Exodus 7-13 Part 1 • Brother Dave Hadlock • April 6-12 • Come, Follow Me

We've got the dust from which man has created turn to lies

Now we've got these swarms of flies throughout the air now that which was created and seen as good in the beginning as all being corrupted as we go through these Plagues Hello my friends welcome to another episode of follow him. My name is Hank Smith. I am your host I'm here with my co-host Without blemish

John by the way John you are an unblemished co-host. You really are. You're good looking I used to work for Clara Sill, but then after the Accutane I am now without blemish. Yeah. You are not blemish John we are excited to be joined by our friend Dave Hadlock today. We've known Dave for many and many years both of us

Welcome Dave welcome to follow him. Thank you for having me. It was awesome. Yeah. This is exciting. I've been looking forward to this for a long time

It's always fun to be with friends

“We have met Moses now. We are going to watch Egypt fall. What have you been thinking about as you've been preparing?”

I think it's such an amazing story. I also think that if our listeners are like me, they're coming at it Having seen the movie the 10 comments and friends of Egypt It's going to be exciting to go into the scriptures and see what they actually teach us about Jehovah through the years John I've found that there's a lot more going on here with these 10 Plagues than just grandum 10 Plagues Dave's here to tell us about that. Dave. What are we going to do today?

What are you looking forward to? Well, I want to jump on your adjective train Hard and hard in speaking about the pharaoh and his heart Stinking stinketh the river stinks from the dead fish They were heavy with burdens and plagues

They partook of bitter herbs bitter was one of our adjectives dead and dark I've spent a lot of time with YouTube my good friends over the years and some hot and humid place To me you stinketh not

“And my wife said that the only thing hard about you guys is you're hard not to love”

To our sea. I'm just grateful you're having me on here good friends We love you and your families and thanks for having me. Oh, absolutely where I want to go today Is I want to look at the keys of Moses as they relate to the event to the actual Our chapters are x to 7 through 13, but we're going to be taking a much broader look at the book of Exodus in context of the keys of Moses John

Tell us about Dave. You and I know him well, but what are our listeners need to know? Yes, Dave has spent more than 20 years leading tours to religious sites historical sites. He founded bountiful travel He is also known though for his thoughtful teaching His great scriptural insight and his relaxed engaging style. I love listening to Dave teach

His academic background includes graduate work in ancient Near Eastern studies with an emphasis in biblical Hebrew He's got a love of people He's fun. He's brilliant and he has and enthusiasm for the scriptures that is very contagious for you and For me, hey, Dave is our friend and I've looked forward to this for a long time Thanks for being on our podcast

Thanks for having me. I appreciate that intro. Yeah, Dave has a wonderful company a bountiful travel He takes people all over the world and there's an element to traveling with Dave of you're not just going to travel and see some things You're going to come home different because of what Dave teaches Let me read from the come follow me manual and then Dave John and I are ready to learn from you

“The title this week is remember this day in which he came out from Egypt plague after plague”

afflicted Egypt but Pharaoh still refused to release these relates and yet God continued to demonstrate His power and give Pharaoh opportunities to accept that I am the Lord and there is none like me in all the earth Meanwhile Moses and Israelites must have watched with awe at these manifestations of God's power on their behalf Surely these continued signs confirmed their faith in God and strengthened their willingness to follow God's prophet Then after nine terrible plagues had failed to free the Israelites it was the tenth plague

The death of the firstborn including Pharaoh's firstborn that finally ended the captivity

This seems fitting because in every case of spiritual captivity there is truly only one way to escape

That will save us

“Dave with that how do we want to start where do you want to go?”

I want to start with the story of Jonah to put in perspective the importance of scriptures in my own life If we go to the book of Jonah the book of Jonah's written in parallel fashion

The first two chapters are paralleled by the second two chapters so one and two are paralleled by chapters three and four

In Jonah chapter one it says the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the Son of Amatizing a rise Go to Nine of that great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me Jonah is commanded by Jehovah to go to the people Nine of a preach repentance unto them Jonah's response to this if you'll recalls to do what? The other way

Here I'm going to tarshift yeah, so he leaves from there goes to a place called jatha where he gets on a ship to go to tarshish Why might a profit of the Lord have taken off to tarshish instead of going to the people of Nine of a to preach repentance? I'm just thinking of veggie tales so you might have to go with me

That's exactly where I go to. It's the slapfish people the fish of snappers. Yeah

Jonah and chapter four gives us a hint Regarding why he takes off and does not want to go preach repentance unto the people of Nine of a Jonah chapter four Says in verse one that Jonah was exceedingly angry. No, what's he angry about if we go back one verse to chapter three verse ten God saw the works of the people of Nine of a and that they turned from their evil way and

God repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not

“Jonah goes into Nine of a preach as repentance and the people repent what is Jehovah do?”

He forgives the people he doesn't destroy them Jonah's response to this should have been a good thing but what's Jonah's response? He's angry the Jehovah doesn't destroy the people of Nine of a Verse two Jonah preyed into the Lord and said I pray the Lord was not this by saying when I was yet in my country Did I say that I was gonna preach to these people and that if they repented you went destroy them

Therefore I fled unto Tarshish. Why is he saying he flees? He doesn't want what? I don't want them to be saved. It sounds like he's like I knew you were merciful I knew you were merciful and you would save these people if they repented Here's our parallel. Jonah chapter one Jonah flees from Jehovah is swallowed up by a fish

He's in the belly of the fish for three days during that time period he repents

Then we have in chapter three of Jonah the word of the Lord comes again to Jonah second times

So here's our parallel and he says we rise go to Nine of a that great city now Nine of a Some scholars believe Nine of a the place Nine of a literally is probably from Nuna or Nina I mean possibly the place of the fish How big is this city as we go forward? It says it was an exceedingly great city of three days journey Jonah goes into the belly of the fish for a three-day journey now he comes where

He comes into Nine of a for a three-day journey while he's in the belly of the fish

“He repents during this three-day journey in the city of Nine of a what does he do?”

