transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:03] Hey everybody, welcome to Talking Scripture, a podcast where we illustrate relevance and application of the Scriptures in Come Follow Me.

Speaker 2:
[00:10] We also dive into the history and cultures of the text.

Speaker 1:
[00:13] Thanks for taking the time to share and subscribe to this podcast.

Speaker 2:
[00:16] For show notes, head over to our website, talkingscripture.org. Welcome to Talking Scripture, I'm Mike.

Speaker 1:
[00:26] And I'm Bryce.

Speaker 2:
[00:26] And today we're going to be in Exodus 19-20, and the 24th chapter, and then 31-34.

Speaker 1:
[00:34] We're bouncing all over the place, but let's do a quick review of what we've been asked to study.

Speaker 2:
[00:40] Yeah, in the 19th chapter, this is where the Lord is preparing Israel to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And he wants to make them, verse 5 of the 19th chapter, a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And so there are going to be some things that they do to ritually prepare themselves to enter into the presence of the Lord. And the 19th chapter kind of ends with the images of Jehovah's mighty power, thunder and lightning and fire and smoke, and this idea that gazing upon God is a holy kind of thing, which brings us then to the 20th chapter.

Speaker 1:
[01:20] Because if we're going to be a peculiar people, we need a law. We need a standard that we follow to become a peculiar people. So in chapter 20, the Lord reveals His law. And it is a wonderful law for all of us. There's something about the Ten Commandments that applies to all people of all time, but we're going to look in this podcast at the fact that the Lord gives commandments to each generation that is appropriate for them. So we're going to jump into our generation and look at the specific laws that the Lord has given us in our day. There's a lot of thou shouts and thou shouts nots in the doctrine and covenants that are very significant. So we'll take a look at the ancient Ten Commandments given to Moses on Sinai, but also some modern commandments given to Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio. And then we're skipping from 21 through 23, which gets us into 24, which is the children of Israel accepting the law. Moses comes down with the Ten Commandments and the other portions of the law, and the children of Israel accept it. We accept this law, and he sprinkles blood on them as a sign of that acceptance. It's that sign of the receiving of the covenant. And then Moses is trying to get more and more people into the presence of God. And he succeeds this time. He brings Aaron and Nadab and Abihu and 70 elders of Israel. And those 70 see God and have a marvellous experience with him. So Moses is pulling more and more people into the presence of the Lord. And the Lord says, Look, I'm going to give you some stone tables. I'm going to give you a law. I'm going to give you some commandments. So Moses now prepares for a very long journey up with the Lord in Mount Sinai. He's going to be gone for 40 days. So at the very last verse of Chapter 24, it says that Moses was in the Mount for 40 days and 40 nights. Now that 40 days will span all the way into Chapter 32. And that's Chapter 24.

Speaker 2:
[03:23] Yeah. And then we skip a bunch of stuff, and then we get to the 31st Chapter of Exodus. And that's where individuals are chosen. These individuals are skilled, and they are given the command to construct the furnishings of the Tabernacle. And how are a bunch of slaves getting a bunch of gold in the middle of the desert to make all this stuff out of gold? They borrowed the gold from the Egyptians. And so they take all their earrings and jewelry, and they put it together, and they melt it, and they make the stuff, the furnishings of the Tabernacle. And we're going to talk about the Tabernacle in this podcast. We're going to talk about some of those things. But that's the 31st Chapter. And then the 32nd Chapter has this really interesting thing happening. You see, Moses is having this conversation with God on the top of the mount, but down at the foot of the mountain, the Israelites are being naughty. And they say, We want a God. We want to remember or have this representative of God that brought us out. And there's this interesting phrase in the 32nd Chapter where they make this golden calf and the statement is made, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And we're going to get into the weeds in the podcast on this and talk about what's going on with this golden calf and this rebellion. And God gets mad and Moses gets mad, and that kind of ends with this violent episode at the end of the 32nd Chapter.

Speaker 1:
[04:45] Which gets us into Chapter 33. At this point, the Tabernacle is outside the camp. And Moses goes into the Tabernacle and begins the operation of the Tabernacle. And the Lord's presence come, and the shadow and the fire, and clearly the Lord is with Moses in the Tabernacle. And the people kind of get to see that the Lord's there, but they don't yet get to see the Lord in the Tabernacle. They've been naughty, and they're in timeout. But they can clearly see that the Lord is within their reach if they would repent and do what's right.

Speaker 2:
[05:21] And then the final chapter for this week's Come, Follow Me is Exodus 34. And that's where Moses is instructed to make two new tablets. You see, in his wrath in the first episode with the golden calf, there's this destruction of the tablets. And so we have these two new ones made. And there's an interesting Joseph Smith Translation that we're going to talk about from the very first verse of Exodus 34. But the general picture is that we're making two new tablets. And then the conclusion of the 34th chapter talks about the radiant countenance of Moses and how his face shone. And that's kind of the concluding chapter of this week's Come, Follow Me. So, with that, let's go to Exodus 19. In Exodus 19, we read that it's the third month in the very first verse when they get to the foot of Mount Sinai. That's verse 1. And then it says that they camped before the mount. And then verse 3 says, Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thou shalt say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto myself. 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 a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And so, this is the beginning of the preparation to receive the covenant. The beginning of the covenant portion is going to be in Exodus 20, and that's where we're going to talk about the Ten Commandments. But this chapter really is laying out the Lord's desire for what He wants with this. Like, why does He want to make a covenant? What does He want to do with Israel? And some scholars look at this as not only given to Israel, but to the whole world, because Israel is outside of the national boundaries of any country. This is in the wilderness. And so in a way, this is given to Israel, but it's also given to the world. And so many have looked at the Ten Commandments and some of the things the Lord says in Exodus 20 to be universal in their application. And so I want to just invite you to think about how the Ten Commandments can be universal in their application. I certainly see some of the commandments in these codes to be very specific to the time period in which they're given and given to the specific people of Israel. But I also see some universality in here. So let's talk about verse five for a second. And it says, you shall be a peculiar treasure. That word for peculiar treasure, the Hebrew word is segula. And that word denotes a treasure or a valued property. And it's a cognate of an Akkadian word, which means acquisition or valued property or also beloved. And I want to make the connection here that what God is saying is, I want you to be different, but you're going to be a special or peculiar treasure. I'm going to liken that unto a verse in the Doctrine and Covenants. Now the context of this is the Lord's talking about the things that happened in Missouri and the persecution that they're undergoing. But if you look in verse 3 of Section 101, the Lord says, Yet I will own them, and they shall be mine in that day, when I shall come to make up my jewels. Therefore they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who is commanded to offer up his only son. Now this is talking about the saints in Missouri, and they're clearly called the children of Israel. We believe as Latter-day Saints that we are descendants of this tradition, this family of Israel, and the Lord is calling them his jewels. And what makes jewels? What makes a diamond? The Lord takes something simple like coal, and over time and pressure and sometimes heat, these jewels are created. Not only are you a treasure, and not only are you jewels, but there are several chapters in Exodus that talk about these jewels that are made into the breastplate of the high priest. The high priest is going to wear 12 jewels on his chest, and each jewel is going to have engraved on it the name of each of the tribes of Israel. And then on his shoulders, he's going to have two onyx stones, one on each shoulder, and six tribes will be named on each one of those. And so the high priest is going to wear literally these jewels on his shoulders, which represent the tribes, and he's going to wear them on his heart. And then when you couple that with where John talks about the Savior wearing a robe that is without seam, and that robe is a code word. It's a connecting word to show us that the Savior, by wearing that robe, is the great high priest. And then Paul will talk about in Hebrews that Jesus is the great high priest. So if we connect all these ideas, we have the Savior as the great high priest, symbolically wearing the tribes, the jewels, on his heart and on his shoulders. In other words, he bears us, and we are right next to his heart. We are his segula. That is the end game. That's what God wants with us. He wants to have that kind of relationship. And if we understand that, it helps us get past some of the clunky things in these chapters. For example, Exodus 20 verse 5 talks about God being a jealous God. And that word is connected to this idea of being red in the face. He gets jealous when we cheat on him, so to speak. That when Israel goes after other gods, or they forget God, God is jealous because they are, quote, hoarding after false gods. Well, the relationship is a covenant one of intimacy, of marriage. And God is trying to say, no, this is more than just, I'm your king and you obey me. This is different. I want to make you my treasure. I want to put you on my heart. And I'm going to carry you. And so then in the next verse, in verse 6, he says, I want to make you a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Now, that's going to be a little bit complex because the narrative, as it comes to us now, as we have it, and I take this as being edited. I don't look at this as complete. But the story, as it is told in the Old Testament, is that the Levites are the Kohen, or the Kohanim. They are the ones who are the priests, the Levites. But my take on that verse, verse 6, is God does not want to make one tribe a kingdom of priests. He wants to make all of Israel a kingdom of priests. And then we get to the Book of Revelation, and I'm going to throw this out there. I think it's a kingdom of priests and priestesses, kings and queens. And to me, that's connected to the temple. In the temple, we learn that that is God's end game. He wants to make us His treasure, and a kingdom of kings and queens, priests and priestesses. And so what does that denote? Kingdom denotes, I mean, in the Latter-day Saint context, family. Your family is your kingdom, and the right to rule and reign. But priests and priestesses, that has to do with being holy and also approaching God in a religious sense. And so what do we have? I think in the Bible, we have an edited version of this, where it's the Levites. But I think if we read the Book of Mormon, because I think Nephi understands first Israelite temple, pre-apostate stuff, Nephi talks about him being a, quote, king and priest, and he works in both capacities. And the great king and priest, of course, is Jesus. And he is trying to show us how to do this. And so I really like verse five and six. I like to connect it to ideas that John's teaching, and that Paul's teaching in Hebrews, and that we see in Revelation, and that we see in the temple. Because I think if we begin with the end in mind, if we know where God wants to take us, some of this stuff is going to make more sense. The rest of the chapter talks about them preparing. Verse ten talks about them washing their clothes. I'm going to put this out there. I'm going to say, I think that also includes washing their bodies. They need to be clean to approach God physically as well as spiritually. And then there's boundaries, that there's like this tripartite distinction, as some scholars call it. In other words, there's a distinction on Mount Sinai. The highest is where God is seen. So that would be similar to the Holy of Holies. The midpoint where the priests go, that would be the holy place. And then the foot of the mount would be the outer courtyard. In other words, what is Sinai? It's a typological temple complex. I want to briefly talk about verse 15. When the Lord is saying that what He's saying in verse 15 of Exodus 19, my take on that verse is that is cultural. There's a lot of cultural perspectives when it comes to intimacy and approaching God. I don't think having marital intimacy is in any way unholy, but I do see that culturally in the ancient world, there were some teachings that had those assumptions. And I think sometimes if we take verse 15 and we try to apply it, and I think some early Christians did, in early Christianity, there seemed to be this idea that if you spent your days in celibacy, you were somehow a super Christian. You were somehow more holy. And that is not our doctrine. Our doctrine is clearly connected to all the things else should I say in Genesis, which is be fruitful and multiply. I mean, it's the first commandment God gives Adam and Eve. And having children is holy and is good in the right context of marriage. And so I see verse 15 to me, I see this as kind of a cultural thing. And then the end of chapter 19 discusses like the smoke and the fire and the mountain quaking. And then verse 20 talks about the Lord coming down, that gazing upon God could cause you to perish. I mean, that's verse 21. And I think as Latter-day Saints, we can read this and say, well, God's presence is more glorious than the sun. So there has to be a change that takes place upon the person seeing God for them to endure his presence. And today we call that transfiguration. They have to be changed in a sense to come into God's presence. So, with that, Moses is coming into God's presence and going to have this experience. But then notice the end of the chapter, verse 24, The Lord said unto him, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up, and thou in Aaron with thee. But let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the people and spake unto them. And then verse 1 of the next chapter talks about, well, these are the words that God said unto them. So just know that in scholarship, there's a lot of scholars that say, hey, this is fragmented. Like, what's going on? Is he on the mountain? Is he coming down? And then in the 20th chapter, reporting what he saw, what do you do with verse 24? Because the bottom line is verse 24 is clunky. Next week, when we get into Exodus 24, we're going to see the entire chapter kind of talking about this idea of Moses coming into God's presence, but not only him, but Aaron, Nadab, Abahu, and the 70 elders of Israel come into God's presence. But verse 24 of chapter 19 says that that's not the case. And so just know that I'm just acknowledging the complexity and that it doesn't all match up. And I'm just saying that's okay. If we try to make the Bible always line up, we're going to run into problems.

