The Temple Roots of Tithing

The first appearance in the OT of the institution of tithing is in Genesis 14.  Abram pays tithing to Melchizedek ("my king is righteousness"), the shalem (peaceable) king (Alma knows this pun), after a feast of bread and wine.  This is a temple passage, also shown in the Sermon on the Mount: those who hunger and thirst after righteousness (Melchizedek) are filled when they share a feast with God (the Lord, Melchizedek).

Jacob also pays tithing.  He commits to it after an experience in which he sees God and angels ascending and descending to and from "heaven," sets up a standing stone and anoints it, makes the covenant of Abraham, changes the name of the place from "Ulam Luz" (the KJV mysteriously drops "Ulam," which is the name of the first room of the temple) to Beth-El (the "house of God," which he also describes as the "gate of heaven"), and agrees that God will keep him in the way and give him bread and clothing.  The result of this covenant will be shalom, "peace."  This is also manifestly a temple passage.

Finally, Malachi's famous passage about tithing is set in a context in which the Israelites are chastised for abandoning the Lord's true pattern of worship.  They are promised (warned?) that the Lord still appears, and that he will do so, as he has always done, in his temple, preceded by an angel priest.

The Religion of Abraham

We'll get into Deuteronomy at some point, but as we're reading Moses / Genesis now, it's probably worth stopping a moment to summarize the religion of Abraham, as we see it here.  Here's a non-exhaustive list of observations:

1. Abraham hears God's voice and also sees Him.  
2. Abraham's God also communicates through dreams.
3. Abraham builds altars at the places where he sees God.   The Hebrew text uses the technical term maqom to refer to these sacred sites -- the word simply means "place," but Deuteronomy specifically forbids maqoms of sacrifice other than the Jerusalem temple.
4. Abraham knows sacred trees (what is translated here as the "plains" of Mamre is really the "oaks" or "terebinths" of Mamre).  
5. Under one such sacred tree, Abraham receives three holy men as visitors, shares bread with them and washes their feet.
6. Abraham makes covenants with God.  As a result of these covenants, he receives a new name.
7. For Abraham, astronomy has a sacred dimension.  He sees the stars in a visionary context, and the stars are people (his priestly descendants).
8. Abraham has a son by a "handmaid." We already noted interesting things about royal, tented, status-conferring Sarah and his relationship with her.
9. Abraham knows the sacrifice of a son on a sacred mountain.

The Importance of Being Sarai

There are many hints in the Genesis account of Abraham's life that Sarai (later Sarah) is much more important than is explicitly stated.  Let me set out a few:

1. Sarai/Sarah's name means "princess" or "my princess."  This is interesting in itself, but doubly interesting because Abraham's brother married Milcah, whose name means "queen."  What are we really being shown here, that these two brothers marry royal women?
2. At the same time that Abram's name is changed to Abraham, Sarai's name is changed to Sarah.  A change in name reflects a change in status, for instance, a change in priesthood status.  Abraham isn't the only special one in this little family.
3. There's an oddity about Abraham's tent.  In both Genesis 12 and Genesis 13, the King James tells us that Abraham pitched "his tent."  Oddly, the original Hebrew in both cases clearly says "her tent," and the rabbis felt so strongly that this was mistaken that they inserted vowels to change the reading.  Was the tent originally Sarai's?  Interestingly enough, there is also a camouflaged "her tent" in Genesis 9 -- it's the place where Noah gets drunk.  The fact that "tents" so commonly stand in for temples makes these passages extra provocative.
4. Sarai is associated with the idea of goodness.  She has to lie to Pharaoh so that "it may be well" with Abram, yetav.  She lies, and Pharaoh "entreated Abram well," hetiv.  Tov is "good," and appears in the early chapters of Genesis in curious connections.  The first thing created is light, and it is tov.  Havilah, somehow connected with the Garden of Eden, is the land of "good" gold. And the tree in the Garden is also "good."  These chapters, so close together, suggest an association among Sarai, the Garden of Eden, the light of creation, and Havilah, the land of good gold.  How important is this idea of "goodness" to Nephi?  Seems important.
5. There's an oddity in the marriage, again involving royalty, and also involving ambivalence between brother and husband and a swap of persons, perhaps with a pointer connecting us with Egypt.  I don't know what's going on here, but the upshot seems to be that because of Sarah, Abraham becomes a shepherd and also gets followers -- the men are called 'avadim, which can mean "workers" but may also indicate ordinance-performing priests, and the women are called shefachot, a word the dictionary tells us is synonymous with "handmaid," a word used to describe the mothers of both Samuel and Jesus, for instance.

