WEEK 44 [EZEKIEL 1–3; 33–34; 36–37; 47]
WEEK 44 [EZEKIEL 1–3; 33–34; 36–37; 47]
“A New Spirit Will I Put within You”
October 24 – October 30
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Transcript
Welcome back everybody.
Speaker:This is week 44 of Creative.
Speaker:Come follow me for the Old Testament and this week we are jumping into Ezekiel.
Speaker:So he's one of those contemporary prophets of Jeremiah's that
Speaker:we spoke about last week.
Speaker:So where Lehigh is heading off to the new world and Jeremiah ends
Speaker:up staying in Jerusalem to watch the destruction, Ezekiel's job is.
Speaker:Heading into Babylon and he will teach exclusively those Jews who are in exile.
Speaker:He doesn't necessarily want to be there.
Speaker:He gets hauled away and is in bondage just like all those other Jews.
Speaker:And he will stay there for, for as long as we know.
Speaker:It's like his whole lifetime.
Speaker:I don't know exactly how his life ends, but we don't have any record
Speaker:of Ezekiel coming out of Babylon.
Speaker:So this will be his territory.
Speaker:And it's a tough calling like every one of these prophets.
Speaker:Lehigh had his version of hard.
Speaker:Jeremiah has his version of heart.
Speaker:Daniel will too.
Speaker:All of these prophets have their own hard and Ezekiel's hard will be to
Speaker:speak to a people who should be learning from their wrong choices and are not.
Speaker:But what I love about Ezekiel and what I'd never realized before, I think a
Speaker:big piece of his work is to motivate and excite the next generation.
Speaker:Kind of like we saw with Moses.
Speaker:Remember when they, they were too scared to go into the promised land, and so they
Speaker:got kind of stuck in the wilderness and he had to wait till all of them died off.
Speaker:I wonder if.
Speaker:A little bit of that is happening here, that there are people who, that Ezekiel
Speaker:is called, not just to teach those who are now in bondage up in Babylon, but to teach
Speaker:the next generation and the next, because he'll be a prophet for a long time.
Speaker:And his message, the visual that kept coming to my mind is, if you've ever
Speaker:seen one of those Hollywood movies where a really great teacher comes
Speaker:to a really hard school and over the course of the movie, they turn things
Speaker:around and they motivate the students and there's an epic change in the
Speaker:students hearts and in the test scores.
Speaker:And that's Ezekiel to me.
Speaker:He is someone who is there to motivate the next generation, cuz within
Speaker:70 years they get to come back.
Speaker:So I always picture Ezekiel, as you know, the planter of hope for
Speaker:the revolutionary kids who will grow up and want to come home.
Speaker:The Esthers, the Ezras, the Nehemiahs who go to sleep with bedtime stories
Speaker:about the gathering happening and then.
Speaker:Live to make it happen.
Speaker:So that's what I want you to think of when you think of Ezekiel.
Speaker:At least that's what helped me this week.
Speaker:He is a, he is someone who speaks of truth.
Speaker:He's also someone who speaks to those who are in struggle
Speaker:because of their own choices.
Speaker:And I think where each and every one of us oftentimes end up in
Speaker:struggle because of our own choices or the choices of those around us.
Speaker:We need leadership.
Speaker:We need guidance.
Speaker:We need to know how to get back on the road, the easier road.
Speaker:And Ezekiel will do all of that for us.
Speaker:So I promise you're gonna love his message.
Speaker:Grab your scriptures.
Speaker:Grab your notes.
Speaker:You guys, let's get started.
Speaker:These first few chapters of Ezekiel are all about his call.
Speaker:So he's already in exile in Babylon, and he's going to have his call and
Speaker:you can almost break it into two parts.
Speaker:It actually sort of reminds me of a missionary's call because in this
Speaker:first part it's this grand vision and it's strange, and I'll explain all
Speaker:of that in a minute, but it almost reminds me of when a missionary is
Speaker:opening that email, you know, in front of all the friends and family, and
Speaker:everybody cheers, and it's so exciting.
Speaker:And then there's phase two of the call where you actually figure
Speaker:out where that place is and you realize how hard it's gonna be.
Speaker:That's sort of what happens with Ezekiel in these first two chapters.
Speaker:So in chapter one, it's the grand opening and he sees the Lord,
Speaker:but it's in a really strange way.
Speaker:So I'm just gonna warn you, when you go into chapter one,
Speaker:you're gonna be a little.
Speaker:Blindsided, And here's how I would help you with this.
Speaker:Don't you guys remember when we were talking about the doctrine
Speaker:covenants, and I taught you the analogy of the, um, electrical cord.
Speaker:So you know how if you ever have like a thick, you know, construction grade
Speaker:extension cord, if you grab that extension cord at a place where there is no rubber
Speaker:sheets, you know, if you have one of those cords for a long time and sometimes
Speaker:they're a little battered and you might grab that cord and you can feel a shock.
Speaker:It's not because the electricity is bad, it's not because it
Speaker:was intended to be scary.
Speaker:It's because you don't have that coding to protect you from it.
Speaker:For me, whenever I am reading doctrine or scripture and it's shocking to me
Speaker:or even scary to me, that's how I know there must be some coding that's missing.
Speaker:The coding to me is the context in the doctrine covenants.
Speaker:That meant I needed to understand more about the historical setting.
Speaker:I needed to know more about the personalities of the people involved.
Speaker:There's always context that I'm missing.
Speaker:That's what's happening in one, because basically Ezekiel is ex
Speaker:describing a vision for us and we don't have the frame of reference.
Speaker:He's trying to put, you know, immortal kind of eternal experiences into immortal
Speaker:words, and it's hard and honestly, we just don't know enough about his.
Speaker:His life situation to know what he is seeing.
Speaker:So if you see or read something that you're like, What?
Speaker:What is don't, don't stress or don't focus too much on the details.
Speaker:Trust that if you're feeling a shock, it probably means there's
Speaker:context that you're missing.
Speaker:Some of that context has been revealed and we'll get pieces of it from Joseph
Speaker:Smith, especially cuz a lot of this vision sounds sort of similar to
Speaker:what we read with John the Revelator.
Speaker:So some of the comparisons can be drawn there.
Speaker:Some of it just simply isn't.
Speaker:And what the Lord teaches, in fact you can see this in the notes, is you're
Speaker:not accountable for things that aren't revealed . So don't, don't worry too much.
Speaker:In fact, one of my favorite quotes, this is also in the notes, but it's
Speaker:from Wilford Woodruff, and he said, When it comes to dreams and visions,
Speaker:you don't necessarily need to worry.
Speaker:I'm not quoting, this is a paraphrase, but you don't need to worry so much about
Speaker:the details and what each thing means.
Speaker:What you're trying to gain is the principle.
Speaker:And for me, the principle of chapter one is all about how God is with his people,
Speaker:whether they are in Jerusalem in a time of glory and brightness, like when David
Speaker:was on the throne or in exile in Babylon, when everything's a mess and the temple
Speaker:is getting destroyed, he is with them.
Speaker:And let me show you why.
Speaker:I think that's what it's.
Speaker:Basically, you're gonna see this dream play out.
Speaker:You'll see that he's up among the captives.
Speaker:That's in verse one.
Speaker:And then he talks about this brightness.
Speaker:Like many of the prophetic sweeping visions that we've studied in
Speaker:all these years, it begins with.
Speaker:Brightness.
Speaker:Do you remember when Joseph Smith talked about the first vision and
Speaker:the brightness that he thought would catch the trees on fire?
Speaker:That's the kind of brightness I think Ezekiel's trying to articulate.
Speaker:And then he talks about what comes with the brightness.
Speaker:So he sees creatures, they call them creatures cuz we don't know.
Speaker:It almost sounds like a hybrid of men in beast.
Speaker:And again, I wouldn't get too fixated on what each symbol
Speaker:means cuz frankly we don't know.
Speaker:Um, but I would, I would try to get the overarching message.
Speaker:These creatures come, basically Ezekiel's gonna have an experience
Speaker:where he encounters the throne of God, but the first thing he sees is
Speaker:these, these four creatures that each have four faces and they have wings
Speaker:and they move in a unity and harmony.
Speaker:That is powerful to him.
Speaker:It teaches him about what angel.
Speaker:Beings are like, I think that's what we're supposed to learn.
Speaker:He also talks about how there's an appearance of lamps and fire and coals.
Speaker:Like the more I read this chapter, I started, I think
Speaker:it's, I think it's because we built that printable tabernacle.
