Exodus 18-21

Thank you for attending class the last few months. You have brought curiosity and a desire to learn. Your efforts and insights have been instructive for all of us. We have enjoyed a remarkable process of understanding the Old Testament. 

Class will resume in the fall sometime. I will keep you updated here. Keep studying!

JETHRO

“Jethro, the priest of Midian is often overshadowed by others in the Hebrew Bible. He becomes more noteworthy when we see him in his roles as a father, a prophet, a priest, and a mentor. As a Father, he loved his family and stood as a leader of his clan. As a priest, he descended from a long line of righteous Midianite priests whose traditions and memories are interspersed throughout the Old Testament. As a Prophet, he foresaw the critical mission of Moses and instilled in him the necessary qualities of a leader. And finally as a Mentor, he instructed and trained Moses and the Levites in the proper priesthood government and worship of God. This examination of Jethro as the priestly mentor of Moses and instructor of the future priests of Israel is not meant to demean the position of Moses as prophet and leader of ancient Israel, but to show that Moses’ greatness is a result of the righteous example of Jethro the Midianite.

HEBREWBIBLE.INFO, ANTHONY RIVERA, JR.

 

SPIRITUALLY SELF-SUFFICIENT

“It's interesting because Jethro's suggesting one, you've got to have more help. Two, we've got to figure out how the people need to be spiritually self-sufficient. They need to know the principles. They need to be able to govern themselves and move forward that way. And that's just a principle that you see, I think across all dispensations; this idea that you cannot rely on the leadership alone. In the Book of Mormon Mosiah too, makes the changes to the governmental structure.

And you see this in Doctrine & Covenants. The idea that the more the Lord has to tell us, the more we lose out on some blessings or understandings. The more things have to be spelled out the less we have in terms of our own spiritual growth. And Paul talks about that in Corinthians, where he points out that they are suing one another and, [expecting the church to solve the issue,] but the truth is, they need to figure out how to resolve it themselves. It's just this idea over and over and over again, that we are ultimately responsible for our own spiritual welfare.”

Dr. Daniel Belnap, Follow Him Podcast, #17

ON EAGLES WINGS

“On eagles’ wings tells of the way Israel achieved freedom — all the way from slavery in Egypt to security in the land of promise, from death to life, from helplessness to the heart of God. It was not by fearless fighting and brilliant military maneuvering that they startled the nations of the world. Actually it was not by their own efforts at all. It was by what God did for them — God carried them ‘on eagles’ wings.’

Borne by wings is an apt symbol of God’s gracious deliverance. But why eagles’ wings? The eagle is admired and applauded for its exploits. It is the jet plane of the bird family. It soars the highest, goes the fastest, and is superior to all other birds in this respect. Its wings are given as a symbol of our God. By the strength of its great wings it is able to soar to the heights and perform unusual feats.

Another remarkable characteristic of the eagle is its tenderness toward its young. No member of the bird family is more gentle and attentive in watching over its young. It builds its nest high up on a mountain crag. Both parents bring food to the little eaglets, and when they teach them to fly, both parents are involved in the training program. As the little one takes off from that dizzy height and attempts to follow its parent in flight, the eagle swoops beneath it and bears the little fellow on its wings when he seems exhausted.

Thus the eagle is set before us as being a symbol of God’s dealing with His people.” https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mcgee_j_vernon/eBooks/on-eagles-wings.cfm

 RELATIONSHIP WITH JEHOVAH

“Bede the Venerable once said, ‘Carnal minded people who are content with the letter cannot ascend the mountain.’ I think there is this idea that when the Prophet speaks the thinking has been done. What’s happening here is God is saying, ‘I want more than that. I don’t want a kingdom of minions who follow every word from my leaders. I want people who want to know me.’ Hosea 6:6 reads ‘For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, a love of God more than burnt offering.’ The word there is hesed. I desire hesed not sacrifice. What God really wants is for us to engage Him. But the Israelites were scared. God sounded majestic and unapproachable. There are things that scare us today. A wise man once said to me, ‘The only question worth asking is the one that exposes you to risk.’ What are the risks of approaching God in a way that will help us to have hesed? What are the risks to doubting everything a leader says as right or true? What are the risks of having your own discipleship which is foundational on a relationship and knowledge of God. When we approach God with the possibility that anything is true, it is terrifying. When we approach God allowing Him to tell us who He is and approach God allowing Him to show us His nature, we are able to get the reward. We can see God for what He is. We can have a hesed relationship and we can have closeness with God, which is what He desires in the end.”

