Written in Their Hearts
In the manual: Come, Follow Me lesson 44, “I Will Turn Their Mourning into Joy,” on Gospel Library
Start
The Lord wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18). Jeremiah saw a day when he would write his law somewhere else.
Read Together
Israel had broken the covenant the Lord made with them when he led them out of Egypt (Jeremiah 31:32). Instead of giving up on them, the Lord promised “a new covenant.”
31Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: 33But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, 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. 34And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
What It Teaches
In the new covenant, the law lives inside a person. “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” (verse 33). A law on stone tells you what to do. A law written in the heart becomes what you want to do.
Verse 34 promises that everyone will know the Lord, “from the least of them unto the greatest,” and it ends with forgiveness. “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” In our day the Lord says the same about everyone who repents (Doctrine and Covenants 58:42).
At the Last Supper, Jesus took the cup and said, “This cup is the new testament in my blood” (Luke 22:20). In that verse, “testament” means covenant. Each time we take the sacrament, we renew our covenant with him.
Jeremiah 32:40 calls it “an everlasting covenant.” The Lord promises, “I will not turn away from them, to do them good.”
Talk About It
What is one commandment you keep mostly because you have to, and one you keep because you want to? What helps a commandment move from the first kind to the second?
Take to Church
In the new covenant, the Lord writes his law in our hearts and remembers our sins no more. We renew that covenant each week when we take the sacrament.