He preached it to the people and they do what they repent the Jonah is upset about this Why might the people of Nine of a have repented now? I'm going to pull up a picture here for the people who are actually watching This is a depiction of a sage among the Sumerians or among the the people of Nine of a called up Call-u up call-u was a sage or messenger to the gods for the Syrians He wasn't a deity per se, but he was like a messenger of the gods. He was a sage. He was a wiseman

Who would deliver messages from the gods to the people What you've gotten that is a person in like this costume of a fish The sage is a person coming out of a fish now. What do we have with Jonah we have a man coming out of a fish? Look how God uses Jonah Jonah in his very rebellion is prepared as a tool to bring forth

Repentance and good works of other people For me this is a great story in a great message because sometimes in our rebellions and in our weaknesses God is preparing us To preach and to be tools for him and bringing forth good works and helping people come under repents

as a missionary

“35 years ago I was serving in Argentina and a few months into my mission”

I had the opportunity of serving with a missionary his name was Pablo shout out to Pablo if he's watching this Pablo at 19 years old knew the scriptures inside and out backwards and forward. Amazing teacher of scriptures And when Pablo would teach in the words of Alma the younger my heart was enlarged The truth was delicious unto me. It was inspiring the way he could teach scriptures I'd had religion classes at BYU before my mission I'd had four years of seminary

But I'd never heard someone teach scripture the way Pablo could teach scripture

Three months into my mission Pablo comes and splits we are working together in a town We go and visit some of the families that I'd been teaching few days later I go back to One of these families The first thing this lady says to me is how come you aren't prepared to teach scriptures like Pablo is

taught scriptures

“For me it was like a dagger to the heart. Yeah, it was pretty harsh, but it was true and it was real”

I wasn't prepared to teach like Pablo was there's a side of me that was embarrassed I was ashamed

And I either consciously or subconsciously decided I would never not be prepared to teach scripture again

Part of my motivation as I dug into scriptures from that time fourth of my life was this This fear this shame this embarrassment of not being prepared to teach I Kind of like Jonah my weakness

Was turned into something that I hope has become a strength Something that I do and teach and say hopefully Helping other people closer to God improve the relationship with deity and help them come to repentance That's or that my love of scripture started They have helped me in dark times

They've helped me stay close to God when I easily could have chosen other paths during the course of my life Dave the righteous motive wasn't there yet, but the Lord was using Even your kind of rebellious motive In shaping you to become a a great teacher of scripture. That's great

I was hoping you would share that story because I've always been inspired by that every time I've heard you

Say that I have one of those I need to be more like that type moments the scriptures are such a gift I particularly think of the book of Mormon What Lucy Max Smith might say

“If she had come into a class, do you know what it costs my family to bring this to you?”

So elder Pablo Pablo was his first name where was he from? from your Gwere Wow, Dave I wrote that down even in his rebellion. He was being shaped as a tool And you can't get away from the Lord He pursues you yeah

To me it's a pretty profound principle that a lot of times we feel we are unworthy to teach or unworthy to serve yet a lot of times In those moments those moments where where God is preparing us to teach to serve the best You know

Beauty for ashes he's always the great alchemist the Lord All right, Dave let's keep going Let's jump into the scripture for our studies this week As I was stating we're going to look at The Exodus the narrative of the Exodus we're going to look at it in context of the keys of Moses

I want to look at some background doctrines that we want to understand Before we look at the Exodus so that we can see how Those keys of Moses play out throughout the narrative. I want to start in doctrine and comment section one ten As one does start the book of Exodus Absolutely

Makes sense Section one ten of the doctrine and covenant we have a series of visions In this vision I'm going to start in verse 11 after one vision closed the heavens were opened unto us and Moses appeared before us And he committed unto us the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north These keys of Moses are what I want to focus on throughout our

Study time here our first hint regarding what these keys do it says that they're the keys to the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth Now as we look through the doctrine of the gathering of the house of Israel

I want to turn to Joseph Smith Matthew

This is Joseph Smith Matthew verse 27. This is an addition to Matthew chapter 23 and 24. We have some Additional commentary and some very insightful commentary regarding this doctrine of gathering from the four parts of the earth Matthew chapter one verse 27 and he says now I show into a parable The whole verse so over the carcasses there will the eagles be gathered together now this verse is written also in a Castic parallel here. He says behold where so over the carcasses there will the eagles be gathered

Here's the parallel so likewise shall mine elect be gathered from the four quarters of the earth Here's those four quarters the earth mentioned doctrine and covenant section one ten The elect are the eagles the eagles gather to the carcass just as the elect gather from the four quarters of the earth

“What might this be alluding to what's the carcass here?”

