Hank Smith:                      00:00:00             Coming up in this episode on followHIM

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:00:02             There is no mincing words with that. This is a message that if you want to be with me, you’ve gotta listen to my prophets, my chosen vessels, whom I’ve called to preach the word. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect, that doesn’t mean that we just have blind faith, but we’ve gotta trust their words and I’m persuaded from my experience that we can trust him.

Hank Smith:                      00:00:33             Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of followHIM. My name is Hank Smith. I’m your host. I’m here with my co-host John Bytheway, who has three sons, Andrew, Matthew, and Timothy. John. Did you know that Noah had three sons, Japheth, Shem, and Ham. You should have gone with those three names John, Japheth, Shem and Ham.

John Bytheway:               00:01:00             Bytheway is wacky enough if I had a Japheth Bytheway. Oh boy.

Hank Smith:                      00:01:05             Yeah. We’ll call Timothy Ham. Ham Bytheway. Hey John, we are privileged today to have with us, Dr. Mike Cottle, Brother Cottle. I’m just gonna call you Mike if that’s okay. Thank you for being here.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:01:19             It’s my pleasure. I am delighted to be with you. Good friends, and it’s nice to reacquaint and be connected here.

Hank Smith:                      00:01:26             Yeah, you make my heart happy. I’m gonna talk about that a little bit during our show today. I wanna talk about Mike and all he’s done for me. John, we’re talking about Noah and a little bit about the Tower of Babel. What are you thinking today, is when you think Noah, what do you think of?

John Bytheway:               00:01:44             Do you know what, Hank, to be honest, four years ago our recording about these chapters was so good. We learned so many insights about Noah. One of them that I remember was, it was like the earth being born again. It was like a new chance, a rebirth for the whole earth, which was kind of a cool way to think of it.

Hank Smith:                      00:02:06             Yeah, I remember that too. I remember our guest, I think it was Krystal Pierce who talked about the tears in the story of Enoch turning into the flood of Noah. It connected in a way I’d never seen. Mike we’ve been talking about this for a couple months. What are you looking forward to today? What do you wanna do?

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:02:24             There are so many principles, but overarching, I think this story is a microcosm of the plan of salvation, the immediacy of Jesus Christ in our life, to save all of us, and that he has power to save everything that he touches. To me, there’s power with that. There’s beauty in it, and the relevance for us today, we’re not dealing with floods necessarily of water, but flood of wickedness and how do we navigate and get through that? Well, we need Jesus Christ and that’s what the story of Noah really is teaching, I think.

Hank Smith:                      00:02:58             Wow, that’s exciting. Now John, when I think the name Mike Cottle, a lot happens in my heart. Our listeners probably, there’s quite a few who don’t know who Mike is. Could you do a little introduction for him?

John Bytheway:               00:03:12             Yeah, I will. Mike Cottle grew up in Blaine, Minnesota, attended Rick’s College back when it was Rick’s after serving a mission in Fresno, California. He attended BYU, obtained a bachelor’s in history and family sciences a master’s in educational leadership and a doctorate in education curriculum and instruction from Utah State, and he’s been a seminary instructor in Kamas, Park City and Heber City. Now where were you, Hank during one of those?

Hank Smith:                      00:03:38             We were at Park City together. Yep, at Park City.

John Bytheway:               00:03:42             Kamas, Park City, and Heber City. He’s been a curriculum writer for seminaries and institutes down at the church office building right now he’s a Washington DC metro coordinator for seminaries and institutes and an institute instructor and Hank why does Washington DC make you take notice when you hear that?

Hank Smith:                      00:04:02             Oh man. Well, it makes me feel good to have my good friend Mike Cottle, just in case there’s a certain Elder Smith out there who might need something. I could call on my friend Mike Cottle and he would come to the rescue. So I have a son who’s a missionary in the same place that Michael works.

John Bytheway:               00:04:19             That’s so awesome. Mike Cottle loves spending time with family. He loves all sports, especially basketball. Your bio does not say how tall you are, but you look tall even from where you’re sitting. How tall are you?

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:04:32             I am six four and seven eights, but it’s probably shrinking and I always wanted to be six six or six eight. None of us get what we really want.

John Bytheway:               00:04:42             You can say that again brother. Okay. Basketball. He loves riding horses. Loves history. I like this part. He and his wife, Jennifer Abegg are the parents of five children. One girl and four boys. And I bet when those boys and Mike are together, that’s a formidable basketball opponent. You five guys I bet.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:05:03             It’s really fun now all of my children have played, my daughter actually scored more points in her high school career than any of my sons.

John Bytheway:               00:05:11             That is the coolest. That’s awesome.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:05:14             She’s quite a motivator for her brothers to be competitive.

John Bytheway:               00:05:18             She probably reminds them of that from time to time too.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:05:21             Yeah.

Hank Smith:                      00:05:23             John, you might have to stop me if I gush a little too much. I actually don’t want to get emotional here. I love all of our guests. I love every single one. Mike to me is very special because I met Mike very early in my seminary career. It was pretty rough. Things had not gone the way I’d planned. I was about ready to be done with church education. Mike literally saved me, literally saved my career. Came in, we taught together for just one year at Park City Seminary. He was so uplifting, so edifying. Mike is a builder, John, in every way. If you interact with Mike, he wants you to feel better about yourself when you walk away. Like I said, I don’t wanna get, I don’t wanna get too emotional over this, but Mike has seen dark, dark days. When you see this smile on his face and you hear his optimism, it’s not because he has not seen the greatest pains that life can give us. Here he is a testimony to who the Lord is and what the Lord can do with a family who turned themselves over to him. Anyway, I will stop before I weep.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:06:36             It was such a fun time working with you. Even though it was just a year, it felt like it was a lot more than that. My only lament is that we didn’t get to teach longer together, but I learned so much from you working with students how to help scriptures come alive to students. We were both young, new teachers. It just felt like we could do anything there at Park City.

Hank Smith:                      00:06:58             I don’t know if there’s any Park City-ites out there listening. If there are, we still love you, Brother Smith and Brother Cottle still love you. Still think of you. John, let’s talk Come, Follow Me. The lesson this week is called Noah Found Grace in the Eyes of the Lord. I’m gonna read from the Come, Follow Me manual and then Mike, John and I are ready to learn from you. John has wonderful things to share. I’m ready to learn from both of you. It starts like this, living in the latter days, we have special reason to pay attention to the story of the flood. When Jesus Christ taught how we should watch for his second coming he said, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man. In addition, words that describe Noah’s day like corrupt and filled with violence could just as easily describe our time.

                                           00:07:50             The story of the Tower of Babel also feels applicable to our day with its description of pride followed by confusion and then division. These ancient accounts are valuable, not just because they show us that wickedness repeats itself throughout history, more important, they teach us what to do about it. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and the families of Jared and his brother turned to the Lord and were protected from the confusion and division in Babel. If we wonder how to keep ourselves and our families safe during corruption and violence, the stories in these chapters have much to teach us. What a great introduction. Mike, what do you wanna do? How do you wanna start?