Speaker:You guys, uh, you know, when we were making the printable and I had to glue
Speaker:and cut each part, now I know those parts so well because I had to create them on
Speaker:the printable that when I started reading these, there were so many little bits of
Speaker:the tabernacle woven into these verses.
Speaker:You see things about wings, you see things about lamps, you see things
Speaker:about brightness, even the kind of metal that it's bronze and sparkling.
Speaker:And there were so many tabernacle references that I
Speaker:just couldn't set it aside.
Speaker:And he talks about wheels and eyes, and Joseph Smith taught us in DNC 77
Speaker:that whenever you, at least when John the Revelator saw a being that had many
Speaker:eyes, what it meant was it was full of knowledge and a being that had wings meant
Speaker:that it had agency and the power to act.
Speaker:All these scripture references are in the notes, but what I
Speaker:loved about this visual is.
Speaker:Basically what he's teaching us is these angelic beings who are surrounding
Speaker:the throne of God are not just sheep . They're not all exactly the same.
Speaker:They have individuality and power, and they have intelligence, profound
Speaker:intelligence, and where they choose to be is with God and not just with
Speaker:God, but in harmony with God and in harmony with those around them.
Speaker:That to me is what Zion is like.
Speaker:That's what I picture heaven like that we're all unique and keep our
Speaker:personalities and our differences, but we.
Speaker:Choose to be in harmony with God, which makes us in harmony with each other.
Speaker:Not all playing the same note, but creating this beautiful harmony.
Speaker:So picture that as you go into this very weird chapter, , It really
Speaker:helped my brain to understand it.
Speaker:But I think essentially what the Lord is trying to teach them, he,
Speaker:he will, Ezekiel will see all these creatures first, and then he's gonna
Speaker:see the firmament, these heavens that are sapphire like and sparkling.
Speaker:And then above that he's gonna see the throne of God and he'll
Speaker:actually see the likeness of a man.
Speaker:That's the same critical doctrine that the Lord has taught to so many other prophets.
Speaker:You know, Enoch and Noah and Moses, they see God as a man
Speaker:and a likeness like themselves.
Speaker:And it's glorious and and easy.
Speaker:You can't capture it with words.
Speaker:So if you look in 26, he talks about the likeness of the throne was the likeness
Speaker:of the appearance of a man upon upon it.
Speaker:And in 27, the appearance of fire roundabout within it,
Speaker:like both in it and around it.
Speaker:And then in 28 as the appearance of the bow or a rainbow that is in
Speaker:the cloud of the day of the rain.
Speaker:So like this is, he's trying to capture the beauty and the magnificence
Speaker:of God, and it's a God who is in the likeness that he is in that is
Speaker:profound, firsthand witness of what the character and nature of God is.
Speaker:And Ezekiel is getting it right up front.
Speaker:And so naturally the reaction of Ezekiel is he falls flat on his face,
Speaker:Well, I think Ezekiel's reaction is entirely appropriate given
Speaker:the glory he's beholding.
Speaker:The Lord doesn't want him to stay there.
Speaker:He invites him to stand.
Speaker:And first one of chapter two, he said, and he said unto me, this being that likeness,
Speaker:that Lord that he's seeing, son of man stand upon my feet and I will speak unto
Speaker:the, there is such warmth and intimacy.
Speaker:Even calling him the son of man.
Speaker:That's a phrase that they'll use for Jesus Christ in the New Testament often.
Speaker:But it, it just means in this situation with Ezekiel, the Lord
Speaker:calls him that to say you were basically a mouthpiece to men.
Speaker:You can go in the Bible dictionary and learn a lot more,
Speaker:but it's the warmth, right?
Speaker:It's a man speaking to his friend.
Speaker:Like we've seen the Lord interact with so many other prophets.
Speaker:He, he wants him to understand who he is, who Ezekiel is, and that's
Speaker:why he has him stand and speak.
Speaker:And then the spirit enters in.
Speaker:This feels like Moses to me, where he has some kind of experience where he can be
Speaker:in the presence of God and hear his voice.
Speaker:And then in three it says, And he said unto me, Son of man, I send these to the
Speaker:children of Israel to a rebellious nation.
Speaker:So remember when I told you that I feel like this is the second part of opening
Speaker:your call, that there's that phase where you're really excited and you're like,
Speaker:Yes, my nephew, I remember him opening his call to Ghana and we were all so
Speaker:excited cuz it sounded so adventurous.
Speaker:And then there's the days afterwards where my sister Lisa learns all about
Speaker:the malaria outbreaks and all , all the scary things that happen in Ghana.
Speaker:That's what's happening to Ezekiel.
Speaker:He's starting to appreciate how hard his mission is gonna be cuz
Speaker:they're not gonna want to hear him.
Speaker:So the Lord teaches them about their rebellion of the children of Israel,
Speaker:that even though they are already in bondage and they're already suffering
Speaker:the consequences of their choices, their hearts aren't gonna soften for a while.
Speaker:And so he invites him not to be afraid.
Speaker:For me, this is the power punch of this chapter.
Speaker:It's around six, seven, and eight.
Speaker:He says, And thou son of men, be not afraid of them.
Speaker:Neither be afraid of their words though.
Speaker:There you be among Bris and thorns and scorp feets.
Speaker:Like he's, he's telling him how hard this mission is gonna be,
Speaker:and he's saying, Don't be afraid.
Speaker:Um, I'm, I'm with you.
Speaker:He says, Speak my words unto them.
Speaker:I think there is so much power in that invitation that the reason
Speaker:we don't need to be afraid is not because ghana's not scary.
Speaker:It's because you are going there to speak his words.
Speaker:And when you speak his words, you'll be endowed with his power.
Speaker:That's the promise that Ezekiel is getting.
Speaker:He doesn't need to be afraid.
Speaker:Um, he doesn't have to be dismayed.
Speaker:He doesn't have to worry about their words or their looks.
Speaker:He just needs to move forward.
Speaker:And what I think is really powerful is that the very end of this chapter,
Speaker:he tells you how to not be afraid and the way he teaches it is so weird
Speaker:and so fun that I couldn't resist making an object lesson about this.
Speaker:But he basically invites him to consume his word.
Speaker:He invites him to eat a scrolled that has his word on it.
Speaker:These are words of lamentation and whoa, cuz that's gonna be
Speaker:a lot of Ezekiel's message.
Speaker:It's gonna be a lot of you cause this with your sin.
Speaker:You're in the higher straights and so he has to consume it.
Speaker:The reason I think that AP applies to our missionaries is that's basically to
Speaker:me, like when the Lord says, No matter how hard your mission is gonna be and
Speaker:how many people convert, maybe none.
Speaker:That change that will happen in your heart will be worth it if you consume my word.
Speaker:If you live on these principles and these doctrines for these years and you
Speaker:change, your mission will have been worth.
Speaker:So that's how he sets the stage for Ezekiel.
Speaker:He invites him to change.
Speaker:He invites him to take God's word and to put it into his heart, into his body,
Speaker:let it become part of him so that no matter what happens next, he can change.
Speaker:And that's a powerful invitation.
Speaker:The mission call opening continues in chapter three.
Speaker:This is where you see that, that the book that he was asked to consume
Speaker:this book or scroll that's full of lamentation and will actually taste sweet.
Speaker:And I love this piece of Ezekiel story.
Speaker:He seems surprised by it's different than what happens with John in Revelation.
Speaker:This is, it tastes like honey.
Speaker:In fact, it's, you see it in verse three, Then I did eat it and it was in my
Speaker:mouth and it was as honey for sweetness.
Speaker:He hasn't even had a chance to digest it yet.
Speaker:And again, I don't know if this is literal or figurative, but I loved this piece.
Speaker:As soon as he puts it in his mouth.
Speaker:He tastes sweetness.
Speaker:Isn't that great?
Speaker:I feel like that happens with the gospel.
Speaker:As soon as we take a particular doctrine, even one that we might be skeptical
Speaker:about, something that the prophet has taught us, something we learn in scripture
Speaker:and we let it just get in our mouth.
Speaker:We just take it in.
Speaker:There is an initial sweetness.
Speaker:There is a, you know, that same harmony that happens with the
Speaker:light of Christ that's in us.
Speaker:It, it makes things taste sweet, and I think that's what
Speaker:happens with missionaries.
Speaker:I think it happens with us whenever we decide to take on this challenge from
Speaker:God when he gives us an invitation to experiment upon the word.
Speaker:That's basically what's happening with, with this tasting of the book.
Speaker:As soon as we do it, there is sweetness that comes.
Speaker:It doesn't mean the task is easier, but there is an initial sweetness
Speaker:that I think will hold ezek.
