“This Is My Work and My Glory”

January 5–11, 2026Moses 1; Abraham 32 chapters · 70 verses

Before Genesis, a prologue revealed to Joseph Smith. Moses sees God face to face and learns he is a son of God. Satan tries to make him forget it and fails. Then God shows Moses His creations and His purpose: “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Abraham sees the spirits of all people before the world was made.

Chapter

Study guide

These two chapters come from the Pearl of Great Price, revealed through Joseph Smith. They set the stage for Genesis by explaining who God is, who we are and why the earth exists.

How to read this week

Open Gospel Library alongside this page. The Pearl of Great Price text is copyrighted, so read it there; the notes here follow it verse by verse.
Read Moses 1 as a prologue. It explains why Moses later wrote Genesis: God showed him the creation and told him to write it (1:40).
Notice the contrast. God calls Moses “my son”; Satan calls him “son of man.” Moses' strength against temptation comes from remembering what God told him.
Read Abraham 3 as a vision of order. The stars and Kolob show that God governs all things. The second half moves from stars to spirits: we lived with God before we were born.
Connect the two chapters. Moses 1:39 explains God's purpose; Abraham 3:24–26 explains how mortality serves it.

How these chapters came to us

June 1830 — Joseph Smith receives the vision of Moses (Moses 1) as he begins his Bible revision
1830–1833 — Joseph revises Genesis; the chapters become the Book of Moses
July 1835 — The Church acquires Egyptian papyri; Joseph begins translating the Book of Abraham
1842 — The Book of Abraham is published in the Times and Seasons
1851 — Franklin D. Richards publishes the Pearl of Great Price in England
1880 — The Pearl of Great Price is canonized as scripture

Images and ideas to recognize

Passage	Image	What it means
Moses 1:1	The high mountain	A place of revelation, as with Sinai, Nephi's mountain and the temple.
Moses 1:4–6	“My son”	Divine identity, given before anything else.
Moses 1:12–22	Satan's demand to be worshipped	Temptation that works by making us forget who we are.
Moses 1:25	The waters obeying	A preview of the Red Sea. God's power is with His servant.
Moses 1:39	God's work and glory	Everything God does is aimed at our eternal life.
Abraham 3:1	Urim and Thummim	An instrument for receiving revelation.
Abraham 3:2–16	Kolob and the stars	Order and governance: God and Christ above all.
Abraham 3:22–23	Noble and great ones	Premortal spirits chosen for their missions.
Abraham 3:27	“Here am I, send me”	Jesus Christ offering Himself as Savior in the premortal council.

Connections across scripture

Matthew 4:1–11 — The Savior resists Satan with scripture, as Moses resists him by calling on God.
Jeremiah 1:5; Alma 13:3 — Foreordination before birth.
D&C 138:53–56 — Joseph F. Smith sees the noble and great ones prepared before birth.
Moses 4:1–4 — The premortal council from another angle: Satan's rebellion and the loss of agency he proposed.

Questions for the week

How does knowing you're a child of God help you face temptation (Moses 1:13–22)?
Moses learned that “man is nothing” and that God's whole work is man. How do both truths fit together?
What does Moses 1:39 tell you about how God feels about you?
What do you think it means to be “proved” in this life (Abraham 3:25)?
How does the Savior's “Here am I, send me” (Abraham 3:27) shape how you see Him?

Conference talks & Church resources

Talks the Church's lesson points to this week, plus other Church resources that teach from these chapters.

Scholarly papers

Faithful scholarship from BYU and related publishers, tagged with the chapters each one discusses.

Podcasts & video

Come, Follow Me shows and episodes covering this week's reading.