This Long Time Ye Have Cried unto Me
Book of Mormon Notes - Sunday, April 21, 2024, Ether 1, Part 2
Where was the land of Shinar and the tower? Check out this map:
This is the description of Shinar (see also here) in the LDS map “The World of the Old Testament”:
Babylon, Babel (Shinar) First settled by Cush, the son of Ham, and by Nimrod. Area of origin of Jaredites at the time of the Tower of Babel in the plains of Shinar. Later provincial capital of Babylonia and residence of Babylonian kings, including Nebuchadnezzar who carried many Jews captive to this city following the destruction of Jerusalem (587 B.C.). The Jews remained in captivity in Babylon for 70 years until the time of King Cyrus, who permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Daniel the prophet also resided here under Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius Ⅰ (Gen. 10:10; 11:1–9; 2 Kgs. 24–25; Jer. 27:1–29:10; Ezek. 1:1; Dan. 1–12; Omni 1:22; Ether 1:33–43).
When the Lord came down and saw that the people were building a city and a tower, this was His response:
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their alanguage, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the acity.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there aconfound the blanguage of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord cscatter them dabroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:6-9)
Two questions come immediately to mind: 1. What does it mean for the Lord to confound the language? and 2. Why did the Lord confound the language? There seems to be a word play between the Hebrew word balal, meaning to “mix,” “confound,” and the word Babel. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw gives a good, plausible answer to the first question. (see also here, here, and here) Whatever happened, there was some kind of mixing up so that the people could not understand one another. But why? What’s wrong with building a city and a great tower? The answer to this question must be in this part of the Lord’s response to what He saw: “and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” It sounds like the people began to think that they could accomplish anything through technology and their own human ingenuity without relying upon the Lord - perhaps somewhat like the so-called “transhumanists” of today. But to be honest, I don’t know the answer to this question either. All I know is that the Lord saw what the people were up to, He got upset, and He confounded everyone… everyone except the Brother of Jared and his family and friends:
Which aJared came forth with his brother and their families, with some others and their families, from the great tower, at the time the Lord bconfounded the language of the people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all the cface of the earth; and according to the word of the Lord the people were scattered.
And the abrother of Jared being a large and mighty man, and a man highly favored of the Lord, Jared, his brother, said unto him: Cry unto the Lord, that he will not confound us that we may not bunderstand our words.
And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon Jared; therefore he did not confound the alanguage of Jared; and Jared and his brother were not confounded.
Then Jared said unto his brother: Cry again unto the Lord, and it may be that he will turn away his anger from them who are our afriends, that he confound not their language.
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 also, that they were not confounded. (Ether 1:33-37)
Evidently, the brother of Jared had a great relationship with the Lord, so great that his brother, Jared, asked him to petition the Lord instead of approaching the Lord directly. Why did Jared do this? We know that the brother of Jared was a large and mighty man, and that he was highly favored of the Lord. Perhaps Jared thought that it was more likely that the Lord would heed his brother’s prayers than his own. Perhaps the brother of Jared already had a prophetic role among his people - the name “Mahonri” might even be some kind of a title. I don’t know. What I do know is that whenever the brother of Jared petitioned the Lord for a blessing of one kind or another, the Lord responded. Even though the Lord swore in his wrath to scatter the people, He had compassion upon the brother of Jared, his family, and his friends. That’s the kind of person everyone needs as a friend.
It also took faith for Jared to ask his brother to petition the Lord on his behalf. It may have been a brotherly relationship similar to that of Aaron and Moses. Aaron was certainly capable of praying and petitioning the Lord for blessings, but why not ask Moses to carry a particular petition up the mountain with him? Because the Lord answered the brother of Jared’s prayer and compassionately refrained from confounding them or their language, this may be one reason why Moroni was astounded by the power of the written language of the Brother of Jared.
