Exodus

There are many parallels to the Exodus story of the bible through out the Doctrine and Covenants. Many of these parallels are created due to the events that were occurring. One of these parallels is, of course, the pioneers who crossed the wilderness to the promised land. I have already written a blog on how the end of the trek, the Salt Lake Valley, geographically parallels the end of the journey of the people of Israel, Jerusalem. The parallels start earlier than that though.

In both events, the people were attempting to escape the predicament they were currently in, one being slaves and the other persecuted for their beliefs. As they began the journey, the Lord gave a system of organization. He commanded that companies are organized with captains leading the whole company and sub-captains in charge of smaller groups of hundreds, fifties, and tens. The President of the church and his counselors are in charge of everyone. This provided an easy way for solutions to problems that the president did not need to deal with and made sure that every individual was cared for.

In section 136 of the Doctrine and Covenants, a revelation given to Brigham Young on how to get the saints somewhere they would be safe, the Lord declares "Zion shall be redeemed in mine own due time." In this circumstance, the Lord is referring to the place that has been designated as Zion that the saints have been kicked out of. A similar idea happens in the Exodus story, the Lord declares he will redeem Zion in his own time, but this Zion has a different meaning. He is referring to the people of Zion who, because of their iniquities, are left to wander in the desert.

One of the things I find most interesting are the language parallels. In this section God refers to himself as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He uses languages and terms that are more often used in the Old Testament than in any of the other scriptures.