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Scot

I remember the first time I visited the massive, ancient building erected by Herod the Great in Hebron. He had it built over the Cave of Machpelah more than 2,000 years ago to mark and protect the sacred resting place of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah. I walked into the building as a ten-year-old with a covering over my head and my parents, brothers and a number of friends at my side. There was one place where you could go to your knees and carefully look through a brass grate and see into the cave below. A small lamp was burning there. A feeling came over me at that moment, not only that this was a sacred place, but that I was connected to Abraham. He was my direct-line grandfather. I have never forgotten that moment.

Maurine

Welcome to Meridian Magazine’s Come Follow Me Podcast. We are Scot and Maurine Proctor and this week we will be covering Genesis chapters 18-23, in a lesson about Abraham and Sarah that has direct application to each one of us. Scot, I know that feeling you are talking about. We get that same feeling of connection with Joseph when we are in Egypt. I, too, felt that feeling of connection with Abraham in Hebron when you and I visited there not that many years ago. Who is this Abraham that has such a tie with his children? And who is this Sarah that is so important to all of us. The great prophet Isaiah said,

“1 Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness. Look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged.

2 Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah, she that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him. (See 2 Nephi 8:1-2; Isaiah 51:1-2)

We are to do the works of Abraham. We are to be counted as his seed. We are to look unto these incredible, righteous parents. Let’s do that today and see what we can learn.

Scot

You know, Maurine, how I love to know the meanings of Hebrew words and names, and this is no exception. Abraham’s given birth name was Abram, which means exalted father. It also means ‘their shield,’ or ‘their protection.’ Abram was a sheik of the desert and he offered protection to all who came under his tent. When his name was changed to Abraham, this could mean father of many, and in context, the new name was given by the Lord and he was to be a father of many nations. (See Genesis 17:5)

Now, we have just one major challenge here, Abraham is now ninety-nine years old and Sarah is ninety and they have no children of their own. How can this promise be fulfilled?

Maurine

There’s an interesting juxtaposition here of life and destruction. Abraham and Sarah are longing with all their hearts to have posterity and now, in the opening scene of chapter 18 of Genesis, the Lord appears unto Abraham. (Genesis 18:1) We don’t know really anything about this vision, but then three holy men come to visit Abraham and Sarah on the heels of this vision. They give them two messages. The first message is that Sarah would have a son. (Genesis 18:10)

Now, when Sarah, who was in the tent door behind them, heard this, the King James Version translation says that she “laughed within herself.” (Genesis 18:12)

First of all, who were these three holy men? They are corporeal beings—they have bodies—they eat and touch and walk and are as other mortals except they have great powers. Clearly these are either unknown prophets to us or, more likely, they are three who have been sent from the City of Holiness, Enoch’s city that had been taken up.

Scot

That has always been my surmise, Maurine. So, they asked Abraham, “wherefore did Sarah laugh?” If we take the translation as it stands, this reminds us of Zacharias in the Temple when Gabriel was telling him that Elisabeth would conceive and bear a son. For after the great promise to be fulfilled was revealed to Zacharias from Gabriel, he said: 

18 … Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.

19 And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.

But again, looking at the word ‘laughed’ in the Hebrew, it is more likely that Sarah, in this case, rejoiced, not laughed, within herself at the words that had been given. The holy men assured both of them by asking: “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14).

And, of course, we love what the Apostle Paul wrote of Abraham to the Romans in chapter 4:

18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:

Maurine

And I love this next description Paul uses:

20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
(Romans 4: 18-22, emphasis added)

Scot

I have always hoped that it could be said of me, by my children, that I never staggered at the promises of the Lord but was strong in faith.

We always talk about the Abrahamic Test as only being the commandment of Abraham to sacrifice his covenant son, Isaac, but, don’t you think that perhaps 70 years of infertility for Sarah and Abraham could also be categorized the same way?

I think to really understand Abraham AND Sarah we need to look into the ancient records a little more and get to know them as a couple.  We so appreciate the decades of work that were done by our friend E. Douglas Clark in writing the book, The Blessings of Abraham, Becoming a Zion People. We can’t recommend it highly enough.

