Lesson 45: "Never Has Man Believed In Me As Thou Hast"

7/30/2019 Lesson 45: "Never Has Man Believed In Me As Thou Hast"

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#1: Hugh Nibley: Samuel Noah Kramer is a Sumeroligist whowent into the earliest Sumerian records that you can find. He said,Ah, here we have a typical epic milieu [environment]. He said this

fact was primarily responsible for the more characteristic featuresof the Greek, Indian, and Teutonic [people]. See, you have this lit-erature of the wandering people. You find it among the Greeksepic literature. You find it in the Vedic literature in India, and youfind it in the German literature in the epics and the sagas Thereare lots of old Norse and Icelandic records, as you know. They alltell the same story, although theyre at different times thousandsof years apart.(Lecture 109 at mi.byu.edu)

#2: Elder Milton R. Hunter, of the Seventy: A few yearsago an apostle said to me: It would be a discovery ofgreat significance if one were to find an Indian bookwhich sustained the Book of Mormon.

Such a book exists...Ixtlilxochitl (Eesh-tleel-show-cheetle), an Indian prince who lived inthe valley of Mexico, wrote a book containing the history of his ancestors from the time otheir arrival in America until the coming of the Spaniards

Ixtlilxochitl claims that the first settlers to come to America following the floodcame from a very high tower or the Tower of Babel. Observe how similar the accounts ar

as I quote from them.Jared came forth with his brother and their families, with some others and theirfamilies, from the great tower, at the time the Lord confounded the language ofthe people, and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered upon all theface of the earth; and according to the word of the Lord the people were scat-tered. (Ether 1:33)

Ixtlilxochitl, the Indian writer, puts it this way:

And...men, multiplying made a...very high tower, in order to shelter themselvesin it when the second world should be destroyed...When things were at theirbest, their language was changed and, not understanding each other, they wentto different parts of the world.

...and the Tultecas, who were as many asseven companions and their wives, who understoodtheir language among themselves, came to theseparts, having first crossed lands and seas, living incaves and undergoing great hardships, until theycame to this land, which they found good and fertile


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for their habitation.(CR, April 1970)

#3: Hugh Nibley: As they traveled in the wilderness, they built shallow barges...Therewere these huge shallow seas...in 1906 Raphael Pompelli...made an exploration of thosecentral Asiatic regions, and it was all shallow water. It was all under water. Well, they stilltell you in documentaries about a wandering lake in central Asia. Because of the winds thlake actually wanders around At the time of the Jaredites, just after the flood, theyseemed to be much deeper, but they built these barges of shallow draft because they hadto cross a lot of water(Lecture 109 at mi.byu.edu)#4: President Thomas S. Monson: Are we today serving the God of the land, even theLord Jesus Christ? Do our lives conform with His teachings? Are we entitled to His divineblessings?...

The revered Abraham Lincoln accurately described our plight: We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation

has ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand whichpreserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we havevainly imagined, in the superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbrokensuccess, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and presering grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. (Proclamation for a National Fast Day, March 201863.)

Can we extricate ourselves from this frightful condition? Is there a way out?...We csolve this perplexing dilemma by adopting the counsel given by Jesus to the inquiring lawyerThou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with a

thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thoushalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (Matthew 22:36-39.)(Be Your Best Self, 96-7)

Ether 6:12And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. Andwhen they had set their feet upon the shores of the promisedland they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land,and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed

tears of joy before the Lord, because ofthe multitude of histender mercies over them.:

1 Nephi 1:20But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tendermercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath cho-sen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even untothe power of deliverance.


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LESSON 45 OUTLINE

Do you remember a couple of weeks ago we were discussing faith, and we quotedfrom Camilla Kimball? She said that she didnt just accept what people said, but thashe liked to study things out for herself. When she couldnt find a satisfactory answeto a gospel question, she would place it on a shelf in her mind, waiting for greater

understanding to come.Well, something that has always bothered me is Greek mythology. There are

just so many similarities to stories in the bible! Then a few years ago one of my boyand I were studying the epic of Gilgamesh, and I really got bothered. That little shen my mind was beginning to sag a bit!

