WEEK 43 [JEREMIAH 30-33; 36; LAMENTATIONS 1; 3]
WEEK 43 [JEREMIAH 30-33; 36; LAMENTATIONS 1; 3]
INSIGHTS NOTES
“I Will Turn Their Mourning into Joy”
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Transcript
Hey everybody.
Speaker:Welcome back.
Speaker:This is week 43 of Creative.
Speaker:Come Follow me for the Old Testament and we're in part two
Speaker:of our series on Jeremiah, and this is kind of the second half.
Speaker:And I gotta be honest, I was sort of expecting this to be.
Speaker:A down week.
Speaker:, I don't know how to articulate this, but I knowing we were reading the second part
Speaker:of Jeremiah where Jerusalem is destroyed and Lamentations where you hear Jeremiah's
Speaker:heartache because it was destroyed.
Speaker:I was anticipating a week of heaviness and maybe because I tend to seek
Speaker:out for those little bursts of light in my scripture study I was.
Speaker:Delightfully surprised at how much light there was in this week's chapters?
Speaker:Honestly, I think it's because of the contrast.
Speaker:I, I think I talk about this in my timeout for women talk, but I believe one of the
Speaker:ways that God makes weak things become strong is by creating contrast, these
Speaker:opportunities to shine out in dark places.
Speaker:And that's what you see in Jeremiah this week.
Speaker:He speaks about brightness and hope.
Speaker:The midst of utter devastation, and I just find it remarkable.
Speaker:The way he can call attention to those bright patches of
Speaker:light is so worth your time.
Speaker:So I, I hope you're excited to read this week's reading.
Speaker:We're gonna do the second half of Jeremiah.
Speaker:We're not gonna read all of the chapters.
Speaker:We'll just do a handful and then we'll do two of the chapters in Lamentations
Speaker:just to get a feel for Jeremiah's heart and how it ends, and how his
Speaker:focus on the gathering brings light and peace and warmth to every other verse.
Speaker:And I think you're gonna love it.
Speaker:So grab your scriptures.
Speaker:Grab your notes.
Speaker:Let's get started.
Speaker:We get one of those moments of contrast right outta the gate in chapter 30.
Speaker:This is where you see that Jeremiah is directed to write things down, which
Speaker:must have seemed a bitted to him.
Speaker:Cause no one's listening to him anyway.
Speaker:So the very idea that I have to take the time to write it down, I
Speaker:wonder if that's why he has scribe.
Speaker:We're gonna meet him in a little bit, but I think it's.
Speaker:It's this understanding of your words need to go farther
Speaker:than your voice can carry them.
Speaker:And I think it's why he directs us to write things down as well.
Speaker:What I love about Jeremiah's situation is I wonder sometimes his
Speaker:life mirrors a ize in a lot of ways.
Speaker:Uh, he is someone who often will stand in the court of a
Speaker:king and the king won't hear.
Speaker:In fact, the king's always throw him in prison and he is out on
Speaker:the streets and no one hears him.
Speaker:But what I love about Jeremiah is we know that some of his words,
Speaker:not all of them, but some of his words make it out of Jerusalem.
Speaker:They go with Lehigh's family on the brass plates, and they begin this whole
Speaker:new life in this book of Warm and Quest.
Speaker:So it's this.
Speaker:I don't think Jeremiah ever, or if he knew about them, it would've
Speaker:been through Revelation somehow.
Speaker:But it's almost like Alma with Abide, you know, Abide didn't get to see his.
Speaker:Go forward.
Speaker:But they do, and that's what happens with Jeremiah as well.
Speaker:His words will go across that great ocean and will, you know, become this fuel
Speaker:for the faith of this family that's just off on their own rebuilding a nation.
Speaker:It's just this powerful visual for me to think about him that way.
Speaker:So he writes his words down.
Speaker:And most of the words he writes in chapter 30 are these words about the
Speaker:gathering that will ultimately happen.
Speaker:So the, the Lord promises in three that there they will come home, all
Speaker:these children will eventually be brought home, and in eight he talks
Speaker:about the yolk that's gonna be lifted.
Speaker:What's powerful about the yolk visual is.
Speaker:Back in chapter 27, we didn't read this for, Come follow me.
Speaker:But you learn that you know you how we talked last week, how
Speaker:Jeremiah is a very visual learner.
Speaker:. One of the ways he teaches is by putting an actual yolk on his shoulders and
Speaker:wearing it around town and talking about the bondage that these children
Speaker:of Israel are getting into by.
Speaker:By worshiping false gods, by making alliances with Egypt
Speaker:and all these problems, they're actually creating this bondage.
Speaker:And so he wears a yolk to help people visualize it.
Speaker:And it reminds me of those things are missionaries too.
Speaker:You know, you talk to your return missionary kids and they tell you
Speaker:about how like they sung on doorstep or they had some sign that they
Speaker:held up to catch people's eye.
Speaker:That's what's happening with him.
Speaker:But people.
Speaker:Don't stop.
Speaker:And they don't see and they don't listen.
Speaker:So I wonder if it was powerful for Jeremiah after having carried a yoke
Speaker:for so long to actually speak of this yoke coming off and that promise,
Speaker:um, even if no one else heard it.
Speaker:I bet he delighted in that first.
Speaker:He also talks about how it's gonna come off and that will come through the savior,
Speaker:who will come through the line of David.
Speaker:So if you look at nine, it talks about David, their king.
Speaker:The meaning of this, especially if you go on the footnotes, you can learn
Speaker:more, is this is a reference to Christ who will ultimately come and bring.
Speaker:Ultimately home.
Speaker:Remember, the Jews are gonna have several fulfillments of this coming home prophecy.
Speaker:In 70 years after they're captured by Babylon, they're gonna get a chance
Speaker:to come home under the Persians.
Speaker:Remember, we study with Cyrus and how he let people come back and rebuild the walls
Speaker:and rebuild the temple, but there's gonna be a few fulfillments of this prophecy.
Speaker:Just the great one is the great gathering that will happen before the Savior comes
Speaker:again, and that's what he's referring to.
Speaker:So he talks about how they will be heal.
Speaker:That there will be a time of restoring.
Speaker:But he also talks about how there will be a time of consequence.
Speaker:So if you look at 11, he says, I am with the, I think he sends this message
Speaker:loud and clear over and over again.
Speaker:No matter how far they've strayed, they're, they're doing child sacrifice,
Speaker:they're worshiping idols in the temple.
Speaker:They are far astray, but he is still with them.
Speaker:He just can't bless them because, They're pulling away from him, but
Speaker:he will never leave their side.
Speaker:He says, I am with the say the Lord to save the, though I make a full end of
Speaker:all nations, whether I've scattered the yet, I will not make a full end of the,
Speaker:I will correct the in measure and I will not leave the altogether unpunished.
Speaker:That phrased me is very parenting phrase.
Speaker:As parents, we do this all the time where we say, I know you're
Speaker:gonna get grounded and it's gonna feel like your life is over.
Speaker:Or I'm taking your phone and shutting down all your apps and you're gonna
Speaker:think your life is over, but it's not over, and I'm not oblating your future.
Speaker:I am just letting you understand, I'm giving you time to let things
Speaker:sink in so that your choices.
Speaker:Become clear to you.
Speaker:That's what I think correct in measure means.
Speaker:It means your rebellion is going to have a proportional consequence.
Speaker:Remember how we learned in conference about how weakness and
Speaker:rebellion are not the same thing?
Speaker:The Lord does always merciful with weakness.
Speaker:Rebellion is a different story, and the children of Israel have
Speaker:rebelled against the covenant.
Speaker:They have had profits teaching them.
Speaker:They've had big covenants made and they have turned away from them.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:The measured response is proportional, , and it's hard.
Speaker:And he says, I'm not gonna leave you all together unpunished cuz his
Speaker:ultimate goal is to bring, to pass their immortality and eternal life.
Speaker:And that can't happen if he doesn't allow them to feel the
Speaker:consequences of their decisions.
Speaker:But I love the reminder that he is always with them, whether they chose this hard
Speaker:road or if they had chosen a happier one, he will be with them no matter.
Speaker:And then he talks about how he can cure them.
