Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Deuteronomy 6-8;15;18;29-30;34 -- Part 2 : Dr. Bruce Satterfield

Episode Date: May 15, 2022

Dr. Bruce Satterfield returns and discusses the scattering of Israel, the importance of covenants, and his testimony as a scholar.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelShow Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/old-testament/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producers/SponsorsDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: MarketingLisa Spice: Client Relations, Show Notes/TranscriptsJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Rough Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Transcripts/Language Team/French TranscriptsAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-pianoPlease rate and review the podcast.

Welcome to Part 2 of this week's podcast. Now, Chapter 6. This is built around the concept of one God only. Book of Mormon is a Hebrew book. God is God. Whether you're talking to Father, Son, the Holy Ghost, that's God. They don't get caught up on which God will be talking about. Irrelevant. It's God. So we see one of the most important verses in Deuteronomy, and that's in Deuteronomy 6 verse 4, the Shema, it's called in Hebrew. Here, O Israel, Jehovah, our God is one Jehovah, which is only saying Jehovah is one God. So Bruce, is this a standard of monotheism in a world of polytheism here in chapter six? Yeah, so this concept that there's one God is big.

And that's at the beginning, and it's just kind of pounded in. Yeah, it's an over and over type thing. And even verse seven of chapter six, teach these things to your children. Teach them. Talk of them. And this is where the factories come in to play where they put the box on the forefront of their head, meaning over the brain and over the heart that your heart and mind are focused on God.

And so the Lord wants these what daily reminders on their forehead that they, it's verse 12 of chapter 6, less you forget what God has done. You can see that throughout, there's, I mean, I've been looking through it all the remembers and all the forgets and we see that in the book of Mormon too and we remember President Kimbell's famous statement that he said when you look in the dictionary for the most important word do you know what it is he said it could be remember and if you watch for remember and forget in the scriptures it's all over the place. You've got to remember it, and then you need to keep remembering it.

Sounds like to me, Bruce in 2 and chapter 6, Moses is saying, when you get wealthy, remember God, because all sorts of good things are gonna happen to you. You're gonna build great cities, you're gonna have vineyards and olive trees, don't forget God. Now, this, I appreciate you bringing that up because when we see the promises being made to Israel, the great blessings, the blessings of great prosperity, the reason for the prosperity

is that when the Gentiles coming to their land on the trade routes see Israel in great prosperity, they're going to ask about that because that's where all the trade routes are about. That's wars about and they're going to ask, you guys are living great, how come? Well, it's because of our practice in Jehovah worship. Who's Jehovah? Let us tell you. So, prosperity is a major issue because we know from Book of Mormon. When one gets prosperous, they tend to... They forget. That's Helaman 12, right? I was going to just bring that up. That's the longest of all his thus we see is that issue. So this comes up several times. In fact, it would be good at this point to do this. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 28. In Deuteronomy 27, I don't know why they didn't have read 27, 28, 27, go to Shachem, divide yourself on the two mountains with six tribes standing

on the north mountain to yell out blessings and other six tribes on Ebal, yelling out the curses. And in chapter 28, verses 1 through 14 are the blessings that would come upon Israel. And it starts in verse 1, it shall come to pass if thou shalt harkened diligently unto the voice of Jehovah thy God to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that Jehovah thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee if thou shalt harken under the voice of Jehovah thy God. Bless, shall thou be in this city. Bless, out thou be in the

field. Bless, shall thou be the fruit of thy body, et cetera, et cetera. And the book of Mormon carries that on. Keep the commandments and you prosper in the... Prost for in the land. But if you forget God, then it's all come to not. Curses come. And verses one through 14 are the blessings, verses 15 through 68 are the curses.

The curses if you forget God. This is a Deuteronomy 28. You can see, if you don't arachn this will happen verse 16, 17. Now what the curses do, there's the short chapter on the covenant, and that's in the viticus chapter 26, and in the short one, keep my law, I will dwell with you, I will put my tabernacle in being your midst. You'll possible, but if you break it, these curses will come and they're precursors and they're curses.

