2 Kings 16-25 Part 1 • Dr. Mike Day • July 13-19 • Come, Follow Me

And she just ran right over me. I remember when she hit me I'm in the air spinning and I'm looking at the horizon go up upside down and I'm doing like 22 miles an hour Everything slows down time slows down and I remember thinking So this is how I'm gonna die Hello my friends. Welcome to another episode of follow him my name's Hank Smith. I'm your host

I'm here with my tender hearted co-host John by the way John 2 Kings 22 19 you have humbled yourself before the Lord I have several prescription medications like a tour of a statin that also softened my heart Wow, and the arteries and veins going into it now. Yeah John we are privileged today to have with us Dr. Michael Day Dr. Mike grateful to have you here Mike. Thanks for being on follow him

Glad to be here you guys are hilarious. We just started the recording here, but we've been talking for a while and you guys cracked me up I'm excited to hang out and talk with you guys about the late monarchy period It's everybody's exciting stuff. It's the middle of summer and we're doing kings I mean, is there anything better? I can't think of anybody out there. It's going. I cannot put this down Well, if there's anybody who can make it great. It's gonna be Mike day. John

Speaking of the late Kings period the late monarchy as you've been looking ahead anything come into mind I'll give you one thing that I'm thinking of and then I'll jump over to you. That is this is where the book of Mormon starts to connect With the Bible you start to think wow, this is the world Lehigh is gonna grow up in

“That's exactly where I think people will go. Oh, okay. I do want to know about this because”

The more you study the Book of Mormon and the Old Testament, the more you see how they connect

There were some late monarchy. I don't know why they were never punctual

also It's helpful Here To get what's northern kingdom what southern kingdom whose a has who's has a chia and hopefully we can Sort out some of that so that when you make that jump to the Book of Mormon and you're like, okay

I get what's going on here If you can connect these the Book of Mormon will come to life Mike, what are you looking forward to today as you've been preparing? What are you hoping we walk away with? Well, the number one thing is Pay your taxes

Okay, here's why These Kings don't pay their tribute to the big dog on the block the big grill on the block Whether it's a cereal or Babylon and if you don't pay your taxes bad things happen number one pay your taxes The story of Hezekiah where he goes to Isaiah and he says listen These guys say they're gonna kill me if we don't let him in the city and then Isaiah says we're gonna pray about this and then they go to the Lord

That story is told in Kings and his told in Isaiah. It's a big part of the middle of Isaiah That's a really big story to help us understand the world of Isaiah, but also it's a great narrative What do you do when you're up against it? I like that prayer and that whole experience because it's also part of the heroes journey every hero

“How to go through a time where everything is just not working out? What do you do in your life when you lose your job?”

We have chronic illness or you lose a loved one or something horrible is happening. We're gonna happen. How do you handle it? That gives me a lot of faith It really strengthens my belief For me right now. I'm going through a period of time that's difficult in my family and I think a lot of our listeners have had times Are having times where they need to have their faith strengthens. So that's a faith strengthening one Maybe a little less humorous, but then towards the end and I nerd out about this so much and I don't want this to be like a hobby horse

But I love it. I love the bit in the end in 641 Josiah is a kid and he's put on the throne

Then they make all these religious changes because like John said that's really where first Nephi picks up first Nephi

Chapter one verse one is addressing the Josiah reforms if you really want to have people walk away from you With a dinner party really fast. This is what you say, you know when they come up to you and say, what are you reading about it? And you could just say I'm reading about how Josiah's reforms are connected to the Deuteronomy sick historians You know, reconstructing Israel's religion and how that ties into the visionary men of first Nephi one You say that to them and they will be like

Okay, and then they will walk that way But I really like talking about that because it's so awesome Hopefully it will make sense. I hope that when they put this out

“There that people will go, okay. I think I know what Mike's talking about. That's my hope. Anyway, those are kind of like the big three”

Okay, like I love it. I love it. I love it. We're gonna laugh. We're gonna learn We're gonna feel this is gonna be gross scratch our head and go. What is he talking about now John?

I gotta tell you. I first met Mike back in 2005. We passed each other, you know, ships passing in the night

I've loved him ever since and he doesn't know this. I may big fan of his come follow me podcast talking scripture And I know our founder and executive producer of the Sournsons. They are big fans as well I've been listening to Mike for a long time But what do you know about him John? Do we have any background? How was he qualified to talk about these things? We do

I know he's qualified because I first met him. He was on the back of a bus in somewhere around Navu

And I was in the front of the bus talking and I saw him taking notes

“I don't know what he was writing. Maybe this guy has no clue what he's talking. Maybe that's what he was writing”

He grew up in Modesto, California, served a mission in Chicago Met his wife, Sonja at Weber State the family has grown to include four sons and Their wives and treasured grandchildren. How many do you have Mike? Oh my goodness. We have a fourth coming this week They keep coming Yeah

That's great and as Hank mentioned you're the co-host of the podcast called talking scripture with rice done for

Mike is also a regular contributor on the stick of Joseph channel

Mike firmly believes the Book of Mormon is exactly what it claims to be so do we he's deeply passionate about uncovering in high-lining connections between esoteric Temple teachings and the roots in the Book of Mormon and is equally enthusiastic about the Bible He embraces his complexities Exploring its original languages and rich cultural and historical contexts including the late kings

So he's been a professional religious educator for seminaries in institutes Since 93 has a PhD from the University of Utah in world languages and cultures Comparative literature and cultural studies with an emphasis in classical Greek and biblical Hebrew This is gonna be a lot of fun. Welcome to the program. Thanks for taking notes on the back of the bus and the church history tour glad to be here Awesome

“Mike I think I've seen you more in person in Israel than I have in Utah”

We'll both have groups in Israel and I'll run into Mike and then in Utah We just don't run into each other. He's up in Salt Lake County Well, Mike John and I are excited to learn. I'm gonna reach with the come follow me manual and we'll give the reins over to you The lesson this week. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel

Despite the prophet Elijah's powerful ministry the people of the northern kingdom of Israel did not repent

Eventually the a Syrian Empire conquered and scattered the ten tribes of Israel Meanwhile, the southern kingdom of Judah wasn't doing much better idolatry was also widespread there amid this spiritual decay the scriptures mentioned two kings of Judah who for a time turned their people back to the Lord One was Hezekiah during his reign the Assyrians conquered much of Judah

But Hezekiah and his people showed faith in the Lord who saved Jerusalem in a miraculous way later After another period of apostasy, Josiah became king inspired in part by a rediscovery of the book of the law of Moses Josiah brought reforms that revived the religious life of his people. Mike just talked about that Like Israel and Judah, we all make both good and bad choices When we sense that our lives need some reforms we can take encouragement from these two bright spots in the dark years of Judas history

Perhaps the examples of Hezekiah and Josiah can inspire us to trust in the Lord our God. Beautiful. All right, Mike with that Let's go where you want to go. That's a good intro. Big picture We're covering the late monarchy period from about Isaiah's time Isaiah is around 740 BC 750 BC in that period to The Book of Mormon to 600 BC, but really 586 BC, so that's the time period almost a couple hundred years

It's called the late monarchy period is people sometimes will say

“How do we know that there really was a king a house and stuff like this?”

