John Bytheway:               00:01                   Welcome to part two with Dave Hadlock, Exodus 7 to 13.

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         00:06                   When we think about this idea of bondage in the scriptures and release from bondage, my mind immediately goes to Nephi. When Nephi talks about the reason and the purpose behind his writing on those plates, do you recall what he says? He has a very specific purpose for writing on these particular plates. In first Nephi, chapter one, verse 20, about halfway through the verse, it says, “But behold, I, Nephi will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen because of their faith to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.” Nephi’s whole purpose in writing is to show people what? That God can change them to the point where they become mighty unto the power of deliverance. Here we have in the book of Exodus, an account of a people who are delivered by the power of Jehovah.

                                           01:06                   Nephi says this is why I’m writing the Book of Mormon. I was asked one time by someone, if I were gonna read one part of the Book of Mormon, what would I recommend someone read? I would recommend someone reads First Nephi, because that’s where we all start and stop anyways. You may as well just go with your initial intuition. Start in first Nephi chapter one and read first Nephi looking for how God delivers Nephi. Think with me out loud some of the passages from the book of Nephi in which he demonstrates God’s deliverance in his own life.

Hank Smith:                      01:46                   We can go story by story. One of the first ones I would think of is he said, “The Lord softened my heart.” That’s early on, that he would accept it as the Lord’s will that they leave Jerusalem. Then you have his brothers how many times tie him up. He is delivered. The ship. He is delivered. Laban and the plates. His brothers are beating him with a rod. There’s a pattern here. He’s delivered. You could even get into second Nephi, he is delivered from his brothers wanting to kill him. That’s multiple times, but that time specifically. Dave, I might even include 2 Nephi 4, the Psalm of Nephi, that he’s delivered from his grief and the pain of his soul.

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         02:41                   As I look through Nephi and his purpose in writing, we get towards the end of 2 Nephi and we talk about the doctrine of Christ. Usually, we talk about the doctrine of Christ being baptism for the remission of sins, gift of the Holy Ghost. Nephi goes on to further clarify, I believe, what he means by the doctrine of Christ. This is 2 Nephi chapter 31, verse 19. Nephi says, “And now my beloved brethren. After you have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done. Behold, I say unto you nay for you have not come thus far, save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.” This is Nephi’s doctrine of Christ in my opinion. He relied wholly in every aspect to be delivered, whether it was from his brothers, whether it was delivered to a promised land by a boat.

                                           03:39                   As you mentioned, 2 Nephi 4, his own spiritual and emotional deliverance, wholly delivered through Christ. These ancient Israelites had to come to understand that doctrine, and I believe the book of Exodus is in part meant to teach this doctrine, that we rely wholly upon the merits of Christ as our deliverer. Look how Nephi concludes in 2 Nephi chapter 33. In 2 Nephi chapter 33, verse six, he says, “I glory in plainness, I glory in truth, I glory in my Jesus.” Now, Jesus, the name Jesus in Hebrew is Joshua, which means deliverer. In the beginning, he says, “I’m gonna teach about the deliverance and what Jesus can do for us.” And now he’s talking about his own personal relationship with his deliverer. He calls him my Jesus. He saw God’s goodness in his own life so much and so often that he felt like he had to go back and write those down.

                                           04:41                   Now, as we talk about this idea of being delivered and Christ as Joshua, the deliverer, I wanna go to Exodus chapter 17. In Exodus chapter 17, the ancient Israelites had been released. They’d been delivered from bondage. They find themselves in the wilderness. When we look at wilderness passages in scripture, that’s often metaphorical. Think of wilderness passages. Adam and Eve cast out into a lone and dreary wilderness. Lehi says to his son, “Oh my son, born in the wilderness of my affliction.” Christ, after being baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost, it says he is led by the Spirit he goes into the wilderness where he is tempted of the devil. The wilderness in scripture is often metaphorical, and I’m gonna read from Doctrine and Covenants Section 88 verse 66. It says, behold, that what you hear is as the voice of one crying in the wilderness, in the wilderness because you cannot see him, my voice because my voice is spirit. It says it’s the wilderness because we cannot see him, Christ.

