followHIM - Jeremiah 1-20 Part 2 • Dr. John Hilton III • Oct. 10 - 16

Starting point is 00:00:01 Welcome to part two of John Hilton III, Jeremiah chapters one through 20. Let's turn the page and look at Jeremiah chapter 17. I'll start in verse five. It says, thus says the Lord, cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert. They shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness. And in contrast, blessed are those who trust in the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when the heat comes. And I love that. I just, I mean, that's probably worth unpacking for a minute.

Starting point is 00:00:46 What does this mean in your life to really trust in the Lord versus trusting in mere mortals? That's a theme that Jeremiah returns to a few times, this issue of trust. Where's my trust? The Book of Mormon would call that the arm of the flesh. Do not trust in the arm of the flesh. I think of Nephi automatically, for he shall be as a tree planted by the flesh. Do not trust in the arm of the flesh. I think of Nephi automatically, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters. Remember Nephi saying that the Liahona led them to the more fertile parts of the wilderness. Also Psalms, what is it? Psalm 23, he leadeth me beside the still waters. One of the things that was Elder Maxwell that I first recall saying as so beautifully, but part of trusting in the Lord is trusting in his timing, which is one of the

Starting point is 00:01:32 hardest things to do when our expectations are not met of how things should happen and how they should unfold. Definitely. In so many areas of our lives, I think it's easy to look sideways, to see what other people are doing, to trust in the opinions of experts rather than really look upward to trust in God and his prophets. If we just keep reading here in chapter 17, Jeremiah gives an amazing promise about the Sabbath day. So Jeremiah is called to go stand in the gates of Jerusalem. And he says, if you listen to me, says the Lord and bring in no burden by the gate of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, then this city shall be inhabited forever. But if you do not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day

Starting point is 00:02:19 holy, then I will kindle a fire in its gates. And we've already had the spoiler alert. We know what the people are going to choose, but I think it's really powerful to see the amazing blessings that come from keeping the Sabbath day. Yeah. It's impressive to me that Jeremiah is still going. He's like the energizer bunny, fully knowing they're not going to, he's still teaching the doctrine, but knowing full well, they're not going to take it's still teaching the doctrine, but knowing full well, they're not going to take it. He preaches for decades. And we've already seen some of this in Jeremiah. He uses these very creative metaphors and object lessons. If we were to jump over to chapter 18, I think this is one of the more famous passages from Jeremiah. Jeremiah is told to go

Starting point is 00:03:01 watch a potter making a clay vessel and the vessel doesn't turn out properly. So the potter reuses the clay to make a new vessel. And then God gives an interpretation. He says, this is verse six of Jeremiah 18. Can I not do with you? Oh, house of Israel, just as this potter has done, just like the clay and the potter's hand. So are you in my hand, O house of Israel. And I think we can kind of look at that in different ways. I mean, maybe a negative view is like, well, Jerusalem's doing terrible, so we're just going to have to reshape them, and that's really painful. But I think it's also a hopeful message. Maybe sometimes I feel like a misshapen piece of clay, and it's like, well, I'm useless. And God's saying, no, no, no, don't worry. I can reshape you. You are clay in my hands.

Starting point is 00:03:53 And to me, I think that's a real message of hope that God's gonna be able to shape me to do whatever it is he needs from me. Yeah, I like the idea that, is it Paul that talks about becoming a new creature? He's a creator and he can make you a new creation, a new creature. Yeah. Clay in the potter's hand. That's a great one-liner from Jeremiah. There's an object lesson. And if there's any seminary teachers listening, you might want to do this, but you might not. It probably doesn't meet the current safety

Starting point is 00:04:19 standards. So this is jumping to Jeremiah chapter 19, around verse three, Jeremiah is told to go and get some pottery. And so he gets his pottery and he says, hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem, thus saith the Lord of hosts, I will bring evil upon this people. And then he takes a pottery and he just throws it to the ground and it smashes into pieces. Can you see the early morning seminary teachers throwing the potter in the ground? That's going to wake the kids up. Make sure everyone has the safety goggles if you do that. And then verse 11, thus saith the Lord of hosts, even so I will break this people and this city as one breaketh a potter's vessel. So Jeremiah's got this really creative object lesson, but the authorities are not impressed with it. In fact, as a result, Jeremiah's got this really creative object lesson, but the authorities are not impressed with it. In fact, as a result, Jeremiah is captured. One of the temple priests hits Jeremiah and puts him in the stocks.

