Week 16: Exodus 14-18

The Lord is my strength and my might, He has also become my Salvation. 

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This week is mostly just the story of the crossing of the Red Sea, which is super cool. A song of Moses and of Miriam, which is also super cool, and then the story of Moses breaking the rock, getting water, feeding of manna. So let's get into it, okay? Good stuff. We're in Exodus 14 through 18 today. And 14 is where we get the crossing of the Red Sea. Now it's important to remember that in Hebrew, it is not red, it is read, the Reed Sea. But the way that it was translated into Greek was the same phrase as the Red Sea. And so it's unknown whether or not the Red Sea or the Reed Sea that it's talking about in the Bible is the actual Red Sea that we think of it today, or if it's in another section that would be farther away from Egypt and closer to Edom or southern Jordan is where that would be. So it's hard to know. But the reality is that they did, in fact, cross the sea. And as it's happening, we get these two different stories. And I just love the story because we get the crossing of the Red Sea. And so the Israelites are following the command. And then Moses is like, hey, verse 14, the Lord will fight for you. Like, do not be afraid, stand firm. Sorry, this is 13, and see the deliverance of the Lord will accomplish you for today. For the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you only have to keep still, or um stand still and see the glory of the Lord, right? But the Lord then says to Moses, Why do you cry out to me? Like, why are you just praying? Tell the Israelites to go forward. And then he, you know, there needs to be action here. It's not just standing still and see. Sometimes we do, right? That is um a quote, I think, in Doctrine and Covenants and in with Joshua. But here we get a little bit of action, and I think that is just such an important principle of faith, is that sometimes we're like, well, all I need to do is wait and you know, trust in the Lord, which is true. But a lot of times faith comes when we're actively moving and acting. And so then the Lord calls Moses to lift up his staff and stretch forth, stretch out his hand over the sea and divide it, that the Israelites may go off on dry ground. And this is calling back to two things. This whole Exodus is a recreation story again. Remember the chaotic waters. This proves the splitting of the waters, causing dry land to come out of it, that first mountain. This is what is happening here. Moses is creating. The Israelites are also being created, they're becoming a new people. They're almost being born, if you will, through these waters. If you want to get into like a real birth metaphor, they're being reborn. Um, Moses here is also representing and using um it's using motifs and symbols and language found when describing both the Pharaoh and the gods in this way. He is acting as God by stretching forth his hand. The staff was seen as the arm is of God, the power of the God in Egypt at this time. And he is using that. He is using the power of Jehovah to split the waters, to recreate these people. So that is what is happening here. We talked for about, right, that stretching forth of the hand um could either be positive or negative. Positive um if you are being righteous, negative if he is destroying you. And so that's what's happening here. And the angel of the Lord is a pillar of light and a cloud. You wouldn't be able to see a cloud during the day, right? It's so bright, so it's a cloud, but then it's a light, it's a fire by night, um, but it was also a cloud to the Egyptians. And I think that this is something here. There's something to this about how light for our lives, right? Uh, that Jesus Christ, when he came to, right, he was life and belief and eternal life to those that he came for, but also a stumbling block. He's the rock on which we can build if we believe in him, but also it's hard and it might be hard for some to believe in him and his miracles, thereby he becomes a stumbling block for them. It's it's something that they can't get over. It trips them up in their faith. And is that the same for us? Um, I think we need to make sure that we are looking and believing in Jesus Christ so that he illuminates us rather than becomes a stumbling block for us. So he stops the Egyptians, right? They he clogged their wheels so that they turned with difficulty. They were literally heavy. And it's interesting in verse 24, I didn't notice this, but when I was reading my commentary, the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down at the Egyptian army. So now they're seeing his face for the first time. He's not just a cloud to them now, they can see his full presence and they get scared. That's what stops them. They see the full face of the Lord and they are sore afraid, basically, right? Like his glory, they it panics them, it causes them to flee. And this is similar to Mesopotamian kings who boasted this