Ether 6

The Jaredites Travel to the Promised Land

Imagine what it might have felt like for the Jaredites to enter their barges and cross the great waters as they journeyed to the promised land. Although their journey was long and difficult, the Jaredites recognized that the Lord was helping them along the way. The Lord can also help us during our journey through mortality and back to the presence of Heavenly Father. This lesson can help you liken the scriptures in order to learn truths that can help you during your life’s journey.

Help each student contribute to the learning experience. Genuinely recognize that each student is needed and has a contribution to make. Some students may be more inclined to participate than others. Make the extra effort and be creative to encourage each student to contribute in meaningful ways.

Student preparation: Students could read Ether 6:1–12 and think about aspects of this account that could symbolically apply to their lives. The study activity for these verses in Come, Follow Me—For Individuals and Families: Book of Mormon 2024 could help with this.

Possible Learning Activities

The journey of life

The following is intended to help prepare students to liken their study of Ether 6 to their lives. In addition to inviting students to complete the activity in their study journals, consider completing it on the board.

Our mortal lives can be compared to a long journey, with the desired destination being eternal life. In your study journal, write “Me” on one side of the page and “Eternal Life” on the other. In the space between these two headings, write down some of the obstacles that can arise during our journey that make it difficult for us to return worthily to Heavenly Father. Then think about how your journey toward eternal life is going and which of the identified obstacles you are currently facing.

Today you will study about the journey the Jaredites made to the promised land after they finished building their barges. As you study, look for truths that can help you overcome the obstacles you face in your journey back to the presence of God.

Likening the scriptures to your life

The following steps can help you compare, or liken, what you will read in the scriptures to your personal circumstances. In your study journal, write the heading “Ways to liken the scriptures to my life.” Record these steps below the heading.

Display these steps so students can copy them into their journals.

1. Find important details.

2. Make comparisons.

3. Discover valuable lessons.

4. Determine personal application.

Before giving students an opportunity to practice using these steps on their own, consider going through the following example as a class. Be sure to save plenty of time for students to practice on their own later in the lesson.

Step 1: Find important details

Read Ether 6:1–3, looking for important details. These details could include people, places, objects, or actions that are emphasized.

Ask students to share important details they found in these verses. These could be written on the board. You could point out the following:

One important detail you may have noticed is that the Lord caused the stones the brother of Jared had previously brought to Him (see Ether 3:1–6) to shine so the Jaredites would have light in their barges.

Step 2: Make comparisons

Think of how the details you identified in the previous step could be compared to something spiritual or to situations in your life.

• What comparisons can you make with the details you identified in the previous step?

For example, you might have compared the shining stones to the sources of spiritual light Heavenly Father has blessed us with, such as the teachings and example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the scriptures, and living prophets. (See Psalm 119:105; John 8:12; and 1 Nephi 17:13. You could cross-reference these verses with Ether 6:3.)

Step 3: Discover valuable lessons

Think about what lessons or truths you learn as you compare these verses to your life or to something spiritual. Also consider what you learn about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

• What are some lessons or truths you learn from these verses? What do you find that could help you in your day-to-day life?

One truth we can learn is that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ provide us with guidance and light to help us during our journey through mortality.

You might invite students to share some of the ways God has provided them with guidance and spiritual light in their lives.

Step 4: Determine personal application

Reflect on how you can apply to your life the lessons you identified in the previous step.

• What can you do to follow or receive more of God’s light in your life?

You may have thought of actions such as improving your scripture study, prayerfully seeking guidance from Heavenly Father in your daily decisions, or more diligently striving to keep the Holy Ghost as your constant companion.

Practice likening other verses from this account

Students could complete the following study activity individually, with a partner, or in a small group.

Study the rest of the account of the Jaredites’ journey to the promised land by reading Ether 6:4–12. Look for more ways the Jaredites’ journey can relate to your journey through life. As you study, practice using the four-step process for likening the scriptures.

