Sunday School Supplements

In this lesson, we learn about the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived during a time of wickedness when the people were in complete apostasy. Jeremiah’s efforts to raise a “voice of warning” earned him a lot of persecution as he was rejected, hated by his friends and relatives, beaten and unjustly put in prison. Yet, Jeremiah remained faithful and true to his convictions.

My husband is not a person who shares my faith. However, there is one key thing we both agree on— we both feel that the most important aspect of spirituality is staying connected to the divine. For me, the divine is my Heavenly Parents and Christ. As my husband always says, if you are connected to the divine, you don’t have to worry about any other decision.

In the 34th chapter of Ezekiel, Ezekiel gives counsel on shepherding or as we now call it ministering. This is an area where I have much learning, growing and practicing to do – so much! I was terrible at doing visiting teaching. I gained an intellectual testimony of visiting teaching but never gained an experiential one (because I rarely did it). I want to change.

Ezekiel was a Judean taken captive during the early days of Babylon’s assault against Jerusalem. His prophecies date from 593 to 571 BC, all written from the exiled Hebrew community of Tel-abib. During the early years of his exile, Ezekiel directed his prophecies to the remnant inhabitants of Jerusalem, giving them dire warnings to repent, that destruction was imminent.

The limited numbers of women in scripture means we sometimes get caricatures of women—most frequently the angel or the devil. Women are either perfect, still, and silent on a pedestal or the garish whore of Babylon. Very few female characters in scripture are complex human beings, however, sometimes the nuance of a story shines through.

As women, we join our voices in the storied conversation surrounding the scriptures. Scriptural criticism and scholarship is a deep well from which we can draw increased wisdom. The work we do as individual readers can contribute to that well, which is sure to become an ocean of witnesses. Every textual reading leads to new revelation and avenues of exploration.

A little historical background helps set the stage for this lesson. In 721 B.C., the kingdom of Israel (the Northern Kingdom or ten tribes) was taken by Assyria. About a hundred years later, the Babylonians destroyed Assyria and also conquered the kingdom of Judah (the Southern Kingdom), taking many Jews captive. By the time these chapters at the beginning of Ezra took place, Babylon had in turn fallen to King Cyrus of Persia.

The Old Testament ends with the infamous scripture mastery verses from Malach 4: “5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”