What's really cool when you do history is you can kind of triangulate things We can read the biblical narrative when we can say okay This is what the Bible says, but then what were other people saying at that time? What are the Assyrian saying at this time about Judah? What are the Egyptian saying we know that there was a kingdom there? We know that drew some was attacked during the reign of Hezekiah

There's a thing called the Taylor Prism or the Santa Clara Prism Mits of the Annals of the King of Assyria where they write down This is what we did and this is who we attacked I put some of these in the slide We can put these up for those of you that are watching them But if you go to the British Museum, there are massive reliefs you can see the prism and one of the cool things about the prism

It's just like sick-sighted pillar the person who writes it says that Santa Carab

We know they attacked because of there's other outside sources

“This parts really easy to triangulate and say hey, this stuff happened. That's kind of the time period where at as far as the chapters”

I always like to do like John says a 30,000 foot view. I've heard you say that before on Church history tour

Here's the overview of the flyover 16 and 17 cover A has on Hoshiah A has is the king of Jerusalem Then we get an 18 through 20 and that's Hezekiah and his Experience with the Assyrians are coming. What are we gonna do and that's also in Isaiah which we talked about before There's some really good stuff in there faith building stuff and then we get to the long decline

The next bit is Manasa in his 55-year reign and according to some traditions Manasa actually kills Isaiah that's not in the Bible, but it's in the extra biblical literature That's a fascinating story to me because I love Isaiah so much if it's true. It's so sad In some traditions, I think it's Manasa Mary's the daughter of Isaiah. Yeah, I've heard that and he has him saw it in half Yes, and so there's images if you go to like Italy

Some of the old churches of Isaiah holding a saw I have an image of this and the church of the J. Sue Where Bernini's paddle on learner learned how to paint and sculpt and he painted Isaiah with a saw on his hand It's a fascinating story every time I go to a matter of show and I see the lady gets sawed in half I turn on my wife and I'm like this reminds me of Isaiah She's like so weird

Oh, man, I'm glad someone else's wife says that to them. So that's Manasa and he's not a good guy

And then you get to Josiah who's put on the throne when he's eight and that's chapter is 22 and 23 of second kings and all these reforms happen

Now writer of kings is like

“Josiah's awesome. He's the best thing since sliced bread. He's as cool as John by the way”

He's so awesome then He dies. Oh the Egyptians kill him and you're like why are the Egyptians killing him? It didn't say anything about the Egyptians what's going on with that? Why are the Egyptians killing him? We'll talk about that Then chapter 24 and 25 Everything goes to heck in a hand basket the temple's destroyed. That's the end of the kings, but the beginning of the book of Mormon

So that's the big picture the 30,000 foot view most of the kings in the north and the south are portrayed as really bad But Josiah is a bright spot He has a kaya. I think he gets a lot of props. The whole thing with the Assyrians come whenever I teach this in class. I call it has a kaya's last stand But he's not alone when you be scared Give Canada invaded Salt Lake and they were surrounding us. We're gonna force you guys to use maple syrup and you're gonna play hockey

And we're gonna take over Holy cow. That'd be really scary. Yeah John's told me this before they're on Capitol Hill looking over the temple square saying we're coming in to Marrow Yeah, we're gonna eat all your stuff and you're gonna have to pay us tribute and it's gonna be horrible That's kind of the big picture I wanted to bring two things one

Can you notice as a teacher enthusiasm is contagious? Mike has it as a teacher I can't think of anything you'll need more of course the Holy Ghost

“Enthusiasm is contagious and then two if someone's listening going why do I need to know this?”

If you love the book of Mormon and you really want it to shine This lesson in particular along with the Isaiah lessons are the key Through this show. I've come to learn if you really want to understand the book of Mormon you read the Old Testament Yeah, how did you say his name sin? I try to say it the way I heard somebody in his or she is saying not I butcher my pronunciations, but I call Santa Cara, you know potato potato when he says he had has a kayak pent-up like a burden of cage

He didn't say I conquered him because Jerusalem was miraculously protected Oh, so this is why Lehigh had a tough cell Jerusalem's gonna be destroyed none because back when the Assyrians attacked It was all protected. I like what you said. I think this is a great jumping off point to help us understand the beginnings of the Book of Mormon for exactly That reason We do need to say that all

Mike is a meticulous records. He's that he knows how to footnote all of this. We're gonna make available on our Website follow him.co The greatly suspice will link all of these show notes in I would love to see the story of Hezekiah talked about more Like we talk about Alma and Helemon because here's a guy who Everyone is telling him do not listen to the prophet. He does not know what he's talking about how many

Youth adults do we have today who the message is do not listen

The first with Zeta Kaya where Jeremiah comes to him and he says listen the Babylonians are gonna wreck you

Let's just jump in the chapter 16 in the chapter heading it even brings it out and it says listen it has

Reigns and wickedness he becomes a king of Judah and verse three says he made his sons pass through the fire And it doesn't get a lot of um specifics there, but there was this idea that child sacrifice did happen I'm not gonna settle that here for this podcast, but the old Testament authors are very much Anti-child sacrifice as we should be After that it talks about Judah being attacked by Syria by arum and by Israel the northern kingdom

A has appeals to a Syria for help to give you an idea of like what's going on during this time period a serious the big gorilla on the block Syria and northern Israel are Joining together and this is where we read in Isaiah where Ramalaya son is gonna come down and invade then Isaiah says something like don't worry about these two smoking firebrands