is what the SBI Bible said, that the mere sight of their divine auras would terrify the enemy, and that's what the Lord is doing. And I just reminded of like the day when we see the Lord, will we be filled with the fear of awe and wonder, or will we be scared because we will, you know, realize what we have done. I don't think that his face is scary or anything like that. I think it's just will be the reality of what we have done, and we will have to sit with that. Um and the Egyptians might be sitting there, they're like, oh my gosh, this is God that we are fighting against, and he is all powerful. He is splitting up the sea, right? He divides um the inanimate sea and slays his enemies with it. It is this, you know, um primord primordial of primeval sea monster that he's splitting, right? There's that connotation with it, like he's destroying, he's recreating here, right? Just like he was in the creation story. And we get two accounts here in verse 14. It seems like this happened immediately, like the water was split. They were as walls on either side. And what does that look like? Was it high? Was it low? I don't know. And so it seems like that happens rather quickly, at least that's what it seems like when it did the text. But then um later in the other verses, it seems like when Moses puts out his hand again that it takes the whole night for the waters to go over, right? It says, and at dawn the sea returns to its normal depth. So that actually took a little bit of time. And I think that's important because maybe we see this as happening instantly, but maybe it didn't. Maybe it was something that was happening, but it took patience, and it was a miracle that took some time. Maybe it wasn't as instant as we think, like the waters still had a split, and that took time. It took time for them to come back into the right place. They had to have patience just as much as we do, even as impending doom was kind of coming. And so, can we learn the patience that the Israelites had to? I mean, as they're seeing this amazing miracle. And so then the Egyptians recovered, right? The um, the the chaos finally envelops them, and Israel saw the great work that the Lord had done. So they acted in faith by walking forward. Moses stretched forth his hand, they had enough faith to do that. This is the same faith that he needed to have as the Lord was talking to him back in Moses, right? You will have power over the mountains and the sea and the water, and you will see this, like remember this when I'm telling you. And this is, I hope this is what Moses was thinking of. And I think that's what he's thinking of in that place, right? When he's like, hey guys, don't worry, like the Lord told me he was gonna do this, just stand still and and believe. And the Lord's like, Yeah, I did tell you this is what it's gonna be, but you have to act. And how many times is that true in our lives? Which is even if we know the ending and we believe in God, like sometimes we even have to prove that we have to act. We are the conduit by which his miracles are made. Then we go into chapter 15, which is the song of Moses. And for those of you who have seen The Prince of Egypt, these is this is where these is where um the song comes from. So the first part, um, I'm pulling up my Hebrew right now, but it is a shir a la alonai yigoga. So I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. That is what um this is saying here, right? That's that is what, and this is actually some of the oldest uh uh form of Hebrew that we have in the entire Hebrew Bible. So scholars think, I mean, as close as it can be, that this isn't actually this is probably actually what they were saying. Uh this is maybe actually a song of Moses. This is an ancient, ancient, ancient thing. And how cool is that. Sorry, he had to get some water, and how wonderful is that, right? So, um let me find it. For he has exalted or he has triumphed gloriously, he was raised gloriously. Um he has thrown the horse and rider into the sea. Um, the Lord is my strength, um rat, Yah. He is my strength, and it's interesting here, it's saying Yah, so Yahweh, like Yah. And so this is an L, this is Yahweh, this is Jehovah. This is my God, and I will praise him. Um, sorry, and he has become my salvation. La Yoshia Ze Eli. La Shoyush. Oh wow. La Yoshua Zhe Eli. Yoshua, Yesh Yoshia, he has become my salvation, he's become my Jesus. If you remember that, every time there's salvation, Yoshea, that's Jesus. This is Jesus, this is Yoshia. He's become my salvation. He's become my Jesus, God, my God. This is my God, and I will praise him. I just love it. I love that he has become my salvation, he's become to me Jesus. Right? That's what Jesus saves us from the enemies. And I'm just reminded of President Oak's talk where he talks about loving your enemies, your adversaries, the people who are trying to get us, right? We're supposed to love them. Um, and the Lord does. And so I think that we need to separate a little bit too, like our enemies