“Moses 1; Abraham 3,” Old Testament Institute Teacher Manual (2026)
In the Beginning Was the Word, by Eva Timothy
Moses 1; Abraham 3
Speaking for Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ spoke to Moses face-to-face. From Jesus Christ, Moses learned about his identity as a son of God and that the Lord had a work for him to do. The Lord also showed Moses worlds without number and told Moses that His work and glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Abraham learned about the order of the stars and the council in heaven. The Lord taught Abraham that many noble and great spirits were foreordained in the premortal life.
Additional Resources
Scripture Helps: Old Testament, “Moses 1; Abraham 3”
Note: The “Introduction to the Course” provides guidance on how to use the standard lesson elements that follow.
Encouraging Personal Study
Before class, consider sending students one or more of the following messages or some of your own:
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What labels and identifiers do you most often use to describe yourself? As you study Moses 1:1–11, what do you learn about your identity?
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Does it ever feel difficult to overcome Satan’s temptations? Study Moses 1:12–22, and consider how Jesus Christ can help you. You could also watch “I Am a Son of God” (6:30); Gospel Library.
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The Lord taught Moses that His work and glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). As you study Moses 1:27–40, consider what He is doing to bring to pass your immortality and eternal life.
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Have you ever wondered what it was like in the premortal life? See what insights you can gain from Abraham 3:22–28.
Questions and Sharing
Provide time for students to ask questions and share insights and truths they discovered in their personal study of Moses 1 and Abraham 3.
Skill Training
Moses 1:12–22 might be a helpful place to use the skill “Looking for Contrasts in the Scriptures,” in Scripture Study Skills. Abraham 3 could be used with the skill “Using Teachings of Church Leaders to Understand the Scriptures.”
Learning Activity Options
Multiple learning options are provided for you and your students. Prayerfully choose which option or options will be most meaningful for your class. You could also seek input from your students.
Improving Our Teaching and Learning
Help learners find personal relevance in the doctrine of Jesus Christ. “As you consider the needs of those you teach, think about how the truths in the scriptures could be meaningful and useful in their circumstances. … Encourage [learners] to make connections between the Savior’s teachings and their own lives. You could also share how you have found relevance to your own life in what you are teaching. Doing this can invite the Spirit to teach learners individually how the doctrine can make a difference in their lives” (Teaching in the Savior’s Way” [2022], 23).
How can understanding my true identity bring greater purpose to my life?
Write the phrase Who am I? on the board. Invite students to share different ways they could answer this question. Consider writing their responses on the board.
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How can the ways you identify yourself affect your life and the choices you make?
Explain that while speaking with the Lord, Moses learned important truths about who he was. (It may be important to point out that in Moses 1, Jesus Christ was speaking on behalf of Heavenly Father. The authority to speak for Heavenly Father is referred to as divine investiture of authority [see “Moses 1:2–8. Who was speaking to Moses?” Scripture Helps: Old Testament]).
Invite students to read Moses 1:1–11 and consider marking what Moses learned and how these truths apply to themselves.
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What truths did Moses learn about himself that can help you better understand who you really are? (Students might share truths like the following: I am a son or daughter of Heavenly Father. He knows my name, and He has a work for me to do.)
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How might believing these truths influence how you think about yourself? How might it influence how you see others? How might it influence how you see God?
To help students better understand the significance of their identity as children of God, discuss together the following statement by President Russell M. Nelson:
I believe that if the Lord were speaking to you directly tonight, the first thing He would make sure you understand is your true identity. My dear friends, you are literally spirit children of God. You have sung this truth since you learned the words to “I Am a Child of God” [Hymns, no. 301]. But is that eternal truth imprinted upon your heart? Has this truth rescued you when confronted with temptation?
I fear that you may have heard this truth so often that it sounds more like a slogan than divine truth. And yet, the way you think about who you really are affects almost every decision you will ever make. (“Choices for Eternity” [worldwide devotional for young adults, May 15, 2022], Gospel Library)
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What stood out to you from President Nelson’s teachings? Why?
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Why do you think remembering your identity as a child of God “affects almost every decision you will ever make”?
You could have students think of a time when understanding their true identity as a child of God influenced a decision they made. Invite some students to share their experiences. Students could also think of a decision that they need to make—now or in the future—and record how the truths they learned today could affect that decision. Encourage them to act on their spiritual impressions.
Note: Depending on how your discussion develops, it might help to point out how Moses, as he faced Satan, was empowered by knowing his true identify as a son of God (see Moses 1:13). You could study together Moses 1:12–22 and invite students to share how Moses’s knowledge of his divine identity helped him.
How can the Savior help me overcome Satan’s temptations?
Consider discussing together the following statement by President Russell M. Nelson:
The battle with sin is real. The adversary is quadrupling his efforts to disrupt testimonies and impede the work of the Lord. He is arming his minions with potent weapons to keep us from partaking of the joy and love of the Lord. (“We Can Do Better and Be Better,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2019, 68)
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What are some of the “potent weapons” Satan uses against young adults today? (Consider making a list of students’ responses on the board.)
Invite students to think about their own personal efforts to overcome Satan’s temptations. Encourage them to seek guidance from the Holy Ghost to identify truths that can help them receive greater strength to avoid and resist temptation.
Remind students that as Moses spoke with the Lord face-to-face, he learned that he was a son of God and that God had a work for him to do (see Moses 1:1–11). After this sacred experience, “Satan came tempting him” (Moses 1:12).