Speaker 1:
[16:58] It's like trying to unify the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament. There is no way we can harmonize Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They just give different accounts of the Savior's life.

Speaker 2:
[17:11] Exactly. I think that's a perfect way to say it.

Speaker 1:
[17:14] Before we leave Exodus 19, can I give you a little homework? After you read that chapter, would you go read section 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants verses 17 through 27? Because that's where the Lord's going to make a commentary on what we just talked about in chapter 19. He's going to declare that the greater priesthood administhroth the gospel, holds the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom, and even the key of the knowledge of God. Then he's going to say that wonderful verse about in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest. And without the ordinances and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifested unto men in the flesh. That's the setting for this commentary. I think the suggestion here is that Moses was preparing them for temple ordinances. He was preparing them to participate in the ordinances that manifest the power of God. And then the Doctrine and Covenant says this, Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people. How many times in Exodus 19 do you find the word sanctify? That Moses sought diligently to sanctify his people, that they might behold the face of God. And the very next word is but. They hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence. Therefore the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fullness of his glory. Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst and the Holy Priesthood also. There's something that they didn't do that studying the Old Testament should compel us to do. They didn't qualify to go up and see the face of God. For whatever reason and whatever the circumstances were, they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence. And so I think the Lord is pleading with us in the latter days to understand that if you sanctify yourself, you can come into his presence, into his rest and into his glory. Don't make the same mistake as the Israelites and hold back. When he says sanctify yourselves and wash yourselves, he means that. And we should sanctify ourselves and wash ourselves and anoint ourselves. We should change the clothing that we're wearing and put on the coats of skins given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. And so ponder what didn't happen in Israel that should happen in our lives in our temples today.

Speaker 2:
[20:07] That's really good. I think adding DNC 84 kind of gives balance to these ideas. So with that, let's get into Exodus 20, The Ten Commandments. Now, in 1816, John Adams wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson. And he said, The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion. So I mean, the founding fathers, at least John Adams, took this stuff really seriously. And I do see the Ten Commandments, Bryce, as having application today. I think that they're as relevant now as they were then.

Speaker 1:
[20:38] I love that the Lord says in the Doctrine and Covenants that whoever obeys the laws of God, quote, hath no need to break the laws of the land. I think that's very significant. If you're going to obey a higher law, there's no need to break the lower law. And so we're going to talk in a few minutes about modern-day commandments, even ten of them. But they in no way replace the ancient ten commandments. I think those who obey the modern commandments hath no need to break any commandments of any other dispensation. Yes, I think we could look on the ten commandments as very basic, and we've been given a higher law, but there's no need to break the lower law. And so let's go over the ten that Moses was given on Sinai. We find the first one in verse 3, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The second one is in verse 4, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images. And then he expounds on that one through verse 6. So, don't worship any other gods, and don't form anything, a likeness of that god that you have in your presence and worship.

Speaker 2:
[21:50] I kind of geek out in the show notes about this. Clearly, verse 3, in the Hebrew language, God is acknowledging that other gods exist. And he says, essentially in the Hebrew, don't put them before my face. In other words, if I'm Moses and I'm looking at God, God is saying to me, don't put the gods of Egypt between us. They are to be behind him. And this is back to that idea we've talked about before, of monolatry, that the early stuff in the Bible, the stuff that's the oldest, acknowledges that other gods exist. But for you Israel, there's only Jehovah. Now that's gonna shift when we get to the 7th century to there's only one god, those other gods don't even exist. And then the Christian writers are gonna say, hey, those gods in Egypt, not only do they not exist, but if they do have power, they're demons. And so the way that people viewed God changed over time, which is to be understood. I mean, if we read this stuff historically, that's kind of how it played out. And so today we don't obviously worry about the gods of Egypt, or I don't worry if Artemis is upset with me, or Apollo's mad that I did something. We kind of look at that as myth and not literal. But in the ancient world, they did have these conversations. That's how verse 3 kind of plays out. And so today we would look at verse 3, and I think that in the talk by Spencer W. Kimball, the false gods we worship, Spencer W. Kimball would say, you put other gods before God when you say things like, well, I can't afford to pay tithing because I have a boat, or I can't go to church because I've got a golf appointment. In other words, you're putting other gods before Him. I mean, in our secular world, I think that's how we would contextualize verse 3.

Speaker 1:
[23:33] So don't have any other gods and don't have an image to that god. In verse 7, he gives us number 3, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, which has become known as don't swear and don't curse, which it certainly has a connotation to that.

Speaker 2:
[23:52] You know, Bryce, on that one, on take the Lord's name in vain, I've got a really great story in the show notes by President Hinckley, where he said a word he shouldn't have said and his mom watched his mouth out. And the reason why I like that story on so many levels is, hey, President Hinckley was once a kid, so it gives us hope, but it also shows, hey, we got to watch how we speak. But I think in the context of Exodus 20 verse 7 of taking God's name in vain, I think it had a different meaning. And I think one of the ways we could read this is, don't use religion for vain things. Don't use God's name to do vain things. And so Martin Luther talked about this, where he said, in his view, the sale of indulgences was taking God's name in vain. The people that were using God's name were doing things that he thought was unholy. And I would agree with Martin Luther on that regard. But I'm with you, Bryce. Today we take verse 7 to mean, don't use potty language. Don't use language that you couldn't use in front of your mother.

Speaker 1:
[24:48] Right. An interesting cross-reference in the Doctrine and Covenant, sections 63, 61, and 62. The Lord says, Let all men beware how they take my name in their lips. For behold, verily I say unto you, that many there are who are under this condemnation, who use the name of the Lord and use it in vain, having not authority. I think that's kind of the gist of what was intended in the original Ten Commandments. It's don't assume to do things in God's name when you don't have God's authority to do it.

Speaker 2:
[25:22] Yeah. Okay, so now we've talked about taking God's name in vain. That's the third commandment. The fourth is to keep the Sabbath day. And then there's a bunch of stuff in there about, you know, not only should you not work, but verse 10 talks about don't make other people work. And why? Well, verse 11, because the Lord made the world, and on the seventh day he rested.

Speaker 1:
[25:43] Now, one comment that we ought to make about the Sabbath day is for 4000 years, the Sabbath day was a memorial to God creating the earth and freeing them from Egypt. They remembered that God rested, they remembered that God did his work. When Jesus rose on the first day of the week, the Sabbath changed to remember his victory over death. So we still have the commandment to hallow the day and remember God on that day. But our emphasis today is that we remember Christ's victory over death on that day, which we celebrate on the first day of the week because that was the day he rose from the dead, not so much the seventh day which God rested and remember all that God did in the Old Testament. So there's a little bit of a twist in our day regarding the Sabbath day and why we honor it and what we remember. Now those are the first four, and Jesus is gonna summarize those four by saying that the great commandment to love God with all your heart. The next six have to do with how we treat each other. And the first one is kind of a funny one if you look at the whole text of the Bible because the Lord says in verse 12, commandment number five, honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveeth thee.

