Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Exodus 1-6 -- Part 2 : Anthony Rivera Jr., MTS

Episode Date: March 20, 2022

Anthony Rivera, Jr. MTS returns to discuss the parallels between the Exodus story and the Garden of Eden,  the value of Jethro, Zipporah, and the commandment of remembrance.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/episodesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks 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 two of this week's podcast. It's being led towards the east, towards God. You can't go up the Nile because if he goes up the Nile which is fertile and you can survive, it's the Egyptians run everything. You can't go out on the sea, north into Canaan. He can't even go on the Mediterranean Sea because the Egyptians have that all covered. The only place he can go is the desert because nobody's out there. And that's Midian. Midian is being prepared. There's two stories going on. There's the one Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob, and Jacob's family, and from into Canaan, into Egypt. There's another storyline from Abraham going a separate way, preparing the way for the coming of this Moshe. The descendants of Median are the descendants of Abraham from his third wife, Ketura, and here Moses ends up there. He ends up next to a well. Jesus uses the well for some of his best teachings, right? The Samaritan woman who's a foreigner at Jacob's well. What does he teach her? John chapter four. John chapter four. Living water. John chapter four.

Living water. Now Moses just came from where? He just came across the desert because Median is on the east side of the Red Sea. It's on the east side of Sinai. He's got a long ways. He's been wandering by himself a long way and he ends up next to a well which he probably desperately needs at this point. Yeah, he desperately needs this living water, right? Not only is it going to keep him alive physically, but just wait who this well belongs to. It belongs to the priest of the God of

the mountain, the priest of Midian. Let's, let's look at that. In verse, in verse 16, we're introduced to another family. Now, this is not an Israelite family. This is a Midianite family. But it's a Abraham family. They're both related to Abraham, right? Moses are related Abraham. And Midiana is related to Abraham. So let's read this one for 16 John, please. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. Did you notice some words that are repeating? The daughters. The daughters. We also learn that the priests of Medians,

so now we finally are back online with priesthood. It's real priesthood. He's a descendant of Abraham with real mechazidic priesthood authority. Now we learn that from Dr. Nacovidant Section 84. The Lord reveals the line of Moses, the mechazidic line of Moses, from this priest and from his predecessors. On my website, I have a piece that I wrote, a need book. It's actually coming from a presentation that I gave at one of the Sparry Symposiums.

That was published in this book here called Voices of Old Testament Prophets. I presented my research on Jethro and his priesthood lineage. Chapter one is a chapter called Remnants Gathered, Covenants Fulfilled. Is that a great title? By Elder Russell M. Nelson. Chapter two is Jethro, the prophet and priest of Bidian.

Here we see the Melchizedic authoritative priests, finally, and Moses is now on his doorstep. This is like a wonderful chess game. The Lord is bringing these pieces together. We learned something. He's a priest with priesthood. He has seven daughters and they came to draw water and filled the troughs to water. Their father's flock.

We hear all kinds of things, priest, father with a flock. So this priesthood holder knows something and has things that Moses is going to need. He's going to be a great mentor. He's one of those lucky fathers, like myself, who only have daughters. When who only have daughters when you only have daughters. You learn that a few things. You learn that they are very capable. So I remember I used to coach my daughter's soccer teams. And I remember in in pre-studs meeting sometimes at church, the brother would say, you know uh brother of era, so sorry that you don't have any sons. And I said, hey, brother, I'll tell you what, meet me over on the field, and I'll pit my daughters

against your sons in a soccer game anytime. They never took me up on it. But here it looks like Jethro is blessed with seven wonderful, strong, capable daughters. In verse 17, really quick, it says here that here come the bad guys, these renegade shepherds who are trying to steal the flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock. It does say, and Moses rose up, but then it uses another verb, and it pauses in the Hebrew text. It says,

