Hank Smith: 00:01 Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study. I’m Hank Smith.

John Bytheway: 00:09 And I’m John Bytheway. We love to learn.

Hank Smith: 00:11 We love to laugh.

John Bytheway: 00:13 We want to learn and laugh with you, as together we follow Him.

Hank Smith: 00:19 Hello everyone. Welcome to Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith. I’m your host. I’m here with my memorable co-host John Bytheway. Welcome, John Bytheway, to FollowHIM.

John Bytheway: 00:33 Thank you.

Hank Smith: 00:34 Yes.

John Bytheway: 00:34 Glad you remembered me.

Hank Smith: 00:35 Yes. Well, the reason you’re memorable is because the lesson this week is all about remembering the Lord and you do that. You remember the Lord, John. So I thought memorable would be a good word to describe you.

John Bytheway: 00:49 Oh, thank you.

Hank Smith: 00:50 John, we had a great email from a wonderful woman who wrote in, and she said that her dad loves our podcast. And his name is Matt Sherwood. He lives in Carl Junction out in Missouri. And so we just want to say hi to Matt and thanks for sharing the podcast with your kids.

John Bytheway: 01:07 Thank you, Matt.

Hank Smith: 01:08 John, we are in the book of Deuteronomy today. It’s a tough thing to find an Old Testament expert, even to find an Old Testament expert who is also an expert in Deuteronomy. I’ll be honest, this isn’t the first place I go to if I need a little spiritual insight. I usually don’t open Deuteronomy, but I bet I will from here on out because of who’s joining us.

John Bytheway: 01:31 Yes. We have someone I have never met until this morning, but I have used one of his Sperry symposium essays. I’ve passed it out to my class when we do the feast of tabernacles.

John Bytheway: 01:41 So we have Bruce K. Satterfield with us today. So excited about this. He’s a professor in religious studies at Brigham Young University, Idaho, where he teaches Old and New Testament. He also teaches biblical Hebrew in the honors program. He did his undergraduate and graduate work in the United States and in the Middle East. His education has centered in biblical studies. He received degrees in anthropology, archeology and ancient, near or middle Eastern studies. Brother Satterfield also studied and researched in many countries in the Middle East and Europe. He also loves the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and has published articles concerning these other volumes of scripture. He’s taught seminary and Institute for 10 years. He’s been at BYU Idaho for 30 years. Last year, he was a faculty member at BYU’s Jerusalem center for near Eastern studies.

John Bytheway: 02:33 And speaking of the Jerusalem center, while in Jerusalem in 1979, brother Satterfield met his wife, Carol. Their courtship took place in Israel and Europe. This sounds really romantic. They were engaged in Scotland and married in the Idaho Falls Temple. It was sealed by his father, Homer Satterfield, who was a sealer in the temple there. They have five children and 11 grandchildren. We’re delighted to have you with us today, Brother Satterfield.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 03:00 I’m delighted to be here.

Hank Smith: 03:03 Bruce. We are in the book of Deuteronomy. I’m expecting to come out of this loving this book. I’ll tell you, I don’t know much about the book of Deuteronomy, but I do know one thing that’s always impressed me is that in the Savior’s temptations, He quotes Deuteronomy. And so I’ve always thought, well, there’s got to be something here. If the Savior is memorizing it and using it in the temptations. So let’s hand it over to you. What do you want to do with this book? How do you approach it?

