Ether 2

Ether 2:11 and 12

And this cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles, that ye may repent and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of god upon you as th inhabitants of the land have hitherto done.

Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.

When I read this I had the thought that this scripture is a message written, in a sense, to the people of America, but most of the people in America have never even read it. I guess you could say I had a moment when I realized how important it was for us to do missionary work, and to share this message with our nation. If we as a people worship and serve Jesus than we have to need to fear other nations. Conversely, if we neglect the savior we will be ripe for destruction just as every people who possessed the land before us. I feel it's important that the rest of America understand that Mormons believe that the pilgrims and settlers and immigrants were all led here to worship God and to establish his kingdom, and if they don't than they are not fit to inhabit this land. So I suppose I need to bear my testimony more and share this with my fellow Americans.

On an unrelated topic, I have often found the response that God gave the brother of Jared in the end of Ether 2 interesting.

Ether 2:23

... For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire.

What I find interesting is that the brother of Jared is given a reason that he can't have windows but no reason is given for not having fire other than God says no. I wonder if God just didn't want Jared to take fire, or if God just didn't want to explain to Jared why fire wouldn't work. Obviously with Oxygen already being a problem for the little barges, fire would have used up the oxygen in the barge and everyone would have been asphyxiated. Not to mention the hassle of starting a fire over and over and the possibility of the barge getting burned as well. So fire wouldn't have worked but since the brother of Jared wasn't likely to have any understanding of chemical reactions God just told him no fire cause I said no fire. I think that this is a good example of God in his infinite understanding giving us commandments that we maybe don't understand but that are for our protection, and maybe the explanation for the commandment is just a little bit beyond us at the moment.