Vio Shi An. Now, this word means to save or to deliver. So, he's already has these instincts of saving. Now what also is interesting here in this verb is it's the same word or root words, Yasha, which the angel tells Joseph and Mary. You will name your son Y Yeshua. In English we say Jesus. In Hebrew the angel tells both of them. You are going to name this son who will be the son of God. Yes, Yeshua, it's this word. Yes, Yeshua is a noun. It means savior or salvation. Isaiah uses it all the time. As a matter of fact, his name. Isaiah is this word. Yesha, Yahoo. Yesha, Yahoo, in Hebrew is Isaiah. In English, I think it says in the Bible, dictionary, the Lord is salvation. Same thing. That's right. And yes, I voice love that because in the Book of Mormon, when Abinadi says, what are you teaching these people? And they said the

law of Moses. And he said, why don't you keep it? And then he quotes the law of Moses. And his kind of he says, if you if you teach law of Moses, keep it. But salvation comes in Christ or the Lord is salvation and then he quotes Isaiah 53. And Isaiah's name means the Lord is salvation. I've always thought, oh, that's kind of elegant the way that's put there because Isaiah's name indicates his mission to teach that the Lord is salvation. This is a foreshadow here. Moses saving the daughters of Jethro, the saving the daughters of Jethro delivering them, saving is preparing him. He's on the right track. He's ready. He's ready now to be a deliverer, but he has to learn what that really means. He doesn't know yet.

I like Jethro says to his daughters, how come you're back so quick? I like that. They say an Egyptian rescued us. And I like that. Jetharo says, well, did you invite him over for dinner? Yeah. Where is he? You left him there? Yeah. This is another question I had was, did the Midianites have their own language? Yes. They would have their own unique language. Okay, I think this is where Ruel is coming in. This seems to be a Midianite clan name for Jethro, that they know. There was an ancestor, an ancestor named Ruel, in amongst the Midianite lineage. So yes, they would have their own language, a Semitic language, what we call a northwest Jordanian or trans-Jordan language. They're in the

the southwestern part of what we know today as Jordan was Midian and the Northwest part of Arabia, these wonderfully desert places. But it appears that their belief, at least amongst Jethro and his family, has been passed down from Abraham. It appears they know this God. He is the God of Abraham. And we learned that later on when God introduces himself to Moses. And it looks like Jethra is one of those very hospitable and traditional, shake-like person, very much like Abraham. So he has his daughters, well, did you leave him out there? Come on, girls, bring him over here that that we may break bread with him eat bread. It says that Moses

He's decides to stay Moses decides to marry Jethro's daughter Zipora. There's another name we need to know Zipora so Moses's family begins in Midian He has a new family now. He has a Midianite father-in-law now He has a new family now. He has a Midianite father-in-law now. Jethro who is still the priest, the presiding Melchizedic authority. He has his wife, Zappora, and they have two sons. Ghehr-shom is Moses' firstborn, and then he has Eliazer. Ghehr is a sojourner or a foreigner.

It's reflecting on Moses. He's like, I'm way out here, Ville and nowhere. I'm a stranger here. I'm trying to get to know who I should be. And so he names his son a stranger there. Gare-shom or Gare-shom. He has another son, Ellie, son Ellie Azar. My God is a helper because in the next verses God is going to keep repeating to Moses. Every time he calls Moses to this great deliverer mission, he gets called to the Memphis Egyptian mission. And Moses keeps saying, you don't want me. I can't go back. I don't know if I can do this. I don't, I don't not qualify it. And then he finally says, just send somebody else. Every time he says that he keeps telling Moses,

I will help you. I will be with you. So he names the second son, Ellie Azir. My God is a helper. He will help us. I love that when God tells Moses, I will be with you. I know it's frightening. I know it's going to be hard.

I know I'm asking you to do the impossible. I know you think you can't do it, but I will be with you. We should all write it down today, put it on your post it or wherever, and put it right in front of you so you see that every day. God didn't say, no, you're great, you're awesome, you're gonna do wonderful. He just said, I'll be with you. But I love that's the promise at the sacrament table. You can always have his spirit to be with you. I know you aren't a good speaker. I know that.

I know that it's hard. I know these things. Trust me. I know. I've been preparing you for this. But we're going to do it together. At the end of chapter 2, this is where the word for God starts appearing over and over and over again.

Now, the word for God that keeps appearing is this word Elohim. The name isn't spoken yet. They keep using the term Elohim, Elohim, Elohim. In verse 24, let's have a read there. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

There it is. He heard and he remembered. So that connects us back to Genesis. And this is beautiful that he already has a plan in place. I mean, think about that within our own lives. You say a prayer and God has had a plan in place for a long time. Already been preparing Moses for the moment that prayer said, I have an answer for you actually.

I have been preparing it for quite a while. That's right. God knows this plan and he does these preparations, but sometimes it takes time to get us into the position where we are ready to engage them, to discover why and what we need to do. This is where Moses is right now, and he's prepared Joseph.

