Today I read Ether 8, which I have always found to be an interesting chapter. It is interesting to me for several reasons, with the overall reason being if everyone in this chapter would just bridle their passions, things would have happened a lot differently. When I was single and having trouble finding girls I wanted to date I because a little bitter and used to point to this chapter and facetiously say that the downfall of the Jaredite nation was brought about by a woman. While that is stretching the truth quite a bit, it was a woman who caused secret combinations to start among the Jaredites.
Today while I was reading this chapter though I had a funny thought about the daughter of Jared who is so conniving and evil at heart. She has read her scriptures! She reminds her father about the secret combinations that existed in the old days before they left. She could not have known that if she had not read the scriptures. That is my funny thought from the scriptures today.
I also had another thought occur to me as I read the scriptures today. The Jaredites have a very different meaning of the word captivity than I do. When I think of the phrase "dwelt in captivity" I think of medieval dungeons, the Count of Monte Cristo type things. However, that is obviously not what the Jaredites mean when they say their king dwelt in captivity. These kings have children while in captivity, they are obviously healthy enough than when liberated they do not need to recover but rather can just go right back to ruling. What I think they mean by captivity is they are put away on an estate somewhere and have guards all around them so they cannot escape, but their wife and children still live with them and they have a pretty comfortable life, they just are not rulers anymore.
At least that is the impression I get from reading about these kings and with no sense of a time line really that is the best we can do. Now, in a later chapter at least one of the people we read about seems to have been indeed thrown into a dungeon and starved to death as the scripture reads, but that is not for another couple of chapters.
Now, back to the title of our blog post, to bridle our passions. I chose that title today because as I stated above, if everyone would just bridle their passions this chapter almost wouldn't have happened. For example, Jared desired the kingdom, so he dissented and made war upon his father and took him captive, then Jared's brothers were angry so they made war upon him and restored the kingdom to his father. Jared still desired the kingdom, so his daughter, a pretty evil woman in her own right, devised a plan to get her father what he wanted.
Next, Akish desires Jared's daughter that he may have sex with her because of the, I assume, provocative dance she performed for him. So in order to fulfill this desire he agrees to commit murder, and not just any murder, but to kill the king, who we are told is his friend. If any one of these 4 people could have just controlled their passions and been level headed this chapter would not have happened that way.
And likewise it is with us. What a lesson this chapter is for us! How many of us have sinned because we could not control our passions? How many of us have done damage to our spirits because we allowed the flesh to take complete control and did not resist our temptations? Anyone who has committed grievous sins can tell you that the process of repentance is interesting as you don't get the companionship of the Spirit back for a long time. And if you have been sinning long enough, the sensitivity to the Spirit comes back in stages. I sincerely hope that none reading this will know of what I speak from first hand experience, but I fear all too many who will read this will understand my words because of their own experiences.
The Book of Mormon is there for us to learn from and to help us to not make mistakes that have already been made. It is very rare for one to learn from another's mistake if one has their passions out of control. When one is not thinking properly because of their passions, all around them can see the dangers like a giant meteor crashing towards the earth. And yet the person in question is as oblivious as an ostrich with its head in the sand.
Bridle all your passions. If you hope for exaltation one day you are going to have to learn to do it anyway, use this life to get a head start. You will not be sorry you did. Until tomorrow.
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