Aaron Gorner, Maxwell Podcast, Abide Exodus 18-20

 GRATITUDE

“The more you understand and see the Lord's hand in your life. And that's why gratitude, I think is an important principle. God doesn't need it because His self-esteem is so fragile. And if it's not for Him, then it's got to be for whom? And what I find interesting about gratitude is when you are engaged in true gratitude, prayer, whatever context it's going to be, it becomes revelatory. An example that I give is sometimes when you're hiking up a mountain, you can't see over the next ridge and the next set of switchbacks. And it's just exhausting. But if you turn around and look behind you to see how far you actually have come up the mountain, it gives you strength to go up that next set of switchbacks. You might not know what's ahead, but you do know what's behind. And so gratitude is revelatory in much the same way prophecy is. And it reveals to you what has been done and particularly the way in which the Lord's been involved in your life, which gives you the power and the strength to move forward into the future with that trust.”

Dr. Daniel Belnap, Follow Him Podcast, #17

 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

“No document in world history so changed the world for the better as did the Ten Commandments. Western civilization, the civilization that developed universal rights, created women’s equality, ended slavery, created parliamentary democracy among other unique achievements would not have developed without them. These commandments are as relative today as when they were given over 3000 years ago. In fact, they are so relevant that they are all that is necessary to make a good world free of tyranny and cruelty.”

Dennis Prager, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih-AJB6D8WI&feature=youtu.be

 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Four lessons from “I am the Lord you God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

1. God is giving these commandments.

2. God is the one who delivered you from slavery—not Moses or anyone else.

3. God values freedom.

4. God cares deeply about human beings.

Dennis Prager, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih-AJB6D8WI&feature=youtu.be

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

“These are not part of the Law of Moses, these are not a punishment given to Israel. This is just simply the law. The Book of Mormon quotes the Ten Commandments, but you get a version of this in the Doctrine & Covenants, you get Christ reiterating the centrality of these commandments in the New Testament. And when you look at the commandments themselves, you can see how they divide out. They deal with your own personal relationship with God, and then they deal with your personal relationship with other beings, other people.

I describe it in terms of spiritual development, that we have two primary sets of relationships that we're developing. There's this vertical relationship that we have with God that is very personal, very private. Nobody else really has that relationship, it's just you and God, and that's got to grow and get stronger, and bigger and taller. But at the same time that's happening, this has got to be expanding outward as to who my brother is, who my neighbor is. And if these two things aren't happening at the same time, then one's not really experiencing spiritual growth. So when you look at the Ten Commandments, they really do govern both set of relationships. The relationship you have with God, the relationship you have with the larger community of humankind.”

Dr. Daniel Belnap, Follow Him Podcast, #17

Exodus 14-17

NEXT WEEK—LAST CLASS

Exodus 18-20 (21-23)

SYMBOL OF THE CROSS

“In contrast to the unchanging doctrinal importance of Christ’s Crucifixion, how Christians generally, and Latter-day Saints specifically, have viewed the image of the cross has varied over time. In other words, the meaning of the visual symbol of the cross is more cultural than doctrinal. Historically, some have viewed the cross as a symbol of death to be avoided. Others have seen it as a representation of Christ’s triumph over death, a symbol of love, or an image of suffering that comforts us in pain.”

“As Christians throughout America embraced the cross as a symbol of Christianity, the restored Church was largely isolated in the Intermountain West and did not participate in this near-universal adoption of the cross. However, the image of the cross was not forbidden among early Latter-day Saints. Although not as common as in other Christian traditions, Latter-day Saint marriage certificates, quilts, and funeral programs sometimes featured crosses, as did the 1852 European edition of the Doctrine and Covenants.”

“[Presiding] Bishop Joseph L. Wirthlin called me by telephone and asked me the Church’s position on the following question: He stated that he had been asked today if it would be proper for L.D.S. girls to purchase crosses to wear. It is Bishop Wirthlin’s understanding that there is a company downtown which is pushing the selling of these crosses to girls. I told Bishop Wirthlin that this is purely Catholic and Latter-day Saint girls should not purchase and wear them. I stated further that this was a Catholic form of worship. They use images, crosses, etc. Our worship should be in our hearts.”