Clark writes:

“If Zion begins in the heart, it culminates in the union of righteous hearts, as when Abraham married the lovely Sarai. All the sources attest that she was a close relative-perhaps a half-sister (the daughter of his father through another wife) (Gen. 20:12), or perhaps a niece or a cousin. The close kinship with Abraham and the quality of her character suggest the possibility of mutual sympathy and support long before their marriage. Had she been in the crowd that day when Abraham had been miraculously rescued [upon the altar before the wicked priest of Elkenah]? Had her prayers and faith helped sustain him during his trials and tribulations? Had her strength already been part of his success? Had she long prayed for this eternal union? Such questions remain as yet unanswered, although we do have Philo’s observation that she was “the darling of his heart,” and their love for each other was profound.

Maurine

 He continues: “The name Sarai, which God would later alter to Sarah, means “princess” or possibly “queen,” suggesting royal blood. Was this perhaps a reflection that her bloodline ran through the royal patriarchal line to which Abraham himself was heir? Or was her father, as an Islamic tradition tells, called Haran and did he rule as the king of Haran (perhaps Abraham’s uncle)? Or, as another Islamic tradition relates, was Sarah closely related to Nimrod or to one of his highest officials? (Given Terah’s high place at court, some sort of blood relationship with the Nimrod dynasty does not seem impossible.)

 “Any or several of these are possible. But whatever the biological relationship with royalty, her name was a fitting title for a woman who possessed singular loveliness of both body and soul. Her unequaled physical beauty would turn the heads of the most powerful kings, while she was also “gifted with every excellence” and “great wisdom.” It is said that her spiritual attainments matched and in some cases exceeded those of her remarkable husband, she being gifted with profound “intuitive perception” of spiritual realities. A number of sources assert yet another name for her-Iscah, meaning “prophetess” or “seer.” And with all her talents, she had a deep “love and compassion . . . for the needy.” She was indeed “a Princess in name and in nature…”

“Jewish tradition insists that they were perfectly suited for each other…”

 Scot

“…[Sarah] was not merely a strong personality in her own right, but, as Abraham’s spouse, was “an important balancing factor in his life. Abraham and Sarah were not just ‘a married couple’ but a team, two people working in harmony,” as seen in the Genesis portrayal “of the two as one unit” and “as equals”-“as partners, working together for the same goals, walking together along the same path, united in thought, word, and deed.” Or, as told by Philo, “Everywhere and always she was at his side, . . . his true partner in life and life’s events, resolved to share alike the good and the ill.” Theirs was that priceless unity of heart and mind that is ever the hallmark of Zion. Having established Zion in their own hearts, they now began to establish it in their marriage and home, an enduring example for all couples aspiring to build Zion. “When the father of a family wishes to make a Zion in his own house,” declared Brigham Young, “he must take the lead in this good work, which . . . is impossible for him to do unless he himself possesses the Spirit of Zion. Before he can produce the work of sanctification in his family, he must sanctify himself, and by this means God can help him to sanctify his family.”

“Abraham and Sarah were a part of something larger than either of them. They were a family, they were Zion, and they are to be remembered together…”

Maurine

Clark says: “Constant obedience would be a hallmark of his life. He always, Philo noted, “made a special practice of obedience to God.” Or, in the words of modern writers, “Abram’s characteristic was that in simple unhesitating faith he acted at once on every intimation of the divine will,” demonstrating that his “one supreme motive [was] to honor and obey God.” It was Abraham’s first principle, the foundation of everything else he would accomplish, recalling the teaching of latter-day leaders that “obedience is the first law of heaven, the cornerstone upon which all righteousness and progression rest.” Abraham stands out in Judaism as “the illuminating example of perfect obedience to the commands of God rendered out of love.”

