I Can Judge Between Him and Thee

In a Come, Follow Me podcast Dr. Kerry Muhlestein suggested that one of the lessons we can take from Moses 1 is that to protect ourselves from Satan and counterfeits, we must know the Lord. After the vision that Moses had with the Lord, Satan came to him “tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man, worship me.” Moses responded, “Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee? For behold, I could not look upon God, except his glory should come upon me, and I were transfigured before him. But I can look upon thee in the natural man. Is it not so, surely?... His glory has been upon me, wherefore I can judge between him and thee” (v13-14, 18). Moses could tell the difference between God and Satan and so he was not fooled by the adversary’s temptations. He had experienced what it was like to be in the presence of the Lord, and so it was easy for him to see that this pretender did not have the same glory. Dr. Muhlestein used this story to make the point that we must have frequent experiences with the Lord and come to know the Spirit and how it speaks so that when the adversary tries to lead us astray, we are not fooled.  

This is the same lesson that Jacob taught us in his account about the wicked man Sherem who sought to lead away the Nephites. Jacob recorded, “And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken.” Jacob had had revelations from God, he had seen angels, and he had heard the voice of the Lord so he could not be swayed by this new voice of Sherem’s. Indeed, his defense against Sherem was that the Spirit spoke to him: “But behold, the Lord God poured in his Spirit into my soul, insomuch that I did confound him in all his words.” The people, though, had not been as prepared for his words for the things he said were “flattering” and he “did lead away many hearts.” They did not recognize his preachings for what they were but rather were deceived by them. Once the power of the Lord came upon Sherem and he was stopped in his wicked ways, the people realized their error and sought to come to know the Lord like Jacob: “They searched the scriptures, and hearkened no more to the words of this wicked man” (Jacob 7:2-3, 5, 8, 23). We too must protect ourselves by coming to know the voice of the Lord in the scriptures just as the Savior taught in the Olivet discourse: “And whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived” (JSM 1:37). We protect ourselves from the deceptions of the world by treasuring up continually the words of God.

            In the last general conference the prophet as well encouraged us to protect ourselves by coming to know the Lord and making time for Him. He said, “There has never been a time in the history of the world when knowledge of our Savior is more personally vital and relevant to every human soul.” He also suggested that “one of the plagues of our day is that too few people know where to turn for truth.” We must come to know Him in order to distinguish between truth and error. He encouraged us to seek diligently to hear the Lord’s voice in the conference: “If you have not yet sought for the ministering of the Holy Ghost to help you hear what the Lord would have you hear during these two days, I invite you to do so now. Please make this conference a time of feasting on messages from the Lord through His servants. Learn how to apply them in your life.” As he talked about our spiritual foundation he suggested that we need to work harder than ever before to protect ourselves spiritually: “In like manner, it is now time that we each implement extraordinary measures—perhaps measures we have never taken before—to strengthen our personal spiritual foundations. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.” And in his final address he urged us to make time for the Lord: “The voices and pressures of the world are engaging and numerous. But too many voices are deceptive, seductive, and can pull us off the covenant path. To avoid the inevitable heartbreak that follows, I plead with you today to counter the lure of the world by making time for the Lord in your life—each and every day.” Just like Moses and Jacob, if we are to ward off the temptations of the adversary, we must be able to tell the difference between him and the voice of the Lord. To do that we must spend time with the Lord in prayer, in the scriptures, at church, and in the temple. We must treasure up His word, hear His voice, and come to know Him and then we will not be deceived.