The Flight from Egypt

When the Lord called Moses to the work of leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt He told him that the Pharaoh would not let them go willingly, that he would need to be persuaded (Exodus 3:19-20). Moses questioned whether Pharaoh could be persuaded and so the Lord then gave Moses a preview of the persuasion He would use to convince Pharaoh (Exodus 4:1-9). 

Moses came down from the Mount and returned to his home where he shared with his family, including his father-in-law Jethro, what had happened. Jethro was the High Priest of Midian (Exodus 18:1 JST), the priesthood leader to the saints in Midian, including Moses. After hearing Moses' report, and in response to Moses' request, Jethro told him to go (Exodus 4:18). So Moses took his wife Zipporah, and his brother Aaron and started on the long journey back to Egypt. 

Moses' concern with going back to Egypt came from a number of things, not the least of which was the task he was going back to do. Getting a theocratic monarch to give up a whole nation's slave force was no small undertaking. Yet, here was Moses, about to go before a ruler, who supposedly took his direction from deity, and tell him that some other god wanted him to let all these slaves go. On top of that, Moses was a wanted man in Egypt, he had slain a man, which was the reason he'd left Egypt (Exodus 2:11-15). Still, Moses trusted in the Lord and, with his wife and brother, they left for Egypt, taking with him the rod he'd had on the mount, which the Lord and turned into a serpent (Exodus 4:20).

Along the way, at one of the stops they made, the Lord came to Moses to talk again about the mission Moses was on. One of the things the Lord told Moses was that the men who had sought Moses had all died so it was safe to return. The Lord again reminded Moses that Pharaoh would need convincing to let the Children of Israel go and that it would be necessary to perform all the miracles the Lord had prepared for the occasion. And, referring to Israel as His own firstborn, the Lord said that if Pharaoh wouldn't let His firstborn go, He would slay Pharaoh's firstborn, even his son (Exodus 4:21-23). This was the culminating plague, the greatest curse that was to be brought upon Egypt, and it was also a type, a foreshadow of the atoning sacrifice to be made by the Messiah almost 1500 years later, outside the walls of Jerusalem.

As predicted, Pharaoh did not willingly release the Children of Israel when Moses let him know what the Lord was asking. And so the plagues were unleashed upon Pharaoh and Egypt. When Moses turned his staff into a snake, Pharaoh was unimpressed, his own magicians could do as much. But perhaps Pharaoh and his court should have taken greater notice when the staff of Aaron, which is the staff that became a serpent, overpowered the serpents from Pharaoh's magicians and ate them (Exodus 7:10-12). In any case, that was not the end of it.  The Lord had told Moses that, "the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them" (Exodus 7:5). Only the first wonder was done privately, before Pharaoh. All the rest of the plagues were visited upon the whole nation of Egypt; all the people ruled by Pharaoh were affected. When the waters in the streams, rivers, ponds, pools, and vessels throughout all the land of Egypt were turned to blood for seven days, the next plague, all the people suffered as the waters stank, the fish died, and the people suffered from thirst (Exodus 7:17-25). 

Then frogs overran the country, getting into the people's homes, village, and fields, everyone had to deal with them for a full day before they abated. But then,  after a day with frogs everywhere, the frogs didn't leave, they just died. The people heaped them in piles but the piles of frogs rotted and stank. Once again all of Egypt suffered from the smell (Exodus 8:1-14).

On and on they came, plague after plague: lice, flies, livestock dying, boils and blains, burning hail (and the destruction of crops it brought), locust (and the loss of what crops had not been destroyed by the hail), three days of darkness (another type of Christ). With each new plague the magicians of Egypt tried to duplicate the plague but they were unable to replicate only those plagues up to the frogs. This was not the wisest course because it only made the plagues and suffering of the people worse. Fortunately for the people, they were unable to duplicate the lice or anything that came afterward; the power of the Lord was greater than the power of the magicians. 