The precursors are designed to humble them to get them to reform, and that's what Leviticus says. If you're not reformed by these precursors, then these curses happen. Precursors are like famine and plagues, etc. and they're designed to humble Israel. If they're not humble, then you're going to lose the land and be cast among all the even. But these blessings and curses are at the heart of what's going on in Deuteronomy. If you keep this

law, then you're going to be blessed. The blessings essentially are so that you can catch the eyes of the world so they can see you and inquire. Then they interred learned about Jehovah, right? Because they're inquiring, so they learned. That's the whole point to the house of Israel is to fulfill this promise made to Enic, to Abraham that all

the world will come to God, be saved. Let me ask you something, Bruce. It seems to me, as I've read one of the sign chapters from the manual this week is chapter 30, seems the Lord is prepping them for a scattering that He knows it's coming. That is the curse. That's the ultimate curse that will happen. So let me do this. Go to chapter 30.

In chapter 30, you see the chapter summary, the scattered Israelites will be gathered from among all nations. Well, okay. We've been seeing that the curses are many varied and Israel will cease to exist as a people, but they got a return as a people. Go back to 29 real quick and let me show you the verses where they're now entering into this covenant.

29 verse 10, you stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God. That before the Lord is kind of a Hebrew idiomatic phrase, meaning there's an altar or there's a temple there. And they would have this altar there, representing God. Verse 10, your captains of your tribes, the elders, officers, with all the man of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the stranger that is in thy camp. Now remember, there were many strangers who came with them out of Egypt. So they're already blessing Gentiles. Any time you see the word stranger, it generally means Gentile, generally, because a stranger could also be summoned in another tribe. But in this case, it would be Gentiles. Verse 12, that thou shouldest enter into a covenant with the Lord thy God and into his oath with Jehovah,

thy God. Make it with you this day, that ye may be established. So establishing you as a nation, and he has sworn unto you the Father's Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, but with him that standeth here with us, that is this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day. I.e. your children, your grandchildren, your descendants. This is the national covenant. You're born, you're subject to it, just like anyone born in the United States or subject to the constitution of the United States. This is a national law. And if we keep that mind, remember, Israel is to be a worldwide nation Zion. Then chapter 30 comes and he is prepping for a scattering, right? Which we're going to see later on as we go through the rest of the Old Testament. I mean, it's a clear as can be.

Israel's problem is going to be following more than one way. Fidelity. Yeah. The ways of the world and the ways of God can't do it. Reminds me of that general conference comment when you chase two rabbits. You don't get either one of them. But don't worry either one of them. But don't worry in the end, God's going to win.

Even if you have to be scattered, he knows what he's doing. Throughout here, the word shoove is used, which is the word for repent, which means to return. We see the if, then the if the butts, et cetera. Verse 15, I have set before the this day life and good, death and evil, in that I command thee this day to love Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments. And thou mayest live and multiply. And you hope that I God shall bless thee in the land with that God possesses it. But if thy heart turn away so that thou will not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods

and serve them. I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whether thou passeth over the Jordan to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that both Thou and thy seed may live, that Thou mayest love the Lord thy God,

that Thou mayest obey his voice, that Thou mayest cleave unto him for his life and the length of the days. And Thou mayest dwell in the land which Jehovah swear unto thy followers to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give them, which means your freedom to worship. Moses is serious. And the next is to Joshua. He's done speaking to the people. That's quite a farewell speech. It is.

There's a little bit of Lehigh in there. And I just noticed that the footnotes there, footnote 15A to second Nephi 227, where Lehigh kind of, it sounds like such a no-brainer. Do you want to choose captivity and death? Or do you want to choose liberty and eternal life? Like Lehigh says, and it's the same thing, life in verse 19.

I said before you, life and death, blessing and cursing, choose life. This should be obvious, that both thou and my seed may live. Perfect connection to second Nephi too. I was going, hey, that sounds like Lehigh and then I noticed it, the footnote people caught it too, long before I did. This is such a no-brainer.