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:08:29             I’d like to start in Moses chapter eight. I like Moses eight ’cause it gives us a little bit more than what Genesis six gives us. We’ll talk about the context, the people, the reaction to a prophet. Then we’ll move over into Genesis and see how this develops into this plan of our Father in heaven. This beautiful plan, the plan of happiness. He is trying in every way to help his children to be saved, to come back to him, to reconnect with him. John, would you start for us, let’s in chapter two to kind of get a little bit of background behind Noah. This is one of those verses that makes me laugh a little bit. I think of the fear of missing out, the fomo and to me, this is the ultimate right here.

John Bytheway:               00:09:16             Verse two, Moses 8:2, and it came to pass that Methuselah, the son of Enoch, was not taken. That the covenants of the Lord might be fulfilled which he made to Enoch, for he truly covenanted with Enoch that Noah should be the fruit of his loins.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:09:34             What would it have been like to be Methuselah. All of your family taken, all the righteous are taken and you are left behind. That’s the ultimate fear of missing out on something. And I wonder how they viewed that. I don’t know. Was it viewed as I’m left behind? Is it viewed as maybe even a death that they felt like that there’s that separation? We don’t know how long. That could have been pretty traumatic or it’s just recognition that my family line has gotta be saved. Jared Halverson’s made the idea that this is the family occupation of being a preacher of righteousness and they needed to have family to be able to have the Noah coming through that line that maybe they had a great vision of what their family’s gonna do. That to me is one of those interesting verses and that it intrigues me. I don’t like to miss out.

John Bytheway:               00:10:31             When it says Methuselah son of Enoch was not taken that means ’cause the city of Enoch was taken. Everybody except for you, Methuselah. You stay.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:10:41             All the righteous. Yeah, this is Enoch’s city Zion taken into heaven. When I think of the Savior come again, I don’t wanna miss that. I wanna be part of that if at all possible. I wanna be there to experience that. And I feel for Methuselah a little bit.

Hank Smith:                      00:10:57             Yeah, me too. Feels like a little bit of a Moroni type story to just be alone for a long time or ether maybe who’s just all right, I guess I just get a stick around and write about it.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:11:13             Yeah. So I’m sure that there’s some moments that pull on us hard. We need a family line that stays so that we can, and thank goodness for all of us because Noah becomes that Adam figure. Again, thank goodness we have someone that was willing to stay behind and go through this life and not enjoy the blessings of Zion and being a translated being what you know, no pain, no sorrow, but he was willing. Whatever that looked like, I don’t know. But it is interesting to me.

Hank Smith:                      00:11:41             Kind of a Jeremiah, you get to stay here and watch.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:11:43             Yeah. Yeah, not so fun sometimes. Then you move it on down and there’s kind of an interesting verse, verse four, in preparation for the flood, the Lord is not just all of a sudden throwing a flood on, he’s been working, trying hard to help his children. There’s a famine in the land. Famine’s generally associated with no rain. So you see this, I’m gonna try to affect this by not allowing it to rain, causing a famine. People, you know, hot, maybe scorching heat that dries up everything. So people are gonna suffer. It’ll draw them closer to him. He is trying to maximize their success. If that doesn’t work, which we know it doesn’t, then he is gonna do the flood. So you got these two opposites. Each of them, the Lord is trying to help his children come home trying to help them to return to him, connect with him.

Hank Smith:                      00:12:39             There’s a verse in the Book of Mormon where you can hear Mormon’s frustration. It’s in Helaman 12, just as human beings are the worst. In Helaman 12 Mormon kinda lays down his historical pen for a minute and just writes what he thinks. This is Helaman 12:3. Thus we see that except the Lord chastens people with many afflictions, unless he visits them with death, with terror and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him. Then he goes on, foolish, vain, crazy humans. Why do they do that?

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:13:18             The other verse that talks about people, humans being less than the dust of the earth and the earth responds when God commands it, it responds. But we kinda hem and haw and say, oh, I don’t know if I wanna do that. And uh, it’s so frustrating.

Hank Smith:                      00:13:34             I’m sure it’s frustrating for the Lord too. Right? He’s like, tell me about it.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:13:38             Yeah. And yet he deals with it and works with this and he has patience. Sometimes I think in the Old Testament, people get the image that God is this vengeful hard God. And I hope that today we’re gonna see that he is so merciful, so loving and trying so many ways to help his children to understand and learn and grow. It’s just mercy all over the place as I look through these lessons. I love it. Alright, jumping over. Go down to verse nine. Here’s where we pick up the name of Noah. He called his name Noah. This son shall comfort us. The word Noah means rest. It’s sometimes translated as comfort to console. There’s something about rest. I don’t know what your thoughts are with rest and how Noah brings rest, but a world I can see the chaos of the flood and the storms, the wickedness that’s so rampant. Noah comes in as this rest, that there’s some peace that comes with Noah. I think the Lord’s trying to teach that there is peace, there is rest for the weary. The downtrodden that put their trust in him and that’s Noah and his message.

Hank Smith:                      00:14:57             And a prophet can bring that. Listen to the general conference and hearing a prophet speak, it does feel like that. Like, oh, I am okay, things are gonna work out.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:15:05             Well, let’s pick it up now down to verse 13 and 14. This gives us a little different view than what the Old T- the Bible Genesis account says it. So it helps clarify this. So I love 13 and 14, Hank you wanna start reading there?

Hank Smith:                      00:15:19             And Noah and his sons hearkened unto the Lord and gave heed and they were called the sons of God. And when these men began to multiply in the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them, the sons of men saw that those daughters were fair and they took them wives even as they chose.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:15:36             In the Genesis account, it inverts it a little bit. It sounds like it’s the daughters of God. I think this clarifies or these sons of God are Noah and his sons and these men began to multiply and they’re having children, then it’s their daughters or the granddaughters and great-granddaughters of Noah that are struggling. So you got sons of God by choice as sometimes some people have viewed it as they’re by choice, they’re choosing God and then others, sons of man is that they’re by creation. They’re rejecting the divinity of God in that relationship. It’s highlighting this covenant. We’re gonna, you see that even more in verse 15. Let’s pick it up in verse 15. And the Lord said unto Noah, the daughters of thy sons have sold themselves. For behold mine anger is kindled against the sons of men for they will not hearken to my voice. There’s that first inclination, really the struggle, the problem here, God is pleading, trying everything he can to help them hear and listen and they’re rejecting it. They won’t listen. To sell themselves, they’re using their agency here. These women, they’re selling themselves or selling what they could have for something that spiritually is not worth anything. Selling covenants, powerful depiction of what’s happening there.

John Bytheway:               00:17:09             That’s deliberately calling them sons of God in 13. But then they start acting like sons of men in those verses that come after. Is that what you’re noticing?

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:17:20             Yeah. The sons of men are people that are rejecting that divinity and they’re rejecting covenant. Really. They’re using their agency to choose other than God. These men are marrying the women, but it’s outside of the covenant. I think that’s the message that’s trying to be portrayed here. Why we would highlight that one. But it’s rejecting the covenants with their father.