Starting point is 00:05:12 When I think of this picture, these stocks in my mind, kind of like medieval Europe, people are throwing tomatoes at you as they walk past. I'm not sure if that's exactly how it was for Jeremiah. But in other words, Jeremiah does exactly what God tells him to do with this amazing object lesson. And then things get worse. Jeremiah 20 is another time where, you know, Jeremiah's in the stocks. He pours out his heart to the Lord and actually he quits in verse Jeremiah chapter 20 verse nine. Jeremiah said, I will not make mention of him, the Lord, nor speak any more in his name. I quit. I'm done. Thanks Lord for the mission call. I bought my ticket. I'm heading home. But then note this next phrase,

Starting point is 00:05:54 Jeremiah says, but God's word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I could not stay. I mean, that is one of the most powerful scriptural phrases. His word was in my heart, like a fire in my bones. Jeremiah wants to quit, but he can't. God's word is just there planted so deeply. And I hope that I can be that way in my life. Boy, this reminds me, I was listening to a cassette tape, guys, of Boyd K. Packer at a CES symposium talking about an old seminary or Sunday school teacher that they had.

Starting point is 00:06:34 President Packer said, we could warm our hands by the fire of his testimony. Great phrase. That's how Jeremiah is. The word is in his heart like a fire in the bones. And maybe we just pause for a minute on that phrase. Hank, John, if someone were to come to you and say, you know, I barely can read the 29. I love it, John. his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I was weary with forbearing. I could not stay. So how long is his commitment to quitting? He's like, I quit. Okay, nevermind. I'm back. I think the Lord loves that kind of gumption. One of my favorite quotes is from the

Starting point is 00:07:43 prophet Brigham Young, and they're talking about the trek west. And this is what he says, We are willing to take our full share of troubles, trials, losses, and crosses, hardships and fatigues, warning and watching for the kingdom of heaven's sake. And we feel to say, calm or strife, turmoil or peace, life or death. In the name of Israel's God, we mean to conquer or die trying. That to me is similar to I could not stay. I could not be quiet.

Starting point is 00:08:20 I am moving forward. It's in my bones. Love that. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave a talk called A Teacher Come From God. And in here, he spoke about Jeremiah. He said, Anger that he had been so mistreated and maligned, Jeremiah vowed, in effect, he would never teach another lesson, whether it be to an investigator, primary child, new convert, or heaven forbid, the 15-year-olds. I will not make mention of the Lord nor speak any more in his name, the discouraged prophet said. But then came the turning point of Jeremiah's life. Something had been happening with every testimony he had borne, every scripture he had read, every truth he had taught.

Starting point is 00:09:07 Something had been happening that he hadn't counted on. Even as he vowed to close his mouth and walk away from the Lord's work, he found that he could not. Why? Because his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I was weary with forbearing that I could not stay.

Starting point is 00:09:26 And Elder Holland continues, this is what happens in the gospel to both the teacher and the taught. It is what happens to Nephi and Lehi when, quote, the Holy Spirit of God did come down from heaven and did enter into their hearts, and they were filled as if with fire, and they could speak forth marvelous words. Helaman 545. That's fantastic. A lot of us will remember October 2009. I bet both of you remember Safety for the Soul, Elder Holland's talk on the Book of Mormon.

Starting point is 00:09:58 And I remember some pounding of the pulpit a little bit. I'm going to read a bit of it, but I encourage everyone to go back. You got to hear him say it. It's the power in his voice. He said, now, I did not sail with the brother of Jared in crossing an ocean, settling in a new world. I did not hear King Benjamin speak his angelically delivered sermon. I did not proselyte with Alma and Amulek nor witness the fiery death of the innocent believers. I was not among the Nephite crowd who touched the wounds of the resurrected Lord, nor did I weep with Mormon and Moroni over the destruction of an entire civilization. But my testimony of this record and the peace it brings to the human heart is as binding and unequivocal

Starting point is 00:10:47 as was theirs. Like them, I give my name unto the world to witness unto the world that which I have seen, and like them, I lie not, God bearing witness of it. I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my oath and my office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my last days, but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God, that I declared to the world in the most straightforward language I could summon that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth, and it was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days. Do you remember you guys hearing that and just, whew, and that's a Jeremiah 20 verse maybe we can take a look at Jeremiah 21,