Eagles are gathering to carcass just like the elect from the four quarters of the earth. What we know the gathering is to both a place and a knowledge of the Lord and also returning to John says real estate right so there's a real estate gathering It's a location there's going to be a literal Temporal gathering to a place

Then the second one you allude to there is a gathering to

The knowledge are gathering to a person that's almost the spiritual gathering. We're going to gather to a person We find another mention of Birds being gathered to a carcass in the Old Testament and this is from Genesis chapter 15 In Genesis chapter 15 we have a covenant the covenant being established between Jehovah and Abraham

“Now if you'll recall when Jehovah covenants with Abraham”

He covenants that he's going to have seed as numberless as the stars in heaven as numberless as the sand and the sea He also tells him that he's going to inherit this land in verse seven He says I'm the Lord the brought the out of the earth the caldees to give the this land to inherit it Now Abraham has some questions he says how can I know that I'm going to inherit these promises

This is what Jehovah has him do in verse 10 He says he took unto him all these meaning all these animals mentioned in nine a heifer a goat a ram a Turbled of he takes unto him all these and divided them in the midst and laid them each piece one against another But the birds divided he not and when the fouls came down upon the carcasses So here is our carcass with a bird we have these birds gathering to a carcass

Abraham is told to drive them away One of the ways that they would engage in treaties or covenant making anciently was to take these animals and they would cut them in the midst So they would divide them in two parts they'd separate them and then They would walk in the middle of this animal these two pieces and if I'm going to make a covenant with you I might point at that animal and say I'm going to live up to the terms of this covenant

“Should I not live up to these terms let this happen to me?”

It was like a similarly type curse the carcass then becomes a place of what I've covenant I've covenant making so if we take a look at that then from Joseph Smith Matthew and the Eagles coming to the carcass They're coming to a covenant making place We get that idea again here in Genesis chapter 15 verse 17

It says it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp past between those pieces Now it's the place of covenant making or oath swearing here we have a smoking furnace and burning lamp past in between those pieces symbolic I believe of Jehovah Jehovah is going to pass in between those pieces and in verse 18 It says in that same day Jehovah or the Lord made a covenant with Abram The carcass then becomes a covenant making place

You're gathered from the four corners of the earth to a covenant making place now the work covenant Is a Latin word. It's cone veneeray for all the Spanish speakers out there cone veneeray is with cone is with veneeray is to come A covenant literally is a place where you come Together with let's go to

Third Nephi and third Nephi chapter 10 verse six it says O ye house of Israel whom I have spared

Jesus says oh house of Israel. I want to keep gathering you now as we turn to Chapter 11 we introduce the Nephites gather together where they go to the temple they go to the temple

A place of covenants third Nephi chapter 20

They go to the temple this covenant making place and they enter in two covenants Third Nephi chapter 20 verse 12 and barely barely I sin to that when they shall be fulfilled Then is the fulfilling of the covenant again this idea of covenant making Then shall the remnants which shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth be gathered in From the east and from the west and from the south and from the north

Here are those cardinal directions of world is divided into the north-south east west four corners of the earth We're going to gather to that holy sacred center now in Latin where those axes cross is the temple You're gonna gather from the north-south east west Directions to a holy or hero centric to a holy center which is the temple in Latin which is our root word for Temple the temple then becomes the covenant making place where we gather and then as you stated earlier Hank and they shall be brought to

Knowledge of the Lord their God who have redeemed them We come and we gather to Christ in that holy center Into a promised land into the presence of God that's essentially then what we have is our doctrine of gathering The keys of Moses allow us to gather from the four parts of the earth as we make Covenants and sacred holy places and come to Christ

Hank we just went from Jonah to Dr. and Covenants to a perligate price Joseph Smith Matthew to 3rd Nephite to look upon This is why I love Dave Hadlock. There's a place where Jesus when he spends his day with the Nephites in the right Just laymen nights who are spared it says that he expounded all the scriptures in one

“I think they've just did that and showed how look how these connect I have never known what to do with those”

Carcass versus before Thank you for that. Yeah, that would be a terrible adjective for you. My carcass or co-host You don't want to be split in twanes Dave this place of covenant Where I split this animal and I walk through

Very symbolic of a temple It's a place of covenant as well Yep, we go to that holy center where we make covenants and come to anology of God Now let's look now a darkening covenant section 84 in these keys of Moses as they're discussed there Darkening covenant section 84 verse 19

This greater priesthood administered the gospel and hold it the key of the mysteries of the kingdom

“Even the key of the knowledge of God now remember what do they come to anology of there as you said?”

They come to a knowledge of their redeemer those are the keys Here this greater priesthood has the keys that administer it the keys to the coming to a knowledge of God

now as we go back to third need five

What I want to look at is this doctrine of coming to know God I'm going to be reading from third need five chapter 14 and coming to a knowledge of God After walking the Nephites and in the old world in the sermon on the Mount we see the same Covenants being made there In verse 21 of third need five 14 it says not everyone that say thunder me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven

But he that do it the will my father which is in heaven here he's saying do those covenants live those covenants That we've just taught you about Verse 22 many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in nine name and in nine name have cast out devils in In nine name done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them?

I never knew you depart from me ye that worked in equity

Here we have after entering into the covenant you said some people will come to me in that day and say Lord Lord Let me enter into your kingdom into the place so we gather to a place as well Jesus says you can't come here. Why because I what? I never knew you now the word in Hebrew for to know is yada

“Here's how you're going to remember this is your Hebrew lesson yoda is the knowing one, okay?”

