A (3:54)

That's fantastic. I know that the Lord has called me out of the world, but yet there's still quite a bit of the world in me. So I think this will be a helpful lesson that I can say, well, this is Israel of that day. Look how the Lord works with them. We are Israel of this day. The Lord does very similar things with us. John. For those who don't know, Aaron comes highly qualified. Tell us about his history. Does he know anything about this type of text?

B (4:23)

I get that a lot. Yank.

A (4:25)

Yeah,

C (4:27)

yeah. We had Aaron do part of King Benjamin's speech last time. I remember. He's a professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University, teach his courses on religion, ancient Near Eastern languages, history and archaeology. Right now he's the co director of the Khirbat Ataruz excavation in Atarus, Jordan. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Toronto in near and Middle Eastern civilizations, is a faculty member at the BYU Jerusalem center for Near Eastern Studies, and his research interests and publications include ancient Northwest Semitic inscriptions, archeology and the Old Testament. Yeah, I think he's highly qualified. And we're glad you've come back, Aaron. Thank you.

B (5:15)

Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

A (5:17)

Yeah, we love having Aaron here. John. For the last year and a half or so, Aaron and I have been neighbors in the building. Our offices are next door to each other, so it's nice to be able to go over and say, help me, calm down.

B (5:31)

Usually after you exit my office, Hank. Yes, that's usually.

A (5:36)

Let's start in the Come Follow Me manual. Although the children of Israel had murmured and wavered in the past, when Moses read the law at the foot of Mount Sinai, they made this all that the Lord hath said we will do and be obedient. God then called Moses onto the mountain, telling him to build a tabernacle so that I may dwell among them. But while Moses was at the top of the mountain, learning how the Israelites could have God's presence among them, the Israelites were at the bottom of the mountain, making a golden idol to worship instead. Soon after promising to have no other gods, they turned aside quickly from their promise. This sounds like my life. It was a surprising turn. But we know from experience that faith and commitment can sometimes be overcome by impatience, fear, or doubt. As we seek the Lord's presence in our lives, it is encouraging to know the Lord did not give up on ancient Israel, and he will not give up on us and the people we love, for he is merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth. That's Exodus 34. What a beautiful way to start, Aaron. Do we need to go backwards a little bit or do we just jump right in?

B (6:49)

This is really a pivot point in the history of ancient Israel. We have the past and the present and their future all converging right here on Mount Sinai. We will need to take a look back at some things that have happened in the life of Moses, some events that have transpired that have brought them to this point, and ultimately how it's going to shape their future and how they move forward. It will be good to go back and sort of review some of the previous material, including the Book of Moses, that describes some very personal experiences of Moses and his journey.

A (7:21)

Let's do it.

B (7:22)

Let's just start in chapter 19. If we look at the first couple of verses, it's going to give us our situation here. It says that it's in the third month when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt. And that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai, for they were departed from Rephidim and were come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. There's something again, that's inviting us to ask a few questions. First of all, if we look at the third month, you remember that this is three months after Passover. That's taking us into about June or July. Now, I don't know about you. Have you ever been to Egypt in June or July?

A (8:09)

It is insanely hot.

B (8:12)

That's part of, I think, our storyline to again, read with some compassion here. Before they've actually arrived to this mountain, they're going through temperatures that, if they're lucky, are 95 to 99 degrees on average. No rainfall. They've been hungry, They've experienced thirst. That's taking us back now to chapters 16 and 17. In chapter 16, you remember that as they were going along, they're being described as murmuring. In chapter 16, verse 3, the children of Israel said unto them would to God that we would have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots and when we did eat bread to the fill. For you have brought us forth to the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Like, if we just stop for a second, these people thought they were dead or they hoped to die. Like they were so hungry at times, so exhausted at times we hear this word murmur, and that's the only thing we hear yet. Sometimes you just wonder, maybe we should be a little more compassionate. It's the same thing with Lehi and Nephi and their families. They wander around for six or seven years in this hot, barren desert. Think about their wives trying to bear children in these environments. You just think about some of the struggles. All of a sudden, we realized that the journey just to get to Sinai was one that was unbearable at times. And again, poor Moses, you know, you think, how does he feel through all of this? The people keep asking him, did you just lead us out here to d. You wonder if he ever thought, I don't know, is this the end of the journey? You notice that later in the story, he keeps asking God, just please let me know you are still with us, and that will be enough. Again, I just think as we start to read some of these, and the same thing with chapter 17, they get to the point, the people did chide. This is 17 2. The people did chide with Moses. Now, I'm all for being optimistic, positive attitude. Elder Holland gave a talk several years ago, and he was quoting Orson F. Whitney. And he just said, the spirit of the gospel is optimistic, says it trusts in God and looks to the bright side of things. He went on to explain that we should speak. Hopefully we should speak encouragingly, including about ourselves, which is a really interesting concept to think, what do I see in myself and how do I speak about myself? He said, no, misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse. I'm all in with that for these people and what they're experiencing, I also feel empathy for them in their journey. Again, I think it's part of the larger story of chapter 19 is that they've been wandering now for three months in some pretty grueling conditions. It brings us then to verse three. John, could you read 19:3 for us?

C (11:19)

And Moses went up unto God and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel.

