Lynne's Old Testament Study Notes

 1/31/2022 – Moses 7:48-69 In v’s 48-49 Enoch “heard the earth mourn” over the “wickedness of my children” and the “filthiness which is gone forth out of me”. Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, wrote: “The Lord here [in Doctrine and Covenants 88] informs us that the earth on which we dwell is a living thing, and that the time must come when it will be sanctified from all unrighteousness. In the Pearl of Great Price, when Enoch is conversing with the Lord, he hears the earth crying for deliverance from the iniquity upon her face. . . . It is not the fault of the earth that wickedness prevails upon her face, for she has been true to the law which she received and that law is the celestial law. Therefore the Lord says that the earth shall be sanctified from all unrighteousness”  Enoch sees the flood that Noah and his family survived, and Enoch pleads with the Lord to help and bless Noah and his children and their children. And then th...

  1/29/2022 - Moses 7:16-47 I didn’t realize I was repeating Moses 6 until I was finished with it the 2nd time. But what was beautiful to me is that studying the same scriptures a second time simply brought more thoughts and understanding and desires to be sure to return to my Father in Heaven….to finish my earthly life with the same goals that I started it. I LOVE studying the scriptures! There were now so many people on earth who had chosen not to follow the ways of the Lord. V 16: And from that time forth there were wars and bloodshed among them; but the Lord came and dwelt with his people, and they dwelt in righteousness.”  V 18: “And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.” V 19: “And Enoch continued his preaching in righteousness unto the people of God. And it came to pass in his days that he built a city that was called the City of Holiness, even Zion.”  Zion was est...

 1/28/2022 – Moses 6:59-68 [I have finished Moses 6 for the second time and thoroughly enjoy it] In v 59 the Lord tells Enoch how he can come back to his Father and to “enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory.” These verses are beautiful, but I wonder if I truly understand them all. The Bible Dictionary helped me with this: “The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ.  . . . It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts.” In v 61, the Lord reminds us of all the ‘helps’ h...

 1/27/2022 – Moses 6:40-59 [I’m still in Moses 6—haven’t figure out I’m reading this again) Enoch has seen and spoken with the Lord, and he follows the Lord’s instructions no matter what they entail.  President Monson once said: “It’s not enough to wish, it’s not enough to dream, it’s not enough to promise. We must do.”  And that’s just what Enoch did! He is going into areas where there is much evil. When the people there ask about him, he tells simply and honestly: “I came out of the land of Cainan, the land of my fathers, a land of righteousness unto this day. And my father taught me all the ways of God.” (v 41) Enoch answers their questions, he teaches them many things about God, but he keeps the profound spiritual things the Lord has revealed unto him to himself. The people he is teaching, are not ready to receive a higher law or standard. In v 46 Enoch tells them that his people keep a “book of remembrance” that they have written, according to the pattern given by th...

 1/26/2022 – Moses 6:16-39   [By mistake, I went back to Moses 6 but I discovered more] We are given more genealogy of “the sons of Adam” as we read this part of the chapter, and then we are told that Adam was recognized as “the son of God, with whom God, himself, conversed”. (v22)    V 23 tells us that some of the men of the genealogy that had just been given “were preachers of righteousness, and spake and prophesied, and called upon all men everywhere to repent; and faith was taught unto the children of men.”  That is much like our time—except that Enoch’s city seems much different than the rest of the world of that time. That city had two names: “Zion” and “City of Holiness”. That second name becomes more meaningful when we are reminded in Moses 6:57 that Heavenly Father’s name in the language of Adam is “Man of Holiness”.  After learning that, I think we need to work harder to come closer to fully being ‘a person of holiness’.  Enoch has done ...

  1/24/2022 – Moses 7:1-15 Enoch is speaking to the people, telling them that at the very beginning (seven generations ago) that “Adam taught these things, and many have believed and become the sons of God, and many have believed not, and have perished in their sins.” From that explanation, our time is not all that different from their time.  But Enoch went forward, with great faith. He shares with us some of the reasons for that faith: In Mahujay he “cried unto the Lord, there came a voice out of heaven, saying, Turn ye, and get ye upon the mount Simeon.” (v2) Enoch did exactly as he was told, and in v’s 3-11 he tells us of what he learned upon that mountain. V 3: He ‘beheld the heavens open, and I was clothed upon with glory.” V4: “And I saw the Lord…and he talked with me, even as a man talketh one with another…and said unto me: Look, and I will show unto thee the world for the space of many generations.” After seeing into the future, the good and the bad, “…the Lord said un...

 1/20/2022 - Moses 6:53-68 V 53 starts with Adam’s question: “Why is it that men must repent and be baptized in water.” That question led the Lord to then teach Adam about the importance of Christ’s atonement is to US!  Neal A Maxwell stated: “We are not haunted with an overhanging sense of ‘original sin’ about which we can do nothing. (Moses 6:54; Moroni 8:15–16.) By revelation, we know that the Lord told Adam: ‘Behold I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden.’ (Moses 6:53.) Thus, we are accountable for our ‘own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression’ (Article of Faith 2.)” In v’s 55-56, that Lord tells us how our children can grow in knowing Him: “…when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good. And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given unto you another law and commandment Wherefore teach it unto your children, t...