Explain It Like I'm…

God's Love Lasts Forever

Some things do not last very long. A banana turns brown in a few days. A metal coin can last for hundreds of years.

God told His people through the prophet Jeremiah, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). Everlasting means it never ends. Heavenly Father's love for you will never wear out or go away.

A Promise Written on Your Heart

God's people had broken their promises to Him. But He still wanted to make a covenant with them. A covenant is a promise you and God both keep.

The Lord said, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts" (Jeremiah 31:33). That means God helps us love His commandments on the inside, so keeping them is part of who we are. When you are baptized, you make a covenant with God. He helps you keep it.

The King Who Burned God's Words

The Lord told Jeremiah to write down His words. Jeremiah's helper, Baruch, wrote them in a scroll and read them to the people. God wanted the people to hear and choose good.

King Jehoiakim did not like the words. He cut the scroll into pieces and threw it into the fire. But God told Jeremiah to write it all again. God's words cannot be destroyed. The scriptures are His words to us today.

Brave Ebed-melech

Some leaders were angry at Jeremiah. They put him down into a deep, muddy hole called a cistern. Jeremiah sank in the mud.

A man named Ebed-melech knew this was wrong. He went to the king and asked to help. Then he used ropes and old rags to lift Jeremiah out. The rags kept the ropes from hurting Jeremiah's arms. The Lord promised to protect Ebed-melech "because thou hast put thy trust in me" (Jeremiah 39:18). You can be brave like Ebed-melech when someone needs help.

Sad Becomes Happy

The people did not repent, so the city of Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. The people felt very sad. They wrote sad poems in the book of Lamentations.

But even in their sadness, they remembered something true: God's mercies "are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:23). When we make a bad choice and feel sad, we can repent. Jesus Christ helps us be forgiven. The Lord promised, "I will turn their mourning into joy" (Jeremiah 31:13).

Ask your child: When have you felt Heavenly Father's love, even on a sad day?

Two Kings, One Problem

This week runs from 604 BC to 586 BC, and it's the story of a nation that heard the truth and refused to act on it.

King Jehoiakim's response was blunt. When Jeremiah's scroll was read to him, he sliced it with a knife and fed it to the fire, column by column (Jeremiah 36:23). A few officials begged him to stop. He didn't. The Lord had Jeremiah rewrite the whole thing, "and there were added besides unto them many like words" (Jeremiah 36:32). You can burn paper. You can't burn revelation.

King Zedekiah is the more uncomfortable story, because he's more like us. He believed Jeremiah was a real prophet. He met him in secret and asked, "Is there any word from the LORD?" (Jeremiah 37:17). He got a clear answer. Then he admitted why he wouldn't follow it: "I am afraid... lest they... mock me" (Jeremiah 38:19).

Zedekiah's problem wasn't doubt. He had a testimony he was too embarrassed to live. That fear cost him his sons, his sight, and his city (Jeremiah 39:6–8). Lehi's dream describes people who tasted the fruit and then wandered off because they were ashamed of the mocking crowd (1 Nephi 8:25–28). Same trap, different century.

The Kid Nobody Expected

Officials dropped Jeremiah into a muddy cistern to die. The insiders, the princes of Judah, did nothing. An outsider did.

Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian servant in the palace, walked up to the king in public and called it what it was. Then he lowered ropes with old rags so Jeremiah's arms wouldn't be torn up on the way out (Jeremiah 38:11–13). The Lord promised to protect him "because thou hast put thy trust in me" (Jeremiah 39:18).

You'll face Ebed-melech moments: a group chat piling on someone, a friend being pressured, a standard you've quietly agreed to. Courage often means being the one person who speaks up first.

A Covenant That Changes You

Israel kept God's law on the outside, or not at all. So the Lord promised a new covenant: "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" (Jeremiah 31:33).

This is the difference between following rules because a parent is watching and following them because you've become someone who wants to. King Benjamin's people described it as "a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil" (Mosiah 5:2). In the latter days the Lord restored this as "the new and everlasting covenant" (D&C 22:1). It starts with your baptismal covenant and grows every time you take the sacrament.

The Lord keeps His side too: "I will not turn away from them, to do them good" (Jeremiah 32:40).

When You've Messed Up

After Jerusalem fell, survivors wrote Lamentations. Chapter 3 opens in total darkness: "I am the man that hath seen affliction" (Lamentations 3:1). The writer is honest about his pain and honest that sin caused much of it.