You're gonna be okay, A has Isaiah does talk about this stuff A has us in this State of like what do I do and they're coming to get me in verse nine

It says that a Syria defeats Damascus in the north from basically verse 10 to the end of the chapter

A has adopts some of the Assyrian ways of doing the temple in scholarship they call this Cinquretism where another religious tradition will have this thing that you don't have necessarily or way of doing it Then we blend it together

“We see outside influences coming into the temple the best way to describe it”

Sometimes the sender I'll show that little 30 second commercial. I'm sure you guys remember it Where there's a guy walking down the sidewalk and he's got chocolate in his hand and then there's another lady And she's eating peanut butter and they bump into each other and they give each other that look like you're really cute He says you're chocolate's in my peanut butter, and she's like your peanut butter is my chocolate and what are they trying to sell you? Reese's peanut butter cup see you know it, right? Yeah, but none of our kids know it today

You show that to the seminary kids say like what what that's Cinquretism we're blending stuff together Big picture it says in verse 11 that the priest your idea built the altar according to all the king A has had sent from Damascus That's 16 now A has is portrayed as ad verse 17 I think the author of kings is trying to portray in bad words says A has cut off the borders of the bases

Remove the labor and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen Verse 18 the middle of the verse says turn he the house of the Lord for the king of Assyria Here I have this written down syncretism is a harsh critique of A houses rain

“The author of kings is trying to portray that he's not saying it, but I think he's saying it by saying hey don't do that”

Now how could we apply that today? Now it's the conversation you could have of Dress language the stuff we watch are we influencing the world or is the world influencing us and I think that's something that you know You could have a conversation a gospel doctor about that and how can you watch for that because it doesn't just happen at once It happens in little stages the people in Jesus's day are gonna have the same problem with hell anization

How much do we embrace and then we have the same problem today? How much do we embrace of the culture around us

Like you when I would never watch a rated our movie in the 80s and 90s, but how many reals do we consume?

That's our rate of like what am I doing? I do like the application there of oh be careful That you're changing things that the Lord gave to fit with the Assyrian culture around you Thanks Mike our listeners will be familiar with some of those terms like this sea from off the brazen oxen hank

“Do you have a more contemporary English Bible translation you could read 17 and 18 from?”

I really like the contemporary English version. I use a website called Bible Hub you can bring up a verse and it will show you 30 different translations the contemporary English version the reason I like it this might sound a little juvenile, but it's a third grade rating level Which kind of fits for me Contemporary English version of second king 1617. A has also had the side panels and the small bowls taken off the Moveable stands in the Lord's temple. He had the large bronze bowl called the sea

Removed from the bronze bowls on which it rested and had it placed on a stand made of stone. He changed the temple My boys are in junior high. We definitely read simpler versions of the Bible. Doesn't do many good to not understand what they read The book of Mormon. I'm just gonna say this too. I think the book of Mormon is the best lens to study the Bible When you read the Bible and some things just not jyiting it's good to read other translations It's great to read commentaries, but don't forget the book of Mormon. That's my interpret of lens

Well said when you get to chapter 17 in verse 4 it says that the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshaya

So to the king of Egypt and brought no present to the king of Assyria. So he had done year by year

Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison What's going on? It's about tribute you're supposed to pay tribute to the Syrians there the overlords there are the big grills on the block and they're like you got a passus and so what we think is going on is Hoshaya is

“Talking to Egypt and he's saying hey, will you guys have my back?”

The geopolitics is like this underlying baseline buzzing noise. It's happening through the kings narrative the author of kings is approaching their story through the lens of faith For the author of kings whoever this person is

It's not so much due pay or taxes as it is. Are you following the right way of doing religion? The author of second king is going to say Israel is doing it wrong It starts with Jarabone and it just goes down the list and you guys are all messing it up but not paying your taxes is a problem and this is the beginning of the end for Israel now

I always say this I don't know I wasn't there

“I'm going to book in everything with I don't know. I think a series is going to come down and take or kill a lot of people”

But I don't think they're going to take everybody they're going to leave people behind They're going to take the elites the people that are literate Lehigh's kind of people It's in this time period 721 where they take them and what's so fascinating if you read like Israel think of sign stuff or some of these other

Archaeologists that have done work they found that there's a massive influx of population coming from the north Into the south into Jerusalem during this time. Why? Well, what would you do if you knew that they were going to come Reck you? I'm out of here. I'm going a lot of people came south and the population increased and they know because they're like studying the garbage

And like there's a lot more garbage from this layer. There's way more people they go in and they take them and they

I call the wrecking of the the house of Israel or the the scattering, right? They take them and they take them north and they get scattered now If you read some of the early stuff now we're going to just pivot from the old testament talk about your District and you start reading stuff bringing young said and we'll for wood or from Joseph Smith They're like listen you British folks are from those guys the blood of E from goes it goes to Russia

It goes maybe as far as the far east but I'm from German French and a little bit of British and I'm from E from I know you guys are I don't know I'm not not trying to assume but I'm figuring you guys are E from These scatter Israel, but what's super fascinating to me and I'm I'm a big believer in this I think the northern folks had records too Now obviously Lehigh's not here yet, but he has ancestral land up north in Minasa

Okay, but I think perhaps his grandfather or his ancestors came south and there was somewhere in that family line The preserved record of the north there's this idea that the Old Testament has layers editorial layers In the 17th chapter it talks about that they have evil ways in verse 13 They hardened their necks in verse 14. They rejected his statutes in verse 15 Then it says in verse 16 they left all the commandments of Lord their God and made mold images even two calves and made a grove

Now it says grove in the English, but that's an ashrah and worship all the host of heaven and served all The north is being castigated for all those things the images the two calves It kind of helps you understand the perspective of the person writing this stuff down Yeah, sometimes we read this mic as if it's like unbiased historical nonfiction and we get confused

“Going oh that really happened you have to realize the authors and the editors even all had little jabs”

That they're me. Yeah, they had a perspective That's why I love the book of Mormon were Mormon and Nephi and these guys are like listen I have perspective my whole perspective is to draw you to the Holy One of Israel. I want to take you to Christ In him we're saved and there's no other way and every story I tell is to that end Every story these guys are like listen

Our way of doing religion is the right way and those guys are doing it wrong If you go to verse 19 20 like 23 it says the Lord rejected all the seat of Israel and afflicted them and delivered them Into the hands of spoilers verse 21 He rent Israel from the house of David They made Jeroboam the Son of Devot King and Jeroboam. Drave Israel from following the Lord