So it says again in verse 25, and God saw, or he looked upon the sons of Israel, it says, Elohim knew them. In Hebrew it says, Elohim knew them. In Hebrew, it says, and Elohim saw the sons of Israel, and Elohim knew them, it says. Is that what your translation says? It knows it says, and God had respect unto them. Which is interesting because God says

he's no respecter of persons, and here it says, he has respect unto them. And so I think that's why they wanted to make this footnote, footnote 25A, God knew, in other words, he was cognizant of them. As we move now into chapter three of Exodus, okay, so we're going to get a glimpse on his life here in chapter one, because he spends decades

in Median. He's being trained, he's being mentored, and it's time for his mission call and his introduction to God. So let's have a look at verse one. The verse one is very telling, chapter three. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God even to Horib. So they know, Jethro knows where Moses has come from, but look how he puts him to work. He doesn't put him to work as a diplomat of the sheikh's fortune. He doesn't put him

as a traitor or he doesn't start making treaties with Egypt now. Notice how he teaches Moses. He teaches him. Moses, you need to learn how to be a shepherd now. You know what it's like to be a king. You know what it's like to be a warrior. But about slavery. Now, you need to learn other skills, like leading a flock. Leading a flock through the desert. He's going to do that later in life. Leading a flock through the desert.

You need to learn what this is like. And gain those skills, not only physically, temporarily, but also spiritually to care for each one of these. And then you will be ready, once you've served in this capacity, to be introduced to the God of the mountain. So here's Moses. He's leading the flock and he's walking around the mountain, which he has probably done many times. And remember, mountains are always the natural temples of God.

Right. Okay. A hantan of God, it says. That's right. So now he is on Hordev, which is another name for Sinai, in English we say Mount Sinai, right? Moses is ready to be introduced to the presence of God. Let's see what happens. So this is where we're going to see this burning bush, the famous burning bush. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. It says in Hebrew that Amalach Yahova. Now this, you see where it says the Lord, this is the first time in Exodus that the name of the Sun, but Hebrew the vowels say Yehovah, Yehovah.

Sometimes the vowel say Yeva, Yeva. Other times it says Yehovah. Here in this first time it says Yehovah. other times it says, Yehovah. Here in this first time it says, Yehovah. But it says the Malaach, the Malaach Yehovah. That's what they're translating as the angel of Yehovah. This word Malaach, which translates as angel means, it literally means a messenger. But I think from modern revelation, we learned that this, that the presence of Jehovah was there. Yeah, the JST footnote says presence of the Lord. So that's right. And the presence of the Lord is what is creating this, this light, almost like fire. What's that wonderful song we sing?

light, almost like fire. What's that wonderful song we sing? The spirit of God, like a fire is burning. From Adam to Joseph Smith, always uses the same terms of this flaming fire so bright, brighter than the sun. Joseph Smith said. I think he said he thought the forest would be consumed in the first vision. One of the accounts. Yeah. So it's not fire. It's like a fire is burning. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And that's why the bush isn't being consumed because it's not fire. It's something more powerful.

It's the ha or from the creation in verse 3 of chapter 1 of Genesis. He says, it says, Vyomere, Elohim, Yehi-or, Vyhi-or. He says, and God, and Elohim said, let there be light, or you can translate it, it will be light. And there was light. But that light is not the sun, right? It's something else.

The sun is created in verse 16 of Genesis chapter 1. This is that same thing that Moses is experiencing here. That light, it's very powerful. That's interesting. And he's fascinated by it, says in verse 3, I will now turn aside and see this great site. See how he's been drawn to it? Now we have Jehovah on the scene is ready to deal with him. And look what he says. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the

bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, hear him, I so he calls him by name, which is such a great way to start. The first thing that Moses hears out of the mouth of Jehovah, his name. Joseph Smith learned the same thing, right? In that first millisecond. Same thing. A personal God, and we're going to learn this because he's going to explain that he is personal in the next couple of verses. And Moses makes that famous reply that all the humble worshipers of the Lord do,

in Hebrew they say, he nay ni. Now it's often translated as, here am I or here I am, right? He nay means to behold, to behold. So he nay ni should be translated, behold me, because the E part means me. He may need, behold me.