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 03:31 First of all, I’d like to go out to the big picture so we can pull it in and help explain where this book is fitting in and its importance in the big picture. The normal big picture with the premortal experience, the first estate. The second estate, generally being tagged as mortality. The second estate should be understood in bigger terms. In this world, very few ever hear of the fullness of the gospel, Jesus Christ.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 04:08 However, every father knows what he’s doing. And this is important to understand as we take a look at how God is going to use a chosen seed to help bring about his ultimate purposes. And I really like Joseph Smith’s statement in the editorial. He wrote in the Times and Seasons when he was continuing his introduction to temple ordinances and work for the dead.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 04:38 And he made this comment, “The great Jehovah contemplated the whole of the events connected with the earth pertaining to the Plan of Salvation before it rolled into existence. The past the present and the future were and are with him one eternal now. He knew of the fall of Adam, the iniquities of the anti-diluvians, of the depth of iniquity that would be connected with the human family, their weaknesses, strengths, power, and glory, apostasies, their crimes, their righteousness and iniquity. He comprehended it all. And he was acquainted with the situation of all nations and with their destiny. He ordered all things according to the council of his own will. And he knows the situation of both the living and the dead. And he’s made ample provision for the redemption, according to their several circumstances and the laws of the kingdom of God, whether in this world or in the world to come.”

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 05:47 That’s a very interesting statement. To take the house of Israel, which is what the book of Deuteronomy is all about, to put it within its context, we have to go back to promises God began to make with individuals as the gospel in its fullness given to Adam was being rejected. And lots of his posterity were not hearing of it. It is a fascinating thing for me to see that first thousand year period is given about 40 to 50 verses in the book of Genesis telling us basically of the fall. And it doesn’t tell us much about Adam after the fall. It leaves a pretty bleak view of this earth because of Adam’s fall. And then the next story is about the fall of Cain. And it gives some time to that and then gives a genealogy eventually down to the time of Noah.

John Bytheway: 06:56 Which it’s pretty bleak during the time of Noah.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 06:59 I was researching through the Joseph Smith translations and we find out that some interesting things happen. And I want to just quickly highlight a few. If we turn to Moses six, I’d like to just show something that happens that is important in our dealing with the chosen seed. As we go on in this whole entire story and we look closely at the story of Enoch, turn to Moses chapter seven, And Enoch has learned a lot about the wickedness of the world and it is becoming an extremely wicked place, “but the Lord came and dwelt with his people and they dwelt in righteousness.” Section 107 verse 49, after it tells us Enoch is ordained, it says “He saw the Lord and he walked with him and was before his face continually in a dark age.” There is this city, but it’s only a city. The majority of mankind are going downhill fast, but Enoch and his people have the Lord with them.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 08:18 Verse 17 of Moses chapter seven says, “The fear of the Lord was upon all nations. So great was the glory of the Lord which was upon his people.” Enoch’s City is his people. Now we remember that with the fall, all mankind are born into a fallen condition and suffer a spiritual death. And the gospel is the means of them becoming his children. Again, back to Moses seven, the glory of God was upon his people. And verse 17 says the Lord blessed the land and they were blessed upon the mountains and upon the high places and did flourish. They’re being blessed with prosperity. Now, this is extremely important to understand all that’s being laid out as a type and pattern for what the Lord is going to be doing with the house of Israel. The chosen seed are to create Zion, to teach all the world.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 09:25 That is what is bothering Enoch. He’s just seen the world is going to pot. And the best he can do is the creation of a city of Zion. He sees that this world is the worst of all of God’s worlds. The Lord simply says to him, verse 36 in Moses seven, “And among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren.” That is a horrific statement because we know as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be upon the second coming. It becomes clear that there is total rejection. They will not listen to the gospel and they’re going to have to be destroyed. And Enoch sees the destruction by the flood of waters. Enoch sees that suffering and it hurts him because a lot of them are his descendants. It comes down to only eight righteous people.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 10:37 However, God prepared a way for them. And through the flood, the ark saved them. Life continued afterwards. And he saw all the way down to the coming of Christ. It says in Moses seven verse 46, “He saw the meridian of time in the days of wickedness and vengeance.” Nothing changed. It’s as wicked after as it was before. These promises made to the fathers extend back, we know to Israel, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they extend back all the way to Enoch. In the story of Enoch, we’re told of a covenant God made with Enoch with promises affecting the entire family of God, asking in the name of Jesus Christ to have mercy on Noah’s seed. They would no more ever be destroyed by flood of water. Verse 51 says, “And the Lord could not withhold. And he covenanted with Enoch and swear unto him with an oath.”