But, as bad as everything Pharaoh had put his people through, the worst was yet to come. The Lord had instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh right up front that if he refused to let Israel go He would slay Pharaoh's firstborn (Exodus 4:23) but Pharoah wouldn't hear it, he pushed to the limit, multiplying his own suffering and the suffering of his people. In the dance Pharaoh had been playing with Moses, Pharaoh finally told him to leave and that if he came back he would be put to death. So Moses left the courts of Pharaoh and turned his attention to protecting the Children of Israel from the last plague. When the last plague came upon Egypt, not only Pharaoh's oldest son died, but the firstborn of every family in all of Egypt, from the greatest to the least, no matter where they were, they died, in every house in the country. And not just the families lost their firstborn child, but the firstborn of all their surviving livestock as well. 

It was enough, Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron before him and told him to take his people, their livestock, and all their possessions and get out of Egypt (Exodus 12:31-32). But not only Pharaoh, all the people wanted them gone. And when the Israelites asked to borrow from the Egyptians, the Egyptians responded by pressing them to take what wanted and leave (Exodus 12:35-36). In effect, they paid their slaves to leave. 

Clear back on the Mount of the Lord, when Moses first received his call to lead Israel out of Egypt and to the Promised Land, the Lord had told Moses He would stretch forth His mighty hand and smite Egypt, after which they would let Israel go (Exodus 3:20). And it was done, as the Lord had said it would be done.

Patience

When Israel blessed his twelve sons shortly before his death (Genesis 48,49) he was prompted to speak of the great things that would come through Judah's and Joseph's descendants. The blessings the rest of his sons received largely were to admonish them and their descendants to righteousness. The Lord, who knows the end from the beginning, knew that, over and over again, the Children of Israel would lapse into unrighteousness and need to be constantly called back to the path of righteousness. The conditional promise repeated over and over again among the descendants of Lehi, that they would prosper in the land as long as they kept the commandments of God (1 Nephi 2:20), was first spoken to the House of Israel through the prophet Moses as they were about to enter and be established in the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 28:29), 800 years before Lehi left Jerusalem. During the over 400 years between the time that Israel died and Moses was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, the children of the twelve sons of Israel had strayed far from the God who had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the Land of Canaan, along with other great blessings. The Children of Israel had grown into a nation.  But now, with Israel in such a state of unrighteousness and unbelief, it was time for Moses to bring them out of bondage and into the freedom and liberty that righteousness could bring to them. 

As noted by F. W. Boreham, when God wants to do a great work, he sends a baby. And so, in about 1525 BC, Moses was born into slavery, under the edict of death, but was promptly delivered into the household of Egyptian royalty where he became known in the household and court of the Pharaoh. Years later, when Moses left Egypt, he went east, across the Sinai Peninsula to the Land of Midian, just east of the Gulf of Aqaba, almost 200 miles from Egypt, where he fell in with Jethro, the High Priest of Midian (Exodus 18:1 JST). Jethro, who held the priesthood and traced his line of authority back to Abraham (D&C 84:6-16), began Moses' education in the gospel. Several years later, as Moses, who was now almost 80 years old, was out tending sheep, he turned aside one afternoon to see a bush that was burning without being consumed by the fire. Thus the Lord began the process of convincing a nation mired in the skepticism of unrighteousness that they should follow Him, and that He could deliver them from slavery and bondage.

After explaining that He had heard the cries of the Children of Israel and was going to deliver them out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land, a land of milk and honey, the Lord told Moses that it was now safe to return and that he would be instrumental in the great work of bringing the Children of Israel out of Egypt. He reminded Moses that he, himself, had heard the cries of the Israelites and knew of their suffering, and that He, the Lord, wanted Moses to go to Pharaoh, secure the release of the people, and lead them out of Egypt, into the Promised Land. And not only would the Children of Israel leave Egypt but they would also take from the riches of Egypt with them. The Lord pointed out that, as to be expected, Pharaoh was unlikely to willingly let his country's slave force just walk away, that Pharaoh would need to be forcefully convinced. To convince Moses of the power the Lord would use to persuade Pharaoh, the Lord gave Moses a preview of the miracles he would perform before Pharaoh. At the Lord's instruction, Moses turned his staff into a snake and then back into a staff. He also afflicted Moses with leprosy and then healed him. After that, the Lord told Moses of the additional miracles He would do to convince Pharaoh to release the Children of Israel (Exodus 4:2-9). 