B (11:30)

Thank you, John and Hank, there's something interesting going on here. God has just spent three months getting them here. The Lord called. Now that's something that again, when we spring forward and we look at the book of Leviticus, Vayakra and God called. The whole point of this episode is that God is actually there. He's with them, that he's brought them there for a very specific purpose. When we see catchphrases like this in parallel that say, to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel. Look at the backstory here. What happened to get Jacob to become Israel? And I'm thinking specifically of his name there. What's our backstory there? What did it take for Jacob to become Israel?

A (12:21)

It was a wrestle with God, a very sacred experience.

B (12:27)

Again, it was a lifetime of uncertainty. You think of Jacob's life, a lifetime of trial. But that culminates with some sort of sacred experience where he has a wrestle with an angel or with the Lord and is given a new name.

A (12:49)

He lets God prevail.

B (12:51)

Just this very parallelism seems to be drawing us in now to a larger purpose of what God is about to do. He is about to create in a covenant form Israel as a people. You know, President Uchtdorf in his talk, are you sleeping through the restoration? He says being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day. It's an effort of once and for all. What's happening here is that God is trying to create, not just an experience on Mount Sinai, but he's trying to create holiness within a people that will be long lasting and prepare them for the future difficulties that they're going to encounter, because they still have a very long road ahead of them. This is supposed to be now, that anchor, that strength that prepares them for what lie ahead.

A (13:51)

Wow, that's a beautiful idea. Yes, I know you're the descendants of Jacob. I'm going to turn you into the children of Israel, a holy people.

B (14:00)

Holiness is the key. Even again, looking forward to Leviticus. I think the Word holiness. The root holiness is mentioned about 150 times in the book of Leviticus. This is about becoming a covenant people once and for all, not waking up each day and sort of reinventing the wheel about whether or not I'm all in on this. And yet we all know how hard that is and how difficult that can be to make that kind of commitment. That is a permanent type of solution in our life. But President Nelson talked about this, you remember, in his everlasting Covenant Talk in October 2022, said, when you and I also enter that path, the covenant path, we have a new way of life. So this is what God is preparing them for. It's time for a new way of life. And we therefore create a relationship with God that allows him to bless and change us. The covenant path leads us back to him, which is what God is doing. He's bringing them to him under these circumstances and says, if we let God prevail in our lives, the covenant will lead us closer and closer to him. So this is exactly what's happening. The choice is eventually going to be up to the people, but God has brought them to him and provided an environment where he is trying to create a new life of holiness that will enable them to stand before him literally in his presence here at Mount Sinai.

C (15:32)

Is this his first going up to Mount Sinai?

B (15:37)

Yeah, they are just arriving. Three months. If we look back at some of the Moses chapter one experiences, there's also some mountain experiences there. Those seem to be in a different location.

C (15:50)

That's helpful, boy. When you talk about what the Lord's going to do, we're talking about 40 years. And this is just the third month.

A (15:59)

We're just getting started.

B (16:01)

Let's talk about that, because that's so important when we start looking about what lay ahead. But let's look about what's behind them. Because the Book of Acts breaks up Moses's life into three different 40 year periods. There's an enormous amount of preparation. This isn't just God saying, hey, Moses, good luck. You know, I hope this goes well for you. Could we read verse four? Hank, would you mind reading that?

A (16:29)

You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself.

B (16:35)

What does that mean? Like, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians. What is it that they actually have seen?

C (16:45)

Delivering them, stopping the chariots, taking down

A (16:49)

the entire Egyptian pantheon.

B (16:52)

If you look at the plagues, it will talk about Moses. You will see the power of God, Pharaoh, he will see the Power of God, Israel, you will see the power of God, the magicians. You will see the power of God. That's really where this is taking us, is it's setting up a covenantal discussion and a covenantal environment where God is inviting them to look back and say, what have you just seen me do for you? And you keep asking Moses, my servant, did you lead us out here to die? The answer is, no, I didn't, because I care about you. I brought you out here to commune with me, to know me personally. If we go back to chapter 14, these are just remarkable episodes here where we've got Moses and the children of Israel, and they've left Egypt and they've hit the body of water. There's no place to go forward. They look behind them and the armies of Egypt are behind them. If something doesn't intervene, they're dead. There's no other way that this resolves. We learn in verse 10, the people were sore afraid. We just come back and we think about the types of fears that the people had experienced as they were trying to trust God and his prophet who was leading them into what they keep thinking is their death. This breaks my heart for Moses in verse 11, in chapter 14, because there were no graves in Egypt. Has thou taken us out to die in the wilderness? That's a reality that we all face. I don't understand what God is doing. I want to trust him, but I can't see it. And in fact, I'm afraid of what my future might hold because for them, they see a body of water or an Egyptian army. Moses in verse 13, he says to the people, don't be afraid. Easier said than done. Don't be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Now, I don't know about you, but like standing still, I get that concept. When something goes wrong, I want to go grab a pizza, a tub of ice cream or something, hit the couch and just hope this one passes. I get that concept of standstill, but look what God tells them to do. In verse 15, it's totally different. The Lord said unto Moses, why criest thou unto me? There's a certain point where our prayers reach a point of action where it's just move. That's exactly when Moses is saying, stand still. The Lord says, go forward and lift up your staff and stretch your hand over the sea and divide it. Now, again, we look at that and think, if you're Moses, that's a pretty tall order. You remember back in Doctrine and Covenants, section eight, there's A really interesting revelation back there, if we turn to it. This is Doctrine and Covenants, Section 8. This is a revelation given to Oliver Cowdery. In verse two, it says, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart by the Holy Ghost which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart. Now listen to this. Now behold, this is the Spirit of Revelation. Behold, this is the Spirit by which Moses brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. Therefore, apply this gift. Apply unto it, and blessed art thou, for it shall deliver you out of the hands of your enemies. This gives us a remarkable insight into what Moses is experiencing here. That is, that God is revealing to him through the Holy Ghost. Your course of action is to get up and move forward and command these waters to part. Now, he was not going to take away the fact that they still had to take the journey. He doesn't, like, lift them up and this cosmic hand reaches out and plops them over the other side. We still have to take those journeys, and we still have to make that walk. But at least God has opened a way for them. I've noticed in my own life that God is really good at opening ways. They're not always easy ways. You still have to make the journey, you still have to take the walk. But the way opens. And that's something that is invaluable, I think, to us in our lives.