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 11:44 Wow. Gee, talk about the three big covenant words, covenanted, swear, oath. That he would stay the floods, that he would call upon the children of Noah. Let me just remind you of what we were told their mission was. Moses 6:23 said, “They were preachers of righteousness and speak and prophesy and called upon all men everywhere to repent.” He knows them from the beginning and he knows that most of Noah’s seed are going to never hear it in this life. Yet he’s promised to call upon all the children of Noah.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 12:27 Verse 52, “And he sent forth an unalterable decree that the remnant of his seed should always be found among all nations while the earth should stand.” This covenant God made with Enoch. The fact that he makes his unalterable decree tells us its importance that a remnant of his seed should always be found among all nations while the earth should stand.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 12:54 The chosen seed who have the call to preach the gospel to all the world are going to be found among all the world. God is making a covenant with Enoch about what he’s going to do about this problem, that the majority of the world has not heard the gospel. We’re being taught what God will do about the problem of his children not being taught the gospel and when he will fulfill that covenant, that promise. For Joseph Smith, this was a major addition. It resonated with him and it stayed in his head. It did for Brigham Young and John Taylor. It’s about how God is going to save all the world and by whom. That’s the house of Israel,

John Bytheway: 13:43 I sometimes have wondered how we sometimes call it a fortunate fall of a fortunate scattering because it spread the blood of the house of Israel everywhere.

Hank Smith: 13:56 We started out saying, okay, let’s look at the full plan of salvation, a premortal life, a mortal time and an everlasting time. And we focused in on this second act, right Bruce? We focused in on the second act saying we’ve got to see it as it’s much bigger than just our mortal life. It’s mortal life, spirit world, millennium, that the Lord has that in mind. And that during our mortal life, it seems like almost during everybody’s mortal life, things look dark and bleak, like it’s not going to work. Joseph Smith comes along, giving us the story of Enoch. It’s going to work. It was taken out. I would say presumably, because the adversary doesn’t want us to see it is going to work out in the end. And I would say that Bruce, I’m learning a lot about life here in that life looks pretty bleak a lot of times.

Hank Smith: 14:54 And you might think the Lord is not doing his work and it’s not going to work out in the end. But this message is yes it is. It is going to work. And I like what you said earlier is that his children, I wrote this down. His children just seem to always choose wickedness and evil and total rejection of him. And he’s got a way to save them, even in that. He’s going to find a way to turn this around, even though the majority of his children in mortality is a total rejection of him. Am I on the same page? Am I following you here?

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 15:30 Yeah, you are. The spirit world plays a major role in the salvation of God’s children. They need to be taught the gospel. We got to do the work for them. And this dispensation is the dispensation to fulfill all the promises made in this covenant in preparation that the millennium brings about that eternal Zion.

Hank Smith: 15:55 And it seems that this is so crucial to our understanding because God is making promises along the way to this family, this family of Israel that I’m going to use you to save the world, even though it doesn’t look like it.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 16:11 Knowing that, listen again to what Moroni said to Joseph. It pleased the Lord to covenant with them to roll on his purposes until he should bring it to pass.

Hank Smith: 16:23 Man. It seems Bruce that Joseph Smith has given us this sacred history in a way that was never seen before. It had been taken away.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 16:31 This was an eye opener. This came in December of 1830, and he sees, oh, but there’s a Zion because that’s what we need to read and then move to Deuteronomy. If we look back in Moses seven, he sees all the way now to the last days. And verse 60 says, “And the Lord said unto Enoch as I live, even so will I come in the last days in the days of wickedness and vengeance to fulfill the oath which I’ve made unto you concerning the children of Noah.” That is I will call upon the children of Noah, which most are in the spirit world. Verse 62, “Righteousness will I send down out of heaven. Truth will I send out of the earth.” Just as the water says the flood came that I’m going to flood the earth, but not with water. I promised him I wouldn’t flood it with water, but I didn’t promise I wouldn’t flood it.