~Is anyone familiar with the story of Gilgamesh? (oldest known epic, foundcarved into clay tablets in Mesopotamia, written about 5,000 years agothey think.)

In a very tiny nutshell, Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk. (show book) It says he waspart god and part man. He had plenty of power and wealth but was not happy. In oder to show how strong and powerful he was, he ordered a great wall to be builtaround the city:

He ordered the men to leave their jobs and families to work on it. Hemade the women bring food. Children were kept away so no one wouldstop to play with them. At first, the people helped willingly: Their kingmust have a good reason for wanting the wall

But as the wall got higher and higher, the people grew restless. How high

did it have to be? It went up higher than any wall in the world, but Gil-gamesh pushed on day and night. Men fainted from work and hunger.Food grew scarce. The people cried out for mercy, begging Gilgamesh tostop but he would not listen(Ludmila Zeman, Gilgamesh the King)

Now, speaking of Babylon, the Bible Dictionary tell us that it had walls 85 feet wide,335 feet high, and 56 miles long. It was a city of extreme wickedness and arroganc

(p. 618) Could the epic of Gilgamesh be describing the same city?Back to Gilgamesh. Toward the end of the epic, after seeing death take two of

his close friends, Gilgamesh goes on a quest to find the secret of immortality. He hato climb mountains, fight savage beasts, overcome a terrifying abyss and so forth. Iwas much like the Hobbit trilogy, actually. At last he comes to the island he seeks.Notice the picture in your handout on the left.

~What does that object on the rocks look like? (a boat)In fact, its Noahs ark. Let me read some more:

I must not fail now, he cried. I am too close to the end of my search. Ina last desperate attempt, he took off his torn shirt and raised it to the wind


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to make a sail. Utnapishtim watched, amazed as the boat reached theshore. Who are you to come heregod or man? I am Gilgamesh, King ofUruk, came the proud reply. I come to ask the secret of immortality. Donot seek what you cannot have, Utnapishtim replied. Only gods can liveforever.

But you were once no different than me, Gilgamesh argued. How did

you become immortal?When I was king of Shuruppak, the people be-came evil.

The gods decided to destroy the earth with a great flood. Because I wasa good man, I was warned. I was told to build a great ark and to gatherinto it my family and each kind of animal and plant. As soon as I finished,the storm came

Only my boat survived. When the rain stopped and the water subsided,it came to rest on a mountain. I fell to my knees in gratitude. I let out the

animals and set out the plants to start life anew. In that moment the godsdescended in a great light and bestowed immortality upon me and mywife.(Ludmila Zeman, The Last Quest of Gilgamesh)~Why do you suppose Gilgamesh, and Greek myths, and Norse myths, and sto

ries from all over the world have a flood story? And do you think those stries may have been embellished from time to time as they were told oraldown through the years?

Quotation #1~What kind of storm would cause such a scattering throughout the Old World?

Let me read a smattering of sources on this. First Hugh Nibley: ...it is when theworlds weather gets out of hand, as it has a number of times in the course of histothat the blowing sands of Asia bring mighty empires to ruin, bury great cities almostovernight, and scatter the tribes in all directions From Eusibius, a Roman historianborn in 263 A.D.: When all men were of one tongue, some of them built a hightower so as to mount to heaven, but God destroyed the tower by mighty winds.From the Book of Jubilees, which is an ancient Jewish writing from before Christ:The Lord sent a mighty wind against the tower and overthrew it upon the earth

The great Persian scholar of the 11th century records that the people were scatterefrom the tower by an awful drought accompanied by winds of such velocity as actu-ally blew down the tower. Bar Hebraeus, a Catholic scholar from the 13th century,said that 40 years after the tower was finished God sent a wind, the tower was overturned, and Nimrod died in it.There are many such accounts! Lets go to an account that is believed to refer directo the Jaredites. It is from an American Indian book produced during the colonial period, and quoted in General Conference by Milton R. Hunter, of the Seventy:


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Quotation #2~Why does the Lord guide Jared and his people to the promised land?