“And not just Abraham, but Sarah also. A midrash declares that both “perfectly obeyed the will of God.” In Nibley’s words, “they kept the law fully, and they kept it together.” Their perfect obedience is like that of their descendant Joseph Smith, who stated: “I made this my rule: When the Lord commands, do it.” (See The Blessings of Abraham: Becoming a Zion People by E. Douglas Clark, Covenant Communications, Salt Lake City, 2005, pp. 59-63)

Scot

I love looking deeper into Sarah’s life and into the life of this most remarkable ancient couple. It is truly worth our every effort to look unto Abraham and to look unto Sarah. Let’s go back to the reality of Abrahamic tests.

Maurine

Abrahamic tests really can and do come to all of us in some form or another at some time or another in our lives. It is part of the process by which God prepares us to come back into his presence.

We know of many, just among our own friends, right now who are the midst of Abrahamic tests: Chrissy and Jeff Morgan have a son, Parker, who has been given an extremely rare disease, chondrosarcoma, which is a brutal bone cancer that has no known cure and no approved drugs to treat it. Parker and his family have gone through and are going through the most difficult trials—and they face them daily with no letup in sight. Chrissy, Jeff and Parker and the rest of their family have been called upon to go through an Abrahamic test.

Scot

Ashley Harris who is a niece of a dear friend of ours just suffered the unexpected loss of her beloved husband, Ken. He had been battling a disease for which he recently underwent surgery and he was showing such improvement during his recovery and then he suddenly and unexpectedly passed away at the hospital leaving behind his dear Ashley and 10 children, ages 14 to six weeks. This all has happened in the last few weeks. Ashley and her family are going through an Abrahamic test.

Last summer we were with our family on a beach at Bear Lake in Utah. Our daughter saw that some of her dear friends and their extended family were just right next to us on the beach. Our grandchildren were playing with their children. Later the next day, on their way south to St. George, Utah, there was a sudden dust storm that obscured visibility on Interstate 15. Twenty-two cars were in a pileup and 8 people were killed, 5 of whom were from the Sawyer family, including three children, who had been next to us on the beach the day before. All of a sudden, the Sawyers and their extended family were thrust into an unexpected Abrahamic test.

Maurine

As we have mentioned before, our dearest friends, Bonnie and Ron McMillan suffered a huge set back when, nearly a year ago, Ron fell end-over-end 150 feet down a mountain ravine right near our home here in Alpine, Utah. A month later Ron suffered a serious bleed in his brain which sent him into a coma for four months. He has been fighting to get his faculties back for this past year. He lost his ability to talk, which is what he did for a living. He has not yet been able to re-learn how to walk. He has had to slowly re-learn how to swallow and drink and do all the most basic things. The process of healing is extremely slow. Bonnie and Ron are going through an Abrahamic test.

I’m sure that there are numerous ones of you who are listening right now who have gone through or are going through Abrahamic tests. I think one of the hardest ones to endure is when it is happening to our children or someone we love so much.

Scot

When the early saints in 1833 were suffering so much in Jackson County, Missouri, the Lord said of the afflicted, “I will own them, and they shall be mine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewels.” Sometimes it is when we are pushed to our extremities that we find how close the Lord can be.

So, there is something very powerful about these extremely difficult trials. Are they there to sanctify us—to prepare us to meet the Lord again in the eternal worlds?

Maurine

The second message that the three holy men had for Abraham and Sarah was that God was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The sins of these cities had become so great that only destruction (as in the days of the 16 named-Nephite cities that were destroyed at the time of the crucifixion) would stop this wickedness. Ezekiel gives further insight:

49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. (Ezekiel 16:49-50)

Scot

And the warnings had come for many years before the destructions. The quaking of the earth and even volcanic eruptions had been going on for twenty-five years—to the point that the people had gotten used to this and had stopped paying attention.

Let’s turn to Genesis 18, verses 17-19:

17 And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;

18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

See, there is that view of obedient Abraham, just as we read above from ancient and modern sources.


The record here is drawing a contrast between obedient and faithful Abraham and the wicked and rebellious cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Maurine

And Abraham, seeing what God is about to do, pleads that He will spare these cities if the Lord can find fifty righteous souls among them. The Lord says He will spare them for fifty. Abraham then asks the same mercy if but forty-five can be found. The Lord agrees. Abraham continues to ask for mercy for these cities if there be but forty, then thirty, then twenty, then Abraham boldly asks if there be but ten righteous and the Lord agrees He will spare the cities if but ten righteous are found.