After having this discussion with the Lord and coming down from the Mount of the Lord, Moses took his wife, Zipporah, and his brother, Aaron, and left for Egypt. The trip was not without incident because Moses was still learning the strict obedience required to work so closely with the Lord, but the group finally arrived in Egypt and spoke with the Elders of Israel. As the Lord had needed to convince Moses that this mission could succeed, Moses needed to convince the Elders of Israel that this was a viable plan. And so, as the Lord had done with him, and as the Lord had instructed him (Exodus 4:16), Moses gave the Elders of Israel a preview of the miracles that would be done before Pharaoh (Exodus 4:30). The result was that the Elders of Israel were convinced and so were the Children of Israel (Exodus 4:31). And so, for the first time in centuries, the Children of Israel began to have hope. There were still trials and difficulties the Children of Israel would have to endure before they were allowed to go, but the process was beginning and the end of their days of slavery was in sight.

Although the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt is a very familiar one, one I've heard plenty of times before, I had forgotten the details of how the Lord laid the foundation and worked to bring the Children of Israel along, before Moses ever appeared before Pharaoh. The Lord had promised Abraham 640 years before Moses went to Pharaoh, "I will lead thee by my hand, and I will take thee." (Abraham 1:16) The Lord has renewed this promise in our day, early in the restoration, that "the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers." (D&C 112:10) This is a constant with the Lord, who is infinitely patient. He is patient with us and encourages us to be patient as we wait on Him, especially in times of affliction (D&C 66:9). And so we should be, even though we sometimes find it difficult.

A Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This has been a good year for biking, we have gotten out a lot.  But the best time of the year is the fall.  Riding through the fall colors as the leaves turn is absolutely beautiful.

One thing I really like about the state we live in as that there are four distinct seasons.  A lot of places don't have that, and some kind of have that, but around here, fall is markedly set off from the summer and winter and the fall leaves can be stunning.

Something I particularly like about where we live is that it is a very bike friendly community.  There are bike lanes on a lot of the roads and there are trails through the forests that get you right out in the trees.  That makes biking, or walking if that's what you choose to do, real nice.

So I like to get out on my bike and especially so in the fall.

The trails are my favorite but even riding on the city streets is nice because wooded lots are real popular around here which means much of the streets are still through wooded areas and get lots of color when the leaves turn in the fall.

The trails are very well maintained and go through some very nice areas, even though sometimes the fallen leaves get so thick on the trails it gets hard to tell where the trail is.

There are also plenty of rivers and lakes to make the area real attractive.

It's not unusual at all to see deer while out riding.  Many of the deer are tame enough that they usually don't mind if you ride by.  It's sometimes easy to get photos if you don't make any sudden moves.

So we get out on the bikes, in the woods, as often as we're able.  

But especially this time of year.  The weather has begun to cool off and with the leaves turning, its my favorite time of year to get out.  Right now we're pretty much at peak color, the best time, the most wonderful time.

A New Trail with Family

For the last couple of years we have tried to get out and do some biking with our kids and grandkids that live close enough to do that with.  Earlier this summer we went down to Chicago and did some biking and beach fun with Erdbeere and her kids, that was fun. We also made it out for a ride with our oldest grandson, that was also fun.  We also got to go visit Blaubeere and go for a ride with her and her kids.  This was a new trail, one neither of us had ever been on.

We had to drive a little ways to a starting place, which happened to be at the beginning of this trail.  Alas, this trail didn't have any kind of parking area right at the trailhead so we had to park a couple of blocks away and then ride over to the actual trail. But, hey, bike riding was the whole point, right?!

Anyway, this turned out to be a very nice little trail.  It was paved for the whole distance we rode on it, which is always a nice thing. 

And it passed by some very nice stuff.  At the beginning there were some small ponds that had lots of birds at them.  Mostly geese and ducks, but out there among the geese and ducks were some egrets.

So, during the first part of the ride, we past several ponds and saw several egrets, an unexpected treat.

