The book of Ether contains two of the most unusual Christ-encounters in all of scripture. One happened approximately 2,000 years before the Nativity, when a man kneeling in a cave asked Christ to touch some small stones with His finger — and instead of a finger, saw a whole person, the premortal spirit body of Jesus Christ, who had never yet been born. The other is a promise delivered to a broken man in a dying civilization: that weakness is not your enemy. It is the door.
Ether is a book about civilizations that destroy themselves, written by Moroni — who is himself watching a civilization destroy itself in real time. Into that grief, he inserts two things: a story about a man whose faith was so strong it pierced the veil, and a promise that God uses weakness on purpose.
The Brother of Jared — Ether 3
The setup is almost comic in its simplicity. The Lord has told the Brother of Jared to build barges to cross the ocean. The barges are built — tight like a dish, "the length of a tree" — but they have a problem: no windows (water would break them), no fire (not enough air), and therefore no light. The Brother of Jared brings this engineering problem to the Lord: "We shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe, save it is the air; therefore we will perish. Also we shall perish; for in them there is no light, neither can we light a candle, forasmuch as we do not shine" (Ether 2:19).
God responds: "I cannot touch the windows, for ye shall dash them to pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the fire." Then: "What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?" (Ether 2:23).
God asks the man to solve his own problem. And the Brother of Jared does. He goes to a mountain, melts sixteen small transparent stones from rock, brings them back, and prays:
"And I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness... and thus they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea." — Ether 3:4
God reaches through the veil. The Brother of Jared sees the finger. He is so astonished that Christ must ask: "Sawest thou more than this?" (Ether 3:9).
And then — because the Brother of Jared's faith has reached a quality that cannot be stopped by the veil — Christ reveals Himself:
"Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters." — Ether 3:14
He shows the Brother of Jared His full spirit body — the body He would take in mortality, revealed here approximately 2,000 years before it would be used. This is Christ before His birth, showing what He would look like at His birth, to a man whose faith had created the conditions for that vision.
The encounter produces a sealed record — the most sacred portion of the Book of Mormon, yet to be revealed — and leaves the Brother of Jared with a vision that spans all of history. The little stones light the barges. The people cross the sea.
Ether's Narrative — A Pattern of What Christ Rescues
The broader book of Ether is an abridgment by Moroni of the Jaredite record — a civilization that left the Tower of Babel, crossed the sea under divine direction, and eventually destroyed itself through exactly the pattern Mormon documented in the later Nephites: prosperity, pride, wickedness, war, and total collapse.
The prophet Ether watches this from hiding, recording the destruction, "and he could not be restrained from preaching, even at the last" (Ether 12:3). He preaches the hope of a New Jerusalem, of a day when all things will be made new, even as the destruction rolls over everything he knows.
Moroni identifies with this. He is writing while the same destruction is happening to his people. He inserts a personal note in the middle of his abridgment — a beautiful, vulnerable confession about his own inadequacy as a writer — and uses it as the entry point for Ether 12, one of the most important chapters in the Book of Mormon.
Ether 12 — Faith, Hope, and the Weakness That Is a Gift
Moroni has been writing and worrying. He is not confident that his record is good enough. He is afraid that the Gentiles who eventually read it will mock his weaknesses as a writer. He brings this fear to God — and God's response is Ether 12:27:
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." — Ether 12:27
This verse is personal and theological simultaneously. Moroni's weakness as a writer is real — and God says that weakness is not an accident or a character defect. It was given deliberately, to produce humility, to create the conditions under which grace can operate.
The person who has no weakness — or who does not feel their weakness — has no perceived need for Christ's grace. They can get through life on competence alone. The person who feels the gap between what they can do and what they need to do is the person who has created space for God to work.
Moroni's fear about his writing produced this verse. His weakness was the door.
Faith: No Witness Before the Trial
"Wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." — Ether 12:6
The sequence is important: you act in faith first. The witness — the confirmation, the evidence, the sense of Christ's presence — comes after the trial, not before. You do not get the witness and then decide to have faith. You have faith and then receive the witness.