Then he makes a choice about what to remember: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope" (Lamentations 3:21). Alma did the same thing when he remembered "one Jesus Christ" and his torment turned to joy (Alma 36:17–20).

Shame tells you that you're too far gone. President M. Russell Ballard said the opposite: "Regardless of how desperate things may seem or how desperate they may yet become... you can always have hope. Always" ("The Joy of Hope Fulfilled," Oct. 1992 general conference).

Scripture Mastery Moment

Lamentations 3:22–23: "It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

Memorize this one for the mornings after a bad day; it reminds you that the Savior's mercy resets before you even get out of bed.

This week, notice one moment where you know what's right and feel the pull to stay quiet. Be Ebed-melech, not Zedekiah.

When the Lord called Jeremiah, He gave him a two-part mission: "to root out, and to pull down" and also "to build, and to plant" (Jeremiah 1:10). This week's chapters show both. Judah collapses between 604 and 586 BC, and through the wreckage the Lord promises a new covenant, a Branch of righteousness, and joy after mourning.

A Covenant Written on the Heart

In Jeremiah 31:31–34 the Lord promises: "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." The law itself does not change. Where it lives changes.

Israel's old pattern was outward observance or open rebellion. The new covenant transforms the person keeping it, and it rests on forgiveness: "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:34).

Latter-day Saints know this as the new and everlasting covenant, restored through Joseph Smith (D&C 22:1; 66:2). King Benjamin's people describe its effect: "a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil" (Mosiah 5:2). The Lord also binds Himself: "I will not turn away from them, to do them good" (Jeremiah 32:40).

• 💬 What promises have you made to God in sacred ordinances, and how have you seen Him keep His promises to you?

A Field Bought in a Falling City

While Babylon besieged Jerusalem, Jeremiah sat in prison. The Lord told him to buy his cousin's field at Anathoth, land that would soon be under enemy control. Jeremiah paid seventeen shekels, sealed the deed, and stored it in a clay jar to last "many days" (Jeremiah 32:9–14).

The purchase was a prophecy in action: "Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land" (Jeremiah 32:15). Jeremiah then prayed, "There is nothing too hard for thee" (Jeremiah 32:17). In Jeremiah 33:15 the Lord names the source of that future: "the Branch of righteousness" from David, fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The Scroll and the Fire

In Jeremiah 36 the Lord commanded Jeremiah to record his prophecies so "they may return every man from his evil way" (Jeremiah 36:3). Baruch wrote the scroll and read it at the temple. Some officials trembled and warned Jeremiah and Baruch to hide.

King Jehoiakim cut the scroll apart and burned it while Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah pleaded with him to stop (Jeremiah 36:25). The Lord had Jeremiah dictate it again with "many like words" added (Jeremiah 36:32). People can ignore or destroy scripture; they cannot stop it.

• 💬 How have the scriptures helped you turn away from something harmful?

Zedekiah and Ebed-melech: Belief Versus Courage

King Zedekiah believed Jeremiah. He asked privately, "Is there any word from the LORD?" (Jeremiah 37:17) and protected him in small ways. Yet he handed Jeremiah to officials who lowered him into a muddy cistern (Jeremiah 38:6), and he refused to obey because "I am afraid... lest they... mock me" (Jeremiah 38:19).

Compare Lehi, who left Jerusalem in Zedekiah's first year when the Lord warned him (1 Nephi 1–2). One family obeyed and was preserved. The king delayed and lost everything (Jeremiah 39:6–8).

Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian palace servant, confronted the king openly and pulled Jeremiah out with ropes padded by old rags (Jeremiah 38:7–13). The Lord promised him deliverance "because thou hast put thy trust in me" (Jeremiah 39:18).

• 💬 Where in your life is it easier to believe the prophet privately than to follow him publicly?

Lamentations: Hope That Is Chosen

Lamentations is a set of poems written after Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed. Chapter 1 pictures the city as a widow with no comforter, who admits, "The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment" (Lamentations 1:18).

Chapter 3 begins in darkness, then turns: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:21–23). Hope came when the poet chose what to remember, as Alma did when he remembered Jesus Christ (Alma 36:17–20).