Speaker:And then the Lord boosts him up.
Speaker:So to me, this is when like a mom and a dad, after everyone else has left,
Speaker:and after you've researched a little bit about Ghana, this is when you can
Speaker:see the missionaries starting to panic.
Speaker:And so your mom and your dad or whoever will come and boil you
Speaker:up to say, You're ready for this.
Speaker:You've been prepping for this your whole life.
Speaker:Let me show you how ready you are.
Speaker:That's what happens with the Lord.
Speaker:It's around eight.
Speaker:He says, Be.
Speaker:I've made my face strong against their faces in nine as an adamant harder
Speaker:than Flint have I made th forehead?
Speaker:He's basically saying, You have a thick skin.
Speaker:I have designed you to be able to do this work.
Speaker:Remember whom the Lord calls?
Speaker:He qualifies.
Speaker:And that's the promise.
Speaker:Is eel's gonna have to rest on that?
Speaker:He's gonna make it.
Speaker:I it reminded me of our study of the brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon.
Speaker:Remember how I taught you about Michael Wilcox?
Speaker:Taught me about being tight, like Aish and that idea of you're gonna
Speaker:have to be built tight like a dish so that you can withstand the waves.
Speaker:Cuz this isn't supposed to be a pleasure voyage.
Speaker:It's supposed to be this raucous, you know, beast filled sea that
Speaker:you're gonna turn and toss.
Speaker:But he needs you to get where you need to go quickly.
Speaker:So he built you tight like a dish.
Speaker:That's basically what he's teaching.
Speaker:Ezekiel, your forehead was made strong.
Speaker:Your heart is strong.
Speaker:You can withstand all the blows that are gonna come at you.
Speaker:Trust me, it just sounds like a missionary parent to me.
Speaker:He promises that he will be with them, thus say it.
Speaker:The Lord God, for this is in verse 11.
Speaker:He says, Thus say it the Lord God.
Speaker:Whether they will hear or whether they will for bear meaning.
Speaker:Ezekiel, it doesn't matter to me what the results are.
Speaker:You're just supposed to teach.
Speaker:You're just supposed to preach.
Speaker:And he invite people to repent and don't worry whether they listen
Speaker:or they don't listen, just speak.
Speaker:And that's important to understand for when you flip the page.
Speaker:So when you flip over, you can see that Ezekiel struggles a little bit, or
Speaker:maybe he's just awestruck, I'm not sure.
Speaker:But basically he hears a voice or a sound of great rushing like we've
Speaker:heard in other visions, and then the vision closes and he's left to himself.
Speaker:And that is scary.
Speaker:I don't know if you've ever walked out of a bishop's office or a state
Speaker:president's office with a new calling, and although you accepted it in
Speaker:the room, as soon as you walk out, you're like, Whoa, . I don't know.
Speaker:I dunno how this is gonna go.
Speaker:That's how I picture Ezek Gill right now because he, he's.
Speaker:Kind of awestruck at everything that's just happened.
Speaker:Remember you guys, he's like somewhere between 25 and 30 and he's in a
Speaker:foreign land and this is a lot.
Speaker:And so he sits for seven days . So if you look in verse 15, it says, I sat
Speaker:where they sat and I remained there astonished among them for seven days.
Speaker:This to me, is the brother of Jared spending four years on the beach.
Speaker:It reremember like there is.
Speaker:It there, there is this time where he just doesn't quite
Speaker:know how to move, how to act.
Speaker:And I feel like all of us feel that when we get an invitation to
Speaker:do something scary from the Lord.
Speaker:But I love that the Lord doesn't leave him there the same way.
Speaker:He didn't leave the brother of Jared on the beach.
Speaker:He comes to Ezekiel.
Speaker:So in 17 he comes to him and says, Son of man, I have made the a
Speaker:watchman under the house of Israel.
Speaker:He's basically saying like, Hey, hey, I gave you a job , like
Speaker:your job as a watchman.
Speaker:A watchman is someone who stands on a tower and their job is to tell us
Speaker:if the city is gonna get destroyed.
Speaker:You know, if you can see an an impending army coming, they have the same thing
Speaker:in vineyards and with flocks of sheep like they are, they are on guard.
Speaker:Which means if Ezekiel is sitting astonished somewhere, no one is watching
Speaker:after the sheep . And so the Lord is saying, Hey, hey, you have a work to do.
Speaker:And I think that's really important cuz sometimes this happens to us with our
Speaker:callings or with our parenting jobs.
Speaker:We're so overwhelmed that we stop moving.
Speaker:We become paralyzed, and the Lord will constantly nudge you
Speaker:to be like, It just gets started.
Speaker:I know you're not gonna do it perfectly.
Speaker:When you get on a mission and you don't know the language and you know
Speaker:you're gonna botch it all up, he says, I know all of those things.
Speaker:I, I've got you.
Speaker:I've set you to be a watchman, which means I'm gonna give you
Speaker:the tools you need to pull it off.
Speaker:And so then he starts to tell him about the warnings of this calling
Speaker:and this added light and intelligence will come with responsibilities.
Speaker:His job will be to warn.
Speaker:And if he doesn't, then the blood of those who he didn't warn will be on his hands.
Speaker:That's really important doctrine because it teaches us something about the role
Speaker:of a prophet that their job is to warn.
Speaker:And if they choose not to warn, then the consequences fall on them.
Speaker:It's the same thing that happens with parents.
Speaker:If we choose not to teach our children the doctrines of the kingdom,
Speaker:like we learned about in doctrine.
Speaker:Those sins can fall on our heads.
Speaker:It's, it's a very clear warning.
Speaker:We're gonna see it further in a few more chapters.
Speaker:But he invites him to step into this calling as shaky and as
Speaker:uncertain as he probably feels.
Speaker:He invites him to arise and go forth.
Speaker:That's in verse 22, where Jeremiah had to go to a potter to learn a lesson.
Speaker:In this situation, Ezekiel has to go to the planes because there isn't a temple
Speaker:for him to go hear the voice of the Lord.
Speaker:So he finds another spot, he finds a plane.
Speaker:And in that plane he teaches Ezekiel about the risks that are at play for him.
Speaker:So he talks about how there's people who are coming, they're gonna be
Speaker:violent, they're gonna wanna destroy him, and so he quiets him physically.
Speaker:He, he won't be able to speak for a season because the dangers are too intense.
Speaker:And as a missionary mom, or I guess a former one, actually I'm a missionary mom
Speaker:right now with Jack, but like where you have those moments where you're afraid
Speaker:for your kids that their safety might be in jeopardy or things might not go well.
Speaker:I love this piece.
Speaker:Because I think the Lord does this with missionaries and he
Speaker:does this with mission presidents.
Speaker:He finds his ways to help them be safe, and that's critical
Speaker:doctrine for Ezekiel and for every missionary mom heart out there.
Speaker:So hopefully that will teach you a little bit.
Speaker:Now we're gonna jump a little bit further, all the way up to 33,
Speaker:you're gonna see the theme of the watchmen carry through into chapter 33.
Speaker:I read this great talk from Elgan.
Speaker:It's in the notes, but he basically said that a role of a prophet is to
Speaker:seek after the one and take care of the 99 at the same time . And that's
Speaker:sort of what you see in this guidance to Ezekiel, that in addition to warning
Speaker:those who are deep in sin and that he'll be held accountable if he doesn't
Speaker:warn them, he's also accountable for teaching the righteous for, for
Speaker:teaching those who are doing okay.
Speaker:This was interesting to me from a parenting perspective, cuz I think
Speaker:in callings and in our parenting sometimes we're so fixated on the.
Speaker:Kid or the troubled spot in our callings that we don't do as good of a job taking
Speaker:care of those who are doing well and what, I think it's in chapter three, but
Speaker:what he says basically is what happens is if the righteous stop getting taught
Speaker:well then they might fall into sin.
Speaker:And if they fall into sin because we neglected to teach them, then that's
Speaker:on our heads too, . And it's just this profound warning to me that I
Speaker:need to do both, that that doesn't mean I'm supposed to exhaust myself.
Speaker:I'm supposed to, you know, use the spirit and focus where I can.
Speaker:But it does mean I need to constantly be taking care of the whole flock.
Speaker:And that's Ezekiel's invitation too.
Speaker:There is constant warnings about don't take your eye off the ball.
Speaker:It . This is ridiculous.
Speaker:But it reminded me of Titanic.
