Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

18:13-27 – After everything that has happened with Pharaoh and Egypt and crossing the desert and the miracles, Moses is still acting like he’s just the guy everyone looks to when they are having problems. He’s a really interesting guy because while his father-in-law is visiting and after his wife and children just returned to him, he “sat to judge the people,” which I think means that the people just brought him all their problems and he was the one who was supposed to sort it out. Jethro saw this and asked him “what is this thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto evening?” I took this to mean, “why are all these people talking to you all the time?” Moses answers saying, “because the people come unto me to inquire of God: When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.” There are several problems here, first that t...

18:1-6 - The Israelites had just experienced their first victory in battle, which for a group that had gone through so much together already, this must have been scary but also empowering for them. It’s always nice to know that you can protect yourself and that God Himself is on your side when it comes up. At this point, Jethro brings Zipporah back to Moses with their two sons. There has been so much going on in the last year that it’s easy to remember that Zipporah and the boys had gone home back to Jethro before Moses even made it to Egypt in the first place. So much has happened during their time apart, that I would imagine that Moses was probably a different guy than when Zipporah left, so it would have been interesting to see their initial interactions and how they integrated back into family life together. There’s always a transition time when a family is reunited, I’ve seen this many times in the military, and it’s usually painful and difficult for all involved, so it just would...

17:8-14 - Water has been provided for this huge group of 3 million Israelites and here comes Amalek and the Bible just says that "then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim." That's all it says, so I thought, "ok here comes a guy and just attacks this enormous group. It would make sense that they would have to start on the outside and try to fight themselves into the middle, but it's not as straightforward as the Bible makes it sound. Apparently, according to both TB and the IM, "they attacked the Israelites in a most cowardly way, killing first the feeble, the faint, and the weary at the rear of the marching nation. For this lack of respect toward God, the Amalekites were cursed by the Lord. The Israelites were subsequently commanded to 'utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.'" I think it's important to note something that TB reminded us of here, and that was that this group of 3 million people and all their ...

17:1-3 - Chapter 17 is short but has some interesting insights. TB notes that it’s universally agreed that chapter 17 is not in chronological order and actually happens a few chapters later. TB also points out that this happens only a couple of weeks after the manna started showing up. I was under the impression that they didn’t fight anyone until 40 years after they left Egypt, which apparently is incorrect, and the fact that this is only a couple of weeks later is important. Mostly it’s important because when Moses takes the Hebrews out of the Sin desert to a place called Rephidim, there “was no water for the people to drink.” This begs the question, why would God command Moses to take the people to a place where there was no water? Interestingly, TB suggests that this place Rephidim was very close to where he had lived in Midian for all those years previously and that as a shepherd, he would have been pretty familiar with it and would have known whether or not there is water there ...

16:14-36 - Whenever I heard of "Manna from heaven" I always imagined there being like chunks of bread just sitting on the ground to be picked up and put into a basket. When describing the manna it is explained as being "a small round hating, as small as the hoar frost on the ground," which "round thing" is defined as "fine, flake-like" in the footnotes. I'm not exactly sure what that means, like is it something you have to scrape off the leaf by your fingernails and lick it? Verse 31 tells us later that "it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey." I guess it was pretty unusual because it was named "manna" by the people because when it showed up, the Hebrews asked "Man hu" which TB says is the Hebrew equivalent of "what is it?" Moses answers them "this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat," and tells the people two things that seem to co...

16:9-13 - God, as always, is merciful to the people, even if they are getting out of hand with their complaining, and tells Moses to tell Aaron to tell the people, “Come near before the Lord: for he hath heard your murmurings.” This is God saying, “I know your needs and of course I’m going to take care of you.” This might be one of the ways in which God demonstrates his versatile nature, he’s able to defeat the Egyptian army single handedly, but he’s also going to make sure that everyone is fed and cared for. Additionally, the people are reminded of God’s care and presence when “they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.” TB notes the significance of the people looking around them and seeing the presence of God when he asked, “why did Moses have to tell these people to stop, look up, and come-near to God’s presence? Because, while God’s presence is available to us, we must choose to ‘come-near’ to Him… Israel had either taken their eye...

16:1- 8- I was thinking about why I was so irritated by the “murmuring” comment the other day, and I had some thoughts. I imagined myself being in the wilderness there without food or water, and yeah it would have sucked and I probably would have mentioned it at some point, but what most likely happened was the kids, who have a lower tolerance for hunger and thirst, probably went to their mamas and cried that they were hungry, thirsty, and tired. This would have caused the mama bear to come out in a lot of women who would have probably turned to their husbands to be like “what the heck? Feed us.” The husbands would have gone next to Moses and “murmured” “where’s the food?” There are some times when the example of true murmuring is given, like when they say “weren’t there enough graves back in Egypt that you had to bring us all out here to die?” or “we would rather be slaves in Egypt than starve out here in the desert!” Those are all statements that are not helpful nor are they more t...