Jaredites

Besides Don't Quit, Rhett and I felt drawn to the story of the brother of Jared that I mentioned earlier.

In the Book of Ether, the Jaredites are directed to build ships for their journey to a new land.

The brother of Jared seeks divine guidance on various challenges, including how to provide light in enclosed vessels.

Despite receiving specific answers for other inquiries, God asked the brother of Jared, What will ye that I should do that you may have light? Can you imagine the burden the brother of Jared must have felt? I imagine he was overwhelmed.

But behold, my son, I recommend thee unto God, and I trust in Christ that thou wilt be saved, and I pray unto God that he will spare thy life to witness the return of his people unto him, or their utter destruction." For I know that they must perish, except they repent and return unto him.

And if they perish, it will be like unto the Jaredites, because of the willfulness of their hearts seeking for blood and revenge.

And if it so be that they perish, we know that many of our brethren have deserted over to the Lamanites, and many more will also desert over unto them.

Wherefore, write somewhat a few things, if thou art spared, and I shall perish and not see thee.

And you can tell that he sees what's coming.

He says in verse 22, I know that they must perish except they repent.

And then the very next verse he says, and if they perish, it will be like unto the Jaredites because of the willfulness of their hearts.

And if you remember Ether chapter 15, the end of the Jaredites was bloody.

there's also this hope of the future.

And so I just wanted to throw in this beautiful verse in the Book of Mormon from Ether 12, which is Moroni watching the destruction of the Jaredites and has the same thing.

He's mourning the loss of the Jaredites, but has this hope for the future.

And he says, wherefore, this is Ether 12, 4, wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for, for a better world, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works.

I think that underlying these lamentations is Jeremiah saying that he has a hope for a better world and that that hope is his anchor that keeps him bound to God.

The New Testament records the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the coming of the Messiah in the person of Jesus Christ.

According to the Book of Mormon, a group of people known as the Jaredites migrated to the New World in the distant past following the events surrounding the Tower of Babel.

Centuries later, the Jaredites destroyed themselves in a massive civil war.

It is said that two million people died in a single battle on a hill, which the Book of Mormon later identifies as the Hill Cumorah.

As the Jaredites died out, a Jewish family from Jerusalem migrated to the Americas around 600 BC.

The father of this family was named Lehi.

From his righteous son, Nephi, grew a nation of white-skinned people called Nephites, while his rebellious sons, Laman and Lemuel, fathered the Lamanite nation, who were cursed with a dark skin for their rebelliousness.

The remains of the ancient Greek and Roman Empires, which are written about in the Bible, are clearly visible throughout the Old World.

The New Testament records the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the coming of the Messiah in the person of Jesus Christ.

[upbeat music] According to the Book of Mormon, a group of people known as the Jaredites migrated to the New World in the distant past following the events surrounding the Tower of Babel.

Centuries later, the Jaredites destroyed themselves in a massive civil war.

It is said that two million people died in a single battle on a hill, which the Book of Mormon later identifies as the Hill Cumorah.

As the Jaredites died out, a Jewish family from Jerusalem migrated to the Americas around 600 BC.

The father of this family was named Lehi.

From his righteous son, Nephi, grew a nation of white-skinned people called Nephites, while his rebellious sons, Laman and Lemuel, fathered the Lamanite nation, who were cursed with a dark skin for their rebelliousness.

So the stories of riding horses into battle could not have occurred in the Americas.

He's just looking at what the text says, and these are the conclusions based upon what the text says.

And all of these brethren come up with limited Book of Mormon geographies, some of which actually place the destruction of the Nephites or the destruction of the Jaredites within Central America, which are kind of interesting.

Now, some people who've looked at the history of Book of Mormon geography, they've suggested that, well, maybe people like John Sorenson later on, And other people, they must have borrowed this idea.

There was an RLDS fellow, last name of Hills.

This is where he has these different things, like the hill shim.

And the land anthem between Nicaragua and Honduras.

You've got the Jaredites being destroyed, you know, the land of desolation.

He's got that down southeast of Yucatan

But that is s-still my question.

Why are we calling the Native Americans Lamanites? When we refer to the Lamanites, we think of the descendants of Lehi, of Ishmael, of Mulek, of the Jaredites.

You know, over thousands of years of intermarriage between these different peoples, um, we're, we're using vocabulary from the Book of Mormon.

I mentioned initially, the Book of Mormon was just published six months ago.

Are there any in the Book of Mormon that do the same?

Yeah, I think the whole journey of Nephi and his family, usually when you find a journey in the Scriptures, some kind of an Exodus, right, whether it's the Israelite Exodus or the Nephite Exodus or the Jaredite Exodus, you can read those stories as plan of salvation narratives, typically.

And they will throw into that story symbols, again, that relate to temple and that help you see the connection to the plan.

The

[laughs] But to remind you of the context of the Book of Moroni, if you remember the first chapter, he essentially says, "Hi, I'm Moroni.

After I finished the record of the Jaredites, I thought I'd be done because I kinda thought I'd be dead, but I'm still alive, so I'm gonna keep writing." [laughs] So this is the book that Moroni never thought that he would get the chance to write, and yet God sustained him long enough to write it.

And so he's writing down what he thinks are the most mission critical things for the functioning of the church after he dies, and that is why the chapters have been very short thus far because, well, he is not a very wordy person.

[laughs] So last chapter talked about the apostles of Jesus Christ in the Americas laying hands upon believers to give them the gift of the Holy Ghost, and this one is talking not necessarily about the words of Jesus Christ to his apostles, but it does detail how the elders of the church ordained new priests and teachers.

Interesting.

In his time, you would have thought they were just making up those names, right? Like the names of the Jaredites who allegedly came from Babylon at the Tower of Babel, their names line up with like Sumerian names that are found.

Okay.

The Nephite names line up with like a lot of Egyptian names, right? And so what we see is that there are at times in the Book of Mormon people who will show up with no explanation that are just sort of there.