." That's pretty incredible, shows lots of consistency throughout the ages. Coriantum succeeds Emer, and has lots of children with his second wife, among them was Com, who had Heth "and the people had spread again over all the face of the land, and there began again to be an exceedingly great wickedness upon the face of the land, and Heth began to embrace the secret plans again of old, to destroy his father." Here we go again, I wonder what the people who reinstate the secret combinations are thinking, looking at the history, thinking "that won't happen to me?" Crazy. The people are wicked and the Lord sends prophets, "But the people believed not the words of the prophets, but they cast them out; and some they cast into pits and left them to perish. And it came to pass that they did all these things according to the commandment of the king, Heth." I've often wondered what the criteria was for a people to be destroyed, like how bad do they have to be before the Lord will allow them to die instead of live, and pretty consistently it's been the murder of the prophets. It's one thing to ignore the prophet's counsel but it's completely another to kill the servant of the Lord. Murder each other? Not good. Murder the prophets? You're done. True to his word, the Lord sent a drought and famine "and there came forth poisonous serpents also upon the face of the land, and did poison many people." This is my worst nightmare, I hate snakes, and I hate being hungry or thirsty, so all in all, this would be terrible for me. Between the serpents and the famine "the inhabitants began to be destroyed exceedingly fast." There was terror and hunger until "the people saw that they must perish (and) they began to repent of their iniquities and cry unto the Lord." And again, true to his word, the Lord accepted their repentance and "when they had humbled themselves sufficiently before the Lord he did send rain upon the face of the earth... and the Lord did show forth his power unto them in preserving them from famine." The people went through quite the evolution in this chapter, wickedness, almost complete destruction, righteousness, pride, and again destruction, to repentance. Lots of good lessons here, pretty overwhelming to be honest.
9:13-35 - Now that Akish and his people destroyed themselves with their secret combinations and greed, "Omer was restored again to the land of his inheritance." I don't know why Omer would go back to a place that not only held terrible memories for him, but also was probably littered with bodies and gore, I personally would have stayed in the place where I had worked so diligently to build up, but then again, I wasn't in that situation, it just seemed odd to me that he went back. Anyway, Omer continued his reign in righteousness and anointed Emer, his son, to succeed him on the throne. Omer died "having seen exceedingly many days, which were full of sorrow." Emer was righteous, like his father Omer and his grandfather Shule, and because of his righteousness and that of the people, "the Lord began again to take the curse from off the land, and the house of Emer did prosper exceedingly under the reign of Emer; and in the space of sixty and two years they had become exceedingly strong, insomuch that they became exceedingly rich." The curse that is talked about here isn't specifically identified so I assume would be the same curse that afflicted the Lamanites, meaning the curse of losing the companionship of the Spirit, and the curse of destruction, they began to thrive. Here's a good place to talk about the "Cycles of Great Prosperity and Tragic Wickedness" that is discussed in the IM. Here's the chart
being compelled to be humble; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe." It is possible for us to be blessed and still remain righteous but it's work, spiritual progress takes work but it's worth it. The Jaredites measured their prosperity with "all manner of fruit, and of grain, and of silks, and of fine linen, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious things; And also all manner of cattle, or oxen, and cows, and of sheep, and of swine, and of goats, and also many other kinds of animals which were useful for the food of man. And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms." The IM comments on the Jaredite Animals, and it's really lengthy, so I'm going to screenshot it, I started typing it out and I was like "umm... no."The awesome thing about Emer is that in his righteousness, he was not only able to maintain a peaceful society, but "he even saw the Son of Righteousness, and did rejoice and glory in his day; and he died in peace." That's pretty incredible, shows lots of consistency throughout the ages. Coriantum succeeds Emer, and has lots of children with his second wife, among them was Com, who had Heth "and the people had spread again over all the face of the land, and there began again to be an exceedingly great wickedness upon the face of the land, and Heth began to embrace the secret plans again of old, to destroy his father." Here we go again, I wonder what the people who reinstate the secret combinations are thinking, looking at the history, thinking "that won't happen to me?" Crazy. The people are wicked and the Lord sends prophets, "But the people believed not the words of the prophets, but they cast them out; and some they cast into pits and left them to perish. And it came to pass that they did all these things according to the commandment of the king, Heth." I've often wondered what the criteria was for a people to be destroyed, like how bad do they have to be before the Lord will allow them to die instead of live, and pretty consistently it's been the murder of the prophets. It's one thing to ignore the prophet's counsel but it's completely another to kill the servant of the Lord. Murder each other? Not good. Murder the prophets? You're done. True to his word, the Lord sent a drought and famine "and there came forth poisonous serpents also upon the face of the land, and did poison many people." This is my worst nightmare, I hate snakes, and I hate being hungry or thirsty, so all in all, this would be terrible for me. Between the serpents and the famine "the inhabitants began to be destroyed exceedingly fast." There was terror and hunger until "the people saw that they must perish (and) they began to repent of their iniquities and cry unto the Lord." And again, true to his word, the Lord accepted their repentance and "when they had humbled themselves sufficiently before the Lord he did send rain upon the face of the earth... and the Lord did show forth his power unto them in preserving them from famine." The people went through quite the evolution in this chapter, wickedness, almost complete destruction, righteousness, pride, and again destruction, to repentance. Lots of good lessons here, pretty overwhelming to be honest.
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