Jared was on a roll. He asked his brother to cry unto the Lord twice, and both times his prayer was answered. Jared’s faith must have grown stronger so that he didn’t merely ask his brother to cry unto the Lord to preserve them and their language from mixing and confusing, he grew bold enough to ask his brother to inquire of the Lord and seek a promised land (like Abraham, Lehi, and others):
And it came to pass that Jared spake again unto his brother, saying: Go and ainquire 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. And who knoweth but the Lord will carry us forth into a land which is bchoice above all the earth? And if it so be, let us be faithful unto the Lord, that we may receive it for our inheritance. (Ether 1:38)
Jared was already two for two, and his third shot made him three for three, thanks to his good brother Mahonri Moriancumer:
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.
And it came to pass that the Lord did hear the brother of Jared, and ahad compassion upon him, and said unto him:
Go to and gather together thy aflocks, both male and female, of every kind; and also of the bseed of the earth of every kind; and cthy dfamilies; and also Jared thy brother and his family; and also thy efriends and their families, and the friends of Jared and their families.
And when thou hast done this thou shalt ago at the head of them down into the valley which is northward. And there will I meet thee, and I will go bbefore thee into a land which is cchoice above all the lands of the earth.
And there will I bless thee and thy seed, and raise up unto me of thy seed, and of the seed of thy brother, and they who shall go with thee, a great nation. And athere shall be none bgreater than the nation which I will raise up unto me of thy seed, upon all the face of the earth. And thus I will do unto thee because this long time ye have cried unto me. (Ether 1:39-43)
The punch-line is powerful: “And thus will I do unto thee because this long time ye have cried unto me.” This is one of the greatest endorsements for prayer and the power of prayer in all of scripture, Enos, Elder Holland, and the Lord’s parable of the importuning widow included.
The Lord was merciful to Jared and his brother. He did much more than prevent their confusion and the confusion of their language. Because the brother of Jared cried unto the Lord for a long time, the Lord blessed him, his family, his friends, and his posterity in a remarkable way. Why should it be any different for us? We may not be large and mighty. We may not be as highly favored of the Lord as was the brother of Jared (but I suspect that many of us are, and even more so to live in the Promised Land already). We may not have as cool 😎 of a name as Mahonri Moriancumr (although I do). But if we cry unto the Lord for a long time like the Brother of Jared did, then certainly the Lord will hear our cries, be merciful, lead us to a choice land, bless us and our seed, and make of us a great nation. Nephi revealed the pattern to us:
Behold, the Lord hath created the aearth that it should be binhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it.
And he araiseth up a righteous nation, and destroyeth the nations of the wicked.
And he leadeth away the righteous into precious alands, and the wicked he bdestroyeth, and curseth the land unto them for their sakes.
He ruleth high in the heavens, for it is his throne, and this earth is his afootstool.
And he loveth those who will have him to be their God. Behold, he loved our afathers, and he bcovenanted with them, yea, even Abraham, cIsaac, and dJacob; and he remembered the covenants which he had made; wherefore, he did bring them out of the land of eEgypt. (1 Nephi 17:36-40)
The Lord brought Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and the children of Israel out of Egypt, and by Moses, unto the Promised Land. The Lord brought Lehi and Nephi, the seed of Joseph through Manasseh, out of Jerusalem unto the Promised Land in the western hemisphere. The Lord brought Jared, his brother, and his people, out of Shinar and Babel unto the Promised Land in the western hemisphere. And all of these physical journeys are a type of what Jesus Christ does for us spiritually, through His Infinite Atoning power, out of the Egypts, Jerusalems, and Shinars of sin, into the Promised Lands of His righteousness and love.
All these things remind us of the Abrahamic Covenant that is renewed through each one of us who embraces it. From the beginning of his abridgment of the Jaredite record, Moroni helps us to see how the brother of Jared is a type of Christ. We can also pay attention to how the Lord blessed the brother of Jared like he blessed other covenant disciples such as Lehi, Nephi, Moses, and Abraham (see also here).
What is a covenant? (see here)
What is the New and Everlasting Covenant? (see here)