Speaker:So in 12, this is an important one to find the JST version of
Speaker:it, cuz it's so much more hopeful.
Speaker:He talks about in the J or in the King James, it talks about
Speaker:how bruises are incurable.
Speaker:And in the JST it's exactly the opposite.
Speaker:Bruises are not incurable, They wounds can be healed.
Speaker:That's the promise.
Speaker:So for me, I circled in those next few, four or five verses, all those
Speaker:things that are hard, the sorrow, the chastisement, the wounds, the regrets.
Speaker:And I drew Big arrow.
Speaker:All the way down to 17 where you see his promise for I
Speaker:will restore health onto you.
Speaker:When you flip, the page gets even better.
Speaker:He says, I will heal the of th wounds, Say at the Lord.
Speaker:That's his promise always and forever, that he will never stop reaching
Speaker:out for them that he can restore, that this time of grounding that
Speaker:is gonna be so grievous to be born.
Speaker:All those wounds can be healed, all those pains can be
Speaker:lifted, and that's his promise.
Speaker:I just think it's.
Speaker:. It's interesting to me from a parenting perspective to understand
Speaker:why he does things in this way.
Speaker:That his goal is to help them change.
Speaker:And you see that kind of come about in 21.
Speaker:So he says, I will cause him to draw near.
Speaker:That's, I think the purpose of the grounding.
Speaker:If you and this situation with Jack just this week where you have to have
Speaker:a little bit of separation so that they can, their hearts can soften and they.
Speaker:Draw near unto you.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:That's the Savior's way.
Speaker:He doesn't force, he doesn't cajole, he doesn't bribe.
Speaker:He gives them space, lets them feel consequences until they're ready
Speaker:to come back and he is constantly inviting them to draw near.
Speaker:I almost picture like when the savior says, Come on to me a ye that labor and
Speaker:are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Speaker:It's this pull.
Speaker:You can almost feel this undercurrent, this gentle
Speaker:undercurrent to come towards him.
Speaker:For me, I think it's what gives me peace as a parent that no matter how
Speaker:far my kids stray, he will never.
Speaker:Pulling them.
Speaker:He will never stop trying to draw them in.
Speaker:He will never override their agency either, and there are times I wish that
Speaker:wasn't the case, but he will constantly be pulling all of us in towards him.
Speaker:He has this magnetic power that simply can't be resisted when as
Speaker:soon as you start to turn, that magnetic power gets stronger and
Speaker:stronger, and that's what he promise.
Speaker:And I love what you see at the end of 21.
Speaker:He says, Who is this that engages his heart to approach unto me?
Speaker:For me, that's the pivotal shift when you decide to engage your heart.
Speaker:When your kids are grounded and they decide to engage their heart, it
Speaker:means their apologies sound different.
Speaker:They come back with a heart of, Okay, mom, I screwed this up.
Speaker:What can I do to make it better?
Speaker:I, I understand now what can I do?
Speaker:That's the engagement piece.
Speaker:There's a great talk in the notes all about this, that when we choose to engage
Speaker:with the Lord and we want to hear his guidance, we want to take his correction.
Speaker:We want to act on what we're learning.
Speaker:That engagement is actually what changes our hearts and restores the
Speaker:relationship, and that's the piece that Jeremiah is trying to help the
Speaker:children visual Israel understand as they head into this very hard, hard.
Speaker:Chapter 31 is probably the most important of all the chapters cuz it speaks about
Speaker:this new covenant that will be made.
Speaker:So go slow in chapter 31.
Speaker:If you only have time to read one chapter, try to try to over here
Speaker:cuz I think if Jeremiah had to pick, this is where he would want you.
Speaker:And he speaks about loving kindness.
Speaker:That's where he starts things off.
Speaker:If you notice in the notes I link you to just this month in October
Speaker:in the Lena Magazine, there is this beautiful article from President Nelson.
Speaker:It's not his conference talk.
Speaker:It's a, it's an article all about the covenant, and he speaks about loving
Speaker:kindness and said that Hebrew word that means it's translated as loving kindness
Speaker:in our verses, but it's this covenantal.
Speaker:Love.
Speaker:It's something much deeper and much more binding, and that's where he begins.
Speaker:Around verse three, he talks about, Yay.
Speaker:The Lord has appeared of old unto me saying, Yay, I have loved
Speaker:the with an everlasting love.
Speaker:Therefore, with loving kindness, have I drawn the, remember that magnetic pull?
Speaker:That's what he's promising.
Speaker:What I thought was really interesting is when I was going in the
Speaker:footnote path on three, it talks about when he has appeared of.
Speaker:The footnote says, this means from afar.
Speaker:And I sometimes wonder cuz we learn inverse where is, it's at the end of this
Speaker:page 26 that he awoke from this dream and this, this sleep was sweet on him.
Speaker:I wonder if maybe Jeremiah is having some very restless nights with,
Speaker:or maybe this is when he's in a prison and there's mud and he can't
Speaker:rest and, and he's struggling and the Lord comes to him and brings him
Speaker:from afar, this vision of the future.
Speaker:Cuz a lot of what you see in this chapter is all about how it will
Speaker:look down the road when the gathering is happening, the blessings that
Speaker:will pour out this loving kindness.
Speaker:This is where you see basically, you know, when the prodigal son comes home
Speaker:and his father gives him, they kill the fated calf and they put a ring
Speaker:on his finger and a robe around his.
Speaker:Dingy shoulders and it's, that's what he's trying to teach us, is
Speaker:that the children of Israel are gonna be that prodigal son who will
Speaker:come home and they will be adorned.
Speaker:So if you've seen four, that they'll be adored, that people will make music.
Speaker:There will be a celebration because his children are finally back.
Speaker:He talks in six that there will be watchmen who will be eagerly trying
Speaker:to prop site and teach us so that we can help this gathering come about.
Speaker:In eight, you'll see that there will be this great company coming home.
Speaker:In fact, six, eight and 10 are all verses that Morona uses when he speaks to Joseph
Speaker:Smith about his work, this restoration of things that will begin at Joseph Smith
Speaker:and then will, you know, reverberate for all of the rest of time that that's,
Speaker:that's what he's promising this great.
Speaker:Returning to him and he talks in nine, I will cause them to walk by the
Speaker:rivers of waters in a straight way.
Speaker:I am the father to Israel and Rim is my first born.
Speaker:He is, despite the fact that Rim is north, those are the northern tribes.
Speaker:So he's talking about even those who seem scattered and lost
Speaker:already, they will be home.
Speaker:Cuz remember, they're like the prodigal sun.
Speaker:They.
Speaker:Even though they feel like they are not worthy to be called son, they
Speaker:wanna be a servant in the household.
Speaker:The Lord will say, Oh no, you're mine.
Speaker:And your inheritance never changes you.
Speaker:If you come to me and you gather in, you will have the
Speaker:ring, you will have the robe.
Speaker:We will kill the fatted cin.
Speaker:We will celebrate your return.
Speaker:So that's what he promises, and 10 it gets even deeper.
Speaker:He talks about how he will gather them.
Speaker:He will keep them as a shepherd death, his flock.
Speaker:This is not just Northern Israel, but southern, all the children of Israel
Speaker:will be gathered in and the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and hath ransom him.
Speaker:This, these are.
Speaker:Big voluntary words that the Lord is offering, this loving kindness, this
Speaker:covenantal love that he's promised.
Speaker:That's how it looks.
Speaker:He redeems them.
Speaker:He ransom thems, He pays the price so that they can be.
Speaker:So that he can repair the breach, right?
Speaker:This is what we learned about throughout the Old Testament, that all the Lord
Speaker:wants is there to be no separation between his beloved people and himself.
Speaker:He wants to constantly repair that breach to pull out the sin that's
Speaker:the wedge in the middle, and to bring everyone back to him and he can see it.
Speaker:And I imagine Jeremiah can't always, so I love that.
Speaker:Potentially in a prison where he's, you know, sitting in mud, He gets
Speaker:this beautiful vision of what it's gonna look like down the road.
Speaker:So he talks in 13, I will turn their morning into joy.
Speaker:I will comfort them.
Speaker:I will make them rejoice from their sorrow.
Speaker:14.
Speaker:I mean, these are beautiful words.