John Bytheway:               00:17:40             That’s subtle, but that’s interesting. First, they’re sons of God and then they become described as sons of men. That’s interesting.

Hank Smith:                      00:17:49             Mike, that verse, verse 15, the daughters of thy sons have sold themselves. Listen to President Uchtdorf 2013. Satan tempts us to exchange the priceless pearls of true happiness and eternal values for a fake plastic trinket that is merely an illusion and a counterfeit of happiness and joy.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:18:11             They’re selling themselves to those that have nothing covenant-wise to offer. To me that kind of sums up what that idea is the trinket. Nothing to offer.

Hank Smith:                      00:18:25             Nothing to offer, nothing of value. And you can see why the Lord would say, I’m frustrated. I’m heartbroken.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:18:32             Yeah, Enoch, you see that clearly that he’s weeping over these children that won’t listen to him, won’t respond to what he’s trying to help them see. And so we’ll continue to see this element and all that he does to try to help them. Verse 17, my spirit will not strive with man. If men do not repent down towards the very end, I will send the flood. So here we’re getting that alright, I’m gonna have to do something to help. There’s mercy in this. I do think it’s an interesting insight. This is from the report Lorenzo, President Lorenzo Snow made this in a journal entry comparing Joseph Smith to Noah. He, Joseph Smith replied, Noah came before the flood, I have come before the fire. There’s some connections there that Joseph was making with Noah. How his place fits in this pattern, this plan of our father in heaven, to save the earth, to save humankind.

                                           00:19:31             There’s some things there that I think are kind of fun. Now, let’s go to verse 18. In those days, there were giants on the earth and they sought Noah to take away his life. So at first they’re not hearkening and now they’re seeking his life. It’s getting more serious, more wicked if you will. I love the new scripture helps that they’ve got in the, they’re tagged right in your scriptures. Now you can also find it other places in the gospel library, but that word giant, you know, what does it mean? There were giants, giants mentioned in both the Enoch account and in the Noah account, they both indicate that they were enemies of God and his prophets. The word giant, you always think of Goliath, but it’s somebody that’s large in stature. But the word in Hebrew is translated as, I don’t know how to pronounce, I’m not a Hebrew linguist, but nephilim, it can also mean fallen ones.

                                           00:20:31             And so it may not really have reverence to their size and stature, but it just that they have fallen from grace. They’ve fallen, they’ve chose other paths other than the path of God. It may be that they’re too full of themselves. They’re called giants because they think they can do it all on their own. There’s an idea out there that maybe they were just so prideful that Samson like that I can do this. I can knock this, these pillars down on my own. I don’t need God’s help. I can destroy the Philistines because of my own strength. And so there’s an element of that that could be part of it that leads to some of the wickedness that’s happening there.

Hank Smith:                      00:21:14             Mike, you might be converting John Bytheway to technology here because that’s not available in his scriptures. He can’t tap on his scriptures and bring that. So you were talking about right here on my scripture app, there’s a little icon next to verse 18. I tap on that and I’ve got a help of what does it mean that there were giants in the earth. There’s plenty to learn there.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:21:38             There are so many neat scripture helps like that. It’s all throughout the Old Testament. They’re just kind of new coming on. So yeah, make sure you see those. Utilize ’em. It really helps. And as you’re studying the Old Testament.

Hank Smith:                      00:21:50             Yeah, John, what are you thinking? You thinking you get rid of that paper copy. You ready to? You’re ready to put that aside yet?

John Bytheway:               00:21:57             No. I love my paper copy because I see what my dad thought of it ’cause his comments are all over.

Hank Smith:                      00:22:02             You inherited your dad’s scriptures. Now you’re gonna make me feel bad.

John Bytheway:               00:22:05             Yeah. I love them both. But Hank, I wanna add too that if you’re using the Come, Follow Me manual from your computer, boy, you’d touch on those links and they’ll come right up. And I’ve been doing that the last few weeks. You can say, oh it’s gonna gimme some more about this. We are super blessed with how quickly we can connect to all this stuff.

Hank Smith:                      00:22:27             If you were born in the 19 hundreds, you might have to find someone to help you navigate all this.

John Bytheway:               00:22:32             Grandson, will you push that? Tell me

Hank Smith:                      00:22:34             There’s some pretty good stuff in here.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:22:36             Well, I used to be, I had my scriptures. They were so covered with notes and it got so bad I couldn’t read the notes anymore. I was trying to write so small to get it all in there. And now it’s so nice electronically that you can put as much as you want. Put as many quotes as you want.

Hank Smith:                      00:22:50             And you can’t lose them. Look at all those Post-it notes.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:22:55             Look at that. That’s,

John Bytheway:               00:22:56             These are all my dad’s post-Its, you know.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:22:59             Those are awesome. Those are awesome.

Hank Smith:                      00:23:01             Hey, that was the technology of the day. Post-it notes.

John Bytheway:               00:23:04             Post-its were huge when those babies came out, this is awesome. They stick but they come right off.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:23:11              3M on the map there. Those are great.

Hank Smith:                      00:23:13             Mike it sounds like things are getting worse and worse. We’re going from sexual sin, we’re trading eternal things. Now we’re gonna kill the prophet.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:23:24             Yeah. And this is a process of time. It’s not done in a day, but they’re just getting progressively worse. That’s the same principle. Where were they? They started off not listening to the prophet, not hearkening to the Lord’s words. That’s where they started drifting and following. Verse 19 is really interesting to me. I love this John, why don’t you pick it back up and read verse 19 and looking for this idea of the order.

John Bytheway:               00:23:48             Okay, verse 19. And the Lord ordained Noah after his own order and commanded him that he should go forth and declare his gospel unto the children of men, even as it was given unto Enoch.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:24:03             Thank you. We’ve often talked about priesthood. We know the definition. Section 107 is the holy priesthood after the order of the Son of God. I’ve always struggled with what that really means. Recently I’ve come to appreciate better just other great teachers that are out there that are helping me learn. And that order is like a, it’s a group. When I was young in elementary school and then in junior high we had the Cub Scout program and then we had the Boy Scout and we were part of this order of the arrow. We wanted to be part of that group. And then we got into the scouting program and it was that group of the Eagle Scout wanted be part of that Eagle Scout nest. But it was an order of the Eagle Scouts. That order is a group, it’s like a club.

                                           00:24:52             Although I, that sounds really casual for this type of an order, but it’s a group. Anybody that enters into this order is part of this order of the Son of God, his group that have power and priesthood and promises that allow them to receive the help. Noah is being invited into this order, this order of the priesthood after the order of the Son of God. This is the family business. This is what the family is all about, helping us all. And it’s not just for men. This order is not just a male centered, this is male and female. Anybody that enters into this order of Melchizedek priests, which we do in temples, is part of this order of Melchizedek.