This is not a hard choice. When you think over second Nephi too and he starts at the beginning and he's talking about the law that all have a law, light of Christ, all are going to sin. I mean, where's he getting this whole concept? Well, it's here in this law. Now, I want you to recall, Lehi Therai, a young married couple, is when Josiah finds the book.

And Josiah calls all Israel to the temple, at least those who would come because most of them have been scattered, but come to the temple and they cut a covenant with God. He reads the whole text to them, and they hear this and they cut a covenant. Everybody walked between the parts of the animal. Every one of them. So Lehi and Sariah, a young married couple, they would have been there. Yes, and they would have heard the law. And the first time he reads it's when they get the scriptures.

First time he gets to read the scriptures, it's always been hearing. For those of our listeners who don't know who Josiah is, don't worry. stay with us. We're going to get to him. Yeah, he's coming. He's one of the last kings of Joe. It's an important connection to make to Lehigh because without Josiah, I don't know if Lehigh knows what he knows. Josiah is perhaps the best king in Israel. very unlike his grandfather, Manasseh, who was the worst king in Israel. Josiah brings about a reform using this book, right? And Jeremiah is the major prophet, and you can, you read in Jeremiah that the reform is in the king, but the reform is not in the hearts of the people. And that's what Lord tells in the great temple sermon in Jeremiah 7. And Lehi would have been there,

Ishmael and his wife would have been there in this great covenant. It's second Kings chapter 19, I think. How interesting, interesting Bruce from the chapter 30, they would have heard about the scattering and they are going to take part in it. And they are, they're, those who shall be scattered. Lehigh was to preserve seed of Joseph, for him and of Joseph. The idea of scattering, of course,

is in reality a positive word because it has the connotation of scattering the seed. And by scattering Israel, we're going to spread that blood that God has promised to Abraham is going to have the gospel and is going to be saved and exalted. Which brings us full circle because when we very first began, we said, the Lord's got a long game here. And he knows his game plan to turn this all around. So we learned in the book of Mormon, the scattering was part of the plan to save Israel

and the rest of the world. In my class, I like to say, could we call this a fortunate scattering, kind of like a fortunate fall? The scattering came when they were having trouble being obedient or remembering, except for the case of Lehigh. But look at what the Lord did with it. It became a fortunate scattering a way to help bless all the families of the earth.

And like Bruce just said, to spread the blood of the house of Israel all over the world. God is not in the business of destruction. He's in the business of destruction. He's in the business of salvation. So he always uses his means of destruction to be a means of salvation. Returning beauty for ashes, that's what he does. This goes all the way back to the Nakhine covenant. I will call on Noah's seed. His seed will be found among all nations until the end.

That means chosen seed with it, and in the end, Noah's seed will essentially be the chosen seed that I'm going to bless, and that's finalized in the Millennium. There it is from the very beginning. How is he going to save the Sears? I feel bad for Joshua. He's got to take this. Bruce, let me ask you, for those of us who are kind of seeing this message of keep the covenant, even in wealth, keep the covenant, remember God and you'll create Zion. How do you do that? Because it seems in the Book of Mormon it's almost impossible to get wealthy, to catch the eyes of the world, but yet to stay dedicated to God.

It's the way the Ten Commandments are set up to begin with. And first, that is to put God first. That is a spiritual rebirth issue. That is about when one goes through spiritual rebirth and God literally becomes first in their life. Remember what Adam and Eve were shown? They fallen. They eventually call on the Lord. He tells them to worship him and offer the first things of their flock as an offering. So they do.

And they do it and they do it and they do it. And it had to be an awful experience at the first because this is really a burnt offering. And a burnt offering is skinning it, dismembering it. I mean, it's a bloody process the first time doing it and then it all burns up and they must have stood around that first time and said, whoa, what did we just do here? Then the angel comes, why are you doing this?