Speaker:I will satiate the soul of my priest with fatness.
Speaker:That means he's gonna give the.
Speaker:The people who are the leaders and the teachers so much richness.
Speaker:Don't you feel like that with modern revelation that there is so much you can
Speaker:feast on from all the general authorities, not just in our day, but you know,
Speaker:since Joseph Smith's time that there's so much you can feast on that you, you
Speaker:can't fill yourself, you'll be satiated.
Speaker:The souls will be satiated with fatness and my people will be satisfied with my.
Speaker:That phrase was really powerful to me cuz I think sometimes we wonder, I know
Speaker:God can restore all things and I know he can bring all joys back and make us
Speaker:feel whole, but sometimes you wonder how that's even possible if you've experienced
Speaker:certain levels of pain and depth.
Speaker:Uh, uh, certain, you know, I have friends who've experienced loss in
Speaker:a way that I can't even wrap my head around and it's hard to imagine how he.
Speaker:Fill all those wounds, but that's the promise that they will be
Speaker:satisfied with his goodness.
Speaker:I don't know how that shakes out, but I know that my dear friend
Speaker:will be satisfied how, however that happens, and that there's
Speaker:gonna be difficulty in the interim.
Speaker:So if you look at 15, this is that great verse about Rachel, about
Speaker:this is referring to this, the.
Speaker:People in Israel who are watching their children be carried off captive
Speaker:and they're watching destruction happen and they're weeping.
Speaker:Rachel is weeping because of her children who were not.
Speaker:There's some beautiful statues about this.
Speaker:Um, she's sorrowing.
Speaker:This is also the verse that the apostles will cite in the New Testament when
Speaker:they're talking about the, the destruction of the children under her's rule.
Speaker:You know, all the children up to two who are.
Speaker:Killed because of herd's proclamation.
Speaker:Um, but it has multiple applications and he knows that that pain is,
Speaker:they're gonna feel that pain deeply, but the promise happens in
Speaker:16, that work shall be rewarded.
Speaker:All those mothers who achingly long for their children to be brought back to them.
Speaker:In time they will have it.
Speaker:Their work will be rewarded.
Speaker:And then 17.
Speaker:And there is hope in thine end.
Speaker:I have a big exclamation points on both sides of that phrase.
Speaker:We have to trust in thine end that all things can work together for our good.
Speaker:That's what he's trying to teach us.
Speaker:That's what Jeremiah never wants the people to forget.
Speaker:And I think in this moment, it's what the Lord wants Jeremiah to never forget.
Speaker:There is hope in thine end cuz Jeremiah's.
Speaker:Isn't pretty.
Speaker:We don't know exactly how he died, but tradition is that he's carried off into
Speaker:Egypt and is killed maybe by stoning, by those who should have listened to him.
Speaker:So he won't feel like his end is prevailing.
Speaker:But this is the promise.
Speaker:There is hope in that end because of this gathering that will happen.
Speaker:Jeremiah is setting the stage for that.
Speaker:His words are gonna be in the Book of Mormon.
Speaker:The Book of Mormon is the pivotal piece that brings people in at the gathering.
Speaker:So you can see.
Speaker:There's hope in Jeremiah's end.
Speaker:Uh, he goes deeper in as you go further into the verses, he talks
Speaker:about how ERI is still his son.
Speaker:That's in verse 20, Is Ephram my dear son, Is he a pleasant child
Speaker:for, Since I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still, despite
Speaker:the fact that his children are in, uh, A timeout, an awful hard timeout.
Speaker:He remembers them.
Speaker:He's thinking on them and he wants them home, and so he directs them to
Speaker:set up these high heats that's in 21.
Speaker:It's almost like the goal program, like the children in the youth
Speaker:program we have today where they're supposed to set up these high places.
Speaker:These.
Speaker:You know the next big thing.
Speaker:Sometimes when I'm running or hiking, this is what I will do, right?
Speaker:I don't ever just stop.
Speaker:I try to stop at a certain landmark, like, I'm gonna make it to that tree.
Speaker:I'm gonna make it to that electric box, and that helps my brain get a
Speaker:little bit further down the road.
Speaker:That's what he's inviting them to do in 21.
Speaker:He warns them about backsliding.
Speaker:And then in 25, for I have satiated the weary soul.
Speaker:I've replenished every sorrowful soul.
Speaker:And upon this, this is 26.
Speaker:Upon this, I awakened when Jeremiah learns from the Lord that every soul can
Speaker:be full and everyone can be satiated.
Speaker:He awakes from this dream or this restless night of sleep.
Speaker:It was sweet unto him.
Speaker:That's the words he uses.
Speaker:I just love that piece of this story, but it gets even better as
Speaker:we go into the next part at 30.
Speaker:The Lord reminds Jeremiah how long he's been watching things.
Speaker:In verse 28, he says, I've watched over them to pluck up and
Speaker:to break down, so I will watch over them to build and to plant.
Speaker:Say it the Lord.
Speaker:Those are the instructions.
Speaker:Jeremiah got way back in Jeremiah one, that as a prophet
Speaker:this was gonna be his work.
Speaker:Sometimes it's gonna be to pull out the weeds and sometimes
Speaker:it's going to be to plant.
Speaker:And the Lord is watching the whole time, doesn't slumber, he doesn't sleep.
Speaker:He sees them no matter where they are.
Speaker:And this next phase where the gathering will.
Speaker:Is that planting phase and he highlights it from about 31 to 35 or so.
Speaker:I loved these verses cuz they're all about the new covenant.
Speaker:I learned a lot this week about covenants cuz it happened to be what
Speaker:I was teaching to the Ysa as well.
Speaker:But again, you wanna go to that President Nelson article cuz he talks
Speaker:about how a covenant is a relationship.
Speaker:It's this tie that binds people together.
Speaker:I had a sweet conversation with Elaine Dalton in an airport this week
Speaker:about this where, A covenant is a relationship between you and the Lord.
Speaker:It's not just being bound, it's trusting in him.
Speaker:And the visual that kept coming to my mind as I was prepping.
Speaker:My Ysa lesson on this was trapeze.
Speaker:So I don't know if you guys ever watched, I think it was called Circus with the
Speaker:Stars when I was, It was one of my favorite things to watch because you would
Speaker:see these celebrities, it's kind like Dancing with the Stars, but they would
Speaker:do Circus X, and the one I love the most was the Trape, because you would see.
Speaker:These famous people get like held up by these really strong guys who are holding
Speaker:onto a bar and then flipped in the air these amazing tricks, and then caught
Speaker:by somebody else on the other side.
Speaker:And that's what I see in a covenant relationship, that there is this
Speaker:profound trust that if the, if that performer just does the routine, the
Speaker:way they've trained and practiced, there is strength on both sides.
Speaker:There is someone who will give them the power, the, you know, the
Speaker:endowment of power that they need in order to pull off this trick
Speaker:that can't be done in any other way.
Speaker:And there's somebody on the other side that's willing to catch them
Speaker:and get them ready for the next move.
Speaker:And the Lord has this great choreographer of this incredible thing, is making
Speaker:sure that the timing is perfect.
Speaker:That you will have the help you need.
Speaker:That's what a covenant relationship means.
Speaker:It means you are bound to him and he will never take his eye off
Speaker:you and he's planning for you.
Speaker:No matter what intersections of agency you hit, no matter if you make a mistake,
Speaker:there is this cushy big net at the bottom of this repentance net to catch you.
Speaker:That is the visual that helps me understand a trap act.
Speaker:But I just think it's, the reason it meant something to me is because I
Speaker:feel like those tricks, if I tried to do them without the help of
Speaker:those, those people that swing you, you, you couldn't accomplish it.
Speaker:Sometimes I think especially with teenagers and young adults, they
Speaker:get into this vein of maybe I don't really need the ordinances.
Speaker:Maybe I don't need covenants.
Speaker:I can just lead a good life.
Speaker:And what profits and apostles teach over and over again is.
Speaker:You can't do these tricks without his power.
Speaker:There is only one gate.
Speaker:There's only one way.
Speaker:There's only this covenant path, and that's the only way to achieve
Speaker:the exaltation you are hoping for.
Speaker:So no matter how good of a life you lead, without that piece,
Speaker:you're missing something.