Pay special attention to what these verses teach you about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

After students have had sufficient time to study, discuss what they learned. If they need more help, consider asking questions like the following:

• What did these verses teach you about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ?

• What are some of the “furious wind[s]” (Ether 6:5) the Lord allows us to experience in our lives? How can we ensure that our trials or challenges will help us grow closer to God?

• What are some ways you might feel “buried” (Ether 6:6) in your journey through mortality? What did you see in verse 7 that can help you during such times?

• Why do you think the Jaredites praised the Lord during their difficult journey? (see Ether 6:9). What can help you feel gratitude toward God, even when you are facing trials?

After the discussion, invite students to think about how what they have studied today can help them in their lives, including with the obstacles they identified earlier. Encourage them to record in their study journals any spiritual promptings or insights they want to remember.

Testify of the truths discussed today. Encourage students to continue likening what they read in the scriptures to their lives.

Commentary and Background Information

Ether 6:4. What does it mean that the Jaredites commended themselves unto God?

Elder L. Todd Budge of the Seventy taught:

It is recorded that the Jaredites then “got aboard of their … barges, and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God” [Ether 6:4; emphasis added]. To commend means to entrust or to surrender. The Jaredites did not get into the barges because they knew exactly how things would work on their journey. They got aboard because they had learned to trust in the Lord’s power, goodness, and mercy, and they were therefore willing to surrender themselves and any doubts or fears they may have had to the Lord. (L. Todd Budge, “Consistent and Resilient Trust,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2019, 47)

Ether 6:5–7. How can I be protected during the trials and challenges I face in life?

President James E. Faust (1920–2007) of the First Presidency taught:

We all face furious winds of evil and tides of the sordid not unlike the situation faced by the Jaredites as they traveled to the promised land. They were tossed upon the waves of the sea and “many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind” (Ether 6:6). But they were protected because “when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish” (Ether 6:7). In our time there are vessels that protect against these terrible spiritual tempests, and they are our temples, homes, quorums, wards, and stakes. (James E. Faust, “We Believe in You!,” New Era, Oct. 2006, 8–9)

Why can it be helpful to think about how my journey through life is going?

Watch the video “The Journey” (3:46). In this video, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shares experience and insights that can help us in our journey through mortality.

Supplemental Learning Activities

Using cross-references

It may be helpful to invite students to find scriptures that relate to the truths they are studying from the Jaredites’ journey. They could list the references they find next to the related verses from Ether 6 in their scriptures. Students could find their own scriptures, or you could share related scriptures (such as those below), inviting students to study and discover how the verses relate to Ether 6.

Ether 6:2–3, 10 — Psalm 119:105; John 8:12; 1 Nephi 17:13

Ether 6:4 — Proverbs 3:5–6; Mosiah 7:19; Alma 38:5

Ether 6:5–8 — Matthew 7:24–25; Helaman 5:12; 2 Nephi 4:18–20, 35

Ether 6:9 — 1 Thessalonians 5:18; 1 Nephi 18:16; Alma 34:38

Ether 6:11 —12 Nephi 31:20; Mosiah 24:15; Doctrine and Covenants 24:8

Ether 6:12 — Psalm 145:8–9; Luke 17:11–19; Alma 7:23

Drawing activity

There are many elements of the Jaredites’ journey described in Ether 6:1–12 that would be interesting to visualize. To do this, students could create a picture that represents a concept or event from one or more of the verses they study. They could also write a phrase from the scripture they are focusing on somewhere on their picture. Students could then share and explain their drawing to a partner or small group. A few could share their picture with the entire class.

Additional lessons from the Jaredites’ journey

To help students identify truths they can learn from the Jaredites’ journey, consider showing “Consistent and Resilient Trust” from time code 2:58 to 9:46. In this talk, Elder L. Todd Budge of the Seventy shares many ways the Jaredites’ journey to the promised land can relate to our lives.