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Ether — Chapter 3

¹ Jared’s brother built eight barges. He went up to a mountain they called Shelem (because it was very big) and made sixteen small stones of clear glass. Then he took them in his hands to the top of the mountain and prayed to the Lord, saying:
² “O Lord, you have told me that we are going to travel underwater. Please don’t be angry with me because I am so weak and make mistakes. We know you are holy and that you live in heaven, and we are not worthy to live with you because we do not always do what is right, because of the Fall. But you have told us to pray to you, and that if we do, we will be able to get what we want and need from you.
³ “O Lord, you have punished us, and we have been here in the wilderness for many years, but you have had mercy on us, too. O Lord, be kind to me and don’t be angry with us, and don’t make us cross this great sea in the dark. Please look at these stones I have made.
⁴ “O Lord, I know you have all power, and you can do all good things for people, so please touch these stones with your finger and make them shine in the dark, so we will have light in the barges while we cross the sea.
⁵ “O Lord, you can do this simple thing with your great power which we cannot understand.”
⁶ After Jared’s brother said these things, the Lord touched the stones one by one with his finger. Jared’s brother saw that the Lord had a finger that looked just like a man’s, and he was so afraid that he fell down before the Lord.
⁷ When the Lord saw that Jared’s brother had fallen down, he said to him: “Stand up. Why have you fallen down?”
⁸ Jared’s brother said to the Lord: “I saw your finger, and I was afraid you would punish me, because I did not know that you had a body like ours.”
⁹ The Lord said to him: “You have seen that I will have a body like yours because you have such great faith, or else you could not have seen my finger. No other person has ever come to me with such great faith before. Did you see anything else?”
¹⁰ And he said: “No, Lord. Please show all of yourself to me.”
¹¹ The Lord said to him: “Will you believe what I will tell you?”
¹² And he said: “Yes, Lord, I know that you will tell me the truth, because you are a God of truth, and you cannot lie.”
¹³ When he had said this, the Lord showed himself to Jared’s brother, and said to him: “I will show myself to you because you know these things. You are saved from the Fall, and you will live with me again.”
¹⁴ “I am the one who was prepared to save my people before the world was made. I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. All people who believe on my name will have eternal life and light, and they will be my sons and daughters.
¹⁵ “I have never shown myself to any person, because no one has believed in me as much as you have. Do you see that you were made to look like me? All people were made to look like me.
¹⁶ “This body you are looking at now is the body of my spirit. I made people’s bodies to look like mine. This is the way my body will look when I come live on earth.”
¹⁷ Now I, Moroni, cannot write down everything that has been written before, so I will tell you that Jesus showed the body of his spirit to Jared’s brother, and it looked just like the body he had when he showed himself to the Nephites.
¹⁸ Jesus taught this man just as he taught the Nephites, so Jared’s brother would know he was God because of the many great things he had done.
¹⁹ This man’s knowledge was so great that the Lord could not stop him from seeing his finger. And when he saw Jesus’ finger, he was afraid, because he knew it was the Lord’s finger. After that, he did not have faith anymore–he had knowledge instead.
²⁰ Because of this knowledge, he was able to see Jesus, and Jesus taught him.
²¹ Then the Lord said to Jared’s brother: “Do not tell the world about what you have seen and heard until after I come live on earth. Write these things down and then hide them — do not let anyone see them.
²² “You will write these things down and then hide them. No one will be able to understand what you have written, because you will write in a language that no one will be able to read.
²³ “I will give you two stones that you will hide with the things you write.
²⁴ “These stones will help people understand what you have written, because you will be writing in a language that people will no longer understand.”
²⁵ After the Lord said this to Jared’s brother, he showed him all the people of the earth who had already lived, and who would live.
²⁶ The Lord had told Jared’s brother that if he believed in him, he would show him everything. The Lord had to show him everything because Jared’s brother knew that the Lord could show him all things.
²⁷ The Lord told him: “Write down these things and then hide them. I will show them to people when the time is right.”
²⁸ The Lord told him to hide the two stones with what he wrote. He was not to show these things to anyone.