Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Part 10 - Covenants - Moses

God's Covenant with Moses

  • Personal visit from the Lord, becoming a child of Christ:
    • Moses 1:1-4, 25-31
      • 1 The words of God, which he spake unto Moses at a time when Moses was caught up into an exceedingly high mountain,  2 And he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence. 3 And God spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless?  4 And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease.
      • 25 And calling upon the name of God, he beheld his glory again, for it was upon him; and he heard a voice, saying: Blessed art thou, Moses, for I, the Almighty, have chosen thee, and thou shalt be made stronger than many waters; for they shall obey thy command as if thou wert God. 26 And lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days; for thou shalt deliver my people from bondage, even Israel my chosen.  27 And it came to pass, as the voice was still speaking, Moses cast his eyes and beheld the earth, yea, even all of it; and there was not a particle of it which he did not behold, discerning it by the Spirit of God. 28 And he beheld also the inhabitants thereof, and there was not a soul which he beheld not; and he discerned them by the Spirit of God; and their numbers were great, even numberless as the sand upon the sea shore.  29 And he beheld many lands; and each land was called earth, and there were inhabitants on the face thereof.  30 And it came to pass that Moses called upon God, saying: Tell me, I pray thee, why these things are so, and by what thou madest them?  31 And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face. And the Lord God said unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me.
    • Deuteronomy 5:2-4
      • 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.  3 The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.  4 The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,
  • The Law points to Christ.  Moses was the mediator of the law.
    • JST Galatians 3:19-20:
      • 19 Wherefore then, the law was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made in the law given to Moses, who was ordained by the hand of angels to be a mediator of this first covenant, (the law.)  20 Now this mediator was not a mediator of the new covenant; but there is one mediator of the new covenant, who is Christ, as it is written in the law concerning the promises made to Abraham and his seed. Now Christ is the mediator of life; for this is the promise which God made unto Abraham.
    • 3 Nephi 15:4-10
      • 4 Behold, I say unto you that the law is fulfilled that was given unto Moses.  5 Behold, I am he that gave the law, and I am he who covenanted with my people Israel; therefore, the law in me is fulfilled, for I have come to fulfil the law; therefore it hath an end. 6 Behold, I do not destroy the prophets, for as many as have not been fulfilled in me, verily I say unto you, shall all be fulfilled. 7 And because I said unto you that old things have passed away, I do not destroy that which hath been spoken concerning things which are to come. 8 For behold, the covenant which I have made with my people is not all fulfilled; but the law which was given unto Moses hath an end in me. 9 Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life. 10 Behold, I have given unto you the commandments; therefore keep my commandments. And this is the law and the prophets, for they truly testified of me.
  • Promised Land
    • Exodus 6:4,8
      • 4 And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.  8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord.
  • People would be delivered and belong to the Lord:
    • Exodus 6:5-7
      •  5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.  6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:  7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
    • Exodus 19:3-6
      • 3 And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;  4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.  5 Now therefore, if ye 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:  6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
    • Deuteronomy 29:9-13
      • 9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do. 10 ¶Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, 11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: 12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day:  13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
  • Blood of the Covenant:
    • Exodus 24:6-8
      • 6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.  7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.  8 And 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.
  • Sign of the Covenant:
    • Exodus 31:16-17
      • 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.  17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
  • Conditions and Blessings of the Covenant:
    • Deuteronomy 4:13-14, 23
      • 13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.  14 ¶And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.  23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee.
    • Deuteronomy 7:11-15
      • 11 Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.  12 ¶Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:  13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. 14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.  15 And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.
  • Penalties of the Covenant:
    • Deuteronomy 29:18-28
      • 18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; 19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: 20 The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law: 22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it; 23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath: 24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? 25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: 26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them: 27 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: 28 And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
    • Judges 2:1-5
      • 1 And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. 2 And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? 3 Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. 4 And it came to pass, when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. 5 And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the Lord.
  • Fulfilling Covenant made with the Fathers:
    • JST Genesis 50:24
      • And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die, and go unto my fathers; and I go down to my grave with joy. The God of my father Jacob be with you, to deliver you out of affliction in the days of your bondage; for the Lord hath visited me, and I have obtained a promise of the Lord, that out of the fruit of my loins, the Lord God will raise up a righteous branch out of my loins; and unto thee, whom my father Jacob hath named Israel, a prophet; (not the Messiah who is called Shilo;) and this prophet shall deliver my people out of Egypt in the days of thy bondage.
    • Exodus 6:2-8
      • 2 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord:  3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.  4 And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.  5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.  6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:  7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.  8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord.
    • Deuteronomy 7:8-9:
      • 8 But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
    • Leviticus 26:41-46
      • 41 And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord. 46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
    • 1 Nephi 17:40
      • 40 And he loveth those who will have him to be their God. Behold, he loved our fathers, and he covenanted with them, yea, even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he remembered the covenants which he had made; wherefore, he did bring them out of the land of Egypt.
    • 2 Nephi 3:16-17
      • 16 Yea, thus prophesied Joseph: I am sure of this thing, even as I am sure of the promise of Moses; for the Lord hath said unto me, I will preserve thy seed forever. 17 And the Lord hath said: I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod; and I will give judgment unto him in writing. Yet I will not loose his tongue, that he shall speak much, for I will not make him mighty in speaking. But I will write unto him my law, by the finger of mine own hand; and I will make a spokesman for him.