Hank Smith:                      00:25:38             This doesn’t seem like the Lord is being exclusive. He wants everybody, anybody can join.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:25:44             Yeah yeah. This, he wants everyone in it. He’s sad when they don’t, when they don’t want his order be part of his group. If you’re a Harry Potter fan, it’s that order of the phoenix. That was the order. But here it’s the order of the Son of God. We wanna be part of that. Now down to verse 20 and 21. Hank, why don’t you pick it up in 20 and 21?

Hank Smith:                      00:26:09             And it came to pass that Noah called upon the children of men that they should repent but they hearkened not unto his words. And also after they had heard him, they came up before him saying, behold we are the sons of God. Have we not taken unto ourselves the daughters of men? And are we not eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage and our wives bear unto us children? And the same are mighty men, which are like unto men of old, men of great renown. And they hearkened not unto the words of Noah.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:26:40             Okay you’re seeing that repeated three times. They’re hearkening not to Noah. On a side note in the Old Testament in the Genesis account, we don’t ever see that Noah’s out preaching teaching. But here in Moses we do, we see that he is preaching, he’s testifying, he’s trying to help them and the people rejecting it in the Bible account, some people could read that and think that Noah doesn’t do anything to help the rest of the human race. He’s just got his family builds his ark and then they’re saved in the flood. But Moses helps us see that he is out preaching, testifying, trying to help them. They’re not hearkening, they’re not listening. They don’t wanna hear three different times. You’re hearing that right here, that element, there’s some principles there about being saved.

John Bytheway:               00:27:31             What jumped out to me again, Mike, is what you showed us. First, they were sons of God and then they started acting like sons of men. But verse 21, they still think they’re sons of God but they’re not hearkening. They’ve got the title down but not the behavior I guess.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:27:45             Yeah, in verse 21, their claim is, Hey, haven’t we done good things? You know, we’re marrying, we’re doing good things and there’s no bad consequences. Nothing bad’s happening to us. We’re all right, we’re eating and drinking and marrying and God hasn’t come down and done. You know the irony of all ironies that God is sending someone to tell them but they’re not listening to him. They think, oh, we’re just fine. Nothing bad’s happening to us. Sometimes when we excuse or we don’t look at. It’s not really agency issue. It’s an accountability issue that causes people the struggle. We are not being real honest with ourselves in what’s happening. And I think that’s what’s happening to these people and part of the downfall.

Hank Smith:                      00:28:34             That’s interesting, this word hearken comes up quite a bit. I’ve noticed someone might read this and go, oh, the Lord’s not being very merciful. He’s not even asking them to obey saying, listen, gimme some attention here. This isn’t about weakness, this is about rebellion.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:28:53             On that highlights in verse 22, Hank why don’t you read verse 22. It highlights that even more.

Hank Smith:                      00:28:58             God saw that the wickedness of men had become great in the earth and every man was lifted up in the imagination of the thoughts of his heart being only evil continually. Oof.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:29:11             In Micah 2:1, a cross reference, it says, woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds. When the morning is light they practice it because it is in the power of their hand. They’re devising iniquity. They’re thinking of ways to be. So this is outright rebellion against God. Some people ask, what’s the mercy in this? Where’s mercy found in the flood in your scriptures on verse 22, you got the scripture help again that I think is really good. Well, there’s a couple statements there. First one is from President John Taylor and he explained that by taking away the earthly existence, God prevented them from entailing their sins upon their posterity and degenerating or corrupting them. Elder Maxwell also taught that the corruption had reached such an agency destroying point that the spirits could not in justice be sent there. Those are helpful just to recognize that God is merciful and even in this story, even though it looks on the surface, the flood is catastrophic and hard. I think also Nephi in chapter 26, he does not do, he doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of his children. That’s a great thing to remember when we’re reading stories in the Old Testament in general, but all scripture stories that everything he’s doing, he’s trying to help and benefit and bless his children. When we get bent outta shape on something that how come God’s doing this, we ought to have some humility to stop and say, okay, now how’s this helping?

Hank Smith:                      00:30:53             Young people I’ve noticed can get really caught up on this because they are so charitable and they’re so kind and they think, well this doesn’t seem very Christ-like. And you’re like, well by definition it’s Christ-like ’cause it’s him doing it. But I think you’re right on there. How merciful is he being to the unborn who he’s not sending into that situation? Help me out here, Mike. Isn’t it a conversation between the Lord and Abraham where he says, look, find me one righteous person and I won’t destroy it. Find me some something. I would think that this same thing is is here. There’s not one, there’s not a single person besides Noah and his family who are willing to listen to the Lord. You guys tell me if I’m going too far with this. I don’t know if the Lord experiences death the same way you and I do. To him it might be, well you’re just moving classrooms, right? I’m moving you from this classroom to this classroom. I know to us, of course, it’s devastating and I think he does understand that, he’s gotta have a different perspective on moving us from mortality to the spirit world.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:31:58             Yeah, absolutely. He’s got a perspective that’s so different. For him it’s that blink of an eye transferring our state into another room really. But it’s existence is still happening. God is still there watching over us, but we mourn ’cause we miss them. We don’t see them and that’s where it’s painful.

Hank Smith:                      00:32:17             When you read a story like this, at least try to take on the Lord’s perspective.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:32:23             Yeah. See the mercy

John Bytheway:               00:32:25             If you go slow in 22, don’t read that too fast. This sounds like, what would you call it other than a fullness of wickedness? The wickedness had become great. Every man, that’s a high percentage, lifted up in the imagination of the thoughts of his heart being only evil continually. I mean this is a fullness. Boy, I loved what you quoted there in the study help of Elder Maxwell. It was an agency robbing type. You couldn’t send kids into that. They’d have no agency. That’s a fascinating thought.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:33:00             Well, can you imagine if you were, I don’t remember so I can’t remember what I was saying up there, but I can imagine saying, you know God saying, I’m gonna send you down during this time. I might say, hold on. I don’t, the only way I’ll go is if you put me in Noah’s family and I gotta be one of those three sons. Otherwise don’t send me. That’s not fair.

Hank Smith:                      00:33:22             Yeah. I have no chance. There’s not a parent on the earth who is willing to help a child draw closer to God. They’re gonna teach their children to be evil and that’s gonna perpetuate, it’s gonna get even worse. Yeah.

John Bytheway:               00:33:36             Teaching only evil continually means those are, it’s like 100%. There’s no good in there.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:33:44             God is a God of new beginnings. That’s Elder Kearon in the last conference talk. He loves it when we change, when we repent daily. That’s a new beginning. Every day he’s giving us chance. Here, it’s a literal experience. He’s saying, okay, we’re gonna have a new beginning, a new start. And that washing of the earth is that new beginning. I love it. You know another way to highlight that mercy is that in verse 23, Noah continues his preaching. He is preaching, testifying, exhorting, pleading with his friends and neighbors to repent and change and they’re just not having any part of it. The tragic point of no return. It’s their agency, they’re choosing that. It’s not God imposing it on them.