Starting point is 00:12:10 13. So now we've left the come follow me curriculum. Come follow me curriculum, I think ends at Jeremiah chapter 20, but it doesn't pick up next week until Jeremiah chapter 30. So if you're okay, let's fill in the gaps with some of the highlights of 21 through 30. I don't know if there's a come follow me police that will come get you, John. In Jeremiah chapter 22, verse 13, we read, and the Lord says, what sorrow awaits Jehoiakim? Now just to pause there real quick, Jehoiakim, he's the king of Judah at the time. He's Zedekiah's older brother, and he's probably king during much of Lehi's lifetime as well. So even though this is a name that we're not familiar with, this would have been a name that Nephi was familiar with. So Jeremiah is criticizing the current king who builds his palace with forced labor. He builds injustice into its walls for

Starting point is 00:12:54 he makes his neighbors work for nothing. He does not pay them for their labor. He says, I will build a magnificent palace of huge rooms and many windows. I will panel it throughout with a fragrant cedar and paint it a lovely red, but a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king. Your father, Josiah also had plenty to eat and drink. So now Jeremiah is referring to Jehoiakim's father, Josiah, who we've read about a righteous, wonderful king. King's father, Josiah, who we've read about a righteous, wonderful King and Jeremiah saying, Josiah had plenty of material wealth, but he was just in right in all his dealings. He continues. That is why the Lord blessed him. He gave justice and help to the poor and needy.

Starting point is 00:13:37 Everything went well for him. Isn't that what it means to know me? Says the Lord. And I love that last phrase. The Lord says he gave justice and help to the poor and needy. Isn't that what it means to know me? To me, that just phrase connects me to John chapter 17, verse three, where before going into Gethsemane, Jesus says, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou sent. So eternal life is to know God. And here the Lord says, what does it mean to know me? To serve the poor and the needy. That's what it means. Elder Quentin L. Cook recently gave a talk at BYU and he spoke of the individual prophets,

Starting point is 00:14:23 many, I shouldn't say all of them, but he spoke about many individual prophets. It was Education Week. Yeah, Education Week devotional. When he got to President Monson, he said, nobody, nobody took care of the poor and the needy like President Monson. Nobody had the one-on-one ministry like President Monson. I mean, he was called his bishop. He's 22 years old. Ward has a thousand people in it, and he's using his vacation time to go visit widows. That to me is an indication that President Monson knew the Lord. This is what it means to know me, to feed the poor and the needy. I really like that. And Jeremiah is calling this king out on his opulence, right? Yeah. And then again, I mean, it's kind of

Starting point is 00:15:12 like the last supper, Lord, is it I? To what extent am I kind of in the same boat? Jeremiah would say to me, hey, John, you got a lot. Maybe it's time for you to give a little bit more back to help others. That's a pretty big house you got there in Orem, Utah there, John. How about coming to your friend Hank and helping him out? Boy, those phrases, you're building injustice into its walls and oppression into its doorframes and ceilings. That's poetic. By using forced labor, you're building injustice into your house. It's in your walls now. Speaking of President Monson, when I was young, I remember President Kimball speaking of the threefold mission of the church to proclaim the gospel, perfect the saints, and redeem the dead.

Starting point is 00:15:57 And it was President Monson that added care for the poor and needy in his administration. And it's been recently re-articulated now in the new handbook to live the gospel of Jesus Christ, care for those in need. It doesn't say poor and needy, but just those in need. Live the gospel of Jesus Christ, care for those in need, invite all to come unto Christ and unite families for eternity. And that's the new way the work of salvation has been articulated. I think it's beautiful. Live, care, invite, unite. Well, I remember when that addition was made during the time of President

Starting point is 00:16:33 Monson, and I always kind of refer to that as the fourth mission. When we get to the New Testament, there's going to be lots of times that Jesus talks about the importance of serving the poor. And sometimes we'll say, well, yes, and we should also serve the poor in spirit. We'll kind of like diverge and talk about helping the poor in spirit. And that's true. We should serve the poor in spirit. But what Jeremiah is talking about here, what Jesus is talking about in the New Testament is serving the poor financially. And that's an obligation that we just cannot escape. We are called by God to do it. And I love what Elder Holland said. I can't tell you exactly what your responsibility is to care for those who cannot or do not always provide for themselves,