    Tuesday, August 19, 2014

    Part 9 - Covenants - Joseph

    God's Covenant with Joseph

    2 Nephi 3:4-24: 
    • Righteous branch would come from fruit of Joseph's loins and be broken off 
      • This branch would be remembered in the latter days to bring them to light and freedom 
    • A Seer from Joseph's loins 
      • He will be esteemed highly among the fruit of Joseph's loins 
      • His work will be to bring the fruit of Joseph's loins to a knowledge of the covenants made to Joseph's fathers 
      • He shall do no other work save that which the Lord commands him 
      • He will receive power to bring forth the Lord's word to the seed of Joseph's loins 
        • And also to convince them of the Lord's word that has already gone forth among them 
      • The fruit of Joseph's loins and the fruit of Judah's loins will write and those writings will grow together unto: 
        • The confounding of false doctrines 
        • Laying down contentions 
        • Establishing peace among the fruit of Joseph's loins 
        • Bringing the fruit of Joseph's loins to the knowledge of: 
          • Their fathers 
          • The Lord's covenants 
      • The Seer will be made strong out of weakness in the day when the work of the Lord shall commence  unto the restoration of the House of Israel 
      • Those who seek to destroy him will be confounded 
      • His name will be Joseph, like his father 
      • The seer will be like Joseph the patriarch - the thing the Lord will bring forth by his hand will bring the Lord's people to salvation 
    • One mighty among Joseph's seed (same person as the seer???) 
      • He'll do much good in word and deed 
      • Work mighty wonders and bring to pass "much restoration unto the house of Israel" 
    • Moses the deliverer 
      • He will have power given to him in a rod 
      • The Lord will give him judgment in writing 
      • He will not be mighty in speaking 
      • The Lord will write unto him His law by His own finger 
      • He will have a spokesman 
    • JST Genesis 50:24-38 
      • God will raise up a righteous branch out of the fruit of Joseph's loins which will be carried into a far country 
        • This branch will be remembered in the covenants of the Lord "when the Messiah cometh" 
          • He will be manifested to them in the latter days in the "Spirit of power" 
            • He shall bring them out of darkness/captivity to light/freedom 
      • God will provide a prophet to deliver Israel from bondage in Egypt 
        • His name will be Moses 
        • He'll be nursed by the king's daughter and be called her son 
        • A rod will be in his hand with which he'll smite the waters of the Red Sea 
        • He'll gather the Lord's people and lead them as a flock 
        • He'll have judgment 
        • He'll write the word of the Lord 
        • He shall not speak many words but the Lord will write him His law by the finger of His own hand 
        • He'll have a spokesman named Aaron 
      • A choice seer unto the fruit of Joseph's loins raised up out of the fruit of Joseph's loins 
        • He will be commanded to do a work for the fruit of Joseph's loins, his brethren 
        • He shall bring those brethren to a knowledge of the covenants of the Lord with Joseph's fathers 
        • He'll also do whatsoever work the Lord commands 
        • He'll be great like Moses 
        • He'll receive power to bring forth the Lord's word unto the seed of Joseph's loins 
          • And also to convince them of the Lord's word that has already gone forth among them 
        • Out of weakness he'll be made strong in the day when the Lord's work shall go forth among all His people, which will restore those who are of the House of Israel 
        • Those who seek to destroy him will be confounded 
        • His name will be Joseph, like his father's 
        • The seer will be like Joseph the patriarch - the thing the Lord will bring forth by his hand will bring the Lord's people to salvation 
      • The fruit of Joseph's loins will write and the fruit of Judah's loins will write 
        • These writings will grow together to  
          • confound false doctrine 
          • Lay down contentions 
          • To the fruit of Joseph's loins: 
            • Establish peace among them 
            • Bring them to a knowledge of their fathers in the latter days 
            • Bring them to a knowledge of the Lord's covenants 
      • Joseph's seed will be preserved forever 
        • Also 2 Nephi 25:21: 
          • Wherefore, for this cause hath the Lord God promised unto me that these things which I write shall be kept and preserved, and handed down unto my seed, from generation to generation, that the promise may be fulfilled unto Joseph, that his seed should never perish as long as the earth should stand. 
        • Also Ether 13:7 
          • For as Joseph brought his father down into the land of Egypt, even so he died there; wherefore, the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of the land of Jerusalem, that he might be merciful unto the seed of Joseph that they should perish not, even as he was merciful unto the father of Joseph that he should perish not. 


    Ether 13:7-12 
     7 For as Joseph brought his father down into the land of Egypt, even so he died there; wherefore, the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of the land of Jerusalem, that he might be merciful unto the seed of Joseph that they should perish not, even as he was merciful unto the father of Joseph that he should perish not. 
     8 Wherefore, the remnant of the house of Joseph shall be built upon this land; and it shall be a land of their inheritance; and they shall build up a holy city unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old; and they shall no more be confounded, until the end come when the earth shall pass away. 
     9 And there shall be a new heaven and a new earth; and they shall be like unto the old save the old have passed away, and all things have become new. 
     10 And then cometh the New Jerusalem; and blessed are they who dwell therein, for it is they whose garments are white through the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who are numbered among the remnant of the seed of Joseph, who were of the house of Israel. 
     11 And then also cometh the Jerusalem of old; and the inhabitants thereof, blessed are they, for they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who were scattered and gathered in from the four quarters of the earth, and from the north countries, and are partakers of the fulfilling of the covenant which God made with their father, Abraham. 
     12 And when these things come, bringeth to pass the scripture which saith, there are they who were first, who shall be last; and there are they who were last, who shall be first