A (21:45)

This speaks so closely, at least for me, to the human experience of. I can see all that God has done for me, and I want to believe he's going to keep doing this for me in the future. But the fears of what lies ahead can be overwhelming. Yet if you look back, you think, well, look at all that I've seen so far. You saw what I did to the Egyptians. It's so hard sometimes to get those past memories to translate into future faith.

B (22:15)

Yeah. And that's where this all starts again. I'm asking you to look back before we move forward. Look back and remember what I've done for you. It's not always easy to drum up those great spiritual experiences in the past when we're suffering. And yet that's what it's asking us to do. And when there's uncertainty ahead, as they get through this, I love when they. They get to chapter 15, they finally get through. They see these miracles, and God delivers them. In verse one, this is sometimes called the Song of the Sea. You have Moses, it says then, saying, moses and the children of Israel, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. And all of a sudden, that's the key. God really has triumphed gloriously. He really has prevailed. Now, this is that cute little girl you remember a prince of Egypt. Yeah. The cute little girl that starts singing that song. This is what she's singing is verse one. She starts that. Ashera la adonai hu gao gaa. John, we should get you to burst out a song for us here. That's the one. They're glorifying God because they've seen. That's coming back to where we started. In chapter 19, you have seen everything that I have done. And I'm asking you to remember all of those things. Trust me, as we're here now on this mountain peak, that I have brought you here for a very important purpose. Wow.

C (23:46)

The idea you have seen reminds me, I think it was President Henry B. Eyring's advice to document the hand of the Lord in your life. Not just remember it, but put it down, write it down somewhere, keep a journal. And that's the best purpose of a journal, is to document the hand of God in your life. When you are doubting, you can go back and say, wait a minute, he has helped me before. I've seen how he's helped me before. And maybe give you faith to move forward.

A (24:16)

Nephi is going to do that in 2 Nephi 4. In his soliloquy, he's going to be in a dark place. He says, my heart groaneth because of my sins. Nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted. Nephi looks back. It changes his outlook.

C (24:35)

Good connection.

B (24:36)

It's such a beautiful concept to think I know in whom I have trusted. Yet we again also know how difficult that can be to sustain that trust throughout life. That's the goal. The whole concept here is producing holiness in a way to where it becomes who we are and not just something we think about. In verse four, when it talks about I bear you on eagle's wings and brought you unto myself, we hear God. He's in relentless pursuit. If you go back and you look at some of the parallel language here, it's using verbs that are found in the creation story. In Genesis, it's using batohu. It's a word that means, I brought you into this wilderness. It's empty and desolate. It parallels a passage in Deuteronomy 32, 10 and 11. What this is talking about is the creation story of covenant Israel. Deuteronomy, Deuteronomia is about the retelling of the law. It's again inviting a covenant type of understanding of the past. In verse 1032, 10, he found him in a desert land, in the waste, howling wilderness. It's using the word Tohu, which again is back in Creation when it was empty and desolate, there was nothing there. He instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. So we're just. We're feeling the love that God has for the people and why he's bringing them there. As an eagle stirreth up her nest and fluttereth over her young, and spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings. Beautiful imagery. They use a word here, Rahaf. That again is used in the creation stories of God hovering over and watching until the desired outcome was set. And this is now how they're going to move forward as they begin to hear really the key points of this. And that's chapter 19 back in Exodus, verses 5 and 6. Hank, would you be willing to read those for us? Because these are just so key.

A (26:49)

Absolutely. Exodus 19, 5 and 6. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. For all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me thee. A kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

B (27:15)

John and Hank, as we read those, what are some of the key words that really pop off the page and you think, oh, that's what we're getting at here. This is what God is trying to do.

C (27:27)

I like peculiar treasure. I remember Brent Topp teaching me something about that. Is it Segula?

B (27:35)

Uh huh.

C (27:35)

Segula is a peculiar treasure. And I know we can be called a peculiar people. I like that. It's not just peculiar, but it's a treasure, a valuable treasure and a kingdom of priests. Not just a few, but everybody. Is that what he means by that? Everybody?