that are literal people, children of God, and our enemies that are natural consequences, or um, the adversary himself, meaning Satan, um, or like uh kind of the evil uh opposition that we feel. Those are our true enemies, I guess was what I would say, rather than human beings. The Lord will stop them if they're, you know, they have evil intent, but we need to also wish that the Lord would save them and we want to love them as much as we can. And so I love that, right? Okay, this is my father's God, I will exalt him. The Lord is his my warrior, the Lord is his name, Yahweh Shemol. So this is the Lord's name, and we just get that, and it's so wonderful, just such a pretty, pretty player prayer. And so, um, the way that this is described in the SBL handbook is that this is Moses is singing this first part, which is just so beautiful, right? Like he's my strength and my might, and he has now become my salvation. And I love that because the Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father can be your strength and our might. But at some point they have to become our salvation and become our Jesus. He has to become ours personal. Um, and so they went down to the depths. So your right hand, the the right hand was seen as the powerful hand, as the one that would strike, also the covenantal hand. And so it's glorious and power, it shattered the enemy, right? Um the blast in your at the blast of your nostrils is what it is actually in Hebrew. Blast of your nostrils, the breath, right? So it could be the wind. Um the wind would literally be the breath of, but it also could be seen as the anger. Um I will divide the spoil, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them, you blew your wind, the sea covered them. And so maybe we get again more into the idea that it was actually the wind, the increase of the wind that separated the waters. Maybe it was more of a natural, you know, a a natural thing that can come from the god, right? The wind came. Anyway, I just think it's so beautiful. And then in verse 11, we get the second part of um the song in uh Prince of Egypt, which is me Komaka Baalim Adonai Mi Kamocha Ne Ne Dar Bakodesh. So it's who is like you, Lord among the gods, or like the gods, like the high ones, who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders. Now, so Nera, yeah. Yeah. Nora ti khalot ashe oh sorry, osse pele. So that is that song. And it's just who is like you? Who can who does this? Who there's no God like you, God. You just you saved us. And can that I that all of this can be our song? Like, who is like you? You're just so wonderful to me. And I think sometimes I get so caught up in my own um insecurities and worries about being perfect and enough that I forget how amazing God and Heavenly Father are, that they stretch out our right hand, they save us. Our steadfast love, the Hesed, right? You have redeemed this people in your Hesed, your steadfast love, your everlasting love. It's his covenantal love, that special covenantal love that President Nelson taught us about, which which saved the people. And it saved and it was made by their ancestors as well. And I think that's important that even our covenants that we make with God now stretch forth to the generations, and he will continue to be there for our children and our children's children. I love verse 13, yes, because you led us in your Hesed, this people, to redeem. You redeemed them, whom you redeemed. And so here we get the two words that I think, especially in the earlier part of the Hebrew Bible, particularly in Ruth and in Judges, we will get this concept of Hesed, of covenantal love, and then Goel. And a Goel is a redeemer, and we'll go into this more when we talk about Ruth. But a redeemer was the person who was obligated um out of the family unit to if a person um was in debt or didn't fulfill a responsibility or a widow died. The first right son, in a in a s in a certain way, but um the Goel was supposed to be there to take on the person's debt, to pay the person's debt, to redeem them, to to bring them back, to um take care of the widow, if needs be, to marry her, to marry her daughters, to just make sure that everybody was taken care of, and that was their covenantal responsibility in the family. And Jesus Christ is our Goel. He gave us acid, he's the reason that we have it, and he's also our Goel. And I love that both of them is there. Um and then he brought them and you planted them on the mountain of your own possession. So they are plants, they are they are growing up on this mountain, right? On this new creation. God is creating them, he's planting them, he's making them better. Um, he's a planter, he's a mover. It's beautiful. And then the song of Miriam. Um just sing to the Lord. So we can we can just read it because it's again, this is also seen very pretty, and and it's Miriam, well, singing. Um and you know, she's seen here as um as a singer, as a prophetess, in a way she's singing um just as as Moses was, right? And so Miriam