Speaker:You know, you know the movie Titanic when the guys who are up in the, I don't
Speaker:know what they call it, like the Crow's Nest or whatever, and they're supposed
Speaker:to be watching for icebergs and they're distracted by Kate and Leo that are,
Speaker:or whatever their character names are, and so then they like look back at the
Speaker:scene and then they see an iceberg.
Speaker:That's what he's trying to warn Ezekiel about.
Speaker:He's saying like, You, you need your eye on the field or on the flock.
Speaker:That's what I've called you to do.
Speaker:And then he has this really great guidance.
Speaker:This is an 11.
Speaker:He says, As I live, say at the Lord, God, I have no pleasure
Speaker:in the death of the wicked.
Speaker:That is something that is, it's easy to mix up in the Old Testament
Speaker:because sometimes when you read about Jehovah and this God of the Old
Speaker:Testament and the destruction that ensues, especially in those first
Speaker:five books of the Old Testament, you sometimes start to wonder if.
Speaker:If he is okay with destruction and this first, and there's another
Speaker:one in chapter 18, teaches us profoundly that he gets no joy from
Speaker:destruction or death of the wicked.
Speaker:He wants every single soul to come home.
Speaker:Every single one, and so we need to teach that as we teach this doctrine.
Speaker:We need to help people understand that he doesn't take life lightly.
Speaker:He doesn't take sin and destruction lightly.
Speaker:He doesn't even take punishment lightly.
Speaker:He wants his children.
Speaker:So he will use every tool at his disposal to help them change, and that's
Speaker:what you're gonna see in the verses.
Speaker:So he talks about how they may not be delivered, that he can't
Speaker:deliver the righteous in their sins.
Speaker:In fact, one of the interesting things I learned, this is around like 13 and
Speaker:14, that he's talking about the wicked.
Speaker:There was this great definition for about that phrase, the wicked.
Speaker:We tend to think that phrase means like you've committed really gross atrocious
Speaker:sins, and I'm sure that can apply there.
Speaker:But generally in the Old Testament, at least what Joseph Fielding Smith said
Speaker:is that wicked just means those who have not repented or received the gospel.
Speaker:So it doesn't necessarily mean that you've done anything horribly wrong or at
Speaker:least turned against the light you have.
Speaker:For some people, it will mean they've just never heard the gospel,
Speaker:had never had a chance to come forward in, in scriptural terms.
Speaker:That's what wicked means.
Speaker:Don't read these two black and white, I think there's a lot of gray in the middle.
Speaker:Um, but he invites them to turn and he basically says, those who have stored
Speaker:up righteousness, if they then turn to wickedness, all that righteousness they
Speaker:thought they stored up doesn't help them.
Speaker:And I think this is really interesting, especially cuz I teach
Speaker:ISAs that it's really tempting.
Speaker:I think, well I served a mission and I did a lot of good works and so therefore
Speaker:I might be able to take a, a, you know, sabbatical from my church attendance.
Speaker:You see, especially at that age where they start to think that,
Speaker:well, they've done enough good and they'll get back to it eventually and
Speaker:they're just gonna take some time off.
Speaker:I think we do this as adults too, and that's the warning is
Speaker:it can't be stored the same way.
Speaker:I can't like do all my workouts on Monday and then not do
Speaker:anything the rest of the week.
Speaker:It, my body doesn't work that way.
Speaker:I need this daily strengthening.
Speaker:And so that's what he's warning about.
Speaker:What I love is that it also offers the flip side.
Speaker:So this is around 14 and 15.
Speaker:He says, If there is a wicked person, remember someone who hasn't heard
Speaker:the gospel or hasn't repented.
Speaker:If they turn, then all of their sins are not mentioned.
Speaker:It, it works.
Speaker:There's two sides to this coin and I love the doctrine behind it.
Speaker:It's so merciful.
Speaker:I even love that it says they're just not mentioned.
Speaker:Cuz it reminds me of, uh, any kind of loving relationship I have, you
Speaker:know, with my husband for example.
Speaker:He knows all of my flaws, all of my weaknesses, all of
Speaker:my bad mistakes of the past.
Speaker:They're just not mentioned.
Speaker:And I think that's how the Lord is.
Speaker:He knows us.
Speaker:He knows exactly where we've been in the mistakes we've made, but they're not
Speaker:mentioned and they don't factor in to his love for us or the way he treats us.
Speaker:That's what he's promising.
Speaker:Those who are have repentant hearts.
Speaker:Um, so he invites them.
Speaker:He also warns that some of us are not gonna be happy with that.
Speaker:This reminded me of the parable, of the laborers of the vineyard.
Speaker:Basically he's saying, As people turn and repent, they have every blessing.
Speaker:They have every opportunity because their hearts are changed.
Speaker:It's kind of like what you see in the New Testament when the Lord offers someone
Speaker:like the woman taking in adultery in that moment, as long as he, As long as
Speaker:she turns in that moment and changes her ways, which she does, we know that
Speaker:from the Joseph translation, Then she, and that moment is clean before him.
Speaker:So he says, Go that way and send no more.
Speaker:And there will be some of us who won't like that very much.
Speaker:As we see people who turn, well, we will have a tendency to be like the
Speaker:Pharisees to say, Well, what about her whole lifetime of mistakes?
Speaker:Don't those count against her?
Speaker:And what the Lord is saying is she turned, She is not the same person anymore.
Speaker:Her heart is new.
Speaker:And that's how the Lord judges, In fact, that's what he says in 20,
Speaker:I will judge everyone after his.
Speaker:He's the only one that can know or that woman taken in Adultery's
Speaker:heart is the Pharisees Can't tell.
Speaker:The scribes can't tell.
Speaker:We can't tell.
Speaker:That's why we have this incredible Allee judge who can tell where your heart is.
Speaker:So it doesn't matter how many years of backtracking or backsliding
Speaker:you've had, if your heart is in the right place, he will see it.
Speaker:And the same thing goes for the opposite.
Speaker:No matter how many years of righteousness you've had, if your heart right now is
Speaker:hard and turned against the prophets and turned against the doctrine,
Speaker:you lose all that, all that growth you, you will begin to backslide.
Speaker:And I love that he teaches both.
Speaker:There's this great quote in the notes that talks about, I
Speaker:can't even remember who said it.
Speaker:Maybe it's in my margin.
Speaker:No, I didn't write it down.
Speaker:But he basically says that you can't burn the bridge of mercy that
Speaker:you expect to cross over yourself.
Speaker:So anyone who refuses mercy to others burns that bridge that they're gonna
Speaker:need to cross over into exaltation.
Speaker:And that's what I think the parable of the laborers of the vineyard talks about.
Speaker:It's that you're worried about the wrong things.
Speaker:Don't worry about how many hours they've labored in the vineyard
Speaker:and how many you've labored.
Speaker:All of it is fair, and we have an ultimate judge and we need to worry
Speaker:about ourselves and no one else.
Speaker:So that's what you'll see in that first half of 33.
Speaker:When you flip the page, it gets a little deeper.
Speaker:This is where he talks about what's going to come, that there is this guy
Speaker:who escaped from the destruction of Jerusalem and he comes to wherever
Speaker:Ezekiel is and tells them about the destruction that's happened.
Speaker:Cause remember, Ezekiel gets carried off before the temple is burned
Speaker:and everything gets destroyed.
Speaker:So he's in one of those earlier.
Speaker:What's interesting to me is it says that Ezekiel knew about the
Speaker:destruction the night before.
Speaker:So he gets this vision about how bad the land is and how desolate it is the
Speaker:night before this other person comes and tells everybody else about it.
Speaker:So again, prophets see farther, they see clearer and they see early in the morning.
Speaker:And that's what happens with Ezekiel.
Speaker:He sees things in vision about what's happening in Jerusalem and then
Speaker:somebody else comes as a second witness to say, I saw it with my own eyes.
Speaker:And Ezekiel's, right?
Speaker:He is a prophet of God.
Speaker:And that's kind of what happens.
Speaker:So you learn about the desolation and you learn about how they'll react.
Speaker:One of my, the most interesting parts, I would say is at the very end, cuz this
Speaker:is where maybe because this messenger has come and verified Ezekiel's words, but
Speaker:people are gonna start to listen to Ezek.
Speaker:But they're not listening for the right reasons.
Speaker:It's fascinating.
Speaker:It's round 31 says they'll hear they words, but they will not
Speaker:do them for with their mouth.
Speaker:They show much love, but their heart go with after.
Speaker:After covetousness.
Speaker:And then 32 and Lo Thou art unto them as a lovely song of one that
Speaker:had the pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear
Speaker:that words but they do them not.