It's very telling that Moses is prepared and he says, behold me. And then God instructs him, Moses, in order for you to be in my presence, you need to understand a few things. We need to get you ready. That's verse five. And he said, Draw not, Nye, Hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet. For the place where on thou standest is holy ground. He says, you are now in my world, and you don't get to bring your dirty things in my world. So don't come any closer until you remove your shoes as a symbolic act, of course. That's fascinating, Anthony, this idea of like,

I want you to come to my presence. That can't come with you, though. That whatever sin it is, whatever uncleaneness we have in our life. I want you to come with, but you've got to get rid of that. So that's the prerequisite. Once he does that and he stands before this God that he only knows is the God of the mountain, the God of Jethro, and I'm sure over time Jethro was instructing him, preparing him. It's not like although some folks are thrown into the temple and they're thinking, whoa, what just happened? It's helpful if folks are prepared to go into the temple

like Moses was. They need a mentor. They need to understand the scriptures. They need to do some shepherding to be ready to know the wonders and knowledge that will be given. So here in verse 6 comes the famous introduction. This isn't the official introduction that God wants Moses to tell Israel. This introduction in verse 6 is just for Moses. Let's read to see what it says. This is going to connect the dots now, back to where we left off with in Canaan. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God. In Hebrew, he uses a pronoun.

Now in English, we get this all mixed up, the IAMs, right? Here in this verse 6, God is using a personal pronoun, not the verb. So this isn't the same as what he's going to say later to tell Israel. This is as if they've known each other for a long time. This is personal. This is friendship. He says, Anorhiy aloha'a'vichah. He says, I, me, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. So he's trying to help Moses put into context who he really is and who he has been all along. This brings Moses now from an Egyptian to a Hebrew. He's all in now.

He is all in now. He's now directly connected to Israel. God continues in his discussion. Now, Moses, in the meantime, is freaking out. He's like, whoa, maybe he's obviously feeling the transfiguration, right? This is really being in the presence of God, has nothing to do with what he experienced in Egypt. Jehovah now starts to instruct him. And in verse seven, let's see what it says. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters for I know their sorrows. Did you notice that the Lord, the word Lord is in all capitals? You're going to have to translate in your head that everywhere it says Lord, it's really says Jehovah.

So if we read this properly, we would say, and Jehovah said, I have seen the suffering of my people. So it makes it a little bit more personable in verse eight, it's interesting what he says to him. And here we get a glimpse into the Jehovah as the true deliverer and the Savior. Moses isn't going to view the deliverer. It's really Jehovah who is going to be the deliverer. Look what he says in verse 8. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them

up out of that land unto a good land and a large unto a land flowing with milk and honey unto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Parasites and the Hivites and the Jeb you sites. These are the people who are there now in the land that Abraham was Was covenant with Abraham Moses next says, why me, right? Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and make this happen? Ironic, because it's the one person who's like, Pharaoh doesn't want to see me. Well, actually Pharaoh's looking for me.

He wants to slaughter me as you told us in the last chapter. That's right. That's right. But the answer to Moses' question, because he's asking questions and they're real questions. What, why am I called to this? Verse 12 is the answer. And he said, certainly I will be with thee. And this shall be a token unto thee

that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. So it was basically come back here. So number one, he says, you're not going to do this alone. As a matter of fact, I'm going to be doing this. I will send you in verse 10. I will be with you in verse 12. That's right. I will be with you.

He doesn't say, and if you free Israel, he says, and when you free them, you will worship Elohim, it says, on this mountain. So now Moses gets to test the promise, right? That's right. And in verse 13 is when Moses says, okay, all right, let me see if I understand this. He says, what am I going to tell them?

This is great. He's not so worried about Pharaoh as he is the Israel. Last time I was there, they saw me riding in Pharaoh's chariot. But what am I going to tell them what your name is? The book is called The Names. Yeah. Shammult. Shammult.

That's right. And he says, what should I tell them? Who, what God is sending me? Are they going to even remember this? This is that famous line that reads in Hebrew. Let me tell you what it says It says Vyomere alohim al-Moshay and alohim said to Moses Eh, yeah, Ah, share eh, yeah

Thus shall you say to the sons of Israel Eh, yeah, has sent me to you. Eh, yeah, I'll share eh, yeah, is often translated, I am that I am. That doesn't make much sense and we can, we can work it out and try to explain it. In Hebrew, it's a very clear specific kind of verb that is being used. It's the verb to be with a future prefix which says, I will. So, et, yeah, literally means in Hebrew, I will be who will be. who will be. It's how it probably should be translated. I will be who will be. That's right. He says, tell them that. I am the one who promised Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, who is going to not only deliver you from bondage, physically, but from the bondage of sin eternally. I am the one who will be. Can I relate this to the idea of Moses has got to prove he's from God, truly been called?