Hank Smith: 17:32 I’ll flood it with truth.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 17:33 “I’ll flood it with truth and righteousness to sweep the earth as with the flood to gather out mine elect from the four corners of the earth unto a place which I shall prepare an holy city,” which Isaiah sees as a tent, a tent with ropes and stakes.

John Bytheway: 17:52 You have to lengthen the cords and strengthen the stakes.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 17:56 You got to lay out the whole tent before you put it up. So God makes a covenant with Abraham. That from him will come a seed. That’s a nation, a large nation.

Hank Smith: 18:08 That’s going to bless the whole earth.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 18:10 He promises Abraham that seed will have the gospel, will have the priesthood and then promises that his seed would take the gospel to all the families of the earth that they should be blessed.

Hank Smith: 18:25 Exodus opens up that they’re now a nation, no longer a family. It’s a national story.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 18:30 In chapter six, this is the invitation that he initially gives to the house of Israel to become Jehovah’s people on earth. Verse four we’re told. So I’m in Exodus chapter six. “I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I’ve remembered my covenant, wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah. And I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will rid you out of their bondage. And I will redeem you with a stretched out arm.” That was the invitation. I’m going to take you out. You become my people. I will be your God. We know the story, the whole Passover experience.

John Bytheway: 19:20 Crossing of the Red Sea.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 19:21 Getting into the promised land. And so there’s this trying to get Israel and God to be at one. They make it to Mount Sinai. Now the formal invitation is made in chapter 19, verse four. “You’ve seen when I did unto the Egyptians. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine.” Then he says, verse six, “Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Hank Smith: 20:04 I’m going to take you from a slave nation to a holy nation and I’m going to do it through these commandments. And then you as a nation, you’re going to bless the whole earth.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 20:14 Well, that’s right. I’ve got to make you a holy nation and I need to put you in that land so you can get the attention of the world.

Hank Smith: 20:23 In that particular spot.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 20:24 Yes, that spot is the best place in the whole entire world for this. Now, if you break this covenant, turn all together from it. I’m going to scatter you among all nations. I’ve got two ways I’m going to do this, but you and I must understand it is in that land that Israel will get the eye of the world. Now we need to go to Deuteronomy with all of that in mind, because we know the children. Israel made the covenant at Mount Sinai. They broke it. God renewed it. Started giving them what’s called Law of Moses, which are policies again about how to live the 10 commandments. So 10 commandments still at the heart.

Hank Smith: 21:14 They can’t make a difference until they’re different. That’s what the laws intended to do.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 21:18 They don’t get you can’t mix world and the gospel. They finally entered into a covenant. Keep the 10 commandments house of Israel leaves Mount Sinai. They head to the promised land. The 12 spies are sent up and return. Now let’s go to Deuteronomy.

Hank Smith: 21:40 Bruce, let me ask you something. It seems that what you’ve given us so far is be aware that the Lord has a long game plan. Don’t get discouraged when things don’t work out in the next week or month or year because this is a long game.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 21:55 Let me tell you, perhaps one of the greatest scriptures to keep in mind in all of this is in first Nephi chapter nine, its placement is curious to me. So first Nephi chapter nine, chapter eight, Lehi tells the family about the dream, but he’s not done. He gets into the whole historical aspect of what the dream was and that’s in chapter 10. But between the two, Nephi adds six verses. And the sixth verse, I would star it, asterisk, put lights around it. This is great. Verse six, “But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning wherefore he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men. For behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words and thus it is. Amen.”

