The Faith to Move Mountains

Moroni gave us an intriguing little fact as he wrote about those who had great faith in Ether 12.  He said, “For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove—and it was removed.  And if he had not had faith it would not have moved” (Ether 12:30).  I wish we had more details!  When did he move a mountain?  Why did it need to be moved?  How did he have such great faith to be able to move it?  It seems more likely to me that he moved the mountain on their journey to the promised land—perhaps there was no other way around in order for them to get to the sea where they could take vessels to the Americas.  We know that on their journey “the Lord commanded them that they should ago forth into the wilderness, yea, into that quarter where there never had man been” (Ether 2:5).  Perhaps part of going where no one had ever been necessitated a mountain being moved. 

Of course we can’t know for sure, but it is certainly humbling to think about the faith it took for the brother of Jared to literally move a mount in the context of this verse: “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” (Ether 4:7).  In other words, the Lord wants us likewise to develop the kind of faith that moves mountains.

                There is one other instance in the scriptures that I know of that is similar to this account of the brother of Jared.  We read this of the great prophet Enoch, “And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command” (Moses 7:13).  Apparently his faith was so strong that he could cause the mountains to flee before him when needed.  And this was from a man who shied away originally from his call as a prophet saying, “[I] am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?” (Moses 6:31)  The Lord actually promised him at this point that “the mountains shall flee before you” and his promise was apparently fulfilled (Moses 6:34).  I wish we had more of this story!

                The Savior told his disciples, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matt. 17:20).  With the brother of Jared and Enoch this was literally fulfilled.  For us, we likely won’t need to actually move a physical mountain, but there are mountainous challenges we all face that seem impossible to surmount.  If we really trust in the Lord and seek to have the kind of faith that these great prophets had, surely He will help us work the miracles of moving our mountains—but we have to really believe that “nothing shall be impossible” with God.