The Prodigal Son

Two thoughts hit me while I was reading in Ether 8 this morning:

First, isn't it interesting that when a child wants to rebel against his/her father, he or she leaves the presence of the father and goes to dwell in a different land. In Ether 8:2 we read that "Jared rebelled against his father, and came and dwelt in the land of Heth." This story is repeated multiple times throughout the scriptures, the most popular of which is the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. Although this story differs from the Prodigal Son, I am intrigued with the fact that sons go to a far off land when they want to rebel against their father. Is there a reason for that? I think there are a couple reasons why this could be. The son might know that the actions they want to pursue are not welcome within the confines of the parents home and so the child has to leave in order to pursue other endeavors. Maybe the son wants to make a statement by outwardly rebelling against their father? I honestly believe it is the fact that the son will feel guilty participating in such acts under the roof of their father and in order to not feel as guilty, the son has to travel to a different land, where such acts are accepted. Sadly, these types of actions are not confined to ancient times. It happens many of times each day. Although we might not physically move to a far off land from our parents, spiritually we might pitch our tent towards Sodom.

What is interesting, and the second thing that hit me today, is that Moroni departs from recounting what happened to tell us that "it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby you may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these [things] shall get above you." (v. 23) Futhermore, the Lord wants to "awake [us] to a sense of [our] awful situation." (v. 24) We need to awake to see the situations that are around us.

Moroni included this chapter in his recap of the Book of Ether, not merely for the spiritual lessons that are taught, but to show us what not to do. We need to stay close to the teachings of our fathers. When we have the urge to resist our fathers and travel into a far off land, we need to remember these words and resist that urge. Nothing good ever comes from rebelling against the teachings of the Lord.