says, um sorry, let me find. She said Okay, yeah. Cry unto the Lord rather than sing unto the Lord, and I love that, which is Ta'an, Lachem, Miriam, Sa Ru, La Adunai, Ki, Goa, Goa, Su Sova, Khober, Ram Bayam. So very similar, but she's singing the same one, and so maybe Miriam helped write this one of Moses. It's hard to know, but clearly they're saying the same things, they're worshiping the same god, and brother and sister doing it together. Love it. Then here we get bitter water made sweet. So they go to this place which does not have clean water, no doubt, they're in the desert. Hard to find clean water. They go into the wilderness of Shur, there are three days, and they found no water. And they came to Mara. Why is it called Mara? Mara literally means bitter in Hebrew. These are gross waters, they're diseased, they cannot drink them. And the people complained because they're human beings, and I just relate to them so much in these chapters. I'm like, girl same, I would also complain. I'd be like, okay, we've just walked around for three days, and he's like, Moses is like, okay, what shall we drink? I'm gonna pray. He showed him a piece of wood, he threw it in water, the water became sweet. Many discussion on what this wood is. How did this happen? I don't know. I really do not know, but I know that the Lord can make the bitter things sweet in our lives. And maybe we can see this what is the cross? The wood, the tree of life, the cross of Jesus Christ. Because of that, all the bitter things in our lives will one day become sweet. In fact, the most sweet I'm reminded of Jesus Christ turning the water into wine. Um, and this is just because of his marvelous power. How many times in our life are we like? I don't know if you're my door closed. Sorry, that was my door, but anyway. How many times in our lives are we like the Israelites? And we're like, okay, great. Um, Lord, why are you doing this? Ooh, okay, I'm going through this really hard thing. You just saved me miraculously. But um, no, this is really hard. Like, get it, but the Lord keeps providing for them. He's so patient. I think this is an example of what Hasid really is. Just patience. And the Lord turns this into, he's like, this is an important thing, right? He made this a statue in an ordinance, right? So he's making this a really big remembrance for them. And it's not really said what the statue in an ordinance is, but they're remembered by this, right? And so they remember this, and this is important, I think, because this is still remembered by Nephi in um the Book of Mormon. Remember when he's talking to his brothers and they're complaining, which I think is interesting. It's like, yeah, we're all complaining because it's hot in this desert, and they're near the same place. They say they follow the place by the Red Sea, right? By the by so they're following the same place as Moses, and it's like he's remembering this, and so and it's the same thing. If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord and do what is right and give heed, keep his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that are brought from the Egypts, for I am the Lord God who heals you. And so this, I think, is this the ordinance, the statute. Um, I would love to go into more if there's a ritual associated with this. Maybe that's my next paper and dissertation. But like, there's something here that just keeps them remembered, which is if you keep my commandments, if you keep my statutes and my commandments, I will heal you, I will protect you. Um, like, I'm your God, please remember me. And they need these moments to keep reminding them of that, and they're just so human, and so are we. But can we be unlike them as much as we can be and remember him even in the moments that it's hard? And try not to complain and remember and keep a hold of these bursts of light, if you will, while we're while we're in the moments of darkness. And I think that the Lord does that less because he doesn't like to hear us complain. And I think more because it's hard for us when we're complaining. We it it makes the experience harder when you're complaining. Doesn't really make it better, it makes it harder for everybody. But if we are patient and we try to be grateful, even when it's hard, we can see that it's hard, but we but we continue and we have faith, then actually. Becomes an enriching and enlightening experience, and it it it's and it's better. That doesn't mean it's not hard, but it means that we're not making it harder for ourselves. And I think that's a lot of times what I've seen in my life. Whenever I think about doubting Thomas, for example, and I would say this when I was at the visiting center, the Lord never calls him doubting Thomas. And the only thing he ever says is, Hey Thomas, you are blessed because you have seen this, you have felt me. More blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. Why? And I thought about that why, and I thought, it's because Thomas for a moment had the