The authors harkening back to Earlier times because remember Jeroboam that's like Solomon's day. That's hundreds of years ago That's the equivalent of saying like let's say Canada's wrecking us and we're blaming it on Thomas Jefferson

That's why we have these problems, but these guys are doing that because from their perspective Israel's doing religion wrong. They're doing it the wrong way verse 21 and 22 is Ripping on Jeroboam. I mean I wrote my scriptures. This is 931 the 910 BC This is 200 years ago, but it says verse 22

The children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did and departed not from them And then until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight as he said by all his servants of prophets So was Israel carried away out of their land to a Syria unto this day the Deuteronomy sick history is this

It's Deuteronomy Joshua parts of judges first in second Kings first in second Samuel

It's this corpus of texts that people say that the Deuteronomist whoever that is had a certain Theological perspective they wrote down their history and it tells one story The story is those northern guys are bad the southern guys are good. There's one way to do religion We're going to tell you what it is and the core of it is going to be in what those reforms are going to be that we're going to talk about the end At the end of this podcast, we'll talk about Josiah's reforms. Those reforms are the theological perspective of the Deuteronomy

It's a little bit nerdy here really quick, but a lot of historians are a lot of biblical scholars call this the double reduction of the Deuteronomy sick history I kind of think it's a triple reduction, but to be sure and speaking here it is

“There's one where they put the story together right around Josiah's time and their idea is that Josiah's the best thing since sliced bread”

All these other kings are just not good, but Josiah's awesome and we're going to have a golden age We're going to be protected We'll see that with Hezekiah And after Josiah dies he gets hit by an arrow They're like those promises aren't being fulfilled, so they were adapted again where they added some material and you can kind of sense the language ship

And some say and I would be one of them that there's like a third reduction of this story and it's during the exile There's this book by David Carr he's a Bible scholar. I'll be us, but it's a really good book and the books called Holy Resilience the Bibles Traumatic Origins. I think this is so important for us to understand the Theological and political perspective of the person writing the Deuteronomy sick history and the question on the table is this At least from the third reduction the third layer

The issue and I do believe that this Deuteronomy sick history has some editing that's happening during the exile

“Imagine you guys we're in Babylon we've had all these promises if you remember the promise in Samuel where the prophet tells David”

You will always sit on the throne your seed are gonna rain forever in the house of Israel

Then your great grandparents talked about the grandeur of the temple we live in Babylon How sad would we be not only we paying tribute. We don't even get to live on our own land You read some of the Psalms and they will met and they're like we long for the day when we could live back home It's so sad how they did this to us because of this trauma this great sad thing We have the Bible the Bible is coming out of

horrific trauma now think about Mormon 20 years of his life he's killing people You think he's thinking about the matters of life and death there's nothing that brings you to Jesus and like the meaning of life Then taking another man's life and realizing that your best friend just got killed and you could be next You know that affected Mormon the book of Mormon comes out of trauma David car starts his book off

And I guess the reason why I really hit me is because he talked about he was writing his bike You said you a lot of road biking in this car just hit him and nearly killed him and it just caused great trauma I've had that experience in 2013 this lady was texting on her phone and she just ran right over me I remember when she hit me I'm spinning in the air You remember when you were a kid and you were like a lagoon or whatever and you're on the roller coaster and you'd watch the horizon flip-up

Side down. Did you ever do that look sideways? Yeah, I'm in the air spinning and I'm looking at the horizon go up a side down And I'm doing like 22 miles an hour and I'm in the air everything slows down time slows down and I remember thinking So this is how I'm gonna die That thought just occurred to me. I'm like this is my last breath And I hit the pavement and I skidded for several feet

“I look like Anakin where he's like I hate you. Do I come on on all road routes?”

The first thing I did was wiggle my toes like in my paralyzed and then I realized okay

I'm not paralyzed but that trauma affected How I ride bikes now now I ride bikes on mountain trails and I don't ride bike cars because with people not looking at you Would they're looking at their phone like what are you gonna do David Car talks about this and he says this trauma

Why did we lose the temple? It's because we didn't do religion right

Now I could see this going one of two ways if you have a child who's not living the gospel Can you see how this could be a damaging thing Like blaming you as a parent is it really your fault like let's take a breath when I teach this I like to teach that's their perspective I'm not trying to teach us with lacking faith, but another message is do pair taxes like I don't think they would have got wrecked if they would have paid tribute

“That's the perspective of the guys that wreck them. Do you think Babylon cares if they're doing religion right?”

They didn't care They just wanted their money What do you do with this perspective of Looking back thinking about okay, why did we lose the temple, but you can sense that trauma here. Can you? I appreciate the clarification in verse four of they brought no present to the king

Now that wasn't just a gift to be nice. I was just thinking of you want to tell that you know how much we love you What's my birthday and you guys did nothing It was a tribute They were obligated to bring they were forced to bring the other thing I wanted to know was the consistent message of

Jehovah who's still there verse 13 yet the Lord testify against Israel King to Israel and against Judah by all the prophets and by all this years saying Turny from your evil ways keep my commandments from my statutes according to the law which I commanded your fathers I just loved that was the verse I had marked as there's the consistent message of Jehovah while all of this mess

Is going on everywhere else my students at BYU they get so tired of One of my favorite quotes I've used it on here before It is good to be faithful said elder Richard L. Evans. It is good to be faithful. It is better to be faithful and competent This to me what we're doing today Mike is is competency let's understand this text where it came from

“What perspective are we getting how has it been changed through time?”