                                           05:58                   We have to learn how to live by the voice of the Spirit. Here we have the ancient Israelites in a wilderness experience. They’ve just been released from bondage, and we’ll backtrack in a minute and go and look and see how they were ultimately released. Now we’re talking about Christ as the deliverer. The Old Testament, the prophets and the law all testify of Jesus Christ. And I want to take a look at a passage from Exodus in which Jehovah, our account, the narrative, symbolically talks about Christ as the deliverer. Exodus chapter 17, the Israelites find themselves in a valley called Rephidim. Then comes Amalek in verse eight, and they fought with the people of Israel in Rephidim. In this passage, we have two types of Jesus Christ going on here. We have Moses who then speaks to Joshua, and as we’ve just learned, Joshua is Jesus. Hebrew, the deliverer, we have Moses speaking unto the deliverer.

                                           07:02                   Both Moses and Joshua are symbols or types of Jesus Christ in this narrative. Moses said unto Joshua, choose out men and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow, I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. We have Moses on the top of the hill with the rod, symbolic of the power of God in his hand. Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. We have to envision this. We have Moses with Aaron and Hur on the side of him on the top of this hill while we have Joshua in this valley. Verse 11, and it came to pass that when Moses held up his hands, that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hands, Amalek prevailed.

                                           07:49                   Now, when we think about this valley, I often think of the Psalm, though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death. We have Joshua down in the valley, in the valley of the shadow of death, and we have Moses on the top of the hill. Joshua’s able to overcome Amalek and death as long as what? As long as Moses has his hands in the air up on the hill. Now, think about this typologically with Jesus Christ. Verse 12, “But Moses’ hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat thereupon, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands. We have Moses, the Christ type, with Aaron and Hur, a man on each side of him on the top of a hill. Think about that as a type of Christ as Christ goes to the hill Calvary, where his hands are in the air, and as long as his hands are in the air, Joshua Jesus, the deliverer, overcomes death in that valley of death.

                                           08:47                   Verse 15, to commemorate this event, Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi. Nissi in Hebrew is signed. This is a sign, this is a symbol of Jehovah Jesus. This biblical passage is a sign of Jesus, the deliverer. When we talk then about the Exodus as a deliverance from bondage and sin, Christ ultimately is our deliverer. He becomes my Jesus, our Jesus, like he was from Nephi. Now, as we think of the Israelites in the wilderness, how long were they there in the wilderness? Do you recall from the narrative?

John Bytheway:               09:29                   48

Hank Smith:                      09:30                   40 years.

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         09:30                   They are 40 years in the wilderness. Now think of the number 40 in scripture. Mm, I’m gonna throw this out there. Can you think of other passages with the number 40?

Hank Smith:                      09:42                   Well, there’s Noah.

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         09:45                   Noah, 40 days of rain, which actually becomes symbolically relevant as well.

Hank Smith:                      09:51                   There’s Jesus fasting for 40 days.

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         09:54                   Or when he’s in the wilderness. So it’s 40 is often tied with wilderness events in the scriptures. Let me give you another one. This is from 1 Kings because this one becomes relevant. This is 1 Kings chapter 19. We introduced Elijah and the priests of Baal, how Elijah conquers and overcomes those wicked priests of Baal. After he does that, he is instructed of the Lord. This is in 1 Kings chapter 19. He is instructed of the Lord through this angel that says, Arise and eat and drink, and he went in the strength of that meat 40 days and 40 nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. Where does Elijah go? Elijah takes off south from the Mount Carmel region in Israel. He goes to Sinai, Mount Horeb, which is where Moses meets with Jehovah on the Mount. Here we’ve got some parallel passages in our scripture.

                                           10:56                   Elijah goes to Mount Horeb. He has this experience with Jehovah where he feels his earthquake, sees his fire, and then ultimately realizes Jehovah’s in that peaceful feeling that he gets. After these 40 days, Elijah comes out of there and it says in verse 15 of 1 Kings chapter 19, “The Lord said unto him, go return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when thou comes,” so now we’ve got Elijah coming back from the south. He says, when you come back, you’re going to anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu, the son of Nimshi shall thou anoint to be king over Israel and Elisha, the son of Shaphat, thou shalt anoint to be prophet in thy room. Elijah comes out of this experience on Mount Horeb and he comes out and he’s anointing these different kings of Israel. Now, let’s go back to the account of the Exodus.