That's right. And only the Israelites pass down from God, truly been called. That's right. And only the Israelites pass down from Abraham, know this. He says, you are to tell them that, that's what you should say. And they'll understand. Now when Moses goes back, he doesn't say, I will be sent me because they're going to get confused. He's going to tell them, he will be sent me because they're going to get confused. He's going to tell them he will be sent me. He changes the person from I will be that he was telling Moses to he will be in the third person. And that's where you get the word Yahova. Yahova means he will be. He is to tell them also that he is the one that covenanted with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This is the very one. In verse 16, he commands Moses, go back to Egypt and gather the elders of Israel and say unto them that Yehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, has heard your prayers. And then he flat out tells him, by the way, Pharaoh is not going to let you go. So he says, yeah. There's going to be some other things that are going to have to happen. So just say no. That phrase sets up the battle between the gods. The battle between the so-called God Horus, who is Pharaoh, and the true Son of God.

We're going to see this battle play out between them. It's not between Moses and Pharaoh. it's between the God of Moses and Pharaoh. And we're going to see who really is the powerful one. We talked about earlier about this staying on a personal level and it's the idea of someone gets stuck in an addiction and it's a battle of Satan versus the Savior and the Savior's saying, look, Satan doesn't let go. So we're going to have to, we're going to have a battle here for you, for your soul. Yeah. And I am sure that the King of Egypt will not let you go. No, not by a mighty hand.

Pharaoh with the club, his hand raised in all of the imagery throughout all of the palaces and temples of Egypt, that indicate is a symbol for the strength of the mighty hand. But God is going to show him, hey listen, we can't come at him for armies. That's not how this works. We need to show him who has the mightier your hand here, and he keeps repeating that. Because look at the next verse, verse 20. And I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the midst thereof,

and after that he will let you go. What symbol is stronger than that image of Pharaoh raising his hand. It's the hand of God, Jehovah, who is really mightier than Pharaoh. And he says, after I do it, he will let you go. He's pretty confident in himself. He will let you go. He will, that's right.

And then he says in the last verse, and by the way, you're gonna load up on on all their stuff. Take some spoils with you. You're going to take some spoils with you because this is a victory. And it's the victory of Jehovah over Horus. And then starting in chapter four, Moses starts, starts questioning, he starts asking these questions. Well, what if they don't believe me? They're going to say, the Lord didn't appear to you. He didn't appear to you. We remember you, or have you been there?

And then the Lord says, I'll tell you what. Let me provide you with some power, if you will, to show them. And notice every time he uses his hand, he says, let me show you, this is not the way I do it, but for you, use your hand. At first, he says, your staff, what's in your hand? He says, it's my shepherd's staff. Throw it on the ground and watch what I do. And notice, it doesn't turn into

you know a dragon or a monster of some sort. What does it turn into? The serpent. This is a serpent language. This is garden language. But this time the serpent is an image of the true God. Now Pharaoh is going to try to do the same thing because what he has that serpent on his crown, right? He's like, ah, that's that's child's play. Watch this and that's not going to work. And then he says, take your hand and put it close to your chest. He says, let me show you what I can do to the body. He sees that it's leprous like snow. He says, he says, put your hand back there and he heals it. He says, I'm able to heal. And he says, if Israel does not heed this first sign, then they'll believe the second one. And he still sees

that Moses is scratching his head. Yeah, those are good. Those are really good. I like those. I like those. Because, okay, fine. One more. Take that water and pour it on the ground. What do you see? Blood. He says, this they will believe. The water will turn to blood on dry ground. You can turn your staff into a snake or you can make your hand leprous and then not leprous again, and you can pour water out and it'll turn to blood. That would be pretty convincing, but Moses is still a little doubtful. He still is. I don't know how to talk.

Yeah. Yeah. It says that his mouth is heavy, but this word for heavy can mean a number of different things. It doesn't necessarily have to mean a speech impediment. It could have to do with language. It could be, listen, I don't speak Hebrew like they do. I don't speak the language. I don't speak the language that could be part of it. You know, I know Egyptian pretty well. I'm learning this Midianite accent over here. I understand you, Lord, but I don't know if I'm the guy to say the words.

And then, of course, God says, Moses, who's the one who controls your mouth? I am the one. He says again in verse 12, let's see what that says. Now therefore go. Yeah, I will be with I mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. That's right. Now what's interesting in the language here is something interesting. The word, the word to go is a famous word amongst the Israelites, the Jews today. God gives them a command. It's a command. Lach. It's the same command that he gave Abraham. Lachlachah, go now to the land of Canaan. He says, it's an important command. Go.

