Meridian Magazine--Come Follow Me Latter-day Saint Podcast

In this episode, we'll be studying Exodus chapter 7 through 13. Some material that you'll find very familiar to you. This is, of course, the intriguing story of the children of Israel coming out of captivity because God spared His people, and the type that became for all of the covenant people to this very day.

When Joseph became vizier of Egypt, second only to Pharoah and wearing his ring of authority, he also got a new name that doesn’t exactly roll off our English-speaking tongues. It is Zaphnath-paaneah and what it lacks in clarity, it more than makes up in its meaning which is “savior of the world.” Yes, his starving family will come from Canaan, hoping to buy the corn that Joseph has stored in Egypt, but his name signifies even more than that.

Children can tell the story of Joseph being sold into Egypt. We know it well, with nasty brothers, slave dealers, false accusations, pits of despair and drama galore. What’s most important about this story, however, may not be obvious, and that’s what we are talking about in this episode.

We remember well those
events and carry their magnificent hope with us. One night Scot and I were trying to photograph an olive tree on the Mount of Olives, not far from Gethsemane, to represent the Savior in the garden. It was dark and gradually a hush and then silence fell over our world where we worked alone. Because it was dark, these photographs took several minutes, and we worked alone on that mount for nearly three hours, hoping to capture a stunning photograph. We remembered how Elder Jeffrey R. Holland had described the Savior’s atonement. “We celebrate the gift of victory over ever fall we have ever experienced, every sorrow we have ever known, every discouragement we have ever had, every fear we have ever faced—to say nothing of our resurrection from death and forgiveness for our sins.”

Daniel C. Peterson, retired professor of Islamic Studies and founder and editor-in-chief of the Interpreter Foundation, and producer of the film Witnesses, joins Scot and Maurine to explore Moses’s profound encounter with the burning bush and the charge he was given to confront Pharoah with the message to “Let my people go.”