The Faith of the Brother of Jared: Prayer

The Lord highlighted the faith of the brother of Jared when He said to Moroni, “And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations” (Ether 4:7).  From this declaration, clearly our goal should be to have faith like the brother of Jared had if we want the Lord to reveal great things to us.  So what does the story of the brother of Jared teach us about the kind of faith that he had?  We know from Moroni that he had enough faith to move the mountain Zerin—which surely substantiates the claim that he had great faith—but that fact alone doesn’t really help us know how to develop the kind of faith that the Lord wants us to have (see Ether 12:30). 

One of the ways that the brother of Jared exhibited great faith was in the powerful way that he pled with the Lord in prayer.  In our generation the Lord spoke of Book of Mormon prophets who put “faith in their prayers” and surely the brother of Jared did just that (D&C 10:47).  When we first are introduced to the brother of Jared it is when Jared asked him to pray: “And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon Jared.”  When one prayer was answered, Jared asked him again to pray: “And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon their friends and their families.”  Following the response to that prayer Jared asked him again to plead with the Lord: “And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord according to that which had been spoken by the mouth of Jared.”  The Lord thereafter promised him great blessings “because this long time ye have cried unto me” (Ether 1:35, 37, 39, 41).  The brother of Jared didn’t simply say prayers; he pled with the Lord earnestly and the Lord heard him.  He had the faith to fervently pray.  Later, after some of the group’s initial travels, the Lord chastened the brother of Jared because he was not as faithful in calling upon the name of the Lord.  This gives us hope that we too, even though we are not perfect in our prayers, can still develop great faith like the brother of Jared.  After this correction from the Lord, “The brother of Jared repented of the evil which he had done, and did call upon the name of the Lord for his brethren who were with him” (Ether 2:15).  We see that he continued to petition the Lord for guidance, crying unto Him, “O Lord, I have performed the work which thou hast commanded me….  And behold, O Lord, in them there is no light; whither shall we steer?” (Ether 2:18-19) 

When the brother of Jared received an answer from the Lord he kept going back in heartfelt prayer.  Realizing he needed light in the barges, “He cried again unto the Lord saying: O Lord, behold I have done even as thou hast commanded me; and I have prepared the vessels for my people, and behold there is no light in them. Behold, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness?” (Ether 2:22)  The brother of Jared came up with a solution and he took it to the Lord in mighty prayer.  He didn’t sit back in his comfortable chair and say a few words to the Lord, but instead he climbed a mountain named for its “exceeding height” and “cried again unto the Lord.”  In that prayer he reached out fervently to God, saying, “O Lord” eight times as he pled in total sincerity and humility for help.  And his prayer was full of faith: “O Lord, thou canst do this” (Ether 3:1-5).  Surely the place we can start as we seek to emulate the faith of the brother of Jared is in trying to pray with all our hearts like he did.