Hope: The Foundation of Charity
Without hope — genuine, Christ-grounded expectation that things will be made right — charity collapses into heroic effort that eventually burns out. Moroni explains that hope comes from faith in Christ: if you trust that Christ is real, that His promises are kept, that the restoration of all things He promised will happen — then you have something to anchor your love to when love is hard (Ether 12:32–33).
Charity: The Most Important Thing
"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." — Ether 12:4
Moroni's Conversation with God
One of the most remarkable aspects of Ether 12 is that it is essentially a transcript of a conversation between Moroni and Christ. Moroni expresses his fear. God responds. Moroni pushes back — "Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things, because of our weakness in writing" (Ether 12:23). God says:
"Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness; and if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness." — Ether 12:26
Then, after the weakness-as-gift statement, God says something else:
"And I said unto him: Lord, if they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee that they are saved... Wherefore, I know by this thing which thou hast said, that if the Gentiles have not charity, because of our weakness, that thou wilt prove them, and take away their talent, yea, even that which they have received, and give it unto them who shall have more abundantly." — Ether 12:37
Moroni, in his grief and weakness, is interceding for the future reader. He is asking God to be gracious toward the people who will eventually read his imperfect record. This is a man who has lost everything — his people, his father, his civilization — spending his last energy praying for strangers he will never meet.
That is what Christ looks like in a person.
The Be Like Jesus Connection
Ether's contribution to the Be Like Jesus theme is the most interior of any book in the series. It is not about public witness or covenant community or missionary work. It is about what happens when you bring your inadequacy to Christ.
The Brother of Jared solves his own problem, brings his solution to God, and asks for the one thing God alone can provide — and then has his whole world rearranged by what he sees. The pattern: do what you can, bring it to Christ, let Him do what only He can do.
Moroni writes his record despite feeling inadequate, and in the vulnerability of that inadequacy discovers that God not only accepts it but uses it as the occasion for grace. The pattern: be honest about your weakness, bring it to Christ, let Him turn it into something stronger than you could have produced by pretending it wasn't there.
Being like Jesus, in Ether's frame, starts with being honest about where you are insufficient — and then trusting that Christ's grace is genuinely sufficient for that specific, personal, embarrassing weakness. Not weakness in general. Yours.
Reflection Questions
- The Brother of Jared's faith was strong enough that the veil could not be maintained — "he could not be kept from beholding within the veil" (Ether 3:19). What would it take for your faith to reach that kind of quality?
- Ether 12:27 says God gives weakness so that you will be humble. What specific weakness in your life do you suspect might be a door to grace rather than an obstacle to it?
- Ether 12:6 says you receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. What are you waiting for a witness on before you act — and what would it look like to act first?
- Moroni, in the middle of total loss, spends his energy praying for future strangers he will never meet. What does that picture of Christ-like charity look like in your own life?
This Week
Read Ether 12:27 and then identify your specific weakness — the one you most want to hide, the one you feel most embarrassed by, the one you have been managing rather than bringing to Christ. Write it down. Then write a prayer that uses exactly that weakness as its starting point. Bring it specifically to God and see what happens.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the Brother of Jared see in Ether 3?
The premortal spirit body of Jesus Christ — approximately 2,000 years before the Nativity. Christ revealed Himself by name ("I am Jesus Christ") and showed His spirit body, the form He would take in mortality. The Brother of Jared's faith was so strong that the veil could not be maintained between them.
What does Ether 12:27 mean?
God gives weakness deliberately — not to punish but to produce humility, which creates the conditions for grace. If you come to Christ in your weakness, He will make weak things become strong. Your inadequacy is not an obstacle to His grace. It is the invitation to it.
What is Moroni's discourse on faith, hope, and charity in Ether 12?
Faith is acting without yet having the witness — the witness comes after the trial. Hope is the confident expectation produced by faith in Christ. Charity is what hope produces in action. All three are anchored in the reality of Christ, not in feelings or circumstances.
Who was the Brother of Jared?
The Jaredite prophet who led his people from the Tower of Babel era across the ocean to the Americas. Theologically significant as the person who saw Christ's premortal spirit body — the most direct pre-Nativity encounter with Christ's physical form in all of scripture. His faith "could not be kept from beholding within the veil" (Ether 3:19).