John Bytheway:               00:34:33             And I love that verse 24, look at those first principles and ordinances. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

Hank Smith:                      00:34:40             I’ve read in studies that in self-reporting between a quarter and half of teens who have alcohol, it was provided by their parents. Parents introduced them to alcohol.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:34:57             Living out where we live here, I see that in high school it’s the kids are having the parties and I think the parents are trying to, it’s the attitude, well there’s nothing I can do to stop ’em from taking it. So maybe if I do it, it’s in my own house, it’ll be controlled and I’ll be able to oversee it. Most of them are being introduced. They’ve, it’s a rite of passage almost for them. So they don’t know any different. They go off to colleges and they think that’s what you have to do. That’s all they see. Sadly, sometimes some of our own Latter-day Saints get caught up. It’s kind of becoming the culture that you have to drink. You got the happy hour, but it’s being taught.

Hank Smith:                      00:35:35             Being taught and muddled. I have written above verse 24, would you like water or would you like water? You can be baptized or you can have a flood.

John Bytheway:               00:35:46             Oh Hank, thanks for saying that. That reminds me of Isaiah. Do you want the waters that come softly? Waters of Shiloh or Siloam or would you like an Assyrian tsunami? The way Isaiah puts it, you can have the waters that go softly or you can have a tsunami of Assyrians who are gonna wipe you out.

Hank Smith:                      00:36:06             There is no door number three. Right? These are your choices.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:36:10             Yeah, it’s that choice, that agency you get to choose. I love the connections. That’s beautiful. Coming back, John, to your thought there in verse 24, these principles, first principles and ordinances of the gospel. There it’s highlighting this is the plan of salvation our father, it’s not really the baptism that’s saving us, it’s Jesus Christ. It’s him that’s gonna be saving us. He’s trying to teach us, this is what’s important. I’m gonna save you. I have power to save. You can have a new beginning, but you’ve gotta follow my plan.

Hank Smith:                      00:36:41             Yeah. And this man, John, I know we’ve said this a thousand times. The Lord is the one doing it. This is what it always comes back to. He seems to say those are good questions. Can we talk about four things? I really like to talk about ’em, right? Faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost. It frustrates my students. I bet for both of you it does. They’ll say, Hey, what do you think about? And it’s something really out there. When I read the scriptures, the Lord generally says, great question. I’ll answer that someday. I really would like you to focus on faith or repentance, baptism and the Holy Ghost. I mean it just keeps coming up over and over and over as if the Lord is trying to reset us again back to what matters.

John Bytheway:               00:37:31             Corianton, you marvel about this, you marvel about this, you worry about this and you think this is unjust. Let these things trouble you no more. Let your sins trouble you. Come to Jesus Christ. Repent, have faith in him. Alma just says good questions, however, come to Christ and repent. He is the savior.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:37:55             When I was writing on the curriculum team, I received an assignment to go through our past curriculum in seminary and just see where we taught lessons of repentance in that process. As I reviewed the lessons, I started to see it is everywhere, almost every lesson in those seminary lessons. It was a lesson, especially in the Book of Mormon, was a lesson on repentance with President Nelson and how he helped us to see this repent daily. And then Elder Andersen’s book on the divine gift of forgiveness and how important this is. And it’s not a negative. This is beautiful. This is the plan. We can repent. We don’t have to stay in this state. We can change and be better that I can become a better person. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes lots of practice and time after time, I still stumble and fall over the same thing over and over and over again.

                                           00:38:54             But God is merciful. He says, you keep trying. I’m trying. To me that’s the difference between, I was asking my students the other day, what’s the difference between repenting of a sin and repenting of sinning? That’s an idea that Elder Andersen put forth. I’ve wrestled with that ’cause I’ve tried to figure out what does that mean? Repenting of a sin is this checklist of I just gotta feel remorse. I’ve just gotta make restitution. And then you go through the checklist and you get to pass it off. But rather than repenting of sinning is recognizing my weakness before God and not wanting to do anything that would not make me worthy to be in his presence. It’s an attitude. In Mosiah you see the people, they all, after listening to King Benjamin in chapter four, they all cried aloud. They viewed themselves in their own carnal state and then they said, oh, have mercy and apply the atoning blood. And they had no more desire to sin. That doesn’t mean they didn’t make mistakes, but their heart was, we don’t want to like these things that we’ve been doing. I want to change and it still is gonna be a process. And I think that’s where we need to get, we need to be loving celestial things that’s part of that growth. I think the pattern of repentance.

Hank Smith:                      00:40:12             Wouldn’t you both say that these four principles and the source of the power, the Savior Jesus Christ, you can never tire of these as a teacher. Never say, well we talked about repentance last time. That was, that’s all the Lord seems to do. The Lord never says, oh, we talked about repentance last verse. No, I wanna cover it again and I wanna cover it again. As a teacher, Mike, you’ve worked with teachers seminary and institute teachers, church teachers. Wouldn’t you say it’s okay? It’s okay to talk about these things over and over and over. In fact, it’s preferred.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:40:52             I think Elder Bruce R. McConkie, this is seminary training 101. We got, you know, that we wanted to teach the scriptures in the way the Lord laid it out. And if there’s a topic that comes up often, then you should teach it often. Repentance and faith, that’s the topic that comes up all the time that ought to be. It’s divine repetition, the Lord, and most of us struggle after four or five times, six, seven times we hear the same message and maybe the really good ones hear it. . . But I need to hear it more than that. Just to let it sink in and change and God’s merciful in that. That’s his loving nature. It gives us time and time if we’ll just keep trying. Keep hearkening, keep listening, keep trying.

Hank Smith:                      00:41:40             Yeah. And the fact that there’s no repentance happening, zero repentance happening that tells you how serious the Lord takes this.

John Bytheway:               00:41:49             I like what Mike said about repenting for sins and repenting of sinning and I’m reminded of could be the first temple recommend, who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Clean hands could be seen as being stained by sin, but then sinfullness, purify my heart. Clean hands and a pure heart, help me lose desire for sin. And that’s a process that’s over time because it’s a process we keep coming back to repentance. Repent every day. We repent relentlessly, sorry to always bring up this analogy, but I love airplanes and an airliner’s off course most of the time, but it just keeps turning back onto course. Turn is a synonym for repent. So it is a process and it has to be daily.

Hank Smith:                      00:42:43             I remember President Oaks saying that his favorite messages, his favorite talks are those in which someone helps him see one of these principles. Faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, the Savior in just a different light. Those are his favorite messages. Help me see this same thing in a different way.

John Bytheway:               00:43:08             I love that Hank, because yeah, we’re going to hear first principles a lot. How wonderful to hear them in a new way or to get a new insight when you hear them.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:43:17             One last thought on repentance, one of my favorite talks is by Lynn G. Robbins and he talked about the definition of success is going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. And he said the same principle applies with repentance. So we go from mistake from mistake without any loss of enthusiasm, but that is the plan. There’s others that believe that Adam and Eve messed up and so God had to revamp and make an adjustment to his plan. But that was the plan all along that we come down, we have to learn how to repent and change so that we can become like him. It’s beautiful.

Hank Smith:                      00:43:54             Alma 42:17. How can a man repent except he should sin? If God wants us to repent, I think he has the expectation of us making mistakes and sinning.

