To accompany your Come Follow Me study for the week of November 18-24
You will enjoy the following related videos this week:
You will also enjoy consulting the related commentary from the Book of Mormon Institute Student Manual at:
If you would like a Kahoot game related to this material which you could use for personal study or use with your family or your class, click here: https://create.kahoot.it/share/ether-6-11/fadaa3c6-983a-4b81-9525-afa14640210e. To use it with a group, after clicking on this link, you will need to log into Kahoot, creating a free account if you have not done so previously, then click on the blue “Host Live” button or the gray “Assign” button, depending on how you wish to use the Kahoot. Some of the Kahoot questions may presuppose that the player has read through the suggested answers to the following Points to Ponder and at least has browsed the Institute student manual as well.
Points to Ponder in Ether 6-11
1. Can you list at least seven miracles, stated or implied, that were involved in the Jaredites’ crossing of the ocean?
2. What interesting information beyond what we learn from the Bible does the Book of Ether give us about Noah’s experience on the ark?
Don’t worry if you can’t remember all the names of kings and other historical details in the Book of Ether. Look instead for the principles, or teachings you think Moroni hoped we would remember from his abridgement of the Jaredite history. Moroni’s father, Mormon, frequently wrote “and thus we see” to highlight some lesson that he wanted his readers to notice. Now it’s your turn. For each listed passage, summarize in your own words the principle or moral that you believe Moroni wanted us to remember. Don’t simply restate the passage in your own words, but identify the eternal principle that we can extract from each passage, which would be as applicable to us today as it was in Ether’s day. Your own thoughts on each passage will be at least as valid as mine!
3. 6:17
4. 6:22-30, 9:14-22, and 9:26-33
5. 7:23
6. 7:27
7. 8:15-25
8. 8:26
9. 9:3
10. 9:34-35
11. 10:9-11
12. 10:19-28
13. 11:7
Possible Answers to Points to Ponder in Ether 6-11
1. Can you list at least seven miracles, stated or implied, that were involved in the Jaredites’ crossing of the ocean?
They would include at least the following:
a. The Lord gave directions on how the barges were to be built. (2:16)
b. The Lord revealed a plan to provide air inside the barges. (2:20)
c. When the barges had been buried for a time in the water, the Lord brought them to the surface again in response to the Jaredites’ prayers, presumably so they could replenish their air supply. (6:7)
d. The Lord provided light for the barges by touching 16 shiny stones and having two put into each barge. (3:4-6; 6:2)
e. The Lord provided the wind which blew the barges to the promised land. (6:5, 8)
f. The Lord blessed the Jaredites with the ability to endure 344 days at sea without dying from being flung around by the furious wind, being destroyed by whales, or experiencing intolerable seasickness and to maintain a spirit of gratitude throughout the voyage. (6:7-9)
g. The Lord kept the eight barges together so that the Jaredites were able to find each other once they landed. (6:12)
2. What interesting information beyond what we learn from the Bible does the Book of Ether give us about Noah’s experience on the ark?
As 6:7 tells us that the Jaredite barges were “tight like unto the ark of Noah” and were frequently submerged, we have to assume that Noah’s ark likewise had submarine capabilities and would have needed the same divine aid the Jaredites received to solve such problems as air and lighting.
There is some additional evidence that the ark may also have had shining stones:
“Of particular relevance is the way that shining stones were directly linked to Noah’s ark. In the Bablyonian Talmud, for example, one Jewish commentator reported that the Lord instructed Noah to “Set therein precious stones and jewels, so that they may give thee light, bright as the noon.” Another ancient Jewish rabbi explained, “During the whole twelve months that Noah was in the Ark he did not require the light of the sun by day or the light of the moon by night, but he had a polished gem which he hung up.” See https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/where-did-the-brother-of-jared-get-the-idea-of-shining-stones and/or the related video at
Don’t worry if you can’t remember all the names of kings and other historical details in the Book of Ether. Look instead for the principles, or teachings you think Moroni hoped we would remember from his abridgement of the Jaredite history. Moroni’s father, Mormon, frequently wrote “and thus we see” to highlight some lesson that he wanted his readers to notice. Now it’s your turn. For each listed passage, summarize in your own words the principle or moral that you believe Moroni wanted us to remember. Don’t simply restate the passage in your own words, but identify the eternal principle that we can extract from each passage, which would be as applicable to us today as it was in Ether’s day. Your own thoughts on each passage will be at least as valid as mine!
1. 6:17
We can learn not only from books and from teachers but directly from the inspiration of heaven.
2. 6:22-30, 9:14-22, and 9:26-33
A righteous ruler can change the course of an entire nation to the point that the Lord can pour out great temporal as well as spiritual blessings on the people.
A wicked ruler, especially a wicked king, can likewise in short order change the course of a nation, bringing the judgments of God upon the land both temporally and spiritually. In the case of the Jaredites, it first happened after only two generations. (7:5) It is likely that the Nephites’ awareness of the Jaredite experience from Mosiah’s translation of the 24 gold plates was as much a motivation for them to abandon monarchy in favor of a system of judges as was their own recent experience with King Noah.
3. 7:23
Wickedness will bring a curse on the land, to the point of destruction, unless the people repent.
4. 7:27
Remembering the Lord’s past goodness to us can be a great motivation to live rightly.
5. 8:15-25
Secret combinations, such as caused the destruction of both the Nephites and the Jaredites, will definitely be a national threat in the latter-days. Men will be tempted to support them to get political power and gain and curtail the freedom of others. We must vigilantly seek to identify and oppose all such movements.
6. 8:26
Through reading and following the Book of Mormon we will be able to successfully resist Satan, having a disposition to do good continually, and will be able to come unto Christ and be saved.
7. 9:3
The righteous can receive revelation through dreams, among other means, and by following such revelation they can be saved temporally as well as spiritually.
8. 9:34-35
Repentance can bring rain or other needed temporal as well as spiritual blessings.
9. 10:9-11
One must not only treat others right but must also treat himself right by keeping the Lord’s commandments, including the law of chastity, in order to stay in the Lord’s favor.
10. 10:19-28
Righteousness includes being industrious, and together they bring prosperity and happiness.
11. 11:7
Participation in secret combinations leads to war and contention, famines and pestilences, and potentially massive temporal destruction.
With the world collapsing around them in apostasy and wickedness, Jared asked his brother to intervene with God, “that he will not confound us that we may not understand our words” (Ether 1:34). As he took on this responsibility, the brother of Jared acted as a mediator between his people and God. Jared also petitioned his brother to “inquire of the Lord whether he will drive us out of the land, and if he will drive us out of the land, cry unto him whither we shall go” (v. 37). It was in this latter request that Jared first raised the possibility that “the Lord will carry us forth into a land which is choice above all the earth.. .. And if it so be, let us be faithful unto the Lord, that we may receive it for our inheritance” (v. 38). Thus, the Jaredites realized that they must be worthy to receive the blessing they were seeking.