Well, there were not ten righteous people, only four. And we learn from the Joseph Smith Translation that the three (not two) holy men or angels are sent to remove these righteous out of the city before the destructions come. (See JST Genesis 19:1)

Scot

We just have to draw upon Elder Holland for a moment for one thought about Lot, his two daughters and his wife as they were fleeing from these cities. They were told by the holy men to NOT look back, and you remember that Lot’s wife did look back.

Here’s Elder Holland:

“So, if history is this important—and it surely is—what did Lot’s wife do that was so wrong? As something of a student of history, I have thought about that and offer this as a partial answer. Apparently, what was wrong with Lot’s wife was that she wasn’t just looking back; in her heart she wanted to go back. It would appear that even before they were past the city limits, she was already missing what Sodom and Gomorrah had offered her. As Elder Maxwell once said, such people know they should have their primary residence in Zion, but they still hope to keep a summer cottage in Babylon (see Larry W. Gibbons, “Wherefore, Settle This in Your Hearts,” Ensign, November 2006, 102; also Neal A. Maxwell, A Wonderful Flood of Light [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1990], 47).

Maurine

Elder Holland continues:

“It is possible that Lot’s wife looked back with resentment toward the Lord for what He was asking her to leave behind. We certainly know that Laman and Lemuel were resentful when Lehi and his family were commanded to leave Jerusalem. So it isn’t just that she looked back; she looked back longingly. In short, her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future. That, apparently, was at least part of her sin.

“… I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives. So a more theological way to talk about Lot’s wife is to say that she did not have faith. She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already had. Apparently she thought—fatally, as it turned out—that nothing that lay ahead could possibly be as good as those moments she was leaving behind. (Holland, Jeffrey R., “Remember Lot’s Wife”: Faith Is for the Future, Devotional Address, BYU, January 13, 2009)

Scot

Let’s leave behind the destructions of Sodom and Gomorrah and jump ahead to the morning that Abraham left his camp and took his precious son, Isaac, on a three-day journey to Moriah with the firm intention to follow Jehovah’s command and offer him as a burnt offering.

What would have passed through Abraham’s mind that morning as he arose and took that journey? I think it’s significant that this journey had to take place first, that it wasn’t a sacrifice to just be done in the camp of Abraham and Sarah with no contemplative thoughts to precede it.

And the scriptural account says “that God did tempt Abraham” as he gave him this test. That word”tempt” in Hebrew is nasah (naw-saw’) and is better translated as “did make a test” for Abraham, or that God did prove or try Abraham—or God did put Abraham to the test. Remember, the scriptures are for us to learn from the examples of others, but they are also to show us patterns and types and to give us a knowledge that we, too, will be tested, tried and proved in mighty ways. Abraham’s test was indeed beyond great, and we have therefore named it “the Abrahamic test.”

Maurine

Now, back to Abraham on his way to Mt. Moriah. By the way, we have loved this story and this scene and these two men, Abraham and Isaac, so much, we named our tenth child, a daughter, after this mountain: Moriah—but we spell it with an “a” M-a-r-i-a-h.

Surely the horrible remembrance of his own father, Terah, bringing Abraham to be sacrificed upon the wicked altar of Nimrod was going through his mind as he trudged his way towards what would become a holy mountain. In that earlier experience, hundreds of thousands of people looked on as Abraham was to be sacrificed by the idolatrous priest of Elkenah. Were those cries and shouts of those people echoing in Abraham’s mind on the long hike to Moriah? The whole thought of human sacrifice and the wicked act of his father in his youth trying to take his own life must have been abhorrent to Abraham–it certainly had caused the breaking apart of his family. Here he was heading, now, to this mountain, taking his son, Isaac; his covenant son to an altar of sacrifice that he, Abraham, would build.