John Bytheway:               00:44:06             Or a couple of chapters ago, Moses 6:55, they taste the bitter that they may know to prize the good. We’re gonna taste the bitter. It almost sounds like we’re supposed to taste it and remember it so that we prize the good.

Hank Smith:                      00:44:22             I just don’t want anyone else to be disobedient. It doesn’t hurt me. I can be disobedient, but man, when someone hurts me with their disobedience.

John Bytheway:               00:44:29             We’re gonna call ’em on it.

Hank Smith:                      00:44:30             That’s not okay. Alright Mike, what should we do next?

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:44:37             Just maybe one last thing here in verse 25, this idea that it repented God and I’m trying to find my statement.

Hank Smith:                      00:44:45             That it repented Noah.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:44:48             Yeah. That it repented Noah. So in verse 25, it repented Noah and his heart was pained. That idea a repented Noah really is, it’s that coming back to his name, Noah, it’s he’s pained, he’s sorrowing and it’s, that’s what it is. It isn’t that Noah’s necessarily repenting or even in the Genesis account that God is repenting that he made man, that’s not it at all. It’s just that there’s a pain, there’s a sorrow. And Enoch in Moses 7 you see that he’s weeping tears over these children that don’t hearken, that won’t hearken. That again is highlighting the mercy of God and not, he is pained that we, he loves his children but he’s just pained that they won’t listen, won’t hearken to him.

Hank Smith:                      00:45:37             Mike, when I’m teaching young people, then maybe this is just a subtle difference. The question isn’t if you’re going to sin, the question is are you gonna repent? God’s not as upset at sin as he is as hurt by not repenting.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:45:54             Yeah, that reminds me of the verse in Alma 33:16. For behold he said, thou art angry oh Lord, with this people because they will not understand thy mercies, which thou hast bestowed upon them because of thy Son. Absolutely.

John Bytheway:               00:46:10             For years I read that in the context of oh Alma, showing them that God will have a Son because he heard their prayer on the Rameumptom and I missed the beautiful message in there about how merciful God is. It says they will not understand his mercies. It’s like they refuse to understand how merciful, you ever met somebody that can’t seem to forgive themselves. That’s a good verse.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:46:34             That causes him pain, that makes him sorrowful. When they’re not receiving that grace and mercy that he wants to give, he delights to give. It makes him angry when they don’t receive it, it’s paining him.

Hank Smith:                      00:46:50             Mike, I noticed in other versions of the Bible, when you see it repented Noah or God repented, the word in most versions is actually regret or grieved or heartbroken. What you’re saying there is we’re not seeing God go, oh no, I made a mistake. You’re seeing God saying, oh this is heartbreaking.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:47:11             Yeah, you’re breaking my heart. You know the Savior, it even says James Talmage says that he broke, he died of a broken heart that his heart ruptured. I think that’s the image with our father in heaven, that he’s heartbroken that his children won’t listen. That’s the parable of the prodigal son. He sees his son leaving and doing these terrible things, but then he’s watching, waiting patiently for that son to come back and as soon as he sees him way off from the mountainside, he sees and he is running to him ’cause he’s so excited to see his son. Our father in heaven’s got that same love for us and just wants us to come back, pains him when we don’t.

Hank Smith:                      00:47:49             That’s good because yeah, I can see someone asking, wait God repented, wait, Noah, repented of being a prophet. No, that’s a different use of that word.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:48:00             In verse 27, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord for Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation and he walked with God as did also his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the word perfect, we’ve heard the definition. President Nelson has highlighted that it doesn’t mean without sin, it just means complete, whole, finished, that idea that he’s on track to be able to come back home. He is doing what the Lord wants him to do. There’s a principle in all of this as I look at that whole context now in Moses chapter eight, this principle of God sends a prophet, a chosen vessel, if you will, to speak to his children that they can repent, that they can learn and change and come back. And that to me really is the message of Moses chapter eight is that there’s safety in following the prophet.

                                           00:48:58             We’re gonna see the result here as we get into Genesis, the flood is coming, the chaos, the safety is found in following a prophet. And that message is to me one of the most important messages for our day, our culture today, the world we live in right now, I think is gonna be one of the main issues, are we gonna follow a prophet? Are we gonna listen to him? God’s been waiting for 2000 years to speak to His church for the first time. Here’s the very first day, the first message he gives Hank, if you’ll read verse four and five of section 21 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

Hank Smith:                      00:49:37             You got it. Here it is. Wherefore meaning the church thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments, this is Joseph Smith, which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:49:59             Thank you. I love that message. God, I can see him being so excited here I am getting to speak to my my church. And the message is you need to follow the prophet, you need to listen. And he highlights that same message in section 28, verse two and three. He highlights again in section 43 verse three through five. It’s a hard thing to learn that we’ve gotta follow the prophet. Now we’ve had almost 200 years of practice with that principle, yet I think it’s still really relevant today. We live in a day that it’s sometimes not popular or public sentiment says this is the words of the prophets, you know, is not cool or in the norm or it’s not the majority view and so we don’t listen. But he’s still teaching that same message. In fact, go maybe one more 3 Nephi 21. 3 Nephi chapter 21 verse 11.

                                           00:51:01             I was in a meeting with Joseph Fielding McConkie and maybe John you had a master’s degree and he was one of your teachers. He may have said this to you as well, but he told us in the curriculum team that he thought this was one of the most important verses in all the scripture, which kind of floored me. I’m learning that I really love it. This is Jesus Christ teaching the Nephites and he’s really talking about our day and he’s been speaking about prophets in the last days verse 11. Therefore it shall come to pass that whosoever will not believe in my words, who am Jesus Christ, which the Father shall cause him, referring to Joseph Smith here, to bring forth unto the Gentiles and shall give unto him power that he shall bring them forth unto the Gentiles and it shall be done even as Moses said, they shall be cut off from among my people who are of the covenant.

                                           00:51:57             There is no mincing words with that. This is a message that if you want to be with me, you’ve gotta listen to my prophets, my chosen vessels whom I’ve called to preach the word. That doesn’t mean they’re perfect, that doesn’t mean that we just have blind faith, but we’ve gotta trust their words. And I’m persuaded from my experience that we can trust them and they’re gonna help us get back to our father and they’re gonna give us the words we need to get back to our father in heaven.