fear that doubt brings. I know because I've experienced it. It doesn't feel good, and and yet sometimes I still do it. And but if we believe, then we don't have to experience that. It's not that they're more blessed, like they're gonna get better blessings. In fact, it's just that the people who believe and don't experience the doubt are not gonna feel the fear and the pain and the sadness that sometimes that that doubt can bring. Not because you're doing necessarily bad things, but because even doubt itself is a painful emotion to feel. But if you believe you never have to experience in that error, you are, quote unquote, more blessed. And I think that's what we see here. We won't be more blessed than the Israelites if we don't complain as much as they will, as they did. Um, which by the way, I like I said, it makes complete sense and I have complete empathy for them because I do the same thing. But if we try to not complain as much or or try to have more faith, it's not that we will be more blessed because we will gain more blessings. It's in the way that we just won't experience the same hardship that comes from those things. We'll be saved from those experiences from God, and we will be continually blessed from the Lord. We will have no separation from him. And I love that. Okay? Then they go to the place where there's and the Lord says, Not only are we gonna save this water, but I'm gonna bring you to a place where there's so much more water, and it's wonderful. The Lord will always bring us to better places after the hardship, even if that better place is ultimately the celestial kingdom, and the hardship lasts for a lot longer than we would like. Then we have the bread from heaven. So the whole congregation goes down from Elim and they go into the wilderness of sin, and they're in the second month there, and they complained. They're like, ah, if we had only died by the hand of the Lord in Egypt. What? Folks, but I've been there, right? You're just like, okay, thank you so much for saving me or like bringing me to this place in my life, but like maybe I want to go back. And maybe honestly I would have rather been dead. Or like, you know, like I honestly wish I was there, and all the hard things that I said were hard, weren't really that hard, and I just don't like this hard thing. How many times have we said that in our lives, right? Because at least we had food. Like, at least we had food. Right? Like, at least we had food back then, and now we're hungry. It's just we've all been there. This is Laman and Lemuel. This is it's just, it's so us, right? It's just, it's us. And the Lord was like, Don't worry, okay. Moses, they're complaining in the Lord. Moses is the intermediary, right? Moses is Jesus in these moments because they're complaining to Moses. Moses goes to the Lord, the Lord blesses them. Moses is the intermediary in this way. Um, he's he's Jesus Christ. Um, and there are other gods at this time who also are intermediaries, and so this idea of an intermediary between the people and God is very common, um, even though the intermediary sometimes was another God, which works, right? Jesus. Anyway, but um, and he's like, okay, you know what? I'm gonna write down, I'm gonna write down bread from you. Got you. But this time it's actually gonna be more of a test or a trial or um an experience that will help them learn, will gain better faith. It's a it's a homework, it's it's a try, you know, it's those sort of things. And so what it is is we're gonna wring down bread and meat. First, they're complaining um that they, you know, that they need some quail, they need some meat, right? Because they're like, we all send meat. So the Lord's like, fine, I'm gonna send down quail, and all of these quail die, and they get to eat the quail. And I've had quail, pretty bony, but you know what? Tasty. So the quail came and they ate it, and they're like, yes. And then also along with the quail came this snow-like flake, fine, fake, flaky substance that's white like a coriander flower. And I need to look up white coriander right now because I forgot. White coriander seed. Let's look it up, right? It's white, and literally, manna is called what is this? Like, what what is this? And so it's probably like fine, fine seeds, or or it's hard to know. It's hard to know what exactly it looks like, right? But they picked up the stuff, they would grind it, and they would make it into bread, right? They're eating this every day. And the Lord said, you know what, you're gonna need this every day. And by the way, you can grab some for tomorrow. You have to do this every single day, and it's just a daily remembrance of the Lord and what he's doing for them. Are these the scriptures for us? As I was reading this, and I mean the come follow me says this too, we need we need to be filled by daily bread. We need to be filling the spirit every day. And the days that I don't, um, I can tell. I can tell. And I'm just so grateful that the Lord has provided us scriptures