When we do these rides with the grandkids we like to have a playground out in the middle of the ride somewhere.  

In this case, it was the "turn-around" point; we rode a ways on the trail and then diverted through a neighborhood to a nice little park.  We played there and had a lunch we'd brought with us and then turned around and went back the way we came.

Yes, we all stopped, played, and had a good tie at the park for a whle before going back.

Another nice thing about this trail was that all those ponds along the trail were surrounded by wild flowers.

Wild flowers are so cool, and Brombeere loves wild flowers, every time we ride by any she always like so to stop for pictures.  So we did.

Unfortunately, this bike ride ended with a small mishap that brought the bike to a premature end, Brombeere had to be rescued and the rest of us finished the ride without her.  But it was still a good time, a beautiful ride, and a wonderful day, all except for the very end.  We were glad we went, and we'll certainly do more in the future.  These are good times!

The Tourists

We recently went to Hawaii for our son's wedding, that was a very happy occasion and the main reason for going.  But since we were going to be there anyway, we decided to play tourist and see some of the sights that Hawaii had to offer while we were there.  That proved to be a big task, there is a lot to see in Hawaii.  But we felt we wanted to give it a good go and see what we could.  We spent some time, among other things, talking with the rest of our family who was going, and tried to come up with a list of stuff we wanted to get to for sure.  There was also several other things that we wanted to see if we could.  And we recognized that there would be things we'd learn of once we got there that we would also want to get to.  So, squeezed in around the days for the wedding, we included several other days to do some sightseeing.  

The one place we really wanted to go was the Polynesian Cultural Center.  That was top on our "must see" places.  The center featured five of the islands in Polynesia: Hawaii, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, and Aotearoa.

Each island had buildings showing native lifestyle, as well as presentations on traditions and culture from the islands.  The grounds all throughout the center were decorated typical of the islands.

The presentations highlighted traditions and the culture of each island.

But one of the high points was the Mission Quilt Shop, featuring quilting done by islanders, or early missionaries among the islanders.  The real fun part was they had a quilt they were working on all set up so that anyone that wanted could do as many stitches in the quilt as they wanted.  Brombeere, of course, had to spend some time putting in a few stitches.

That made her happy.  They told us that particular quilt had been on the frame for over a year and a half, with people stopping to add stitches all that time.

They closely supervised, at least at first, to make sure you knew what you were doing.  But after a few minutes, Brombeere got to stitch as long as she wanted, unsupervised; they trusted her

We were there all afternoon and evening, our tickets included a dinner buffet with all kinds of food from the islands.

We both came away having eaten too much, stuffed to the gills.  But it was so good, how could we resist?  The final part of the visit was the live play called "The Breath of Life". A very well done, highly entertaining play about life in the islands.  

Alas, no photography was allowed during the play so we have only a picture of the stage before the show started.  But it was very well done. In the end, we decided it would be worth it to go back, if we ever get to Hawaii again, because we only saw about half of the exhibits and presentations.  It was a very good time.

One of the other places pretty high on our list was to visit Pearl Harbor, the site of the bombing that brought the United States into World War II.  

It's considered a national cemetery, since it's the final resting place of so many sailors.  We began by watching a movie about the bombing, using mostly actual footage shot the day of the bombing.  Pretty sobering to imagine the destruction, loss of life, and heroics of that day.

It was a reverent site.  A place that has long held an interest for me.  My father was in high school when the bombing took place but it wasn't long after he graduated that he enlisted and entered the military service, in the Army.  We walked around the grounds and took the ferry out to where the USS Arizona sank and still lies at the bottom of the harbor.  It's still an active military harbor so there were plenty of other ships as well.  The ferry out to the Arizona Memorial was operated by the Navy, crewed by active duty sailors.

One of the other things on the list was to do some snorkeling and the place we were able to get in to do that was the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, a protected site on the south end of the island where people are allowed to come in limited numbers (even in non-covid times), in order to protect the natural beauty of the bay.

And the bay, a little cove, was a beautiful place.  It looked like it was a crater that millennia ago had broken open to the sea.  So there were waves, but not really big ones like we saw elsewhere coming in from the open ocean.  This was a nice sandy beach far away from the opening, where you could see big waves crashing against the rocks, out at the mouth of the bay.

