Gospel Doctrine OT c41: Jeremiah Pillar

Gospel Doctrine OT c41 Jeremiah Pillar

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Start with some Book of Mormon scriptures –

Mormon 2:15, Mormon 6:17-19

Jeremiah, like Mormon, was called to labor among a people for whom there was no hope because they refused to repent, and ‘the day of grace was passed with them, both temporally and spiritually.’  Jeremiah also mourned and lamented his people’s wickedness.

Read Lamentations 1:1-3, Lamentations 2:1-3, 11

Who is Jeremiah?  Jeremiah, a Levite, came from Anathoth, a town of priests that lay a few miles northeast of Jerusalem in the tribal territory of Benjamin. He labored in his prophetic calling during the reign of at least four kings of Judah: Josiah, Jehoahas, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. He began his labors as a youth in approximately 627 B.C. and was the leading prophet in Jerusalem, serving with Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Lehi, and others. Since Lehi and Nephi refer to Jeremiah’s prophecies, it is safe to assume that some of them were recorded on the brass plates.

The kings in Jeremiah’s time were wicked. There was idolatry, hill-worship, and heathen religious practices. Children were sacrificed to Baal-Moloch. The corruption of the nation’s religious worship was accompanied by all manner of immorality and unrighteousness. Jeremiah was surrounded on all sides by almost total apostasy.

Jeremiah was severely persecuted. He was beaten, put in stocks, mocked and rejected, his written words were burned and he was commanded to write them again, put in prison, cast into a dungeon and starved.

It was Jeremiah’s responsibility to prophesy and then live through the fall of Judah to Babylon.

Jeremiah was called to be preach repentance when he was young. Read about his calling.

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Jer 1:4-5  Jeremiah was foreordained to this calling. The institute manual says:

‘A prophet does not select where and when he serves. God chooses when and to whom a prophet is sent. One may be an Enoch and build Zion, or a David O. McKay and preside over the Church in times of peace and prosperity. Another may be a Mormon or a Jeremiah and try in vain to save rebellious and backsliding people. Each has his calling. Each has his time. Each has his lesson for you to learn.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of heaven before this world was” (History of the Church 6:364).

?? What does Jeremiah’s call teach us about the doctrine of foreordination? What do you understand about foreordination? How does it benefit us to know about the principle of foreordination?

Foreordination (Meeting the Challenges of Today, Oct. 10, 1978, Neal A. Maxwell, BYU Speeches/Devotional)

“When in situations of stress we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be comforted to know that God, who knows our capacity perfectly, placed us here to succeed. No one was foreordained to fail or to be wicked. When we have been weighed and found wanting, let us remember that we were measured before and we were found equal to our tasks; and, therefore, let us continue, but with a more determined discipleship. When we feel overwhelmed, let us recall the assurance that God will not over program us; he will not press upon us more than we can bear (D&C 50:40).”

“Yet, though foreordination is a difficult doctrine, it has been given to us by the living God, through living prophets, for a purpose. It can actually increase our understanding of how crucial this mortal estate is and it can encourage us in further good works. This precious doctrine can also help us to go the second mile...” (Neal A. Maxwell)

Jeremiah responded to the call: Jer 1:6-9. What happens here? Jeremiah feels unqualified. Who else has responded this way? Moses, Abraham, Joseph Smith. Many were called when they were young.

?? What reassurance did the Lord give Jeremiah? How have you been reassured by the Lord?

What was Jeremiah instructed to do? Read Jer 1:9-10

He was called o root, out, pull down, destroy, and throw down. He was also told to build and to plant. ??What is the relation between those things and how do you see that or incorporate that in your own life?

Read Jer 2:13 – Watch Eyring video

?? How do these two relate?

 What two evils did the Lord say his people had committed?

They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters. What is the living water?

Read the scripture again. What does that mean?

?? How do we sometimes create ‘broken cisterns’ that cannot hold the Savior’s living water? What are the crack?

Maybe we want the living water and go to gather it. We are doing the right things, going to church, going through the motions. But our cistern is broken.

MATERIAL OBJECTS

Marion D. Hanks said:

“Material objectives consume too much of our attention. The struggle for what we need or for more than we need exhausts our time and energy. We pursue pleasure or entertainment, or become overinvolved in associations or civic matters. Of course, people need recreation, need to be achieving, need to contribute; but if these come at the cost of friendship with Christ, the price is much too high.

“For my people have committed two evils,’ saith the Lord to Israel; ‘they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

“The substitutions we fashion to take the place of God in our lives truly hold no water. To the measure we thus refuse the ‘living water,’ we miss the joy we could have” (Gen Conf April 1972)

CHOOSING THE LIVING WATER

Elder Wirthlin said: “Drink deeply of living water.