I think you can worship God with your mind and learning these type of things is a form of worship I would say Hank, I love this verse in section 88 of the doctor in Covenants. It's really a great way to approach scripture will you read section 88 verse 118 you got it? It's a long section And as all have not faith Seaky diligently and teach one another words of wisdom

Ye seek out of the best books words of wisdom seek learning even by study and also by faith It's super interesting to me that in this section they do the things that John talked about Like they rejected a statute say didn't listen to the prophets, but then they also didn't pay the tribute And you're right you can miss it. He didn't send a present you're like what is this talking about It was like big bricks of gold many many talents of gold. They're just like we're just not gonna pay it

It's not gonna vote well for you

“This scattering is talked about throughout the book of Mormon and I put this in the slide deck”

So we'll have it for your people that are watching it, but I'm just gonna read this bit here

The house of Israel was scattered on several occasions the first was in 721 when the

Assyrian Empire conquered the northern tribes the second was in 586 when Babylon conquered Jerusalem And relocated many of the Jews Finally, there's another scattering in 70 AD after Jesus when the Romans burned down the temple in Jerusalem And sold much of the population in the slavery as Nephi prophesied what happened he prophesies this And second Nephi 25

However Nephi also knew from Isaiah that someday God would set up an enzyme for the nations He will assemble the outcast of Israel and gather together the dispersive Judah from the four corners of the earth That's the message of the Book of Mormon. It said there's two gatherings. There's a physical gathering and There's a spiritual gathering. There's both both have to happen

Because of that that spiritual gathering in this is first Nephi 10 verse 13 and 14

They got to come to the true knowledge of the Messiah their Redeemer That's the goal of the Church of Jesus Christ the Saturday Saints the goal is let's spread that message to as many as we're here For all the parents out there who have future missionaries, I do not understand How you can send a missionary out to gather Israel if they don't understand at least a little bit of the scattering of Israel That means parents need to know this

So in that sense second King 17 is relevant. It does help us to see these are real people We know that they existed We are From them every one of us is from these individuals It's a great story, but this is like David Car says a very traumatic story

How much of the the moments in our life where we're closest to God come out of trauma or while we're in trauma?

Then he comes back and then he leaves to me that would be traumatic because he's alive and he's back and then he's like I'm out of here

Then oh by the way, you're gonna go get killed Traumatic with flesh yeah the Bible's coming out of trauma If you want a big picture of all this like Hank what you just said you're sending out kids together

“Israel well, how did they get scattered well, who is Israel all that if you want to see a really good 30,000 foot over view of this”

Go to nsind.edu Find Hank's talk Which had a big picture of what in the world's going on here going back to Abraham and the Abrahamic covenant How are we gonna bless the families of the world how did the restoration go all the way back to doing this Abrahamic covenant To bless all the families of the world together Israel go watch the talk because not only is it really

Good, but it's your your buddy Hank, so you can watch him explain this beautifully some really beautiful writing in that How awesome to have president Nelson? He had these great little sound bites like hear him like let God prevail This gather Israel thing I love that he added on both sides of the veil how are we gonna bless the families of the earth?

We get him to the temple and how we can we can gather on the other side too by going to the temple Putting all of that together Hopefully in this context will help us see that I wanted to ask you both because I like to call it a fortunate scattering Because it's scattered

Israel all over the place was it a scattering for wickedness. Yeah, most of the time except for Lehigh But it was a fortunate scattering because now people go out we go gather them They get their patriarchal blessing. They go oh, I'm Israel I'm from one of these tribes too. Is that okay if I call it a fortunate scattering? I think so. I mean without it. We don't have the book Mormon

Before we leave chapter 17 the end of the chapter verses 27 through 41 big picture here's what's going on

After the king of Assyria takes the elites

“That's what I think I think he's taking the elites. I don't think he's taking everybody but whatever”

however you want to read it after he scatters Israel and takes him Versus 27 through 41 the author of kings is telling you that the king planted people there and he's putting Religious authorities in there they're dwelling there and they're doing religion wrong This is the author of kings denigrating this group the northern inhabitants of the land I mean if you look it says in verse 37

The statutes and the ordinances and laws and the commandments which he wrote for you shall you observe to do forevermore you shall not fear other gods and the covenant that I have made you shall not forget but verse 40 how be it they did not harken verse 41 so these nations fear the Lord and serve their grave and images both their children and their children as did their fathers unto this day to be sure and speaking it's syncretism they're following the Lord but they're also

“doing religion wrong that's what the perspective of this author is trying to say it could be so confusing”

you can read this and go but it says they fear the Lord but then it says they didn't harken like which is it what scars do is they look at this and they say okay what's happening like I said I don't know I wasn't there but the best guesses they're doing y'all way or they're following Jehovah Jesus as it were they're following Jehovah but they're doing it in a way that's not the way the author of kings would say is correct the shout out to that is verse 29 and then specifically verse 32

it's super interesting because if you read Mozaya a benedize like well do you follow the law of Moses and do you follow the 10 Commandments and king knows like well yeah we totally do and a benedize like yeah no you don't the Mozaya cracks that window open a little bit to let us say it's interesting is some of that stuff happening here I'm not judging the north here I'm not here to say what they are or not doing right I'm just like looking at the text saying this is the complexity of

the text how they're portraying it if I had a 25 minute lesson I wouldn't get in any of that but that's what's cool about what you guys are doing is you put all this out there and people can if they have three hours they can put me on 1.5 speed and just speed it up oh not you there's other people there's other people you can put it 1.5 speed my day is not one of them I love the energy that we're getting here now I'm going to share with you one thing about teaching I think this came from a man

a rich robin who's a fantastic teacher he said if you go to a dam like the Hoover Dam if you

see the force of the water coming out at the bottom of the dam you see the incredible force that's

coming out of there it's because you know on the other side of that dam is a lot of water he said

it's because they have so much stored up behind that you can get that from Mike

“you're going this is amazing if we only had the time where we could go in and look at the other”

side and look at all he has stored up I've always loved that analogy ever since I heard it I can see it

in a teacher like Mike let's keep going we're on 18 next second king's 18 through 20 is the rain of Hezekiah the time period here is 715 to about 686 BC in that little space there I talked about him being 25 when he's put on the throne that's in verse 2 in verse 4 it says he removed the high places and he broke the images and he cut down the ashra that's the growth then the author writes this in verse 5 there was nobody like him among all the kings of Judah nor any that were

before him for he claimed to the Lord and to part of not from falling his commandments and then of course if you're going to be a good king verse 8 you got to kill some guys you got to smite the Philstein it's the Old Testament we're clearing out chaos just in my scriptures next

verse 5 I wrote second kings 2325 that's where the Deuteronomy says will actually the greatest

thing since sliced bread wasn't hezekiah it was Josiah these are the twin darlings of the Deuteronomy's a historian or the writer of second kings they love hezekiah and they love Josiah once you get verse 9 to about verse 14 there's a lot of trouble happening the trouble is that assyria is on the loose they're conquering every place everywhere and so on one of my slides I put several leaves I went to the British Museum which is fascinating I would that

everyone in your audience could at some time spend a day in the British Museum to see those massive reliefs and we see that the nation of judo is just devastated by a Syria as they come in

this is what David Carrwright he says the heesh was Judas largest town outside of Jerusalem

then the relief shown here and I depicted here is a vivid assyrian depiction of the destruction of a keesh other parts of the relief depict assyrian archers and stone thorns on the attack duty and shoulders being impaled around the city and later seems that people being led from the defeated city into exile according to archaeological surveys the assyrians decimated virtually all of the countryside outside of Jerusalem we see that in verse 14 it talks about in verse 13

sent a harab comes against all the fence cities and he took them in verse 14 says hezekiah the king of juda sent to the king of assyria to look heesh saying I have offended return from me

