Today I read Ether 10 which is more of the same thing we talked about yesterday. It never ceases to fascinate me when I read about these people and their history. I mean in this chapter we read about more than a dozen men and their lifetimes. You gotta figure if each man lived even just an average of 60 years a piece, that's over 720 years of history I just read this morning in only 2 and 1/2 pages!
It is also interesting to me that instead of just following the line of kings, Moroni is specifically following the line of Jared and the original kings. We find out in the next chapter that is because Ether is a direct descendant of Jared and that is who Moroni is leading us to. As I have mentioned before, when it says that such and such person dwelt in captivity all their days, I do not think it is like a European dungeon but rather more like house arrest since they are obviously having children and families. Moroni tells us of 4 men who were in captivity all their lives. I wonder what that would be like to be under house arrest for your entire life? I don't think it would be very fun.
It never ceases to amaze me how fallible mankind is. Granted, as I said before, when we read these scriptures we are not talking about just a few years in most cases, rather we are talking about decades in the case of the Jaredites, but still you would think that the people would learn from their mistakes. And the thing is that they do learn! But just like with the Nephites in the time of King Mosiah, and in our own generation, it's their children. In the scriptures, and apparently our day, if the children did not suffer through it themselves, they seem to not take the lesson learned from it from their parents. Instead they rebel against their parents, make ridiculous statements like, "you just don't understand" and rebel against the Lord and what is right.
We see it all the time in our own generation, and yet sometimes rebelling against their parents means the children turn to the Lord. In our own generation, as I'm sure has happened in days past, people are turning to the Lord, especially if they did not have religion as a child. However, just as many are rebelling against their parents and not turning to the Lord. Satan has great hold over many of the hearts in our generation. The only way to combat it, is by living our religion and being an example for good wherever we are. In other words living up to our baptismal covenants. As we continue to do what is right in a world increasingly doing what is wrong, we will stand out like a sore thumb. And like Elder Nelson said in his last conference talk, be prepared to answer the questions that will arise because of your being different. They will come and use them as the opportunities that they are. Until tomorrow.
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