“The abundant life is a spiritual life. Too many sit at the banquet table of the gospel of Jesus Christ and merely nibble at the feast placed before them. They go through the motions – attending their meetings perhaps, glancing at scriptures, repeating familiar prayers – but their hearts are far away. If they are honest, they would admit to being more interested in the latest neighborhood rumors, stock market trends, and their favorite TV shows than they are in the supernal wonders and sweet ministerings of the Holy Spirit.

“Do you wish to partake of this living water and experience that divine well springing up within you to everlasting life?

“Then be not afraid. Believe with all your hearts. Develop an unshakable faith in the Son of God. Let your hearts reach out in earnest prayer. Fill your minds with knowledge of Him. Forsake your weaknesses. Walk in holiness and harmony with the commandments. Drink deeply of the living water of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (Gen Conf 2006, “The Abundant Life” Joseph B. Wirthlin)

The living waters, the words of God, are what sustained Jeremiah. From the very beginning:

Jer 1:9 Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

Jer 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.

This reminds me of what Nephi said is 2 Nephi.

2N32:3 Wherefore, I say unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

Jer 20:9 But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones

?? What do we do with the words of Christ? How do we feast on them? How do we make them a part of us?

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The Potter – Jer 18:1-10           

Professional prophets there were aplenty.  (Institute Manual) Says Dr. H.L. Willett:

“He was surrounded by plenty of prophets, but they were the smooth, easy-going, popular, professional preachers whose words awakened no conscience, and who assured the people that the nation was safe in the protecting care of God. This was a true message in Isaiah’s day, but that time was long since past, and Jerusalem was destined for captivity. Thus Jeremiah was doomed to preach an unwelcome message, while the false prophets persuade the people that he was unpatriotic, uninspired, and pessimistic. (14:13, 14).” (Sidney B. Sperry, The Voice of Israel’s Prophets, p. 153).

President Kimball (“The False Gods We Worship”)

“Sadly, however we find that to be shown the way is not necessarily to walk in it, and many have not been able to continue in faith. These have submitted themselves in one degree or another to the enticings of Satan and his servants and joined with those of ‘the world’ in lives of ever-deepening idolatry.

“I use the word idolatry intentionally. As I study ancient scripture, I am more and more convinced that there is significance in the fact that the commandment ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me’ is the first of the Ten Commandments.”

“Few men have ever knowingly and deliberately chosen to reject God and his blessings. Rather, we learn from the scriptures that because the exercise of faith has always appeared to be more difficult than relying on things more immediately at hand, carnal man has tended to transfer his trust in God to material things. Therefore, in all ages when men have fallen under the power of Satan and lost the faith, they have put in its place a hope in the ‘arm of flesh’ and in ‘gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know’ (Dan 5:23) – that is, in idols. This I find to be a dominant theme in the Old Testament. Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most is his god; and if his god doesn’t also happen to be the true and living God of Israel, that man is laboring in idolatry.”

“…And so it often seems to be with people, having such a firm grasp on things of the world- that which is telestial – that no amount of urging and no degree of emergency can persuade them to let go in favor of that which is celestial. Satan gets them in his grip easily. If we insist on spending all our time and resources building up for ourselves a worldly kingdom, that is exactly what we will inherit.

“In spite of our delight in defining ourselves as modern, and our tendency to think we possess a sophistication that no people in the past ever had – in spite of these things, we are, on the whole, an idolatrous people – a condition most repugnant to the Lord.” (Pres. Spencer W. Kimball, “The False Gods We Worship,” Ensign, June 1976)

MORE QUOTES:

Two evils

In Jeremiah 2:13, what two evils did the Lord say his people had committed? (They had forsaken him, the fountain of living waters. And they had made for themselves broken cisterns that could not hold the Lord’s living water, meaning they had sought fulfillment and security in worldly things.) Why would people with these characteristics have difficulty accepting the words of Jeremiah? Why would they be unable to respond to adversity as Jeremiah did? How do we sometimes create “broken cisterns” that cannot hold the Savior’s living water?

Elder Marion D. Hanks said:

“Material objectives consume too much of our attention. The struggle for what we need or for more than we need exhausts our time and energy. We pursue pleasure or entertainment, or become overinvolved in associations or civic matters. Of course, people need recreation, need to be achieving, need to contribute; but if these come at the cost of friendship with Christ, the price is much too high.

“‘For my people have committed two evils,’ said the Lord to Israel; ‘they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.’ (Jer. 2:13.)

“The substitutions we fashion to take the place of God in our lives truly hold no water. To the measure we thus refuse the ‘living water,’ we miss the joy we could have” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1972, 127; or Ensign, July 1972, 105).

Jer 1:9 Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in they mouth.

Jer 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and they word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.

2N32:3 Wherefore, I say unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

Jer 20:9 But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones

What do we do with the words of Christ? How do we feast on them? How do we make them a part of us?

The Potter Jer 18: 1-10