Lesson
42: “I Will Write It in Their Hearts”
Jeremiah
16, 23, 29, 31
As we said last week, Jeremiah is
imprisoned in the first year of the reign of Babylon’s puppet king Zedekiah
which is when the Book of Mormon narrative starts. Today’s lesson talks about
the prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem, but also the short-term return
and the long-term restoration. There is a good chance that Lehi and his family
would have heard Jeremiah’s words and might have known him since Jerusalem was
not that inhabited. An interesting point is that Jeremiah actually gives dates
which is very rare. He also tells the exact time when God spoke to him
(Jeremiah1:3). Good to understand that as prophets do today, he was speaking
language that they understood. Necessary to detail negative consequences of sin
in order to show the great blessings of repentance and obedience. (Jeremiah
15:1)--Even if Moses came before me to plead, I have had it with this people!--Given
how bad things were, Jeremiah says the best way forward is to submit to the
Babylonians. Cf. the Manifesto—polygamy wasn’t wrong, but the temporal
existence of the Church was threatened.
Quote: Elder Cook: “My counsel . . .
is to rise above any rationalizations that prevent us from making righteous decisions,
especially with respect to
serving
Jesus Christ.
In Isaiah we are taught we must “refuse the evil, and choose the good.” I
believe it is of particular importance in our day, when Satan is raging in the
hearts of men in so many new and subtle ways, that our choices and decisions be
made carefully, consistent with the goals and objectives by which we profess to
live. We need unequivocal commitment to the commandments and strict adherence
to sacred covenants.”
Jeremiah 16
Vs. 16 ancient prophecy—“ Behold, I will send for many
fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for
many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every
hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” Looks like this is a missionary
scripture, but historic context is that it is the Babylonians who are doing the
hunting and fishing—it is the destruction that is being foretold then, but in
the latter-days it can be seen positively as missionary work. Gathering! How does this compare to the Exodus?
Jeremiah 23
Vs 5—God will choose a righteous
descendant of David as king. People of Judah and Israel will be safe and live
in peace. Messiah is the obvious interpretation.
Jeremiah 29—Jeremiah’s letters to
the exiles in Babylon. They are out of context since the capture by
Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t happen for a few chapters. But Jeremiah and Baruch
organize the materials in his book according to topic rather than chronologically.
Jeremiah 31
Hopeful chapter foretelling the
recovery of the Jews, but also the recovery of Israel after a full scattering.
This is where the old covenant and the new convenant got their names (better
translation of where the names of our scriptures come from). Prophesy of what
Christ is going to do. Fulfilled both in Christ’s day and our day.
15–16—quoted after the slaughter of
the innocents by Herod.
31–34—beautiful prophecies fulfilled
in our day, Paul is referring to them in 2 Cor
3:2–3: “forasmuch as ye are manifestly . . . . Stone tablets written by
the finger of God and the fleshy tablets of the heart. Broken heart and contrite
spirit. We let the Lord heal our hearts, by putting a new heart into us (
Ezekiel 36:26).
Question—what does that mean to us; how
do we have a new heart for the Lord to write on?
Joseph Smith said, “I teach the people correct principles and they govern
themselves” (quoted by John Taylor, in Journal
of Discourses, 10:57–58). How does this relate to our hearts?
George Q. Cannon (quoted by Elder Eyring): “I should enter that assembly
with my mind entirely free from all influence that would prevent the operation
of the Spirit of God upon me. I should go in a prayerful spirit, asking God to
write upon my heart His will; not with my own will already prepared, and
determined to carry out my will … , regardless of everyone else’s
views. If I were to go, and all the rest were to go, with this spirit, then the
Spirit of God would be felt in our midst, and that which we would decide upon
would be the mind and will of God, because God would reveal it to us. We would
see light in the direction where we should go, and we would behold darkness in the
direction we should not go.”
Jeremiah 32:4—time of great tragedy for all of Judah. When this is
fulfilled (Zedekiah having his eyes put
out) it signals the loss of community, religious practice, laws, etc.
Sealed documents (Jeremiah 32)
Doubled,
Sealed, Witnessed Documents
John W. Welch
A final example of an archaic practice employed in Israel
around 600 BC and only recently understood through archaeological discoveries
was the use of doubled, sealed, and witnessed documents. These documents had
two parts: one was left open for ready access while the other was sealed up for
later consultation by the parties or for the conclusive use of a judge in
court. This widespread practice may illuminate the way in which the plates of
Mormon themselves were constructed.
In an intriguing but opaque Old Testament passage, the
prophet Jeremiah relates an event that occurred about 590 BC. Pursuant to his
right of redemption within the family and with prophetic foreknowledge of the
transaction, Jeremiah bought from his cousin a field located at Anathoth in the
lands of Benjamin. His willingness to make this long-term investment was
supportive of God's enduring promise that "houses and fields and vineyards
shall be possessed again in this land" (Jeremiah 32:15), notwithstanding
the prophecy that Jerusalem would also soon fall to the invading Babylonians
(see v. 3). In order to memorialize his purchase as impressively and as
permanently as possible, Jeremiah as purchaser drafted and executed not just a
single document but a two-part deed. One part of its text "was sealed
according to the law [mitzvah] and custom [Huqqim],"
and the other part of the document "was open" (v. 11; compare v. 14).