Who is Sarai?  I don't know, but the OT tells us that she's royal, she's priestly, she's associated with temples, and she confers elevated status.  So it looks like Abram married well.

Offered Up His Only Begotten

Isaac is a priestly figure.  He is the "seed," he is offered as a sacrifice, and he is raised from the dead.  He is a "figure" (in Greek a parabole, a parable).

Through Faith Also Sara

"In faith" Sara receives "seed" (a subject on which Nephi obsesses) and gives birth to the father of a race of angel-priests.

He Took on the Seed of Abraham

The seed of Abraham are Melchizedek priests, high priests.  The Book of Abraham tells us the same thing.

Whatsoever Adam Called Every Living Creature

Adam's ritual journey begins with his naming lesser orders of creature.  It will climax in his asking to be given a new name by the order of creature above him, and being judged as to his worthiness.

The Breath of Life

Breathing into an initiate's nostrils is an obvious ritual action.

They Counseled Among Themselves

The Gods do everything by counsel.

This is strictly in accordance with our oldest account of how prophets operate -- they ascend to Heaven to stand in the Council of the Gods.

The Seventh Time

Some think Abraham's use of "time" instead of "day" saves the creation account making a six day error by virtue of permitting each "time" to have lasted billions of years.  I think the book's use of "time" shows us that these are ritual directions, and we should imagine the "times" as intervals marked out by singing, or a ritual cry.

They Shall Be Very Obedient

Abraham has this distinctive note, repeated twice (see verse 31), that the things and actors ordered within the temple will all be obedient.  First, it confirms our thinking that the lights are people, possessors of will.  Second, it suggests that the author of Abraham knew a time and place when the temple priests had not obeyed the Gods who put them in their stations.

The Moving Creatures that Have Life

Now we see the fowl and the whales -- creatures of the waters.  We know that the fowl are associated with the food of the shalem feast; the Father "feeds" them.  Does this mean that the whales are associated with the drink?

The Lights in the Expanse of Heaven

Following Abraham 3 with its equation of stars and intelligences, this sounds like an organization of priests in a ritual context.  I think the greater light is the Sun-the Lord-Melchizedek, who emerges from behind the veil.  Would this mean that the lesser light -- which also "rules" and therefore has authority -- is the Elias priest in the second room of the ordinance?  And stars are the other assisting priests?

The Herb Yielding Seed

The temple includes Grass, Herb, and Fruit.

Fruit is the bread, the fruit of the tree of life.

Grass is what the shalems compare themselves to in self-humiliation before being dressed by the Lord.

What is Herb?

Great Waters

The Abraham account is the most interesting of the three temple creation versions we have.  One interesting thing about it is this: the waters under the veil are called Great Waters rather than Seas.  This unavoidably reminds us of Nephi's name for the sea at Bountiful, Many Waters.

We Will Prove Them Herewith

We understand the first and second estate to refer to the pre-mortal and mortal existence, respectively.  That's fine, I think that's true.

We should see that this "proving" in two stages of trial and a stage of reward also corresponds to the Worship of the Shalems and movement forward into the temple, through two rooms of covenant making, trial, and teaching, and a third and glorious room of rest, the kingdom of heaven.

This would suggest that Satan's appearance would be in the first room of the Worship of the Shalems, since he "kept not his first estate."  And in fact, that's exactly where it is.

One Shall Be More Intelligent

God explicitly compares the stars to eternal spirits.  Some are more intelligent than others.

Alma teaches Zeezrom that priests are eternal spirits.  Some are more faithful than others.

I think this is the same doctrine.

That Ye May Declare

Abraham is given temple visions, and told they are to be the substance of his preaching.

Thy Seed After Thee, Like Unto These

Comparison of Abraham's seed to stars is implicitly a statement that Abraham's descendants will have the priesthood, or that priests of Abraham's order will be his "seed."

My Son, My Son

Abraham becomes a son of God by the Lord's outstretched hand.  This is exactly what John describes, and also the brother of Jared.  For Nephi, grasping the bearer of the iron rod brings one into the presence of the tree of life.