B (27:56)

Yeah, that does seem to be the message here. There is no Levitical order yet the intent seems to be that we're leading you out here because I really do want you all to be involved in this. It's curious language. You remember at the establishment of the Relief Society, that part of what Joseph described is that God. And of course, this is when they're in the Nauvoo period, They're starting to develop the ritual in Nauvoo. But he says, I want to make you, speaking to the Relief Society, a kingdom of priests. That was part of what he was promising them. There's something behind that, that this is all inclusive Even the concept of kingdom, a place designed for royalty, run by a king, a king who loves you, who cares about you, who in his eyes views you as a sagala, which means something like the most valued possession that he could ever have. This is truly a word that describes the worth of souls, is great. There's nothing more valuable to God than us. How many of us look in the mirror and that's the first thing that goes through our minds. That I'm the greatest thing God has ever seen. And not in an arrogant way, but in a paternal way. This is my child. There's nothing that this person could ever do that would make me stop loving them. Because I love them so much. I'm going to open a way here to take our relationship to a new level where I will promise to you and you will promise to me that I will give you everything in this kingdom. When you think about Jesus in the book of Matthew and Mark, how he talks about the kingdom of God is at hand. We think about as, I guess, inhabitants, citizens within a kingdom. We have rights, we have privileges, but we also have responsibilities. That's what we're getting introduced to here in the form of the Ten Commandments. It's introducing a responsibility back into the equation that is going to be, again, something that is received by covenant. And it's really highlighting how sacred this experience is designed to be in the eyes of God towards his people.

A (30:25)

Two things. One, Aaron, I'm being reminded here that Jehovah doesn't forget his promises. He made this promise way back in Genesis 12. This family is going to bless all the families of the earth when they get taken into Egypt. You gotta be thinking, this is not what I thought it would be. They're not blessing all the families of the earth. And second, I want all of our listeners to know that if you know Aaron personally, you get to know how compassionate Aaron is. He is passionate in his compassion. I think we've seen that so far today. He's saying, these aren't just murmurers. Because sometimes we look at them in that generalization. Look at all that God has done for you. And all you do is murmur. Aaron's saying, whoa, slow down. Give them the benefit of the doubt. This is hard. What they're going through is really hard. Just on a side note, that's what Aaron does for me often is he says, hang on, take a look at what may be happening in their life and how difficult it truly is. I really like that. I've softened a little bit towards the end. Children of Israel Because I do kind of blanket them sometimes as murmurers.

C (31:40)

Yeah, I felt the same thing. I thought, he is really personalizing this and looking at these people as our brothers and sisters. And that has softened me in the same way you had me at. It was June or July in the desert.

A (31:55)

All right, never mind.

C (31:56)

Like, yeah, nothing hits my murmuring switch like that.

B (32:01)

These promises go way back for Moses. We're going to do some backstory here. Let's go back for a second just to Exodus 3, because if we start looking at his life and if we look at Acts, how this is broken down into the three 40 year periods, then we've got Moses, who is going into the wilderness after he's fleeing Egypt under the unusual circumstances that arise there. But who does he encounter in the wilderness? The Midianites?

A (32:35)

Yeah, Jethro and his family.

B (32:38)

Of course. The significance of Jethro is we learn from section 84 that he receives the Melchizedek priesthood from Jethro. This is a remarkable story because we're always looking at Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So we're looking further north, but all of a sudden, modern revelation blows open this conception and we actually have a group of people down in the deserts of Midian, which is further south in the northern Sinai peninsula into the eastern side. They have the Melchizedek priesthood and they are exercising that priesthood. That is mind boggling. It happens to be this community that Moses encounters for 40 years. You think about what Jethro could be teaching him, how God could be preparing him so that when he's standing in front of the waters of the sea, he has the faith to raise that staff as prompted by the Spirit and it responds. This would have been a really short story if Moses had not been properly prepared. When we look back at chapter three, this is where life changes for Moses. It's the burning bush experience. We hear something again of the compassion of God. This is Exodus 3:6. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. When we fast forward and we see the people later on in the Exodus stories, they're also flinching from God. And we're like, what's their problem? Moses had gone through this himself. He understood what it was like to be afraid to in front of a being that is the most powerful being. And he doesn't know whether his intentions are good or bad. And so he's coming to learn that God is compassionate. I have Surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, and I know their sorrows. This is the bottom line. God knows you, God knows me, and he understands our sorrows. If we're ever in a point in life where we think that somehow that is not part of the equation, these stories remind us very vividly that God is aware of suffering, our suffering, and how hard it can be to liberate us from those pains we experience in life. This is taking a people out of the most powerful kingdom on the planet at the time. In verse 12, where Moses is having again, his personal experiences with God, he said, certainly, I will be with thee. God is trying to reassure Moses, what you're asked to do is impossible. Yes, I understand. But I'm God, and I'm very good at doing the impossible. I will be with you, and I have sent thee. You're doing this not for yourself, but because I have sent you. You're my worker. To free and safe. Listen to this part. When thou has brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve, meaning all of you. That's coming back to the earlier question about is this designed for everybody becoming a kingdom of priests? The answer is yes, you shall serve God upon this mountain. Everything that Moses is experiencing, his own theophany, his communion with God, God's telling him right now, before the Exodus. My intention is to do this for all of them. That is the goal that we're trying to accomplish here. Not just your experience, Moses, it's their experience too. For me, that's a very powerful part of the story.

C (37:03)

I like how you're connecting. That Moses can look at the children of Israel and say, yeah, I know what you mean. I was there at one point, and my faith is growing and yours will too. But I was there with you at one point.

A (37:17)

I feel for those listening. And I'm in that same camp who, like you said, Aaron, we look back and we can see the hand of God. It's as John said, if we document it, it's almost blatantly obvious that God has led me this far. Yet when you turn and face the future, that confidence doesn't sometimes translate into, I can do this, I can become. God will really make of me what he plans on making of me. This story is hitting close to home, and I think this is maybe your intention, Aaron, is not just see these people, but see yourself.