“that which they'll put us on me I will bear in other words all pay tribute once again that's what”

it means the king of assyria pointed in tezakai a king of juda 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold that's the amount that they have to pay I literally put this relief from the British Museum I'm there taking pictures I like put it in my scriptures what is hezekiah doing this is in my opinion sad in verse 15 and 16 he cuts a bunch of gold and silver off the temple and gives it is this good do you see where I have some tension it's a fascinating history but on one hand the

author says he's a good king and he does everything right can you imagine if the prophet of god was like just chilling off bits of the temple yeah it's complicated reminds me a little bit of captain maronai where Mormon says everybody should be like captain maronai and then there's some things captain maronai does you're like oh wow wrote a pretty harsh letter to the haran yeah yeah we know not but what you were traitors to your country wow the haran's the what guy who's just

like oh man I rejoice in the greatness of your heart he's the one I go wow I mean he could have gone hell dare you you have no idea what you're talking about I love that that's in the book of Mormon it gives me hope because there's a lot of times when I'm on the wrong then I have to eat crow and go it's usually to my wife I'm like I was wrong and she's like now you were and I'm like I'm sorry Mike is this where the rob chicco steps in yes geek out moment really quick I call him the pio

the public information officer of the syrians is gonna stand on the wall now I spent some years in city government where I was elected city council I remember being fascinated by cities hiring a

“pio every city house one especially now with social media you have to have a public information officer”

I remember going I want that job that sounds so fun like you get to stand in front of the camera

sometimes it's a seminary teacher you're a pio you have to stand up in front of the kids and go okay guys we're gonna read some really sketchy stuff in Genesis Genesis 18 but bear with me we're gonna talk about Jesus in this case Rabshek is not a good guy he's gonna stand up

and basically taunt the residence when I first saw I know it's been 20 years I'm sitting in this

movie called the return of the king now I'd read the book but I forgot much of it because I was a kid I didn't understand it but I'm sitting in here as an adult and there's that scene where the mouth of Soron is holding the mythical shirt of the Hobbits a Cacida Aragorn's feet now Aragorn is the Christ figured and the mouth of Soron in my opinion I think Tolkien is channeling this bit

“because the mouth of Soron that guy with the teeth remember that scary dude he says the Hobbit's”

dead more door has one you guys have to basically bow down to us because we're gonna wreck you guys everyone's looking at Aragorn like what do we do in Aragorn's like we fight it's one of the

greatest moments in cinema because I think isn't that what Satan does he basically says you're out

numbered we have the goods and just surrender and just give up this is such a dramatic part of scripture if you set it up the right way I think the students will go oh I can relate with that have you ever been in a time when you just felt like I'm hopeless and I don't know what I'm gonna do that's what he does he stands up and he says verse 19 speak to has a kaya does say at the great king the king of the series what confidence is this where and now trust us that'll say it's

but they are but vain words I have counsel and strength for the war now on whom does that trust that that rebelist against me now I'd be holding that trust us upon the staff of this bruised read even Egypt the idea is well Egypt is gonna save us due to might be thinking the right sugar says that's not gonna happen then he says verse 22 but if you send to me we trust in the Lord is not that he whose high places and whose altars has a kaya has

wrecked that's my translation he's wrecked him he's taken him from juda to Jerusalem so he's

basically giving a shout out like you guys think Jehovah's gonna save you we've wrecked

every one of those places now the previous chapter the author of kings is saying well they

“worship Jehovah but maybe they weren't doing it right maybe that's why those are in there”

but the whole point is he's basically taunting them sane and it gets pretty vulgar I'm not gonna read the verses but if you keep reading and even in the king James they preserve the language he gets really vulgar and says things are gonna go bad for you then the key verse that I have highlighted that I want to talk about for your audiences verse 30 john you want to read verse 30 actually read 30 and 31 neither let he's a kaya make you trust in the Lord saying the Lord

will surely deliver us and this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria Harkin not to he's a kaya for thus say if the king of Assyria make an agreement with me by a present and come out to me and then ye every man of his own vine and every one of his fig tree and drinky everyone the waters of his sister don't trust him Mike this guy seems to know exactly what to say oh yeah he's good and so does the adversary doesn't the adversary know

every one of my weaknesses I don't know if you guys ever have this happen to you but there have been times when I'll be thinking I'll have this negative tape playing in my head and the negative tape is yeah don't talk about that don't testify of Jesus or I'll be out to go give a presentation and I'll hear a tape that says you're gonna do horrible it's gonna be boring sometimes I wonder is that my voice or is that another voice the more I've come to grow and learn I've learned

those negative voices that's not me but they're real I gotta say this I know we're in kings but I can't help myself we gotta go to Isaiah let's go to Isaiah 37 because the same time period right this is the same stuff I'm reading the upper tool by the conduit and to the fuller's failed gun that's Isaiah language reader that says a kia too this is it I mean let's get a big picture let's read the chapter heading and then let's read verse 6 and 7 I'm gonna pitch that to you guys you

“guys you guys want to want to you do the chapter heading and one of you do 6 and 7 I really think”

Isaiah is gonna give us a perspective that's gonna help the kings narrative really pop Isaiah 37 has a kia seeks counsel for my Isaiah to save Jerusalem Isaiah prophesies defeat of a series and death of synachary has a kia praise for deliverance synachary sends a blasphemous letter Isaiah prophesies destruction of a series and then a remnant of Judah will flourish and then here

picture okay now these guys don't know history so imagine you're in the city you're surrounded by walls