Speaker 2:
[27:08] The reason why I think this is a little bit funny is because in that verse, well, your days be long upon the land actually has to do with the idea that if you aren't honoring your parents, they could actually kill you. So it's not in Exodus. But if you go to Deuteronomy 21, verse 18, it says, if a man has a stubborn and rebellious son which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him, he won't hearken unto them, then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out to the elders of the city and to the gate of his place. And they shall say to the elders of the city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious. So what are they gonna do? Verse 21, all the men of the city shall stone him with stones that he die. So thou shalt put evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. And so obviously we don't take this literally today. And I don't even know if they did take it literally that way back then, but it's in the text. And so I'm just acknowledging the complexity of it there.

Speaker 1:
[28:08] So now we get to the last five. So verse 13, thou shalt not kill. Verse 14, thou shalt not commit adultery. Verse 15, thou shalt not steal. Verse 16, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. And then the 10th commandment, verse 17, thou shalt not covet. And then a whole list of things that we're not to covet.

Speaker 2:
[28:33] Now when I teach teenagers, I talk about how easy it is to remember these. And I've done this before with mission prep and teaching young people as they're about to go on missions and say, hey, don't be overwhelmed by the Ten Commandments. It seems kind of complicated, but it's really as simple as just making up these rhymes. And so I'm gonna go really quick through this. And if it works for you, great. I think it's great with kids. And it also helps, especially young people who think that they can't remember things. And you teach this mnemonic device and they're like, wait, I actually can remember things. And so all you have to remember is these 10 rhymes. One son, two shoe, three tree, four door, five alive, six sticks, seven heaven, eight gate, nine sign, ten hen. That's it. If you can remember that, you can remember the Ten Commandments. And so one son, one son is the son of God is preeminent. So thou shalt have no other gods before me. The son of God is preeminent.

Speaker 1:
[29:29] He's number one.

Speaker 2:
[29:30] Number one. Two shoe. If I take my shoe, I have my shoes on, and I step in a little bit of mud that's kind of soft, and I lift up my foot, it leaves this image, this imprint of my foot. And so the second commandment is no graven images. And then three, three is tree, and trees have branches, and branches have leaves, and leaves have veins. So the third commandment is don't take the name of the Lord in vain. Four, and then with four I make a little, I take my hands and I put them together, and I make a little church with a steeple in my thumbs of the door, so you can have to use your imagination what I'm doing right now with my hands. And I hold up my hands as a church with the door and the steeple, and I open the door, and inside are all the people. I know that's kind of cheesy, but kids remember it. And then I say, what do you do on the Sabbath day? You open the door to the church. You should go to church and worship the Lord. Five, alive, if you do this, you'll stay alive on your parents. Then I talk about Deuteronomy 21, and the kids laugh. Six, sticks. If I hit somebody in the head with a stick a bunch of times, they eventually will die, so don't do that. Don't kill. Seven, heaven. Now this one's tough, but with seven, I always say it rhymes with heaven, and the world talks about immorality as heavenly, but the Lord's like, no, you can't live the laws of heaven and commit adultery. So that is a little clunky, but that's what I do with seven, heaven. Eight, we're going to make up for it here. Eight rhymes with gate, and gates are made out of steel, so don't steal. Nine, nine can be sign or it can be crime, because it rhymes with both. If I'm a witness to a crime, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth if I'm summoned to court. Also, nine rhymes with sign. So if I'm driving down the freeway and I see a big billboard that says, hey, smoke Virginia Slims and it will make you young and pretty, we know that's not true because we'll actually do the opposite. So it is bearing false witness or it is lying. So nine sign or nine crime. Then finally, ten. Ten rhymes with hen. If Bryce has a hen that lays golden eggs, and Bryce is just like, man, he's going on vacation everywhere and he has a private jet, and every day he gets a solid gold egg, and he's just got money everywhere. I'm so jealous of Bryce and I want his hen. Why? Because of what his hen can give me, I'm coveting that hen Bryce has, and Bryce, can I just have an egg, please? I just want one. And so, it's super quick. And then I just say, okay, guys, what's the Eighth Commandment? And I always do that one first, because it's easy, eight, gate, steal, right? And I say, okay, what rhymes with eight? And they say gate. And it's amazing how the kids are like, they got it. It's just so quick. So that's a fun thing you can do with your family on a family night, or if you're teaching a group of youth. I really like it as a teacher because I think it helps give kids confidence, so they can remember stuff.

Speaker 1:
[32:22] That's fun, Mike. I love that. Now, let's get to our day. Joseph Smith said the following, To every church in past ages, which the Lord recognized to be His, He gave revelations, wisely calculated to govern them in the particular situation and circumstances under which they were placed, and to enable them by authority to do the peculiar work which they were to perform. The Bible contains revelations given at different times to different people under different circumstances. The old world was destroyed for rejecting the revelations of God given to them through Noah. The Israelites were destroyed in the wilderness for despising the revelations given to them through Moses. And Christ said that the world in the days of the apostles would be condemned for not receiving the word of God through them. Thus we see that the judgments of God in the past ages have come upon the people not so much for neglecting the revelations given to their forefathers as for rejecting those given immediately to themselves. So while the Ten Commandments are still good, I think we need to recognize that because of the generation in which we live, because of our day, we should expect a new set of commandments tailored for our particular situation and our particular circumstances. And that's exactly what we find in the Doctrine and Covenants. Now I'll keep it to a nice list of ten, but if you go through the Doctrine and Covenants, you can find a whole lot of thou shouts and thou shalt nots. So I'm going to present ten, and I'm going to begin with the ones given in Kirtland. Now if you'll go to section 37 and 38, the Lord sends the saints to Kirtland, Ohio. In verse 32 of section 38, He says, Go to the Ohio, and I'm going to do two very significant things. He says, first, I'm going to give you my law. And then secondly, you'll be endowed with power from on high. So we're going to receive a temple through which we are endowed with significant priesthood keys. And then we received a law. Now if you'll go to section 42 and look at the preface, Joseph Smith specifies section 42 as, quote, embracing the law of the church, that we have a modern-day law. So Moses went up and received the law for his people, and in Kirtland, Ohio, symbolically Joseph Smith went up to his own Sinai and received the law for our day. I love that he starts by pulling a few from the Old Testament. It's like we transition from the Old Testament and then we're going to add a lot of new ones. So the first one I would give you is in verse 18, section 42, verse 18, Thou shalt not kill. Now he says some things about killing that I don't fully understand. I don't know when killing is forgivable and when it's not. Luckily, there are brilliant people above me that deal with that and I don't. But there are some circumstances according to the Lord where forgiveness is not going to be forgiven you. Verse 20 is commandment number 2, Thou shalt not steal. And verse 21, Thou shalt not lie. So do you kind of see that same list we saw in the Old Testament? Now the one missing from the Old Testament is the big one, right? Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I love what the Lord does next. Instead of the negative, don't commit adultery. In our day, He gives us a powerful positive. So I would give as a fourth commandment, verse 22 of section 42, Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else. I love the positive there. There are only two people in the scriptures we are to love with all our heart. The great commandment is that we love God with all our heart, but the second commandment is that we love human beings, our neighbors, at different level. We love our neighbor as our self, except for one human being. One human being is taken from that level and moved up to the other level of love. And so God and my spouse are the only two people I am commanded to love with all my heart. And I love what President Kimball said about that commandment where he said, When the Lord says all thy heart, it allows for no sharing, nor dividing, nor depriving. And to the woman it is paraphrased, thou shalt love thy husband with all thy heart, and shall cleave unto him and none else. The words none else eliminate everyone and everything. The spouse then becomes preeminent in the life of the husband or wife, and neither social life, nor occupational life, nor political life, nor any other interest, nor person, nor thing, shall ever take precedence over the companion's spouse. The Lord says, thou shalt cleave unto him and none else. Marriage presupposes total allegiance and total fidelity. Each spouse takes the partner with the understanding that he or she gives totally to the spouse all the heart, strength, loyalty, honor, and affection with all dignity. Any divergence is sin. Any sharing of the heart is transgression.

Speaker 2:
[38:12] Yeah. Bryce, I like that. This is positive in verse 22, and then in verse 23, I think what I see here is a combination of the ideas taught in Exodus, but it's also combined with the Sermon on the Mount, because Jesus kind of took it to this higher plane where he said not to look upon a woman with lust, and so we kind of have both presented in the 42nd section of the Doctrine and Covenants combined, and then in verses 24, 25, and 26, it's this, okay, but what if it happens? Then what? And then it's this message of forgiveness and repentance. And so we have a lot of these ideas of the gospel that coalesce in section 42, that aren't really spelled out in Exodus. And so I think this is worthy of examination and considering when we talk about these things, because this is for our time, and kind of understanding it and reading it through that lens gives it more meaning.

Speaker 1:
[39:11] I love that combination. Isn't that beautiful? It's good.

Speaker 2:
[39:14] And I find verse 27 to be interesting, where it says, the Lord says, not to speak evil of thy neighbor, nor do him any harm. There's a lot of rabbinic tradition that speaking evil of someone is worse than many sins because it's so difficult to put back. And even though, you know, we don't read things like section 42, verse 27, in the Ten Commandments, but I think that the spirit of that verse is in there, right? When it talks about burying false witness or coveting. But I think this verse really kind of helps us re-think about how we communicate. And by the way, even if something is true, if it's speaking evil of my neighbor and it's a true thing, maybe we should re-think that. Like, I think even that would be part of verse 27. Just because it's true doesn't mean you should say it, right?

