Chapter 3
The brother of Jared
sees the finger of the Lord as He touches sixteen stones—Christ shows His
spirit body to the brother of Jared—Those who have a perfect knowledge cannot
be kept from within the veil—Interpreters are provided to bring the Jaredite
record to light.
The Jaredites had completed making their barges. It required
eight barges be built to take the entire company on the journey.
The brother of Jared went to a mountain, named Shelem
because of its height. There, he made six small stones out of molten rock. They
were clear and as transparent as glass.
Reaching the top of the mountain, the brother of Jared began
to pray.
“Shelem means high, safe, secure. The word shalom is derived from that. Remember, shalom means you’re safe. Shalom is a ‘ladder, a high place.’ If
you’re going to a high place, it is a safe place, a secure place, a shelem. He went to the highest mountain
around. Moses did the same thing. Lehi and Nephi did the same thing. So again
this is a pattern. And he melted out sixteen stones. Well, how did he know that
he’d have to do that? Because the ark of Noah was lit by shining stones that
the Lord had blessed. That’s how he knew about it. It says it was constructed
after the manner of Noah’s ark, so when the Lord asked what do you want me to
do—he thought, Ah, I’ll get some shining stones. ‘And they were white and
clear, even as transparent glass,’ but alas, they wouldn’t shine. That was the
trouble—they didn’t shine in the dark. There was another problem, so what did
he do?
“This is very symbolic, too. He climbed the highest mountain
around, ‘and he did carry them in his hands upon the top of the mount.’ He
stood on the top of the mountain and said, Lord, this is where I get off. This
is as far as I go. He held them up and said, you’ve got to do something now. I’ve
done everything in my power.”[1]
He told the Lord they would be covered by the waters. He
acknowledge they were unworthy before Him. “And it came to pass that it was for
the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength
like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is
nothing, which thing I never had supposed” (Moses 1:10).
Through the fall human nature had become evil. “Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
“But behold, it was appointed unto man to die—therefore, as
they were cut off from the tree of life they should be cut off from the face of
the earth—and man became lost forever, yea, they became fallen man.
“And now, ye see by this that our first parents were cut off
both temporally and spiritually from the presence of the Lord; and thus we see
they became subjects to follow after their own will” (Alma 42:6-7).
“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from
the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the
enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a
saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child,
submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all
things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth
submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19).
He asked the Lord to be merciful upon them. He told the Lord
he had made molten stones out of rocks.
He told the Lord he acknowledge he had all power. “Then he
suggested what the Lord could do—touch these and make them shine, and then
everything will be all right. But the way he puts it, he’s not laying commands
to the Lord or anything. He is reduced to the depths of humility now. Of all
the humble requests we have in all of scripture, this is the most profound.
Talk about a man in humility. The need is urgent now.”[2]
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