So the adventurous ones donned the snorkeling gear we'd rented and hit the water while the little kids played in the waves on the beach.  That's not to say that the older kids didn't take turns with the snorkel gear, they did.  But they tended to stay pretty close to the shore where there wasn't a whole lot to see.  We did, however, see a curious seal that ventured into the cove to check out the humans.  He swam along the shoreline a ways before heading back out to sea, far too fast for me to get a picture.  The tide was coming in so gradually the water was getting closer to where we were sitting. 

I had gotten a water-proof camera specifically for this part of the trip.  Nothing fancy but it did capture a little bit of what was under the water.  Lots of coral and a wide variety of fish.  It was hard to tell what you were getting in the picture because it was hard to see the viewfinder through the mask and water.  But we still ended up with some nice pictures.

Pretty much every day we hit some beach or another, to let the kids play in the sand and surf.  The day after we arrived in Hawaii we watched the sun set at Waikiki Beach, near where we were staying.

Our next excursion to the beach was two days later when we went back to a different part of Waikiki Beach, a little closer to the hotel.   Moosebeere and his family had gone the day before but that was the afternoon we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center so we missed that trip.  This trip was in the morning.  This portion of the beach had a little breakwater, making an area of smaller waves - a nice area for the kids to play in.  Out beyond the breakwater, you could see people surfing on the bigger waves out farther.

The next day was the day we went to Hanauma Bay.  While the adults spent time out snorkeling out farther from the beach, Brombeere spent most of her time watching the kids as they played at the water's edge.  It was a good time, everyone enjoyed the sand and water long enough that a couple of people got a little sunburned, even though we were trying to be careful and keep the suntan lotion on everyone.

Waikiki is on the west side of the island.  Hanauma Bay is on the south end of the island.  The next day was the beach party the happy couple had planned so that everyone who was on the island but unable to attend the wedding ceremony could meet and greet together.  It was billed as a beach party where the newly weds planned to hang out as people came and went, after having a chance to wish the happy couple well.  This beach was at Hunananiho Beach, on the east side of the island.

The waves were a bit bigger than on the west side of the island.  The water was not particularly deep but the waves werer just bigger, making it look deeper.  Big waves are a lot of fun.

And the happy couple was there and came out into the water for a while, as well.

Everybody liked the waves on this beach but it soon became apparent that this was a popular place for jelly fish as well.  In fact, the later the day got the more jelly fish showed up.  This was their feeding time.  Seeing them washed ashore wasn't so big a deal but meeting one out in the water was an uncomfortable experience, even painful if the contact was serious.  Several people came away with welts from being stung by jelly fish.  Heidelbeere had one get caught in a bracelet she was wearing, that was painful.  Needless to say, even though the waves were a lot of fun, nobody was excited to go back to that beach.

The next day was the last day for some of those that had come so we kept pretty close to the hotel, and went back to Waikiki Beach, to yet another section of the Waikiki Beach.  The kids were just as happy, Heidlebeere's oldest even collected some sand and water in a small bottle so she could take some of Hawaii back home with her.  That was a fun idea.

Here and there, as we traveled to the various places we went, we would stop at places that caught our eye.  Hawaii is a beautiful place with lots of wonderful things to see so we wanted to make sure not to just drive past everything we saw.  For example, from Hunananiho Beach, if you looked south, you could see the Makapu'u Lighthouse.

Any lighthouse is worth a look-see.  As we left the beach, headed south, we got to where we could get a better look at the lighthouse.

Alas, the trail to the hike to the lighthouse, while a good, paved trail, was a bit long for me so this was as close as we got.  But it was still a cool sight.

A little farther around the south end of Oahu island is the Halona Blowhole lookout.  Much of the shore along the south end of the island is volcanic rock, with only a sandy beach here and there.  But all that lava rock makes for some rugged shoreline, and in this particular spot the lava has made a hole just in from the shore where, when the waves hit the shore just right, water shoots up through a little hole in the rock, hence, it's called a blowhole.