B (37:56)

Yeah. It is something that's so personal for Moses that everything he's being asked to do that will eventuate in the people receiving the same experiences that he's having. Think back to Moses. Chapter one. What does Moses experience?

A (38:16)

Incredible visions and incredible darkness. Like overwhelming darkness and fear.

B (38:23)

And how does he prevail?

C (38:25)

I know in whom I have trusted.

B (38:27)

Yeah. These stories are remarkable because Moses 1 is a preface to the creation stories. Everything that he's learning. In chapter one, when Moses receives the revelations of creation, the lens is Moses 139. Before we even get to creation as a thing, we're getting creation as a purpose. My whole goal is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of my children. That's the lens that we look through in the Bible. Everything that happens, everything that we go through in life, if we could just take a step back and say, wait a second. I understand that what I'm going through. First of all, God understands. But I also understand that he's with me and that what he's trying to accomplish will be something that may not resolve in this life. What I'm experiencing may be so extreme and severe, whatever that is. But in eternity, immortality and eternal life is where God's journey is designed to take me. And if I hear him, trust him, endure with him, I'll get there. No matter how hard the journey for Moses Chapter one, you get the sense that he's on that journey himself and he's having revelations and he's hearing God call him my son. And all of a sudden, wait a second, I'm a child of God. That means something. We see him again, having a series of visions and asking questions that eventually leads him to better comprehend. In fact, in verse 30, Moses 1, Moses says, tell me, I pray thee, why these things are so. Moses wants to understand, why are we doing all of this? Why do you care so much about all of these people? And so for Moses, he's given this promise back in verse 25, calling upon the name of God, he beheld his glory again. This is what I love about this, because you remember Moses. Chapter one. It's after the burning bush experience, but before the Exodus. All of this stuff is happening. God just doesn't visit him at a burning bush and say, good luck, get on your way. He's revealing to him over and over and over again. He says, blessed art thou, Moses, for I the Almighty have chosen thee. And thou shalt be made stronger than the many waters, for they shall obey thy command as if thou wert God. Have you ever had one of those experiences where you've received a blessing in your life and you're like, I have no idea what that's going to look like. I don't know what's going on with that. Moses is hearing here, you're going to command the waters as if you were God. You just wonder at what point in his life he's able to take a step back and say, oh, now I get it. Elder Faust several years ago said, if through priesthood blessings, we could perceive only a small part of the person God intended us to be, we would lose our doubts and never fear again. He didn't say we wouldn't have concerns, didn't say life wouldn't be scary, but we would lose a greater fear and lose doubt in God, in ourselves. These stories and episodes are very, very personal for Moses. For me, it's very helpful to look at that picture because it's just so easy to take a look back and see these with, well, that happened a long time ago. That's a neat story. But all of the side stories are really what make these episodes converge, because it's a fulfillment of personal promises, not just to Moses, but now to the people who are going to be recipients of an experience that allows them the opportunity to commune with God if they're willing to do what God is asking them to do to qualify for that.

A (42:52)

I'm seeing this in a different light. I'm seeing this as a story of, I can take you from one state to another. I can take you from a slave in Egypt, an abused, nameless being in Egypt, and I can give you a name and make you a holy, divine being who blesses the whole world. The same is true of today.

B (43:16)

Right?

A (43:17)

I can take you from where you are, from slavery or abuse or addiction. I can take you from any of this. Like you said, Aaron, if you'll trust me and follow me, I can make you holy. What was that you just said? If we could see the person he intends, the glorious being he intends. You jump in.

B (43:39)

Yeah. We could go into more details of this. I know we're already on verse four. I know we're moving at a snail's pace here. Have you ever asked the question, what does it feel like to be in the presence of God? I know it's not something I think about a lot. It's just not a real experience for me. But Moses, back in chapter one, said, I was transfigured before God. I felt as if I would wither before him. Wither, of course, means to, like, melt or keel over. And he started thinking, okay, and yet we start reading some of these accounts from The School of the Prophets. You remember that story where they prayed for an angel and it starts to come and they call it off because it feels like they're going to perish. Joseph comes running in. What are you doing? Oh, we prayed for an angel. He's like, it was at the door, like it was at the roof. It was almost here. You remember that story by Melvin J. Ballard? He said, I had an experience. He says, as I approached to be introduced, I saw the most glorious being my eyes have ever beheld. I saw his arms extended. He says, if I live to be a million years old, I will never forget that smile. He took me into his arms and kissed me, pressed me to his bosom and blessed me until the marrow of my bones seemed to melt. He says, if I ever had a chance to feel that again, I would give everything that I am, everything that I could ever become, to feel what I felt then. These spiritual experiences that we sometimes are blessed with, and particularly just these very personal communions with God, are meant to help burn within us an experience that is lasting. We could say, I don't feel that a lot. I don't get the burnings in the bosoms. But the spirit works differently with each individual. Those experiences can still be very powerful. Even if it's, yeah, that makes sense to me, or, yeah, I feel like that's right. Those can be just as powerful as the ones where we feel like my heart is about to explode because I feel the love of God in a way that I have never felt it before. Again, this is what the people are being prepared for. On this experience at Sinai, I'm reminded

C (45:59)

of one of the accounts of the first vision where Joseph Smith said, my soul was filled with love and for many days I could rejoice. I thought, moses has got to be going through that same thing. One of the things I hope this year, as we all go through the Old Testament, a lot of people say, well, the God of the Old Testament's kind of mean and angry and vengeful. And the God of the New Testament is kind of nice. And anytime we can say, not so fast, slow down and look at this, I think that's wonderful, because this is Jehovah, who is Jesus Christ, who is the same being.