Speaker:There are so many great quotes in the notes about this kind of hypocrisy
Speaker:that we all tend to have moments where we get casual in our discipleship,
Speaker:where we maybe want to appear less devout than we maybe even are.
Speaker:I think you see this a lot with youth.
Speaker:Have you ever tried to sub for a Sunday school class and they act like they don't
Speaker:know any answers and they're disengaged completely and you know, they know that
Speaker:there, there's a warning in that for us, that we need to learn from those mistakes.
Speaker:We need to watch our discipleship.
Speaker:We need to stand on holy ground and speak what we know to be true
Speaker:cuz that's where the power is.
Speaker:Otherwise, like these children, we will backslide.
Speaker:That takes you the end of 30.
Speaker:The children of Israel didn't just stumble into this captivity.
Speaker:They were basically led here by teachers who led them astray.
Speaker:Remember, the big issue they were having is that they were worshiping
Speaker:false gods and turning to idols that doesn't just happen on their own.
Speaker:That means their leaders and their teachers were leading them astray.
Speaker:And that's what you're gonna read about in 34, that this beautiful
Speaker:flock of the Lord has now been scattered and damaged and torn apart.
Speaker:And they're, that's because the shepherds who are supposed to be
Speaker:caring for them, didn't do their job.
Speaker:And just like Ezekiel just learned that he, with this prophetic calling,
Speaker:has accountability to God for being a watchman and sending out warnings.
Speaker:These shepherds had a duty to God to teach and to teach truth clearly and
Speaker:distinctly, and they didn't do it.
Speaker:And now the repercussions are the flock.
Speaker:Damaged.
Speaker:I mean, you can see it in verse four.
Speaker:They're diseased, they're sick, they're broken, they're driven away, they're lost.
Speaker:I circled all these words.
Speaker:They have been ruled with force and with cruelty.
Speaker:This next generation is suffering the consequences of this lack of leadership,
Speaker:and the Lord is telling Ezekiel to call these people to repentance.
Speaker:Basically, he talks about how they were scattered.
Speaker:This is in five.
Speaker:They were scattered because there is no shepherd, and they became
Speaker:meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.
Speaker:They're in a position where they haven't been taught, so they're very
Speaker:susceptible to all kinds of other things.
Speaker:I think it's the reason we're supposed to focus so much on home centered learning
Speaker:because my job is to fortify the sheep so that no matter what kind of teacher they
Speaker:have, they know who they are and they know that the scriptures lead to truth.
Speaker:That's why we can't just like, you know, pass off our kids to the
Speaker:young women's program or something.
Speaker:We need to, they need to know at home what is true because I am a shepherd of
Speaker:my little flock and that's my calling.
Speaker:Because otherwise they get pulled away.
Speaker:They become meat.
Speaker:Honestly, this phrase in my scriptures that the, those weak and vulnerable
Speaker:ones become meat for these creatures that are out prowling around.
Speaker:It felt like, it felt like social media a little bit to me, , I feel like sometimes
Speaker:on social media there are people who are prowling looking for youth who have
Speaker:a shallow level of testimony and they are pulling them off to scarier places.
Speaker:And if I'm not there to help guide them, if I haven't taught them
Speaker:truth well enough, they will be.
Speaker:They will be in a place of danger because I didn't do my job.
Speaker:So when I read these verses, I got all kinds of understandings from the spirit.
Speaker:Little, little prompt things.
Speaker:Not necessarily when I was reading the verses themselves, but as I was thinking
Speaker:about them and going about my day, I got ideas about how I could do it better.
Speaker:How can I help my kids better?
Speaker:They're my little flock, and how can I fortify them better?
Speaker:So as you read these verses, be praying about whatever it is your
Speaker:flock is, whether it's your sisters you're supposed to minister to, or the
Speaker:brothers you're supposed to minister, minister to, or your calling or whatever
Speaker:it is, Be focused on your flock.
Speaker:And then ideas will come.
Speaker:Because what you're gonna see in the rest of the verses is how the Lord
Speaker:basically says you didn't do your job.
Speaker:So I'm taking over, uh uh.
Speaker:He says in 10, I am against the shepherds and I will require my flock at their hand.
Speaker:There will.
Speaker:And accountability that will happen.
Speaker:And in the meantime, he's gonna gather his flock.
Speaker:He, he, the Lord will do his own work . And that's a profound
Speaker:message of every book of scripture.
Speaker:He doesn't need us to accomplish his work.
Speaker:He invites us to help him accomplish this work because it will strengthen
Speaker:us, because, we'll, our lives will be richly blessed in the process
Speaker:of being a part of this work.
Speaker:But he doesn't need us there.
Speaker:And this is what those verses say.
Speaker:Behold, I even I, this is 11, will both search out my
Speaker:sheep and seek them out in 12.
Speaker:I will seek out my sheep and I will deliver them out of all places
Speaker:where they have been scattered.
Speaker:13.
Speaker:I'll bring them out from the people.
Speaker:I will gather them out from the countries.
Speaker:I will bring them to their own land and feed them.
Speaker:In fact, a lot of these verses talk about bringing them to their own place.
Speaker:It almost sounds like when, when we hear about refugees and how the.
Speaker:Cares for refugees and invites us to care for refugees that we're supposed to bring
Speaker:them to a place where they can have their own space and have their own nourishment
Speaker:and their own jobs and have dignity.
Speaker:That's what the Lord is promising, that his people will, again, because
Speaker:of his work, have dignity and they won't have to worry anymore.
Speaker:So from like 22 all the way through the end of the chapter in 31, you're gonna see
Speaker:how he gives them this dignity as these spiritual refugees and physical refugees.
Speaker:In this case, what he offers I in 24, I'll be the Lord their God.
Speaker:It's almost like when I read these verses, I picture the Good Samaritan,
Speaker:you know, it's, he doesn't just help the man on the side of the road.
Speaker:He picks him up.
Speaker:He takes him to a place of safety.
Speaker:He offers to pay for what is needed.
Speaker:He offers to check back.
Speaker:And that's how we care for those who are spiritual refugees and
Speaker:anyone we know who's going through a big repentance process or needs.
Speaker:Bolstering in whatever way we intake these tips and apply it to
Speaker:them, I'm gonna give them a place to dwell safely in the wilderness.
Speaker:That's in 25.
Speaker:In 26, he promises that he'll shower down blessings on those who come to him, that
Speaker:the fruits will yield their increase.
Speaker:So they'll have ample food to eat as they're regrouping and getting
Speaker:their footing again, that they won't be subject to heat anymore,
Speaker:that they will dwell as safely.
Speaker:That's in 28.
Speaker:They won't be afraid.
Speaker:Do I think that's a huge piece of having dignity is knowing you don't
Speaker:need to be afraid cuz you have this powerhouse of the Lord on your side.
Speaker:He says he will plant them in a place of renowned and then ultimately in
Speaker:30 and 31, they shall know that I the Lord am their God and I am with them.
Speaker:Remember, that's Ezekiel's overarching message.
Speaker:God is with us in exile.
Speaker:He was with us in Jerusalem.
Speaker:He will be with us in the wilderness or wherever we are.
Speaker:God is with us and we need to be with God.
Speaker:So if we take that opportunity, then we get what we have at C in 31.
Speaker:And here my flock and the flock of my past are men and I am your God.
Speaker:Say it the Lord God.
Speaker:That's the profound promise of being part of this covenant Zion
Speaker:community, that they will be one with him in a place of safety and peace.
Speaker:And that's a pretty powerful message to teach.
Speaker:If you're Ezekiel and you're talking to everyone who is in bondage, um,
Speaker:that's a powerful vision of the future.
Speaker:Ezekiel's Revolutionary Side comes out on chapter 36 because the, the same
Speaker:way I picture the founding fathers, seeing all the hard parts of the
Speaker:Revolutionary War, but trying to rally the troops to say like, I know we're
Speaker:in a mess and it's gonna be so worth it if we act, If we do things that we're
Speaker:supposed to do, we can make big changes.
Speaker:And that's what Ezekiel's focusing on.
Speaker:So in 36 he talks about the desolation, the derision, the shame that they're
Speaker:bearing and how that will shift.
Speaker:So if you look in eight, it talks about how there will be a time when the
Speaker:time will come that they can change.
Speaker:This is.
Speaker:There will be a time when the field is white and ready to harvest.
Speaker:It ties in with DNC four and he says how it's gonna happen for behold this nine
Speaker:for behold, I am for you and I will turn onto you and you shall be tiled and sewn.
Speaker:This is the Lord speaking.
Speaker:He's saying, I am for you.
Speaker:I have always been for you.
