Come Follow Me · April 20–26
"All That the Lord Hath Spoken We Will Do"
A lesson for Priests Quorum · Ages 16–18
Exodus 19–20; 24; 31–34
A lesson for Priests Quorum · Ages 16–18
Exodus 19–20; 24; 31–34
Lesson Overview
45–50 minute lesson plan with discussion questions and activities
Israel made a covenant with God — then broke it almost immediately. But God, in His mercy, renewed it anyway. What does that tell us about the kind of God He is, and what kind of men He invites us to become?
Teacher Note
With 16–18 year olds, aim for discussion over lecture. These tabs follow the lesson flow — use them to guide the conversation, not to read aloud.
Setting the Stage
Where is Israel when Exodus 19 opens?
⏱ 5 MINHave you ever made a promise you weren't sure you could keep? What made you say yes anyway?
Let 2–3 guys respond. This primes the covenant discussion.
Genesis
God calls Abraham and makes covenants with his family. Israel grows into a nation in Egypt.
Exodus 1–18
400 years of slavery. Moses is called. The ten plagues. The Red Sea parts. Israel escapes — and has already murmured and doubted several times on the way.
Exodus 19 — Right Now
Three months after leaving Egypt, Israel camps at the foot of Mount Sinai. God is about to speak to them directly and offer a covenant.
God reminds Israel what He's already done for them before asking anything. Why does that matter? What's He establishing?
The Mountain of God
Exodus 19–20; 24 — The covenant is made
⏱ 8 MIN
Mount Sinai becomes the most dramatic theophany (appearance of God) in the entire Old Testament. Smoke, fire, thunder, lightning, the ground shaking. The people are so terrified they beg Moses to be their go-between.
A covenant isn't a contract. A contract is: I do my part, you do yours, if either of us quits, we're done.
A covenant is: I bind myself to you. My identity is now tied to this relationship.
At Sinai, God is essentially saying: "I want Israel to be my people, and I will be their God." It's the closest thing to a marriage proposal in the Old Testament.
After the laws are given, Moses reads them aloud and the people respond together:
When we make covenants in the temple or at baptism, how is it similar to what Israel did here? What are we actually agreeing to?
God didn't just give commandments — He showed up. Why do you think God made His presence so overwhelming at Sinai?
Draw out: He wanted there to be no doubt about who was speaking. The covenant wasn't small.
The Ten Commandments
Exodus 20 — Going beneath the surface
⏱ 18 MIN
The Ten Commandments describe what a person looks like when they're fully in covenant with God. They answer the question: If you truly love God and love people, what does your life look like?
Most of us have heard these since Primary. Today we're going to push past the bumper-sticker version of each one and ask: what is this commandment actually getting at?
Structure
Commandments 1–4 are about our relationship with God. Commandments 5–10 are about our relationships with people. Jesus later summarized the entire law exactly this way — love God, love neighbor.
Notice what this verse doesn't say. It doesn't say "I am the only god in existence — worship me." It says no other gods before me.
That phrasing is intentional. In the ancient world, every nation had its gods — Egypt had dozens, Canaan had Baal and Asherah, Babylon had Marduk. Israel was surrounded by religious systems where you could collect gods like trading cards. God isn't getting into a debate about cosmology here. He's saying: "In your life, in your worship, in your loyalty — nothing else gets put ahead of me."
Later scripture clarifies that there is only one true God (Isaiah 45:5; D&C 76). But Exodus 20 is meeting Israel where they are: surrounded by competing loyalties and being told that the relationship with Jehovah is exclusive and primary.
The first commandment isn't really about whether you'd ever bow to a statue of Baal. It's asking: what sits in the spot that should belong to God? What gets your first thought in the morning, your last thought at night, the best of your time, the loyalty that decides your other decisions?
If God isn't first in someone's life, what usually is? What ends up sitting in that spot for guys our age?
Let them name it honestly — phone, image, sports, a relationship, status, gaming, school performance. The point isn't to shame; it's to name the competition.
What makes an image false? Two things:
1. It misrepresents who God actually is. When Israel made the golden calf, they weren't switching to a different religion — they were trying to worship Jehovah through something they made. They reduced an infinite God to something they could see, touch, and control. Anytime we shrink God down to fit our preferences, we've made an idol.
2. It takes the place of God in our lives. An idol doesn't have to be religious. Anything we trust, serve, or sacrifice for the way we should be trusting, serving, and sacrificing for God has functionally become a god to us.
The first commandment is about competing gods. The second is about distorted versions of the right God. It's possible to "worship the Lord" but be worshiping an image of Him you've constructed — a God who agrees with everything you already believe, who never asks you to change, who exists to bless your goals.
That's a false image too. And it's harder to spot, because it still uses His name.
Have you ever caught yourself wanting God to agree with you instead of asking what He actually wants? What's the difference between worshiping God and worshiping a version of God you made up?