“I do not wish to give offense to any of my Christian brethren who use the cross on the steeples of their cathedrals and at the altars of their chapels, who wear it on their vestments, and imprint it on their books and other literature. But for us, the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of the living Christ. . . . The lives of our people must become the only meaningful expression of our faith and, in fact, therefore, the symbol of our worship.”

Hilton III, John. Considering the Cross: How Calvary Connects Us with Christ (p. 13). Deseret Book Co. Kindle Edition.

Y RELIGION PODCAST WITH JOHN HILTON III 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/y-religion/id1497439581?i=1000464341960

THE RESTORED GOSPEL’S RADICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ATONEMENT AND GRACE

“One does not come to a belief in Christ’s atonement because of any logical argumentation about agency, justice, or scriptural assertions of sin and salvation. We come, if we arrive at all, because of a felt need about our own deep insufficiency. The poet George Herbert prayed that “if goodness lead me not, yet weariness may toss me to thy breast.”

Even from the valleys of uncertainty, I am profoundly and deeply moved by the specter of a young, itinerant Galilean rabbi who two thousand years ago willingly offered himself up to barbaric execution, enduring unspeakable torment, because he believed that by so doing he was offering me, personally, respite from the pains and humiliations and failures and wounds of my life, whether inflicted by others or by my own deliberate, foolish choices. As the Book of Mormon testified would happen, I find myself “drawn” to this unparalleled act of grace and kindness to me. (2 Nephi: 26:24)

When I contemplate that this was no deluded Jewish peasant making this generous sacrifice, but a being of premortal glory and divinity, that sacrifice assumes a transformative power. If, as Augustine held, absolute love is the only irresistible force in the universe, the atonement of Christ is its most perfect manifestation.”

Terryl Givens, Faith Matters, March 2019

THE MULTITUDE ESCAPING EGYPT

“Evidence suggests that those who made up the Israelite host were not all direct descendants of Jacob’s twelve sons. The narrative reads, ‘A mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.’ (Exodus 12:38) In addition to the Israelites, the slaves conscripted by the Egyptians likely included other Semitic people from Canaan who came to Egypt at various times for numerous reasons such as famine and greater opportunities available under the Hyksos’ regime. Egyptian texts and art portray a variety of Semitic people among their enslaved groups.

Surprisingly, some Egyptians also appear to have been included in the Israelite camp. For example, Asenath, wife of Joseph, was likely an Egyptian though she may have been of Semite lineage. Undoubtedly, many converts to the camp of Israel were picked up after they encounter Moses’ people in the wilderness. Disenfranchised people, attracted by the stability, unity, religion and leadership in the Israelite camp would have contributed to the diversity and potential strength of the ‘mixed multitude.’ Lacking unifying beliefs and a strong tribal identity, this host of people began the transformation from a conglomeration of slaves to an organized covenant community led by Moses.”

“Logistical issues suggest that the number of people involved would have been closer to a few thousand men, women, and children rather than the six hundred thousand men of fighting age, plus women and children, noted in the biblical narrative (Exodus 12:37). It is difficult to imagine the area of Goshen and later Sinai supporting a population in the millions. Furthermore, an army of six hundred thousand could have overthrown any opposing force in that day, including the Egyptians. Instead of standing up to Pharaoh’s army, we see the Israelites cringe before them. Similarly, a caravan of two to three million people with their flocks and herds and other beings would extend over a greater distance than the miles between their starting place and the Red Sea, and yet the entire multitude crossed the Red Sea in one night, all the while staying out of the reach of an army of speeding chariots. More likely the recorded number of six hundred thousand men of fighting age is hyperbole, a scribal error, or an indication of Israel’s future numbers when they would become the great empire of the ancient Near East.”