Starting point is 00:17:12 but the Lord can. And so then the responsibility is on each of us to pray and say, Lord, what do you want me to do with the stewardship I've been given? What's my responsibility to care for the poor? Both of you have been to Israel, and I like to tell this story as we venture from the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea, that there's an old, I think it's a Jewish rabbi, or I can't remember who said, look how beautiful the Sea of Galilee is because it takes and gives. It takes and gives. It takes and gives. And look how dead the Dead Sea is because it takes and takes and takes, but it has no outlet. It does not give. But the Sea of Galilee is just brimming with life and water comes in,

Starting point is 00:18:00 the Jordan flows through it, it flows out, it goes in and out. The rabbi's idea is that's a beautiful life, a life that takes and gives, takes and gives, instead of just a life that is focused on taking and taking. That's always stuck with me. I like this. I'm going to write down here in Jeremiah 22, just to kind of a King Benjamin reference, because he seems to fit this idea of what Jeremiah is talking about. He's a fantastic king and he reigned in judgment and justice and it was well with him. He was beloved by his people, the same with his son, King Mosiah, beloved by the people. What did you say, John? He didn't build unrighteousness into the walls. He labored with his own hands for his support. And you'd probably say that King Noah did.

Starting point is 00:18:48 Yeah. Well, let's jump to one of my all-time favorite stories about Jeremiah. This is like, again, one of those lesser known stories. You want to watch the Jeremiah movie. It will make this scene come alive. So we're going to be around Jeremiah 27, 28. It's another one of Jeremiah's object lessons. The Lord calls him to wear a yoke, kind of like the oxen wear.

Starting point is 00:19:08 So he's walking around the city wearing this yoke. And it's an object lesson to say pretty soon Jerusalem will be under the yoke of bondage to Babylon. So one day Jeremiah's in the temple, he's wearing his yoke. And this false prophet named Hananiah makes his own prophecy. He says that God has revealed to him that the yoke of Babylon will be broken within two years. Jerusalem is going to be set free. And to illustrate his point, Hananiah takes Jeremiah's yoke that he's wearing and he breaks it. And he says, thus saith the Lord in two years,

Starting point is 00:19:40 I will break the yoke of oppression of Babylon. So, I mean, try to imagine this scene in your mind. Or watch the Jeremiah movie. It is a crazy scene. So Jeremiah later says to Hananiah, you have broken a wooden yoke, but you have replaced it with a yoke of iron. And then he prophesies that Hananiah will die that year, and Hananiah does.

Starting point is 00:20:05 So for the people who are there kind of watching, it kind of takes us to Zedekiah, who's a really complicated character. We'll talk more about him next week. And next week, come follow me. There's a lot more exciting stories with Zedekiah. But you kind of got to wonder, what does Zedekiah feel? He's watching Jeremiah. The people are listening to him.

Starting point is 00:20:22 Hananiah, there's other false prophets, but does Zedekiah know they're false prophets? He probably wants to listen to them. It sounds good. But then when Hananiah dies, Zedekiah is probably like, oh, this is probably taking place just a couple of years after Nephi and Lehi left Jerusalem. So that takes us to Jeremiah chapter 29. That's the last chapter we'll discuss today. And it's got a really beautiful verse in it that I want to tie back to one of the first verses we talked about back in Jeremiah chapter one, verse five. So in Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11, the Lord says, I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm to give you a future with hope. That's such a beautiful verse. I'm just going

Starting point is 00:21:06 to read it one more time. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. I love that God has a plan for you. And back in Jeremiah 1, verse 5, the Lord says, before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. We're not in a short-term relationship with the Lord. He's known us from the beginning. And I love that he's got a plan for us. He's got hopes and dreams and a future with hope for you and for me. And I just know that we can tap in to that plan. Sometimes God's going to tell us everything. Maybe we see something in our patriarchal blessing. We know what to do. Sometimes we're like Nephi, we just need to go without knowing the next step. But just to know that God has a plan for us can

Starting point is 00:21:56 really be a blessing. These are like a bookend verses, aren't they, John? Yeah. So if I can just share a personal story along the lines of God's plans for us, you mentioned earlier that I speak Chinese. I served an English speaking mission. I learned Chinese in my thirties, but before that as a missionary, there was a time when I was serving in downtown Denver and a lot of the people we tracked it into were Spanish speakers. And the Spanish speakers were really nice. They would invite us in, offer some food, a lot nicer actually than the English speakers we would track into. So I called my mission president and I said, President Horn, could I switch and become a Spanish speaking missionary? And he said, no, we need you as an English speaking missionary.