Speaker 1:
[40:01] Yeah, if it does them harm, if it does them harm, we ought not to say it. So there's our number five. Thou shalt not speak evil of thy neighbor, nor do him any harm. Now, can I give you a balance to that? Because I think sometimes we take that too far. Sometimes we give as a badge of honor that she never said anything negative about somebody. And that's a badge of honor. And I love that in the Spirit we're following commandment number five, thou shalt not speak evil of thy neighbor. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't sit our children down and talk about something that happened that may have been negative and learn the lesson from it. Mormon 9, verse 31, Moroni says, Condemn me not because of mine imperfections, nor my father because of his imperfections. Then he adds this, Rather give thanks unto God that our imperfections have been made known unto you so that you can learn to be more wise than we can be. I think there's great value in sitting a child down and saying, can we talk about what that other person did and why we shouldn't do that, or what can we learn from that? I think that's a very different discussion than speaking evil of my neighbor and doing them harm. Joseph Smith lost the manuscript, a huge chunk of the Book of Mormon, and that story is in the Scripture so that we learn a lesson from that. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times, and that story is in the Scripture so that we can learn from it. So I think there's a balance to that. It's not saying don't ever talk about negative things. Teach your children to avoid mistakes of other people. That's a very valuable discussion. But speaking of my neighbor in such a way that it does them harm, I think there's the balance there.

Speaker 2:
[41:49] Especially in religion. I think Joseph Smith disagreed with people on points of religion, but we can disagree without being disagreeable.

Speaker 1:
[41:57] Beautifully said. Number 6 is in verse 30, and it's the precursor to the Law of Consecration. He says, Thou wilt remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support. Now Mike and I talked a great deal about the Law of Consecration back in our Doctrine and Covenants podcast. You may want to go back and listen to section 42. We deal with the Law of Consecration and the multiple steps that is consecration. And back in section 38, we talked about the inner Law of Consecration, the desires of my heart that will allow me to remember the poor. And that's a major theme in the latter days. If you go to the Book of Mormon, you remember King Benjamin and talks about not supporting the beggar. And then if you'll turn to Amulek's teaching in Alma 34 where he says, after you've done this prayer, after you've prayed unto God, if you don't remember the poor and the needy, your prayer was in vain. So that's a very strong emphasis in our day. Thou wilt remember the poor and consecrate of thy property for their support. That's a big one. The seventh one I would list is in verse 40 of section 42. Thou shalt not be proud in thy heart. Again, if the Book of Mormon has a theme, if the Book of Mormon is written for our day and is trying to correct modern day challenges, what does the Book of Mormon have to say about pride? Major theme. And so here we find the Lord saying, Thou shalt not be proud in thy heart. If you want more on that, I'd recommend the podcast that Mike and I did for Jacob chapter 2 in the Book of Mormon, where we really jumped into pride. What is it and how do we avoid it? But there's the modern-day commandment, Thou shalt not be proud in thy heart. I would list as number 8, verse 42, Thou shalt not be idle. Now I will admit, most of my young life, when I read those verses, I assumed that what the Lord was saying is, don't be lazy. Just don't be lazy. And I think there is an element of don't be lazy. But as I have grown up, I have seen that that is a lot deeper. The commandment to not be idle is more than just don't be lazy. What I hear the Lord saying, and you are going to find this theme all throughout the Scriptures, is you take care of you. Don't shift the burden of your maintenance onto someone else. You take care of you. I find it in these words from President Kimball. He says, The responsibility for each person's social, emotional, spiritual, physical, and economic well-being rests first upon himself, second upon his family, and third upon the church if he is a faithful member of the church. No true Latter-day Saint, while physically or emotionally able, will voluntarily shift the burden of his own or his family's well-being to someone else. So long as he can, under the inspiration of the Lord and with his own labors, he will supply himself and his family with the spiritual and temporal necessities of life. I love that the Declaration of Independence did not say that we have an unalienable right to happiness. That would suggest that I have a right to happiness and you have to give it to me. What the text of the Declaration of Independence says is that we have an inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. No one else is responsible to make me happy, but I have a right to pursue my own happiness. I think that's the gist of this commandment. Is you take care of you. If you are not able to take care of you, turn to your family. If your family cannot take care of you, you can turn to the church. At what point you turn to the government, I think that's a personal decision you have to take. When do I turn to the government for help? When do I turn to the church for help? And when do I just simply say to myself, thank you everyone, but I can take care of myself and my family. I will not be idle.

Speaker 2:
[46:45] Kind of reminds me of a story told by Mary Angie Romney. And he clipped it from the Reader's Digest. I remember reading the Reader's Digest when I was a kid. So here's the story that he's going to read. He says, In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine, great flocks of seagulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don't know how to fish. For generations they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets. But now the fleet has moved. The shrimpers created a welfare state for the seagulls. These big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves, and they've never taught their children to fish. Instead, they led their little ones to the shrimp nets. Now the seagulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the something-for-nothing lure. They sacrifice their independence for a handout. A lot of people are like that too. They see nothing wrong in picking delectable scraps from the tax nets of the US government's shrimp fleet. But what will happen when the government runs out of goods? What about our children of generations to come? Let's not be gullible goals. We must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift, and our love of independence.

Speaker 1:
[48:11] So let's move on to number nine. Verse 45 of section 42, I love this, Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that Thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more especially for those who have not hope of a glorious resurrection. That's the kind of people we should be. Thou shalt live together in love. I would love it if that were the reputation of the Latter-day Saints, that they are faithful to their spouses, they don't speak evil of their neighbor, they take care of the poor, they take care of themselves, and they live together in love, in so much that they weep over the loss of anyone, and especially someone who doesn't have a hope of a glorious resurrection. That's a beautiful commandment. Now let me just throw one more in. In section 59, verses 5 and 6, he does summarize them again, saying, Wherefore I give unto them a commandment, saying, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy might, mind, and strength, and in the name of Jesus Christ, thou shalt serve him. There's the summary of the great commandment. And then in verse 6 is the other one, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And then he repeats quite a few, Thou shalt not steal, neither commit a dutry, nor kill, nor do anything like unto it. And then he throws this one on that is not found in the original Ten Commandments at Sinai. Thou shalt thank the Lord, thy God, in all things. And again, that's also a major theme of the Restoration is gratitude. The Lord will say in this very same section, verse 21, In nothing doth men offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments. So I would list that as a tenth one. Thou shalt thank the Lord, thy God, in all things. Thankfulness and gratitude is the shortcut through the pride cycle that avoids pride, sin, and pain. It allows us to take our blessings and jump right to humility. Instead of our prosperity leading to pride, gratitude is the shortcut that allows us to go from prosperity to humility and avoid the negatives of the pride cycle. It is a powerful thought of what could happen if we are grateful to God for our blessings. So there's my list of ten. Some from the Old Testament, but a lot of new ones. Thou shalt love thy spouse with all thy heart, cleave unto him or her and unto none else. Thou shalt not speak evil of thy neighbor nor do him any harm. So much of this has to do with taking care of our neighbor, remembering the poor and consecrating, living together in love, thanking the Lord, being a thankful, grateful people. In addition to any commandments that may have come up in the past, these are the commandments specific to our day and the challenges that we face that the Lord would have us obey as well.

Speaker 2:
[51:28] Now, if you're wondering about some of the difficult to interpret passages at the end of Exodus 20 after the Ten Commandments are given, the idea that they're to build alters but not with any tools and not with hewn stones or what's going on with the altar not having steps. If you're interested, go read the show notes and you can kind of get some ideas as to what's going on there. It's good, I think, as a teacher to know the stuff behind the text in case you get asked questions, but not necessarily that you would teach it, but that you know it. You should always, as a teacher, know more than what you're teaching. So go there, check it out if that interests you. And so I want to talk about briefly some of this stuff we're skipping.

Speaker 1:
[52:09] Because the Lord didn't stop after the Ten Commandments, he gave a little bit more.

Speaker 2:
[52:13] Yeah. And so in fact, we're ratifying the Covenant in the 24th chapter with the meal, a Covenant meal with God, but 21, 22 and 23 are additions to the commandments. And in scholarship, this is called the Covenant Code. And I geek out a ton about this in some things. I wrote a paper on the divergent slave laws in the Old Testament. And so for those of you that are geek out fans, I'll link this in the show notes and you can read my short paper on the differences in the slave laws and these things. In fact, the very first thing out of the gate in the 21st chapter, it talks about the slave laws. And there's quite a few verses dedicated to, okay, what do we do in these instances? And this isn't the only place that slave law is discussed in the Pentateuch. And I'm just going to come right out and say it, I'm not a fan of slavery. I don't personally believe that God is a fan of slavery either. I think it's not right that one man should be in bondage to another.

Speaker 1:
[53:07] That comes right out of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is very clear. It is not right that one man should be in bondage to another.

Speaker 2:
[53:14] So what do we do with this? David Wright wrote a great book. And basically, his book discusses how the Covenant Code used some of the existing laws in the Ancient Near East. He's going to attach it to the laws of Hammurabi, which is 18th century BC. This book's not for everybody. Clearly, his approach is from a scholarly position. But his approach to the Covenant Code, these chapters, is that it's a repackaging of Ancient Near Eastern law. And he makes a pretty strong case. So, I've talked about this before, this Golden Clay Principle. So the Scriptures, like, there's a lot of gold in there, but there's also clay, because people are involved in the construction of them. And so on, on a continuum, if I'm holding out my right hand where everything there, and there's those that believe this with the Bible, that everything is pure revelation, it's perfect in every way, and then on the left hand, if my left hand is extended, there's individuals that think, okay, everything in the Bible is completely manmade. It's a complete construction made by man. There's no divinity in it. And along this continuum, I don't take either position on these chapters, but I'm not in the middle. When it comes to these chapters, I'm more towards my left hand, but it doesn't mean I'm right. And everybody takes a different position. But think about this. Remember Joseph Smith, where he said everyone was disagreeing about the Bible, and he said, It was impossible for a man as young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to decide from the Bible who was right and who was wrong. And if you think about it, the fundamental things that people struggled with in the 19th century in America, slavery, like you couldn't settle it from the Bible. People use the Bible to defend and attack slavery. Welcome to the Bible. Obviously, I'm not a fan of slavery, but there's those kinds of things in what's called the Covenant Code. Other things too, like what happens if Bryce's livestock does damage to my livestock? What if Bryce takes my chicken? What if his goat comes over and eats a bunch of my corn? Or what happens if Bryce is guilty of sorcery? Or if Bryce is an apostate, I got to do stuff to him? And then there's a bunch of stuff in here about the concern for the poor and the widows. All kinds of stuff. And so what we did was we outlined it in the show notes. You can go and read it. But I just wanted to at least pay homage to these texts and note that they were relevant to the people that lived in Israel at the time. They were relevant to these individuals because they had these kinds of questions. I don't think you and I are really worried about stealing someone's water or boiling a kid in its mother's milk. But in those times, they did have those kinds of questions. And so after the Lord goes through all these things, when it comes to how to behave, we get to what I'm going to say is the meat of this stuff. And that's going to be the 24th chapter. This is where they're going to agree to the covenant, and they're going to ratify it. And there's going to be a visionary experience. This is really cool.