He says I profess unto you that I never knew you now in Hebrew The idea of knowing someone central to that and implicit in that is having a covenant relationship

You cannot come unto me. Why because you don't have what?

You don't have a covenant relationship with me Now think of this in context of

“Different passages and scriptures about knowing someone what is John say eternal life is”

To no God eternal life is to no God implicit in that is having a covenant relationship with God The keys of the end of Moses allow us and allow for the knowledge of God in the covenant So it allows us to come to him and enter into his kingdom And that's what we're going to be looking at as we go through the passage of Exodus is how does that play out One more principle I want to look at is a principle called sacred time

We've talked about sacred place temple space

Being gathered to a sacred space But there's another principle called sacred time and the idea of sacred time is that ancient religious man would Reen act the events of their creation mythology

“Let me give you an example this one of the things we'll do on some of our trips is we'll take groups into central America”

And we will show them some of the beliefs of the ancient mind civilizations and practice as of the minds One of the things that we find the minds do is they play this ball court game We call it a game, but the ball court game is actually a ceremony or a ritual now at the end of this game There would be the death of one of the participants in this game Horrible game sounds like horrible game, but again

It's not really a game. It's a ceremony. It's a ritual reenactment of what their gods did in the beginning They would reenact or recreate through ceremony and ritual the things their gods did in the beginning And we find this among almost all ancient civilizations is this idea that you're going to reenact what the gods did in the beginning Any ideas why Civilizations why religious people would reenact what God did in the beginning it seems like worldwide in

“Every faith tradition you can think of there's some sort of creation story. I think is trying to answer the question”

Who are we and how did we get here now think about it as we look at our creation account our creation mythology is Genesis one and two Now after God creates something in Genesis one what is he say about that God saw that it was good It's clean. It's purified. It's sanctified The ancients in the religious ritual by reenacting what God did in the beginning they saw them solves as Good recreated purified sanctified

reenacting those events first of all sanctifies the individual

Causes them then to be projected back into that. I'm going to call that edenic state Back into that realm of the gods That's the idea then of sacred time is it through our ritual We reenact what God does in the beginning sanctifies us

Purifies us Then we are seen as good and we are projected back into the presence of God or gathered back to God. That's the idea of sacred time As we now start to look at the book of Exodus one of the things in my interpretation and my approach to the book of Exodus is we're going to look and see how Exodus is a reenactment of Genesis It's a sacred time story in which we're going to see

The author and for the sake of our discussion Moses is going to drop parallels in all the book of Exodus to the creation account in Genesis I'm going to start by setting forth this pattern Genesis is a creation account. It's a creation pattern and Moses we're going to see elements that are present in all creation accounts in all new births

Moses chapter 6 verse 59 that by reason of transgression come at the fall which fall bring a death and in as much as you were born I'm going to say or created into the world by water blood and spirit and have become of dust become a living soul so here are elements All creation all new births come forth from water blood spirit those are elements Now as we then look at Exodus and Genesis we have new creation accounts

Genesis is our creation account those elements are going to be present We're going to look for those same elements as we go to the book of Exodus now let's go ahead and jump to the book of Exodus

Okay, we get to Exodus chapter one. What's our setting? How did the Israelites get here help me out here? Joseph was sold into Egypt and became Pharaoh right hand man

“Then they rest of the family came to escape the famine and now they've been there”

for hundreds of years then there arose a Pharaoh that knew not chose a

They've multiplied basically in Egypt. Yeah, that's great

Now we're going to take a look at this in a symbolic nature Trying to pull out elements of the book of Genesis Egypt how might Egypt have been perceived if we were to take a look at this symbolically Now a lot of times when we think of Egypt we think of what what comes later Yeah pyramids and hot

Candles and desert That's a great description of Egypt For the ancient Israelites they probably later in their history looked at it as a place of suppression oppression

“Bondage probably not was super fun memories”

But if you go before back in time from this I'm going to read from Genesis chapter 13

We have a passage in which Abraham and Lot are dividing up the land Lot it says lifts up his eyes and he beholds the planes of Jordan He's looking at the planes of Jordan and he sees how green and luscious it is and He desires that place it's a better place to plant crops it says it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gamora even as the garden of the Lord like unto the land of Egypt

Here Egypt is being compared to the Garden of Eden Exodus starts out in this Edenic state with these Israelites through this Guidance of Joseph arriving there as a place of refuge

As a place that's well watered they've come from drought now it's been a place of deliverance

They get here through Joseph now the name Joseph and Hebrew Means to add but there's possibly a linguistic etymological tide to the word a soft which is to gather We're looking at this passage in the context of the keys of Moses and the gathering of Israel Joseph gathers Israel here in Egypt or here in Eden Now we think about this in context of ourselves we are gathered in an Edenic state in the presence of God

Now what's going to happen to these Israelites here in Egypt as we keep reading the passage and you brought this up John It says there arose a new king of Pharaoh over Egypt which do not Joseph now here's that idea of knowing We'll go back to our previous discussion but implicit in the idea of knowing is a covenant relationship between people Now we have some sort of a break in the covenant I'm going to call it a fall there's a break in covenant and there's a fall here now in Genesis with the breaking covenant and the fall

“What are some of the consequences that come upon Adam and Eve sin death?”

