"Stretch forth thine hand" -- Part 1 (Nephi and Moses)

Occasionally I come across a verse in the Book of Mormon that catches my attention.  Such was the case recently as I read the account of Samuel the Lamanite:

4 And it came to pass that they would not suffer that he should enter into the city; therefore he went and got upon the wall thereof, and stretched forth his hand and cried with a loud voice, and prophesied unto the people whatsoever things the Lord put into his heart. (Helaman 13)

For some reason, the phrase "stretched forth his hand" stuck in my mind. I started to look for other examples. As is so often the case, new ideas came together as I noticed the patterns associated with this phrase.  I ended up looking at many, many verses throughout the scriptures. I'm excited to lay this all out and see what comes out of it.

Let's begin with Nephi.  "Stretch forth thine hand" is the title of this series of posts for a reason.  With these words, Nephi is intending to teach us a powerful lesson.  The setting is Bountiful in the old world, as the brothers murmur against Nephi for desiring to build a ship as the Lord had commanded.  Laman and Lemuel tell Nephi they know the people in Jerusalem were righteous because they kept the law of Moses.  In a masterful sermon, Nephi rebuts them by referencing Moses five times including this reference:

26 Now ye know that Moses was commanded of the Lord to do that great work; and ye know that by his word the waters of the Red Sea were divided hither and thither, and they passed through on dry ground. (1 Nephi 17)

And this one:

42 And they did harden their hearts from time to time, and they did revile against Moses, and also against God; nevertheless, ye know that they were led forth by his matchless power into the land of promise. 

It's not very difficult to see what Moses is doing here.  In both cases, he's clearly comparing himself to Moses. The brothers didn't take this very well:

48 And now it came to pass that when I had spoken these words they were angry with me, and were desirous to throw me into the depths of the sea;

In this moment, the brothers wanted to do to Nephi what God, through Moses, caused to happen to the Egyptians who pursued the children of Israel.

Then, in a powerful moment, God speaks to Nephi and tells him what to do in order to convince his brothers that he was following God's command:

53 And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: Stretch forth thine hand again unto thy brethren, and they shall not wither before thee, but I will shock them, saith the Lord, and this will I do, that they may know that I am the Lord their God.

Nephi obeys and the brothers receive a physical witness that God is with Nephi.

Interestingly, Moses was given this command from God to "stretch forth/out [his] hand" on many occasions, including as Israel is miraculously saved from the Egyptians:

16 But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. (Exodus 14, see also verses 21 and 26-27) 

In a less obvious way, I believe Nephi is demonstrating to us that the same power manifested through Moses was the power that allowed Nephi to accomplish the many great things he did.

In the next part of this series, we'll take a closer look at Moses and the phrase "stretch forth/out thine hand." Then we'll look at a few other important examples of how this phrase comes into play in the Old Testament.