Speaker:That's why we have those five saving ordinances and
Speaker:why they're such a big deal.
Speaker:So I feel like that's what he's trying to teach to the children of Israel.
Speaker:That.
Speaker:At the end.
Speaker:In fact, at the end of this chapter, he talks about how he'll
Speaker:write it on their inward parts.
Speaker:This is around verse 33.
Speaker:We'll talk about this in the object lessons too, but there
Speaker:has to be a change inside.
Speaker:It can't just be on the surface.
Speaker:It can't be tablets of stone anymore.
Speaker:It has to be inscribed on their heart.
Speaker:It has to go deeper than that, and so he needs them to change.
Speaker:And when there is an inward change and a covenantal relationship,
Speaker:you can do things you.
Speaker:Could do on your own.
Speaker:I think that's why he focuses in 36 about the ordinances that if
Speaker:they set aside these ordinances, their endowment of power departs.
Speaker:So they need the ordinances the exact same way we need them today.
Speaker:So go listen to President Nelson or go read the talk in this month's leonna.
Speaker:I think it will help you understand it, but I loved this idea of ordinances
Speaker:and how they endow us with the power to accomplish things we could never do on.
Speaker:We shift gears a little bit in chapter 32.
Speaker:This is where you see one of Jeremiah's interactions with the king.
Speaker:So this is King Zeta Kaya, the one that's mentioned.
Speaker:This this time period cuz he talks about how they're about
Speaker:to be besieged by Babylon.
Speaker:So this must be right after Lehigh's family leaves Jerusalem, cuz that
Speaker:happens in the reign of Zeta Kaya.
Speaker:So I wonder if this is kind of the aftermath after Lehigh's family goes and
Speaker:things have gone downhill for a while.
Speaker:But he's wondering why Jeremiah is prophesying, why when destruction
Speaker:is imminent, why is he prophesying?
Speaker:And I wonder if Jeremiah.
Speaker:Whats that as well at times.
Speaker:But there's this interesting object lesson that kind of comes to the surface in
Speaker:chapter 32 that you have to watch for.
Speaker:So basically, Jeremiah is in prison because of his prophecies, and one of
Speaker:his family members comes to him and asks him to purchase family property.
Speaker:I don't know if, I don't know the backstory here.
Speaker:I don't know if the family was destitute, if something had happened.
Speaker:Remember last week when we talked about how his family and Anna enough had turned
Speaker:against him and even wanted to kill him?
Speaker:So this is a clear.
Speaker:Change of heart that they're coming to Jeremiah in prison to say, You
Speaker:have the first rite of refusal.
Speaker:Will you buy this land and save the family?
Speaker:And he does because he is directed by the Lord.
Speaker:And I had to think to myself like, how much money could a prophet actually have?
Speaker:You know, what if this is the last of Jeremiah's?
Speaker:Money.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I don't know the circumstances, but it did as I considered some possibilities.
Speaker:It helped new ideas come about as I read the verses because the instruction
Speaker:from the Lord is really interesting.
Speaker:Basically what the Lord says is buy it.
Speaker:By the land, and I want you to write up all the documentation about it, and I
Speaker:want you to seal it up in these jars.
Speaker:And it could mean a few things depending on those variables that we don't know.
Speaker:You know, if it's the variable is he needed to show forgiveness to his family
Speaker:who hated him and turned against him, and now in this moment he gets to redeem them.
Speaker:He gets to save them.
Speaker:That's a beautiful story.
Speaker:If the message is, Despite the fact that Babylon's coming and all this land is
Speaker:gonna get conquered, we believe that we will own this land in the future.
Speaker:Maybe sealing up those documents and purchasing them with a price the same
Speaker:way we saw with the other patriarchs who had to purchase land to bury their wives.
Speaker:Remember all that?
Speaker:They purchased land that wasn't theirs at the time so that they
Speaker:could begin the promised land.
Speaker:Maybe it's a way to say, I'm all in.
Speaker:You know what if, if those are his last dollars and he's wondering why the Lord.
Speaker:Wants him to give it.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Of all the things, am I gonna purchase land?
Speaker:That's gonna get taken by the Babylonians anyway.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:And I think when you seal up those documents in those
Speaker:vessels, it says, I am all in.
Speaker:I know this land is not under the control of Babylonians.
Speaker:It won't be under the control of the Persians.
Speaker:It's under the control of the Lord.
Speaker:And he promised it will be ours again.
Speaker:So I'm buying this land, you know, it's, it's like buying a property of monopoly
Speaker:when you know you're gonna lose anyway, . And he just does it cuz he honors what the
Speaker:Lord asked him to do and it's powerful.
Speaker:So there's a whole bunch of different ways you can interpret those
Speaker:scriptures, but I love seeing all these object lessons in Jeremiah's life.
Speaker:Just play.
Speaker:And he talks about how nothing is too hard for the Lord around like 16, 17, this is
Speaker:where you start to see Jeremiah's prayer.
Speaker:What I thought was really interesting is Jeremiah is in prison and potentially
Speaker:just gave up the last of his money to purchase land that he'll never get to
Speaker:live in, and that's probably gonna get captured by the Babylonians anyway.
Speaker:And he never in this prayer one time.
Speaker:, get me out of this prison, . He just shows gratitude.
Speaker:He prays and talks about all the miracles he's seen.
Speaker:This shows me what a covenant relationship is like.
Speaker:He knows the Lord's heart so well that I wonder if he even has to ask anymore.
Speaker:He knows that the Lord will get him out of that prison when the time is right.
Speaker:He's been through a lot.
Speaker:Prisons up to this point, and he just trusts.
Speaker:So he's not asking.
Speaker:He's just saying, Oh, you are a great God.
Speaker:And then he starts recounting all these wonders, the signs in Egypt, the miracles,
Speaker:the plagues, the Red Sea parting.
Speaker:He talks about the loving kindness that.
Speaker:You know, covenantal hesed relationship that the Lord has offered him.
Speaker:What I thought was really cool you guys, is that the Lord answers
Speaker:the questions he didn't ask.
Speaker:So when Jeremiah appraise and only offers gratitude despite being in a
Speaker:dark prison, what the Lord answers is, let me tell you why this is happening.
Speaker:and he didn't even ask that.
Speaker:But they have a relationship the same way.
Speaker:Sometimes Jason can come home and he can see on my face or, but the
Speaker:way I'm interacting with people, how my day has gone and I don't have to
Speaker:say a word and he'll just be like, Hey Maria, do you need something?
Speaker:Can I help you , or do you wanna go down to Swig?
Speaker:Do you wanna just skip?
Speaker:Like it's this, He, we have a relationship and he knows my heart so
Speaker:well that he will answer questions.
Speaker:I haven't even.
Speaker:And that's what happens with the Lord.
Speaker:So he teaches him, He reminds him of the sins of the, that
Speaker:this is coming from the iniquity.
Speaker:To me as a parent, I read this as a way of comfort to say,
Speaker:Jeremiah, this isn't your fault.
Speaker:I know things are falling apart.
Speaker:You've done everything you could've done.
Speaker:This has to happen.
Speaker:It's not your fault.
Speaker:Uh, cause I wonder sometimes if Jeremiah worried that his prophecies
Speaker:didn't get across, maybe he should have carried that yoke a few more days.
Speaker:You know, I wonder if he, like every parent wonders if he's done.
Speaker:And the Lord is reminding him that this is because of their agency
Speaker:and their choices, not your lack.
Speaker:And so I think that's a powerful message that you find in here.
Speaker:So it's around 32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel.
Speaker:This is what has happened.
Speaker:And then in 33, this is powerful as well.
Speaker:This is God's answer about proving himself that he's all in and they have turned
Speaker:onto me, the back and not the face.
Speaker:Though I taught them rising up early and teaching them, yet they have
Speaker:not hearned to receive instruction.
Speaker:He has taught them through profits over and over.
Speaker:He calls it rising up early cuz it means he's giving them revelation through
Speaker:his profits well before they need it.
Speaker:Well before Babylonians are even close to their gates.
Speaker:He has warned them about being in bondage.
Speaker:He has warned them about idols.
Speaker:That's what our prophets do for us today.