Children up Should not put those in the same Oh, no, maybe you should There are days Dad sickness family, that's a good thing work

Sweat making bricks without straw yeah Here we have in Genesis following this break this transgression Verse 16 of Genesis three unto the woman he said I will greatly multiply the sorrow and That conception in sorrow shut that bring forth children unto Adam he said because I was harking under the voice of the wife That shall curse it is the ground for thy sake and sorrow shut about eat of it all the days of that life

So we see that there's a change in nature of work and what's going on in the land now there are mortal humans subject to sin and death There are bondage to sin and death As we look in Exodus chapter one verse 13 has says then the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor Sounds a lot like

Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, yep, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and brick They are now enslaved that they're in bondage to the Egyptians Man comes out of Eden in bondage to sin and death have to work by this one of the brown Here's our parallel to the Genesis account Dave I noticed Exodus one verse seven

Verse 12 they multiplied that sounds very

“Genesis Eden like I wanted to go there and I skipped over forgot it so glad you pulled us back”

But that's exact verbage from Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden in the garden of Eden They are commanded to multiply and replenish here in this quote and quote Edenic state in Egypt Before this break in treaty with the Pharaoh the children of Israel were fruitful increased abundantly multiplied replenish the earth. This is Moses in my opinion

Harkening back to Genesis and Adam and Eve in that Edenic state Now we have fallen man depicted in Genesis as Adam and Eve here in Exodus we have these fallen Israelites They've been scattered they're in need of a Savior they're in need of a deliverer

“They're in need of someone who will bring them back”

We're gonna jump forward to Exodus chapter three In Exodus chapter three Verse 13 we have actually in this passage of Moses going to Mount Sinai He ascends to meet Jehovah that's where we have in verse five Jehovah said to him Drona and neither put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place we're on now stand

It's this holy ground Moses meets with Jehovah on this holy land Then in verse 11 Moses expresses some of his concerns about his own ability to deliver these people back to Atlanta promise Verse 11 and Moses said unto God who am I that I should go into Pharaoh that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt out of bondage

How can I do that deliverance first 13 Moses said unto God behold when I come into the children of Israel and

She'll send to them that the God of your fathers has sent me unto you and they shall send to me What is his name? What shall I say unto them? Moses wants something to take before the children of Israel to prove his identity He's a true messenger

He's a true messenger of God. What do I do? God says to him say unto them I am that I am half sent you now we're gonna go back to Genesis in the creation account in the creation account of Genesis chapter one If we were to read this in Hebrew it says in the beginning God created the heaven in the earth God here is Elohim so all throughout Genesis chapter one our name title for deity in Hebrew is Elohim and

Genesis chapter two our name title for deity changes Genesis chapter two verse 7 you're going to notice the in conjunction with the creation of man of Adam On day seven it says that the Lord God formed man of the dust of the earth Here we have not just God but we have the name title Lord God creating man If we were to go to the Hebrew here Lord in Hebrew would be Yahweh

Or I am the same name in Exodus chapter 13 when he says I am that I am

“To Moses Jehovah saying remember that creation God in Genesis chapter two that creator deliverer”

God the God that created Adam I am that I am is what you're going to tell them is the name that's going to Give them faith or trust to follow you. I took Quite a few semesters of biblical Hebrew. I had a great professor Don Perry He suggests that I am that I am Could mean I cause to be that which I am he actually gets that I think from Frank cross as well

If we were to literally translate Lord God from Genesis chapter two verse seven Lord God would literally be I am God I am a little him or to be a little him in Genesis chapter two verse seven Exodus chapter three verse 14 I am that I am or I cause to be that which I am

Now we have our deliverer ultimately our deliverer is our creator God Jehovah

Now we're going to jump forward to Exodus chapter four How does this deliverance take place we have our deliverer Jehovah Moses then Continue saying that they're not going to believe me. They're not going to hark into my voice For they will say the Lord has not appeared unto the This is where Jehovah is going to have Moses do something that seems a little odd to us

The Lord said unto him what is that in my hand and he said it is a rod Now as we think about the rod in scripture

We think of the word of God how does God create in the beginning he speaks to the elements through his word

“God speaks his word and then the elements obey”

part of the symbolism here is that we've got a rod possibly waited with the word in Genesis chapter one What else is the rod compared to an ancient scripture in the ancient world it's often and depicted as a symbol of power authority In this passage look what happens to this rod

Exodus chapter three verse three And he said cast it cast the rod on the ground and he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses flood before it

The rod is also what in this passage it's the serpent

The rod is the serpent that straight out of the garden as well yes here we are now Harkening back to the Garden of Eden to Genesis as we look at this rod in this serpent Look at Isaiah chapter 11 Isaiah chapter 11 verse one Says in their shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse

and a branch shall grow out of his roots Now who's this rod out of the stem of Jesse? We're talking here about Jesus the rod or the serpent is also a symbol of Jesus I believe in the very middle of the garden in fact if we go back to the Garden of Eden account

It says in the midst of the garden there was a tree of life

First Nephi chapter eight when they talk about that tree of life

“Ultimately the tree of life is a symbol of”

Christ himself the love of God or Christ himself is in the midst of that garden Now here we've got this idea that this rod is cast on the ground and it becomes a serpent In numbers chapter 21 as these ancient Israelites are walking through the wilderness We're gonna jump forward in time a little bit here the Israelites have been released from bondage They're in the wilderness

As they're in the wilderness these serpents bite them they start to die and in verse eight of numbers chapter 21 it says that the Lord send into Moses make the a fiery serpent and set it upon a poll Here we got a rod a poll and a serpent some of the same imagery that we find in Exodus chapter four Make the a fiery serpent and set it upon a poll and it shall come to pass it everyone that is bitten When he'd look at the planet it shall live so Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a poll

