Moses, My Son

Unit 2 Part 1 Podcast

Elder Rasband of the Seventy describes the adversary's attack on Moses:

"…After witnessing the power and glory of God, Moses was confronted by Satan, who “came tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man, worship me”. Note that Satan attempted to persuade Moses that he was not, as he had been assured, a son of God but rather a “son of man”-that is, a mere mortal. It is obvious why Satan wants us to doubt that we are spiritually begotten children of God. Dissuading us that we have divine potential erodes the nobility to which we ought to aspire and invites us to embrace the sins of this world. In doing so we surrender to the adversary and forfeit our rightful divine inheritance.

Moses provides us with a wonderful example of how to resist the blandishments of Satan. Moses said, “I will not cease to call upon God” (Moses 1:18), teaching us the importance of prayer. Then Moses commanded Satan to depart from him, speaking “in the name of the Only Begotten” and thus declaring his loyalty to Jesus Christ and his dependence on the Savior's Atonement (Moses 1:20-21). By displaying such determination, Moses was strengthened and succeeded in driving Satan from him."

In this revelation God repeatedly refers to Moses as “my son” and teaches him that he was created in the similitude of the Savior (Moses 1:6). Commenting on the importance of this truth, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: 

“Consider the power of the idea taught in our beloved song ‘I Am a Child of God' … Here is the answer to one of life's great questions, ‘Who am I?' I am a child of God with a spirit lineage to heavenly parents. That parentage defines our eternal potential. That powerful idea is a potent antidepressant. It can strengthen each of us to make righteous choices and to seek the best that is within us. Establish in the mind of a … person the powerful idea that he or she is a child of God and you have given self-respect and motivation to move against the problems of life.”(Dallin H. Oaks, “Powerful Ideas,” Ensign, November 1995, p. 25)