Speaker:They have this site that they can see far into the future and they're saying
Speaker:today, Get better at Revelation, you're not gonna be able to survive spiritually
Speaker:without it, which means there's gonna be something called and we need to act.
Speaker:And that's what I think rising up early means.
Speaker:And I think it's a way to comfort Jeremiah to say, I see your work.
Speaker:I see what you're doing, and I know you've tried.
Speaker:I think as a parent there's.
Speaker:Beauty in it.
Speaker:And then he speaks a little bit more about Zion.
Speaker:So when you go forward, again, I think he's always trying to fix
Speaker:Jeremiah's mind on the future.
Speaker:That will come around 39, and I will give them one heart and one way that
Speaker:they may fear me forever for the good of them and the children after them.
Speaker:There will never be a falling away again once they've been gathered.
Speaker:That's the promise, and I love.
Speaker:One heart and one way.
Speaker:In other scriptures, we read Zion as one heart and one
Speaker:mind, and that's great as well.
Speaker:But one way implies to me that we're all on this same path.
Speaker:We're gonna have wildly different lives and different, you know, experiences and
Speaker:personalities and, you know, Zion is full of color and, you know, flavors and depth.
Speaker:It's not, it's not all just the same.
Speaker:What it says is you're all gonna unify under something that will
Speaker:bring you all together in one place.
Speaker:I, I love that phrasing of one.
Speaker:When you a little bit for further in 40, he says, I will make the
Speaker:Everlasting Covenant with them.
Speaker:Remember, this is a covenant, the new and everlasting covenant,
Speaker:the Abrahamic covenant, the covenants that Adam Eve made.
Speaker:What President Nelson says in that article from this month's enzyme is
Speaker:those are all essentially the same thing.
Speaker:All those covenants have been carried from one generation to the next.
Speaker:Each dispensation when they're brought back again, it's all that same covenant.
Speaker:It's what?
Speaker:It's what we hold onto today that that will be made again.
Speaker:And then in 41, yay.
Speaker:I will rejoice over them to do them good.
Speaker:I will plant them as land assuredly with my whole heart and my whole,
Speaker:So he's promising things to Jeremiah, that Jeremiah didn't.
Speaker:As apparent, I totally get this.
Speaker:There are prayers in my heart that I don't ever vocalize about my family
Speaker:and the future, and I feel this kind of answer, especially when I go to the
Speaker:temple, that he will bring everyone home.
Speaker:That there will be things that will tether hearts together that I can't visualize,
Speaker:and I haven't even prayed for that.
Speaker:He's promising.
Speaker:And then I love what you see in 42.
Speaker:So I will bring upon them all the good that I have promised them in time when
Speaker:the wounds are healed and they are clean, all that good, all those blessings that
Speaker:he's been like welling up, hoping that they will be obedient, will pour out.
Speaker:And that's what Zion looks like.
Speaker:You guys.
Speaker:That's the future we're heading towards.
Speaker:That's why I feel like we have to have this positive spiritual momentum cuz all
Speaker:the good is coming and we don't wanna.
Speaker:That goodness keeps rolling right into chapter 33.
Speaker:This is where you see Jeremiah is still in prison.
Speaker:I don't know if this is a second prison experience or if this is in
Speaker:the same prison and this witness comes a second time, almost like we
Speaker:saw with Morona and Joseph Smith.
Speaker:I, I'm not sure exactly, but it.
Speaker:For sure there is a second experience with the Lord in a prison at some
Speaker:point in Jerem, Jeremiah's life, and he invites him to call onto him.
Speaker:So in three, Call onto me, I will answer the, and show the great and mighty
Speaker:things, which that will know us to not.
Speaker:There's always more to learn from the Lord.
Speaker:These mysteries, you know, things you can only learn by revelation are.
Speaker:Are available to Jeremiah.
Speaker:He just needs to seek them.
Speaker:And so Lord's reminding of that and then he shows him some of the, some
Speaker:of the things he's still gonna learn.
Speaker:So in six he talks about the end, how I'll bring them health and cure.
Speaker:I will cure them.
Speaker:I will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
Speaker:This great gathering time will be a time of restoration in so many beautiful ways.
Speaker:Eight, he talks about how he will cleanse them from all their inequity
Speaker:whereby they have sinned against.
Speaker:There will be a period of cleansing, and if you've ever tried to clean
Speaker:the wounds of one of your kids or yourself, you know that sometimes that
Speaker:cleansing phase is not pleasant, but it will happen in order for the goodness
Speaker:and the restoration to come about.
Speaker:I love how he phrases it in nine.
Speaker:He says, Which shall hear all the good that I do unto them, and they shall fear
Speaker:and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure onto it.
Speaker:It's interesting thing about fearing and trembling for goodness, and I
Speaker:didn't really get that verse until Violet had me watch a makeover show this
Speaker:So she was, she's into this makeover show where they go into houses of
Speaker:families who are in need and in 24 hours they completely revamp the
Speaker:house, like inside, outside everything.
Speaker:And then they bring the family back and surprise them.
Speaker:This incredible makeover.
Speaker:And what I loved watching is the big reveal at the end.
Speaker:Isn't that everyone's favorite part of a makeover show?
Speaker:But you can see the families, like, they didn't even know
Speaker:this renovation was happening.
Speaker:So they pull up to their driveway and then they get a, they catch the idea of what
Speaker:has happened and they tremble with joy.
Speaker:Literally, I watch it on camera.
Speaker:The moms weep and they, their hands shake because they just can't
Speaker:believe the goodness of the world.
Speaker:you know, that they're just.
Speaker:Marveling at the kindness of strangers and they, as they walk through their
Speaker:house and they see these burdens lifted off their shoulders, cuz all of a sudden
Speaker:they have opportunities to accomplish things that they couldn't on their own.
Speaker:They tremble with joy.
Speaker:That's what I think the gathering will feel like.
Speaker:It will be like this ultimate makeover show that all of our lives will
Speaker:be restored in a way that we're.
Speaker:Wait, we, we just left.
Speaker:You know, that's what I love about this show is they leave in the morning and by
Speaker:the time they come back the next morning or that night even, sometimes everything
Speaker:has happened and they're like, How?
Speaker:How?
Speaker:I think all of us will feel like that, where we just are dazzled at
Speaker:the ability of the Lord to cleanse.
Speaker:And cure and restore.
Speaker:That's what I, that's what Jeremiah is being reminded of.
Speaker:And then I love that everybody will get it.
Speaker:So in 11, the it says in the middle that we praise the Lord of host.
Speaker:For the Lord is good for his mercy endures forever.
Speaker:At a future point in time, everybody will get it.
Speaker:That those painful moments.
Speaker:Today I had to give Henry my grandbaby medicine.
Speaker:So I had to help Jake, his dad, give him Tylenol, and he did not want
Speaker:that . It's in a little syringe.
Speaker:He had a fever and we had to bring it down, and he was fighting and gritting
Speaker:his little tiny , and we had to hold him really tight, ended of having to
Speaker:hold his head almost like a vice so that Jake could put the medicine in.
Speaker:And so it would actually go down his throat and he wouldn't
Speaker:just spit it back out at us.
Speaker:And he was painful and he thought I was so mean.
Speaker:But in that moment, I knew.
Speaker:In an hour, he's gonna be so grateful.
Speaker:He won't even process how happy it will make him, but to not be rushed through the
Speaker:hospital and to not get shots and to not all those things that could have happened
Speaker:and the joy he feels in the moment of being free of that fever make it worth it.
Speaker:And I think that's what 11 is promising.
Speaker:All of us will get it and will realize it was worth it, not just us.
Speaker:All people will get it.
Speaker:When you flip a page, you see a little more.
Speaker:He talks about how he will perform that good thing.
Speaker:That good thing is this promise of a covenant, that the savior
Speaker:will come again, that he will reestablish his church on the earth.
Speaker:So that's what you see in 15, that the branch of righteousness
Speaker:to grow up unto David will come that Jerusalem will be saved.
Speaker:Judah, the Northern Israel, Southern Israel, they'll all
Speaker:be gathered back together.
Speaker:Remember, it's not just that they've been scattered, it's that even before the
Speaker:scattering happened, they've been divided.