You don't get to think about it. You don't get to see if you have time for it. It's a prompting. It's a command you need to go. And then he says, I will be, and you know what that word is? The same word that he said his name is. Eh, yeah. But it says, I will be with your mouth. In other words, your words will be my words. Eh, yeah, we'll be speaking, Moses.

Do you understand that? My spirit will be with you that the words that are coming out of your mouth will be eh, yes, words. And next he says, and I will instruct you, right? The word for I will teach you is the word Torah, Torah. Now you've probably heard that word before. Torah is usually translated as the law, the law, the Torah, but Torah, the law, really means instruction. It means teaching. We often think Torah or the law means these really harsh commands. That is the farthest of what it means here. It means just what he says right here. I will teach you what to do is the law. I wish we could say, and Moses went forth into Egypt and appeared before, no, Moses has one more question or at least one more thing. He's he's hearing all this and he's saying,

saying, Lord, I know I believe this, but if it be thy will, let this pass to another. It's a sin somebody else. I need a companion. Yeah, I need because I don't know if I can do this by myself when Christ said that in the garden of Gethsemane. What does the Father do? And he sent an angel to comfort him, and he was able to fulfill the atonement. Here God says, Moses, I will send somebody for you who will be with you. He'll help you. And it's his brother, Aaron. That's his great. Isn't that great? It's not angel brother. Your angel brother. He knows what to say to you.

And Moses goes immediately to Jethro, which you can kind of tell that relationship. So he goes immediately from the mountain to his father-in-law. I'm sure he recounts all the things. He says, I've been called on this mission. Let me go. Now notice Moses doesn't say, I got to go. He has this respect and this understanding for who,

Jethro, the presiding priest here of this God that he just met with. He doesn't say, hey, guess who I just talked with, right? And this is what I got to do. He requests respectfully, let me go to do this thing. And what does Jethro say to him? And he uses the same word as God. Lach. He's not just saying, okay, no, I understand. You can go, no, I understand you can go no he uses the same word that God does lech La Shalom It's a command go and he says la shalom

Go in peace and then Lord says it again to Moses it looks like a 19. Yeah, go return to Egypt It says lech chuv this time go again to Moses, it looks like a 19. Yeah, go, return to Egypt. It says, let Shove this time. Go return to Egypt. So I'm sending you back in. I'm seeing so much Matthew here too. The men are dead, which sought thy life. That's straight in Matthew's gonna use all this language when he tells Jesus the story.

He is, he is. Now Moses doesn't tell everybody, okay, I'm out of here, I don't know when I'll be back, but when I'm back there's going to be a lot of people with me. But he takes his family, his wife, his sons, he takes the staff, the shepherd staff, because he learned how to be a shepherd, and he took God with him. And they all go through the desert again, back to Egypt. You have kind of here at the tail end, some interesting things happening.

Let's just look at at verse 22, the words of the Lord to Moses, as he's journeying to Egypt. Look what he tells him here in verse 22. It says, and thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, thus say to the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. Yes. Now that's going to be a major statement because Pharaoh is lining up his firstborn to succeed him. It's very important that the successor of Egypt is the right one. Well, the Lord has a better plan. He says, okay, that's all good and well, but Israel is my firstborn son. Isn't that interesting? And in verse 23, that this is the reason why Pharaoh, now God is talking to Pharaoh.

Of course, he's telling Moses this, but this is a conversation between gods, if you will, or God and the Pharaoh, man. Israel is my firstbornborn and you must let him go. Otherwise, I will slay your firstborn son. Then we get this really interesting episode on the journey as their camp in Zappora is very interesting. She says this thing to Moses and maybe we can just touch on it because folks are going to wonder what's happening here, right? And there's a lot of information that's probably not here. This looks like an excerpt that gets thrown in there

with with not a lot of detail, right? But it says that for some reason they're they're camped out and And they're camped out, and the Lord is upset with Moses. Now the rabbis have a lot to say about this. And they go into this very long commentary on what's really happening here. The rabbi starts saying, what happened to Gershim? Why aren't we talking about Gershim? And the other rabbi say, yeah, the sun. The sun.

Was he circumcised? According to the Abrahamic covenant, God must have told him about that. And then the rabbi say, he wasn't. As a matter of fact, they never say that he was. This is very important. And they start having this long drawn out commentary. And they said, the Lord was upset with Moses

because he didn't do that. And Zipporah is telling him, Moses, you got to do this. It's part of the covenant. You have to do it. And Moses is not doing it. As a matter of fact, he's trying to find them lodging and set up the camp. He's not focusing on the commands of God. This is harkening back to the creation.