B (46:35)

You're right. This is our inclination. When we hear God is a loving God in the Old Testament, we flinch because we think, I don't see it yet. It doesn't get more personal than this. In the story, it talks about the people here that when I speak with thee and Believe thee forever. This is in verse nine, in chapter 19. They're going to believe thee forever, which is different than what they had back in the Exodus after they crossed the sea. It said they believed in Moses. It negated the part that said forever. Something's supposed to be lasting about this particular experience. They're told to prepare and to come. In verse 17, they brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God. They stood at the nether part of the mount. Now we're starting to again, have a picture painted. You just think of this mountain. There's going to be certain places on this mountain that you can go and certain places that you cannot go. We're getting essentially a pattern delineated that is going to really be encapsulated in the tabernacle, meaning that this is the delineation of holy space. Now, not every mountain theophany that occurs in Scripture is inherently infused with ritual. You can have people going up, Nephi or Moses going up and communing with God. And we sometimes hear that mountains are the temple experience for people. This seems to be a case where that actually is what's happening, because, again, they're delineating sacred space. You can only go here unless you are prepared. And that's where the ten Commandments are going to come in, as well as the subsequent commandments that were designed to create holiness. If you reach that level, you can go to the next level on this spectrum of holy space, to the point where you eventually get to the holiest place, where God himself dwells. The tabernacle is really going to be the microcosm of this experience on the mountain here. But the people are trembling. And again, this is the smokes and the fires. And yet it says the Lord descended upon it in fire. God dwells in everlasting burnings. There is something about the glory of God that we can't just stumble upon. Casually walk into the people are being warned. Don't transcend a certain place because your life really would be in jeopardy. You would not be able to endure his presence unless you are prepared to do so. And for Moses, it required a transfiguration. Again, that opens some questions about is he getting transfigured every time he goes up and down the mountain? We know at least one other time he does. He's like putting veils over his face because people can't endure his presence. There's some really sacred things happening here. Verse 21. Lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish. Life is at stake here in a different way now, that is being prepared to endure the presence of divinity actually takes a physical toll, which again, Joseph describes when he's worn out after these experiences of communing with heavenly messengers. There's something physically taxing about a transfiguration in all of this.

A (50:05)

I love their enthusiasm in verse eight, all that the Lord hath spoken, we will do. The saying is, enthusiasm is common, endurance is rare. I can't tell you how many times in my life I have felt this way. I am in. I'm going to do everything I want to. I want to keep this feeling forever. Then the fear sets in, the distractions, the old habits, the problems. But they're willing. You can see that in verse eight, they're willing.

B (50:38)

And that has to be worth something. To their credit, again, everything that they've gone through, they're trying their best through all of this. That leads us to the Ten Commandments. Do you want to jump over to the Ten Commandments now and take a look at those in chapter 20?

A (50:52)

Let's do it.

C (50:53)

Okay. I heard you say earlier there's different times when Moses goes up to Sinai. Where again, does Moses chapter one fit in in the sequence of things?

B (51:05)

So according to Moses, chapter one, here's the chronology that it gives. This is verse 17. It says, and he gave me commandments when he called me out of the burning bush, saying, call upon God in the name of mine only begotten and worship me. We know that he's had the burning bush experience by Moses chapter one. We also then learn later from verse 25 that I'm commanding you to deliver the people, therefore you will part the water. So we know that it's also before the Exodus. That's the chronology of chapter one is somewhere in between the burning bush experience and versus leading the people out during the exodus from Egypt.

C (51:55)

I just wrote down burning bush, then Moses, chapter one, then go deliver the people. Part of that story is Sinai.

B (52:06)

Yeah.

C (52:06)

Is Ten Commandments Sinai?

B (52:09)

Yes. Again, this may not be quite as fast paced as we may assume, because if Acts 7 is correct, then there's 40 years in between him leaving Egypt and going back and delivering Israel. He's having some significant preparation time. But chapter one, again, it could be in a different location. It says at the end of chapter one, we don't have any idea where this is happening.

A (52:35)

Aaron, just for my information, when I teach this, 40 students ask about it all the time. Like, does it mean 40? Can it mean many? Can it mean just a period of time? How do you teach it?

B (52:47)

There's no question that it does have some symbolism behind it. It's just. It's something that repeats itself in the ancient Near East. It could be something that could just mean a long time, it could mean a generation. There also seem to be some instances where it might actually be around 40 years that something's happening.

C (53:04)

It felt like about 40 years for me to find my wife.

A (53:09)

So you just say it took 40 years?

C (53:12)

Yeah.

A (53:13)

Even though it was 32.

C (53:15)

33. Yeah, 33.

A (53:17)

It's pretty much 40.

B (53:20)

The big question is, what point does he receive the Melchizedek priesthood from Jethro? That's an interesting question. Like, clearly, it seems by the time he gets to the deliverance, you know, it's like, how many years did he had it before then? At what point did Jethro bestow that priesthood upon him? To me, that's an interesting question of how many years or decades he had been preparing for all of this. Because most of us need a lot of training, training before we do something grand, especially something as grand as parting the seas.

A (53:52)

Parting the Red Sea.