A lot of times when we think of serpent symbology we think the serpent is a symbol of whom Satan Satan appears to even Adam as a serpent. No, we aren't really sure what that looked like But he appears in the form of a serpent now would Moses be putting a symbol of Satan upon a staff And asking the people to look under Satan and live No, not at all so it sounds like Satan maybe in the garden wanted to look like God

That's my opinion. Yes, if we'd look in Alma chapter 33 I'm trying to keep my fingers in my scriptures here Dave you got I'm gonna use an entire quad today In Alma chapter 33 we have Alma speaking to the zormites he's just talked to them comparing the word to a seed He's asked them to plant that seed and let that seed grow and see what it grows into

It actually grows into a tree that gives life a tree of life Then in Alma chapter 33 the people are still confused and verse one Alma had spoken these words They sent forth unto him desiring to know whether they should believe in one God But they might obtain this fruit. That's exactly what he's trying to teach them is that they're supposed to believe in one God They were supposed to plant their heart the logos or the word or Jesus Christ in their heart and he would grow into a tree of

“Everlasting life for them. That's what he wanted them to plant, but they didn't get it”

Then he has to explain have you not read the scriptures. Do you not understand that these old testament prophets prophesied of Jesus Christ? That he is the one God that you need to plant in your hearts He quotes from some of these prophets, but then he says in Alma 33 verse 18 But this is not all these are not the only ones who have spoken concerning the Son of God Behold he was also spoken of by Moses

Now look at the context of this. Yay behold the type was raised up in the wilderness that whosoever would look upon it might live

What is Alma saying that Moses did when he raised that

Serpent onto the staff that he spoke of the Son of God that he taught about Jesus Christ the Son of God When he holds that serpent up in my opinion He goes on to say in verse 20 but few understood the meaning of those things and this because of the hardness of their hearts But there were many who were so harden that they perished now the reason they would not look is because they did not believe that it would Hill them know what's the annesine to it there? I believe they didn't believe that that Jesus Christ would

“Hill them and I think that's what Moses plainly taught when he put that upon the staff that's why this is not”

Idol worship this is trying to get the people to worship Jesus Christ the serpent on the staff become the symbol of Jesus Christ Now we're gonna turn to some Jacob's teaching regarding Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and

Satan's appearance unto them. This is second Nephi chapter nine verse nine

And our spirits must have become like unto him and we would have become devils angels to Adouble so the context of this is worth not for an infinite atonement. We would have become like unto Satan to be shut out from the presence of God and to remain with the father of lies in Misery like unto himself Ye to that being who be gild our first parents who transformeth himself now. This is the Morton phrase nigh unto an angel of light

When the garden of Eden when Satan appears to Adam and Eve It says he appears unto them how as An angel in the angel of light serpent

“As a serpent and now why would he have taken upon himself the form of a serpent because I believe and this is Dave”

Speaking here that the serpent was a symbol of Jesus Christ He's imitating Jesus Christ to try and deceive Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden Now given that context, let's go now back to the book of Exodus and look how this plays out in the book of Exodus with this serpent Jehovah commands Moses and Aaron to go in unto the Pharaoh to start this Process of getting his people released from bondage

Exodus chapter 7 was one and the Lord said unto Moses see I have made the a god to Pharaoh and Aaron My brother shall be of thy prophet Moses now is a symbol of God

The prophet is his mouthpiece first five in the Egyptian shall know that I am Lord part of the purpose of what to

“going to come to pass throughout the next few chapters is Jehovah wants the people to come to know”

God Jehovah but he also wants the Egyptians to know that Jehovah is Lord that Jehovah's God First 10 now we have our first Interaction between Pharaoh and Moses verse 10 and Moses and arrow went Aaron went in unto Pharaoh and they did as the Lord had commanded and Aaron cast down his rod before the Pharaoh and before his servants And it became a serpent symbolic of who

Of Jesus now we have Jesus enter into this creation account this creation drama going back to that idea That the book of Exodus is a reenactment of the book of Genesis or the creation account Verse 11 then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers now the magicians of Egypt They also did it in like manner with their enchantments They cast down every man in his rod and they became serpents but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods

Now we have this primordial or this pre-mortal battle between serpents the serpent Christ and the serpent Satan as it plays out in the creation account If we went to the book of Moses we see this battle that takes place in the pre-existence between God the father and his son Jesus Christ and Satan and those who would follow Satan This is that creation drama account taking place right here Now the word for serpent in these passages in Hebrew is tanean Genesis in the creation account

As God creates the fall of the air the fish of the sea the cattle in the field It names one specific animal and this is from Genesis chapter 1 verse 21 So here I think we have Moses Harkening back to Genesis with this tanean with this sea serpent the sea monster Genesis chapter one verse 21 it says and God created great wells and every living creature that move it

Now if you look down in the foot notes of 21 one a it says Hebrew great sea monster This is the sea serpent this is tanean in Hebrew here we have this parallel Between the tanean the sea serpent and what's taking place here in Exodus chapter 7 verses 10 through 12 the battle the serpents

The Egyptians decide not to liberate the Israelites the Pharaoh hardens his heart

What we're going to look at now as we go through some of these plagues that fall upon the Egyptians is we're going to see a passage and narrative in which The book of Exodus is going to harken back to the chaos The exists prior to the creation of counts. We're going to move the world of Egypt and just state of chaos David, I've heard you teach some of these things before and I love it. I struggle with