                                           11:54                   We’ve got the ancient Israelites in the wilderness of 40 years. 40 in the scriptures is a time of preparation. Typically, it’s a time of preparation prior to entering sacred space. Here we’ve got Elijah, 40 days, then he enters into Mount Horeb of this sacred space. We’ve got the ancient Israelites, 40 years in the wilderness before and preparing them to enter into the promised land. Earlier in the year, you had Rebekah Call, I believe on your podcast, unbelievably good presentation on the idea of liminal space, where it’s this transitional phase going from one phase of life or one phase of being to a higher level being. In my terminology, I’d say we moved from telestial fallen beings to terrestrial beings back into the presence of God as celestial beings. That’s the idea here is we’ve got days of preparation prior to entering into sacred space or back into the presence of God.

                                           12:59                   Now let’s go back to the Exodus and finish up our keys of Moses Exodus account. In Exodus chapter 12, we have the Passover. Verse one, and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, in the beginning of months, this shall be the first month of the year to you. The Passover becomes the first day of the first month of the year to you. It becomes a new day or a new day of creation. All New Year’s days, in a sense, are days of new creations. Even in our world, this is when we do New Year’s resolutions. It’s where we become new people. We become better people. For the ancient Israelites, this Passover day was meant to be a day of new creation. Anciently, it’s the day you would crown kings. If we go back to our Elijah narrative, Elijah comes out of Mount Horeb and he’s anointing kings.

                                           13:53                   It’s a creation, a new birth of kings. Here, the Passover then becomes a new year, a day of creation, and on this day, you’re gonna take in verse five, a lamb, and it shall be without blemish. A male of the first year, ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening, and they shall take of the blood and strike it upon the two posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses wherein thou shall eat. Now, we go back to our creation elements. All creation comes forth from water, blood, spirit, darkness. Those are some of our elements. Here is our blood element. If this is a new creation, we have to have the element of blood.

                                           14:40                   So here we have the element, the lamb’s blood that’s put around the door, which becomes a sign to the destroying angel. Verse 12, “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and I will smite all the firstborn of the land of Egypt of both man and beast. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. Going back to what John taught us, he’s going to execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt as well. 13, “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. I will not destroy you. I will deliver you.” Here’s our first element of creation. We’ve got the blood. The Israelites are released from bondage. They head out into the wilderness. In Exodus chapter 13, God leads the people out of Egypt.

                                           15:29                   In chapter 13, verse 18, God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. So he takes them from Egypt, directs them towards the Red Sea. Now, the word Red Sea in Hebrew is Yam Suph, which literally translated would be sea of reeds, but suph might be a play on words here. It could be like suf or the sea of chaos, the sea of creation, the sea of end. Here we have now then our water element. We’ve got the blood of the lamb. We’re being taken to the Red Sea. Here’s our water element of creation. The Egyptians following behind them, the Pharaoh again hardens his heart. Despite all these crazy plagues, decides he’s not gonna let them go. Exodus chapter 14. As they’re going, it says there in verse 19, that the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them and the pillar of cloud went from before their face and stood behind them.

                                           16:31                   There’s this angel of God, this pillar of cloud, moves from in front of the Israelites, moves behind them to protect them from the Egyptians. In verse 21, then it says, “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided.” Here we now have the Israelites going through the waters, being born of water, jumping to verse 24 now, as we jump forward, we see that pillar of cloud moving to protect the ancient Israelites. And then in verse four, it says, “And it came to pass that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of cloud and troubled the host of the Egyptians.” Now, what saves the Israelites here? We’ve got this pillar of fire, fire, symbolic of the Spirit.

                                           17:22                   Here are our elements: blood of the lamb, water of the Red Sea, fire of the Spirit, elements of birth and creation. How are they being created? Jumping forward now to Exodus chapter 19. This is where it climaxes. This is what this is all building to. Exodus chapter 19, verse four. Jehovah says to the Israelites, “You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bare you on eagles’ wings.” This will take us back to the very beginning of this presentation. Here we have eagles, the elect. I have borne you the eagles on my eagles’ wings and brought you unto myself. The keys of Moses bring us unto him, unto Christ, the elect gather unto Jesus. Verse five, “Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant,” keep these covenants, which he’s going to lay out throughout the rest of the book of Exodus.