B (53:53)

Yeah. But he had a good trainer.

A (53:55)

Yeah. And he's not from Isaac. I think that's significant. What you said earlier, we think, oh, it's got to come out of this side. And it's like, no, he's son of Keturah.

C (54:05)

Yeah.

A (54:06)

Is he from Keturah?

B (54:08)

From the line of Abraham and Keturah. Yep.

C (54:11)

There's other lines of priesthood out there which blows people away. But of course, I mean, Adam wasn't house of Israel, Enoch wasn't house of Israel.

A (54:20)

Noah. Yeah. Aaron, we've had you for a while now. We've covered a whole chapter. Are we ready for chapter 20? Are we ready for the Big Ten?

B (54:29)

Let's do it. These are significant because we had this interlude now, because you've got them up on the mountain now we're going to drop. Okay, let's make sure that we understand there's some requirements here. And then after the Ten Commandments, we get a series of other requirements, but then it drops us back into the storyline where we're back at the mountain going back and forth about whether this is actually going to happen. If we're coming back to this concept of a covenant code, of a covenant made between parties, then that's where we're at here, is we're at the part that they call stipulations, Stipulations, blessings. It's like it wants us to be clear. This is what is expected from you before you're going to be prepared to commune with God. This is your behavioral code, your covenant code. And I just love the way it starts with and God spake all these words. So when we think of a commandment in Hebrew, it's siva. It's the words coming out of God's mouth. That's what we're following. That's our authoritative figure. That's whose instructions matter most to us, is what God is speaking. Again, you just sort of hear that this is a theme that repeats itself. And God spoke. And it leads into now some of the instructions that come. And we hear this again, this repetition of this historical prologue. I am the Lord God, thy God. I love that part. I'm like, not just God, but I'm your God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. So again, it's a reminder that you can trust me. I'm doing this for you. I've brought you out. I've led you here. I'm not trying to hurt you. Which, again, has been something they keep asking, by the way. Just kind of a side note, something that changed my life. Elder Holland, you remember, he gave a talk, and it was called a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord. In this, he said something I've never forgotten and yet it's so easy to forget. He said, God does not now, nor will he ever do, and to you a destructive, malicious, unfair thing. Ever. It is not in what Peter called the divine nature to even be able to do so. By definition and in fact, God is perfectly and thoroughly, always and forever good. Everything he does is for our good. I promise you that. God does not lie awake nights trying to figure out ways to disappoint us or harm us or crush our dreams or our faith. I don't know how to say that more succinctly. God loves us. He's not looking for ways to crush us or punish us or destroy our dreams. All of these feelings that the people are having are completely understandable if we just view God through a different lens, which is what they're being asked to do. Because again, that's back in chapter 19. There's this preoccupation with do not fear. God will come down in your sight. The commandments then, are something to now personalize and bring us closer to him, to produce a holiness that opens up that communion with God. As we begin to see this, and he's describing, I'm the Lord thy God. You'll have no other gods before Me in verse three. Now, again, this is really poignant because they've just left what environment?

A (58:10)

Egypt.

B (58:11)

Yeah. And you may have discussed this when you were talking about the plagues, but there's several of those plagues that have parallels with the manifestation of Egyptian gods and goddesses. Again, there's something that's trying to remove this from the mentality of the people. I am your God. Look what I've done, and I've brought you here. Nobody else is doing that for you. But I am sorry, there's a play on. I am there. You won't have any other gods before me because it's me and you. And we sometimes hear that God is a jealous God. We've all heard it explained that he's zealous is the way that this is. He's in relentless pursuit. He's passionate, he loves you, he cares about you. That is his zealousness. So again, it's just turn to me, hear me, and I promise I will never abandon you. So as the commandments begin to go forward, which again we're going to encounter here in verse four, you shall not make unto thee any graven image. Now, this is going to become an issue here. In just a few chapters that don't make any graven images, it's clear that in our mentality we might think, well, I really don't have any struggles. I'm not going to head out in the backyard today and in the midst of my barbecue, I'm going to make sure I fashion some kind of idol. We may not struggle with that, but they did. Part of it was Paul, the mysterious God, the God that nobody has heard of. You just, you got to cover your bases. That mentality of, I'll take help from anywhere I can get it, and God's saying, you don't need to go any further. I'm right here. Don't make any graven image or likeness. Again, when you start hearing image and likeness, where does that take you? Back to hearing those two words?

A (59:55)

That's right, the creation account.

B (59:58)