Speaker:They've been a family, you know, kinda like Civil War families who have have
Speaker:members on both sides of the fight.
Speaker:That's what happened in Israel.
Speaker:The children of Israel were divided, and so he's going to reunite those
Speaker:hearts and then he promises that he will multiply things that the
Speaker:seed of David will be multiplied.
Speaker:We know from the Book of Mormon, from Benjamin, from Ben, I, I think that the
Speaker:seed of David or the seed of Christ is us.
Speaker:Those who choose to accept the covenant, those who choose to appreciate the
Speaker:atonement of Jesus Christ, become children of Christ, you become his.
Speaker:That's the seed of David, that's the seed of Christ, and they will be multiplied,
Speaker:meaning there will be incredible exponential growth in those who.
Speaker:Participate in Covenant and come under Christ and be.
Speaker:In chapter 36, we've gone back in time a little bit cuz now we're
Speaker:a couple kings before Zeta Kaya.
Speaker:Now we're under Jehovah Kim, but it's a really similar relationship
Speaker:so you don't have to go too deep into the history to understand it.
Speaker:Basically, Jehovah Kim is not a fan of Jeremiah.
Speaker:Surprise, and because Jeremiah is still processing about the destruction that's
Speaker:coming and how they need to change their ways, and King doesn't like him, so
Speaker:he's in some kind of prison arrangement.
Speaker:It doesn't sound like it's his dire of a prison situation as he'll experience
Speaker:in other times of his life, but he's under some sort of house arrest.
Speaker:Thankfully, he has a scribe who's here to help him because the Lord
Speaker:directs him to write all of his prophecies down and you have to.
Speaker:If you're just like, What's the point?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:I don't know how, if this took days or weeks or months for the scribe to
Speaker:write all the prophecies that Jeremiah has had, but he does it, and I think
Speaker:the reason he does it is because of what is revealed to him in verse three.
Speaker:Basically what the Lord says is that they may hear.
Speaker:It's this profound message of hope tucked amongst all this other heart.
Speaker:He says that they may return.
Speaker:In fact, I circled the maze, every man from his evil way that I may
Speaker:forgive the iniquity and their sin.
Speaker:What the Lord wants and what he's hoping for, no matter how many times
Speaker:he gets rejected, is that they will turn, not just that they'll turn to
Speaker:him, but they'll turn and be healed.
Speaker:He wants to forgive them of their sins.
Speaker:He wants them back in this covenant, and he is extending another olive branch.
Speaker:It comes through these words of Jeremiah and what I think is really cool you guys,
Speaker:is how it catches in Jeremiah's heart.
Speaker:So if you look around verse seven, he says, basically, maybe it'll work.
Speaker:Seven says It may be that they will present their supplication before
Speaker:the Lord and will return every one of them from their evil way.
Speaker:He has this.
Speaker:Infectious hope now that he got from the Lord that says maybe they will.
Speaker:It's what gets every missionary out of bed in the morning, right?
Speaker:No matter how many days of hard you've had before that.
Speaker:It's the same thing with parents.
Speaker:Knowing how many days of hard you have, this infectious hope
Speaker:from the Lord that says, Maybe today's the day, don't give up.
Speaker:So he does, he uses subscribe.
Speaker:They work together and they write all the words.
Speaker:They plan a day where they can go out into the city, where as many people as
Speaker:possible will hear there's been this big fast and all the cities coming together.
Speaker:And so they read the words out in the hopes that people will hear it and the
Speaker:right people do hear it cuz the princes are, become aware of it through, you
Speaker:know, kind of the telephone game of sorts.
Speaker:They, they understand that this scroll has been read.
Speaker:They ask for it to be read to them, these princes, and then they're
Speaker:afraid, they read it and they're afraid of what's gonna happen next.
Speaker:They believe some of the prophecies.
Speaker:I think they must believe it cuz what they say in 19 is you guys need to hide.
Speaker:So the princes who are worried about these prophecies say We're gonna share
Speaker:this with the king, but Jeremiah and Baruch, you guys should go hide somewhere
Speaker:cuz I don't know how he's gonna take it.
Speaker:And so that's what happens in 21.
Speaker:They read it in front of the king, it's red.
Speaker:The king has this really interesting response.
Speaker:He basically, he's, it describes it really in detail.
Speaker:He's standing by a hearth, and so he cuts up the, the scroll that Jeremiah
Speaker:wrote to Baruch wrote, and he tosses it into the fire, and there's this.
Speaker:Sadness in your heart when you read it, cuz it's like the idea that him
Speaker:tossing it into virus is somehow gonna stop the prophecy from coming true.
Speaker:Um, and what is even more hunting is in 24 it says they were not afraid, nor
Speaker:did they rent their garments normally to read a prophecy about the destruction of
Speaker:your city and your town and your nation.
Speaker:Would cause you to fear and turn to the Lord and, you know, tear
Speaker:your garments to like, say, I, I'm I'm sorrowing Lord, help us.
Speaker:It doesn't happen with this king.
Speaker:And you know, the visual that came, Okay, don't forgive me for this one,
Speaker:but you know, when Harry Potter in the very first one, when he gets that
Speaker:first owl, the invitation to Hogwarts and the Dursts lead dead tears it
Speaker:up and throws it up, and then later.
Speaker:A whole bunch more of those letters come, I almost did that
Speaker:for an object lesson this week.
Speaker:So just saying, laughing at the vi visual of it, but that's
Speaker:kind of what Jeremiah sees.
Speaker:He's like, I don't care how many scrolls you cut or how many times you throw
Speaker:it in the fire, it's gonna come to be.
Speaker:It's gonna happen and you can't.
Speaker:By crumpling it up, you can't dismiss the prophecy.
Speaker:And I think that applies to us because whether or not we pay attention to
Speaker:the words that were just spoken at conference, whether you ever listen
Speaker:to them again, they are prophecies, They are teachings for our time
Speaker:for this six month period of time.
Speaker:And by ignoring them, you don't do any good for yourself.
Speaker:You don't set aside the doctrine or it doesn't stop rolling forward
Speaker:because we don't pay attention to.
Speaker:It's gonna roll forward.
Speaker:That's what we know about the future of the church.
Speaker:It's gonna roll forward until it consumes the whole earth.
Speaker:And whether or not you pay attention, it's coming.
Speaker:And that's what he's trying to get across.
Speaker:Um, and so I love the visual of it.
Speaker:In fact, it gets emphasized even more when you go down in the verses in 26,
Speaker:it says their lives are on the line.
Speaker:Basically the king says, Bring the two guys that wrote this.
Speaker:You know, I assumed put them to death and the Lord hid them.
Speaker:So again, I pictured the invisibility cloak.
Speaker:It's October, you guys.
Speaker:I've got Harry Potter on the mine, but I don't know.
Speaker:I don't know how this happened, but I love that it did happen.
Speaker:I read a BYU devotional just this last week.
Speaker:Uh, actually I listened to it.
Speaker:I don't think the transcript is out yet, but he talked about this situation in
Speaker:Bolivia where there was huge unrest and fear and the two mission residents who
Speaker:were his parents had to come up with ways to get the missionaries to safety.
Speaker:And he mentions this period where there was a sister missionary
Speaker:who felt invisible walking on the streets amongst all this chaos.
Speaker:She felt like she was somehow, Sheila and I.
Speaker:Invisibility cloaks.
Speaker:They're real . I just feel like it's real.
Speaker:So you'll see that in the verses.
Speaker:And then he talks about how he has to write all the words again.
Speaker:So again, you guys, I don't know how long it took, but he's supposed to write all
Speaker:the words again, except for this time.
Speaker:The revelation has some additions.
Speaker:So it adds some prophecies about this king and how he will die and his family will
Speaker:die because of his choices in this moment.
Speaker:And I think there's a couple lessons to learn there.
Speaker:Revelation is living revelation, especially when it comes from a profit.
Speaker:It can be adapted, it can be added to, um, that's not new.
Speaker:That's a haul way from the Old Testament.
Speaker:So as we see things from Joseph Smith and others that we, new understandings
Speaker:come about, that should be expected.
Speaker:But I think the bigger thing is, It's that choose your own adventure path.
