Moses received more than tablets of stone on Mount Sinai. He received glory which was visible on his countenance. Before ascending, he urged the people to sanctify themselves (Exodus 19). They made a covenant: “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). But they were not ready to fulfill that covenant, as evidenced by the golden calf they fashioned while Moses was away (Exodus 32). When Moses returned from speaking with God, “The skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him” (Exodus 34:30). Such close proximity to God’s glory, even indirectly via the prophet, was overwhelming.
Many years later, when Abinadi began to quote the Ten Commandments to King Noah and his priests, “his face shone with exceeding luster, even as Moses’ did while in the mount of Sinai, while speaking with the Lord” (Mosiah 13:5). He explained to them that the Law of Moses did not itself bring salvation, but that it pointed to the One who could save them:
It was expedient that there should be a law given to the children of Israel, yea, even a very strict law; for they were a stiffnecked people, quick to do iniquity, and slow to remember the Lord their God;
Therefore there was a law given them, yea, a law of performances and of ordinances, a law which they were to observe strictly from day to day, to keep them in remembrance of God and their duty towards him.
But behold, I say unto you, that all these things were types of things to come.
Mosiah 13:29-31
Abinadi affirmed that they were still obligated to follow this law, but he wanted them to see it as a means to a greater end:
If ye teach the law of Moses, also teach that it is a shadow of those things which are to come—
Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, who is the very Eternal Father.
Mosiah 16:14-15
This week, as we study Moses’s reception of God’s law, let’s remember Abinadi’s interpretive framework. Let’s observe how every element of this law points us to the salvation offered by Jesus Christ.
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