Speaker:Jason says this all the time when we're talking to Jack, he's like, I'm team Jack
Speaker:, especially when we have hard things to say to Jack or, you know, consequences.
Speaker:We're Team Jack.
Speaker:We, we don't do anything unless we think it's for your good.
Speaker:That's basically what he's saying here, is, I, I'm Team Israel,
Speaker:I want you to be successful.
Speaker:The only way for that to happen is if I can till this ground and sow it, I need
Speaker:to uproot all that hard baked in dry land and flip it over and expose it to the.
Speaker:And what I love about this reference is it reminds me of Alma 32
Speaker:where he says, You need to give place for a portion of my work.
Speaker:You know, if you picture a pot that's got hard packed soil that's been there
Speaker:all winter long, and you gotta take some of that soil out to make room
Speaker:for the seed that's gonna go in there, and that's not a comfortable process.
Speaker:The soil is probably nice and warm and comfortable, and then you take it out
Speaker:and put in this hard, shiny, cold seed.
Speaker:It's not a comfortable exchange, but he promises it's worth it because basically
Speaker:what he offers is I will multiply you.
Speaker:This is where you start to see the Abraham at Covenant promises coming back, that
Speaker:in the last days they'll have that.
Speaker:In fact, I love what it says in 11.
Speaker:It says, I will do better unto you than at your beginnings, and
Speaker:you shall know that I am the Lord.
Speaker:There's a big promise that that Zion that will come will be even grander than what
Speaker:they saw with King David in Jerusalem.
Speaker:That they will, It'll be better than the glorious visions of Moses or of Noah.
Speaker:It will be better trust in the miracles that are coming.
Speaker:When you go a little further, you see, he talks about how they got into
Speaker:this mess, just like a good parent.
Speaker:He never lets the children of Israel forget how they got here, and I
Speaker:don't think Ezekiel's trying to beat them over the head with their sins.
Speaker:What he's trying to say is, Don't forget we've been down this road.
Speaker:It's the idle worshiping and profaning, his name that got us into this mess.
Speaker:So we need to be watchful of.
Speaker:We do that as parents all the time.
Speaker:But then he talks about why they're forgiven.
Speaker:It's not necessarily because they earned it or because
Speaker:they've made mighty changes.
Speaker:What has happened is he's having pity on them for his holy name.
Speaker:The Lord loves his people and he loves the work that they can represent
Speaker:and he will have pity on them.
Speaker:I think a big piece of this physically is he also needs to set the stage.
Speaker:I mean, they need to go back to Jerusalem cuz that's where you know Jehovah as
Speaker:Jesus Christ will eventually be born.
Speaker:So I think there's some mercy and pity just.
Speaker:We gotta get things moving.
Speaker:There's work to be done.
Speaker:And so he talks about his holy name in 23.
Speaker:I will sanctify my great name, which was profane among the heathen.
Speaker:He's going to purify and cleanse, especially in the latter days.
Speaker:There will be a mass conversion that needs to happen.
Speaker:And that's what you see when you go a little bit further down.
Speaker:So he will talk about bringing them as their own land in 24 and then
Speaker:cleansing them in 25, cleansing them of all their idols and their filthiness.
Speaker:And then 26 is this epic, epic truth bomb verse.
Speaker:It says, And a new heart.
Speaker:Also, will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you?
Speaker:I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I
Speaker:will give you a heart of flesh.
Speaker:If you remember from, there's some conference talks about this, since
Speaker:we have so many heart surgeons in our general authority line, there's a great
Speaker:one about having a heart transplant.
Speaker:Do you guys remember that talk where we have to take care
Speaker:of our transplanted hearts?
Speaker:I think the same thing happens as we've been talking about missionaries
Speaker:going into these foreign lands.
Speaker:This mighty change of heart happens.
Speaker:It happens in our callings too, but for missionaries who go to a new land and then
Speaker:instantly love the people, even those who are mean, you know, like you just have.
Speaker:It's not love.
Speaker:Like I love them the way I love my parents.
Speaker:It's love like I feel.
Speaker:I feel like you're part of my flock and I want to take care of you.
Speaker:I want to nourish you.
Speaker:I want to heal you.
Speaker:I want to feed you.
Speaker:That's the new heart.
Speaker:That's the new promise.
Speaker:But we have to care for it.
Speaker:We have to engage in the work so that our newly transplanted heart
Speaker:doesn't get rejected by our body.
Speaker:You can go in and see all that in the notes, but I love the promise
Speaker:that you see that he, in 27, he will put my spirit within you and
Speaker:cause you to walk in my statutes.
Speaker:When you allow that mighty change to happen, you change, your actions
Speaker:change because your heart is different.
Speaker:That's why I think when we fixated our kids' attentions on for strength of the
Speaker:youth and say like, Where is your heart?
Speaker:Make decisions about your outward appearance based on how you feel about
Speaker:God and how you know he feels about you.
Speaker:It's all about this, This concept of teach them true doctrines
Speaker:and they will govern themselves.
Speaker:That's what 27 teaches me.
Speaker:In 28, he takes a little further and he says, You shall be my
Speaker:people and I will be your God.
Speaker:That connection point where we are his people and he is our God happens
Speaker:because we have a new heart and because we acted on the new heart,
Speaker:we are now acting as he would have us act, which makes us children of God.
Speaker:That's, that's the connection.
Speaker:It's not that we're never his, it's that now we are covenantal his and
Speaker:that's a different level of connection.
Speaker:So then you see the promises lay out In 30, I will multiply the fruit of the tree.
Speaker:I you'll remember your evil ways.
Speaker:This is an interesting one cuz he talks about how they won't be
Speaker:ashamed, they won't be confounded.
Speaker:Um, they will be able to change.
Speaker:I think it's interesting in their repentance process cuz sometimes we
Speaker:can still remember our mistakes and the purpose of that is to invite us to change.
Speaker:Anytime I bring up with my kids past mistakes, it's not to push them down,
Speaker:it's to say, Hey, just a heads up, remember we know where this road goes.
Speaker:And that's what happens with the children of Israel as well.
Speaker:Again, in 34 he promises this desolate land will be tilled.
Speaker:I love what you see in 35.
Speaker:He basically says, other people will see this land and say,
Speaker:Wow, is this the same place?
Speaker:You know, the same way when I drove through that burned out
Speaker:forest and I couldn't believe how lush and green it was.
Speaker:That's what they're saying.
Speaker:In 35, this land was desolate and has become like the Garden of Eden and the
Speaker:waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced and inhabited.
Speaker:And then 36, I have a big star next to this one, then the heath and that
Speaker:are left round about You shall know that I the Lord build ruined places
Speaker:and plant that which was desolate.
Speaker:What I love about this is this is one of the beautiful blessings of repentance,
Speaker:that it doesn't just change your whole life and you get planted and you grow
Speaker:in a place that once was desolate.
Speaker:It's that people around you see that change.
Speaker:Those who don't believe that that's possible, see that change, and then
Speaker:they say, Oh, it worked for her.
Speaker:Maybe it can work for me.
Speaker:That's why we have to testify to each other.
Speaker:It's why we have to share our hope in change because it motivates others.
Speaker:And then the resulting blessing is you become part of this holy flock that he
Speaker:mentions at the very end in verse 38.
Speaker:Guys, I had no idea how much I love chapter 37.
Speaker:I've always loved 47, but you do not wanna miss chapter 37.
Speaker:This is where Ezekiel sees the valley of dry bones, and you would think
Speaker:that would not be a super inviting chapter, but it's so good you guys.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:Basically, he has kind of an object lesson play out from, He's in a vision and he
Speaker:sees this big valley full of dry bones.
Speaker:That's in verse one.
Speaker:And then he has to go all the way around and survey it.
Speaker:So he, he has to get a really good view of how bad things are.
Speaker:And then in three, he's invited to answer a question.
Speaker:So this is when the Lord says, son of man, can these bones live?
Speaker:And I answered, Oh Lord God.
Speaker:Oh no, it's, I don't know if this is Ezekiel saying like, I have no
Speaker:idea, or if this is him saying like, How about you tell me the answer?
Speaker:Have you ever had that with a professor where you're like,
Speaker:Could you just answer that for me?
Speaker:I wonder if this is one of those moments where Ezekiel wants to believe
Speaker:that these bones can live again, but it's a help them an unbelief moment.
Speaker:The visual that came into my mind as I was reading about these
Speaker:dry bones as Peter and the Nets.
Speaker:So remember when he has that long night on the water and he catches no fish and
Speaker:when he meets the savior, the savior basically says, Go a little ways out
Speaker:and put your net on the other side.