Hank Smith:                      00:52:30             Looking up October, 2025, our most recent general conference, you can go to the talk from President Oaks, the Family Centered Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I thought to myself, do I? Do I know what he said recently and since I believe in what you’re teaching us here, Mike, do I know what he said? He says, as parental influences diminish, Latter-day Saints still have a God-given responsibility to teach their children to prepare for our family destiny in eternity. He goes on, our doctrine and our belief in eternal families strengthen and bond us. He says, many church members have beloved family members who do not embrace gospel values and expectations. Such members need our love and patience. He says, in relating to one another, we should remember that the perfection we seek is not limited to the stressful circumstances of mortality. Our Savior, Jesus Christ is our ultimate role model. We will be blessed if we model our lives after his teachings and self sacrifice. And he goes on, Mike, I need to put my money where my mouth is. If I really believe that there’s a prophet on the earth today and that you told me from Moses eight, the main takeaway, listen to the prophet. It might be a good idea to go listen to the prophet this week right? To go and reread, re-listen to his message from the last general conference.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:54:04             Yeah. I started to learn this principle with President Nelson and how often the other general authorities and other apostles and other authorities in the church quoted President Nelson. And it’s astronomical. It just skyrocketed when President Nelson became the President of the Church because we’re starting to really understand how important this principle is. And so they were all quoting him using what he said. And you can kind of go and do a little search. You can see that there was just so many more quoting President Nelson. And I’m expecting we’ll see the same thing with President Oaks now that we’re gonna see that same elevation as we’re gonna focus on the words of a prophet. Elder Clark Gilbert to the commission of church education gave a talk about on this principle and he said, we ought to be a prophetic echo. I love that.

                                           00:54:54             An echo of what the prophets are saying when we’re asked to speak in church or teach a lesson, we ought to be echoing what the message is of the general authorities. Not get on our little hobby horses, but focus on what apostles, the President of The Church especially, but apostles and prophets are teaching, be a prophetic echo or amplify the words of prophets. Those two ideas amplify their message, be a prophetic echo. We ought to be so deeply familiar with their words that when we interact with people or even our families and our children, we can pull upon their messages and be able to use them to help teach and train, I think there’s safety for the soul if we do that.

Hank Smith:                      00:55:34             Mike, if I remember President Nelson when President Monson was president of the church, he quoted President Monson all the time. He said, President Monson last year gave us a challenge to read the Book of Mormon. I did and here’s what I found. Yeah. Even the prophet now was giving us the example of how to follow a prophet before they became the President of The Church.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:55:56             I’m just slow. I think they’ve been doing that all along and I just haven’t caught on like I see it now happening. Glad that God has mercy on me. That is a message.

John Bytheway:               00:56:08             Boy and President Nelson made it easy for us because he had these wonderfully concise phrases like hear him and let God prevail and covenant path and think celestial. To quote Joseph Fielding McConkie, he said once there’s a big difference between the prophet said this, however, and the prophet said this, therefore, I like the idea of being a prophetic echo.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:56:37             So if I get a topic, to speak, if I get a chance to speak, I wanna first say, well, what has the prophet said? And then I’m gonna say what he said. That ought to calm everybody’s fear. If they’re ever getting a chance to speak or to teach a class, you don’t have to come up with new titillating doctrines. Just focus on what the prophet’s saying. Speak what they’re speaking about. And you’re gonna be in safe water.

Hank Smith:                      00:57:01             What excellent advice, a prophetic echo. I love it. Just pass the message along.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:57:07             Yeah, as we think about the mercy of God. Two other verses in the Old Testament, Ezekiel 33:11. If we could go there, John, when you get there, would you read that for us? Ezekiel 33:11 looking for the mercy of God and considering his mercy in the flood and how that is a merciful thing. Just seeing what our God is like.

John Bytheway:               00:57:35             Ezekiel 33:11 saying to them as I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways for why will ye die? O house of Israel.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:57:53             Can’t you hear the pleading of God and helping us see what, yeah, his character. There’s another one, Ezekiel 18 that has a similar message, but let’s just go there.

John Bytheway:               00:58:04             Ezekiel 18:23 is, have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways and live?

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:58:14             He’s answering Ezekiel, if there is any doubt, if anybody has any doubt at all, God loves his children and he’s paying to see them doing wickedly. This perception of God being a vengeful harsh God is not played out in the Old Testament like sometimes people assume. He loves his children, he is just trying everything he can to help bring them back. Save them. I love that.

Hank Smith:                      00:58:41             Right in the beginning of the year we had Josh Sears here. We often look for Jesus in the Old Testament, in the prophecies about Jesus. Don’t forget, this is Jesus speaking. This is Jehovah. You don’t have to just look for him in the prophecies of his life. You can look for the words of Jehovah. Mike you’ve taught us about the Lord, what kind of being he is. He is loving. He is kind. He also is merciful and is thinking, how can I let this continue? It’s helping no one.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        00:59:16             Reading those verses particular, I can feel what God may have been feeling as he says it. I try to imagine being in his presence and the pained look on his face, the sorrow in his voice. Why will ye die? Oh, you wicked. I want you, I keep calling you back and you’re not listening. The Savior says it in the New Testament, he laments Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How often I would’ve gathered you. It’s that same feeling and that moves me when I read it and I feel that. I sense God’s love and mercy for all of us.

Hank Smith:                      00:59:54             We have a God who, we believe in a Lord that has emotions, feelings, heartache. He is a God of love and feeling. It’s interesting, Mike, that the book of Moses just kind of ends. Just kind of stops. Sounds like somewhere where Joseph Smith probably said, all right, we’re gonna change up how we’re doing the JST. We can’t rewrite every one of these verses.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        01:00:21             Yeah. If we had more time with Joseph, I’d like to see if he’d go back and make a few more changes. But we have so much with the book. It’s beautiful and thank the Lord that we have what we have with Moses ’cause it really adds so much more color and depth to the account in Genesis. Let’s turn over to Genesis six now and jump in there with that kind of a background. The question really is, how many stories in scriptures do we have where vessels bring salvation to a family? What are some stories that, first ones that come to your mind?

Hank Smith:                      01:00:56             Nephi and Lehi.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        01:00:58             Okay. Good.

John Bytheway:               01:01:00             Brother of Jared.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        01:01:01             Brother of Jared. Good.

Hank Smith:                      01:01:03             I wonder, could you count Moses in the, in his mother’s arc?

John Bytheway:               01:01:10             They call it his basket. Yeah.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        01:01:12             Yeah. Certainly. That’s bringing salvation to a whole group of the family. Often God is using objects to save his family, his children, and he uses anything that he can to save his family. We’re gonna see that here in this story especially, but it’s really common for him to use different elements to save his family. There’s an interesting verse in Hebrews where it says, Paul is a chosen vessel. Even prophets. He uses it, even that little play on that word. He’s the vessel of salvation for his children, his family. He’s using vessels to save his family.

Hank Smith:                      01:01:52             He uses objects and a good teacher uses object lessons. Oftentimes when we discuss a vessel, like we’re gonna discuss the arc, there’s lessons in the building of the arc. There’s lessons in how they use it. There’s lessons in what it does. He’s the ultimate teacher, right? We love object lessons. What teacher doesn’t love an object lesson? If you’re the Lord, you get to make big object lessons.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        01:02:17             He is really good at it. The Savior teaching, how many times he uses parables or elements of seeds or prodigals or coins or nets to teach these principles ’cause they are so graphic for us. But again, he’s trying in every way to reach us and I think he’s trying really to utilize every sense, sight, sound, touch, hearing. He’s using every one of the senses to teach, giving us as many opportunities. For some people it’s just the smell. That’s what’s gonna teach him. So he calls it a sweet savor. The sacrifices and you think of a barbecue and sometimes that’s the most beautiful smell or baking bread. That is so beautiful for me. But he uses every element of the senses to teach his children, to try to help them connect with him. I think that’s a beautiful thing. I wanna look for those a little bit more often and look for them here.

