Adult Lesson Plan

Read verse 10 aloud and ask, "What do you notice about the mood of the question?" The exiles say they "pine away" in their sins. They are not defiant. They feel defeated. The Lord's answer begins with an oath:

As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11)

God swears by His own life. In the Old Testament, an oath is the strongest guarantee a speaker can give, so the Lord is not offering a mild possibility. He is binding Himself to the promise. Then He describes what turning looks like in practical terms: the wicked person restores what he took and walks "in the statutes of life," and "none of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him" (Ezekiel 33:15–16).

Next read verse 13, which warns about the righteous person who will "trust to his own righteousness." Ask the class whether this seems unfair. It looks harsh only if we picture righteousness as a savings account. Ezekiel pictures it as a direction. Both the forgiven sinner and the fallen righteous man are judged by which way they are facing now. Luke 18:9–14 is the companion passage: the Pharisee who listed his virtues went home unjustified. The Restoration adds the Lord's promise that He will "remember them no more" (D&C 58:42).

Passage A can leave adults with a question: if I have to turn, where do I find the strength to turn? Three chapters later the Lord answers. Read:

A new heart also will I give you (Ezekiel 36:26)

Then read verse 27: "I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." Ask, "Who is doing the verbs?" In chapter 33 the sinner turns and restores. In chapter 36 the Lord gives, puts, and causes. A "stony heart" cannot soften itself, so the Lord replaces it. Alma called this a "mighty change" (Alma 5:14). Ask one question and move on: Which half do you tend to forget, your part or His?

The bones are "very dry," which means long dead and beyond any natural hope. The Lord asks Ezekiel to tell them to "hear the word of the Lord" (Ezekiel 37:4). They come together first, and they live only when breath enters them. The Lord explains, "I will open your graves... and shall put my spirit in you" (Ezekiel 37:12–14). In Hebrew one word, ruach, means breath, wind, and spirit, so the breath that raises the bones is the same Spirit promised in 36:27. The sticks that follow were probably hinged wooden writing boards. Latter-day Saints read the stick of Judah as the Bible and the stick of Joseph as the Book of Mormon, joined to gather Israel (2 Nephi 3:11–13; 29:14).

Ezekiel 33 and 36 belong together because forgiveness without change would leave us where we started, and a demand for change without forgiveness would crush us. The Lord gives both. He forgives what is behind and gives a new heart for what is ahead, and in Jesus Christ the two come together. The Savior's Atonement is the reason sins can stop being "mentioned," and the Holy Ghost is the Spirit the Lord promised to put within us. When President Russell M. Nelson spoke to youth in "Hope of Israel" (June 2018), he described the gathering on both sides of the veil as the most important work on earth. That gathering begins one changed heart at a time.

• What makes it harder to believe the Lord has "no pleasure" in our failure than to believe He is disappointed?
• When have you seen a heart change that clearly came from more than willpower?

Ancient kings called themselves shepherds, so Ezekiel was holding Israel's leaders to their own title. They fed themselves, did not heal the sick or bind up the broken, and let the flock scatter (Ezekiel 34:2–4). Then the Lord says, "I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out" (Ezekiel 34:11). Verse 16 separates sheep that are "lost" from sheep "driven away." Some wander off, and some are pushed out by how they are treated. Elder Gerrit W. Gong's "Ministering" (Liahona, May 2023) is the manual's companion talk, and it calls members to shepherd the way the Savior does. Jesus asked Peter three times to feed His sheep (John 21:15–17).

• Who in your life has been "driven away" rather than "lost," and what might bring them back?
• Where are you more of a manager than a shepherd?

The Dead Sea cannot support fish or plants. In the vision, water flows from the temple threshold and rises from ankle-deep to a river no one can cross, and "every thing shall live whither the river cometh" (Ezekiel 47:9). Elder Dale G. Renlund taught in "Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing" (May 2018) that this work brings healing to families on both sides of the veil.

• What in your life feels most like the Dead Sea, and where might the river reach it?

A father has served faithfully for years, and lately he snaps at his kids and feels he's failing them. A Relief Society leader worries that the sisters she has not reached will be lost because of her. Ezekiel 34:11 lifts part of that weight, because the Lord says He will seek the sheep Himself. It does not cancel their calling. Invite them to pick one person this week who may feel "driven away," and to do one shepherding act for that person: a text, a visit, or an apology.

A woman repented of something years ago. She keeps her covenants, but she still replays the old sin and wonders if God does too. Ezekiel 33:16 and D&C 58:42 say the Lord does not mention it again. Invite her, and anyone in a similar place, to write Ezekiel 33:11 on a card this week and read it each time the memory returns. Then ask the Lord for the new heart in Ezekiel 36:26 so the old memory loses its power.