Thanks to Ben Spackman and to Kevin Barney for ideas incorporated into this lesson plan.

Lesson 42: “I Will Write It in Their Hearts”

Jeremiah 16; 23; 29; 31

Purpose: To encourage class members to participate in God’s great latter-day work and to have his law written in their hearts.

Lesson Development

1. Jeremiah foresees the latter-day gathering of Israel
2. God will write his law in the hearts of his people
1. Now is the time to repent
2. Hearkening to the words of the prophets
3. Repeating the sins of previous generations
4. The importance of trusting in God
5. False prophets

Introduction

The history of Israel began when God said to Abram:

Genesis 12:1-2

1 … Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing;

From that beginning, we see the development of the nation of Israel: Abraham has an heir, Isaac; Isaac has an heir, Jacob; Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, had 12 sons who became the fathers of families. Those families took refuge in Egypt during a famine, and their descendants became slaves to the Egyptians. God calls Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. The scriptures first show us the Israelites wandering in the desert, learning to become the people of God by following the law that is given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. We see them finally enter the land promised to Israel, where they spend may years fighting and establishing themselves in the land.

Next we see God make Israel into a kingdom, with Saul as their first king, followed by David, their greatest and most beloved king. The prophets tell Israel that the Messiah will come through the House of David, and the Israelites believe that God has, therefore, established them as a political kingdom, as well as a priestly kingdom, that will never come to an end.

But following David’s reign, corruption gradually takes over the kingdom. The kingdom survives through the reign of David’s son Solomon, and then through a few more generations of his descendants, becoming ever weaker, ever more wicked.

God sends prophets to warn Israel of its coming fate. We see a cycle of repentance and righteousness among some part of Israel, followed by periods of idolatry, followed by repentance. Through it all, the Lord assures Israel that he is always there, always willing to claim them as his people, if they will only return to humility and righteousness. But Israel is stubborn, and refuses to keep their side of the covenant for very long.

The kingdom is divided, and ten of the twelve tribes are taken captive and led away, and lost to the knowledge of the two remaining tribes. But those tribes carry on, repeating the cycle of repentance and idolatry, still believing, somehow, that their political kingdom at Jerusalem will endure forever.

But finally, in the days of King Zedekiah, the Lord declares the end of the political kingdom of the Israelites. The end has come.

Israel Rejected

The Lord spoke to his prophet Jeremiah, telling him that the end of the kingdom at Jerusalem was at hand.

Jeremiah 16:1-9

1 The word of the Lord came also unto me, saying,

2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.

3 For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;

4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

5 For thus saith the Lord, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, even lovingkindness and mercies.

6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:

7 Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

9 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

What indications are there in this passage that the end of the kingdom is coming, not years in the future, but immediately?

What indications are there in this passage that the end will be swift, and not drag out over time?

The Lord told Jeremiah that the people will ask why he is allowing this calamity to come to them. His answer:

Jeremiah 16:10-13

10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?

11 Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

12 And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.

How is that for poetic justice? The people of Israel have so often forsaken the Lord in favor of idols – now he is going to allow them the “privilege” of serving those false gods continually. Let the people see how well those gods protect them, when Jehovah withdraws his blessing!

End of the Kingdom of Judah

The Babylonian armies lay siege to Jerusalem. As Sister Golden taught last week, the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and carried many of its elite citizens captive to Babylon.

Jeremiah remained at Jerusalem, still teaching and prophesying. He wrote a letter to those who had been taken captive to Babylon.

Jeremiah 29: 1

1 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;

Jeremiah 29: 4-7

4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;

5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;

6 Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.

7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.

What differences do you see in what the Lord told Jeremiah to do in the first passage we read, and these instructions from Jeremiah to the Jews in captivity?

If the Lord’s command to Jeremiah signaled the immediate onset of captivity, what do these contrasting instructions suggest about how long the people will remain in captivity?

Chapter 29 contains another letter, one written from a priest named Shemaiah, who was one of those captured and taken to Babylon. Shemaiah writes to a man named Zephaniah who is still in Jerusalem, appointing him to be the new acting high priest, and giving him certain instructions.

Jeremiah 29:26

26 The Lord hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the Lord, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks.

The King James language is a little hard to understand here, so I’ve brought other translations for us to read to understand the wording a little better.

Amplified:

26 The Lord has made you [Zephaniah] priest instead of Jehoiada the [deputy] priest, that you should have oversight in the house of the Lord over every madman who makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and collar.