Speaker 1:
[56:07] Right. Do you accept or will you reject these? Will you live by this law? And the people come together, and in verse 3 it says, the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord hath said, we will do. So there's an acceptance of the covenant. Now we're going to seal that. We're going to ratify that covenant. And so Moses prepares a sacrifice, and he takes the blood and half of the blood he uses for the sacrifice. The other half, verse 7, he took the book of the covenant and read it in the audience of the people. And they said again, all that the Lord hath said we will do, and we will be obedient. And then Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. Now that is significant. It points to so many different things. The blood of a covenant should clearly point to Jesus made all of these covenants ratifiable and verifiable with the shedding of his blood. So clearly there's a reference to the Savior here. There's also, like the Nephites will do under Captain Moroni. Do you remember when he rips his shirt and he says, This is what the Lord is going to do to us if we don't keep our covenants. And so there's this spirit of, We're going to shed our blood if we don't keep the covenants. It's kind of that acceptance. We are giving ourselves to this covenant. We receive it. And may our blood be shed if we don't keep the covenant. To kind of illustrate that point, let me just read one verse from the Book of Mormon. When Zarahemna comes down against Captain Moroni, and they kind of face off, Captain Moroni says the following to Zarahemna. This is Alma chapter 44 verse 4. It's easy to remember, 444. And he says, Now ye see that this is the true faith of God. Yea, ye see that God will support and keep and preserve us, as long as we are faithful unto Him, and unto our faith and our religion. And never will the Lord suffer that we should be destroyed, except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith. So there's that idea that as long as we keep our covenants with God, we will be kept and supported and preserved. But if we don't keep our covenants, that's on us. The blood is on us. It's our fault if we are destroyed because we broke the covenants. So I think there's a lot going on here when the blood is sprinkled on them.

Speaker 2:
[58:58] Yeah, and I think the altar, the pillars, there's a lot going on here in this covenant setting. They're at the mountain. If you look in verse 4, it says that he built an altar, and then it says under the hill. But literally in the Hebrew, it's under the mountain. I'm just going to call it the mountain because I think hill just kind of takes away the significance of what we're doing. And then he's building these 12 pillars. And the Book of the Covenants related to this, and everything that the Lord has said, we will do so. All the stuff in 20, 21, 22, 23, all those stipulations of the Covenant Code, the people are agreeing to, and then they see God. Verse 10 says that they saw the God of Israel, and under his feet, as it were, a paved work of sapphire stone or lapus lazuli. It's this bright blue brilliance. And I see this as God standing above the waters again. He's above this surface of blue. There's a really cool picture that the church has that we put in the slides where they ratify this covenant. And it's a bunch of people that see God. And Bryce, I find it really interesting that there's this conflict with whether or not you can see God in Exodus. There's verses that say you can, and there's verses that say you can't.

Speaker 1:
[60:15] There is a Joseph Smith Translation change that addresses that, that we're gonna see in chapter 33. So maybe we read that now.

Speaker 2:
[60:23] Yeah, because if you look in Exodus 33.20, it says, there shall no man see me and live. And then the JST says, thou canst not see my face at this time.

Speaker 1:
[60:34] At this time. He emphasizes at this time, because you're not worthy. Doesn't mean you can't become worthy. It just means right now you can't see my face, because you are exceedingly sinful.

Speaker 2:
[60:48] Yeah. Neither shall there be any sinful man that can see me at any time, that shall see my face and live. We put some other ones in the show notes. So, for example, John 1 verse 18, and then I give the Greek because I'm a weirdo. But I translated it, which is, no one has seen God at any time ever. Paul Pate could be at any time or ever. And the rest of the verse reads as follows. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. But the Joseph Smith Translation of John 1 verse 18 reads as follows. No man has seen God at any time, except he has borne record of the Son. For except it be through him, no man can be saved. So this means that whenever anyone has had contact with the Father, the Father has borne record to him of the Son. And this is congruent with the event in Matthew 3 verse 17, after the baptism of Jesus, or Matthew 17, 5, on the Mount of Transfiguration, when the Father bears witness of the Son. And also in 3 Nephi 11, 7, when the resurrected Lord appears to the Nephites, in each of these examples, the Father testified of the Son. So we give some others, but I just want to just bear my witness of this idea, that if we're looking for complete uniformity in the biblical text on some of these basic doctrines, the nature of God, whether you can see God, is it okay to own slaves? You're not going to get congruence in the biblical text because different authorship and they have different theological perspectives. But the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to me, makes it clear individuals have seen Him and He will make Himself known. And I think if we can understand that and if we can read some of these chapters, because some of this stuff is going to be messy, but if we read it through the lens of the restoration, it will be clearer. And so I just want to testify of that.

Speaker 1:
[62:34] Now speaking of the restoration, look at what happens next. I love that this is in the Bible, because this has so much to do with the restoration and our world. So Moses comes down with a basic law, some very preliminary thou shouts and thou shalt nots and some codes. And he says, will you accept this? And they do. So what is the result of them accepting that basic covenant? The Lord says, come back up into the mountain, Moses, and I will give you more. As we are willing to receive his law, he gives us more. If we reject his law, he doesn't. That's the basic law of the church. There is so much to that simple reality that grace for grace and line upon line. And we achieve that by receiving what he gives us. He gives you a little bit, you receive it, you get a little bit better, he gives you a little bit more. You receive that, you get a little bit more. Nephi will say it this way in the Book of Mormon. I'm gonna read from 2nd Nephi chapter 28 verse 30. He simply summarizes this whole thing with, And thus saith the Lord God, I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, hear a little and there a little, and blessed are those who harken unto my precepts and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom. For unto him that receiveth will I give more. I'm gonna say that one more time because that's gonna be critical this week as you study these chapters. Unto him that receiveth will I give more, and from them that say we have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have. So, quick summary of what you're gonna read this week is when they accept the basic law of 20 through 23, when they say we will keep it, Moses goes up and receives a whole lot more. He receives the temple endowment. And then he comes down and they've made a golden calf, and they in essence reject it. So then they get a lesser law.

Speaker 2:
[64:54] By the way, Bryce, I see that right here in the 24th chapter in verse 9, 10 and 11. To me, this is my reading of this. I superimpose this with the stuff we give you in the show notes on the Book of Revelation with the marriage supper of the Lamb. I superimpose this with section 27 of the Doctrine and Covenants. And we talked about this with the Doctrine and Covenants year. But in section 27, the Lord says, you will sit down with me. And then he gives a laundry list of like, who's who of some of the prophetic figures in history. And we are going to have a feast. And that feast, remember, that's in the First Temple. We've taken that out today. We practiced the feast weekly in the church. It's a symbolic feast. It's a small piece of bread and water. But it's this looking forward. It's a type to a future event where we will sit down with the Savior and feast. And like Bryce says, we will receive those things. In fact, that idea of feasting and things, the devarim is the things. But things, devarim, can mean things or words. And so what does Nephi say? Feast upon the words of Christ. Or that could be devarim, could be things of Christ. And so literally, feasting is connected to the things and the words. And that's what we do in the temple. We receive the things of God in the temple. So here it is as a type or a symbol or a figure. The top of the mount, that's the temple. They're seeing God, that's the temple. And we're going to see this later in the podcast where we're going to talk about section 84 as a way to interpret these passages that God wants to give us all of this. And so this is just a mini drop of milk and honey in the midst of a bunch of messiness. Because we're going to leave 24 and it's going to get sketchy. Is that fair to say?

Speaker 1:
[66:37] Because when he comes down with that more, they don't want it. They don't want the more. And so then he comes back with less. Chapter 24 is so critical that they accept the Covenant, they see God, and then the Lord says, come back and get more. I'm going to give you some stone tables, I'm going to give you a law, I'm going to give you the temple, I'm going to give you the endowment, I'm going to give you so much more. So that's how it works. Receive what he's given you, and he'll give you more. And that's what 24 is. They receive, they see, and then the Lord says, come back to the mountain, Moses. Come back up, I've got more to give you. And so then the thunders are rumbling, the Lord is clearly preparing, and then Moses goes up. And he's going to be gone a long time to show you how much the Lord wants to give us. And that kind of brings us to the end of chapter 24. But then we skip another chunk. We skip from 25 through 30, because they are a hard read. But they are wonderful in knowing that they're building a tabernacle, that they're building a temple. And we're taking the pieces of that temple and putting it in place. And it's a marvelous opportunity to stop and sit down with your children and say, what's the symbolism of that piece of the temple?

Speaker 2:
[67:55] If you were teaching little children, you could show pictures or even a short video. We'll link a great video in the show notes section. And it's from a great author. The name of his channel on YouTube is called Messages of Christ. He is a Latter-day Saint. One year, he came out to the seminar where I was teaching, and he actually made the robes of the High Priest and the ephod. He made this stuff. And I always, every time when I talk about the Tabernacle, I show this video. It's about seven minutes. And I think that seven minutes captures the essence of Exodus 25 through 31. It really does.