Camille Fronk-Olsen, Women of the Old Testament, pg. 96

DR. KERRY MUHLESTEIN VIDEO ON EXODUS ROUTE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP0AwqZejcA&list=PL_oQcvVR477wAsp1XsOO-Ubyx8IC4y36T&index=13

THE DIVINE WARRIOR

“A savior is someone who saves you when you need saving and you cannot save yourself. And for Israel and many situations that means a man of war or a divine warrior, someone who will fight your battles for you. That gives us so much confidence and so much peace. We live in a society of anxiety and fear when we only have faith in a loving God, but not a saving God. We need a God who loves us enough to want to save us and who is powerful enough and willing to save us. Saving us sometimes means delivering us from oppression. We should be grateful that we have a God who will fight for us and will conquer.

If we don’t have faith in that kind of a God, we can’t have faith in salvation. We won’t find peace in this life; instead we will find fear. [If we do not have faith in a loving and divine warrior God] we find comfort from being loved and yet, fear because we aren’t sure of deliverance.”

Dr. Kerry Muhlestein, The Scriptures are Real Podcast, Episode #47

PROPHET

“Authors of the accounts in the Bible often use prophet in a more general sense that easily includes women. Biblical prophets and prophetesses poses the gift of prophecy, one of the numerous gifts of the Spirit, but are not authorized with keys to direct the affairs of God’s church. Prophetesses and prophets are endowed with the spiritual knowledge that Jesus is the Christ; they then bear that witness by the same Spirit. More than predicting future events, prophets and prophetesses deliver God’s message of warning or direction pertaining to current situations, a message that can have a profound effect on an entire population.

All Israelite women were not given the title of prophetess, nor was the title assigned because a woman was married to a prophet or other important man in society. Only one of the seven biblical women called ‘prophetess’ in the Bible was married to a prophet, as we use the term today. That woman was Isaiah’s wife. She must have received a personal witness of the Savior and may have been given a confirming witness to that of her husband’s. Thus the title of prophetess speaks more about the woman herself. Women were qualified as true prophetesses by their faith in the Savior’s atonement rather than by marriage to a righteous man.”

Camille Fronk-Olsen, Women of the Old Testament, pg. 83-85

MIRIAM

“The future is unknown. The wounds of slavery were still fresh, the journey to this moment had been filled with crushed hopes.

On the cusp of this new season in the life of the people of Israel, she leads her people in worship. Her song sits at the moment from being enslaved people to being a people of the covenant. Her song ushers in a new identity for the people of God. No longer bound by oppressive powers they would now be known as a people of a God of liberation.

Miriam’s leadership was birthed out of liminal moments. The in-between moments of life and death. Oppression and deliverance. From being silenced by a system to breaking out in song. She was also a witness to God’s covenantal love and provision, the ways in which God whispered affirmations of God’s love over the people of God.

She was a prophetic voice who was part of God’s plan for deliverance. 

Jennifer Geurra-Aldana, She Is...Biblical Reflections on Vocation, Fuller De Pree Center

ELDER D. TODD CHRISTOFFERSON VIDEO 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJKmXtoMI5s

Easter

NEXT WEEK

Exodus 14-17

TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

“The story of the triumphal entry is one of contrasts, and those contrasts contain applications to believers. It is the story of the King who came as a lowly servant on a donkey, not a prancing steed, not in royal robes, but on the clothes of the poor and humble. Jesus Christ comes not to conquer by force as earthly kings but by love, grace, mercy, and His own sacrifice for His people. His is not a kingdom of armies and splendor but of lowliness and servanthood. He conquers not nations but hearts and minds. His message is one of peace with God, not of temporal peace. If Jesus has made a triumphal entry into our hearts, He reigns there in peace and love. As His followers, we exhibit those same qualities, and the world sees the true King living and reigning in triumph in us.”

https://www.gotquestions.org/triumphal-entry.html

THE LORD’S PASSOVER

“Why, then, did Jesus institute the Lord’s Supper on the Passover the night before His crucifixion? In the first place, it is because He is the fulfillment of all that was foreshadowed by the Passover lamb. His blood, the blood of the new covenant, averts the destruction for those who place their faith in Him. Second, it is because the Last Supper was the eve of the prophesied greater new covenant act of redemption—the promised act of redemption that the prophets described in terms of a new exodus—and just as the first exodus was preceded by the institution of the Passover, the greater new exodus was preceded by the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper on this night to signify that this new exodus was about to begin. This act indicated that the time of redemption had come.”

