Pearl of Great Price - Moses 1, January 2, 2022


January 2, 2022 – Moses 1

The book of Moses contains scripture not found in the Old Testament. V’s 1-22 are Heavenly Father’s teachings given to Moses, followed by Satan’s conversation with Moses.  All of those verses are then followed by the explanation in v 23 “And now of this thing Moses bore record; but because of the wickedness it is not had among the children of men.”

Dieter F Uchtdorf: “Much of the confusion we experience in this life comes from simply not understanding who we are”. But beginning with verse 1 in chapter 1 of Moses, the Lord takes care of that. The vision that is recorded here took place after Jehovah spoke to Moses at the burning bush, but before Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt via the Red Sea. Heavenly Father begins this conversation by confirming He is “the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name”. (v 3) He then confirms that Moses IS His son (v 4), and that Christ is His “only Begotten…and shall be the Savior” (v 6) Heavenly Father has a great work for Moses (v 6). And then the Lord showed Moses “the world upon which he was created; and Moses beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly marveled and wondered.” (v 8)

Moses had lived for 40 years as a royal prince of Egypt and was revered as a renowned military leader. After being tutored by the Lord, he realized that the Lord’s power and perspective was much higher and would bring us to great growth and glory. 

God had a great work for Moses to do, He gave Moses the background he needed to have in order to guide the children of Israel—and Moses himself-- away from the society they had been raised in, that they believed in, and the multiple idols thay had been taught to worship.

In v 12 (this is after the Lord had spoken to Moses) Satan comes in to lure Moses away from the Lord and from Moses’ role in Heavenly Father’s plan. But the fact that Moses has now seen, and felt, the closeness of Heavenly Father, allows him to immediately recognize the darkness surrounding Satan. Moses uses his priesthood power: “Nevertheless, calling upon God, he received strength, and he commanded, saying: Depart from me, Satan, for this one God only will I worship, which is the God of Glory” (v20). Moses did not wait to see any more of Satan’s tactics. Moses had seen Satan’s darkness, and that was enough to cause Moses to banish Satan immediately.

From Moses’s example we learn that we, too, can realize and rely on the fact that all our efforts to know God, and draw closer to Him, will help us….whether those actions pull us closer to righteousness, or those actions actually repel us from unrighteousness.
 
The next thing Moses did was to call upon the Lord again, which brought him the Lord’s blessing: ”Blessed art thou, Moses, for I, the Almighty, have chosen thee, and thou shalt be made stronger than many waters; for they shall obey thy command ….”  (v 25)  

Our privileges are the same as Moses’s. If we make the right choices, and call upon Him---His promise is that He will be with us! “And lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days…” (v26)

In v 42, the Lord tells us exactly what His work is: “…this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” The Lord is right there, waiting for us to knock on His door, to ask for His direction, and to thank Him for His help to believe….


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