President M. Russell Ballard counseled those who feel lost because of sin: "Regardless of how desperate things may seem or how desperate they may yet become... you can always have hope. Always" ("The Joy of Hope Fulfilled," Oct. 1992 general conference).

• 💬 What can you deliberately "recall to mind" when discouragement over your mistakes sets in?

Every thread this week leads to Jesus Christ. He is the Branch of righteousness, the Mediator of the new covenant, and the source of mercies new every morning.

Key Takeaways

• The new covenant places God's law in our hearts and changes who we are.
• The scriptures have power to turn us from evil, and no one can destroy God's word.
• Believing the prophet is not enough; we must act on his counsel even when it costs us socially.
• Through Jesus Christ, the Lord turns mourning caused by sin into joy (Jeremiah 31:13).

Context: From a Burned Scroll to a Burned City

These chapters span about eighteen years. In 604 BC King Jehoiakim burns Jeremiah's scroll (Jeremiah 36). In 586 BC Babylon burns Jerusalem (Jeremiah 39). The first fire is a rejection of revelation; the second is its consequence.

Archaeology fills in the faces. In 1982 Yigal Shiloh found a clay bulla in a burned archive in the City of David reading "Belonging to Gemaryahu son of Shaphan," the official who begged Jehoiakim not to burn the scroll (Jeremiah 36:25). Eilat Mazar later found seals of Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Gedaliah son of Pashur, two of the men who demanded Jeremiah's death (Jeremiah 38:1). The fire of 586 baked these clay seals hard, preserving the names of the men who heard Jeremiah's warning.

The Lachish Letters, written on pottery during the final invasion, include one officer's report: "We are watching for the signals of Lachish... for we cannot see Azekah." Jeremiah 34:7 names Lachish and Azekah as Judah's last fortified cities. Babylonian and Judean sources describe the same collapse.

The New Covenant: Same Law, New Location

"I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts" (Jeremiah 31:33). Jeremiah does not announce a new law. He announces a new location for the law, and a new kind of person to keep it.

The covenant has two pillars. The first is knowledge of the Lord available to everyone, "from the least of them unto the greatest" (Jeremiah 31:34). The second is forgiveness: "I will remember their sin no more." Jeremiah 32:40 adds the Lord's own commitment: "I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me."

The cross-dispensational line is clear:

• New Testament: Jesus called the sacramental cup "the new testament in my blood" (Luke 22:20), and Hebrews 8:8–12 quotes Jeremiah in full. Paul describes the law moving from stone to "fleshy tables of the heart" (2 Corinthians 3:3).
• Book of Mormon and Restoration: King Benjamin's people report "a mighty change in us, or in our hearts" (Mosiah 5:2), and the Lord restored "the new and everlasting covenant" in the latter days (D&C 22:1; 66:2).

The CFM manual points to Elder David A. Bednar's April 2023 address, "Abide in Me, and I in You; Therefore Walk with Me," as a modern frame for this covenant relationship.

Redemption as Legal Act: The Field at Anathoth

Land in Israel was a family inheritance from God. When a relative had to sell, the nearest kinsman, the go'el or redeemer, had the right to buy it so the land stayed in the family (Leviticus 25:25). Jeremiah, imprisoned during the siege, exercised that right for his cousin's field at Anathoth (Jeremiah 32:6–15).

He followed standard legal form. One deed was sealed so it could not be altered; an open copy stayed for reference. Both went into an earthen jar, the same storage method that later preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jeremiah was filing evidence for a restoration he would not live to see.

The act is a living prophecy of the Redeemer. Chapter 33 names Him: "the Branch of righteousness," raised up from David (Jeremiah 33:15), with a covenant as fixed as day and night (Jeremiah 33:20–21).

Following the Prophet: Zedekiah's Divided Heart

Zedekiah is a case study in a testimony without courage. He sent for Jeremiah, asked in secret, "Is there any word from the LORD?" (Jeremiah 37:17), and moved him to the prison court with daily bread. Yet he surrendered Jeremiah to his officials and refused to obey, admitting, "I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they... mock me" (Jeremiah 38:19).

Jeremiah's plea, "Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD" (Jeremiah 38:20), went unheeded. Zedekiah watched his sons die and was blinded (Jeremiah 39:6–7).