Scot

Hugh Nibley reports that a man dressed in black joined Abraham and Isaac soon before the sacrifice. This was Satan—and, of course he would be there at this pivotal moment in history. He cries out:

“Are you crazy — killing your own son!” To which Abraham replied, “For that purpose he was born.” Satan then addressed Isaac: “Are you going to allow this?” And the young man answered, “I know what is going on, and I submit to it.” First Satan had done everything in his power to block their progress on the road to the mountain, and then as a venerable and kindly old man he had walked along with them, piously and reasonably pointing out that a just God would not demand the sacrifice of a son.” (Nibley, Hugh, Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 1978, p. 134) The man had asked him, “What kind of a God would ask this of any of his subjects? This makes no sense whatsoever! I would not do this horrible act.”

Maurine

How Abraham had longed for a son through Sarah all those lonely decades. With all their prayers and pleadings and then finally the miracle was promised, this, too, must have been echoing in Abraham’s spirit. Jewish tradition says that when Isaac was born, Sarah was so filled with joy that her skin became young again, the wrinkles falling away, and she counted her years with the age of her son. (See Proctor, Maurine Jensen and Scot Facer, Source of the Light, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 1992, p. 26) How can the promises be fulfilled if this, my covenant son, is sacrificed, Abraham must have thought over and over again?

And how old was this righteous son? The King James Version record does not make it clear, but we have some clues. Isaac clearly submitted to his father in all of this and was completely obedient. The record of Sarah’s death comes immediately after the test of the sacrifice of Isaac. She died at age 127, so that means Isaac was 37 upon her death. We learn a fascinating insight from Jacob, in the Book of Mormon:

5 Behold, they believed in Christ and worshiped the Father in his name, and also we worship the Father in his name. And for this intent we keep the law of Moses, it pointing our souls to him; and for this cause it is sanctified unto us for righteousness, even as it was accounted unto Abraham in the wilderness to be obedient unto the commands of God in offering up his son Isaac, which is a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son.

Scot

As Isaac was in the similitude or likeness of the Savior Himself, it is quite likely that he was thirty-three years old when he was placed on the altar and nearly sacrificed. This had given Abraham and Sarah a generation with Isaac and they truly knew him, were deeply bonded with him and loved him with all their souls. Isaac could have easily overpowered his aged 133-year-old father, but such was not the nature of faithful Isaac.

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon his son, Isaac, as they were about to hike to the top of Moriah. This too was in similitude or likeness of the Son of God. You have to remember, this was approximately 1,900 B.C. and the very mount they were climbing, Mount Moriah, would become the heart of the future Jerusalem and the very mount upon which the Son of God Himself, at the northern end, would be crucified.

Maurine

As they neared the place where the altar would be built, Isaac said to his father:

Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? (Genesis 22:7)

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. (Genesis 22:8)

It appears from the record that at this late moment, just before the altar was to be built on Mount Moriah, Isaac did not know that he was to be the one sacrificed.

Elder Spencer W. Kimball gives some insights into Abraham at this moment:

“Exceeding faith was shown by Abraham when the superhuman test was applied to him. His young ‘child of promise,’ destined to be the father of empires, must now be offered upon the sacrificial altar. It was God’s command, but it seemed so contradictory! How could his son, Isaac, be the father of an uncountable posterity, if in his youth his mortal life was to be terminated? Why should he, Abraham, be called upon to do this revolting deed? It was irreconcilable, impossible! And yet he believed God. His undaunted faith carried him with breaking heart toward the land of Moriah with this young son who little suspected the agonies through which his father must have been passing. (Kimball, Spencer W., Conference Report, October 1952, p. 48)

Scot

Truman G. Madsen took Elder Hugh B. Brown to the Holy Land. It was a life-changing experience for Truman. He reported:

“Once I was in the valley known as Hebron, now beautifully fruitful and where tradition has it, there is a tomb to father Abraham. As I approached the place with Elder Hugh B. Brown, I asked, “What are the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?” Elder Brown thought a moment and answered in one word, “Posterity.” Then I almost burst out, “Why, then was Abraham commanded to go to Mount Moriah and offer his only hope of posterity?” It was clear that this man, nearly ninety, had thought and prayed and wept over that question before. He finally said, “Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham.”