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 22:57 So he’s planned it. We know the house of Israel is foreordained. This whole entire set of promises by covenant foreordained. He knows that in the last four minutes of this game, and we’re down by 40 points, I’m going to send in my reserve group and win the game. But all the way along, all my players are learning. They’re learning good and evil. They’re learning to choose. They’re learning marriage and parenting and all those things that are important. So he’s saying, look, it may look like the plan isn’t working, but it is. I’m achieving everything I need to get it achieved. And now we need the creation of Zion. And that happens at the end, the worldwide universal Zion.

Hank Smith: 23:47 Reminds me of a famous quote from Elder Holland. He said, “Except in the case of his only perfect begotten son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to him, but he deals with it. When you see imperfection, remember that the limitation is not in the divinity of the work.” The Lord allows these imperfect people to run this because it’s part of the plan is perfecting these people.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 24:12 Let me read the last part of the promises made to Abraham. I know that we say that through the Abrahamic covenant, we’re giving the Gentiles opportunity for the gospel. I don’t think that’s accurate. It isn’t just opportunity. He intends on much more than that for he says in Abraham two that through the literal seat of his body, shall all families of the earth be blessed even with the blessings of the gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even life eternal.

Hank Smith: 24:53 It’s not just an opportunity he’s going to do it.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 24:55 Whoa. That is a powerful promise. But he’s all powerful to bring about his purposes Nephi says.

Hank Smith: 25:03 It may not look like it’s going to work to you, but I promise you it’s working.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 25:09 Yeah, exactly right. So Deuteronomy is a book about the children of Israel getting ready to go into the promised land to become this holy people. And when they get to the promised land 40 years after the first attempt to go in the promised land and the Israelites didn’t prove themselves very worthy, the Lord is now going to have Moses speak to his people. He does through a couple of different talks. And this has been put together and given the name of Deuteronomy. If you go to chapter 17, verses 14 through 20 are about in the future if Israel asks for a king, I’ll give him a king and here’s, I got some things I want the king to do. And one of them is in verse 18. It says here, “And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne or he’s established rule that he shall write him a copy of the law in a book, which is before the priest and Nephites.”

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 26:20 So he’s supposed to sit down and take the law and write it out. And when the Old Testament in Hebrew was translated into Greek in Alexandria a couple hundred years before the time of Christ, when they came to that verse, whoever did that, where it says, “He shall write him a copy of the law of that book,” the King’s supposed to sit down and write out himself, and then he’s supposed to read it therein all the days of his life. Frankly, that didn’t happen very often. It did in the days of Josiah, when that book was found and they read through it and then it told what he was supposed to do. Oh my goodness. Josiah really.

Hank Smith: 27:08 Extreme Israel makeover. Yeah.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 27:11 So what this is is now Moses speaking to the children of Israel and covenanting that they will now keep the national law. The covenant made with the house of Israel is a national covenant.

Hank Smith: 27:27 So is Deuteronomy kind of a farewell address for Moses? A series of addresses.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 27:34 All this is set up like a covenant document with the first four chapters essentially being the historical preamble. So it takes them through the whole story of Israel, Mount Sinai through the 40 years of wandering, now to that land, just opposite of Jericho. They have known what’s happened the last 40 years with this group as it’s come through the wilderness. And they’re scared to death, though Israel doesn’t know it. They’re scared to death on that side. But now Moses is here. The land’s over there and Joshua’s going to lead him in. And now Moses, before he leaves reestablishes the government. And Deuteronomy is taking the reader through all that.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 28:25 The first four chapters essentially are that, but I want you to go to chapter four. And with what I’ve been teaching, know what the Lord says, starting in verse five, “Behold, I’ve taught you statutes and judgements even as Jehovah, my God commanded me that ye should do so in the land, whether you go to possess it, keep therefore and do them for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall surely hear all these statutes and say, surely, this great nation is a wise and understanding people for what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them.”