The Book of Mormon gives the counterpoint. Lehi left Jerusalem in Zedekiah's first year after receiving the Lord's warning (1 Nephi 1–2). Lehi's dream later diagnoses Zedekiah's failure precisely: people who tasted the fruit and fell away because they "were ashamed" of the great and spacious building (1 Nephi 8:25–28). Zedekiah's son Mulek escaped, and his people were later joined by the Nephites (Omni 1:15).

The Lord's standard holds across dispensations: "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same" (D&C 1:38).

Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian official with no standing in Israel, shows the alternative. Jerusalem's cisterns were bell-shaped chambers with openings two or three feet wide, and a neglected one filled with mud. His rags kept the ropes from tearing Jeremiah's skin as he was hauled through the narrow shaft. The Lord promised his deliverance "because thou hast put thy trust in me" (Jeremiah 39:18).

Lamentations: Hope at the Center of the Alphabet

Lamentations 1 and 3 are Hebrew acrostics; each stanza begins with the next of 22 letters. Chapter 3 gives each letter three verses, totaling 66. Grief "from aleph to tav" signals complete sorrow held inside an ordered structure.

The turn falls at the poem's center: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed... They are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:21–23). Hope comes by deliberate remembering, the same pattern as Alma, who "remembered... one Jesus Christ" (Alma 36:17–20).

President M. Russell Ballard extended that hope to those lost in sin: "Regardless of how desperate things may seem or how desperate they may yet become... you can always have hope. Always" ("The Joy of Hope Fulfilled," Oct. 1992 general conference). "For the Lord will not cast off for ever" (Lamentations 3:31).

This week, notice where your obedience is still outward, and invite the Lord to write that commandment on your heart.

1. Structural Frame: Two Fires

The narrative chapters are bracketed by two burnings. In 604 BC Jehoiakim incinerates the scroll (Jeremiah 36:23); in 586 BC the Babylonians burn the city and palace (Jeremiah 39:8). The first is the refusal of the word; the second is the covenant curse that the word had announced.

The prophet's commission anticipates this shape: "to root out, and to pull down... to build, and to plant" (Jeremiah 1:10). The Book of Consolation (Jeremiah 30–33) carries the building and planting, and it is placed inside the siege narrative, delivered while Jeremiah sits "shut up in the court of the prison" (Jeremiah 32:2; 33:1). Promise is spoken from confinement, which matters for every later reader who receives hope while still inside consequence.

Material culture corroborates the setting. The bulla of "Gemaryahu son of Shaphan," excavated by Yigal Shiloh in 1982, names the official of Jeremiah 36:25. Eilat Mazar's 2005 and 2008 finds name Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Gedaliah son of Pashur (Jeremiah 38:1). The fire of 586 vitrified the clay that would otherwise have crumbled. Lachish Letter 4 ("we cannot see Azekah") aligns with Jeremiah 34:7, and the Babylonian Chronicles confirm Nebuchadnezzar's Jerusalem campaigns.

2. The New Covenant: Relocation, Not Abrogation

Jeremiah 31:31–34 does not replace Torah. It changes its locus: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." The failure diagnosed is behavioral and anthropological. Israel kept the covenant externally or abandoned it, so the remedy is a transformed covenant-keeper.

Three features define the promise:

• Relational formula: "will be their God, and they shall be my people" (31:33), the covenant formula restated.
• Unmediated knowledge with forgiveness as ground: "they shall all know me... for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (31:34).

The chapter also abolishes inherited guilt ("every one shall die for his own iniquity," 31:30), individualizing accountability within a corporate covenant. Jeremiah 32:40 supplies divine reciprocity: "I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." The covenant is called "everlasting," and its permanence is grounded in cosmic ordinances: sun, moon, and stars (31:35–36), day and night (33:20–21).

Cross-dispensational web. Jesus designates the cup "the new testament in my blood" (Luke 22:20), identifying His atoning death as the covenant's forgiveness clause. Hebrews 8:8–12 quotes Jeremiah 31 as fulfilled. Paul's "fleshy tables of the heart" (2 Corinthians 3:3) is a direct echo. Mosiah 5:2 records the phenomenology of fulfillment, "a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil," followed by covenant-naming in Mosiah 5:7. The Lord restores it by name as "the new and everlasting covenant" (D&C 22:1; 66:2), and D&C 84:33–40 binds covenant reception to priesthood and divine promise. Elder David A. Bednar's April 2023 address, "Abide in Me, and I in You; Therefore Walk with Me," is cited in the CFM manual as the modern frame for this abiding relationship.