“You are aware that the record speaks of the incredible promise that Abraham after years of barrenness-which in some ways to the Israelites was the greatest curse of life-would sire a son who would in turn sire sons and become the father of nations. This came about after Abraham had left a culture where human sacrifice was performed. Abraham was then counseled, and if that is too weak a word, he was commanded to take this miracle son up to the mount.

Maurine

Truman continues:

“We often identify with Abraham; we sometimes think less about what that meant to Sarah, the mother, and to Isaac, the son. If we can trust the Apocrypha, there are three details that the present narrative omits. First, Isaac was not a mere boy. He was a youth, a stripling youth on the verge of manhood. [Maybe older] Second, Abraham did not keep from him, finally, the commandment or the source of the commandment. But having made the heavy journey, how heavy! He counseled with his son. Third, Isaac said in effect, “My father, if you alone had asked me to give my life for you, I would have been honored and would have given it. That both you and Jehovah ask only doubles my willingness.” It was at Isaac’s request that his arms were bound lest involuntarily, but spontaneously, he should resist the sinking of the knife.” (Madsen, Truman G., Power from Abrahamic Tests, Meridian Magazine, September 2, 2003)

Scot

What a scene! And Dr. Hugh Nibley writes even more pointedly of the love and intimate relationship of Abraham and Isaac:

“To one who is aware of the interplay of pattern and accident in history, the stories of the sacrifice of Isaac and of Sarah are perfect companion pieces to the drama of Abraham on the altar. Take first the case of Isaac, who is just another Abraham: a well-known tradition has it that he was in the exact image of his father, so exact, in fact, that until Abraham’s hair turned white, there was absolutely no way of distinguishing between the two men in spite of their difference of age. ” Abraham and Isaac are bound to each other with extraordinary intimacy,” writes a recent commentator; “… the traditions regarding the one are not to be distinguished from those concerning the other,” e.g., both men leave home to wander, both go to Egypt, both are promised endless posterity and certain lands as an inheritance. What has been overlooked is the truly remarkable resemblance between Isaac on the altar and Abraham on the altar…

Maurine

“One of the strangest turns of the Abraham story” Nibley continues, “was surely Abraham’s refusal to be helped by the angel, with its striking Egyptian parallel. Surprisingly enough, the same motif occurs in the sacrifice of Isaac. For according to the Midrash, God ordered Michael, “Delay not, hasten to Abraham and tell him not to do the deed!” And Michael obeyed: “Abraham! Abraham! What art thou doing?” To this the Patriarch replied, “Who tells me to stop?” “A messenger sent from the Lord!” says Michael. But Abraham answers, “The Almighty Himself commanded me to offer my son to Him—only He can countermand the order: I will not hearken to any messenger!” So, God must personally intervene to save Isaac. Such a very peculiar twist to the story—the refusal of angelic assistance in the moment of supreme danger—is introduced by way of explaining that it is God and not the angel who delivers; so in the Book of Abraham:” … and the angel of his presence stood by me and immediately unloosed my bands; And his voice was unto me: Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is Jehovah, and I have heard thee, and have come down to deliver thee….” (Abraham 1:15-16)” (Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, pp. 131-133)

Scot

And here, approximately 19 centuries later, this same Jehovah, the Lamb of God, the Savior of the world, even Jesus Christ, would be brought to be sacrificed upon a cross, only this time, the pounding of the nails through the flesh and hands and wrists and feet would not be stayed and the spear in the side of the Savior would not be withheld. The infinite sacrifice of the Son of God would come to pass and bring about the merciful plan of the Father by providing for all of us this perfect Redeemer.

Maurine

That’s all for today. There’s always so much more to say. We’ve loved being with you. Next week we will be studying Genesis chapters 24 through 27 in a lesson called The Covenant is Renewed. As always, thanks to Paul Cardall for the music and thanks to our producer, our daughter, Michaela Proctor Hutchins. Have a great week and see you next time.