                                           18:17                   “Keep my covenants, and then you will be brought unto me. Then shall you be a peculiar treasure.” Now, we read this passage and sometimes we talk about how Latter-day Saints are kind of an odd peculiar weird people. That’s not what this verse says. Whether or not that may be true, I think we’re no more odd than any other people. But this verse, when it says we will be a peculiar people, the word peculiar comes from the Latin word pecus, which is sheep. Peculiar is the diminutive. It’s a small sheep. It’s a lamb. He says, if you’ll keep my covenants, I’m going to be your shepherd and you’re going to be my little sheep. All the earth he says is a treasure. All the earth is mine, but you’re going to be my special prized treasure, my little sheep. Verse six, “And if you will do this, ye shall become unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

                                           19:13                   These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” We’ve talked about the keys of gathering and how we gather to Christ, but this teaches us what the keys of Moses allow us to become, which is kings and queens, priest and priestesses. Moses goes to Mount Horeb and comes out of those with the keys to make us kings and queens, priests and priestesses. Elijah goes to Mount Horeb and he comes out of Mount Horeb. And what does he do? He anoints kings and queens over the kingdom of Israel.

Hank Smith:                      19:44                   I noticed something I wanted to ask you both about. We’ve talked about this last plague. John, you mentioned that each plague knocked down a God of Egypt. If you’re an Israelite, you’re watching the gods of Egypt fall around you. All these gods that you’ve watched basically reign over you and perhaps over your parents and grandparents. Now you’re gonna have maybe not a new theology, but new to you. I feel like this is beautiful. Their first lesson of their new theology is take a lamb, sacrifice it, take its blood, put it on your house, you will be saved. That’s lesson number one.

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         20:37                   They’ve been surrounded by a culture that embraces all these other gods, and in conjunction with shedding the blood of the lamb, they are commanded to partake of unleavened bread for seven days. The way you would leaven bread is like a sourdough bread anciently. You take part of the bread from one day, save up for the next, and you’d leaven the whole loaf with that portion of bread. And at the end of the day, you would save a portion of that dough for the next day. Why would they go with unleavened bread for seven days? I think it goes back to what you’re teaching here. This is a strong cultural break that they’ve got to make here. If we go to Christ’s teachings, he warns the people to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and he says that’s their doctrines, their teachings. The same thing is going on here for the ancient Israelites.

                                           21:29                   Beware of the leaven of the Egyptians, their teachings, their doctrines, their cultures, their gods. We’ve got to distance ourselves from that. We don’t wanna bring the past into our present. We’re gonna make a big break here, and part of that break, I think, is like what you’re saying, Hank. It’s like this new practice. It’s this Passover ritual.

Hank Smith:                      21:50                   I like that a lot. Jesus does. He says, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the apostles think, have we not bought enough bread? He says, oh, you guys, that’s not what I meant. I meant the doctrine. Let’s not bring that with us. It reminds me of what John frequently says, which is it was pretty simple to get Israel out of Egypt, but it’s very difficult to get Egypt out of Israel and there’s their first lesson, a strong cultural break. I really like that.

John Bytheway:               22:22                   Yeah, somebody smart said that and I just repeated it. Josh Sears, when he came on, we sing in Primary, I’m trying to be like Jesus and tell me the stories of Jesus and what Josh Sears was like, yeah, but Jesus is Jehovah. Jehovah is a deliverer. It’s not just New Testament Jesus we wanna know about, it’s Jehovah. Look at how he delivers people. I’ve been loving this year going through the Old Testament, watching for the title deliverer and thinking in our modern day, how many things we need to be delivered from. I’m not frogheaded goddesses, but so many things that we need deliverance from. As you’ve said so beautifully, Dave, that title, when we think about the problems in our world, we need a deliverer who can deliver us from this and he can do it. Passover is so cool.

                                           23:25                   Was it Elder Holland that said think of the sacrament as our Passover? It’s in the Passover at the Last Supper when Jesus says, this is my body. This is my blood. Here’s Jesus saying, that’s me. I’m the deliverer. I am the lamb. First time when John the Baptist sees him, behold the lamb of God. Here is the Passover lamb that’s come. I love that.

Hank Smith:                      23:52                   What Dave is showing us here is the first Passover, what you’re talking about is the last one. Yeah. And the connection between the two.

