This is My work and My Glory

What an appropriate name for the beginning of the Old Testament! As I stated in a previous post, I will be reading the Old Testament to find evidences of a testament of Jesus Christ. I think that people are rightly intimidated by the Old Testament because there are so many meanings, many traditions, many languages, and a whole different time. But, I believe that the Old Testament is more simple than people believe and by focusing on how it is a testament of Jesus Christ I really feel like I can become more happily acquainted with it.

The Sunday School study begins with the Book of Moses in The Pearl of Great Price, which is "an extract from the translation of the Bible as revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet." This extract as the introductory note states: "touch[es] many significant aspects of the faith and doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." So, to me, it is no surprise that in our study of the Old Testament, we do not begin with the Creation (lesson 3), but with the doctrine behind the creation. We start with the very existence of God and Jesus Christ.

Here are key doctrines in Moses 1 (I will probably miss some, so if you have additions, comment please) that can also be applied to us-long, but good list:

1. We have a testimonial that Moses saw the face of God, Moses experienced His glory. v1-3

2. Moses is told that he is the Lord's son, and that he will learn from the Lord. v4

3. Man cannot understand all the works of God. v5

4. Moses learns that there is work for him to do, appointed by God.v6

5. There is no other God and all things are present with God, He knows all.v6

6. Moses sees all of God's creations. v7-8

7. Moses learns that being without the presence of God decreases his strength. v10

8. Moses notices the difference of seeing with mortal eyes and spiritual eyes, that both have purposes together and seperate.v11

9. Satan tempts Moses. There is opposition and all things. v12-13

10. Moses compares the glory of God to the power of Satan, notices that he can see Satan with his natural eye, but that he needed spiritual eyes to see God. v13-14

11. Moses realizes that because he can make this differentiation, the spirit of God has not left him and that he can judge between bad and good and does so as he tells Satan that he will worship the only true God and tells Satan to leave. v15-16

12. Moses remembers that God gave him commandments. v17

13. Moses commits to obeying the commandments given and continues to call upon God and again tells Satan to leave. v18

14. Satan throws a fit (which in my opinion tells us a lot about Satan) and causes Moses to fear. v19-20

15. When Moses was fearful he saw the bitterness of hell.

16. Moses discovers that fear is the opposite of faith as he calls on God in his fear and received strength. Now, with the strength of God, Moses commands Satan to depart and it's Satan's turn to tremble and he throws a bigger fit, but leaves. v20-22

17. After Moses' trial of faith he was filled with the Holy Ghost and called on the name of the Lord again and is blessed with the strength and companionship of the Lord. v24-27

18. After the trial of faith, Moses was shown the world again, and saw even more - every particle and soul and land. v27-29

19. Moses asks why all these things were made and was told that God has a purpose for them, but for the time being that wisdom remains with God. v31

20. But then Moses is told about God's only begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth (which I think is just wonderful after He tells Moses that there are somethings that he shouldn't know. In effect, God tells and shows Moses many things, but there are somethings that he can't know yet, but there is a Savior to help you through the things that you don't know). v31-32

21. God creates the world with His Only Begotten, and the first man is Adam. v33-34

22. Other world have been created, but we are only informed of the inhabitants of this world, but all worlds are known to God. v35

23. Moses is satisfied with knowing about the inhabitants of this earth. v36

24. He is given basically the definition of eternity, time keeps going and worlds keep going, there is no end to the work of God and the work of God is bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

25. God tells Moses that he will tell him of the earth (which happens in the next chapters beginning with the creation), but one more verse before that tells us this:

26. The children of men will not respect the words of God at times (and speaks of a specific time before Joseph Smith), but that he will bring another like Moses (a prophet) to come and teach the truths among the people again. Revelation.

That was a long list, but I just couldn't pick out one or two things to talk about. There is value in looking at a list of truths though and makes me appreciate the process of learning Moses went through because I go through it too, though not to the same extent, but then I'm in a different time with different tools.

This will be fun.