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 dryground 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.
The phrase in the heading has always been a bit mysterious. You may recognize it from the second verse of Genesis. The creation is a fascinating account chock full of symbolism. What to make of this phrase? Two important things are worth mentioning for a start. "Spirit" in this phrase is from the Hebrew word, "ruach", which can mean spirit, breath or wind. I will get back to that. Next, the symbolism of water. This is a complex symbol in ancient Hebrew culture with both positive and negative connotation. We have the pure, living waters, the fountain of righteousness, the symbolism of the life-giving substance that can be applied to our spiritual life. But it is also used as a chaos motif, especially when it is not confined within its bounds and when the tempest is raging. This is what we see in the very early stages of the creation account. The "darkness...upon the face of the deep" was frightening. But God did not remove the water. He separated the water and dry land and then "God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1:10).
Noah and the flood
I have begun to understand how fundamental the creation account was in the Israelite culture. It keeps getting referenced, both in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, sometimes more subtly than others. This post shows some examples of how the story about Noah and the flood refers to the creation account. It is another story where the chaos motif of water is used, but also with a positive connotation because the earth was baptized and got a new start. But there was no spirit moving upon the waters. Or was there? In Genesis 8:1
God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged
Recall that wind and spirit is the same word in Hebrew. Ruach is used both in Genesis 8:1 and 1:2, only translated differently into English. So in both cases we have a "ruach" before the separation of water and land. Just to underscore the reference to the creation account, the next sentence in Genesis 8:2 starts with "the fountains...of the deep". "Deep" is translated from the Hebrew "tehom" that is also found in Genesis 1:2. It can also be translated into "sea" and is therefore synonymous with "waters" (Hebr. mayim). But it has a more negative connotation (it is also sometimes translated into "abyss").
Moses and the parting of the Red Sea
This 'ruach' of God turns up again in Exodus 14 prior to separation of waters and land
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lordcaused the sea to go back by a strong east wind [Hebr. ruach] all that night, and made the sea dryland, and the waters were divided. (Exodus 14:21)
In English, the "Spirit of God" and the "east wind" sound like two completely different things. Not in Hebrew. As mentioned, both spirit and wind is the same, but in addition, the 'east' signifies that it comes from God. Same pattern again, quite unmistakably, especially when the "deep" (tehom) is referenced once more as the Israelites sing about their redemption from the Egyptians.
4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.
5 The depths [Hebr. tehom] have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.
6 Thy righthand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. (Exodus 15)
Summary of the three accounts
We have three accounts where the ruach of God turns up right before the beneficial separation of water and dry land contrasted by the frightening tehom. The table below shows the contrasting context for these Hebrew words in the three stories.
Hebrew
word
Creation
account
Noah and
the flood
Moses and the parting of the Red Sea
Tehom
Darkness
(Genesis 1:2)
Broke up to cause a great flood
(Genesis 7:11)
Egyptians
drowning (Exodus 15:5)
Ruach
Preceding the separation of water
and dry land, pronounced “good” (Genesis 1:2, 10)
Causing the flood to recede and
redeem Noah and his family (Genesis 8:1)
Causing the Red Sea to divide and
redeem Israel (Exodus 14:21)
There is a clear pattern. But what does it all mean? I don't know if I really have the full answer to that, but the New Testament offers intriguing insight.
Birth/creation and rebirth/new creation
Recall when Jesus was baptized. The Spirit descended upon the waters of Jordan in the from of a dove. I don't think it is coincidence that familiar symbolism from the Old Testament accounts discussed above shows up at this event. Even though the New Testament is written in Greek and not Hebrew, there is still the same spirit/wind dualism. "Pneuma" means both and is the word used for "Spirit" in John 1:32
And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
The Spirit from heaven reminds us of the "ruach" from God in the Old Testament accounts, but especially Noah. After the earth had been baptized, Noah sent forth a dove that we can imagine moving upon the face of the waters. The last time the dove was sent out, it did not return and Noah never saw it again. One can speculate if the authors of the Gospels wanted to indicate symbolically that Noah's dove finally found its "rest" on the Savior.
In any case, this symbolism shows up again a couple of chapters later. In John 3, Nicodemus comes to Jesus to ask him questions. Jesus teaches him about birth and rebirth.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be bornagain, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3)
Jesus himself had been born of water and Spirit by John the baptist as quoted, and thereby set an example. He teaches Nicodemus that he set an example that everyone must follow to enter the kingdom of God. Then he goes on to say
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)
Jesus uses a wordplay here since "wind" and "Spirit" both are the same word (not only in Greek, but also in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke).