John Bytheway:               24:01                   Where he says, that’s me. We all know Jesus came to the righteous in the new world in 3 Nephi 11, but two chapters earlier. In 3 Nephi 9, this voice says, “No more animal sacrifice, no more shedding of blood.” That’s how important it was to say, “I am the great and last sacrifice. I’m the lamb of God. I’m your deliverer.” The fact that that would happen in 3 Nephi 9 has to be super important before he would come in person to say, “That’s about me, and now the sacrifice you bring is a broken heart and a contrite spirit.”

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         24:43                   As I think about this, these Israelites were putting the blood of the lamb around their homes. Like, how do we apply that? How do we put the blood of the lamb on us so that that destroying angel passes over us? This is the Old Testament lower law. The higher law is, in my opinion, the sacrament. You’ve got the blood, the water of the lamb, you’ve got the unleavened bread, you’ve got the bread of the sacrament. If we can make that part of our daily living, and when we partake of the sacrament, remember, we’re coming out from Egypt. We’re separating ourselves from those things. That helps us to apply some of these Old Testament stories and narratives. I love the Old Testament. Part of the reason I love the Old Testament, it’s like putting a puzzle together. I know all these things are teaching me about Jesus, the lamb of God in some way. I just gotta figure out how it does that.

John Bytheway:               25:36                   That’s wonderful. When Elder McConkie commented on 3 Nephi, he so succinctly said, “Sacrifice stopped and sacrament started.” That was at the resurrection. That is our Passover now, is the sacrament which we must remember.

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         25:56                   Which is what the word sacrament means. Sacrament comes from Latin sacramentum. It’s the idea of turning our mind and thoughts over to God.

John Bytheway:               26:09                   How do you overstate Passover? I mean, it’s why the Last Supper came because it was Passover and what that transitioned into for us to be invited to the sacrament table every week to have supper with the Lord. It’s also an altar to remember. I just think Passover’s huge.

Hank Smith:                      26:31                   John, you brought a quote from Elder Holland earlier that’s from a talk given in 1995 called This Do in Remembrance of Me. I have more of that talk here. Speaking of the sacrament, he says that this particular ordinance with all its symbolism and imagery comes to us more readily and more repeatedly than any other in our life. It comes in what has been called the most sacred, most holy of all the meetings of the church. Perhaps we do not always attach that kind of meaning to our weekly sacramental service. How sacred and how holy is it? Do we see it as our Passover? Remembrance of our safety and deliverance and redemption? With so very much at stake, this ordinance commemorating our escape from the angel of darkness should be taken more seriously than it sometimes is. It should be a powerful, reverent, reflective moment.

                                           27:30                   It should encourage spiritual feelings and impressions. As such, it should not be rushed. It is not something to get over so the real purpose of sacrament meeting can be pursued. This is the real purpose of the meeting and everything that is said or sung or prayed in those services should be consistent with the grandeur of this sacred ordinance. I think he feels strongly about this. What do you guys think?

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         27:55                   Yeah, I think so. You talked about the last supper in Matthew, in Matthew chapter 26. There’s another tie here I wanna pull to the Passover. In Matthew chapter 26, if we think about some of the blessings that come by partaking of the sacrament, here in Matthew chapter 26 with the institution of the higher law of the sacrament, actually sometimes we’ll call this the chapter of two cups. In this passage, when he institutes the sacrament in verse 27, he says, he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, “Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament.” Later on, he talks about another cup. Matthew chapter 26 verse 39, it says he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying, “Oh my father, if possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” In other passages of scripture, he talks about that cup being a bitter cup.

                                           29:04                   Now, in the Passover in Exodus chapter 11, they were supposed to eat unleavened bread, and this is in Exodus chapter 12, verse eight, “With bitter herbs shall they eat it.” We partake of the sweet sacrament cup to avoid the bitter cup of our sins and transgressions. Christ takes upon himself the bitter cup so that we can have the sweet cup. These ancient Israelites had to take the food with bitter herbs to remind themselves that if they would allow the lamb of God and his blood to protect them, they wouldn’t have to partake of those bitter herbs into the eternities. Something I think we can also focus on as we partake of the sacrament each Sunday.