Dr. Keith Mathison, https://www.ligonier.org/learn/teachers/keith-mathison

ISAIAH 53 (Oxford NRSV Translation)

1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.

4 Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

9 They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

GETHSEMANE AND CALVARY 

“John G. Turner, a Protestant scholar, explained that for Latter-day Saints, ‘the principal scene of Christ’s suffering and, thus, his atonement, was at Gethsemane rather than on the cross.’ Anglican theologian Douglas J. Davies wrote that ‘Mormonism relocates the centre of gravity of Christ’s passion in Gethsemane rather than upon the cross and Calvary.’ Scholars within the Church have made similar observations; Robert Millet wrote, ‘It is probably the case that if one hundred Protestants were asked where the atonement of Christ took place, those one hundred persons would answer: At Golgotha, on the cross. It is also no doubt true that if one hundred Latter-day Saints were asked the same question, a large percentage would respond: In Gethsemane, in the garden.’” 

“Professor Anthony Sweat and I asked 752 BYU students in an online class survey, ‘Where would you say Christ’s Atonement mostly took place? A. In the Garden of Gethsemane, or B. On the Cross at Calvary.’ Eighty-eight percent responded, ‘In the Garden of Gethsemane,’ and only 12 percent said, ‘On the Cross at Calvary.’ When I shared this result with Scott Esplin, a BYU religion professor, he observed, ‘You forced people into a false choice. You should have given people a third option of “Christ atoned for our sins equally in Gethsemane and Calvary.’ Anthony and I acted on this suggestion by surveying an additional 792 BYU students on where Christ mostly atoned for our sins, asking the same question we had previously. Even with a third option of 'Equally in Gethsemane and Calvary,’ a majority (58 percent) chose ‘Gethsemane only.’ Additional, less-formal surveys of Latter-day Saint adults inside and outside of the United States yielded similar results.”

Hilton III, John. Considering the Cross: How Calvary Connects Us with Christ (pp. 42-43).  

“I have been asked to speak on ‘Christ’s Crucifixion: The Reclamation of the Cross.’ Before turning to this subject, I would like to make two caveat statements. First, I want to say that the nature of my topic means that I will not be discussing much about Gethsemane. Even so, I want to make it clear that I recognize that the events that took place in the Garden of Gethsemane are absolutely seminal to our understanding of the Atonement. Second, I want to be clear that in this paper I am not advocating that the Church should start putting up crosses on our chapels or temples. That is certainly not my place. What I do want to argue, however, is that if we fail to appreciate or if we minimize the importance of the cross and what it stands for, then we ignore a very significant part of our scriptural texts: both in the Bible and in our Restoration scriptures, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.”

Gaye Strathearn, https://rsc.byu.edu/healing-his-wings/christs-crucifixion-reclamation-cross

THE DOCTRINE OF THE CROSS

“The events on the cross are an integral part of the Atonement. The most important reason that we should consider the cross is that both doctrinally and functionally, it is part of Christ’s Atonement. 

I am struck by the number of times that the teachings on the Atonement and redemption in the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants specifically include Christ’s death in the equation.

For the Book of Mormon, the cross is not a marginal footnote to the Atonement. Rather, the phrase “sufferings and death” is at the very heart of some important sermons.

Many passages from our Restoration scripture support the biblical message of Paul that the Crucifixion of our Lord was an essential part of the Atonement, and thus that it is an essential part of our personal and collective redemption. Elder Holland described Easter Friday as ‘atoning Friday with its cross.’ I like that description because it reminds me of why Easter Friday should be an important part of the Easter season.”

“The scriptural metaphor that we can be ‘lifted up’ because Christ was lifted up on the cross is a symbol of God’s great love for us. The phrase ‘lifted up’ thus becomes in the scriptures a frequent way to describe salvation. Nephi teaches his brothers, “The righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day” (1 Nephi 16:2). In the Doctrine and Covenants we find this image used frequently. The Lord tells Martin Harris, “And if thou art faithful in keeping my commandments, thou shalt be lifted up at the last day” (D&C 5:35). Oliver Cowdery is instructed, ‘Stand fast in the work wherewith I have called you, and a hair of your head shall not be lost, and you shall be lifted up at the last day’ (D&C 9:14). Likewise, the Three Witnesses, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, are all promised, 'And if you do these last commandments of mine, which I have given you, the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; for my grace is sufficient for you, and you shall be lifted up at the last day’ (D&C 17:8).”