These teachings by Jesus as recorded in John provides an excellent perspective into the passages from the Old Testament that we have discussed. The creation account is the birth of the earth. It is born of water and spirit. Later, at the time of Noah, we read about the rebirth of the earth, by water and spirit. Notice the similarity between the Hebrew "ruach" and "nuach" by the way, the latter meaning (divine) rest, a prevalent theme in the story of Noah from which also his name is derived. Even later, in Exodus, we learn about the spiritual rebirth of a covenant people, Israel. Again, water and "ruach" are the central components. The waters are a blessing and new beginning for the covenant people and a destructive force, the abyss ("tehom"), for the unrepentant sinners.
Jesus invites us to follow his example by becoming a new creation and entering into a covenant at the waters of baptism. The Old Testament teaches about these truths through deep symbolism.
This has been mentioned several times on the blog before, but for the benefit of new readers and because many do not know about this ancient Israelite tradition (I didn't until quite recently), I will repeat some things about covenant making. At a time and in a culture where literacy was rare, covenants were not signed at the bottom of a piece of paper. In the Hebrew language, you literally cut a covenant. That does not make sense in English and is therefore translated differently. But it is found frequently in the Old Testament. This reflects the (somewhat grotesque to the modern Westeners) practice of cutting animals in half and walking through the carcasses. This act is the signature and a declaration that the covenant is taken very seriously. ("Let me be cut in half like these animals if I break the covenant").
This happens in Genesis 15:10 when God makes a covenant with Abraham. But in this case, Abraham falls asleep after he has cut the animals and God himself, in the form of a burning lamp, walks through the carcasses (see Genesis 15:17-18). God is the active part in the Abrahamic covenant giving all the promises. Back to verse 10, we read
And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
"In the midst" in the Old Testament
I happened to look up the word, "midst", and how it is being used in the scriptures. This is the Hebrew word, תָּוֶךְ (tavek). It comes from an unused root meaning "to sever", which makes it hard for me not to see the covenant relations of this word. It is sometimes used in a literal sense in the scriptures, but quite frequently, it seems to be used in a more spiritual sense. For instance, 1 Kings 6:19 describes King Solomon preparing the "inner sanctuary inside the temple". But the "inside" in this case is translated from the Hebrew tavek, even though we know that the holy of holies was not physically in the middle of the temple. Rather, it was the focal point, the most holy place, the center of attention, the heart of the covenant, so to speak.
Similarly, we find this word constantly popping up in the Old Testament in relation to important covenant themes.
In the creation account, God made a firmament in the midst (tavek) of the waters to separate the waters of heaven and earth (Genesis 1:6)
In the Garden of Eden, God planted the two trees in the midst (tevek) of the garden (Genesis 2:9 and 3:3).
God talked to Moses out of the midst (tavek) of the burning bush (Exodus 3:2, 4) and again from the midst of the cloud on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:16). The covenant theme is especially evident when the events are recounted in Deuteronomy 4:12-13
12 And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst [Hebr. tavek] of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.
13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, eventencommandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
In an act similar to the creation in Genesis 1:6, Moses parts the Red Sea and the Israelites walk in the midst (tavek) of the sea followed by the Egyptians (repeated over and over in Exodus 14:16, 22, 23, 27, 29, 15:19)
In Exodus 25:8, the Lord instructs Israel to build a tabernacle
And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwellamong (Hebr. tavek) them. (A more literal translation would be "dwell in their midst")
According to Psalm 116:19, Solomon's temple was also in the midst of Jerusalem. Again, whether it was physically in the middle of Jerusalem is probably not the main point here.
Ancient Israel had the tabernacle and temple in their midst. It was God's dwelling place and represented his presence. In other words, God, the author of the covenant, was in the midst of Israel, just like he walked in the midst of the carcasses that Abraham had prepared. This is also expressed repeatedly in the Old Testament. Here is one example:
Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the Lord dwell among (Hebr. tavek) the children of Israel. (Numbers 35:34)
"In the midst" in the Book of Mormon
Not surprisingly, we see a similar pattern in the Book of Mormon. I noticed in particular how Jesus is repeatedly described as being in the midst of the people in 3 Nephi. 3 Nephi is the heart of the covenant, the new covenant that Jesus brought to the Nephites. Consider these examples:
And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them. (3 Nephi 11:8)
12 So they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, and Jesus stood in the midst; and the multitude gave way till they had all been brought unto him. 13 And it came to pass that when they had all been brought, and Jesus stoodin the midst, he commanded the multitude that they should kneel down upon the ground. (3 Nephi 17)
And it came to pass that while the angels were ministering unto the disciples, behold, Jesus came and stood in the midst and ministered unto them. (3 Nephi 19:15)
And Jesus again showed himself unto them, for they were praying unto the Father in his name; and Jesus came and stood in the midst of them, and said unto them: What will ye that I shall give unto you? (3 Nephi 27:2)
Just like ancient Israel had God in their midst, a branch of Israel in the Americas now had the resurrected Jesus in their midst.