Starting point is 00:22:39 But as I continued to kind of track in those areas, the Holy Ghost whispered to my heart, John, as soon as you get back from your mission, you need to learn Spanish. So I came back from my mission. I enrolled in Spanish 101 and it was kind of embarrassing to be in Spanish 101. I was the only return missionary in the class. Everyone else was college freshmen who had taken Spanish in high school, but I just kept at it. I took Spanish 101, 102. It's a long story, but shortly after my wife, Lonnie and I got married, we moved to Mexico for three months to really solidify our Spanish fluency. Then we came back and the first area where I was a seminary teacher was a beautiful farm town, Nissa, Oregon. And a

Starting point is 00:23:18 lot of the population there was Spanish speakers. And Lonnie and I were called as ward missionaries. We were able to do lots of sharing the gospel in Spanish. And I kind of felt like, okay church educational system that once I graduated, I would go wherever they assigned me. And I love being in Boston. I kind of hope that I would remain in Boston. But that winter was also very cold in Boston. I don't know. Probably every winter is very cold in Boston. The snow that fell in November was still on the ground in March.

Starting point is 00:24:01 And I remember one morning as I was going out to my car early in the morning, I kind of was like, why do I want to live in a place where I'm miserable for like three months out of the year? And I felt this little prompt, sorry for my friends in Boston still, but I felt this little prompting from the spirit say, John, you're going to go to the South and you'll speak Spanish. And I was thinking like to people's like, is there a lot of Spanish speakers in the South? What does that mean? Well, some time passed. I got assigned by the church educational system to be an Institute director of a nearby university a couple hours away. My wife, Lonnie and I, we went house hunting and couldn't find any houses there in New Haven. So we said, okay, we'll come back and go house hunting another weekend. The next Monday, an email went out to all seminary and institute employees saying that

Starting point is 00:24:47 there was a new position available to be a coordinator in Miami, Florida. And it specifically said that if you want this job, you need to be able to speak Spanish because two of the stakes you're coordinating are Spanish speaking stakes. And I just felt the spirit say, this is your job. This is you. So I called and I said, hey, I think this is for me. And the person I talked to said, look, we've got tons of return missionaries who speak Spanish and we've already assigned you to new Haven. We don't need you forget it. But the spirit is just like really said, this is your plan. So I called that person's boss

Starting point is 00:25:20 and I said, look, you can do whatever you want. I'm just telling you, I really think I'm a good fit for this job. And he called me back three days later and he said, you're right. It's your job. And our family moved to Miami and it was such a beautiful time in our lives to be there in Miami, to have the privilege to train early morning seminary teachers in Spanish and teach Institute in Spanish. And I just loved it. And so that's, I apologize for kind of sharing a long and personal story, but to me, it's an illustration that God has plans for us. And sometimes it's just a little prompting that we get and then line upon line, that's going to, that's going to flow. I see that in the Sorenson. This is the

Starting point is 00:26:00 whole story of Steve and Shannon Sorenson feeling a prompting to create a follow him podcast, right? Line upon line, things will grow and develop as we keep our eye on the plans that God has. And I just love that phrase that he has a hope for our future. And as we follow his plans for us, we can have hope in our future. Beautiful. Great story. Yeah, it's really a fantastic story, John. You know, John, this reminds me of a story of just the Lord having a plan for somebody that when it didn't seem like there was one, there was a little boy whose name was Harry. He was born in Lancashire, England in 1857. And he had a little sister named Polly. And his mother joined the church.

