Episode 2: Jerusalem, Jeremiah, and the Jews (1Ne. 1)

This was a pretty wild time in Jerusalem when Nephi's account begins.  If you look at a map of the ancient world, you see that Jerusalem sits right in the middle between the Babylonian Empire and the Egyptian Empire.  I don't know if any of you have had to sit between two people having an argument, but it's not fun (especially if that argument involves swords).

There was a lot of power-play going on between the two, and everyone was waiting to see which of these two great empires would be the one to win all the chips.  This was a dangerous game, though: if you allied yourself with the losing side, then you could be sure that at the top of the winner's To Do List would be, "#1: Make all of my enemy's friends wish they were never born."

Zedekiah, who was the king in Jerusalem at this time, had been put into power by the Babylonians.  He was sort of a "puppet king"--even his name had been given him from Nebuchadnezzar (hereafter referred to as "The Nebster"): Zedekiah's name was originally Mattaniah, but he was renamed by The Nebster as part of Jerusalem's "Extreme Makeover".  The glitch with all of this was that the Babylonians were unwelcome guests for the Jews.  Conversely, there was a great love for all things Egyptian throughout Palestine (parents even started naming their kids with Egyptian names).

Also, the region had recently gone through an economic boom, so despite the tension between their imperial neighbors (Babylon and Egypt) the people of Jerusalem were feeling pretty good about themselves.  So good, in fact, that they started to come up with a plan to ally themselves with Egypt against Babylon in order to rid themselves of their Babylonian "Big Brother."


Enter: the prophet Jeremiah.

Only Jeremiah could make a king sulk

Jeremiah had one of the worst jobs as a prophet.  Not only was he one of the "doom and gloom" prophets (it's no fun being the bearer of bad news) but he also had the unenviable task of encouraging the Jews to throw their lot in with Babylon.  This made him extremely unpopular.  Imagine if President Monson announced in General Conference that there is going to be a war between Great Britain and China, and that the United States needs to ally itself with China!

Eventually you started to see two camps in Jerusalem: the "pro-Egyptian" camp (which was more numerous and had most of the wealthy and powerful among its adherents--including those among the priesthood), and the "pro-Babylonian" camp.  Of course, no one was really pro-Babylonian, but Jeremiah's message was that Egypt was about to fall as a super-power and if the Jews allied with Egypt, they would fall with it.  Jeremiah told the Jews that they needed to just go along with Babylon for now, and they would just spend a few decades under the Babylonian thumb before God delivered them (again).

But this sort of language was considered treasonous by many.  And apparently among those who thought so were Laman and Lemuel.

What an interesting family we start off with in the Book of Mormon.  It's a family divided by politics, perspectives and beliefs.  We can never judge another family that we see as "dysfunctional," namely because one of our most revered prophets in "Mormondom" was himself the father of a family with many struggles that we might term "dysfunctional" (notice how we often use our knowledge gained from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: we use it to judge others and apply labels).

When the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians
and found out the Jews had been plotting "be-
hind their backs," they were merciless.

Lehi saw the fall of Jerusalem in vision and went about preaching its demise, while his two oldest sons watched what they thought was their father-turned-traitor.  When Nephi sided with Dad, this certainly laid some seeds of hate in the hearts of Laman and Lemuel against their younger brother.


Eventually, when Dad would say it was time to leave town, leave their possessions and the land of their inheritance, and never come back (in a time when inheritance meant everything to a young man starting out in life) this must have really pushed them to the edge.  Imagine you're about to head off to the number one university of your choice, only to find out that your parents liquidated your college savings and were now moving to Baker, CA to live in a mobile home until God led them to a nicer place at some undisclosed location!

Apparently there's a Del Taco in Baker...in case that helps...

But things were also really bad amongst the Jews at this time.  There was a lot of greed and lust for power; charity had hit an all-time low (one of the most common sins that Jeremiah points out is that of people not helping the poor/needy); the priesthood had become infiltrated by priestcraft, and despite the city's inhabitants still following many of the Laws of Moses, there was no faith behind their actions.  Even the doctrine had become corrupted.  Nephi mentions in 1Ne. 1:19 that one of the things the Jews mocked his father about was prophesying "of the coming of a Messiah, and also the redemption of the world."

If a bit of doctrine as central as that of the Messiah had become lost, or a subject of derision amongst the Jews, then...yeah, they were in trouble....

Above: the pigeon knows that if he does certain things, he'll
get a treat. Below: you see how dogs eventually learned to
expect food when they heard a bell and would begin to drool
every time they heard a bell (I do the same thing whenever I
drive by Pizza Hut). We're not so different: we want a "treat"
(praise from others, or even just a lack of being judged by
others) and so we do certain things for that treat (like "going
through the motions"); or we even come to expect praise
("drooling") when we perform certain acts (hearing the bell).

And are we any different?  How many of us really know our own doctrine?  How many of us have gone to countless sacrament meetings, partaking of the sacrament in action only--with no faith behind what we are doing?  How often do we attend the temple or perform other ordinances in which we are simply "going through the motions"?  Pavlov and Skinner have shown us that dogs and pigeons are just as capable of "going through the motions."

 I think God expects a little more out of us than that of dogs and birds.

And yet, we allow social pressures to compel us to put on a good show; we worry about what others in the Ward think of us.  Perhaps we have more in common with the Jews of that time-period than we're willing to admit.

I can tell you that Sacrament Meeting is a lot more funner (yes, I just said "more funner") when you take the time to figure out why you're there and even if you want to be there.  Elder Holland gave a great talk about this in this past General Conference (April 2013: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/lord-i-believe?lang=eng).  Lehi didn't let social pressures influence his faith.  His relationship with God was a personal one.  And Nephi didn't allow his father (a prophet no less!) to become a permanent intermediary between him and his Heavenly Father.  Nephi heard the words of Lehi, and then went to find out for himself.  He made his relationship with God a personal one.

I'm guessing this guy's not getting
as much from Sacrament Meeting as
he could be...

We partake of the sacra-
ment together, in a meet-
ing, but it's still a very
personal, intimate ex-
perience.

How liberating it is when religion stops being a set of commandments and becomes an intimate mentorship.