Most people hear this commandment and think: don't say "Oh my G--" or use God's name as a swear word. That's part of it — but it's actually the smallest part.
The Hebrew word translated "in vain" is shav — it means empty, false, worthless, deceptive. The commandment is about attaching God's name to something empty, false, or self-serving.
To take God's name in vain is to invoke God's authority for something He never authorized. It's claiming His backing for your agenda. Examples:
This is what makes the commandment so heavy. Casually saying "OMG" is sloppy reverence. Putting words in God's mouth to control or harm people is on a completely different level.
Connection
When we're baptized, we covenant to take upon ourselves the name of Christ. Every Sunday, we renew that. So the third commandment isn't just "watch your language" — it's "if you're going to wear my name, don't make it mean nothing."
Where have you seen someone use religion or God's name to justify something you knew was wrong? Why is that more dangerous than just regular wrong-doing?
The Hebrew word for honor is kabed — it literally means to give weight to, to treat as heavy, as significant. The opposite Hebrew word means to treat as light, to dismiss.
So to honor your parents is to give weight to who they are and what they say — not to dismiss them, mock them, or treat them like they don't matter. It doesn't require agreeing with them on everything. It doesn't require them to be perfect parents. It's about posture.
It's the only one with a promise attached: "that thy days may be long upon the land." And it's positioned right between commandments about God (1–4) and commandments about other people (6–10). Why?
Because how you treat your parents is the training ground for how you treat everyone else. If you can dismiss the people who literally gave you life, you can dismiss anyone. The family is where we learn whether other people matter.
Examples of honor displayed in difficult circumstances:
Honoring imperfect parents is one of the hardest things this commandment asks. Some thoughts for guys our age:
When is it hardest for you to honor your parents? Not "obey" — actually honor them, give weight to them as people?
Let this be honest. Many young men struggle here. Don't moralize.
The original setting is a courtroom — don't lie under oath about your neighbor. But the principle reaches every part of life: don't misrepresent another person.
Most of us would never lie in court. But we bear false witness all the time in subtler ways:
A Useful Test
Before you say something about another person, ask: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? If you can't answer yes to all three, you're walking into false-witness territory.
Which form of false witness do you think is most common in your daily life or among guys your age — and why is it so easy to do without even noticing?
Every one of these commandments has a surface meaning and a deeper meaning. The surface keeps you out of obvious trouble. The deeper meaning shapes who you become.
God isn't trying to micromanage your behavior. He's trying to form your character. The commandments aren't a fence to keep you in — they're a sculptor's tools to shape you into someone who can dwell in His presence.
The Golden Calf
Exodus 32–34 — When the covenant breaks almost immediately
⏱ 8 MIN
Moses goes up the mountain. He's gone 40 days. The people get nervous. They pressure Aaron to make them a god they can see — and he does. They build a golden calf and throw a party. God sees it. Moses comes down and shatters the tablets.
The people didn't say "we no longer believe in God." They threw a party to worship the calf. They just wanted a god they could see, touch, and control. They replaced the real thing with a comfortable imitation.
Moses doesn't abandon the people. He pleads with God on their behalf — one of the most powerful intercession moments in scripture. And then God does something remarkable: He renews the covenant anyway.
The people didn't abandon God — they just made a more convenient version. What are modern "golden calves" — comfortable substitutes for the real thing?
Examples: casual religion without real commitment, following the church socially without personal conversion.
God renews the covenant after Israel fails spectacularly. What does that tell us about repentance? About who God is?
Making It Real
What do we do with this?
⏱ 7 MINThese guys have made covenants — at baptism, and many in the Aaronic Priesthood or preparing for the temple. The story of Israel is their story: called, covenant-made, prone to distraction, but never abandoned.
Give each young man a notecard. Have them write one specific commitment — something they will do before next Sunday — as a way of saying "All that the Lord hath spoken, I will do."
They keep the card. No one reads them aloud. It's between them and God.
Israel said "we will do" all at once, together, with one voice. Is it easier or harder to keep covenants when you're doing it alongside other people? Why?
After everything Israel did, God still renewed the covenant. Does that make you want to make — or renew — a commitment to God? What would that look like this week?
Closing the Lesson
Bear testimony and invite commitment
⏱ 5 MIN
The title of this week's lesson — "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" — is a declaration, not a guarantee. Israel said it and then failed. But God's covenant love didn't end. The point isn't that we have to be perfect to enter into covenant — the point is that God keeps His side even when we stumble on ours.
That's the gospel. That's what grace looks like in the Old Testament, long before the New.
Share your testimony of what covenants have meant in your own life. Be specific — not generic. Then invite any of the young men who feel moved to add theirs.
Encourage them to read Exodus 33:11 this week — where it says Moses spoke to God "face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." Invite them to think about what kind of relationship with God they want.