REL A 250 1/14/2017

In Moses 1, Moses is on a mountain speaking with God and is shown many of God's creations. In class this week, we discussed how Moses's experience was similar to Joseph Smith's first vision. Both prophets had amazing spiritual experiences speaking face to face with the Savior (and in Joseph's case, the Father also), but shortly after (or before) were confronted strongly by the Adversary. In Moses 1:12 it says, "And it came to pass that... Satan came tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man, worship me." Brother Griffin then pointed out that ten of the twelve Apostles called by the Three Witnesses fell away from the church, and Brigham Young explained that when we have spiritual experiences we normally have equal opposition just before or after the experience.

When he explained this, it made me think of times in my life that I have sought out spiritual experiences and felt disappointment or discouragement when they didn't come. I felt impressed, however, that sometimes when we seek out spiritual experiences and answers and we don't receive them, it may not be because we aren't ready for that specific spiritual experience, but because we aren't ready to face the opposition that accompanies those experiences. I can only imagine what Moses and Joseph felt as they spoke with Christ and were called by name by him. Likewise, I can only imagine the struggle and fear that they had being confronted by the adversary. I also appreciated Brother Griffin's comment that even though we face opposition the lesson learned from the prophets' experiences is that we do not (and cannot!) face that opposition alone.