Jeremiah signed this double document and sealed it, as did several other people
who witnessed the transaction and subscribed the text (see vv. 10, 12).
Moreover, in order to preserve this evidence of his purchase, Jeremiah took his
doubled, sealed document and, in the presence of his witnesses, securely
deposited it with both of its parts in a clay jar, "that they may continue
many days" (v. 14).
Jeremiah's detailed account reflects many interesting legal
technicalities that were evidently well known and customary in his day.64
As John Bright says of Jeremiah's text, "Technical legal terminology is no
doubt involved," even though the precise nature of this practice cannot be
ascertained from the Hebrew text alone, let alone the ordinary English
translations.65 Only because of several archaeological discoveries
in the twentieth century can we now understand this interesting form of ancient
legal documentation.66
When written on parchment or papyrus, legal documents were
written on a single sheet, but the text was written twice, once at the top and
again at the bottom of the sheet. The repeated text could be either a verbatim
copy or an abridgment of the full text. The document was then folded so that
one part was open for inspection and use, while the other part was protected
and sealed.
A similar procedure was followed when important records were
written on metal. In that case two or more metal plates were used. For example,
two bronze tablets of the Roman emperor Trajan, with a Roman date equivalent to
AD October 103, present the full text of an official decree neatly lettered on
the open side of the first bronze plate and then repeated exactly in more
hurried lettering on the inside faces of the two plates.67 Having an
open version and also a sealed iteration of important documents served several
purposes, and in some cases following this convention was legally mandated.
Sealing (closing) the document was also essential, and the
manner of sealing papyrus or parchment documents was relatively standard.
Typically, these documents have a horizontal slit from the edge of the papyrus
to the middle, between the two texts. The top half was rolled to the middle and
then folded across the slit. Three holes were punched from the slit to the
other side, thin papyrus bands were threaded through these holes and wrapped
around the rolled-up and folded-over upper portion of the document, and on
these bands the seals (wax or clay impressions) of the participants were
affixed.68 The manner of sealing metal documents was functionally
the same.
Witnesses were necessary, and their number could vary. In
one Assyrian agreement on a clay tablet from 651 BC that documented the sale of
a property, twelve witnesses were listed.69 The Babylonian Talmud
stipulated that "at least three witnesses were required by law."70
Accordingly, in most Jewish texts three witnesses were common, and it appears
that normally not more than seven were used,71 although in principle
one witness was required to sign on each fold and "if there are more than
three folds more witnesses must be added, one for each fold."72
When and by whom could these seals be opened? It appears
that only a judge or some other duly authorized official could break the seals
and open the document. In Babylonia, if a dispute ever arose concerning the
correct wording of the contract, a judge could remove the outer envelope and
reveal the original tablet.73 John the Revelator, seeing the book
sealed with seven seals, "wept much, because no man was found worthy to
open and to read the book" that he beheld, until "the Lion of the
tribe of Judah . . . prevailed to open the book, and to loose the
seven seals thereof" (Revelation 5:4–5; compare Isaiah 29:11).
The legal use of doubled, sealed, witnessed documents during
Jeremiah's (and Lehi's) lifetime in Jerusalem, together with the secular use of
such instruments throughout much of the ancient world and the religious
utilization of this formalism in biblical and intertestamental literature,
raises the distinct possibility that Lehi knew of this practice and that Nephi
and his successors had this form of double documentation in mind when they
contemplated the preservation of their own records, constructed and assembled
their written texts, and ultimately sealed and deposited the Book of Mormon
plates (see 1 Nephi 1:17; 19:1; 3 Nephi 5:18). The Book of Mormon prophets,
like Jeremiah, saw the final Nephite record as having two parts, one sealed and
the other not (see Mormon 6:6; Words of Mormon 1:3, 6). Consistent with the
ancient practices and requirements, witnesses were promised; in particular, at
least three witnesses were stipulated. Others would be provided for, according
to God's will: "as many witnesses as seemeth him good" (2 Nephi
27:14) to "testify to the truth of the book and the things therein" (v.
12).
Yet this widespread ancient legal practice was unknown until
long after the Book of Mormon was published. In the summer of 1995, I visited
several curators in famous museums in London and Oxford in an effort to locate
examples of such doubled documents, but none of those curators had taken notice
of these artifacts. Soon I found myself at a seminar in the library of the
Papyrological Institute in Leiden, Holland, where quite by good fortune a large
collection of sources on this very subject stood right before me.
From this research I conclude that Nephi was familiar with
the Israelite legal practice of using double documents or deeds and that he
instructed his posterity to construct the Nephite record in a fashion that
would comply with that tradition.74 In conformance with the concepts
of the double deed, the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon will confirm the
truth of the open and available portion. Moroni himself indicated that the
final judgment will have legal elements, that we will see him "at the bar
of God," and that God will verify the truth of the words "declare[d]
. . . unto you" and "written by this man" (Moroni
10:27).
Nothing could reflect the ancient form of doubled legal
documentation more genuinely.