When God says, in creation, I made you in my image and likeness, it's using two different words. It's using selim and demuth, which one of them is clearly denoting something physical, meaning that God's children are created physically in his image. It's usually referred to something as physical, but it can also refer to content, what's within the image. If you take that, it means that God has created us to look like him, possibly with the abilities to think like him, to feel like him, to act like him, to behave like him, to pursue the same goals as Him. In the creation account, it's very, very specific. Everything else leading it says, and everything was created after its kind. Think about what that means for animals, plants, and then all of a sudden, people. We were created in the image of God after His kind. It doesn't say that specifically, but that's what image and likeness is trying to get us to think about, is that God actually is trying to make me something greater than I think I am. Not in some ostentatious way, not in some proud way, but just as his children. His whole purpose is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life, which is a state that he now dwells in. If we can look in the mirror and think that this is why I'm rolling out of bed today, that whatever I'm going through, whatever responsibilities I have, whatever questions I have, whatever concerns, if that's my guiding mentality, I know that God cares about me and that this is what my day is hoping to accomplish, whatever that looks like. We could go off on all sorts of tangents here because there's some really fascinating Mesopotamian and Egyptian rituals and ritual texts that talk about how to make an idol. It goes through and describes all of these things. It describes about how you go through and you form and you fashion. It's using these same words of image and likeness. You set it in a garden. You go through a ritual of breathing life into it. And when it's done, the end product is a God. It sounds weird, but that seems to be what God is saying here to avoid. First of all, I am God. You don't need any others. You don't need to make anything different. Second, I made you in my image. And by making these other images, it may deflect what you see in yourself. This isn't just about what you see in me, but perhaps it's diminishing what you see in yourself. There's something about this. Don't create any graven images because it's taking our gaze away from God and His purposes for us. Maybe there's some catchphrases here. Even though they're different words, they may take us back to creation. John, could you read these verses 8 through 11 for us about the Sabbath? And listen for the connection here back to creation.

C (63:09)

Okay? Exodus 20, beginning in verse eight, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

B (63:46)

Thank you. As we listen to the Sabbath, what are some catchphrases or words that sort of jump off the pages at you?

C (63:54)

Well, I don't have a maid servant, so. Not that one.

B (63:57)

Working labor, which is an interesting concept, because God's work and glory, it doesn't say his vacation in glory. God's work is work. And yet have you ever held a calling in the church where all you did was work all day on Sunday?

C (64:18)

Yeah.

B (64:19)

There's something about this that seems to take us beyond maybe a narrow definition of work, but maybe trying to focus us on a different kind of work that is the work in glory of what God is trying to accomplish. There's something in here that's fascinating to me, and that is that it's linking the Sabbath back to creation. If we have that mentality about the purposes of the Sabbath, that somehow every time I worship on the Sabbath, I'm supposed to be thinking about the creations and God's purposes of creation, then we start hearing words like holiness, he sanctified, he hallowed. I think, huh, Wait a second. Let's do the chronology here of creation. By the time we get to the seventh day, everything's been created, people have been created. And it's as if the seventh day is an open story, an open book, a chapter that hasn't closed on creation yet. Everything that Moses 1:39 is describing is what's unfolding during that period that was designed to be hallowed and sanctified. Now, again, yes, we do have a specific day that is nuanced to remember that on a weekly basis. But in creation, it was a story that wasn't finished yet. It was a day that was not finished yet. Does that make sense? It seems like what God is doing. And again, by creating now an outlet that says, make sure every seventh day you keep remembering this, then we can look back on the Sabbath day and say, this is a time now for me to think about a new creation story. What can I create this week that will enable me to fulfill the purposes of God? Because, again, we're thinking the word seven. There's a verb. There's shava. It means seven. But it can also mean to swear oaths just the language behind 7 is something that becomes significant. And of course, kadosh, the concept of being holy. That's what the temple, the Beit Hamikdash is, the house of, where holiness is the house of holiness. There's something that's all converging on this paradigm now of this temple like experience on the mountain that God is asking the people to always remember that swearing oaths is something that is sacred and something that you should remember frequently and never forget that again. My purposes are to create and to sanctify and to make you holy by this series of rituals and remembrances that will more or less bring you back into this mentality of here's what I'm trying to do with you. President Nelson talked about this. This was when we get over to Exodus 31:13. He talks about, you know, our oaths, our pledges on the Sabbaths. And the word that they use there is oath. That's the Hebrew word, but it means a sign. And President Nelson talked about when I figured out that. That the Sabbath day wasn't about do's and don'ts, it was about my personal pledge to God, then that's when the Sabbath can become more sacred to us. Because it's more about not what I'm refraining from doing, but what I'm promising God I will do and how that will manifest itself. And each of us can design what that looks like. And it can be something that's very personal to us.

A (68:05)

Maybe the Lord left the seventh day to us. Now you do a little creating.

C (68:11)

I was sitting in that talk at the Marriott Center. It was called Reflections and Resolutions. This is what got my attention. He said, here's a spiritual yardstick. If you want to know how you're doing, you know, how do you feel about the Sabbath day? I'll share some of my personal reflections with you. When I was your age, I wondered just what activities were appropriate for the Sabbath. I read lists of do's and don'ts, all compiled by others. Now I have a much better understanding, which I gained from two Old Testament scriptures. One is from the book of Exodus. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, this is Exodus 31. My Sabbaths ye shall keep. For it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. A similar message is in the book of Ezekiel. I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. I am the Lord your God, hallow my Sabbaths. They shall be a sign between me and you that you may know that I am the Lord your God. Then President Nelson continued pondering these scriptures has helped me to understand my behavior on the Sabbath constitutes my sign to the Lord of my regard for him and for my covenants with Him. That idea of Ezekiel 20:20 20:20 Sounds like vision. The Lord's watching me. This is our sign. This will be a sign between me and you that you may know wow, that's an easy verse to remember for that. A Spiritual Yardstick how do I feel about the Sabbath day? The other yardstick he gave in that talk was what do I think about during the sacrament? Which is two really great spiritual yardsticks.

A (69:58)

He called it coming up in Part two.

B (70:02)

Like, even when we feel destitute, if we can see and trust a prophet of God, that he's leading us, that he's guiding us, that maybe he's getting information that I don't have, that maybe he knows better than I do, that even if I feel a temporary separation from God, I trust his prophet.