God wants me to be like a whale

Whales are one of the animals mentioned in the scriptures, mostly in the Old Testament.

Whales are mammals, associated with:

Compassion & solitude, knowledge of life and death.

Exhalation through their blow hole represents the freeing of creative energy or unbridled creativity.

The sound they make is also identified with a creative force of life.

They have a keen sense of smell and hearing. 

They form friendships, innovate, grieve play and sing.

They resemble man in many ways.

In the story of the brother of Jared, found in the BofM's book of Ether, we read "For behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountains wave shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea." 

As the Jaredites get ready to cross the deep waters, the Lord commands them to build barges. He provides  instructions, just as he had previously instructed Nephi, and just as he had instructed the Israelites to build a candlestick for the ark of the covenant (Exodus 35:31-40).

The barges are described as being tight, small, and light (Ether 2:16,17).

(What could the barges represent? Maybe the commandments or the Gospel in general? As in: strict rules, but small things that end up to be easy - light?)

The barges present two problems: no air & no light.

The Lord takes care of solving the first problem: He instructs the brother of Jared to make holes at the bottom and at the top of the barges and to unplug them when in need of air if there is no water /waves around.

(Could this mean that when we are not in the middle of a storm of life, we can have a slightly more relaxed attitude in regards to the commandments - can we unplug for air? Conversely, when we are going through a storm, we must make sure to follow all rules 100%? - I am not sure.)

With the second problem, lack of light, the Lord asks the brother of Jared:"What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels?" and reminds him that there can be no windows nor fire. 

At this point the Lord tells him that he shall be as a whale and that He (the Lord) will prepare him for this trip/ experience.

And then asks him again "What will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light...?" (Ether2:25)

If the light represents Christ, we can see that while God is willing to provide air for all, he will not force the light upon us but will leave it up to us to accept and bring that light (with His help) into our midst.

At this point the brother of Jared has to rely on his skills and creativity (remember the creativity associated with whales).  He therefore proceeds to go to the mount (temple) melt 16 stones out of rock and then, through a beautifully spoken prayer, he addresses the Lord in much faith.

The prayer follows this pattern:

• Acknowledgment of what God has commanded
• Acknowledgement of personal weakness & weak human nature in general
• Acknowledgement of the mercy of God through tribulations
• Asking God to turn away His anger from us
• Presentation of personal skill /talent (the stones)
• Acknowledgement that God has all power to do things for the benefit of man
• Asking God to bless talent/skill so that it may provide light while crossing the sea / storms of life/ moments of darkness
• Expressing faith in the power of God and His ways, which men more often than not do not understand.

The prayer denotes a PRECISION OF LANGUAGE.

 

Notice that the book of Ether opens with the issue of the language: Jared is worried that his language (and of his family) will be confounded. If up until then this was the only language around, we might argue that this is indeed the language used by Adam to communicate with God, a language that allows man and God perfect and efficient communication. It makes sense that Jared does not want to lose it, even though he most probably understands the reason why God has made the decision to confound the language (the pride of man building the tower of Babel - the only way to stop that effort is to confound the language so men can no longer coordinate efforts and build the tower to reach haven).

So, what does this mean for us? Do we use precision of language when we pray? What does God want to hear when we pray? Does our language - the formulas we use- affect whether or not our prayers will be heard? I propose that it does.

The brother of Jared is granted his wish and has an incredible faith building experience:

• The Lord touches the stones with His fingers
• The Brother of Jared sees the fingers of the Lord and then the Lord - in His spirit body - because of the man's incredible faith. (Ether 3:13)
• Christ ministers to him as He did to the Nephites.(Ether 3:17)

The faith of the Brother of Jared is transformed into perfect knowledge = the Brother of Jared receives the Second Comforter.

It's a sacred experience. The Brother of Jared is commanded not to share it with anyone but to write it down - in that same language that is meant not to be confounded - so that someone (Alma and then Joseph Smith) will interpret it in due time.

What's the lesson for us:

 

• God wants us to be like whales and successfully overcome the storms of life
• He provides specific instructions (barges)
• He provides means to survive (holes)
• He wants us to have the light of Christ (stones) but
• we must choose to have the light of Christ in our lives and 
• must pray with PRECISION OF LANGUAGE to use our skills, talents, creativity to bring the light in our midst and among our loved ones (melting stones out of rock) = we use our talents & creativity to share the light (rock= Christ is the rock)
• We will have a sacred experience :

1. we will see the hand of God in our lives
2. our faith will be strengthened
3. Christ will minister to us
4. our faith might/will become perfect knowledge - our testimony of Christ will definitely be strenghtned.

In other words, we will be as a whale, overcoming the storm while coming up periodically to expel water (creativity) and breath (air provided by God).

Covid -19 is definitely a storm for all humanity. Will we use our talents to share the light of Christ? Do we have enough faith and can we follow the prayer pattern of the Brother of Jared to ensure that God will bless our talent so they can be the mean through which we shed the LIGHT?

I think understanding that God wants us to CREATE with Him and having faith and saying the correct prayers are key!!