It wasn’t lost on 19th-century Latter-day Saints that the pioneer trek led by Brigham Young (the “American Moses,” some have named him) bore sometimes striking similarities to the exodus of the ancient Israelites from Egypt and to their arrival in the Promised Land.
Fleeing oppression under the leadership of a man they believed to be a modern prophet, the “Camp of Israel,” as it was sometimes called, left a huge river behind to enter an arid wilderness, eventually reaching a land where a much more modest river — they would christen it “Jordan,” after its Old World counterpart — connected a saltwater lake to a smaller freshwater one. The ancient Israelites crossed the Red Sea on foot; some of the first Mormon pioneers walked across a frozen Mississippi.
Read Full Article »