Are you gonna keep all the commandments of God? Because remember that one he said about being fruitful and filling the earth? The first one? Well, I'm busy. So it's very interesting. So poor then it says, the rabbi say in the commentary,

she takes matters into her own hands. And she says, well, if you're not going to focus on this, then I'm going to do it. And she circumcises Gershom. And she tells Moses that the translation is very odd. You are a bridegroom of blood of me. I don't know how it's translated. How do you, what's translation say verse um verse 25? It's a bloody husband art thou to me. Yeah. Yeah. It's not the word of of husband. It's the word sun and law. So that's where they get the connection. Moses is supposed to be doing something his father inin-law said to do. And the only thing he would have said to do in regard to what it's saying here is the circumcision.

It looks like she's yelling at him. You are this, but it might not be that she's criticizing him. It might be that she's saying, okay, now the blood of the circumcision, which is the sign of the covenant, the sun and law of the priest, needs to do that. And then the Lord is preparing Aaron, which is wonderful, right? When Moses is coming towards Egypt, there's Aaron ready to move. There he is. That's got to be a nice boost of confidence.

That's right. And the Lord even tells before he gets there, Moses, your brother is coming, even as we speak. And sure enough, Aaron follows the prompting and heads out there. In chapter five, we get Aaron and Moses standing before Pharaoh, delivering the message. Being the spokes. My people go. Let my people go. Okay. Of course, the arrogant, prideful Pharaoh, who thinks there is no God above him, ask an interesting question, verse

2. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go. I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. Thanks, King Noah. Yeah, yeah, that's not funny. The arrogant prideful are just like that. He really says, who is Jehovah? Never heard of them. I've heard of raw. I've heard of Amun. I've heard of taught. And they all the other great Egyptian gods that you can see them all around me. I never heard of this one. And who is he to command me? Well, we know the rest of the story, and I think folks know this that Pharaoh says, I'll tell you what, why don't I do this? Instead of letting the Hebrews go, why don't I just make it more difficult for them again? Now remember before Moses, there's a previous verse that says,

Moses hears that the king, the original king has died. So here we have the son of the king. Now the heir in Egypt, who is even more ruthless. Moses is not, it's not having a lot of good luck here. The Israelites think. It's got worse. It got worse. You can't defrease them and he made it worse. He reminds Moses. He has to keep reminding him and said unto him, said unto him, I am the Lord. I am Jehovah. That's all he says. But he doesn't in a personal way. It's not the formal way. Eh, yeah, he doesn't say eh, yeah, or you're, he says on me, it's personal. I am Jehovah. It's just like if you were to tell your child who's struggling on your father or I am your mother, I know what you're going through.

And I know how you're feeling, but I'm here. It's that wonderful sense of peace. Which is great because he already told him, I remember back in chapter three, he told him, he's not going to let you go. It seems like Moses forgot that part. Yeah, he forgot that part. I went and did what you said and he didn't let us go and you haven't delivered us. God's almost like we talked about this. He continues throughout the beginning of chapter 6. He's telling him, listen, if he points him back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Remember the things that we learned on the Mount? Remember the things we talked about in the temple? You know, when we go to the temple today, we don't need the things that we learned in the temple to be used in the temple as much as we need them to be used when we leave the

temple. That's when we need that stuff. Remember what you learned in the temple? Can you remember that when you're outside the temple? Yes. He reminds him in verse four of chapter six about the covenant that he has with him. Verse five, he says, I remember my covenant. Don't think I've forgotten. Anthony, this is great stuff. When we go through difficult things, remember your temple experiences.

Remember the promises. That's right. And then in verse six, he repeats himself. I am Jehovah. So that little pep talk right there is so important. And then he tells him, okay, fine. I remember when I told you I am going to stretch out my hand. You remind them that I am Jehovah your God and that I swore, he says in verse 8, I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who we all know and are all related to about the promised land.