There are many other examples of God/Jesus being in the midst. So many, in fact, that I will save them for my next post. But I want to end with a different example related to Lord Wilmore's recent posts about Nephi-II, Moses and Elijah. He made a point of the division "hither and thither" in this verse, echoing the parting of the sea by Moses and Elijah.
And it came to pass that there arose a division among the people, insomuch that they divided hither and thither and went their ways, leaving Nephi alone, as he was standing in the midst of them. (3 Nephi 10:1)
See his comments here under the subheading, "creation by division". "The midst" shows up again, echoing the creation and Moses parting the Red Sea, among other things. When the two-edged sword divides, that sword, often symbolizing the word of God, is in the middle of whatever it divides. In this case, Nephi as the conveyor of the word, played that role. God/the Word/the covenant in the midst can have this divisive effect. But hopefully, like the Nephites in 3 Nephi, we can all let Jesus take the center stage of our lives without causing division.
In part 2 we will see how this symbol is used in the uniting of heaven and earth.
We left off with a brief discussion of several unique elements had in common among Nephi-2, Elijah, and Moses. These are the three prophets mentioned in connection with "divid[ing] hither and thither." Other details at least two of them share in common are these:
Sealing power (Nephi-2 and Elijah)
Power over the elements (All three)
Dividing and crossing over water on dry ground (Moses and Elijah)
Taken up to heaven rather than dying (All three)
Important post-mortal responsibilities including bestowal of priesthood keys (Moses and Elijah)
Since posting the first part, I've thought more about what these three prophets have in common as well as what we're supposed to learn from all of this. The Venn diagram has expanded a little:
I'll probably dive deeper into these new additions in future posts, especially shining faces, but for now I'll just give a brief summary below.
Shining faces
A shining face is a symbol of God's favor and communion with heavenly beings. Nephi-2 is seen to have a shining face while communing with angels:
36 And it came to pass that he turned him about, and behold, he saw through the cloud of darkness the faces of Nephi and Lehi; and behold, they did shine exceedingly, even as the faces of angels. And he beheld that they did lift their eyes to heaven; and they were in the attitude as if talking or lifting their voices to some being whom they beheld. 37 And it came to pass that this man did cry unto the multitude, that they might turn and look. And behold, there was power given unto them that they did turn and look; and they did behold the faces of Nephi and Lehi. 38 And they said unto the man: Behold, what do all these things mean, and who is it with whom these men do converse? 39 Now the man’s name was Aminadab. And Aminadab said unto them: They do converse with the angels of God. (Helaman 5)
Of course Moses' face shone after he came down from speaking with Jehovah face to face.
This symbol also points our mind to Christ, whose face shone on the Mount of Transfiguration, at which time He also spake with Moses and Elias (Elijah).
1 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. 3 And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. (Matthew 17)
Dividing the waters and Priesthood Keys
Dividing the waters is a creation reference. At the creation, God set the bounds of the sea (a symbol of death and chaos). This comes up several times in the Old Testament.
Job 38:10-11
Proverbs 8:29
Psalm 104:9
Jeremiah 5:22
The power to divide the water and pass through on dry ground is an act of creation of sorts.
In the case of Elijah and Nephi-2, a special sealing power is given to them by God which allows them to cause a famine in the land. This done by declaring there shall be no rain in the land. (See 1 Kings 17:1; Helaman 11:17.) Stisa pointed out to me that this is a variation on separating water and land (and creating dry ground in a bad way).
Creation by division
Another facet of this creation symbolism embedded within dividing the waters is that in the ancient Hebrew understanding, creation happens as an act of "forming or fashioning by cutting" or "shaping." (source) You could compare it to the process of transforming a stick into an arrow.
Covenants are also "cut" in Hebrew. Symbolism involving cutting a covenant include circumcision, purity laws, and actual cutting of animals in half (see Genesis 15). This is completely foreign to our modern culture, but it is noteworthy that cutting plays a central role in the ancient understanding of both divine creation and covenant-making. This does not seem coincidental.
This symbol also points our minds to Christ. Just as Nephi-2 was left alone standing in the midst of a people divided in their opinion of him, Christ's invitation to mankind creates a division between those who will humble themselves and repent/follow Him and those who will harden themselves against the word.
