“The Brother of Jared Knows That The Lord Workest Unto the Children of Men According to Their Faith”

Alan C. Miner

In Ether 12:30 we find that "the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove--and it was removed." Glenn Scott gives an intriguing (yet hypothetical) scenario of this event:

As the long miles were traversed and the months and years slipped away [in vast wilderness country of Asia] (Ether 3:3), the faith of Jared's people must have been sorely tried. Consider for example their frustration at finding their way blocked by a mountain they called Zerin. Try to imagine yourselves in their place. One day as they drove their flocks along . . . they found themselves in a narrowing pocket from which their only exit was to go back the way they had so arduously come. . . "O Lord," the Brother of Jared must have cried, "we have led this people whithersoever thou has directed us, for these many years in the wilderness, but now we have nowhere to turn. Wilt thou now suffer us to perish here in this wilderness?" (compare Ether 2:18-19; 3:3-4)

The answer must have been, "What will ye that I should do for you? Have I not promised to go before you into a land which is choice above all the land of the earth?" (compare Ether 2:7). Then the Brother of Jared upon receiving direction from the [Lord] understood as Moroni later described, "O Lord . . . I know that Thou workest unto the children of men according to their faith," [and] the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove--and it was removed." [Glenn A. Scott, Voices from the Dust, p. 32]

Step by Step Through the Book of Mormon: A Cultural Commentary

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