New American Standard

26 The Lord has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, to be the overseer in the house of the Lord over every madman who prophesies, to put him in the stocks and in the iron collar.

New International

26 The Lord has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada to be in charge of the house of the Lord; you should put any madman who acts like a prophet into the stocks and neck-irons.

The letter from Shemaiah, giving the new priest the order to arrest anyone who prophesied, mentioned the prophet Jeremiah by name.

Jeremiah 29:27-28

27 Now therefore why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you?

28 For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

Who else do we know who is teaching and prophesying in Jerusalem in these last years just before the destruction of Jerusalem?

1 Nephi 1:18-20

18 Therefore, I would that ye should know, that after the Lord had shown so many marvelous things unto my father, Lehi, yea, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem behold he went forth among the people, and began to prophesy and to declare unto them concerning the things which he had both seen and heard.

19 And it came to pass that the Jews did mock him because of the thins which he testified of them; for he truly testified of their wickedness and their abominations; and he testified that the things which he saw and heard, and also the things which he read in the book, manifested plainly of the coming of a Messiah, and also the redemption of the world.

20 And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out, and stoned, and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.

Ten years after the first captives were taken to Babylon, the enemy returned again to Jerusalem. This time, the destruction was complete: The temple was destroyed, the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, and all but a few of the Jews were captured and driven into the desert and then down the banks of the Euphrates River toward Babylon. This was an experience the Israelites never forgot.

Psalm 137:1-6

1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

6 If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

Alexander Neibaur, perhaps the earliest Jewish convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used that psalm to write a hymn that some of you may recall from the hymnbook we used just prior to the current one.

Down by the river’s verdant side,
Low by the solitary tide,
There, while the peaceful waters slept,
We pensively sat down and wept,
And on the bending willows hung
Our silent harps, through grief unstrung.

…

O, never shall our harps awake
Laid in the dust for Zion’s sake.
Forever on the willows hung,
Their music hushed, their chords unstrung;
Lost Zion! city of our God,
While groaning ‘neath the tyrant’s rod.

The political kingdom of Israel had come to an end.

The Return

Yet even in this circumstance, the Lord told Jeremiah that he would not abandon Israel permanently, but would one day bring them home again. That return would be so great that it would overshadow the memory of the Lord’s having saved the people from Egypt. Immediately after telling Jeremiah that the destruction of Jerusalem was imminent, he also said this:

Jeremiah 16:14-15

14 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

15 But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

Jeremiah prophesied against the priests who rejected the projects, and taught the promise of God:

Jeremiah 23:1-8

1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord.

2 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord.

3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.

5 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord Our Righteousness.

7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

8 But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

The Lord would restore the children of Israel and remember the promises he had made to their fathers … but notice that he did not say that he would restore their political independence. The new nation of Israel would be quite different from the old one.

When Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord, said that “I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper,” what King was he speaking of?

Not only would the King be someone very different from King David, the kingdom that he restored would be something very different from the old political kingdom of Israel.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:

33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Is there any difference in your behavior, or your mood, or your willingness to obey, when a law is written in the lawbooks, verses when a law is written in your heart?

What do we as Latter-day Saints do when we are truly converted, and have the law written on our hearts?

Imagine for a moment some law that is taught by the prophets, but toward which we are doubtful or skeptical or even antagonistic. What is our obligation toward that law?

How can we prepare our hearts to be open to the laws of God, to permit the law to be written on our hearts?

Conclusion

Let’s have a final word from Jeremiah to the captive people of Israel.

Jeremiah 29:10-14

10 For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

14 And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

Seventy years is a long time, but I hope that anyone who believed Jeremiah felt some comfort in knowing that there would come a definite end to their captivity. The captives were not given any definite time period, though, for the fulfilment of other prophecies – when would the Messiah come? When would the Israelites scattered throughout the nations be found and gathered home?

There is a French Christmas carol I like. The singer is at the stable, gazing on the newborn King. “The prophets have promised this to us for more than 4,000 years. For more than 4,000 years, we have waited for this happy moment.” There is something very moving, very humbling, in recognizing that you are enjoying a blessing that has been promised for many years, a blessing that generations of your ancestors have looked for and waited for, but did not live to see. [Testimony, focusing on the blessing of living in such a time as we are, and the obligations that come with such a blessing.]