Speaker 1:
[68:30] I love that Elder Bednar has been talking so much about the temple recently. He said the following in April of 2019, Indeed, temple preparation is most effective in our homes. But many church members are unsure about what appropriately can and cannot be said regarding the temple experience outside of the temple. President Ezra Taft Benson described why this uncertainty exists. So this is Elder Bednar quoting a prophet. President Benson said, The temple is a sacred place, and the ordinances of the temple are of a sacred character. Because of its sacredness, we are sometimes reluctant to say anything about the temple to our children and grandchildren. As a consequence, many do not develop a real desire to go to the temple. And when they go there, they do so without much background to prepare them for the obligations and the covenants they enter into. I believe, this is still President Benson, I believe, a proper understanding or background will immeasurably help prepare our youth for the temple and will foster within them a desire to seek their priesthood blessings just as Abraham sought his. In other words, we can talk about the temple, we should talk about the temple. It is as wrong to not talk appropriately about the temple as it is to talk inappropriately about the temple. So Elder Bednar gives two guidelines. Guideline number one, because we love the Lord, we always should speak about his holy house with reverence. We should not disclose or describe the special symbols associated with the covenants we receive in sacred temple ceremonies. Neither should we discuss the holy information that we specifically promise in the temple not to reveal. So guideline number one is don't talk about the symbols associated with the covenants. And then guideline number two, the temple is the house of the Lord. Everything in the temple points us to our Savior Jesus Christ. We may discuss the basic purposes of and the doctrine and principles associated with temple ordinances and covenants. We may discuss the purpose and the doctrine and the principles. And so what Mike and I would encourage you to do is to look for opportunities where you can show your children symbols of the temple that were in the Tabernacle and how they point to Christ. So Mike and I are just really quickly going to walk you through the Tabernacle of the Old Testament and how it points us to Christ and our journey from telestial to terrestrial to celestial. There are three portions of the temple. There was an outer courtyard which represents the telestial kingdom. And coming out of the telestial and into the inner temple, the holy place, there was an altar of sacrifice. And a bowl of water where you washed called a laver. So do you see that beautiful symbol? We come out of the telestial and into the terrestrial through sacrifice and washing. That points us to baptism and burying the natural man and coming out of the water of baptism, committed to be clean and at least live a terrestrial life. So similar symbols in the church today.

Speaker 2:
[72:14] And then we come into the holy place. On the right hand side is the table of shoe bread or the bread of the presence. On the left is the menorah. And it's literally shaped like a tree. It's like an almond tree. And there's all this stuff in there about knops and flowers and branches. And it is a tree. It's a sacred tree. And then right before the veil is the altar of incense. And John in the Book of Revelation says that the smoke or the incense that goes forth to heaven is the prayer of the saints. And so if we think about this from a Latter-day Saint perspective, and we think about where are we in the temple right before the veil and how that is involved with prayer and unlocking the powers of heaven and invoking God to come into his presence, then we go into the holy place.

Speaker 1:
[72:59] Which represents the presence of God. We go through the veil and embrace God's presence. And in that Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat. And God's presence was in there. And what I love is that inside that Ark was the tablets of stone, a pot of manna, and Aaron's rod. So think about the symbolism. What leads us into the Father's presence? It's the laws of God, manna. It's the rod of God, the prophet, and it's the bread of God. So many wonderful things that kind of describe that journey from telestial to terrestrial to celestial.

Speaker 2:
[73:49] And it's drenched in images of Christ. I mean, from the very beginning in the altar, we have the lamb, and then we have the bread of the presence inside the holy place, with Jesus is the bread of life, he is the light of the world, and then the ark, this box that's gold, is often referred to as a couple of things. One is the mercy seat, and the other one is his footstool. Now, it's not in Exodus, but John's going to put it in there, so I feel like I can say this. In the Book of Revelation, John says there's a throne in there, there's a tree in there, and there's a river coming out. Ezekiel does the same stuff, and the reason why is because we're talking about God's throne. And so on one of the slides, we actually show how going through the steps in the temple is reversing the effects of the fall. By going through the steps, we're coming back to the throne of God. Now, I believe in stories, and I believe a great way to remember a story is a physical reminder. And one day I was pondering every single one of these physical manifestations of the Tabernacle, and it was like a light bulb went off in my head. So now I'm going to share that light bulb with you. Every one of these things is the story of the Exodus, Chapter 12. They sacrifice a lamb. That's the bronze altar. Then they cross the sea. They're going through the waters of chaos. In fact, it's actually called Yam in the text in Hebrew, which is the sea, the molten sea. Then they come into the holy place. And what do they have? They have the Bread of the Presence. And they have light. They're guided by a pillar of light. Oh, but there's also a pillar of smoke. That's the altar of incense. And then when they get to the top of the mount, they see God. So every single one of these accrutements of temple worship is literally the story of the Exodus. Like it's so cool.

Speaker 1:
[75:43] Which is a symbol of our mortal journey. So help your children see the symbolism of these temples. And it's not just the physical things. You can take a look at Aaron and his sons. And Aaron was the high priest. And the high priest went into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. And he carried 12 stones on his breastplate. And you could have a wonderful discussion with your children about Jesus carries us into the presence of the Father. But there was a real limitation as to who actually went into the Holy of Holies. The high priest did, but not everyone else did.

Speaker 2:
[76:21] At least in the text we have.

Speaker 1:
[76:23] And then there's this beautiful moment at the crucifixion of Christ. As soon as Jesus says, It is finished and gave up the ghost, two things rip. The earth rips. There's an earthquake. And the veil of the temple rips. Symbolically suggesting that now anyone can go into the presence of the Father. Because of the atonement that Christ just performed. Everyone can go into the presence of the Father. The veil is no longer an obstacle. And now everyone can come in. And the earth rips as a sign that death is no longer an obstacle. And so beautiful images as you walk through these chapters, you may want to pick a couple images that have some meaning to you and teach your children about symbols of the temple and of Jesus.

Speaker 2:
[77:18] There's so much. We could do a whole podcast on this. But the last thought for me here is that the Holy of Holies was also called the oracle. And that word is debir. And that's where the word came out, davar. The word came from the place of speaking. There's a lot connected here. When Lehi is at the tree, he calls out with a loud voice. And who does he call to? He calls to his family. And so I read 1st Nephi 8 as the journey to the temple and the tree with the fruit that's most sweet and most white. To me is that the Holy of Holies. And Lehi then would be Heavenly Father calling out to his family with a loud voice from the place of speaking, come and partake of the fruit of the tree. Nephi knows these symbols inside and out. And so the most sweet and most white we've talked about it before, that is going to be the land of milk and honey. The land of milk and honey, the land of Canaan is a type for the Holy of Holies. So they must leave Mitzrayim, Egypt. Well, Mitzrayim is a word that's fascinating. See the mem preposition means from and the im ending means plural. So what's going on with that sar? That sar means narrow, straight or tight. So literally, Mitzrayim, Egypt in Hebrew, literally means the tight, straight places or the place of tightness. Now, that's a perfect name because they were in slavery. But think about the story. They're in the land of Canaan. They're promised the land. But then they go down, they leave God's presence and they go to Mitzrayim, the place of tightness or the straight way. To come to the land of milk and honey, they must go on the straight or narrow way. It's fascinating. I mean, even the name Egypt is teaching the plan. And I see Nephi uses both ways to read it. It's straight, S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T, and it's straight, S-T-R-A-I-T. It's both forms of the narrow way. The narrow way is the way to get back to God, to the land of milk and honey. And that Holy of Holies is a cube. It's 10 by 10 by 10, we think, cube. It's in the Exodus account when they build the temple. When Solomon gets it built, it's a 20 by 20 by 20. And that cube is what John sees come down out of heaven. It's this image of perfection and this image of everything's put back. So to me, I think these chapters are important. That's why we spent a couple of minutes talking about it. But after we leave this, after we construct all these things, then we get to the 31st chapter of Exodus. And this is where we pick it up again and come follow me.

Speaker 1:
[80:04] And we start with this wonderful concept that the Lord says, look, I've given you some hard tasks. You're required to make some very complicated objects and to lay them with gold and to create some beautiful artistry. But guess what? I've provided you the means to do so. There were two men and others among the Israelites, Bezalel and Aholiab, who had the talents to do the very things that the Lord had prescribed. They knew how to work gold. They knew how to carve wood. They knew how to make this temple as beautiful as it should be. And so the Lord says, I have provided these two. It's not a coincidence that two very talented men came to earth at that particular moment. And the Lord placed them in a position to use their talents to do the very things that He wanted done. And I love that lesson. I love the fact that the Lord always provides the solution to His requests. It goes back to what Nephi said to Lehi, that the Lord never gives a commandment without preparing the way to obtain it. And that maybe we ought to consider that your talent was specifically sent to the Church today, that whatever talent He gave you, whatever talent you possess, your coming forth into the Kingdom today is His divine doing. Because He knew that in order to accomplish the Church's task that we have today, He needed your skill set. And so He sent your skill set, your ability, you to earth today. So that you would be there when the Lord needed you. I think there's something to that that we all need to ponder. Why am I here at this time in the earth's history? Well, are you the modern-day Bezalel or a Holy Ab? Are you the one that the Lord has position to do exactly what He needs done? The Lord always provides the solution to the challenges that we face. Kind of an interesting twist on that. There's a fascinating verse at the end of Alma, Chapter 46, that just really speaks volumes to me. As we prepare for the war with Amalekiah and the Lamanites, it says in verse 40, there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land, but not so much with fevers because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases to which men were subject by the nature of the climate. In other words, that climate had some problems. That climate brought some diseases. But the Lord placed in that climate plants and roots which would cure the very problems that that climate provided. That is a little microcosm example of what God does. Every time He gives us a task that's a challenge, He also provides us the solution if we'll just find it. It's there. We just need to find it. And you are here to help the Lord provide the answers that He's asking this Church to provide. So I love the beginning of Chapter 31 where the Lord says, hey, I've just given you some tough tasks, but I've also provided you some very talented people who will be able to do those tough tasks. Now before we leave Chapter 31, the Lord again emphasizes the Sabbath day. And I want you to pay attention this week how often the Lord mentions the Sabbath day. They are in the desert, life is hard. They are working very hard to survive. They're gathering their bread. They have limited resources. And the Lord reminds them that they need to rest. And I love verse 17 where the Lord says, look, the Sabbath is a sign. You observe the Sabbath as a sign. And then he reminds them in verse 17, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth. And on the seventh day, he rested, and I love these three words, and was refreshed. You need to make sure that in your journey through the wilderness, you find time to rest and be refreshed. I think we've got to pause and say that. We all need to rest and be refreshed. Now that leads us to chapter 32 in The Golden Calf.