“if there really were 185 thousand I don't know that word LF is squishies LF can mean clan it can”

mean group it can mean thousand and I hear to settle the numbers question of the Old Testament I don't think anybody can but the idea is it's a lot of people once again I'm channeling my inner lover of token where at Helm's deep and we're surrounded by this hoard they go to air going what do we do and he says we're not surrendering these guys it's not gonna happen with that picture in our head of all these people let's read verse 6 and 7 this is Isaiah

saying Isaiah is a prophet and he's saying hey let me tell you what the Lord is said about this okay this is Isaiah 37 starting in verse 6 and Isaiah said unto them thus shall he say unto your master thus say it's the Lord be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard where with the servants of the King of Assyria have blasphemed me behold I will send a

“blas to pawn him and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land and I will cause him to fall”

by his sword in his own land so Rob Shikke returned and found the King of Assyria warring against Libna for he had heard that he was departed from Lakeish. Libna is a city south west of Jerusalem I have a map that will put in your video and for those of you that are listening you can't see

the map all the map is basically doing is showing all the places that the Assyrian army is just

wrecking and it's basically everywhere now go from Isaiah's account to 2nd King's 19 the words of Isaiah are in verse 6 and 7 at the end of verse 7 Isaiah says I'll cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. When verse 8 it says Rob Shikke returned and found the King of Assyria warring against Libna for he had heard that he was departed from Lakeish and when he heard say of Tiracaw King of Ethiopia behold he has come out to fight against the he sent messengers again to

asakaya saying thus shall you speak to asakaya King of Judah saying let not by God and whom thou trust us to see these saying Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the King of Assyria. What verse 9 is saying is there's like a pause in the fighting there's a kushite ruler of the Egyptian forces and now sent a carabh has a two front war he's fighting the people in Judah but now he's facing and fighting Egypt there's a pause in the fighting while he's not coming to

Jerusalem at this time he sends a letter and he says listen I put a pin in that I pause coming to

“get you I still remember who you guys are I'm still coming to get you don't forget that's what's”

going on in verse 9 and 10 during that pause is where Hezekiah gives his prayer and the first

slide that I'm giving you guys that I pulled this off the internet I didn't paint this picture but it's this beautiful image of Hezekiah on his knees he's just praying and that's Hezekiah's prayer which is in Isaiah but it's also in second Kings it's just a beautiful prayer I'm going to read Hezekiah's prayer I'm going to read from Isaiah and you guys fall along at second Kings the Isaiah 37 verse 15 says Hezekiah prayed into Lord saying O Lord of hosts God of Israel that dwells

between the cherubim once again that's in the holy holy you're dwelling there thou art the God even thou alone of all the kingdoms of the earth thou hast made heaven and earth and climb that arrow Lord and hear open nine eyes O Lord and see hear all the words of Senecaab which have set to reproach the living God of a truth Lord the Kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their countries they have cast their gods into the fire

for they were no gods but the work of men's hands would in stone therefore they have destroyed them now therefore O Lord our gods save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord even thou only then Isaiah the Son of Amos sent unto as a chia saying thus said the Lord God of Israel where as thou is prayed unto me against sent a care of King of Assyria this is the word of the Lord which has spoken concerning him the virgin

the daughter of Zion have despised thee and lathy to scorn the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at thee cities were considered women in the ancient world this is God speaking but he's speaking as if he's coming and being personified as the city the city of Jerusalem is despising this king of Assyria whom has thou reproach in blaspheme verse 23 against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up by an eyes on high even against the

personification this is one of the reasons why later when Jeremiah comes a hundred years later

“and says hey we're going to get destroyed the collective memory of the people in Jerusalem is”

no it isn't because it was preserved here what I just read is it really similar to second kings

almost exactly I just love Isaiah if you go to Isaiah 37 verse 32 I'm just going to read this out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant and they that escape out of Mount Zion the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this verse 31 says the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward this is a beautiful sign that Isaiah's giving to has a cry and here's the sign and I kind of skipped verse 30 but it's in there too I'm just

going to summarize it in three years a series going to be gone we're going to be able to plant again and this land that's been devastated will again bear fruit it's going to be okay we're in a rough time trust the Lord then he says verse 35 of Isaiah 37 says I will defend the city to save it for my own sake and for my servants David's sake that's hard coming back to that promise that Nathan

gave to David where he says the throne of David will be forever it's never going to end this is

Isaiah saying we're going to be defended and then again in verse 6 of chapter 38 of Isaiah he says I will defend this city that's kind of the big picture of Hezekiah's prayer and Isaiah's response and I know some of it's in kings I don't know why I just always go to Isaiah maybe because

“Jesus said we're supposed to I gotta read you guys something the Bible dictionary author I think”

it's Robert Matthews he has a flare for oh I've heard you do this Hank it sounds like a movie preview yeah read it does this is under a Syria in the Bible dictionary I like to read it with this

voice all Palestine now lay at the feet of the Syrian one man alone the prophet Isaiah

remained undontered and encouraged as a kaya not to surrender a stronghold the prophet's confidence was justified a great disaster fell on senacribs host it's just a one man alone this is one of the greatest stories told in scripture he is begging god you can feel this prayer but the end of 19 it says that the angel of the Lord went out and smoked them and it killed all those guys I love the end of verse 35 the Syrian army is now dead it says in early in the morning behold they were

all dead corpses that's sometimes my seminary students when I'm born in the tears I'll be like hey guys send kings 19 35 come on they rose in the morning they were all dead corpses that's

“such bad grammar wait did the corpses arise that's what I like when they arose they went”

hey I think I'm a dead core we're all dead corpses dead yet Mike you brought up the senacribs senacribs prism the Lord smoked everybody but the king who had to walk home all he could write was yeah I had has a kaya pent up like a burden to cage that was the end of that story yeah that's the argument the biblical scar say they say there must be some historicity to this because if you would have taken it he would have said you know I wrecked your stuff I ate all your steak out of your

freezer and now I took your stuff it doesn't say that just as I hemmed him in the other thing is the author of the text kind of puts it is he goes home the king of this syrians and his sons kill him yes it does happen but that's like 20 years later the events here are around 701 BC and the killing of the king of the syrians in 681 but the author is condensing it to say can you see the Lord is in charge thank you mentioned that it was actually Gerald Lund back when they used to

do CES symposium he showed a map of the United States and he said okay imagine it like this as serious the superpower north and south Dakota are gone Wyoming's gone Montana's gone Colorado's gone and they're coming into northern Utah and hey when they hit Ogden don't worry I have a scourge reserve for them when the hit woods cross don't worry when they hit bountiful and as Gerald Lund who said you know I'll stop him at nod he said let's compare that to capital hill

we see an army of 185,000 shaking their fists in yelling at us and we're on temple square they're saying we're coming to get you tomorrow that night here comes this angel Lord's smoke and 104 score in 5,000 and when they arose they were all dead corpses

if I were teaching this you could teach prayer sincere prayer in those few verses