3. Prophetic Sign-Act: The Go'el at Anathoth

Jeremiah's purchase of Hanameel's field (Jeremiah 32:6–15) is a redemption-law enactment. Under Leviticus 25:25 the nearest kinsman, the go'el, buys back alienated patrimony so the inheritance remains in the family. Jeremiah executes it during a siege that renders the land worthless by market logic.

The legal form carries meaning. A sealed deed resists alteration; an open copy supplies reference. Both are deposited in an earthen vessel "that they may continue many days" (32:14), the preservation technique later attested at Qumran. The deed is evidence placed in escrow for a future restoration: "Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land" (32:15).

Typologically, the kinsman-redeemer act anticipates the Redeemer named in chapter 33, "the Branch of righteousness" raised from David (33:15). Jeremiah's prayer, "there is nothing too hard for thee" (32:17), and the Lord's reply, "is there any thing too hard for me?" (32:27), frame redemption as a statement about divine capacity, not human circumstance.

4. Revelation Received and Refused

Jeremiah 36 functions as a theology of scripture. The stated purpose of inscription is repentance: "that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive" (36:3). Responses are stratified, as the CFM manual invites readers to trace: Baruch's fidelity, the officials' fear and protective counsel, the intercession of Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah (36:25), and Jehoiakim's serial destruction. The Lord's response is reinscription with "many like words" added (36:32). Suppression produced an expanded text.

The Book of Mormon independently attests the prophet's reception: the brass plates contained "many prophecies... spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah" (1 Nephi 5:13), and Nephi notes that the Jews "cast [him] into prison" (1 Nephi 7:14).

5. Zedekiah, Lehi, and Ebed-melech: A Typology of Response

Zedekiah exhibits belief without obedience. He seeks revelation privately ("Is there any word from the LORD?" 37:17), ameliorates Jeremiah's conditions (37:21), and yet surrenders him to the princes (38:5). His stated motive is social: "I am afraid... lest they... mock me" (38:19). The outcome, sons slain and eyes put out (39:6–7), renders literal a prior spiritual blindness.

Three counter-types sharpen the analysis:

• Lehi, warned in "the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah" (1 Nephi 1:4), obeys and is preserved. Zedekiah's lineage survives only through Mulek's escape (Omni 1:15).
• Lehi's dream supplies the diagnostic category: those who tasted the fruit and "were ashamed" because of the mocking building (1 Nephi 8:25–28). D&C 1:38 removes the private/public evasion: "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."

Ebed-melech inverts every marker of insider status. A foreign official, he petitions publicly where Zedekiah consults secretly. Physical realia sharpen the account: Jerusalem's bell-shaped, plastered cisterns had narrow openings over wide chambers, and a neglected one held "no water, but mire" (38:6). The rags under the ropes (38:11–12) are practical mercy. His reward is framed in covenantal terms: "because thou hast put thy trust in me" (39:18).

6. Lamentations: Ordered Grief and the Hinge of Memory

Lamentations 1 and 3 are alphabetic acrostics; chapter 3 triples the pattern to 66 verses. The form performs totality, sorrow from aleph to tav, while asserting order within catastrophe. Chapter 1 personifies Jerusalem as a comfortless widow who nonetheless confesses, "The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment" (1:18). Theodicy is resolved by confession, not protest.

The hinge of chapter 3 sits at the alphabet's midpoint: "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope" (3:21). Hope is an act of chosen memory, grounded in covenant faithfulness ("great is thy faithfulness," 3:23) and divine restraint ("the Lord will not cast off for ever," 3:31). Alma 36:17–20 replicates the structure: torment, recollection of "one Jesus Christ," and joy. The cry from "the low dungeon" answered by "Fear not" (3:55–57) closes the loop with Jeremiah's own cistern.

President M. Russell Ballard applied the pattern pastorally: "Regardless of how desperate things may seem or how desperate they may yet become... you can always have hope. Always" ("The Joy of Hope Fulfilled," Oct. 1992 general conference).

Invitation to Further Study

A productive line of inquiry traces the covenant formula ("I will be their God, and they shall be my people") from Jeremiah 31:33 through Hebrews 8 and Mosiah 5 into D&C 66:2. Followed carefully, it shows one covenant reaching across dispensations, with Christ's blood as its forgiveness clause and the human heart as where it is written.