Invite students to study Moses 1:12–24, looking for what Moses did to overcome Satan’s temptations. You could also encourage them to pay attention to the contrast Moses noticed between the Lord and Satan. (For more ideas about how to help students use this skill, see “Looking for Contrasts in the Scriptures,” in Scripture Study Skills.)
Ask questions like the following to invite students to share what they learned from these verses:
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What did you find in these verses that might help you when you face temptation? (You could summarize students’ responses by writing a truth like the following on the board: We can receive God’s help to overcome Satan’s influence when we understand and remember our identity as children of God, recall past spiritual experiences, and call upon God for strength.)
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What are other ways we can draw on God’s power to overcome Satan’s influence? (You could invite students to find scriptures or statements from Church leaders that help answer this question. Examples of such scriptures include 1 Nephi 15:23–24; Helaman 5:11–12; and Doctrine and Covenants 10:5.)
Consider inviting a few students to share what has helped them avoid and resist Satan’s temptations. (Explain that they should not share experiences that are too personal.)
Invite students to think about how the truths they have studied could help them overcome their own temptations. Encourage them to set and record a goal based on what they learned and any spiritual impressions they may have received from the Holy Ghost.
How do the work and glory of God relate to me?
Consider displaying this image and discussing the question that follows:
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What feelings or questions have you had while thinking about God’s vast creations?
Explain that while Moses spoke with the Lord face-to-face, he was shown a vision of the Lord’s creations. Invite students to study Moses 1:27–30, looking for what the Lord showed Moses and how Moses responded.
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What questions did Moses ask the Lord after seeing this incredible vision? (Consider writing Moses’s two questions from verse 30 on the board.)
Invite students to study Moses 1:31–39, looking for how the Lord answered Moses’s questions. (Students could also use the entries related to these verses in Scripture Helps: Old Testament to better understand the Lord’s teachings to Moses.)
Invite students to share what they learned with a partner or small group. You could display the following questions for them to discuss:
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What did you learn or feel about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as you studied these verses?
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How do the Lord’s words at the end of verse 35 apply to you?
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How can remembering Heavenly Father’s work and glory (see verse 39) influence your decisions and your interactions with others?
After students finish their discussions, invite a few to share their insights with the rest of the class. If needed, help them identify some of the following truths from these verses: Under the direction of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ created worlds without number. Though we are part of a vast number of creations, the Lord knows each of us individually. Heavenly Father’s purpose is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life.
Consider sharing the following statement by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf:
We lift our voices in praise of our bountiful and forgiving God. … The sublime end of all His labor is to help us, His children, succeed in our quest for immortality and eternal life. (“Daily Restoration,” Liahona, Nov. 2021, 79)
Invite students to think about or discuss ways the Lord is actively laboring to help them succeed in their quest for eternal life. You could also invite them to consider how they could more fully partner with the Lord to help His work and glory come to pass, both for them personally and for others. Encourage them to record spiritual impressions they may have received from the Holy Ghost.
What have I been chosen to do?
Invite students to ponder the following invitation from Sister Wendy W. Nelson: “Imagine the effect on your life right now if you were permitted to watch 10 minutes of your premortal life” (“Hope of Israel,” [worldwide youth devotional, June 3, 2018], Gospel Library).
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If you could see yourself in the premortal existence, what specific things would you hope to learn about yourself?
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What difference do you think this might make in your life?
Explain that Abraham 3 records Abraham’s vision of the premortal life. Invite students to seek the Spirit’s guidance as they study to help them better understand who they were before they came to earth.
Study together Abraham 3:22–28. Invite students to look for what Abraham learned about God’s spirit children in the premortal existence. (You could also invite students to study the entries for these verses in Scripture Helps: Old Testament.)
Consider asking questions like the following to help students share what they discovered:
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What did you learn about the premortal life from these verses? (Among other truths, students could identify that God chose His “noble and great” spirit children before they were born to become leaders in His kingdom on earth.)
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How do you think the Lord defines “noble and great”?
To help students understand that they were among those chosen in the premortal world to fulfill certain responsibilities on earth, share the following statement by Elder Steven R. Bangerter. (You could also watch a portion of his talk “Foreordained to Serve” from time codes 2:13 to 5:28.)
Before you were born, God appointed each of you to fulfill specific missions during your mortal life upon the earth. If you remain worthy, the blessings of that premortal decree will enable you to have all kinds of opportunities in this life, including opportunities to serve in the Church and to participate in the most important work happening on the earth today: the gathering of Israel. Those premortal promises and blessings are called your foreordination. “The doctrine of foreordination applies to all members of the Church” [Topics and Questions, “Foreordination,” Gospel Library]. Foreordination does not guarantee that you will receive certain callings or responsibilities. These blessings and opportunities come in this life as a result of your righteous exercise of agency, just as your foreordination in your premortal life came as a result of righteousness. (“Foreordained to Serve,” Liahona, May 2024, 57)
Allow students to discuss what was meaningful to them from the statement. You might also encourage them to practice teaching each other what foreordination means and why this doctrine is so important.
To conclude, you could give students time to prayerfully ponder and record their thoughts about one or more of the following questions:
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Do my choices allow me to fulfill the responsibilities the Lord has given me or wants to give me?
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How can I follow the example of Jesus Christ and fulfill the work God has chosen me to do?
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What can I do to remember that Heavenly Father knows me and has chosen me?