Welcome to the Scripture Study Project, our podcast dedicated to helping you discover the scriptures

in a fresh way, invest your mind and heart into your personal study, and connect to God

in your everyday life. We're your hosts, Zach and Krista Horton. This week we're studying

sections 41 through 44 of the Doctrine and Covenants. And before we dive in, I want to

share a thought that has come kind of about our study last week, but I think that spans

or that bridges some of our previous studies, this study today,

and then some of our upcoming studies. So I had a colleague of mine that shared this idea

recently that in the tabernacle, the physical structure of the tabernacle was symbolic of a progression towards God.

You had the outer court of the tabernacle and laid the temple in Jerusalem,

into which anyone could come.

And as you move closer and closer to the Holy of Holies,

the laws became more and more strict. And so the outer court was meant to prepare you for moving

into the inside of the temple or inside of the tabernacle into the holy place. And then being in that

holy place, you did things that helped you progress into the holy of holies, which is represented

the presence of God. And what he remarked was that

God moves people physically, often to teach them spiritual truths. And so here you have a micro

example of him moving them through the tabernacle to teach them, in the outer court you do this,

there's sacrificing, there's washing, in the inner court, there's the table of showbread, and there's the menorah, and there's the

altar of incense. And then in the Holy of Holies, there's the Mercy Seat. But he also does it in

bigger scales. You think of him moving Moses and the children of Israel from Egypt, where they

couldn't practice their religion and were

surrounded by idolatry. He moves them into the wilderness, which wasn't their eventual

...