Speaker 2:
[84:53] Yeah, so The Golden Calf is an interesting story, and a lot of ink has been spilled on this because there's the story, and then there's the story behind the story, and there's some really interesting things that you read in here where you ask yourself, okay, why does it say this? For example, verse four. First of all, they make a calf, singular, but then they say in verse four, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. I mean, why does it say, These be thy gods in the plural? And then we have it again at the end of verse eight, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Speaker 1:
[85:30] And that's God speaking to Moses in verse eight. He's saying, hey, you need to get down because the people have corrupted themselves and this is what they're saying.

Speaker 2:
[85:38] So if something's repeated twice and also it doesn't make sense, plural versus singular, my spidey sense starts tingling. I start saying, okay, why is this in here? Why is it read like this? I remember as a teenager reading this going, okay, first of all, the gods that brought them out of Egypt weren't bulls, they weren't calves. It was Jehovah. So I've got a question there. And so we're going to present some possibilities to you to consider. We're going to link some papers where if you want to do a deep dive into this and pull threads, there's a lot going on. But to be short in speaking, if we're just going to tell the story, they cast their golden earrings in verse 2 to Aaron. Why? Moses is up on the mountain for 40 days. And they're like, well, maybe he's gone. We don't know what's going on. So we want something to kind of give us our fix, give us our experience with the divine. And so he does. He makes him a molten calf in verse 4. And when he made it, verse 5, he built an altar before it and he made a proclamation. He said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. So we're talking about these gods, plural. We're talking about a calf and now we're talking about Jehovah. So confusion. Verse 6, they rose up early in the morrow and they offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. They sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. Interesting choice of words. And the Lord said to Moses, go get down. Why? Verse 7, they've corrupted themselves and they've turned aside quickly out of the way. And then it's the Lord saying that in verse 8, these be thy gods. So after that, if you look in verses 10 through 14, there's this really interesting exchange between Moses and God. God says, listen, I'm going to destroy them. They're all bad. They've totally messed up. And in the 12th verse, Moses says, Lord, if you do that, the Egyptians are going to make fun of you. They're going to say, you delivered these guys just so you could destroy them, and they're going to question your awesomeness. And so in verse 14, God says, you know what? You're right, Moses, I'm going to not destroy them. And so Moses comes down with the two tables, it says in the 15th verse, and he comes down off the mountain, and he gets really mad. His anger waxes hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them beneath the mountain. And then I love verse 20. It reminds me of the story of the kid who gets caught smoking. You're going to smoke the whole pack. I love reading this verse. He took the calf which they made, and he burned it with fire and ground it to powder and straddle it upon the water and made him drink it. I don't know why, I just love that. And essentially, he gets on them and says, you know, what are you guys doing? And then I love the excuse. I love the excuse Aaron says, where he says, don't get mad at me, verse 22. You know, these guys are always set on trouble. And they said to me, verse 23, make us gods, which shall go before us. And as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know where he is, verse 24. And I said to them, whoever has any gold, let them break it off. And so they gave it to me. And then I cast it in the fire and out jumped the calf. There it is. It's good stuff.

Speaker 1:
[88:50] Wasn't me.

Speaker 2:
[88:51] Don't blame me. And then there's this really troubling section where Moses asks, well, who's on God's side? And the sons of Levi say, well, we are. And verse 28 happens. The children of Levi kill some of these rebels. And it's not just some, it's 3,000 of them. And it's a, it's a tough thing. Now, that's the story. There's morals, like what's the moral of the story? And then there's the other thread I want to pull on is scholarship. What do scholars do with this? How does this relate or help us understand what's happening historically? And so some of these things are worth exploration. I think in a gospel doctrine setting, you would kind of teach the story and then say, okay, guys, what's the moral? And I love this. I love Brigham Young's use of this. When the Saints came here to Utah, we're coming here and it's really hard. And we have a really hard time growing things at first, and we're kind of hungry. And then in, in like 1849, some people find gold in California. And the temptation was a lot of members of the church were like, man, if I go to California, I'll be rich. And bringing me on gives this talk in Farmington, where he says, hey, you guys, we're gonna do a lot better if we grow wheat here in Utah. But if you go to California, go ahead and go worship your golden calf. But if you stay here, we're gonna build Saints here. This is a good place for making Saints. It's kind of used as a metaphor for walking away from the mountain.

Speaker 1:
[90:21] Yeah. Walking away from Moses.

Speaker 2:
[90:23] Yeah. So with that, I'm gonna geek out just briefly, but know that there's a lot more. So you can go and read more. But just, if you look at that phrase, these be thy gods, that same phrase is repeated by a king in the Book of Kings. And that king's name is Jeroboam. You see, when the kingdom of Israel splits in half, Jeroboam makes golden calves in Dan and Bethel.

Speaker 1:
[90:51] Because he's got a problem, okay? So the kingdom splits. He's in the north and the temple's in the south. Now Exodus 34 is going to tell us that every Israelite is supposed to go to temple three times a year. So Jeroboam has a problem. He's worried that if the northern faithful go to the temple, they won't come back. So that's his problem. They're required three times a year to go to the temple in Jerusalem, which is in the other kingdom, and he's worried that they won't come back. And so Jeroboam builds beautiful alters on the way to the temple.

Speaker 2:
[91:26] So he says, Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. I'm actually quoting not only Exodus 32, but I'm also quoting 1 Kings 12, verse 28. And then in the 29th verse, it says he set one in Bethel, and he also put another one in Dan. And so Jeroboam does this, and he's cast as an apostate king from the perspective of the writer of 1 Kings. This is the same statement that Aaron makes. Now what's interesting is Aaron has two sons. The names of Aaron's sons and the names of Jeroboam's sons are almost identical. Aaron's are Nadab and Abihu, and the sons of Jeroboam are Nadab and Abijah, or Abiyah. It's literally off by one little yod. It's super close. And so the idea, I think, what the authors of Exodus 32 are trying to portray, and once again, this is according to scholarship. This is a northern text. This is an e-text in Exodus 32, and they're casting negative light on Jeroboam and Aaron. And there's this tension in the Old Testament. The tension is who are the authorized representatives of God? And the good guys in 32 are the Levites. The Levites are the ones that are following Moses. And so at the end, they're the ones that are killing some of these apostates. And this chapter is casting Aaron in that light as an apostate. So because of that phraseology being used and the image of a calf or a bull, I think what we've established or what could be argued is that there's something going on here in Exodus 32 connected to the tension between the division of the north and the south. The northern king doesn't have the temple like Bryce talked about, so he builds altars with these calves to kind of substitute the temple that's in Jerusalem. And there is tension for 200 years between Judah and Israel over who are the authorized representatives. My take on this is that Exodus 32 is from a group of priests that follow the Moses tradition. And they are these Levitical priests. And if you go to 1 Kings 12, we'll talk about this more when we get there. But it says that Jeroboam takes out the priests and he puts bad ones in their place. So those disenfranchised priests, we think, are the ones who have this tradition of Exodus 32. Remember the Elohis text comes from the North. So when the Northern Kingdom is destroyed, they bring their records down with them to Judah. And this is where I talk about chocolate and peanut butter coming together, making Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. We have J and E, the Elohis from the North, the Yahwehs from the South, put together and we see some of these ideas in the text reflected in history. In other words, the Exodus 32 could represent a theological rift in the 10th and 9th centuries. Now with that being said, let's briefly talk about the calf. First of all, why does it say these be thy gods? And second of all, why is it used? So first, I think these be thy gods, I think we have established, at least argued, that the calves in Dan and Bethel could represent those plural. As far as why the calf, there's lots of perspectives on this. One of them is that the bull or the calf is a representation of God the Father. It could be the masculine representation of his presence. Remember in the 49th chapter, when Jacob gives the blessing to Joseph, he makes this statement, and I think it's worth looking at, I think we've looked at it before, but I'm just going to briefly reference it. In the 49th chapter of Genesis, talking to Joseph, he says, his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd the stone of Israel. And you'll notice in your scriptures that the word God is in italics. And the reason why is because in the Hebrew, that's not what it says. It literally says, the mighty of Jacob. Or to be literal, it's Abir Yaakov. Yaakov is Jacob. Abir is what is translated as mighty, but it's a cognate of the word bull. And it does mean bull. Literally, Abir can mean bull, or it can mean mighty. Remember, the bull represents strength or might. And the bull was a symbol for God. It was also a symbol for the very first character in Hebrew, Aleph. In Proto-Hebrew, before the Aleph, it was the sign of the bull. The bull was a symbol of God. Why? Because the bull was fertile. The bull was strong and powerful and mighty, and it was a masculine symbol of God. And so, Paul Hoskisson wrote this paper for BYU Studies where he talks about that the bull could be a symbol for a God. And another thing it could be a symbol for, in the iconography of the Ancient Near East, is the pedestal of God or his seat. And so, we put together an article on this, and there's actually pictures to demonstrate that there were many images in the Ancient Near East of bulls or lions represented as pedestals of God. So I think a good way to read this is as follows. I think what Aaron's doing is he's making a pedestal for Jehovah. I think in the context of this, when he says, this is the God that brought us out of Egypt, I think he's making a pedestal to invoke God's presence. And I think there's a lot that's been edited and it's used for historical purposes as a polemic against certain individuals. Who? Jeroboam. I think that's one way to look at it. Remember, if you're from the North and you're these priests that have been disenfranchised, you don't like him. And so you're gonna cast him as an apostate. That's one way to look at it. Certainly this is not the only reading, but I think we can read this and say, where are you facing? I think that's the main thing, but just know there's other ways to read this. There's a lot of history here.