“you can feel it he's saying save thou us please hear me you remember the story present”

Packer told about the guy who can't feed his family anymore because his business is failing and he's up at two and three in the morning and he can't sleep he's like well I can't sleep my mind will do something he goes to the office and he gets on his knees and he's like Lord what am I supposed to do everything rides on his business and it's not working and he prays and he begs God and then he hears a voice or he gets a thought and he gets a sticky note and he just starts

writing down okay do this do this and he just starts doing it every day and he's up at three every day weeks go by and he's doing us to do lists that's coming to his mind after he prays then one day he realizes that his business is feeding his family the next thing he knows it's succeeding and then he hires a manager and he doesn't have to go to work anymore

“and they call him as a mission president I remember President Packer telling that story and I was a”

young father and I was like this is Nephi's bow with it's on you and your families are going to starve or eat depending on can you bring it and can you imagine being in charge of a city on one hand you have a profit saying you're going to be okay on the other hand you see the mouth of sorn standing there on the wall saying we we're basically ninety nine and oh we're undefeated we're a number one seed we're going to recognize I love has a kaya going to the temple I love

I say it will be fine are you seeing what I'm seeing because yeah we'll be okay and the Assyrians were the worst what they did to people it wasn't just like we'll take your land now you guys send over here they did horrible things to people and then displayed their carcasses and do brutal how would you feel about a nation that killed your grandma what a great insight the beginning of twenty really sets up the Josiah stuff the idea that we're

never going to be defeated if you look in verse six of chapter twenty it says turn again until

has a kite I will heal thee and on the third day there shall go up to the house of the Lord and I will add to the days fifteen years I would deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria I will defend the city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake there is this idea that was in the ancient world that cities they were tied to gods and so whatever god was in control the city would be preserved if the city was preserved the god was powerful by the city being

preserved it was the way for the people that lived there to say see our god is god but then the reverse was also true if our god is god then the city will be preserved that viewpoint is going to spill over into the time period of Jeremiah and Lehigh when Jeremiah and Lehigh both we have Jeremiah's words where he says hey you're going to get wrapped if you don't pay the tribute there's other prophets that are false prophets it tell the king of Judah you don't have to do that why will because

god's gonna protect you when I think about this I don't know who said at first but I'm sure we've

all heard this just because we're raised in the church or just because my dad's the bishop well it doesn't mean that you are gonna have faith and everything's gonna be okay faith is not in inheritance it is a choice every day when we get up every day is a new day and we have to decide where we stand I really like these verses they're difficult because you can see once again the danger of misinterpreting scripture we have to be careful and we have to be careful in our

assumption remember Jesus where he says I can raise up stones to make children of Abraham that's

“not the deal Mike I want to highlight something you just said that I think is so crucial to”

understanding first Nephi this city was saved by Jehovah how long before Lehigh is this saving of Jerusalem

100 years about 701 BC it's gonna get wrapped in 586 I don't know exactly when Nephi is I think Nephi tells you the time period but we're in that window of about 100 years no wonder they didn't think it would happen he said before he'll do it again if you remember this is all tied in everything's connected so laymen and limio in my estimation my reading of first Nephi they're actually being pretty religious they don't believe Jerusalem's gonna be destroyed it says according to

the prophets well one of the prophets is this prophet named Nathan so in second Samuel he makes this promise to David the in viability of the house of David is what I like to call this he comes to him and he says in verse nine I've made the a great name like and to the name of the great man that are in the earth one of the ideas in the biblical narrative actually starts in the book of Abraham

a house to God out of the seaters of Lebanon on Mount Seon on Mount Zion by building a house

“to the name God will make his name great the promises in verse 12 when thy days be fulfilled”

thou shall sleep with thy fathers I will set up thy seat after thee which I'll proceed out of thy bowels and I will establish his kingdom he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever I will be his father and he will be my son now that's

hardening to Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 Psalm 2 is the most quoted text out of the Old Testament in the

New Testament the New Testament authors geek out in love Psalm 2 the idea is that the king becomes a son of God well that's Jesus he's God's son but that's also any righteous priesthood holder male or female that hell holds the power of God they become a son of God the benay Elohim they become God's son we see this in the temple so this is very much temple theology like just mixed in with this history and then verse 16 says thine house and thy kingdom shall be established

forever before the thy throne shall be established forever that's a promise given to the saints today one of the promises in the temple is I'm going to watch your kids I'm going to protect them this is Psalm 91 the promise of invalability the promise that the king is going to be protected this is also Isaiah 52 which is in there are Nephi right around chapter 20 where it says no weapon that is formed against the shall prosper this is a promise from outside the veil I

don't take it literally that I'm not going to get hit by a car right in my bike but what I take it as yeah I'm going to die but my kingdom will go on because of Christ because of the resurrection the Christian interpretation of all this stuff is that the throne is carried on through Christ Christ is King and Jerusalem can get wrecked that's okay or Augustine when he writes the city of God

“he says Rome can fall the kingdom of God what matters that's what's important but the people that”

lived in layman lamials day they read these passages and they're like Jerusalem's I'm going to get wrecked

look it's right there in the Scriptures first Nephi to 12 and thus layman and lamial being the

eldest did murmur against their father they did murmur because they knew not the dealings of that God who created them neither did they believe that Jerusalem that great city could be destroyed not even would be could be destroyed according to the words of the prophets they're misleading scripture they are misreading it but it's so easy for us because we live here what would we think if we were them sometimes my students will say well how do I know if I would follow the prophet and my only

answer is will do you follow them now coming up in part two Jacob for where he says all the prophets testify to Christ what if the early versions of this stuff read more like the Book of Mormon

“that they testify of the Messiah the one who will come down and die I believe that Moses taught”

this I believe Exodus 12 with the Passover probably came with a lecture and Moses said this land we're killing is the son of man that's not in Exodus 12 but I bet it was