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 29:17 I don’t like quite how that was translated, but they’ve added some words there that I probably wouldn’t have added. Verse eight, “What nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” You see that’s the idea. God wants to make you a holy nation so that all nations can be taught the gospel.

Hank Smith: 29:41 They’re supposed to stand out, right? They’re supposed to be totally different than everybody else.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 29:46 That’s exactly right. And this covenant is what will do that. So the things I’m telling you, he says the commandments, these statutes, judgements follow them. They will make you a holy people and you will catch the eye of the world. Which they do by the way and it says so right in chapter four, first Kings. They are really finally achieving this. It took a long time to get to that point, but they are. And then they dropped the ball and within a few hundred years, the kingdom’s gone and scattered.

Hank Smith: 30:20 Bruce, that seems to be Moses’ fear here in chapter four. They’re going to forget.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 30:25 That’s exactly right.

John Bytheway: 30:26 Yeah. I love verse nine in there, “Take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen and they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life,” and that just, there’s just a history of good things and then forgetting good things.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 30:43 That dominates throughout this. That’s why the lesson that is called this is you got to remember these things. When we read through Exodus 19 and Moses says, “Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice, indeed and keep my covenants.” Well, where that word obey is used, the Hebrew word is Shama, which means to hear. It’s also the word for obedience. You hear and obey. And for most dispensations, the members of the church were dependent on hearing the word, not reading it. That’s why they seem to have failed. And that’s exactly what Ezekiel is told in Ezekiel 34, the shepherds were not feeding you. If the priests and Levites aren’t teaching the people, how do they know? They don’t own scriptures. In our day, we are building the Universal Worldwide sign. And the only way that can happen is that literacy has to be expanded everywhere.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 31:45 And the internet is extremely important in the advancement of Zion. The use of the phone, cell phones throughout the world is really increasing literacy rate. People learn how to read and the scriptures and the teachings of prophets are made available to all of us. I remember the first time hearing general conference live in Jerusalem. I remember when I was younger, always calling my father long distance after conference was over, what did they say? What did they say? Because we would never know unless we got an Ensign and that didn’t happen very often. And then in 2000, with my wife and five kids, we were able to actually sit there and see conference live in Jerusalem. I was just overwhelmed by, oh look, the promises made to Enoch that the earth is being flooded. The promises are coming to pass in our day and age.

Hank Smith: 32:42 It seems to me when I was looking around in these chapters of Deuteronomy, that they’re hearing things they’ve already heard multiple times over and over. And it seemed to me that’s a little bit like general conference in our day where we’re getting the same message over and over and over. And there’s probably wisdom in that.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 33:02 Let’s keep in mind, this is now the next generation. The first generation has died off in the wilderness. The history in the first four chapters is what they should know but you never know because it’s dependent on hearing.

Hank Smith: 33:16 If someone’s taught them.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 33:18 One through four is about that.

Hank Smith: 33:20 Is their history.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 33:22 I wonder, but just point out something, go to chapter four, to begin with, verse 23 regarding all that he’s told them and he was telling about their father’s getting him angry. And students have a lot of problems with this. Verse 23 says, “Take heed under yourselves lest ye forget the covenant of Jehovah, your God, which he made with you and make you a graven image or the likeness of anything.”

Hank Smith: 33:53 Like your fathers did, right?

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 33:54 Yeah. But verse 24, “For Jehovah, thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” In Deuteronomy, you’ve got a lot of feeling expressions, love, jealousy, anger. We need to make sure that in our thinking about God, we don’t like he gets angry. We don’t like this concept of jealous, envious. However, what’s the opposite of all of that? I mean, I should say what’s the opposite of love? If I didn’t have a God that’s angry then what is he? He’s apathetic.

Hank Smith: 34:31 Doesn’t care.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 34:32 That’s right.

Hank Smith: 34:32 I, the Lord God care about this.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 34:34 These words to show you how much God cares about Israel. And instead of seeing a negative, my goodness, this God is concerned about you.