(because the brother of Jared asked)Ether 1:43

~What does this teach us about how to approach Heavenly Father with the desires of our hearts? (be patient, long-suffering, humble)

~Why is the brother of Jared never named? (its a record of Jareds family, nothis brothers)

~How do we know the brother of Jareds name? (Reynolds Cahoon asked Jo-seph Smith to bless and name his baby son. The name I have given youson is the name of the brother of Jared(The Jaredites,Juvenile Instructor, 1 May 1892)

Id like to touch on their journey briefly. Lets read:Ether 2:1

Ive included an excellent handout by Monte F. Shelley in your handout. Lets look at

the first map. Notice the Tower of Babel in the region of Iraq. From there they wentnorth, down to the valley of Nimrod. Hugh Nibley tells us, Its interesting that in thenorth end of Mesopotamia all the places bear the name Nimrod. Theres Bir Nimrodand dozens of Nimrod up north in Mesopotamia.(Lecture 109, M.I.byu.edu) From there theyhad to cross a sea. Below the map it says, Only the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and ASea remain of what was once a vast inland sea.

~How did they cross it? (built barges, see v. 6)~So did they build more than one set of barges? (Yes!)

Quotation #3

Notice when they get to the ocean they come to a place where theres an exceedinhigh mountain. (see Ether 3:1) Theres only one on the coast of China, called Mt.Laoshan.

Ether 2:7-97: It seems like they were content to stay where they were, doesnt it?

8: This must have been part of the 3 hour lecture the b. of Jared received.We have here in the Book of Mormon the history of two nations.

~What happened to the Nephites? (swept off)

~What happened to the Jaredites? (swept off)~And what will happen to our nation if it ripens in iniquity?

Ether 2:10-12Quotation #4

Now, we must touch on the barges.~What were they like? (tight like a dish, 2;16; small, light on the water, ends

peaked, length of a tree, v. 17, door)Ether 6:7


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~What other famous boat were they like? (Noahs ark)~What was the big problem with these boats? (no air or light)~The air problem the Lord answered. How did Noahs ark have light?

There are lots of ancient sources on this as well, so I hope you dont mind if I readanother smattering. Rabbi Levi says the tsohar or light in the ark, was a preciousstone. Rabbi Phineas explained that during the whole 12 months that Noah was in

the ark he did not require the light of the sun by day or the light of the moon bynight, but he had a polished gem.(see The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, 5:366-7) There are Babonian, Syrian, Sumerian, and Greek references to Noahs ark being lit by stones thaglow brighter at night, dimmer during the day. And this may be why the brother ofJared thought to molten some stones, making them clear and transparent. He haddone everything he could, and climbing the highest mountain, he asked the Lord tomake up the difference.

There is so much we have not covered in these six short but jam-packed chap

ters, not the least of which is Mahonris faith which enabled him to overcome the vethat separates us from the Fathers presence. But lets end with this thought:

Think of it! These eight barges of people actually sealed themselves inside a band entrusted their fate to the Lord. (see 6:4)

~Was it an easy ride? (no, there were furious winds for 344 days, and it saysthey were tossed, no smooth sailing here, upon the waves of the seabefore the wind, that is, when they were not buried in the depths of thsea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them. (6:6)

~And when this happened, what would they do? (pray. and he did bring them

forth again upon the top of the waters, 6:7)~And what do you DO for 344 days sealed inside of a floating box?

Ether 6:9Lets see what they learned:

Ether 6:10They couldnt learn that with the Lords help no monster could break them, and nwhale could mar them unless they actually encountered monsters and whales! Theearned that they could survive terrible situations because He would not forsake

them. Surely our trials can teach us the same thing, if we will be grateful in all thingand trust His watchful care. Lets read about their joy at the end of this trial:

Ether 6:12(on handout)Way back at the beginning of the year, we read Nephis purpose in keeping a recordof his amazing life and trials:

1 Nephi 1:20(on handout)One day we, too, will be able to see that it is in our trials that we come to know ourmerciful, loving and kind Father in Heaven.

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Lesson 45: "Never Has Man Believed In Me As Thou Hast"