and church and the temple and the spirit to help. And we need to be refreshed. Not just because it's something that we need to do, but because it ultimately strengthens us, helps us feel better, and helps us gain a closer relationship to God. You know, you gotta check on your Sims daily or you know, your friends on Instagram. Check in with the Lord. What is he doing? What does he want to teach you? More so, right? And that's what this mana represents. Mana, like I said, literally means what is this? I like to say it is like, what the crap is this? Like, what is this? I don't know, mana. It's just something, it's like whatever. Like, we don't know what it is, but the Lord has given us mana. He's given us mana, and he's given us uh whatchikma call it's from heaven, and we don't even know what it is, but we eat it and it's good. It tastes like honey, it's delicious. And so, you know, but guess what? You can't save it until tomorrow. This is not, it's not like we can read our scriptures all on Sunday and it lasts throughout the week. And I've, you know, I felt I'm like, okay, well, double today, no tomorrow. No, because we need that daily refreshment, it's part of our routine. We need it, we need to be refilled every day. It doesn't last, you know. The the oil needs to be filled every day, right? And so, and he's like, but on the Sabbath, I don't want you to be doing work on the Sabbath. Because it not because this also is remembrance of the Lord, right? The Lord rested, and so I want you to take two. I want you to take two so you don't have to do any work on the Sabbath. You know, you can think about the Lord, you can worship. You're gonna take two. And so they do, and so that's a reminder of the Sabbath, right? The six days the Lord worked, seventh day he rested, and so should we? And do we take the time on the Sabbath to remember that rest, to recenter ourselves, recreate our week, if you will. Okay, taste it of wafers, right? Of honey. Delicious. And then once again, water from a rock. There's no water. Moses is like, fine, what do you want with me? And they're like, um, we're gonna die. And it's like, okay, and he does it again, right? So Moses struck a rock, water comes out of it. So we had water that went from bitter to sweet, and now rock with water coming out. Um, this is then described as Christ, as the rock, right? I think Nephi does this. Um, at least the Kumpholmi does this as well, which is Christ is our rock from which um comes the living water, Jesus Christ's again, um, salvation, eternal life, from which we all can be refreshed. So then he called this place Masa, which means which means test, and Mirbah, which means quarrel. So he's like, you guys tested and quarreled and fought against the Lord, but he still showed you his hand. And I'm so grateful. The Lord is God is so good. Jesus is so good that they would do these things for us. Because how many times in our lives do we quarrel and test them? And we're like, really, like, I need water right now, and I need it, and I know you've provided me for me before, um, but I need it right now. And he gives it to them, and I love it. And I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horebook. I will be there with you. The Lord is there with us in so many different ways. He's there, springs from you. He was always with Moses too, which I love. He never went away from Moses, he was there to help him. So then Amulek attacks Israel. We learn um in Deuteronomy that they had they attack from the back, and so that's okay. They gotta fight Amulek. And the way that this happens is Moses holds up his hands, and when his hands are up, the uh the people um the their successful Joshua, our main guy who's gonna be coming up later, so a military man, is winning, and then when that's not happening, they are losing. When Moses puts his arms down because he's tired, they're losing. So then Josh So then Aaron and um her held up his hands. They sustained him. This is actually where a lot of our term of sustaining comes from. We sustain our brothers and sisters in their callings, we lift up our own hands, just like Aaron and her held up Moses' hands to sustain them in their callings to when it's hard for them, when they're tired, when they need our support. That's what counselors do for their presidents. It comes from from this story. And are we doing what we need to, right? Like we're sustaining them, we're we're holding them up so that we can all be successful, so that we can all build design community. And I see that. Um also on the Come Follow Me podcast for this next week, along with uh my my roommate Anna was talking to me about it, and she said, What a beautiful way to that the the person connected it to Jesus Christ with his arms raised um on the cross. And do we sustain him in that? You know, do we support him by using the atonement, um, by thanking him for his great and everlasting sacrifice that that these the hands raised can represent that as well. And I just thought that was beautiful