                                           01:03:17             How he’s trying to teach his children here. I wanna highlight that I’m learning this from other great teachers. I’m just a novice at this stuff. So many other teachers that have gone before me and Shauna Seamons is one of our coordinators out in Boston and she shared this idea with me that I had loved. Genesis 6:12. Let’s pick it up there. We know that they’re wicked and we’ve already covered that. They’re marrying outside of the covenant. The Lord’s trying to help us see something there about the covenant. But let’s pick it up in verse 12 and 13. We’re gonna read 12 through 18, but we’re gonna jump and pause a little bit. So 12, let’s just pick up in verse 12. Hank, you wanna read that one for us?

Hank Smith:                      01:04:00             Chapter 6:12, and God looked upon the earth and behold it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        01:04:11             Okay, what exactly is corrupt here? Is it the earth that’s corrupt or the people that’s corrupt? All flesh sounds like the people that corrupted their own way. It’s not the Earth, it’s people. He uses that phrase his way, his, it’s not capitalized here, but to me that’s God’s way. They’ve corrupted God’s way. If President Nelson were translating their verse, he might say his covenant way or his covenant path. I think there’s his pathway here, we wanna see that’s being changed or corrupted. His covenant pathway. Connecting that here with covenants will help us as we move through this story. Then, and again, this is the plan of our Father and the plan of salvation is just gonna be laid out right here for us. But this is what’s happening. His covenant pathway is being corrupt ’cause people aren’t listening, they’re not hearkening, they’re marrying outside that covenant line. They’re rejecting that covenant and the promises that are associated with that covenant.

Hank Smith:                      01:05:24             It’s turned to violence, but now it’s not only we’re sinning, we’re now causing pain on other people. We’re violently, I would guess, taking and hurting and trying to wield power. This is really spiraling.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        01:05:42             Maybe if we jumped over to Genesis 11, God’s covenant way is to give us a name. He wants to give us His name to be called His children. In chapter 11 these two different stories are being played out. One that’s good and what’s bad, and I think you’ll see that often in scriptures that God often gives us the opposite or the counterfeit. That’s Genesis 11 and verse three. It’s the Tower of Babel or the Tower of Babel, and then verse four, they say, let us make us a name. Instead of God giving them his name, they’re taking upon, they want to create their own name or give themselves a name. That comes later in this story, but you need to see both of ’em where God wants his covenant way. The opposite is that they’re gonna find their own way. Genesis six. Let’s go back now in verse 14.

                                           01:06:33             Here’s the instruction in this world, in this context of wickedness, how do I help save my children? What’s next? I’ve tried the famine. What’s next? We’re gonna do the flood. Pick it up in verse 14. I’ll read verse 14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark and shall pitch it within and without with pitch. As I look at that, my first thought is, okay, is there anything there that’s reminding me of Jesus Christ? Certainly you see, I hope that we’re seeing wood. This ark, this vessel is made of wood and I think it’s a great reaction. The reflection to think of the Savior and his cross on wood, it was a cross beam, a cross that he carried, made from wood. The arc of the covenant was made with wood. So there’s some similar themes of the wood right off the bat. Me thinking of Jesus Christ, this is really not a story of Noah. It’s a story of the Savior. And then to pitch it and we got another one of those great teacher helps there. What is the significance of the coating of the pitch in the ark? So if you’re looking at all your electronic scriptures, you’ve got a little insight pitch and what it means, and we probably ought to read this one, this one’s such a good one.

Hank Smith:                      01:07:49             For Genesis 6:14. It says, what is significant about the coating of pitch on the ark? Here’s the answer. God told Noah to pitch the ark, meaning to cover it with pitch, a tar-like substance to seal it and make it waterproof. The Hebrew word translated as pitch is the root word for atone. It has been suggested that the atonement of Jesus Christ provides us with a protective covering. It shields us from the power of the adversary just as the pitch protected the ark from the life-threatening waters.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        01:08:27             Isn’t that beautiful and love it’s right there in those electronic scriptures set to help us understand and start to see the connections with this ark. So it’s being pitched or being covered. It’s the same word that’s used with Moses in his little craft that his mom and sister create and put him in the river. It’s covered with the pitch. The writers are trying to help us see that this is a covering. This is the protection that comes from Jesus Christ. It’s not about an ark. This is about Jesus Christ.

Hank Smith:                      01:09:01             Adam and Eve coming out of the Garden of Eden. They are covered with a protective covering and it’s Jesus Christ. He is covering them. John knows I’m a big fan of when the Savior talks about public spirituality and private spirituality, we need to be publicly spiritual. That’s an important part of missionary work. We’re a good example. If you look at like the Sermon on the Mount, it’s really about private spirituality. I’m looking at this verse Mike and I could talk about I’m shielded within and without, not only am I publicly religious and spiritual, I’m also privately religious and spiritual. There’s prayers that nobody sees. There’s temple attendance that nobody sees. There’s scripture study, there’s pondering that is just between me and him.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        01:09:57             That’s a beautiful connection. I love the idea of the heart. I was just teaching a lesson on Isaiah one. There the Lord is telling the people, I am full of your sacrifices. In other words, I’m fed up to here with your sacrifices and your offering. They’re going through the motions. They’re doing the outward ordinance. They’re going to their church. They’re taking the sacrament, but it’s not in their heart. And God says, I want your heart. The idea of orthopraxy versus orthodoxy. It’s the idea of knowing. Certainly that’s the orthodoxy. We know the doctrines and there’s also the orthopraxy. The idea of doing something. God wants both. He wants our heart. So as we’re going to church, going through some of these motions, if we’re just doing it to check it off a checklist, that’s not what God wants. He wants our hearts and he is trying every way that he can to grab them. Whether that’s through sacraments, whether that’s singing hymns, whether that’s watching a little video in the temple, it’s he’s trying to grab us somehow to help us. So it’s not just something we’re going through the motions on that. We’re really doing it inwardly as well as outwardly.

John Bytheway:               01:11:24             I’m remembering too, I think when we did this four years ago, talking about our homes could be pitched without. We’re not gonna let destructive forces in and pitched within we’re gonna be kind to each other and try to keep the Spirit with us and the way we interact with each other. Easier said than done. I like that idea of the pitch makes it watertight.

Bro. Michael Cottle:        01:11:47             I wanna take that a little bit further maybe that everything that’s in the ark is going to be sealed up against the chaos of the flood that’s raging outside. It’s protected, it’s sealed up, so it’s sealing out all the worldly influence, the chaos and preserving everything that’s inside that fits with our homes. That’s what Jesus Christ does for us. As we go to the temple, we’re sealed up. Every time we make covenants, we’re sealed, giving us some protection. There’s a power given to us, sealing us against the temptations of the world and protecting us from the chaos of the world, keeping the things closest to us, our families, especially connected to us.