Well, I don't know and the angel comes, why are you doing this? Well, I don't know. And the angel, this thing is in similitude of the sacrifice of the only begotten son who is full of grace and truth. Next verse, wherefore thou shalt do all, thou doest in the name of the son. In other words, that sacrifice is also your sacrifice. The burn offering, the head is removed, the innards are removed, and these are placed in order on the offering, the head, the innards, the fat, the legs, the carcass, and then it's entirely burned up in smoke and ash. In Hebrew, this is called the Ola.

Ola means that which goes up, no one ever come up with a name, burn offering. It represents the wholeness of the offer as Christ put God first and the salvation of His children. So must we. That has to be done on a daily basis to keep reminding ourselves, what are we doing That has to be done on a daily basis that keep reminding ourselves, what are we doing? Why do I have a job? Why am I going on this vacation? None of which

is evil, but in the end, it has to be cognitively done. I mean, I'll be honest coming here to do this, I walk through my motives with Heavenly Father. Why am I doing this? It's for the Ike kingdom's sake. It has nothing to do with me and Andy, whatever comes of all this because I'm not much into all this kind of stuff. Sorry, I mean, don't know what it is. But why am I doing it? I asked the answer is to build a kingdom, and I had to mentally work that through.

So it's there. I mean, I have to tell you something. When I was 23, we went up to Mount Gareth Zim and at Passover time and we had opportunity to spend Passover with the Samaritans The slaughtering of the lambs the burning of them. They don't burn them up entirely But that was an education for me Black and white words on a page turned colors. I saw lamb actually and the kicking the bleeding The dismembering of that animal Man, I just sat through my head and I I just thought oh my goodness

This is what Adam went through. This is what Lehigh did with his family in the wilderness When Nephi is asked when he's trying to find out the meaning of the tree He sees a woman a young girl and he's trying to figure out what's this got to do with the tree of life. He's no who this is. No, it's some it's some other son of God the flesh. And he's asked the question. Do you understand the condescension of God? No, I don't understand what you're saying. So he sees the girl. Then she's gone, and she comes back, and she still dressed the same. This is how he would know she's a virgin or unmarried. This is what virgin really means is she's unmarried. She's still unmarried. She got a baby in her hands.

And now he's got to really be wondering what is his how to do it the tree. And then the angel says, behold the Lamb of God, the Son of the Eternal Father, knows the meaning of the tree. Oh, he just traded one symbol for another. Oh, this is the Lamb. The Lamb is a sacrifice. This is that sacrifice we do.

Christ is doing. In fact, the mother is the sacrifice. We see a mother, the first thing to mean of the tree, the life of a child. The sacrifice that he's seen is a lie. Yeah. And you and I are in the similitude of that sacrifice is what Adam and Eve is being taught. That same thing. Ultimately, the bringing the children of God into the world and teach him and raise them righteously. And all the various ways we can serve in the Kingdom of God to bless God's sheep in this world.

Bruce, we had an incredible day today walking through Deuteronomy in the history of Israel. Really, I think our listeners would be interested in your journey as a Bible scholar and a believing latter-day saint. How those two worlds have come together. You and also the world of being a father and a grandfather. I am very, very much committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have a very strong testimony, God the Father, a very strong one in His Son. My father was a very strong member

of the church. My mother struggled. And she hated the Book of Mormon. We really didn't talk religion growing up. It always was a conflict. Though she would go to church, I was just really strange saying, I just kind of grew up the six to the sixth kids, and I didn't particularly care one where I was about to go. I would say I believed, but I didn't have faith. I was born in 1956, so I grew up in this turbulent decade of the 60s and in the 70s. It was a fearful time. The assassinations and the race riots, the drug culture, all.