Thinking snakes are wonderful things still More like Indiana Jones in that area

“I love how you have connected these you have done for me what Pablo did for you. I think wow all of this is always been there”

Maybe I can binge watch Amazon Prime Less and look at this stuff more we don't have to be intimidated by

Scripture or children of God with the gift of the Holy Ghost he wants us to find these exciting connections into be inspired by them

I love what you've done here David. Thank you Thank you Donna appreciate that the Lord I think has designed the scriptures this way John that you'll only get out What you put in It really reflects your investment But you put in some time and you'll make these

Fund discoveries that build your faith and make you go these were designed their elegant There's patterns. There's connections that are all over the place and it's fun to see those and I appreciate that Dave Thank you. I appreciate that sounds like it's time for the plagues. Yeah, let's jump into the plagues Nobody ever Let's jump right in

“Let's take a look at them. We aren't gonna spend a lot of time on them. I just want to take an overview look at them”

To show how they are going to Sometimes through words actual words take us back to Genesis Exodus is going to take us to a state of chaos prior to creation

I want to take us to the first plague narrative. I want to start in Exodus chapter seven verse 19

In Exodus chapter seven verse 19 It's in our first plague the Lord's bacon and Moses saying to Aaron take thy rod stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt and Upon their streams and upon their rivers upon their ponds and upon all their pools of water Now here in Exodus 19 it talks about all these pools of water and Alternative translation for pools is gatherings of water. There's different gatherings of water

If we go back to the creation account in the beginning God gathers together the waters in one place In Genesis chapter one verse nine

“God so let the waters under heaven be gathered together and pull in place and let the dry land appear”

So we have these pools are these gatherings of water That they may become blood back in Exodus and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt Both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded and he lifted up the rod and smoked the waters which were in the river And in the side of the ferro and in the side of his servants all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood

Here we have in Exodus the turning of water to blood that which God created in the beginning when he Separates and divide those waters. He calls them good now they turn to blood fact in Genesis God saw that they were good. This is Genesis chapter one verse 10 and God called the dry land earth and gathered together the waters He called seas and God saw that it was good

Then in verse 20 from that water in Genesis God said let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature the half life Fall that they may fly above the earth and in the open firmament of heaven In Genesis those waters bring forth life abundantly Well in Exodus what do those waters that have turned the blood bring forth? Look at this in Exodus chapter 8 verse 3

The river the water shall bring forth frogs abundantly which shall go up and come into the House and into the embed chamber and upon the bed and the beginning when God creates and he sees it as good It brings forth life and now it brings forth these frogs that plague their homes and their lands Our next plague That's going to hit

Again the pharaoh doesn't release them. It this doesn't convince him to let them go Jehovah comes to Moses and verse 16 and says to Aaron Stretch out thy rods might the dust of the land that it may become life. Now where do we see dust in the Genesis account

Now they're smiting the land and it becomes life throughout all the land of Egypt and they did so

“For Aaron stretched out his hand upon the erod and”

Smoked the dust of the earth and it became life in man. So in the beginning the dust is what man's formed from now the Land dust is cursed and it comes forth as lies to plague man We have a reversal of the elements going on here. Exodus chapter 8 verse 24 And the Lord did so and there came a grievous swarm of flies. Here's our next plague

We've got this swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into a servant house and into all the land of Egypt

The land was corrupted by a reason of the swarm of flies. Now take a look at these first three

Plagues is kind of a grouping as a whole but we've got the waters of creation that we're seeing as good Turn to blood. We've got the dust from which man has created turn to lies Now we've got these swarms of flies throughout the air

“Now that which was created and seen as good in the beginning as all being corrupted as we go through these”

Plagues Exodus chapter 9 Verse 6 And the Lord did that thing on the maro and all the cattle of Egypt died

But of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. So here's our next plague

Job comes through curses all the things the cattle of Egypt died now in the beginning in Genesis chapter 1 verse 25 God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind and everything that creepeth upon the earth After his kind and God saw that it was good. So in the beginning God creates the cattle of the field and sees it as a good Now the cattle in Exodus is being killed We have a reversal of that which was created in the beginning

Exodus chapter 9 verse 25 Another plague comes upon the children of Israel hell and fire is sent down from heaven Verse 25 and the hell smoke throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field both man and beast the hell Smoke every herb of the field and break every tree of the field Look at that the hell comes in and smights the herb of the field

Genesis chapter 1 Verse 29 God said behold I've given you every herb at bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree So here we have urban tree created in the beginning in which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed to you It shall be for me in the beginning God creates the herb of the field the trees and now here we have this plague that comes down this

Hell and fire that smights all the herbs of the field Again, Pharaoh hards his heart none of these plagues convince him to let the Israelites go They're not delivered from bondage Exodus chapter 10 Verse 4

Ells if thou refuse to let my people go behold tomorrow will I bring the locus into thy coast And they shall cover the face of the earth that one cannot be able to see the earth Here this last plague we're gonna see these locus come in that's gonna plague the earth Verse 15 for they covered the face of the hole earth that the land was darkened and They did eat of every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hell had left and there

We may not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field through all the land of Egypt Here we have this plague of locus comes in anything that was left behind from these previous plagues is now consumed by these locus Exodus 10 verse 22