Speaker:And Peter's basic response is, There are no fish . I've had
Speaker:this experience many times.
Speaker:I gave a talk on this once at church, but I felt this way with, Come follow me.
Speaker:Uh, when the prophet came out, we went to two hour church and he said, We're
Speaker:gonna shift to home centered learning.
Speaker:And my basic response was, You don't understand.
Speaker:I've been fishing here all night.
Speaker:There are no fish here, , because that's how I felt about our family's scripture.
Speaker:Like it wasn't that it was bad, I just kind of felt like I wasn't reaping
Speaker:any rewards from it, and I couldn't, I couldn't quite get behind it.
Speaker:So when he was like, The Sabbath is gonna be a delight and you're gonna have all
Speaker:this joy, I, to me it was this valley of dry bones or this empty knit and an
Speaker:empty sea, and I just didn't believe.
Speaker:But I love this invitation where the Lord.
Speaker:Do you believe this can happen?
Speaker:And as soon as you shift?
Speaker:So for me, 2019, that first year of come follow me was terrible.
Speaker:I didn't do very well.
Speaker:The kids didn't do very well.
Speaker:And then 2020 is when I shifted, is when this course started, when I was like,
Speaker:Okay, I believe that this can happen.
Speaker:I believe it can be better.
Speaker:I want to let that desire work in me.
Speaker:So I'm going to try, And this is Peter throwing his net on the other side.
Speaker:And this is Ezekiel speaking prophecy to a valley of bones.
Speaker:I mean, they can, it's, he's literally talking to no one.
Speaker:But that's what the Lord invites him to do.
Speaker:He says, Prophesy onto these bones, Talk to the bones and tell them
Speaker:that they can be brought back.
Speaker:That breath will enter you.
Speaker:This is in five, and ye shall live.
Speaker:In fact, say that their sys are gonna come, their flesh is gonna come.
Speaker:All these, these bones are gonna come back to life.
Speaker:Teach it to them.
Speaker:So Ezekiel has.
Speaker:Speak to a valley of bones.
Speaker:It's Peter throwing his net out into a water that he knows is empty
Speaker:of fish and he is invited to act.
Speaker:It's this pivotal moment, so it's in verse seven, he says, So I
Speaker:prophesied as I was commanded.
Speaker:He speaks to a valley full of bones who will have no even ability to hear
Speaker:because the Lord commanded him to.
Speaker:It probably makes no sense to Ezekiel's mind.
Speaker:Like so many great moments in all of scripture where there's no rational
Speaker:reason, mortally, why this makes sense.
Speaker:And then something happens.
Speaker:I loved this piece.
Speaker:So in the middle of seven and there was a noise, behold, a shaking, and the
Speaker:bones came together, bone to his bone.
Speaker:This is.
Speaker:You know that moment where like a Jedi finally figures out how
Speaker:to move things with his mind.
Speaker:This is that moment for Peter.
Speaker:It's like he puts the nets down and then he can feel the boat creak.
Speaker:This happened for me with Come Follow me, you guys.
Speaker:Within the first like month, I could feel the boat creaking.
Speaker:I didn't see a boat full of fish yet that that took a long time, but I could
Speaker:feel something happening in a sea that I would've guaranteed was empty, and that's
Speaker:the promise of this value of dry bones.
Speaker:Then the Lord invites him to act again, and he says, Okay, now build on that.
Speaker:Invite the winds to come and breathe the breath of life into these
Speaker:bodies that have been created.
Speaker:And so he does that.
Speaker:He commands and prophesies to the winds that they will come, and then the result.
Speaker:They, they arise.
Speaker:This army of people stands up and arises.
Speaker:Remember, this is a vision.
Speaker:This is not literally happening, but it's this promise of, well, one, I think it's
Speaker:an incredible prophecy about resurrection and what the resurrection will be
Speaker:like that that is actually possible and can happen to those who believe.
Speaker:But more profoundly, I think it's all about that the Lord loves to
Speaker:bring life to desolate places.
Speaker:This is a valley of bones that could not, no one had ever done
Speaker:anything like this before to this size of group, and it can happen.
Speaker:If he can bring life back to a valley of bones, he can bring
Speaker:life to any of my valleys.
Speaker:That's what the spirit taught me this week, and I've seen it, you guys,
Speaker:There's been times when I looked at my temple attendance and it felt like
Speaker:a valley of bones where I'm like, I'm getting nothing out of this.
Speaker:I don't understand it.
Speaker:I felt the same with family history, where I was like, I, it's not for me.
Speaker:It's a valley of bones.
Speaker:And the moment you engage you, it's what Elma taught.
Speaker:If you let that desire work in you, even just, it gives a hope to desire
Speaker:to believe, and you let it work in you.
Speaker:He will come and he will help you, and there will be a noise, there will be
Speaker:a shaking, and it will be a profound change, but you have to act the same way
Speaker:Ezekiel did, and I just love that message.
Speaker:So you see that all throughout that first half, that it's the
Speaker:Lord's hand that does this miracle.
Speaker:But because he invited Ezekiel to be part of it, Ezekiel gets to see
Speaker:it happen and be there first hand.
Speaker:That's what he invites us to do in our lives too, and I just love it.
Speaker:To make this chapter even better, there's an object lesson that's built
Speaker:right into the verses starting around 15, you see, see the gear shift.
Speaker:So this is after the vision of the dry bones, and now he's on
Speaker:the street and he's invited to teach in this really peculiar way.
Speaker:So the Lord invites him to take two sticks.
Speaker:This is what we read about in the Book of Mormon.
Speaker:There's gonna be a stick of Judah and a stick of Joseph, and he's
Speaker:supposed to write those names on these sticks or scrolls or books
Speaker:or whatever they might be, and then he's gonna combine them into one.
Speaker:The part I loved about this, you guys, is in chapter 18, it says, And when
Speaker:the children of the people shall speak unto these saying, Will they not show
Speaker:us what th meanest by these, This is the the whole reason I teach an object
Speaker:lessons you guys, so that I can be doing something crazy with fire in my
Speaker:kitchen and my kids will wander over and be like, Mom, what are you doing
Speaker:And then I can answer.
Speaker:And when I answer, I teach.
Speaker:I teach them the doctrine.
Speaker:So it's not like most of my object lessons, at least in our family,
Speaker:are happening in some fancy way.
Speaker:In fact, they never are.
Speaker:They happen to be, When my kids wander into the room and say, Mom, why are you
Speaker:exploding things in our kitchen sink?
Speaker:That's why I do the weird object lessons.
Speaker:And that's what's working for Ezekiel too.
Speaker:Cuz it's not that first generation who's asking him, they haven't responded, but
Speaker:the children of that first generation.
Speaker:I love this piece of this story because they want to know, Tell me more.
Speaker:Why are you combining those two sticks?
Speaker:And he, because he knows the doctrine and can teach.
Speaker:It says, Let me tell you, at some point in the future, these two sticks,
Speaker:these, this is not just about the Bible and the Book of Mormon, like we
Speaker:learn about it in the Book of Mormon.
Speaker:It's also the tribes coming back together.
Speaker:The stick of Joseph or stick of Judah, and the stick of Joseph used to be one
Speaker:big children of Israel under Jacob, right?
Speaker:They used to be one group and then there was the division of the
Speaker:tribes after the three kings, and they've never been reunited again.
Speaker:So what Ezekiel is telling this next generation of young revolutionary.
Speaker:Thinking people is that the Lord has promised that all of it will
Speaker:be gathered back together again.
Speaker:They will all be one.
Speaker:And in the Book of Mormon we learned this is fulfilled through the Book of Mormon
Speaker:and the Bible coming together as one.
Speaker:We'll talk about this in the object lessons too, but I'd love that he teaches
Speaker:in this object lesson hoping to catch their eye cuz I feel like that's what I do
Speaker:all the time and it just jumped out at me.
Speaker:But he promises they'll be gathered and then he tells them all the
Speaker:promises that come with the gathering.
Speaker:They'll have one king that they'll have their own nation if you live in 23, that
Speaker:they'll, they won't have idols anymore.
Speaker:They can set aside all the false traditions of their fathers and
Speaker:they can be a new generation.
Speaker:Remember if you're talking to teenagers or you know, younger kids who are, have
Speaker:been in bondage their whole lifetimes to preach to them on the streets
Speaker:with this cool object lesson and.
Speaker:I believe there will be a change.
Speaker:I believe you guys will help make that change happen.
Speaker:There will be a time when you'll have your own land.