Starting point is 00:26:43 His father left the family a lot. He had a drinking problem. Sometimes he would send money. One time he sent enough money that Harry's mother decided, I'm going to go to Zion. And she took a couple of the, I think it was younger children, and left Harry and Polly with some members, different members. In fact, Harry was left with a family called the Toveys, and their conversion was nominal. The Toveys would take Harry with them to pubs and taverns and drink themselves into a stupor. And Harry would often just hide under the table, and they taught him these dirty little tavern songs. He said he almost never forgot the

Starting point is 00:27:26 lyrics of those songs for his whole life, but they would make him sing these songs so that people would give him money and then they could buy more liquor. And so all of this time, he didn't get to go to school. He tried running away a couple of times and he heard what he called a soul voice say, Harry, if you do this, you'll never see your mother again. The Toveys actually tried to enlist him in the army to be a drummer because he had good rhythm, something like that. And again, that soul voice said, you need to go back. And he said one time while on what his biographer called a begging tour, Mother Tovey, as he called her, was asleep and a newspaper blew by.

Starting point is 00:28:07 And he didn't know how to read or to cipher, they used to call it. And he grabbed this newspaper and he looked at it and he just thought it was magical that these little marks could speak to people, these little marks on a paper. And he said out loud, will books and papers ever speak to me? I wonder if I will ever read books. And he heard a voice, he called that his soul voice, that said, I, like A-Y-E, I, and you'll write them too. And he said he was caught up in a profound silence for like a long time until Mother Tovi awoke and they resumed their journey. Well, he said, my boyhood was a tragedy and a nightmare. I had to beat the dogs to the garbage.

Starting point is 00:28:55 Horrible childhood and aching to be able to read, which he never was taught to do. Well, eventually, Brigham Young found out about Harry and Polly and through the Perpetual Education Fund brought them across the ocean and across the plains. I remember that Harry was with a certain wagon train, fell asleep and woke up when the last man on a horse was already on the other side of the river. And he yelled out to him, you know, wait for me. And the man on the horse said, can you swim? He said yes, but he really couldn't.

Starting point is 00:29:29 He almost drowned. But he made it to the other side, but he realized he'd left his shoes on the other side of the river. So he crossed the plains mostly in bare feet. He did find some boots on a dead soldier. And you'd think he would wear those to cross the plains. But when he was asked about it later, he said, no, I want something to wear when I see my mother again. So I think this is about eight years old when these things were happening in England. And I

Starting point is 00:29:59 think it was about, he's about 11 years old when they get to Emigration Canyon. And I guess that they would kind of prepare themselves the night before of coming into the valley, get all cleaned up and everything. And he put those boots on and walked down. I believe they came down State Street or Main Street. And there was a bit of recognition. He thought he saw his mother there and it was her and he was older, but saw her and said, exact quote, what's up, mother? And she took Harry and she had married another man who was killed in a threshing accident and then married another man who worked in the mines in Tooele. So you're thinking, oh, good, Harry's going to get a chance to read.

Starting point is 00:30:41 But instead, he went to work in these mines. And finally, an educator named Hannah Holbrook, and there's an elementary school named after her in Bountiful, Utah. She discovered Harry and taught him to read. And his biographer said he went at it with everything he had, science, philosophy, everything, the scriptures. And his biographer said, and I'll tell you who it is, had you read and studied as much as Harry did, once he learned how to read, you would have earned a master's degree in any university. Well, he was living in a hut with some builders of the Salt Lake Temple. He put on his only coat, marched up University Hill and gave the valedictorian address.

Starting point is 00:31:26 Later, he was called on a mission to the southern states. He had to sub for the mission president at one point. I can't remember why. So he was an acting mission president. He went to retrieve the bodies of Elder Gibbs and Elder Barry that were killed. The Cane Massacre, I think they called it, Cane Creek Massacre. He dressed up as a vagabond and went and rescued these bodies. And he was often asked to retell the story. He would dress up in that vagabond outfit that he had as he retold the story. Well, eventually he was asked, can you write the history of your church for,

Starting point is 00:32:01 I think it was an encyclopedia Americana magazine or something. And he said, well, you don't know what you're asking. That would be quite a bit. But he started putting that together. And eventually he was called as a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, put all of this history together on April 6th of 1930. Yeah, 100 years. Yeah, exactly 100 years.

Starting point is 00:32:25 He was speaking in general conference and he said, we have seven temples in the land roundabout in our first 100 years. Imagine the day when there will be 100 temples in the audience. And think of it today, John and Hank. Then he picked up these books and he put them on the pulpit and said, Here as to an altar, I place this work of mine. And if there's anything of excellence in it, I know it is of thee, he said to God. He said, Oh God, the eternal father. Here as to an altar, I place this work of mine. And those books were the comprehensive history of the church by Brigham Henry Roberts, B.H. Roberts that went by Harry.

