Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

2:1-4 - The problem with starting into Moses’ story is that he’s such an important and epic figure that he’s the main player in a large world religion (Judaism), and crucial in main others (Christianity and Islam). The IM emphasizes his importance, saying, “So great was Moses that forever after the Lord and His people have used him as a standard, or model, of a prophet. Even Jesus Christ was called a prophet like unto Moses. Indeed, Moses was a similitude or living symbol of Jesus Christ… The key to Moses’ character is his meekness, the capacity to be molded by the Lord and His Spirit… The True Moses was one of the mightiest men of God in all time… He walked and talking with God, received of divine glory while yet in mortality, was called a son of God, and was in the similitude of the Only Begotten. He saw the mysteries of the heaves and much of creation, and received laws from God beyond any other ancient man of whom we have record.” Not only was Moses a spiritual giant, but historic...

1:15-17 - The new Pharoah in Egypt has a couple of problems, first is that there is a large population of foreigners living within Egypt’s borders. Because this minority population is ethnically the same as the previous foreign rulers, there is a lot of bitterness, but also Pharoah’s not sure where their loyalties lie if an enemy threatened Egypt. Interestingly, and not what I would have picked, Pharoah decides to solve this problem by enslaving them and forcing all the men to become brick makers and construction workers. His solution backfires, unsurprisingly, because not only will these slaves absolutely not be loyal to their oppressors, but he didn’t factor in that these enslaved people had been chosen by God to be special. That special election by God to the Hebrews means that in the face of persecution, they thrived, and the population exploded, which is the opposite of what Pharoah wanted to have happen. Pharoah makes another error in judgment at this point because instead of re...

1:8-10 - The political system that the Hebrews walked into when Jacob first left Canaan for Egypt was uniquely suited to them, Goshen was prime real estate for shepherding, the land was incredibly fertile, and they were ethnically cousins to the ruling party, the Hyksos. This lasted about 200 years, so even though Joseph and all that generation died, the Hyksos remained in power so surely Joseph’s legacy and loyalty was rewarded with favorable action until the new ruling class took over. I’m not exactly sure how the power structure changed from foreign Hyksos rule over Egypt to an actual Egyptian pharaoh, but my guess is that it wasn’t a peaceful affair, and all the information that we get is that “there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” I always wondered at this statement because I thought “Joseph played such a crucial role in the survival of Egypt and the world during the famine, it would be in the history books, surely a new ruler wouldn’t take over who had ab...

1:1-7 - New Year, new book of the Old Testament. I was despairing a little bit thinking that I had squandered two years just on Genesis, and while it’s true, I was not as vigilant as I could have been with writing, I went back through as saw that we had also gone through most of the Pearl of Great Price as well, so that at least counts for something. Anyway, the second book of the OT is called “Exodus” in English, which makes sense because it’s the account of the Hebrews “exiting” Egypt. Interestingly, however, the Hebrew name of this book is “Sh’mot” which means “names,” just like the first verse says, “Now these are the names of the children of Israel,” and it goes on to list the 12 sons of Israel, and then just kind of abruptly says, “And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.” So now we are on to Jacob’s grandkids, and they “were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.” The IM brings up...