It seems this is the message that Mormon is uncertain we'll get, so just after the account of Nephi-2 causing and then ending the famine, Mormon inserts a long aside about human wickedness, found in Helaman 12. In this passage, Mormon directly connects covenant and creation as he compares man to dust:
6 Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide. 7 O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth. 8 For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God. (Helaman 12)
In the verses that follow, Mormon repeatedly states that various elements of the creation will obey the word of God (unlike man). It's a powerful connection between creation and covenant.
Conclusion -- The Deeper Message
I included "a sermon in a phrase" in the title of this series for a reason. Identifying the connecting phrase "divided hither and thither" has opened my mind to a deeper understanding of priesthood authority and the purpose of mortality. I've also gained a deeper appreciation of Jesus Christ's role as the Creator of heaven and earth as well as the Father of our salvation.
In only four words, a connection is made between Nephi-2, Moses, and Elijah. Connections can then be made between these three and Christ, with additional connections to shining faces, communicating directly with heavenly Beings, and priesthood power offering power over the chaos just as these prophets had power to divide the waters.
I'm grateful for so much beautiful doctrine tucked away in just a passing phrase.
The nerd in me got really excited when I just discovered the blog of a convert who was raised in the Jewish faith. I have long been interested in the Hebrew roots of the Book of Mormon and will definitely read more of his posts. But this one caught my immediate attention. It deals with the parallels between the Exodus narrative and Lehi leaving Jerusalem. This concept is not new. Just go to bookofmormoncentral.org and search "Lehi Exodus" for instance. But the particular connection made in this post is nothing I have ever heard about, and it requires familiarity with Jewish tradition. I recommend reading the whole linked post (it's actually important for the understanding of the rest of this post), but to put it very shortly, there are three terms in the Exodus story that, according to the Zohar, refer to the attributes of God. These same three terms are found in 1 Nephi 2.
The three attributes of God that Exodus 14 and 2 Nephi 2 refer to are
Tipharah (beauty, relating to the idea of harmonization, creating a balance between the two above)
My thoughts immediately went to Alma 42 and the beautiful harmonization between justice and mercy. Next I also realized that I have actually identified and discussed this concept in 1 Nephi before, without understanding how it relates to the ancient Israelite understanding. In this post I identified a pattern with these three same terms. So what does this all mean? Let's have another look at the scriptures from 1 Nephi 1 in this new context:
the power [Hebr. geburah], and goodness [Hebr. tipharah], and mercy [Hebr. checed] are over all the inhabitants of the earth; and, because thou art merciful [Hebr. chacad], thou wilt not suffer those who come unto thee that they shall perish (1 Nephi 1:14)
The context is Lehi praising God after he has seen a vision. A personal manifestation of God leads to Lehi's exclamation of God's main attributes from an ancient Israelite perspective, it seems. By the way, since this was new to me, I had to check if this is a common Jewish understanding or just some stranger's claim in an obscure blog. But there are several other sources explaining this concept, like this one and this one. A few verses later, Nephi states
I, Nephi [Presumably the Egyptian equivalent of the Hebr. tipharah], will show unto you that the tender mercies [Hebr. checed] of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty [Hebr. gabar] even unto the power [Hebr. geburah] of deliverance. (1 Nephi 1:20)
(Note: In addition to the three word listed above, there is one additional link in each quoted verse because it is another variant of the word that shares the same root as one of the three).
As I also pointed out in the earlier post about this, Nephi uses his own name in this mix in 1 Nephi 1:20 as a possible wordplay. It is assumed that his name comes from the Egyptian word for good or fair, somewhat equivalent to 'tipharah'. Thus, perhaps Nephi views his own life and story as a manifestation of God's balance between power/justice and kindness/mercy.
Also, as I explain in the post, when using these terms in connection with the phrase, "I will show unto you", Nephi connects these attributes of God to their exodus. This new insight provides further support for that. The next verse reads, "For behold, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto my father, yea, even in a dream", marking the beginning of Lehi's exodus. What happens next is that they travel to the Red Sea, like Israel, and we get the word links to Exodus 14 that also refer to God's attributes brought up in 1 Nephi 1. Nephi is playing on a theme where the fundamental attributes of God are manifest in his family's exodus from a wicked environment to a promised land, just like Israel of old.
Even though Nephi rejoices in plainness and doesn't hide his writings in as much symbolism as, say, Isaiah, he still follows the Israelite scribal tradition where as much meaning is added into as few words as possible in a multi-layered text. This was not produced on a whim.
