All People Should Know

 Mormon recorded that Mosiah “translated and caused to be written the records which were on the plates of gold which had been found by the people of Limhi.” After summarizing briefly this account of the Jaredites, Mormon added this comment: “And this account shall be written hereafter; for behold, it is expedient that all people should know the things which are written in this account” (Mosiah 28:11,19). It may be that Mormon had been planning himself to write the story of the Jaredites but never got the opportunity, or perhaps all along he expected that Moroni would write it. Either way his statement about the Jaredite story is surprising: what is it about their history such that “all people should know” it? It may be that he was referring to the portion that we still don’t have and which was sealed, of which Moroni wrote: “Behold, I have written upon these plates the very things which the brother of Jared saw; and there never were greater things made manifest than those which were made manifest unto the brother of Jared.” It is important for all of us because we were all involved in that great vision he received: “He showed unto the brother of Jared all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be; and he withheld them not from his sight, even unto the ends of the earth” (Ether 3:35). The Lord promised that we could qualify to have those things manifest to us: “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, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Ether 4:4,7). Certainly it is expedient for all of us to qualify and prepare to receive that record which contains the greatest things ever manifest by the Lord, things revealed to other prophets like John. We pray that some day we might all have that sealed portion of the Book of Mormon.

               I wonder, though, if we can’t apply Mormon’s comment to the story of the Jaredites that we do have now in the Book of Ether. In what manner is the current story so important that “all people should know it”? One way is surely the warning it holds against secret combinations. The story of the Jaredites shows us the devastating effect of secret combinations among a people. After describing such deeds among the people at the time of Akish with murder and intrigue taking place, Moroni commented, “And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not” (Ether 8:22). That is a warning we all need to hear! The story itself serves as a testimony of this fact as the whole people eventually was destroyed because of their wickedness: “There were many people who were slain by the sword of those secret combinations” (Ether 13:18). If we continue in our day to uphold such secret combinations the same fate as their society will come upon us.

               A second part of the story of the Jaredites that “all people should know” is the encounter of the brother of Jared with the premortal Jehovah. The story told in Ether 3 is one of the greatest of all scripture and bears a powerful witness of both the divinity of Jesus Christ and His willingness to manifest Himself unto each of us. In His majesty on the mount He declared to the brother of Jared and to all of us: “Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even those who believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters” (Ether 3:14). The story teaches us that no price is too great to find the Savior, that we must each make the journey to climb our own mount Shelem of “exceeding height” and laboriously molten out of our rock our own symbolic stones of sacrifice to present to the Lord (Ether 3:1). The story powerfully declares that in His time He will manifest Himself unto each one who makes such an effort. Indeed, “all people should know” the power of faith that the brother of Jared manifest such that Jesus “ministered unto him even as he ministered unto the Nephites; and all this, that this man might know that he was God” (Ether 3:18). If we will but “exercise faith… even as the brother of Jared did” we too can have unfolded unto us “all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are” (Ether 4:7).