Hank Smith: 34:44 A jealous and angry God is a God who cares.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 34:48 That’s exactly right. And he’s letting them know I am a jealous God. I want your love. I love you. I want your love. Then comes the first real hint in verse 27 of what’s going to happen and that is, “I’ll scatter you among all nations and ye shall be few in number a fewer number among the heathen. There you will serve gods.”

Hank Smith: 35:12 So if they do forget, here’s what’s going to happen. You will be scattered. Here’s a consequence which is going to end up happening.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 35:19 You will get to a God. It’s actually a piece of stone and talk about apathetic. And this is a problem in polytheism. In polytheism mostly, they don’t think gods care about them and the purpose of religious acts is to try to get their attention. And that’s just what the Savior says in the sermon on the Mount, you don’t have to get God’s attention. You’ve got it. You don’t have to pray to him like the heathen do. You’ve got it.

Hank Smith: 35:49 He does say that in verse 28, “These gods of wood and stone don’t see, they don’t hear, they don’t eat. They don’t smell.”

John Bytheway: 35:56 There’s a delightful verse. Is it in the Psalms that says that they have eyes, but they see not, ears, but they hear not, mouths, but they speak not. And then it says they that worship them are like unto them.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 36:10 You are what you worship and is that what you want? And yes, it’s true. He gets angry.

Hank Smith: 36:17 I like that, Bruce, but the opposite is an apathetic god, which doesn’t care at all.

John Bytheway: 36:21 An indifferent God.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 36:22 It’s about love. There’s fear in here and they should fear God and there’s a healthy fear that’s necessary and love. Both are essential.

Hank Smith: 36:33 So this next generation needs to know their history and they need to know who Jehovah is.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 36:39 That’s exactly right. And in chapter five, then the basic foundation of the covenant’s given, the 10 commandments. So they’re repeated, it’s clear. This is the Lord’s way. Verse 22 of chapter five, “These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in Mount, out of the midst of fire in the cloud, he wrote them on tables of stones.” So of verse 23, “And it came to pass, when you heard the voice out of the midst of darkness for the mountain did burn with fire, behold, the Lord, our God hath showed us his glory and his greatness. And we have heard the voice out of the midst of fire and we’ve seen this day that God doth talk with man and he liveth.” I mean, this is a major point. God talks to man.

Hank Smith: 37:35 Not like those gods of stone and wood.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 37:37 Therefore, why should we die? They’re so concerned. Don’t want to see the face of God. But the Lord gives another interpretation why he didn’t want to show him. And that interpretation is I’m afraid you’ll make an image of me and you will worship that image. Verse 29, “Oh that we were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always that it may be well with them and with the children forever.”

Hank Smith: 38:11 That’s such a universal verse, isn’t it? “Oh that they would have the heart and keep my commandments.”

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 38:17 Fear, what happens when you break a law, there’s consequence.

Hank Smith: 38:24 That’s how Mormon describes anti-Nephi Lehis. They would suffer unto death rather than commit sin.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 38:29 That’s exactly right. It’s a great point.

Hank Smith: 38:31 Oh, there was such a heart in them. Oh, that’s such an interesting plea that they would fear me. Keep the commandments.

Dr. Bruce Satterfield: 38:38 Wish there was that kind of a heart that they would obey. Now we see down in verse 32-33, “Ye shall observe to do therefore as Jehovah, your God, hath commanded you.” Now you hear me keep saying Jehovah your God when it says, Lord. Verse 33, “Ye shall walk in all the ways, which the Lord your God hath commanded you.” Now, whenever you see that word way, like in verse 33, “You should walk in the ways,” whenever you see way, that’s the word for road. So walk in the road, God has laid out. That’s true in Greek as well as in John chapter 14, “I am the way, the truth and the light. Hodos is the word for it. I am the road or in Jacob’s ladder, I am the ladder.

John Bytheway: 39:38 Please join us for part two of this podcast.