Speaker:You won't be stuck under these kings.
Speaker:There will be a time when there will be cleansing and you'll have true doctrine,
Speaker:and you can set aside all the false teachings of the other generations.
Speaker:He invites them that they will have a prince forever, that once
Speaker:they get back to their lands, they will never be taken away again.
Speaker:That the biggest one is in 26, that they will have an
Speaker:everlasting covenant of peace.
Speaker:These generations that probably worried about losing because the
Speaker:temples destroyed, the arc is gone.
Speaker:Everything, all those remnants of their past life are gone.
Speaker:They're probably worried about their connection to God and what Ezekiel can
Speaker:teach, anyone who will listen, is that Everlasting Covenant traveled with us.
Speaker:If you will embrace the truth, if you will come to God, that covenant can be yours.
Speaker:Those promises came with us if we would just hold onto them.
Speaker:That's his big message, and it carries all the way through chapter 30.
Speaker:I think it's powerful that almost every conference, the last message
Speaker:from the prophet is about the temple.
Speaker:In this latest conference, he spoke about power of the temple, bringing
Speaker:families together and then announced all these new temples, especially all
Speaker:the ones in Mexico City, You, you just wonder what's gonna happen to that city
Speaker:cuz they have all these temples coming.
Speaker:And the reason I wonder that is because of what I studied in Ezekiel 47,
Speaker:this is where he has another vision.
Speaker:And this time the vision is of a river.
Speaker:So it's a river that comes from under the threshold.
Speaker:So they have the temple doors, and then under those doors between the doors and
Speaker:that little narrow passage where like the stone would be a river comes out.
Speaker:Now I don't know how wide those temple doors could possibly be, but
Speaker:you can't have a big surging river coming out of such a small space.
Speaker:But what happens in this vision is the river gets bigger and
Speaker:deeper as it goes out from the.
Speaker:There are so many cool spiritual parallels in this object lesson that he's seeing.
Speaker:And so he talks about the distance.
Speaker:So there's another person in this vision, and they measure out a thousand qubits
Speaker:or about 17, 1800 feet, and then they have him test the depth of the waters,
Speaker:and the first test, it's up to his ankles, and then he goes another thousand
Speaker:qubits, and then it's up to his knees.
Speaker:Remember this skinny passage of water that came out from under this tiny window of
Speaker:a threshold is now deep and it's coming up to his knees and then to his loins,
Speaker:and then he gets to the point where it's so deep and so broad that he can't pass.
Speaker:It has to be, you have to swim across it.
Speaker:In fact, I love the words, it's in five afterward.
Speaker:He measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass
Speaker:over for the waters were risen.
Speaker:Waters to swim.
Speaker:I've loved this verse for 20 years because of what I learned
Speaker:from Michael Wilcox in Israel.
Speaker:He took us to Masada where you can see nothing but desert forever.
Speaker:And on the side of Masada there is this big sea and it looks
Speaker:beautiful and blue, but it's the dead Sea and has absolutely no life.
Speaker:And you can tell that cuz there's literally no green in any direction.
Speaker:And he talked about how this is the place where this, that's what's gonna be healed.
Speaker:In fact, if you look further down in the verses, you can see
Speaker:an eight that he talks about.
Speaker:That river is gonna end up at the Dead Sea and it's gonna heal the
Speaker:Dead Sea, which is powerful cuz you guys, the Dead Sea is like the
Speaker:lowest place literally on the planet.
Speaker:It's worse than the great Salt Lake.
Speaker:It has no life whatsoever.
Speaker:You can float in it.
Speaker:We did, and it's this, there's no life there.
Speaker:But he promises that, that this river that gets deeper and deeper will bring life.
Speaker:The way he taught it at the time was talking about our temple attendance.
Speaker:That as we continue to go to the temple, our own.
Speaker:Enjoyment of it.
Speaker:And what we gain from, it gets deeper as we go.
Speaker:That at first you go and the the goodness is to the ankles and you have enough to
Speaker:keep you going and then you keep going.
Speaker:And the goodness is to the knees and eventually they become waters that
Speaker:can't pass over waters to swim in.
Speaker:And I love that visual cuz I think it's really helped me to be
Speaker:persistent in my temple attendance as my own testimony has grown.
Speaker:I was able to go with one of my ysa to the temple just this last
Speaker:week and answer her questions.
Speaker:And I can't tell you what a sweet thing that was for me to stand in the celest
Speaker:room with someone and answer questions.
Speaker:Cuz for a long time I didn't have those answers.
Speaker:But they came over the course of my, you know, 20 years of temple attendance
Speaker:as I continued to wade in those waters and let the waters rise in my heart.
Speaker:I just think there's so much power in that understanding.
Speaker:But the beauty is it doesn't end there.
Speaker:So the person who's with him says, Have you seen this?
Speaker:And he directs his attention to something else.
Speaker:So this is around verse six.
Speaker:, this is when he gives him a focus and he says, Look at the banks of the river.
Speaker:What's happening on the banks?
Speaker:And this is where Ezekiel sees trees, big lush burden, fruit trees that are growing
Speaker:up in this desert place along the banks of the river, and a multitude of fish.
Speaker:Remember, it's coming from the temple.
Speaker:It's ending in a sea that is dead, and there's this multitude of fish and there's
Speaker:so many cool ways to interpret that.
Speaker:The rasp bands have a great video that we'll watch in the object lessons
Speaker:to talk about this idea of the fish coming and the blessings that come.
Speaker:I do love what you read in the verses.
Speaker:We've, we've studied a lot of this in previous things.
Speaker:I even in Jeremiah, you know that chapter that I taught you guys?
Speaker:It's um, Oh, I didn't write down, but it's in the notes where he spoke about
Speaker:trees that are planted by water and how I need, I needed to know that I could still
Speaker:produce fruit even in a time of drought.
Speaker:That's what he's promising here as well, that if you stay right along
Speaker:the edges of those banks and you let your roots sink deep down into that,
Speaker:Beautiful celestia water that the temple offers, that you will yield fruit.
Speaker:And it's this epic promise cuz you can see in 12 the blessings that you'll have
Speaker:meat, you'll have food that you can eat.
Speaker:In fact, I love at the end where it talks about there's this gonna
Speaker:be this new fruit and it says, and the fruit thereof shall be for meat
Speaker:and the leaf thereof for medicine.
Speaker:This what we gain from attending the temple and planting ourselves right
Speaker:next to that living water is that we produce fruit that can never run out.
Speaker:It's not seasonal.
Speaker:There's no end to its bounty.
Speaker:That's the promise of the temple.
Speaker:And I think it invited me, the spirit as I was studying.
Speaker:Brought to mind these different blessings that my family has
Speaker:experienced because I've kept myself planted the temple, especially times
Speaker:when I didn't necessarily feel like I understood the temple very well.
Speaker:By staying planted there, I found incredible blessings that bless not
Speaker:just my life but those around me, and that's what he is offering here, that
Speaker:you'll see all of those things and I just think the visuals are so good.
Speaker:The idea of having waters to swim in.
Speaker:I also think it's really powerful.
Speaker:If you look at 11, he says, But the my place is thereof and the marshes shall not
Speaker:be healed and they shall be given to salt.
Speaker:I, to me, this was like a, you can't live on borrowed like you need
Speaker:to plant yourself at the temple.
Speaker:You can't trust, in my testimony, the temple, you have to make your own.
Speaker:You need to go, you need to participate so that you can get
Speaker:this nourishment for yourself.
Speaker:And then the end of the chapter wraps up with an understanding about when,
Speaker:in those latter days when they get the promise line back, how they'll need
Speaker:to divide it and how they'll need to be open armed to all the strangers who
Speaker:want to live among them, that those who want to be part of the covenant will
Speaker:need to be welcomed in and given an inheritance just like everyone else.
Speaker:And there's so much power in tying the visuals of the temple to the visuals here.
Speaker:But I just feel like the biggest message I got outta 37 is this
Speaker:promise that everything that the river touches will live.
Speaker:It's around verse eight and nine, and it shall come to pass that everything
Speaker:that liveth, which moth with, or however the river shall come, shall live.
Speaker:And there should be a very great multitude of.
Speaker:That's a promise.
Speaker:You can rest on that as you come closer to the temple.
Speaker:As you participate in the ordinances, as you take the strength you get and
Speaker:take it out of the temple, that that nourishment will feed more than just
Speaker:you and more than just your family.
Speaker:It will spread, it will deepen.
Speaker:It will change the whole landscape of your life, I feel like.
Speaker:So that's what President Nelson taught, and it's what the
