Plain and precious truths

The most insightful understanding of  Moses 7 came to me this week when one of the podcasts I listened to (Talking Scripture) framed this chapter in a way that was extremely helpful to me. First, they reminded their listeners that the book of Moses is the Joseph Smith Translation of the book of Genesis, but that chapter 7 is a chapter that has no Genesis equivalent. The original text from the book of Genesis contained plain and precious truths (1 Nephi 13:26-40) that were lost or discarded over the years, and Joseph Smith was inspired to restore them. Second, they asked their listeners these two thought-provoking questions. 1) What are the wonderful truths contained in Moses 7 that Satan would have wanted removed from the Bible? 2) What critical truths do we learn from Moses 7 that the church (when planning out its large Old Testament curriculum for the year), would devote a whole week of study to this one chapter? With this new framework on my mind, I was able to read Moses 7 looking for truths of the gospel that Satan would have wanted omitted from the Bible. Here's what I learned...

1) Understanding the connection between Enoch’s Zion and our Latter-Day Zion.

The concept of how to build Zion is definitely a precious truth that Satan would have wanted removed from the Bible, as well as the hope that comes from knowing that it is possible to create Zion! I am certain that this is a hope that Satan would've wanted removed from history, and yet Moses 7 restores to us the knowledge that creating Zion is an obtainable reality because it happened to the people of Enoch.

2) Understanding the true Character of God.

The hosts of the Talking Scripture podcast stated that most people see the god of the Old Testament as harsh, cruel, unkind, and uncaring. One of Satan's motives with removing plain and precious truth about God's character out of the Bible was to reduce God to a Being that we couldn't trust and couldn't love. Satan wants us to doubt that God has our best interest in mind. And if Satan can get us to start doubting God, then he wins a great victory. But Moses 7 helps to restore the true character of God and shows us that God loves and cares for us very deeply-which is something that we will rarely see in the remainder of Old Testament. This understanding of God's true nature will be critical to remember as we continue to study the Old Testament throughout this year.

What an amazing blessing it is to have these precious truths that are found in Moses 7 that can help us better understand the true character of God and that His desire for us, to build up Zion, is a goal worthy of our constant efforts and attention.