Yeah. I love this back and forth, though, Anthony, this, the Lord's like, very, I am the Lord. We're going to do this and Moses keeps. No one's listening. It's not happening. Yeah. No one, they don't believe me. In your head, you're thinking, come on Moses, get

with the program. But how often do I do this in life? All right, we all do the same thing. We have great confidence in the Lord and then we're on all of a sudden which is the slightest thing happens and where confidence is gone. But notice the Lord keeps repeating himself a pep talk over and over again. He's not telling them anything new. He keeps reminding him. I got this. You know who I am. Chapter six ends with that. And it goes right into a genealogy. So we started off with El Eshable. These are the names. And we end this portion chapter 6 with the names of all the sons. We learned the name in verse 20. We learned the name of Moses' parents. Omram was the man. A great way for us to conclude, if you will, John, is the names preserved, the name of God. So this is all about

specific people with names, from the names of the midwives that just pop out, to the name of Moses, Moses, Mosheh, right, to the name of Jethro, and who he was in his situation and his priesthood, to the names of Moses' sons, to the names throughout. The one name we do not get is the name of Pharaoh, because it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who he is. Pharaoh is coming to go. And then finally, the name of God revealed and taught and understood that he will be. That's what Jehovah means. He will be. Not only will he be with you now, but one day God himself, he will be born in Bethlehem and work out the salvation and the deliverance from sin for all. This is fascinating stuff. They

name everybody except for fair. Except for fair. He never gets me. Anthony, this has been really fun. This is really going to help me when I teach Matthew. I know that Matthew's referencing Moses a lot, but I started to see more and more, but in the Gospels, they skipped Jesus's childhood, basically. I mean, from his, he's an infant, then he's a grown man. Well, Moses is pretty much the same story. He's an infant, and he's a grown man, right?

And I was like, ah, I wonder if they did that on purpose to this idea of a new Moses, right? They know this story already. One thing I really enjoyed was when we think of Moses, we think of Moses, the end product Moses, but Exodus one through six gives us the, he's not as confident as that Moses we have in our head. He's not as sure of God's promises. He's He's getting his confidence built through some experience, right? That's so human of all of us that you don't walk on to the scene as the The big profit. We can relate it to all of us. Who am I? Why did I get this calling? I can't do it and let me enumerate all of the reasons now Lord why I can't do it And then once things go wrong see Lord I told you look what just happened. I'm failing

We're I thought you were gonna help me you called the wrong guy the Lord is so patient with him He's like okay, let's I got this talk again Well, I'm thinking of the book of Mormon when Alma is like what do I do the rising The rising generation is leaving. The Lord says, Alma, this is not your church. This is my church. I got this. Exactly. It reminds me of that. I am the Lord. Enic says similar words. I'm of slow speech. I'm of a slow tongue. And then this is Enic that is such a leader or influence or something that his whole city gets taken, but when it starts out, it's like, I can't talk. I'm a lad and the people hate me. There's that. I will be with thee, though, but I will be with thee. These first chapters, we have to keep it down to earth that he's working

things out. And we have to follow his example and how it works out. He's not perfect, but he's trying to do what God says, but God keeps reminding him and pointing him back to their first meeting on the mountain in the temple. Love the Hebrew we've learned today. I was going to say when you would do those full verses in Hebrew, there's a power in that I had. I got to go to the Holy Land and attend sacrament meeting in the Galilee branch. And I don't even know if it's there anymore, but you you overlook the sea of Galilee in this chapel. It's just a house, you know, but this man and his son blessed the sacrament in Hebrew. Amazing to hear the sacrament prayer in Hebrew because the first word was Elohim.

I mean, the feeling of reverence that came over the room as he did the sacrament prayers was awesome. Yeah, you can hear it, hear it in the language. To hear it that way was so cool. And so thank you for doing it. I teach classes to members and non-members. What's interesting that's happening right now in my my teachings is there are a lot of non-LDS people

who are searching and they're asking these questions, they're asking questions about covenants and about temples and about maquhesitic. I'm thinking, whoa, I read together with them the Hebrew text just like we do here. And let me tell you that the Lord is hastened his work. He's he's working on these people. And I hope that members feel that same spirit as they study this incredible piece of scripture because like we saw today their spirit in there That we need to remember God keeps reminding Moses to remind Israel about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob He's intertwining in the text to remember the creation, to remember the garden. And we see it written throughout all scripture from the Book of Mormon, which understands it

completely gets it to modern day revelation. So important. So important. We want to thank Dr. Anthony Rivera for joining us today. Wow, What an awesome day. I need to go learn Hebrew, John. You and I both we need to we need to learn some more Hebrew. We need to speak again. We want to thank our executive producers Steve and Shannon Sorenson our sponsors this year David and Verla Sorenson And we hope all of you will join us next week on another episode of Follow Him.