and thought I would share right, a hand, and so and then again we get another kind of like maybe ritual here. Um and Moses built an altar, right? An altar and called it the Lord is my banner. Right? Why the Lord is my banner? I don't know. Let's think about this for a second, right? The a banner would be something that you hold up, which which causes fear. Um you know, like victory. Sorry, just online it says, you know, victory, protection, leadership. He's victorious. Makes me think of the title of liberty, which was literally a banner that was lifted up, right? The Lord is that. He brings us victory, he protects us. We can look to him in our battles, and he will give us strength and success, just like Moses gave to the people. Um, and he said, A hand upon the banner of the Lord. The Lord will have war with Annie, like from generation to generation. People think that this might be like a like a stella or like something was set up, like a rock memorial was set up here. And I just want to know if that happened. Like, I, you know, guys, for you that don't know me, sometimes I do archaeology, but I'm really fascinated with ritual and how these things were remembered across time. I think that's so fascinating, and I just want to know. Like, how do they how how is this remembered? Is this a fundamental story? Because like you could go to the place and there was like something that like said it, like, did they do rituals, remember it? Anyway, sorry. Going off on a tangent, but just interesting to think about. Um, the Lord can help us in that way. And then finally, we get Jethro's advice, which Jethro, if you don't remember, is Moses' father-in-law. And basically, when he goes, he sees that Moses um and the congregation of the Lord, maybe the tabernacle is already set up, maybe it's not. Um, but but they're going before the Lord, um, at the mountain of the Lord before Moses, and Moses is giving them all of their disputations. It could be the man from each household, um, each man of the household, who, by the way, was responsible for um picking up the manna. But uh, so households was was kind of the groups that they were in at the time. There's tribes and then families, um, which can be super interesting nowadays as we think about a more family-focused home, that that kind of was what the Israelites were doing at the time. Um, that that was kind of the central unit where people author um came out of, and then, you know, it went back. But Moses, people were just going before him. Every head of the household would stand in line and ask him for judgments, you know, like, oh, you're like, okay, what should we do, you know, between me? We're having fighting, like, what can we do? What wisdom can we do? This is happening in our situation, all those things. And it was just Moses, and that's too much. And Jethro saw that. Jethro himself being a high priest, possibly over a group of people, and he's like, Um, we need more organization here. Moses, you can't do this on by your own. This is on this is not sustainable. So, will you appoint, you know, sub-categories? The 70, if you will, apostles, if you will, they're not apostles, but they are leaders for for every tribe and for every group, um, right? Um, yeah, to pick them out, and so he chose able men, and over the they were officers over the thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and they were, you know, thought as wise, they were probably set apart, um, and they became the leaders, and Moses wasn't able to take it. He couldn't, he didn't have to take it all on. And this to me is just uh a testimony of the administration of the church, and something that we all need to remember, which is you know, at the beginning of the church, people did talk to Joseph Smith more. Why? Because there was only there were so few that they could just do that. Nowadays, there's so many members of the church that that is why there's organizations, that is why there are a line of authority, etc., etc. It's so that one person doesn't have to carry all of the burden, so that we can all help each other. Um, ultimately, there is one person, God, Jesus Christ, who is over everything. Um, but just practically speaking, there needs to be different people who are called, who are inspired to help us, um, so that one person doesn't have to take it on, and reminder that we don't have to take it on. I loved Susan Porter's talk about when she was talking to the primary children, and she said, if you see problems around you, just reminder you're not responsible to solve all of them, but the Lord will answer your prayers as you ask how you can help. And I just think that is true for each of us. I ask, um, I'm loved uh studying this today and thinking about how the Lord sustains us and is continually patient with us as we try to set up new societies and get organized as we complain, even as he showed us many miracles in our lives, and he just leads us to the right place as we continually put our trust in him and act in faith.