John Bytheway:               29:49                   Anytime I can learn something new about the sacrament, I appreciate it because I’m just intrigued with things the Lord has us repeat. I never want it to get routine. Thank you for that. That’s really interesting. The bitter cup we usually associate that with so that they would remember their bitter bondage. What you’re saying is we don’t have to partake of it because Jesus did the will of the Father and took the bitter cup.

Hank Smith:                      30:15                   John, frequently, our guests have also brought up that the sacrament should not just point us backward, but point us forward to a great feast one day with the Lord. Can I go back to Elder Holland here? He says that Christ’s wounds are what he invites young and old, then and now to step forward and see and feel. Then we remember with Isaiah that it was for each of us that our master was despised and rejected. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. All this we could remember when we are invited by a kneeling young priest to remember Christ always. We no longer include a supper with this ordinance, but it is a feast, nevertheless. We can be fortified by it for whatever life requires of us, and in so doing, we will be more compassionate to others along the way. He talks about sacrament and sacrament meeting.

                                           31:12                   He talks about the disciples on the night of Christ’s anguish and grief. And he asks this question, “Could you not watch with me one hour?” He says, “Perhaps every Sabbath day we can watch with him.” He says, “I think he asks that again of us every Sabbath day when the emblems of his life are broken and blessed and passed.” Dave, so far today, you have walked us through more scriptures than I think I’ve read in a long time. I’ve got notes all over walking us through Exodus and paralleling it with the Genesis account, returning to Eden. Now we’re looking forward, we’re looking at the sacrament. We’ve really covered a lot today. We have listeners out there who we hear from all the time who are struggling. They’re in the dark parts of their lives. They want a deliverer. They’re praying for a deliverer. Sometimes when our guests come on, John, there’s maybe an assumption that, hey, look, they look great. They’re obviously doing great. They’ve never had a problem in their life. Those we invite on our show, John, are often good friends of ours. We know Dave has seen difficult times, so Dave, what would you say to someone who is back where each of us have been in a portion, in a time of our lives? When we’re in bondage in Egypt and we’re crying for a deliverer.

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         32:40                   Let me walk through a little bit of my history, my need of a deliverer, my need of a redeemer, my need of a Joshua, my Jesus. A handful of years ago, I talked a little bit in my introduction about part of what motivated me to do scriptures in the first place. There’s a side to me that didn’t know how to feel loved by God. A lot of my acts were coming out of a place of fear. I went through a time period in my life where I was angry, resentful, depressed, could hardly get out of bed. I would get out of bed early on, this was quite a while ago, with my first business phone call. That’s what would get me up and going for the day. I was in a dark place. I didn’t know how to get out of it. I was in desperate need of a deliverer.

                                           33:39                   Had the fortune of meeting a therapist who was brilliant. I’ll walk you through a little scripture journey. I’m gonna start in John. Not St. John, but 1 John. My therapist helped me discover a lot of my actions and behaviors were driving from fear. She’s kind of of the theory that almost all of our behaviors come from either a place of love or fear. This is from 1 John chapter four. 1 John chapter four, verse 18 says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment.” Our actions are usually coming out of one of these two emotions. I’m either acting out of fear, based in fear, or I’m acting out of a place in love. But I struggled to feel love. I struggled to feel God’s love. I was in a dark place. This is what we worked on with my therapist.

                                           34:42                   The two great commandments. Thou shalt what? “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor like unto thyself.” There’s kind of a hierarchy of love going on here, and it’s not a hierarchy necessarily of importance, but of order. 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 1 John chapter four, 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. I have to first know that God loves me in order for me to love him back. If I know God loves me, then it becomes natural to love him back.

                                           35:39                   And then it becomes natural for me to love my neighbor because I love myself. King Benjamin talks about this. This is where I had to go and what I had to work on with my therapist and in my own personal life. King Benjamin, this is in Mosiah. Mosiah chapter four, verse 12. In Mosiah chapter four, verse 12, we have kind of a causal relationship going on here. He says, “Behold, I say unto you that if you will do this, you will rejoice and be filled with the love of God.” I needed to do something in order to be filled with the love of God when I could start then to begin to act from a place of love instead of fear in my life. But what’s the this, what’s the antecedent to this? We go all the way back to Mosiah chapter four, verse five.