“In the New Testament the invitation to take up our cross was the symbol of discipleship. In the synoptic Gospels, just after Jesus had promised Peter that he would give to him the sealing keys, Jesus began to speak openly about his destiny to go to Jerusalem, where he would ‘suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day' (Matthew 16:21; see Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22). What does it mean for us to ‘take up our cross’? It means to deny ourselves. Both Matthew and Mark use the Greek word aparneomai. It suggests that discipleship entails the breaking of every link that ties a person even to themselves. It is about being able, like the Savior, to submit our will to the will of the Father. As Elder Maxwell taught, ‘That is the only truly unique thing that we have to offer.’ Just as there was a cost for the Savior on Calvary, there is also a cost to be a disciple. Thus the symbol of the cross is not a postbiblical symbol adopted by Christians; rather it is a symbol identified by the Savior himself, and emphasized by Paul. The symbol of the cross is important because in the New Testament it is the symbol of our discipleship and commitment to leave behind the allurements of the world and dedicate ourselves to the Lord and his kingdom.”

“The signs of the Crucifixion were so important for Christ that he kept them even after he received a glorified, resurrected body. When Jesus first came to the temple in Bountiful, the people were not initially sure who appeared to them. The signs of the Crucifixion did not cause mourning but were a reason to rejoice. Here stood the Son of God in a glorified, resurrected body; a body that was perfect in every way, except for the fact that, as prophesied by Zechariah (see Zechariah 13:6), he chose to retain the marks of his Crucifixion. For the people of 3 Nephi, this retention was one of the tangible proofs that this being was not an angel but was in fact the Savior of the world. I wonder how many of those present at that supernal time might have remembered what Jehovah had said to the prophet Isaiah, and what had been recorded in the Nephite records, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15–16; 1 Nephi 21:16). In this instance, the signs of the Crucifixion did not cause mourning but were a reason to rejoice!”

Gaye Strathearn, https://rsc.byu.edu/healing-his-wings/christs-crucifixion-reclamation-cross

GOOD FRIDAY

“Good Friday is celebrated throughout much of Christendom as a solemn day commemorating Jesus’ trial before Pilate, his abuse at the hands of the Roman soldiers, his suffering and death on the cross, and finally his burial in a borrowed tomb. The heaviness and sadness of the events that this day recalls often makes many, including Latter-day Saints, wonder, ‘What is so good about Good Friday?’ The customary understanding that Good Friday is ‘holy' Friday is certainly appropriate, for it recalls how on the last day of his life, Jesus Christ, our great high priest, offered himself as a sacrifice for our sakes: ‘Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us’ (Heb 9:12).

While formally commemorating the sad events of Good Friday is not a regular part of Latter-day Saint practice, marking the day as individuals or as families can be a powerful experience that can deepen our appreciation for all the Lord has done for us”

Eric Huntsman, https://huntsmanseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/04/good-friday.html

VIDEO: JESUS CHRIST, THE PASSOVER LAMB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7lewy22t4M&feature=youtu.be

 

Exodus 7-13

NEXT WEEK

Easter references in Come Follow Me, The Gospels  

http://www.outofthedust.org/193-2/

GOD’S COVENANT

“You see, once we make a covenant with God, we have left neutral ground forever. God will not abandon His relationship with those who have forged such a bond with Him. In fact, all those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy. In Hebrew this covenantal love is called hesed.

This loyal love means that God will always keep working with His covenant people. It means that when they stray, He will do whatever it takes to bring them back. It might be that they respond easily to His pleadings to return. In other circumstances, He may have to bring them back the hard way. Regardless, God will loyally and lovingly extend merciful chances to those for whom He has hesed. On a personal level, there can be no more comforting doctrine. Once we have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him changes and becomes much closer, much more tightly knit. Further, we can rest sure in the knowledge that He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His patience and mercy with us. He will work with us forever, and His mercy for us will never end.”

Muhlestein, Kerry. God Will Prevail: Ancient Covenants, Modern Blessings, and the Gathering of Israel (p. 14). Covenant Communications, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

EXODUS 6:3

“I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but my name Lord I did not make myself fully known to them.”