Speaker:When the king chose to rebel and to turn against this revelation that came
Speaker:literally to his room where he could have consumed it and changed, he didn't.
Speaker:And so this new path opens up and that new revelation had to be written.
Speaker:So you can see at the end and 32 it says, And there were many added
Speaker:besides onto them, many words.
Speaker:The the prophecy just got denser and heavier and harder because
Speaker:of the choice that the king.
Speaker:Way back in Deuteronomy 28, the children visible prophesied that if they
Speaker:turned away from the covenant, if they turned back towards idols, incredible
Speaker:catastrophic destruction would happen.
Speaker:And I feel like Lamentations is sort of where you see those.
Speaker:Played out and it's hard, It's hard to read.
Speaker:It's a, it's a parent who is literally just weeping for their children who are
Speaker:now struggling and can't find comfort.
Speaker:I really think, and I know I've said this a couple times, but I think
Speaker:that's part of the reason the Lord wants us to keep our covenants.
Speaker:He wants the children and youth to understand the strength of the
Speaker:youth and to use their agency to.
Speaker:Good because it's when you don't, you are without comfort.
Speaker:You lose the Holy Ghost and he knows you're gonna get in spots
Speaker:where you need comfort and you'll be flailing to try and find it.
Speaker:That's what you see, especially in Lamentations one.
Speaker:Jeremiah is just.
Speaker:Sorrowing because he spent decades of his life, you guys trying to
Speaker:teach them that this would happen.
Speaker:Then he watches it happen right up close firsthand, sees the city
Speaker:get destroyed, sees the burning, and then he sees the aftermath.
Speaker:And the aftermath is just as bad as the burning because you see all the
Speaker:children in the streets and the people who are starving, and I mean, chapter
Speaker:two even references cannibalism that happens because of the catastrophe that
Speaker:is in front of them, and he just, Aches.
Speaker:You know, he aches the same way the savior ached.
Speaker:When he was like, How?
Speaker:How did you not let me gather you?
Speaker:I would've gathered you like a hen.
Speaker:It's just this ache.
Speaker:And so when you go into Lamentations one, know that that's where you're headed.
Speaker:You'll feel the ache.
Speaker:And he says, How?
Speaker:How did this happen so fast?
Speaker:Which is interesting cuz of course Jeremiah knows exactly how it
Speaker:happened, but he still wonders how it could possibly go so fast and be so.
Speaker:And he's aching for their loss, that they have no one to comfort them.
Speaker:That's what you see into she weep with sore, and then I, again,
Speaker:he's personifying Jerusalem.
Speaker:He's talking about.
Speaker:The people that they are weeping, that they're turning to all their
Speaker:other lovers, meaning like all their idols, all those things they
Speaker:thought they could get strengthened.
Speaker:They're now desperately turning to them and they can't find relief.
Speaker:Remember last week when we did the object lesson with the water bottle?
Speaker:That leaks as soon as you try to use it, that's the moment they're in right now.
Speaker:They're turning desperately for help from their false gods and they're
Speaker:realizing, Oh, this is just stone.
Speaker:This is just.
Speaker:It, it can't do anything for me in this situation.
Speaker:Um, and, and they're devastated at it.
Speaker:And so is Jeremiah, cuz it could have been so different.
Speaker:Um, and it hurts.
Speaker:They find no rest.
Speaker:So if you go through these verses, you'll see a lot of different
Speaker:phrases jump out at you there.
Speaker:Bitterness in four that they've gone into captivity.
Speaker:This is not just their city is destroyed, their people are getting carried
Speaker:off to be slaves in some other land.
Speaker:It's devastating.
Speaker:Their beauty is departed in six that none will help her in.
Speaker:Seven people mock her.
Speaker:Um, in eight.
Speaker:It talks about how she is removed cuz she has grievously sinned.
Speaker:I think Jeremiah knows pretty clearly how this has happened.
Speaker:It's not that he wonders how it's come about.
Speaker:I wonder if he realizes.
Speaker:How fast it would come about that when the Babylonians do conquer, it is fast
Speaker:and the temple is destroyed and the gates are destroyed and the walls crumble.
Speaker:It's, it happens so fast.
Speaker:Um, the visual that came on my mind as I was studying this is those,
Speaker:that footage of nine 11 and how.
Speaker:Fast.
Speaker:We went from just kind of like confusion about what was happening
Speaker:to just utter devastation.
Speaker:And that's what he's seeing in an entire city of people that he
Speaker:loves, despite their wrong choices.
Speaker:Um, he talks about the adversaries involvement in it.
Speaker:In 10, you go a little further and he talks about his sorrow,
Speaker:that they'll see sorrow.
Speaker:It's heavy.
Speaker:Um, I don't think Jeremiah ever once rejoiced that his prophecies came.
Speaker:You know, there are lots of wonderful prophecies that President Nelson
Speaker:has been able to give that it's probably been delightful to see.
Speaker:Come about.
Speaker:That doesn't happen with Jeremiah.
Speaker:These are all hard things to see come about.
Speaker:It's all the, all the struggles that come with spiritual bondage.
Speaker:Th theirs will be physical.
Speaker:But for us, I think what our prophets are warning us about is spiritual.
Speaker:I really loved the way they have redone the, for strength of the youth, that
Speaker:pamphlet that they talked about in conference and how it's been reworded to
Speaker:invite you to use your agency and to, to.
Speaker:Question your discipleship and make your choices based on your
Speaker:discipleship and if you feel like you're off course, course correct.
Speaker:Cuz you know it's a very, This is on me and these are my choices and
Speaker:I'm gonna be accountable for them.
Speaker:That's what he's reminding them of in these verses.
Speaker:The big ache comes for me in 16 where it says, because the comforter that
Speaker:should relieve my soul is far from me.
Speaker:The enemy prevailed.
Speaker:We can't have access to the Holy Ghost without the obedience that comes.
Speaker:That is predicated on.
Speaker:So when we're talking about your strength of the youth pamphlet to the
Speaker:kids, that's what we're talking about.
Speaker:You can make all kinds of choices.
Speaker:It's not gonna delineate for you all the little details about
Speaker:what clothing you should wear and what music you should listen to.
Speaker:It's gonna say to you, think carefully about where these choices go.
Speaker:Can the Lord bless me?
Speaker:Based on my choices, and if he can't, what am I setting aside?
Speaker:What temporary joys am I putting in place of the real lasting joy?
Speaker:And that's what I need to make my decisions based on.
Speaker:He talked about the rebellion that comes, that his bowels are full of compassion.
Speaker:That's like the seat of compassion when in scripture terms, it's
Speaker:the depth of compassion that they're, they're rebelling.
Speaker:Again, this is that weakness versus rebellion.
Speaker:You're gonna read these verses you guys, and you're gonna.
Speaker:Boy, this seems extreme , you know?
Speaker:But you have to remember that they've had generations of profits think how
Speaker:many profits, even just in Jeremiah's Day, all those contemporaries of
Speaker:Jeremiah that we talked about, that they rejected, that they turned away from all
Speaker:that teaching that they've abandoned.
Speaker:They've had a lot of time.
Speaker:This isn't weakness.
Speaker:This is rebellion.
Speaker:And rebellion comes with consequences, and you see those all in here
Speaker:that their hearts become faint.
Speaker:That's the last phrase in chapter one that just sort.
Speaker:Sinks in you.
Speaker:Um, and it gets a little bit deeper in chapter.
Speaker:Chapter three is our last one, and it's another one of those contrasting
Speaker:chapters because it speaks of heaviness and sorrow, but with the
Speaker:understanding that it's something they have to pass through in order to get.
Speaker:Brightness on the other side.
Speaker:And the visual that comes in my mind is physical therapy.
Speaker:So I don't know if you've ever helped somebody after surgery or you've had
Speaker:an injury where you had to go through physical therapy, but so many of these
Speaker:verses sounded like physical therapy to me, , because they're so painful.
Speaker:And you have those moments where you're like, Why are you doing this to me?
Speaker:This can't be helpful to me.
Speaker:There's no way this is good for me.
Speaker:And you get angry and you're, you know, frustrated.
Speaker:That's how they sound.