                                           36:29                   He says, “If the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, your worthless and fallen state.” We have to come to know God’s goodness. We have to come to know that God loves us in order to be filled with love. We go back to Nephi and 1 Nephi chapter one. This is how he starts the whole Book of Mormon. Look what he says. He wants to teach us about the deliverer and becoming mighty and powerful unto deliverance. But look at what he says in one Nephi chapter one, verse one. He says, “I have been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my Father and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been favored of the Lord in all my days, having a great knowledge of the goodness of God.”

                                           37:18                   Why was he in a place where he could be delivered? Because he knew God’s goodness. He knew that God loved him. I had to figure out how to find out if God loved me, and it became part of a daily ritual for a long, long time where I would sit with my scriptures and this is probably a little weird, but I would do it in a bathtub. I would sit in the bathtub every morning, take a bath. This is my meditation place. I would do a tender mercy journal every day. I had to think back to the previous 24 hours and find something where God was merciful and showed his love to me during that time period. Took months, and months, and months, but I started to soften, and I started to feel God’s love. Then once I felt God’s love, now I’m acting from a whole different place.

                                           38:18                   And I’m in a place now where God can deliver me. When I’m like the Pharaoh, when I’m hard, angry, bitter, resentful, I’m not in a place really where God can deliver me. He doesn’t deliver Pharaoh. But if I see God, if I seek his goodness, if I look for his goodness, if I’m grateful, now I’m put in a place where God can deliver me. So it took a lot of time with a therapist. I do believe in God the deliverer. He’s personally done it for me. He is my Jesus. He’s my Joshua. He’s delivered me in times of darkness and times of sadness, and I bear witness of him as the deliverer and creator.

Hank Smith:                      39:01                   Amen. Thank you, Dave. This has been a wonderful day, John. Are you tired like I am? I’m, like, spiritually tired. I’ve walked through so many scriptures.

John Bytheway:               39:15                   Oh. This is great, and I’m just thrilled that people have got a taste of Dave today, because I am always amazed what I hear him teach about. And it’s all motivating. I wanna be like Pablo and I wanna be like Dave. But more importantly, thank you. Your tender mercy journal. What a great idea. If you look for that, you will find it’s that President Nelson focus of your life. The joy we feel has less to do with the circumstances and everything to do with the focus of our lives. That’s kinda what you did. You could find things every day. That was really beautiful. I’m just glad people got to meet Dave today.

Bro. Dave Hadlock:         40:00                   Yeah, me too. Appreciate being here. I start to fall back into this fear place. I was getting really anxious about doing this, and I had to find myself focusing on why I’m doing this. I hope your listeners feel uplifted by it. I hope they feel like it’s delicious, and I hope it’s good to them. This isn’t about me. I actually was anxious because I was starting to make it about me. So I was starting to fear what people would think, how I would be perceived, and hopefully this is something that the listeners appreciate and is delicious to them.

Hank Smith:                      40:37                   Yeah. One thing we have are wonderful listeners who are going to write in, come over to YouTube and leave Dave a message or come onto our website, followhim.co. Send Dave a message. We’ll make sure he gets it. It’s been a perfect day. For me personally, I see these stories in new ways. The scriptures have been opened up to me in a new way. That’s an Eden place for me, is to spend time in scripture. He is our deliverer. With that, we want to thank our good friend, Dave Hadlock, for being with us today. We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Sorensen, our sponsors, David and Verla Sorensen, and every episode. We remember our founder, Steve Sorensen. We hope you’ll join us next week. John, I don’t know if you know what’s gonna happen, but they get up to the Red Sea. I don’t know if you’ve ever read ahead, but it’s a pretty big one.

John Bytheway:               41:36                   It’s not a cliffhanger. It’s a water stopper. What would you call it? It’s a, we can’t walk any further. What do we do?

Hank Smith:                      41:43                   There’s something in between us and where we need to go. What is going to happen? We’ll show you next week on followHIM. As a thank you to our wonderful listeners, we’d love to gift you the digital version of our book, Finding Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. It offers short, meaningful insights drawn from our past Old Testament episodes. Visit followhim.co, that’s followhim.co, to download your free copy today, and you’ll also find the link to purchase the print edition. Thank you for being part of our followHIM family. Of course, none of this could happen without our incredible production crew. David Perry, Lisa Spice, Will Stoughton, Krystal Roberts, Ariel Cuadra, Heather Barlow, Amelia Kabwika, Sydney Smith, and Annabelle Sorensen.