In the lower left of this collage, you can see water shooting up through the blowhole.  But the waves crashing against the rocky shore are dramatic and cool looking in any case.

On our several trips from Honolulu, on the west side of the island, over to the east side of the island, we'd pass the Nu'uanu Pali lookout, a scenic lookout point where you can see out over the west side of the island.

So we decided to stop and take a look.  It's amazing to think that on this island out in the ocean there is a point that is 1,168 feet above sea level.  The view was pretty nice.

Another scenic lookout the newlyweds showed us was Tantalus Lookout in Pu'u Ualaka'a State Park. 

The elevation at this lookout is 2,014 feet above sea-level and it looks out over the west side of the island.  In the upper right corner of the collage, you can see Diamond Head, off to the south of Honolulu.  Quite the view.  And the drive up to the lookout was through some pretty dense jungle.  A real pretty drive.

Another place we made it to was the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens.

These botanical gardens are on the east side of the island, a bit inland from the coast.  As botanical gardens go, it's unique for me in that it's outdoors.  Every other botanical garden I've ever visited before has been indoors.  This one, oddly enough, supports all these tropical plants outdoors.

There were some really beautiful plants and trees growing there.  It would have been easy to spend a lot more time there but they weren't open very late in the afternoon.  It was actually more like a big park, than what I think of as a botanical garden.  But it was a really fun place to visit.

Something else we stopped to see, out of curiosity really, was what is commonly called "the Punchbowl".  As we had been driving around Honolulu during all the days we were in the area, we kept seeing the signs referring to this punchbowl and were wondering what this was.  On one of our last days on the island we had stopped to get lunch at a place called The Itchy Butt (the owner let his five year old niece pick the name of his restaurant chain).

But this fine dinning establishment didn't have any dinning area so we needed a place to go eat. I noticed on the map that we were not far from the Punchbowl so we decided to go there to eat and to see just what the punchbowl was.

It turned out to be the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.  Located in a crater above Honolulu, it is another military cemetery.  I hadn't been aware that there was more than one, I had only ever heard of Arlington Cemetery near Washington DC. Anyway, it was a beautiful, quiet, peaceful place to eat lunch.

We also went to the big swap meet at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu a couple of times.

That's actually where we bought most of the souvenirs we brought home.  We also saw lots of other stuff there we'd have liked to get but getting them home would have been an issue, we only had so much space in our luggage.  Ah, well.

One other thing that impressed us was the cityscape.  Honolulu, its skyline and view from a distance, is a really pretty city.  Maybe because it's set against the tropical mountains with ever changing, frequently raining clouds in the sky above it.  At any rate, it's really pretty.

These were just our view from the hotel we stayed at.  We were on the "city side" of the hotel, on the sixth floor.  The other side (which cost a little bit more) was the "ocean side" but since we weren't right on the ocean I'm not sure it would have been all that much better.  Our view, as it was, was nice enough that we kept being drawn back to it.

And everywhere we looked there were birds, many of which we had never seen before.

We weren't able to get photos of every kind of bird we saw, but we got a lot.  They were everywhere. Some were pretty tame, some were outright brazen. And then there were chickens all over the island.  

And, of course, we had to get some Hawaiian shaved ice.

This was not your everyday corner stand sno-cone stuff.  This was really good Hawaiian shaved ice.  That's something I'd definitely get again if we ever make it back.

And then, how could we spend any time in Hawaii without seeing a gecko in our hotel room.  It's the tropics, after all.

But, alas, as is always the case, all fun times must come to an end, and all too soon it was time to leave Hawaii. 

We had booked a flight on the "red-eye" back to the mainland, that meant we'd be flying all night to get home.  Actually, we left Hawaii at 8:30 in the evening and traveled until nearly 5:00 (local time) the next evening before we finally got home.

Our wedding trip was all just happy memories and the little travel souvenirs one picks up while on vacation.

Plus we added four more magnets to the growing collection on our fridge.  It was a good time, I'm glad we went.  And since the newly weds are still living in Hawaii, we might even make it back some day.  There is, after all, still lots to see there.