NIV Exodus 6:3

“Although Genesis makes it clear that the patriarchs were not totally ignorant of the name Yahweh (the Lord), they did not understand its full implications as the name of the One who would redeem his people. That fact could be comprehended only by the Israelites who were to experience the exodus, and by their descendants.”

NIV Footnote for Exodus 6:3

SIGNS AND WONDERS

“It is true that the signs and wonders that Jehovah will do through Moses are intended to have Pharaoh let the Israelites go. But the target audience really isn't Pharaoh or the Egyptian Nobles in Pharaoh's court. The target audience for all of these signs and wonders is Israel itself. That's who Jehovah really has in mind. Yes, he's going to use these signs and wonders to make Pharaoh let the Israelites go. But the real intended audience, the audience that Jehovah is most interested in is Israel itself.”

Andrew Skinner, Follow Him Podcast

THE LORD’S PASSOVER

1. On the tenth day choose a year-old, male lamb for the family (or one lamb for the family and the neighbor family). It may be a goat or a sheep

2. Take special care of the lamb until day fourteen.

3. At twilight slaughter the lamb and place some of the blood on the sides andthe top of the doorframe of the house where the lamb will be eaten.

4. The meat is to be roasted whole over the fire with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.

5. The entire lamb must be eaten and if it is not it must be burned.

6. Eat it in clothing that will allow departure in haste.

7. In that night, the destruction will pass by the house with blood on thendoorposts. It will act as a protection to Israelites.

THE LORD’S PASSOVER

“We look at verses six and seven where it's required of the Israelites to put blood on the doorposts as a sign of their commitment to the covenant, and also a signal that the destroyer will pass by them and that their firstborn children will not be affected. And so we ask a couple of questions, why this action? To identify the participant as a follower of the true and living God. Why the blood? Well, because as we learn later on in Leviticus chapter 17, blood is the symbol of redemption.

Leviticus 17 verse 11. 'For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.’ And so by putting blood on the two side posts and the lintel, the crossbar of the entrance, we are signifying that we are fully engaged in the idea of redemption by the shedding of blood. For the next 1300 years, the shedding of the blood will be by animals that represent or point to the ultimate and great and last sacrifice, namely the lamb of God.

The point here is that the atonement comes from the shedding of blood. It did anciently. And then the very person for whom all of these elements of the Passover are pointing to comes and he makes the great and last sacrifice and no longer then is the shedding of blood required but something even harder for us, and that's a broken heart and a contrite spirit.”

Andrew Skinner, Follow Him Podcast

THE ATONING “PASSOVER”

“The hours that lay immediately ahead would change the meaning of all human history. It would be the crowning moment of eternity, the most miraculous of all the miracles. It would be the supreme contribution to a plan designed from before the foundation of the world for the happiness of every man, woman, and child who would ever live in it. The hour of atoning sacrifice had come. God’s own Son, his Only Begotten Son in the flesh, was about to become the Savior of the world.

The setting was Jerusalem. The season was that of the Passover, a celebration rich in symbolism for what was about to come. Long ago the troubled and enslaved Israelites had been ‘passed over,’ spared, finally made free by the blood of a lamb sprinkled on the lintel and doorposts of their Egyptian homes. That, in turn, had been only a symbolic reiteration of what Adam and all succeeding prophets were taught from the beginning—that the pure and unblemished lambs offered from the firstlings of Israel’s flocks were a similitude, a token, a prefiguration of the great and last sacrifice of Christ which was to come.

Now, after all those years and all those prophecies and all those symbolic offerings, the type and shadow was to become reality. On this night when Jesus’ mortal ministry was concluding, the declaration made by John the Baptist when that ministry had begun now meant more than ever—‘Behold the Lamb of God.’”

Jeffrey R. Holland, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1995/10/this-do-in-remembrance-of-me?lang=eng

THE ATONING “PASSOVER”

“The Savior’s physical suffering guarantees that through his mercy and grace every member of the human family shall be freed from the bonds of death and be resurrected triumphantly from the grave.

Jeffrey R. Holland, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1995/10/this-do-in-remembrance-of-me?lang=eng 

THE PASSOVER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej6n_2KJ_OI