That was all very frightening kind of thing. And the hippie movement was part of that. And I watched that. I didn't like the drugs. Wasn't gonna get them what they were looking for. And that proved correct by the early 70s. Many of them became born again Christians and in December of 72, it was snowing on a Friday night

in December. And I wasn't with all my friends. I don't know why to this day. I don't know why, but I went downtown was walking around just trying and looking at the lights and was alone. And out of the blizzard came a lot of hippies. I mean, I look like one too. So they come up and they surrounded me and said, Hey, man, do you know Christ? I had no idea what they were talking about. And so they said, let's go in and have a cup of coffee and talk about it. So I find this interesting. So we're talking and they're trying to convince me about Christianity and becoming born again. And they're reading to me from a Bible that they have this pre-marked. And there was probably about 35, 40. They were asking me questions and so forth, and one of them said, so, too long to a church. And of course, I've been baptized when I was eight. So I

said, yeah, my parents baptized me when I was eight, and more of a church. And that was my first time of getting inundated with anti-mormon sentiment. And they just were shooting stuff right and left at me. And I was bothered by it. I wasn't bothered in a disbelieving way. I was bothered because for the first time in my life, I wasn't sure of what I believed about anything spiritual. I just wasn't spiritual and I had never read the scriptures. I didn't know any scriptures. We never read them at home. We had a family Bible in the living room, but it was just one, a big thick one for show. I got my car and I was driving and thinking, what do I know? You know, the missionaries at that time all had little cars with their name on it. On the front side was a picture of the temple. Then on the back side had 13 articles of faith.

I knew where there was one home. So I wanted to go home and get a Bible and start reading the Bible comparing the Bible to the articles of faith. I don't know why I even thought I could read a Bible and start reading the Bible, comparing the Bible to the Art of the Faith. I don't know why I even thought I could read a Bible. I asked my dad, I went and I said, do you think I could get a set of missionary scriptures for Christmas? You know, of course, he was more than happy to do that. And that year I started to read the Bible

comparing it to the Art of the Faith. And the more I read and the more I compared, I somehow just started to begin to pray by that summer. I had some very powerful spiritual experiences that left me with no doubt regarding the gospel. And I was a changed man. You would probably know Terry Ball. Yeah. Terry and I grew up together. We were in the same ward. Terry was such a good guy. When I made my change, he started calling me Alma the Younger. Now, I'd never read the book of Mormon, and I didn't know who Al was. I didn't know what he was saying.

My senior year, David Yarn was the dean of the College of Religion. My father was his scout master when he was young. And they were friends, and David was taking a group over to Israel 1973 Christmas time. So it was right after the old Mkip or war. And my dad asked me if I wanted to go and I was sure. When the war broke out, my mom and sister were going to go backed out.

My dad said, what do you want to do? I said, I still want to go. I don't have a problem, I don't care. That opened me up to the world of the Bible as a consequence. It raised some questions in my mind about the Atonement, and this is where I'll just bring it to an end. I didn't understand why there had to be to it. I didn't disbelieve it.

I just didn't understand. If I broke a famine reel, I got in trouble. I got grounded once summer. If I had an older brother come and say I'll take his grounding for him, my parents would have said, no, you won't. If I murdered somebody and convicted of it and someone says, I'll take his death penalty, the country would say, no, you don't. So you understand. This is where my question was coming. Why is this happening? I wanted to study about Jesus Christ and schooling seemed to be a good

logical reason to go there. The year after I graduated, I went over there and had a little room in go there. The year after I graduated, I went over there and had a little room in a Palestinian hotel. And I did my regular schoolwork and then the nights I spent hours working on a study on the life of Christ. That year was phenomenal, but I just have to say the testimony was strong. And None of that stuff regarding what people come up with the things that they say I'd have a strong strong testimony and that Can't be faked for me the scholarly side has always been to understand the doctrine and the doctrine is to understand how to live I've never let scholarship be

the reason, but it means to an end. Bruce, we have had such a good day. Yeah, I'll never think of grace and truth the same way again. That was really wonderful. Never look at those verses the same way again. When I hear grace and truth, I'll think of that. What did you call it? Unstenting devotion. Dr. Bruce Satterfield, this has been just an incredible, incredible feast today. Thank you for helping us see Deuteronomy and the entire history of Israel. It's been just a wonderful day, John.

I'm sure you'd say the same thing, a great day. We wanna thank all of you for listening and staying with us. We wanna thank our executive producers, Steve and Shannon Swanson, our sponsors, David and Verla Swanson. And we hope all of you will join us next week on another episode of Follow Him. you