Second of the last plague and Moses it says stretched forth his hand toward heaven

There was a thick darkness and all the land of Egypt three days now if we go back to the creation account Genesis chapter one verse one All creation it says in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth the earth was without form and void Here we have the earth in a state of chaos now look how it's depicted and Darkness was upon the face of the deep all creation new creation deliverances come forth from darkness Now here in Genesis we have our first element where we are finding that the world of Egypt has been cast back into this place

Similar to Genesis where darkness is upon the face of Egypt for three days We basically gone backwards we have reversed time we took all the events of the creation and now we have reversed them to put the world Their known world back into a state of chaos where now God can create again. He can create a new creature

“That's what part of the keys of Moses allow for the gathering of the household of Israel”

But they also allow for a new type of creation and what we become as we enter into these

We need to be created and deliver it again

“We have our last plague that takes place”

one of the things that we see in this is is in

Exodus chapter 115 we see this last plague that all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die in the first born of the pharaoh

Let's visit upon his throne sometimes when I'm with groups and Israel will go to a place called Mount Carmel Mount Carmel is where we find this battle the takes place between Elijah and the priests of Baal in That battle that takes place we see this juxtaposition in which Jehovah is contrasted with this pantheon of deities among the Canaanites where Elijah is declaring that

Jehovah is the one true God he has power over all these other Canaanite deities John I've heard you talk in the past about a similar thing going on here with the Egyptian Gods and Exodus could you teach us and give us some insight on some of the things you'll teach here I've heard you teach that up there and it's really interesting about what the wood represents with the cattle represent there's such a wonderful symbolic language going on

at the beginning of this story it's as if Jehovah has different audiences he's going to teach the house of Israel about himself in Exodus 6 7 ye shall know I am the Lord in Exodus 7 5 and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord perhaps also Moses is learning

“because he Moses took some convincing remember Hank when we were doing those chapters and we'll put”

your hand in your vest now take it out again now put it in it I have the power Moses this is what I did not know watching the ten commandments with my family as a kid is that so many of these plagues were directed toward an Egyptian god or at least affected Egyptian gods so much for example the water to blood I mean what's the old saying that Egypt is the gift of the Nile that's water that's life well turning water to blood there's an Egyptian god named

Hopi HAPI who controlled the waters of the Nile was as if God was saying the Nile is not God I am God let my people go and then frogs heck it is represented by a frog goddess I've seen a picture of her she has a human form and a frog's head now some people have a bad hair day some people look in the mirror and say "Kermit he plague here" right so that's a bad day did not see that would come him yeah that was a great one the lice or the gnats like you said

this is the coming from the dust the god of the earth was turned into lice or gnats the flies possibly I don't know how to say it it would cheat a represented by a fly I've seen pictures of these it's like a body with a bug for a head like a scarab for a head the plague on the cattle apis was a bull god half or was a cow goddess canoe was a ram god all of these over and over

the Lord saying that's not God I am God boils and blends there was second met who was the goddess

over the power of disease nut the sky goddess when the hail and fire came was being discredited locus osiris was the god of crops and fertility and with the three days of darkness that's a pretty impressive one that's pretty hard to fake that I think of the same thing in third Nephi so almond raw the god of the sun discredited there one of the chief ones in that pantheon that you mentioned in the death of the firstborn Pharaoh was considered a god himself and had no power to

“say I think that's what you were asking me to talk about David's to me it's so cool that Jehovah is”

a teacher and he's showing him over and over again that's not God I am God that's not God I am God

I think Jehovah's powerful enough that he could have done one thing and let him out

on day one as a teacher he's showing him all of these things or faults something else that's really cool about this is you go all the way to the book of revelation chapter eight a third part of the sea became blood chapter 16 the sea became as the blood of a dead man revelation 16 unclean spirits like frogs came out of the mouth of the dragons there's frogs section 19 of the doctrine of covenants the Lord God will send flies upon the face of the earth back to revelation

and chapter eight they're followed hail and fire revelation nine they're came out of the smoke

there's that section 112 of the doctrine and covenants darkness cover the earth gross darkness

“the minds of the people it seems like there's a pattern that it sounds like”

is going to repeat as once again Jehovah shows those things are not God I am God the scary thing to apply this is I don't believe in gods that look like a person with a frog's head but do I have faults things that I give a lot of time and energy and emotional energy to that are not God

“that was awesome and leads right into Exodus chapter 11 again part of the whole purpose of this”

passage is how Jehovah is going to deliver his people from bondage and what is he just demonstrated and like what you mentioned here John none of these Egyptian gods could ever deliver you from bondage they can't deliver you from sin they can't deliver you from death but look at the one plague that

“actually does deliver the ancient Israelites here we're in Exodus chapter 11 this is the plague”

when Pharaoh finally says let the people go and all the first born of the land of Egypt shall die

the death of the first born is the plague that ultimately allows all the people the ancient Israelites to be released from bondage think of the typology of Jesus Christ here Christ the first born and it's his death that releases us from bondage this became so central to the ancient Israelite understanding of Jehovah that the feast of Passover became a part of their yearly worship this release from bondage in this recalling in this memory of a god who did release his people from

bondage coming up in part two I have to love God and if I love God then I will love myself

and if I love myself then I can love my neighbor I was struggling with that first part

I couldn't get to the love God and here's why this is first John chapter 4 verse 19 John goes on to say we love him because he first loved us I didn't know how to feel God's love but this is step one in that hierarchy