Starting point is 00:33:10 And the fun part of the story for me is when he would give copies of these volumes to his former missionaries, he would sign his name and put underneath in quotes, and you'll write them too. And here's someone who was denied the chance to read. But as you've pointed out, John, God had a plan for him, and it all unfolded. Eventually, and maybe had he not been denied that chance, he would not have gone for it with the same fervor. I don't know. But it's such a beautiful story. Had he not been denied that chance, he would not have gone for it with the same fervor. I don't know. But it's such a beautiful story. And some of our listeners will remember that name, B.H. Roberts.

Starting point is 00:33:53 And that's a little bit of his backstory. I got that from his biography written by Truman G. Madsen. And so that's why it's his biographer. But he tells it like that, where he doesn't give away who it is until the end. But that story gives me testimony of that idea that God has a plan for us. I love these bookend verses you've given us, John. Jeremiah 1.5, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. This is from Brigham Young. I want to tell you, each and every one of you, that you are well acquainted with God,

Starting point is 00:34:27 our Heavenly Father, or the great Elohim. You are well acquainted with Him, for there is not a soul of you, but what has lived in His house and dwelt with Him year after year, and yet you are seeking to become acquainted with Him, when the fact is you have merely forgotten what you already know. And that's Brigham Young. And then you go to the last verse here that John gave us, Jeremiah 29, 11, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. I knew you before. I'm going to know you at the end. This is President Ezra Taft Benson. Nothing will surprise us more when we get to heaven and see the Father and realize how well we know him and how familiar his face is to us.

Starting point is 00:35:21 John, before we let you go, I'd like to ask you just one more question. You've been wonderful for us today, and I feel like the book of Jeremiah has changed for me. It's become a good friend. It really has given me fire in the bones just to read this book. What do you hope our listeners walk away with having listened to our episodes with you? I would just say maybe two things. I hope that we have a little more of that fire in the bones ourselves, that God's word is burning in us. Sometimes there's a book like Jeremiah, we said at the very beginning, oh, I don't know this one as much. We don't have the Jeremiah chapter, so the Book of Mormon, so we might not encounter it

Starting point is 00:36:00 as frequently. But I hope that we felt like, wow, this is fun. And it gets us excited to go back and to explore other books of scripture in upcoming weeks. Like what's the book of Hosea all about? Who's Amos? Let's get excited. Not to say like, oh yeah, those are the books that we skip, but there's excitement and joy and spiritual power in these amazing lesser known books of the Bible, perhaps. The other thing that we might not have touched on quite as much today, we've seen a few places where Jesus Christ connects with Jeremiah, like the den of robbers, the den of thieves. You both have made a few connections between Jesus Christ and Jeremiah. But throughout, we've been reading about the Lord, all caps, Jehovah, interacting with Jeremiah. And so I would just want us to remember that Jesus Christ, he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And as we're reading about these interactions between

Starting point is 00:36:49 Jeremiah and the Lord, these are interactions between Jeremiah and Jesus Christ. And it's helping us, I think, get to know Jesus Christ better. And more than anything else, that's what I would hope that as a result of these episodes, we're feeling a greater connection with our Savior Jesus Christ and wanting to become more like Him. As we were reading this today and Jeremiah was feeling this isn't working and all of this, I thought, I wonder if he knew that one day we, in the latter days, not just us, the whole Christian world would read Jeremiah and find strength from reading him. And your life will mean something for generations, for millennia, for people, because we will get to read your story. Wow. What a great day we've had today with my two friend, my two John friends. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:37:40 We want to remind everybody of the podcast, Seeking Jesus with John Hilton III. You can also go to his website, johnhiltonii.com slash Jeremiah, to find more of what we've talked about today. Please keep expanding your gospel knowledge. We want to thank our executive producers, Steve and Shannon Sorenson. We love you. We want to thank our sponsors, David and Verla Sorenson, and we hope all of you will join us. We have more Jeremiah to talk about next week

Starting point is 00:38:10 on Follow Him. We have an amazing production crew we want you to know about. David Perry, Lisa Spice, Jamie Nielsen, Will Stoughton, Crystal Roberts, and Ariel Cuadra. Thank you to our amazing production team.

followHIM - Jeremiah 1-20 Part 2 • Dr. John Hilton III • Oct. 10 - 16

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