How Can the Old Testament Help Me Understand the Temple Endowment?

Adam demonstrated the law of obedience when an angel asked why he and Eve were performing sacrifices: “I know not, save the Lord commanded me” (Moses 5:6).

Obedience is essential to the whole plan of salvation. As we follow God’s instructions and rely on the Savior, we can become like Them.

The General Handbook defines this law as “sacrificing to support the Lord’s work and repenting with a broken heart and contrite spirit.”

It’s not hard to find sacrifices in the Old Testament, both literal and figurative. What we sometimes overlook is that a broken heart and contrite spirit were required then too.

In one of his Psalms, David wrote that “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17).

“David’s words show that even in Old Testament times, the Lord’s people understood that their hearts must be given to God, that burnt offerings alone were not enough,” taught Elder Bruce D. Porter when he was a member of the Seventy.

The command to sacrifice animals or crops ended with the death of Jesus Christ. Today, we repent daily and take the sacrament to remind us of His atoning sacrifice. But personal humility and repentance still have to be part of it.

This means exercising faith in Jesus Christ; making and keeping covenants with God through ordinances; repenting and enduring to the end; and striving to love God and your neighbor.

Sometimes people think of the Savior’s direction in the New Testament to “love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:39) as a shift from the Old Testament mindset. But the Savior was quoting Himself! About 15 centuries earlier, He told Moses: “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18).

Indeed, while “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Leviticus 24:20) was part of the Israelites’ legal system, the law of Moses also had many rules about treating neighbors, visitors, strangers, foreigners, and refugees with charity and compassion (see Exodus 23:9; Leviticus 19:33–34; Deuteronomy 10:19).

Latter-day disciples understand that the “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” law was fulfilled. Where we might get confused is in assuming that “love thy neighbor” was a new idea. It is an eternal commandment.

Also eternal is the first part of this law: to love God above all else. President Dallin H. Oaks taught: “Our zeal to keep [the] second commandment must not cause us to forget the first, to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. We show that love by ‘keep[ing] [His] commandments’ [John 14:15]. God requires us to obey His commandments because only through that obedience, including repentance, can we return to live in His presence.”

After the law of obedience, the law of chastity might be the easiest to define: No sexual relations outside of legal marriage between a man and a woman.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14) is a well-known Old Testament commandment, and other types of sexual immorality were also forbidden by the law of Moses (see Leviticus 18). But even before Moses’s day, Joseph of Egypt knew to resist Potiphar’s wife’s advances (see Genesis 39:7–12).

With society’s views on sex getting more and more permissive, and with pornography and other sexually enticing materials so readily available, there is probably more temptation—and opportunity—to break the law of chastity today than there has ever been. Yet chastity remains the Lord’s standard, and through keeping this covenant, we are blessed with greater abilities to love others as He does through “bridling our passions” (Alma 38:12).

We dedicate all of our time and talents to building up the kingdom of God. Consecration also includes offering our whole souls to God so He can make us holy.

Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves to day to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day” (Exodus 32:29). The story of the children of Israel sees some individuals consecrating themselves to the Lord—like the widow who fed Elijah (see 1 Kings 17:7–16).

Earlier in history, the people of Enoch managed to live the law of consecration entirely. They “were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18). “No poor among them” is a status that very few societies have reached (Lehi’s descendants managed it for a while; see 4 Nephi 1:3), but today we can strive to live this covenant by having willing hearts, serving wherever we are needed, repenting daily, and offering our whole souls to God.

The Lord invites us to make all five of these covenants in one temple ceremony. But we shouldn’t be daunted by size of the commitment. Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: “God established multiple covenants to bless us, not condemn us. Focusing intently on the covenants we have made and preparing for the next one is the best way to prepare to receive all that Heavenly Father has.”

Drawing His children closer to Him through covenants is something God has done in every dispensation. We are blessed to live in a time when these covenants are readily available to us in the Lord’s house. Next time you go, think about how our Old Testament ancestors made the same covenants.