Speaker 1:
[97:32] Moses' question really is appropriate. Who is on the Lord's side?

Speaker 2:
[97:36] That's the main thing. With this, he breaks the tablets.

Speaker 1:
[97:41] Now let's pick up that story. I know we'll jump a little bit to 34. We'll get to the rest of 32 and 33 in a minute, but I want to tell that story, because again, we're back to that basic message that I hope you pull out of this week's Come Follow Me, is that when you receive, you receive more. If you reject what God has given you, you're going to get less. And so he breaks the tablets, and then if you'll go to the Joseph Smith Translation of Chapter 34, just right there in 1 and 2, this is what Joseph Smith adds. This is how Joseph processes this whole story. In verse 1 it says, The Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two other tables of stone, like unto the first, and I will write upon them also, the words of the law according as they were written at the first on the tables, which thou breakest. But it shall not be according to the first, for I will take away the priesthood out of their midst. Therefore, my holy order and the ordinances thereof shall not go before them, for my present shall not go up in their midst lest I destroy them. Which would suggest that the first set of tables had something similar to our endowment, the Melchizedek Priesthood portion of the endowment. Something like that. A higher, a holier order. But because they weren't willing to live that way, they don't get that. So the Lord says, I'm going to give them a law, but it will be a lesser law. Verse 2 of the JST, he continues, But I will give unto them a law as at first, but it shall be after the law of a carnal commandment. For I have sworn in my wrath that they shall not enter into my presence, into my rest, in the days of their pilgrimage. So the point here is, they were not willing to receive that higher law. After receiving the initial portion, back in chapter 24, and covenanting to receive it, they are now not ready to receive the higher law. Their actions suggest that. And so the Lord says, Okay, I will take away that higher law and give you a lower law. And there we see that basic premise of the Gospel. If you reject what He's offered you, He will take it away and give you less. If you receive what He offers you, He will give you more. The Lord is always willing to meet you where you're at. What are you willing to receive? And that's what He'll give you. They could have had more had they been willing to receive it. Now sometimes Latter-day Saints look at these Israelites and thumb the nose a little bit and say, Oh, we're so much better than they were. I can't believe they rejected the higher law and were content with a lower law. And yet the Lord has indicated in our day that we're doing the same thing.

Speaker 2:
[100:54] Bryce, I see myself doing this all the time.

Speaker 1:
[100:57] I'm content with lesser when I could have more. Let me give you a couple of examples. I remind you that the Book of Mormon came as two pieces. There was a translatable piece that was not sealed. And then there was a sealed portion. And Joseph was given both. Here they are right in front of you, Joseph. And we are taught that the way to break that seal and open up the rest of that Book is to receive this portion of the Book. Let me give you an example. In 3 Nephi chapter 26, Mormon is tempted to include some of the Savior's teachings, which will end up in the sealed portion of the gold plates. And he was tempted to include them in his record, which was going to be translated by Joseph Smith. So he says in verse 8, These things have I written, which are a lesser part of the things which he taught the people, and I have written them to the intent that they may be brought again into this people. Verse 9, When they shall receive this, meaning the portion of the Book of Mormon that was intended to be translated, when they shall receive this, which is expedient that they should have first to try their faith, and if it so be that they shall believe these things, then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them. If it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from them. Verse 11, Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying, I will try the faith of my people. The Book of Mormon itself is an example of, do you want more, or are you content with less? If we dive into that lesser portion and are faithful to the test, it will unlock the door to the greater truths in the Book of Mormon. And yet, if you'll fast forward to Doctrine and Covenants, Section 84, starting in verse 54, he says, now it's not coincidental that we're in 84, right Mike? 84 has a lot to do with Moses and the Exodus and this portion of the mountain. We'll get to that. But later on in 84, the Lord says in verse 54, your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief and because you have treated lightly the things that you have received. He's going to tell us what we've treated lightly. Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation? And this condemnation rests upon the children of Zion, even all. And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the New Covenant, even the Book of Mormon. And the former commandments, that's the Bible, which I have given them, not only to say but to do according to that which I have written. Again, the Lord is saying, you're not passing the test. So forgive me if I'm a little in all of our faces on this issue. But before we sit here and condemn the Israelites for being content with a lower law, we need to realize that we're doing the same thing, that the Lord has given us lesser portions of many things, including personal revelation.

Speaker 2:
[104:34] And Bryce, I would even add, embedded in the text of the Book of Mormon, are what Nephi is going to call the mysteries. And I really do believe that that's in there, like the stuff that's coming next is hinted at in what we have. It's beautiful and it's drenched in temple theology.

Speaker 1:
[104:52] Which I think made Neil A. Maxwell say the following, Thus the Book of Mormon is like a vast mansion with gardens, towers, courtyards, and wings. There are rooms yet to be entered, with flaming fireplaces waiting to warm us. Yet we as Church members sometimes behave like hurried tourists, scarcely venturing beyond the entry hall. I don't want to be too accusatory, but how many of us have been content to stay in the entry hall of the Book of Mormon, and we have not gotten into the inner rooms? We haven't discovered the courtyards and the towers and the gardens that is sitting in a book that most of us hold in our pockets?

Speaker 2:
[105:40] Or sometimes, Bryce, I'm just like the people in Exodus 32, where I say, why is this taking so long? And I kind of lose patience. And I really see this story also in Nephi's narrative. And sometimes I feel like I'm doing stuff like Nephi, and sometimes I see myself as layman. And I think all of us from time to time wear different hats. And I think these stories had relevance because they remind us of our human nature and that human tendency. And even though Exodus 32 is messy, I do love it. I think it's a great story. And I think it's like a gem that you hold it up to the light. And every time you turn the gem, you see something different. And I think it's good. And I do like that image, by the way, of the bowl representing the might of God. And when they build the temple in Solomon, they take the laver and it's this cup filled with water, which represents the divine feminine, the divine mother, water, and life in the cup. And they put it on top of bowls. In other words, it's father and mother. And what do we do? We go into the water and come out new. And it involves both of those ideas. I think that's really kind of neat. So I like that image, but I also get that from our perspective, it's kind of clunky, it's kind of messy.

Speaker 1:
[106:58] Now, while we're still in Section 84, that is a powerful section regarding Moses and the Exodus.

Speaker 2:
[107:05] It is. I mean, if you look at verse 33, if you're faithful to obtaining the priesthood, you receive these really interesting things. You're sanctified and renewed in verse 33. You become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham. And then if you receive him, you receive the priesthood, then you receive Christ, and then you receive the Father. And then in verse 38, it says, He that receiveth my Father, receiveth my Father's kingdom. Therefore, all that my Father hath, shall be given unto him. In other words, it's layers or it's a continuum. You keep receiving light and you get more light, which is kind of tight in verse 44 and 45. You live by every word that comes from God. You receive truth, which is light, and light is the Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And so you grow in degrees. And by the way, I'm looking at this image of the Tabernacle, and that's what it is. It's the hero's journey. It's a journey where you receive more light. You proceed from the altar to the laver, to the holy place, to the embrace with God, to His presence, the land of milk and honey. So I love it. It's really cool. It's everything you were talking about, Bryce, where you keep receiving more. So now we're gonna go back to Exodus 32, where Moses offers this prayer.

Speaker 1:
[108:26] Now, Moses becomes a great symbol of Christ in these chapters. On several occasions in this week's Come Follow Me, you're gonna read about Moses pleading for his people. And I love to see the tender heartedness of Moses. If we'll go back to chapter 32, he says to the people, this is Moses to the people in verse 30, Ye have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord, peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sins. I'm going to go plead for you. And then verse 33, Moses returned unto the Lord and said, now this is Moses pleading for his people before the Father, but you have to read Jesus pleading your case to God. Oh this people have sinned a great sin. And then whatever we've done, in their case they have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. I think you should take a few minutes this week and ponder those words. And think about how Jesus feels about you. I can't believe Moses loved them to that degree, because as I read Exodus 32, man, they were a stubborn, stiff-necked people. But he loved them. And for him to say, please forgive them, and if you won't forgive them, blot me, I pray, out of thy book. I want you to hear Jesus saying similar words to the Father. If you'll turn to section 45 of the Doctrine and Covenants, this is our advocate pleading for us. I have this image of a court scene going on in the eternities where Satan is trying to convince God that there's no way I should be saved because of all the horrible things that I've done. And then my advocate stands up. Now he's not going to counter the argument by, well, Bryce did all these good things, so you should save him. That's not the argument. The argument is not that I should be saved because of good things I've done. Listen to the argument. Jesus says in section 45 verses 3 through 5, Listen to him who is the advocate with the father, who was pleading your cause before him, saying, Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased. Behold the blood of thy son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified. Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren, that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life. In other words, don't save them because they deserve to be saved. Save them because I deserve to be saved and I love them. And I don't want to be in thy kingdom without them. That's our advocate. That's Jesus pleading our cause to the Father. So as you take a few minutes this week and ponder those verses in Chapter 32, and hear Moses' love saying, if you can't forgive them, then blot me out and save them. And just hear Jesus saying the same thing to the Father.

Speaker 2:
[112:10] That's beautiful. I really like that image of Moses as a figure for the Savior Jesus Christ. I think that's beautiful. So with that, we're going to close this podcast. And we'll see you next week when we cover the end of Exodus and some parts of Leviticus. And we hope that you have a great week.

Speaker 1:
[112:29] Talking Scripture is not an official production of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The opinions expressed in this podcast are Mike and Bryce's opinions only. We refer you to official Church sources and the Church website to clarify any doctrinal questions.