followHIM - Deuteronomy 6-8;15;18;29-30;34 -- Part 2 : Dr. Bruce Satterfield

Episode Date: May 14, 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 two of this week's podcast. Now, chapter six, this is built around the concept of one God only. Book of Mormon is a Hebrew book. God is God. Whether you're talking the Father, Son, the Holy Ghost, that's God. They don't get caught up on which God are we talking about? Irrelevant. It's God. They don't get caught up on which God are we 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, our God, is one Jehovah, which is only saying Jehovah's one God.

So, Bruce, is this a standard of monotheism in a world of polytheism here in chapter 6? 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 7 of chapter 6, teach these things to your children. Teach them, talk of them. And this is where the phylacteries come into 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, lest 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 Kimball'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 member 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 going to happen to you. You're going to build great cities. You're going to have vineyards and olive trees. Don't forget God. Now, I appreciate you bringing that up because when we see the promises being made to Israel, the great blessings, they're 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 what all the trade routes are about. That's what war is 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 dust we seize 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 them read 27 and 28. 27, go to Shechem, divide yourself on the two mountains with six tribes standing on 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 hearken 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 hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in this city. Blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shalt 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? Prosper in the land. But if you forget God, then it's all come to naught.

Curses come. And verses 1 through 14 are the blessings. Verses 15 through 68 are the curses. The curses if you forget God. This is Deuteronomy 28. You can see, if you don't hearken, this will happen, verse 16, 17. Now, what the curses do, there's a short chapter on the covenant, and that's in Leviticus chapter 26. And in the short one, keep my law, I will dwell with you. I will put my tabernacle and be in your midst. You'll pause it. But if you break

it, these curses will come. And there are precursors and there are 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 humbled, then you're going to lose the land and be cast among all the heathen. But these blessings and cursings 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 in turn learn about Jehovah, right? Because they're inquiring, so they learn. That's the whole point of the house of Israel is to fulfill this promise made to Enoch, to Abraham, that all the world will come to God, be saved. Let me ask you something, Bruce. It seems to me, as I read one of the assigned 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 to 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, ye 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 men 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. Anytime you see the word stranger, it generally means Gentile, generally, because a stranger could also be someone 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 maketh with you this day, that ye may be established. So I'm establishing you as a nation. And he has sworn unto you the fathers, 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 are subject to the Constitution of the United States. This is a national law. And if we keep that in 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 as 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. 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 shuv is used, which is the word for repent, which means to return. We see the if, the thens, the if, the buts, et cetera. Verse 15, I have set before thee 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 Jehovah thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou go to possess it. But if thine 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 passes over the jordan to 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 he is life and the length of thy days. And thou mayest dwell in the land which Jehovah sware unto thy fathers, 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 Lehi in there, and I just noticed that the footnotes there, footnote 15a to 2 Nephi 2.27, where Lehi 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 Lehi says, and it's the same thing, life in verse 19, I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life. This should be obvious that both thou and thy seed may live. Perfect connection to 2 Nephi 2. I was going, hey, that sounds like Lehi. And then I noticed it's 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 2 Nephi 2, and he starts at the beginning, and he's talking about the law, that all have a law, the 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 and Sarai, 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 had 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 Sarai, a young married couple- They would have been there.

Yes. And they would have heard the law. And the first time he reads it is when they get the scriptures. First time he has 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 Judah. It's an important connection to make to Lehi because without Josiah, I don't know if Lehi 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 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 2 Kings chapter 19, I think. How interesting, Bruce, that chapter 30, they would have heard about the scattering,

and they're going to take part in it. And they are. Those who shall be scattered. Lehi was to preserve seed of Joseph, remnant 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 learn 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 Lehi. 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 to, 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 Enochian 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 this earth? 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've 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. It had to be an awful experience at 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, 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 burnt 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 olah. Olah means that which goes up. No one ever come up with a name, burnt offering. It represents the wholeness of the offerer. 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? 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 somehow building the kingdom of God. Do all that thou doest. And it is an inner mental heart thing that 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 thy 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. So I really 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 Gerizim and at Passover time, and we had an 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 a lamb actually, and the kicking, the bleating, the dismembering of that animal. Man, I just sat through my head and I just thought, oh my goodness, this is what Adam went through. This is what Lehi 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? Do you know who this is? No, it's the mother, son of God of 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's still dressed the same. This is how he would know she's a virgin or unmarried, is what virgin really means is she's unmarried. She's still dressed the same. This is how he would know she's a virgin or unmarried

is what virgin really means is she's unmarried. She's still unmarried. She's got a baby in her hands. And now he's got to really be wondering, what does this have to do with the tree? And then the angel says, behold, the Lamb of God, the Son of the Eternal father, knowest thou 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, the meaning of the tree, the life of a child. The sacrifice that he's seen his whole life. Yeah. And you and I are in the similitude of that sacrifice is what Adam and Eve is being taught, that same thing. Ultimately, bringing the children of God into the world and teaching them and raising 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've 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. 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 of God the Father, a very strong one in His Son. My father was a very strong member of 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, it was just really a strange thing. I just kind of grew up the sixth of the six kids, and I didn't particularly care one way or the

other about the Gulls. 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, that was all a 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 going to 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 looking at the lights and was alone. And out of the blizzard came a lot of hippies. I mean, I looked 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 sounds 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 that's pre-marked. And there was probably about 35, 40. They were asking me questions and so forth. And one of them said, so do you belong to a church? And of course, I'd been baptized when I was eight. So I said,

yeah, my parents baptized me when I was eight in Mormon 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 own any scriptures. We never read them at home. We had a family Bible in the living room, but it was just a big, thick one for show. I got my car and I was driving and thinking, what do I know? You know, missionaries at that time, all of them had little cards with their name on it. On the front side was a picture of the temple. Then on the backside had 13 articles of faith. I knew where

there was one at 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. I asked my dad, I went and I said, do you think I could get a set of missionary scriptures for Christmas? And of course, he was more than happy to do that. And that year I started to read the Bible, comparing it to the Articles of 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. Oh, yeah. Terry and I grew up together, and 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 Alma the Younger 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 scoutmaster when he was young, and they were friends. And David was taking a group over to Israel, 1973, Christmas time. This was right after the Yom Kippur War. And my dad asked me if I wanted to go. And I was sure. When the war broke out, my mom and sister, who 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 atonement. I didn't disbelieve it. I just didn't understand. If I broke a family

rule, I got in trouble. I got grounded one summer. If I had 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 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 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 the doctrine is to understand how to live. I've never let scholarship be the reason, but a 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, unstinting 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 want to thank all of you for listening and staying with us. We want to thank our of you for listening and staying with us we want to thank our executive producers steve and shannon sorenson our sponsors david and verla sorenson and we hope all of you will join us next week on another episode of follow him you