3.007 But...Why?

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as savory salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom you will serve.

Today, a very common verse with perhaps a different lens. We're continuing our readings this week with Moses chapter 1 and Abraham chapter 3. And we're going to get to Abraham, but not yet.

First, we need to take another look inside of the Book of Moses. We've been talking about all that is being revealed in just Moses chapter 1 to help us understand the context of the Old Testament and really understand the nature of God and the nature of us as human beings. Inside of Moses chapter 1, we have these conversations between Moses and Heavenly Father.

And then Moses and Satan and then Moses and Heavenly Father again as he meets with God and he's being revealed all of these things and God trying to teach him and enlighten him, and it gets to the point where Moses just says, "But why? Like, what is the purpose of this?" And the Lord explains that all of these different earths and all these different planets that have been created have a purpose to Him. And Moses says, "Look, that might be a little too much for me to understand.

Can you just bring it down to this earth?" And so that's where we get our first verse that many of you have probably heard or are very familiar with, but let's look at it through just a little bit of a different lens. Our verse for today is Moses chapter 1 verse 39. It's a classic.

You may know it. It's pretty short, but this is the Lord responding to Moses when he kind of asks the 'why' question. Like, what is this all for?

Why do you do this, Heavenly Father? "For behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Now we use that often, especially in Latter-day Saint culture, to explain really ultimately what Heavenly Father is trying to do and accomplish with us. What is the purpose for us? What are we trying to do?

And I'm going to let you do your own study and personal research in terms of immortality and eternal life. I'm going to read a passage from the Bible that I read this time because the way that it hit me this time as I read it is what I want to share with you today. And this, when I read it this time, it hit me from the lens of a parent.

I thought about Heavenly Father talking to Moses and saying, "I want what's best for you. I want eternal life for you. I want you to experience the best version of you.

That is my work and my glory." And I thought, "Wow, what a beautiful, perfect version of a parent." And it's a parent that I can buy into. It's a parent that I can have faith in. You see, when we look in Moses chapter 1 early on, and we realize that Moses saw himself, as we've talked about earlier this week, through his true identity as a son of God.

And for you and for me to see ourselves as sons and daughters of a Heavenly Father whose work and glory is to help us reach immortality and eternal life. I've thought about my fatherhood and I've tried to be a good dad, right? I've got four daughters, and, you know, try to help them.

But really, as I think about this, since their birth, everything my wife and I do is about trying to set them up for success, trying to help them. Now, my daughters may argue with that sometimes. They might think that like the housework that we do together or the yard work we do together is definitely not for their success.

But we see it, we see it through a little bit different lens, and I think the Lord probably has some of those types of examples in our lives as well. But I think about this through the lens of a perfect Father in Heaven, and I can buy into that. I hope that this verse becomes different to you in that you see that as a parent, as a father or a mother, we truly do just want the best for our children.

We want to set them up for success in any way that we can. And the Lord wants to do that in the realm of eternal perfection. How amazing is that?

I am so grateful for the knowledge that we gain through Moses chapter 1. It is truly a power chapter, especially when it comes to better understanding this more harsh version that sometimes we see in the Old Testament of the Lord of the Old Testament. Either way, I'm excited to be a parent here with my children and to have a Heavenly Parent, a Heavenly Father that's working with me and for me to bring to pass my immortality and eternal life.

That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this. Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.