2026-04-20 April 20–26. “All That the Lord Hath Spoken We Will Do”: Exodus 19–20; 24; 31–34

Notes

Exodus 19

Exodus 20

Exodus 20:3-17 The Ten commandments

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me
2. Thou shalt not make any graven image
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
4. Remeber the sabbath day to keep it holy
5. Honor thy father and thy mother
6. thou shalt not kill
7. thou shalt not commit adultery
8. thou shalt not steal
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
10. Thou shalt not covet

Exodus 21

Book of the covenant

• Really interesting - rules on goring of the ox vs. pushing - the Lord was hyper specific about the rules here. Nothing left to the imagination. even a rule for if the ox falls down a hole someone else dug

Exodus 22

Book of the covenant

• Punitive damages - 5x for stolen ox. (US govt only does 3x!)
• Exodus 22:16 - it wasn’t against the law to sleep with someone you weren’t married to - you just promise to marry her. But the father could refuse (perhaps this is where asking for permission comes from?) → i find this interesitng because adultery was just mentioned before. And the Lord would teach “whoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery in his heart”.
• Exodus 22:25 Don’t rob the poor. don’t put high tax burdens on them.

Exodus 23

Book of the covenant:

• Exodus 23:12 - rest up on the 7th day. Get refreshed. We need a day to relax and recover. “12 Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.”

Exodus 24

Exodus 24:7 → The book of the covenant. What is this book?

• Exodus 20:22 through Exodus 23:33

Exodus 24:9-11 Aaron + others see the Lord.

10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.

• Similar to Doctrine and Covenants 110:2 “the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber.”

• It was their endowment ()
• The next few chapters (28-30) are about the anointing, washing of Aaron, etc.

Nephi has a similar endowment in 1 Nephi 11:1. He’s caught away into the mountain. And again in 1 Nephi 17:7-9. Mountains - the mountain of the Lord. Height. Elevate.

Exodus 31

Exodus 32

Exodus 32:1-6 Aaron leads the golden calf

• He had just seen the Lord in 24. Quite literally saw the God of Israel. And moments later he’s building the same altar that Msoes made (Exodus 24:5) and “he built an altar before it” (Ex 32.5)
• This is against what was just given - Exodus 20:23 - the Lord just told them “neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.”

Exodus 32:12-14 - “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?”

• Moses wondered “did you bring us here to die?” I like how Moses Challenges the Lord with faith. This type of question, it deserves a name. “Did you bring us here to die?”
• I think I can question the Lord more effectively. Not for the Lord’s sake, as I doubt Moses changed His mind in any way shape or form. But for Moses’ sake, he was able to reason: “it doen’st make sense you’d do this for us…just to smite us here in the middle of nowhere”

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Thinking about this - maybe there’s temptation to think that anything we make by our hands is “incredible” - how often do I build an app and think “man this is wonderful” but in reality it’s…just some code.

Exodus 33

Exodus 34