4 (Actually Interesting) Similarities Between Moses and Joseph Smith
If you think about it, all prophets have a lot in common – especially the dispensation heads. They’ve all seen Jehovah, they’ve all talked with Jehovah and, if I’m getting this right, most of them look exactly like Charlton Heston.
Usually Brigham Young gets compared to Moses for leading a persecuted people through the wilderness. Ol’ Joseph Smith, though, has loads more unlikely similarities to Aaron’s brother – including both of Moses’ awesome water miracles! I’m not kidding!
Most of these are not widely known! Here they are:
1) They both found water in a desolate, dry place
Moses-
“1 Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
“2 And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
“3 And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord…
“11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.” (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/num/20?lang=eng)
Joseph Smith-
“One hot day in June [1834], after an unusually long, hard day’s travel, over a rolling prairies, without sufficient water laid in for the men and no water encountered for the teams, they made camp on a prairie, the end of which it was impossible to reach or even see.
“After tents were pitched and the teams turned out a strong guard had to be placed to keep the animals. Men were very quietly complaining of the location, the lack of wood, and no water to cook with, even if they had plenty of wood. Some teams were about “give-out” and a thousand other little troubles acted out if not spoken of.
“The Prophet sat in his tent door watching and listening to all that could be seen or heard. At last he quietly asked for a spade. There was no noise, no bustle, no show of greatness or power about this man who had seen the Creator of heaven and earth and had received from Him at different times unmeasured power only in keeping with circumstances, and as the spade was handed him he measured the extent of the camp with his eye and in the most convenient place for all he commenced to dig in the earth. There was no rock to split open, as with Moses of old, or he could have done that more easily or quickly. But he quietly dug a well only a few feet deep and then left it.
“Presently the water began to come in, and it kept rising in the well until the mules and horses came and drank therefrom, as the water was not near the surface. The Prophet went and sat in the door of his tent and witnessed the joy of all, even of the animals, as they quenched their thirst in this God-given supply. There was no wonder or proclamation over the matter, as Brother Cole stated it, and perhaps not a dozen in the camp witnessed it as he, Brother Cole, witnessed it, and he looked upon it as one of the greatest miracles ever performed by man as an instrument in the hands of the Great Creator.” (https://archive.org/stream/juvenileinstruct371geor/juvenileinstruct371geor_djvu.txt)
The Joseph Smith/Water thing is so great. So is the Moses/Water thing, you know, but that one is more widely known.
Look at this one too:
2) They Both Survived an Attempted Coup By People Who Had Shared Some of Their Heavenly Visions
Moses
Numbers 12:
“1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
“2 And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it.”
Joseph Smith
“…earlier, in February 1837, some dissenters wanted to depose Joseph Smith and replace him with David Whitmer. (http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Whitmer,_David)
“… things were going along well enough at this point that Joseph Smith decided that he could leave on business. His business probably had to do with the Bank of Monroe, a chartered bank in Michigan that the Church had purchased to help support their unchartered bank in Ohio. He had been gone less than three weeks when on Sunday, February 19, he returned and addressed the Saints. Wilford Woodruff did not detail what had occurred to lead Joseph Smith to rise up “in the power of God” to defend himself and denounce those who betrayed him, but we know from reminiscences what happened. While Joseph Smith was gone, dissenters who did not accept the direction the Church was going tried to depose Joseph Smith and place David Whitmer in his stead.” (https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/joseph-smith-prophet-and-seer/joseph-smith-and-kirtland-crisis-1837)
They both survived those attempted power grabs - and by godly power too. They were both protected.
Here’s another cool, if not slightly more obvious, example:
3) Receiving Scripture, Losing Scripture, Receiving New Scripture
Moses
Exodus 31:
“18 ¶ And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God…
Exodus 32:
“15 ¶ And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written…
“19 ¶ And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount…
Exodus 34:
“1 And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest…
“27 And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
“28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
“29 ¶ And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.” (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/ex/34?lang=eng)
Interrupting Side Note – We’ve seen those glowing faces before (and it’s a separate JS similarity). Now back to the lost/replaced scripture similarities:
Joseph Smith
“When the time had come for Joseph Smith to receive the gold plates, he borrowed a horse and wagon and went with his wife, Emma, to the Hill Cumorah, where the plates were buried. Joseph left Emma with the wagon at the bottom of the hill and climbed the hill alone to meet the angel Moroni. Moroni gave Joseph the gold plates. (https://www.lds.org/manual/primary-5-doctrine-and-covenants-and-church-history/lesson-5?lang=eng)
“In June 1828 Martin Harris asked Joseph Smith repeatedly to allow him to show the 116 pages to family members to allay their skepticism and criticism of the translation. After prayerful inquiry of the Lord, Joseph Smith twice emphatically denied these requests. As Joseph's 1832 and 1839 histories indicate, a third request received divine permission for Harris to take the 116 manuscript pages to Palmyra, New York. The Prophet required Harris to solemnly covenant that he would show them only to his brother, his parents, his wife, and her sister…
“In consequence of this loss and of having wearied the Lord with the requests to let Harris take the pages, Joseph temporarily lost custody of the plates… (http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Manuscript,_Lost_116_Pages)
“Later, when Joseph Smith moved from Harmony, Pennsylvania, to Fayette, New York, in June 1829, Moroni returned them to him there.” (http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Moroni,_Visitations_of)
There’s been some pretty cool and unexpected similarities here. Water miraculously found in the desert? Get out of here! Attempted coups? Are you kidding me?! Written scripture not making it out to the Lord’s people until the second go-round?!
Well that one we already knew about. But this next one – it is quite possible Moses’ biggest miracle. To be fair, JS wasn’t present when this one happened, but his immigrating people most definitely were:
4) Water Parting, The Lord’s People Passing Through It
Moses
Exodus 14:
“21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
“22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left…
“27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lordoverthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
“28 And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.” (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/ex/14?lang=eng)
The Smiths (Lucy Mack Smith writing)
“When we removed to the boat again, Captain Blake requested the passengers to remain on board, as he wished from that time to be ready to start at a moment’s warning; at the same time he sent out a man to measure the depth of the ice, who, when he returned, reported that it was piled up to the height of twenty feet, and that it was his opinion that we would remain in the harbor at least two weeks longer…
“…Then, turning to our own company, I said, “Now, brethren and sisters, if you will all of you raise your desires to heaven that the ice may be broken before us, and we be set at liberty to go on our way, as sure as the Lord lives, it shall be done.” At that moment a noise was heard like bursting thunder. The captain cried out, “Every man to his post,” and the ice parted, leaving barely a pathway for the boat that was so narrow that, as the boat passed through, the buckets were torn with a crash from the waterwheel. This, with the noise of the ice, the confusion of the spectators, the word of command from the captain, and the hoarse answering of the sailors, was truly dreadful. We had barely passed through the avenue, when the ice closed together again, and the Colesville brethren were left in Buffalo, unable to follow us.” (https://ldsmag.com/lucy-mack-smith-leads-a-group-of-saints-from-new-york-to-ohio-the-miracle-of-the-breaking-of-the-ice-at-buffalo/)
There you have it. Four remarkable similarities. And that’s not even including the times they saw Jehovah! As most prophets do!
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