Why are the Keys Moses Restored Relevant to Me?

 On a recent visit to Europe, I was struck by how many statues of Moses we saw adorning not only churches but public squares (similar to the one at the end of this post from Bern, Switzerland). I was reminded how often he is referred to not only in scripture (85 times in the New Testament and 767 times in the Old Testament, according to one online source), but in academic and popular literature.[1] So I was only slightly surprised when I noticed the other day that he is the subject of a Netflix series, “Testament: The Story of Moses.” 

But is he still relevant to covenant Israel, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, today? Only through the lens of the Restoration can we begin to truly appreciate Moses’ life,[2] mission and ministry, and their importance to each of us today. For starters, in his April 2024 General Conference message, President Nelson taught that “the significance” of the keys returned to the earth by Moses in the Kirtland Temple in 1836 (together with keys restored at that time by Elias and Elijah) “cannot be overstated.” The “power of these priesthood keys,” President Nelson asserted, “is infinite and breathtaking.”

In that grand sermon, President Nelson invited each of us to “consider how your life would be different if priesthood keys had not been restored to the earth.” Answering, he reminds us that “without priesthood keys, you could not be endowed with the power of God. [D&C 95:8; 109:22] Without priesthood keys, the Church could serve only as a significant teaching and humanitarian organization but not much more. Without priesthood keys, none of us would have access to essential ordinances and covenants that bind us to our loved ones eternally and allow us eventually to live with God.”[3] 

Moses’ ministry centered on Christ. He gathered God’s people and “plainly taught” His gospel (D&C 84:23)—the gospel of Jehovah, of Jesus Christ, which is the gospel His Father “gave” Him (John 10:29; 12:49), even the gospel of God, the Eternal Father. Through the grace and power of God, the core of that gospel, the “covenants of the Lord,” have been preserved in the Bible (1 Nephi 13:23), upon which the foundations of Western civilization rest. These central doctrines and covenants have been restored in their plainness in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 12:35-35) and Doctrine and Covenants. These doctrines of Christ and the Father were, since Adam, received by covenant through ordinances, which Moses both received and kept and was sanctified thereby, translated and ultimately resurrected with a celestial body, which he had when he appeared in the Kirtland Temple. Moses administered gospel ordinances of his day to his people, even in the Tabernacle or Temple of God. Those who accepted these ordinances and kept the covenants associated therewith (including the ordinances and covenants of the temple) were also sanctified, including Joshua and no doubt many other faithful Israleites, all of whom came forth in the morning of the first resurrection (see Alma 40:20).[4] This was then and is now the “gathering,” “the greatest challenge, the greatest cause, and the greatest  work on earth,” and it culminated then and now in the temple. (Russell M. and Wendy Nelson, “Hope of Israel,” Worldwide Youth Devotional, June 3, 2018, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/broadcasts/worldwide-devotional-for-young-adults/2018/06/hope-of-israel?lang=eng#p11 (emphasis in original)

For those who have not looked at Moses’ life through the lens of temple ordinances and doctrine, I would invite you to study chapters 5 (“The Spiritual Treasure of Increased Power to Gather Israel through the Keys Restored by Moses”) and 6 (“The Spiritual Treasure of Power to Build a People Prepared for a Temple”) of my book Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple. I will simply say that studying Moses’ life, including his intimate, “face-to-face” relationship with Jehovah, opened my eyes to so many aspects of temple worship and doctrine, from ancient times to our own day. 

“What is the overarching lesson that we can learn from a study of Moses’s life and ministry?” I ask at the conclusion of my own study. “The Lord declared that ‘the redemption of Zion’ in our day ‘must needs come by power.’ To accomplish this, He promised to ‘raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead [us] like as Moses led the children of Israel’ (Doctrine and Covenants 103:15–16). That man, He declared, was and always will be His living prophet . . .. Why? Because, the Lord declared, ‘Ye are the children of Israel and of the seed of Abraham, and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched-out arm. And as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be’ (Doctrine and Covenants 103:17–18). As we seek with all our hearts to gather Israel on ‘both sides of the veil,’ we will be led and directed by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. In the process, we come to know the Lord. As the Lord declared, ‘I say not unto you as I said unto your fathers: Mine angel shall go up before you, but not my presence. But I say unto you: Mine angels shall go up before you, and also my presence, and in time ye shall possess the goodly land’ (Doctrine and Covenants 103:19–21).” (Stephen L. Fluckiger, Drawing Upon the Spiritual Treasures of the Temple, 81-82)

[1] See, for example, Britannica, “Moses: References & Edit History—Additional Reading,” https://www.britannica.com/biography/Moses-Hebrew-prophet/additional-info; Bruce Feiler, America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story, (William Morrow, 2009). [2] The Netflix documentary, for example, describes Moses as a “murderer,” whereas, through the lens of the Restoration we get a very different picture: “In answer to the question ‘why did Moses slay an Egyptian?’ the Old Testament Student Manual Genesis–2 Samuel notes: ‘Smote’ and ‘slew’ in King James English [from Exodus 2:11] are both translated from Hebrew nakhah, meaning ‘to beat down’; it is the word used in describing the action taken by soldiers in combat against each other. It would be correct to say that Moses slew a man who was slaying another, or took a life in saving a life. . . . [T]he historian Eusebius says that the slaying was the result of a court intrigue in which certain men plotted to assassinate Moses. In the encounter, it is said that Moses successfully warded off the attacker and killed him. (Eusebius IX:27.) In the Midrash Rabbah, the traditional Jewish commentary on the Old Testament, it is asserted that Moses, with his bare fists, killed an Egyptian taskmaster who was in the act of seducing a Hebrew woman. This is confirmed in the Koran. Certainly, there must have been good reason for Moses’ act, and most assuredly the Lord would not have called a murderer to the high office of prophet and liberator for his people Israel.” Drawing, 83-83 n. 11. The Topical Guide describes Moses as “one of the greatest of men.” [3] Russell M. Nelson, , “Rejoice in the Gift of Priesthood Keys,” Liahona, May 2024. [4] “Two great resurrections await the inhabitants of the earth: one is the first resurrection, the resurrection of life, the resurrection of the just; the other is the second resurrection, the resurrection of damnation, the resurrection of the unjust. (John 5:28–29; Rev. 20; D. & C. 76.) But even within these two separate resurrections, there is an order in which the dead will come forth. Those being resurrected with celestial bodies, whose destiny is to inherit a celestial kingdom, will come forth in the morning of the first resurrection.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 640, quoted in Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual, “Chapter 32: The Resurrection and the Judgment,” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/doctrines-of-the-gospel-student-manual/32-resurrection-and-judgment?lang=eng#p30.)

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