Speaker:You know, you look in two and they say, You brought me into this darkness,
Speaker:not into why Haven't ever felt like that about a physical therapist.
Speaker:Like, Why are you making this so hard?
Speaker:And then in two, it talks about being or in seven, and that they've hedged me out.
Speaker:I can't get out, I'm stuck in this treatment that I don't want.
Speaker:They feel like they bones have been broken In, forward in five, they talk about how
Speaker:their paths are deliberately crooked.
Speaker:They can see the consequences of their action, and now they're in these
Speaker:crooked paths and they're frustrated.
Speaker:That's physical therapy to me.
Speaker:He has turned aside my ways.
Speaker:He pulled me to pieces and he's made me desolate.
Speaker:All of this with this understanding, this undercurrent of eights four, your good.
Speaker:You know, they are going through this incredibly hard phase
Speaker:because of the sins that they committed and the rebellion that.
Speaker:Created.
Speaker:They have this really hard stretch of therapy and it's intended
Speaker:for their good, and that's where you start to see it right now.
Speaker:In 17, they talk about how they feel far from peace that has
Speaker:removed my soul far off from peace.
Speaker:I forget prosperity.
Speaker:They can't even remember what it feels like to feel.
Speaker:Productive and prosperous anymore.
Speaker:There are moments like that in the therapy process that you just can't remember the
Speaker:most power punch part of this chapter for me happens beginning around 21.
Speaker:This is where you, you see that person who's in physical therapy
Speaker:dig deep and there's a catch and there're like, there's something more.
Speaker:If I can just hold out for hope, I will.
Speaker:This will end and it will get better.
Speaker:It's the person who really wants to grit their teeth and walk again.
Speaker:That's what's happening in 20.
Speaker:So he says, My soul has still in remembrance and is humbled in me.
Speaker:21.
Speaker:This I recall to my mind.
Speaker:Therefore have, I hope this is when they start to catch, like there's some there.
Speaker:There's a reason this is gonna be worth it.
Speaker:If it is not the Lord's mercy that we are consumed because
Speaker:of some compassions fail, not.
Speaker:Basically, what I think Jeremiah is saying is like, you are still alive.
Speaker:You're still here.
Speaker:You still have the strength to walk in this annoying treadmill of trouble.
Speaker:But you have the strength and that's the Lord's compassion, giving you a
Speaker:chance to still be here, make use of it.
Speaker:And he's trying to get them excited about it.
Speaker:He says, The Lord is my portion.
Speaker:It's an invitation to hope.
Speaker:He says in 24th, the Lord is my portion.
Speaker:Say it's my soul.
Speaker:Therefore, I will hope in him.
Speaker:The Lord is good unto them that wait for him.
Speaker:To the soul that seeketh him.
Speaker:He is tapping into a deeper source and he is saying.
Speaker:Those who wait on the Lord.
Speaker:And remember, we've talked about waiting on the Lord that
Speaker:that is not a passive position.
Speaker:It is a position of hopeful anticipation and action.
Speaker:Those who wait on the Lord and seek him will find hope it.
Speaker:This is 26.
Speaker:It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait
Speaker:for the salvation of the Lord.
Speaker:Now you just think that phrase is incredible, that you will quietly wait.
Speaker:It is this.
Speaker:When I think of Neely Max Wealth, this is what I picture, because he
Speaker:was such a great example of waiting on the Lord, not just in the words
Speaker:he spoke, but in his whole body.
Speaker:You know, he struggled with cancer, he struggles with all kinds of adversities,
Speaker:and he patiently waited on the Lord.
Speaker:He waited through uncertainty and and embraced the Lord's hope.
Speaker:Um, and it's just so powerful to read it.
Speaker:There's quotes in the notes if you wanna go deeper into that.
Speaker:, but this is where that shift happens.
Speaker:So he starts to understand in 30, he giveth his cheek to him, that
Speaker:smile at him in that physical therapy process, you turn a corner, right?
Speaker:You get to a point where you're just gonna listen to whatever they tell you to do,
Speaker:cuz you can see hope is like right there.
Speaker:You can catch vision of, No, my legs are gonna work again.
Speaker:My elbow is gonna be able to bend it.
Speaker:And you catch it.
Speaker:And so then you're like, I'm gonna show.
Speaker:I'm gonna do whatever they asked me to do.
Speaker:That's what's happening in these verses in 32.
Speaker:But though he caused grief, yet he will have compassion according
Speaker:to the multitude of his mercies.
Speaker:I think the people who are physical therapists have an incredible personality.
Speaker:Most of the ones I've met are, you know, they are someone who is strong and they
Speaker:are able to withstand a lot of abuse and they have vision for the future.
Speaker:They know what you can accomplish and they are driven to help you do it.
Speaker:So they will find a way to have a multitude of mercy.
Speaker:When you do well, they will cheer louder than anyone else does.
Speaker:That's what he's promising.
Speaker:And then one of the most important verses I think is in 33 for he does not afflict
Speaker:willingly nor grieve the children of men.
Speaker:The Lord does not inflict harm.
Speaker:There's a great quote for Elder Holland all about this, but he does
Speaker:not inflict harm for no reason.
Speaker:He never makes your life harder than it needs to be.
Speaker:What he does is allow things to happen and then promises that all
Speaker:things can work together for your.
Speaker:No matter what happened, whether it was your agency or someone else's that caused
Speaker:you to be in this hard spot, he can make all things work together for your good.
Speaker:So he invites you to cheerfully do all things that lie within your power,
Speaker:and then stand still with the utmost assurance to see the salvation of God.
Speaker:That's what Jeremiah is teaching in different words.
Speaker:But the same bright burst of hope.
Speaker:So he says in 40, Let us search and try our ways and turn again onto the Lord.
Speaker:Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the God in heavens it's this.
Speaker:Don't get stuck here.
Speaker:I know the city is destroyed and I know everyone is suffering.
Speaker:Don't get stuck here.
Speaker:Let's go.
Speaker:Let's build from the ashes.
Speaker:Let's create something better.
Speaker:And he.
Speaker:It's hard.
Speaker:He talks about the weeping that happens in 48 and 49.
Speaker:There is a constant sorrow, but it is a sorrow towards something greater.
Speaker:So in 53, they have cut off my life.
Speaker:This is when you start to get a picture.
Speaker:I wonder if this is actually a miracle that happened in Jeremiah's life
Speaker:that we don't have the details of.
Speaker:Cuz he talks about being cast into a prison that's deep and low
Speaker:and water rushing in and then it being sealed over with the stone.
Speaker:I can't imagine a more terrifying circumstance, but he talks about how
Speaker:in that moment he turned to the Lord and the Lord drew near end to him.
Speaker:So I'm 55.
Speaker:I called upon my name, oh Lord outta the low dungeon 57 throughout.
Speaker:Drew is near in the day and I called upon the thou saddest fear or not.
Speaker:I think the reason he's recounting this story right now is cuz every one of them
Speaker:is afraid and every one of them feels like they're in a deep pit and water is
Speaker:pouring in and the opening is sealed.
Speaker:And he's saying, I know how you feel.
Speaker:Sometimes.
Speaker:I wonder if this is why Jeremiah's life was so hard.
Speaker:So that at this point when the city's in ashes and everyone is
Speaker:destroyed, he can't stand and testify and say, I know how this feels.
Speaker:I know it seems like there is no hope.
Speaker:Turn to God, stop clawing at the walls, hoping that that wall will open, turn
Speaker:to God, and he will tell you, fear not.
Speaker:I've got.
Speaker:That's the message of Jeremiah.
Speaker:His whole life is a message of, I've been through hard things.
Speaker:I know how you feel.
Speaker:Trust me, there is hope because he can testify in this moment
Speaker:that he got outta that pit and that that light did come back.
Speaker:And don't you think that's exactly what these sorrowing hearts of Jerusalem need?
Speaker:I think it's why you've been through hard things and why I've been through
Speaker:hard things and ultimately I think it's why the savior went through hard things.
Speaker:All the hard things that he voluntarily went through are so that he could
Speaker:stand and say, I see you in that pit.
Speaker:I've been there this whole time.
Speaker:There is hope.
Speaker:There is light turned to me.
Speaker:That's the message of Jeremiah and I hope you love reading it this week.
