Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual

Contents
Title Page
Introduction to the Teacher Manual
Old Testament Lessons
- Welcome to the Old Testament
- Moses 1; Abraham 3
- Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5
- Genesis 3–4; Moses 4–5
- Genesis 5; Moses 6
- Moses 7
- Genesis 6–11; Moses 8
- Genesis 12–17; Abraham 1–2
- Genesis 18–23
- Genesis 24–33
- Genesis 37–41
- Genesis 42–50
- Exodus 1–6
- Easter
- Exodus 7–13
- Exodus 14–18
- Exodus 19–20; 24; 31–34
- Exodus 35–40; Leviticus 1; 4; 16; 19
- Numbers 11–14; 20–24; 27
- Deuteronomy 6–8; 15; 18; 29–30; 34
- Joshua 1–8; 23–24
- Judges 2–4; 6–8; 13–16
- Ruth; 1 Samuel 1–7
- 1 Samuel 8–10; 13; 15–16
- 1 Samuel 17–18; 24–26; 2 Samuel 5–7
- 2 Samuel 11–12; 1 Kings 3; 6–9; 11
- 1 Kings 12–13; 17–22
- 2 Kings 2–7
- 2 Kings 16–25
- 2 Chronicles 14–20; 26; 30
- Ezra 1, 3–7; Nehemiah 2; 4–6; 8
- Esther
- Job 1–3; 12–14; 19; 21–24; 38–40; 42
- Psalms 1–2; 8; 19–33; 40; 46
- Psalms 49–51; 61–66; 69–72; 77–78; 85–86
- Psalms 102–103; 110; 116–119; 127–128; 135–139; 146–150
- Proverbs 1–4; 15–16; 22; 31; Ecclesiastes 1–3; 11–12
- Isaiah 1–12
- Isaiah 13–14; 22; 24–30; 35
- Isaiah 40–49
- Isaiah 50–57
- Isaiah 58–66
- Jeremiah 1–3; 7; 16–18; 20
- Jeremiah 31–33; 36–38; Lamentations 1; 3
- Ezekiel 1–3; 33–34; 36–37; 47
- Daniel 1–7
- Hosea; Joel
- Amos; Obadiah; Jonah
- Micah; Nahum; Habakkuk; Zephaniah
- Haggai 1–2; Zechariah 1–4; 7–14
- Malachi
Life Preparation Lessons
- Doctrinal Mastery: Finding Answers to My Questions
- Scripture Study Skills
- For the Strength of Youth Guide
- Building Self–Reliance
- Physical and Emotional Health
- Preparing for Future Education and Employment
- Succeed in School
- Missionary Preparation
- Temple Preparation
- Teachings of Church Leaders
Appendix

Jeremiah 1: “Before I Formed Thee in the Belly I Knew Thee … and I Ordained Thee”

“Jeremiah 1: ‘Before I Formed Thee in the Belly I Knew Thee … and I Ordained Thee,’” Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual (2026)

“Jeremiah 1: ‘Before I Formed Thee in the Belly I Knew Thee … and I Ordained Thee,’” Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual

Jeremiah 1–3; 7; 16–18; 20: Lesson 130

Jeremiah 1

“Before I Formed Thee in the Belly I Knew Thee … and I Ordained Thee”

Jeremiah is clothed in sackcloth. He stands dramatically, illuminated from behind before a leading priest while others look on from behind.

Have you ever wondered what happened in the premortal life that prepared you for your responsibilities in mortality? In the premortal life, Heavenly Father gave divine responsibilities to His children to perform in mortality. Examples of this include Jesus Christ (see 1 Peter 1:19–20) and Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 1:5). This lesson can help students feel a desire to fulfill their divine purpose.

Student preparation: Invite students to imagine holding a newborn infant and to think about these two questions:

Possible Learning Activities

Prepare to learn

To help students prepare to learn that Heavenly Father knows them and that He has a divine purpose for them, invite them to imagine the following situation. (You could adjust the situation to better fit your students. For example, it could be a teacher who challenges them to get a certain grade in a difficult class.)

Imagine that a coach challenges you to work toward a difficult goal, such as running a mile under a certain time by a specific date.

How would the following situations affect your desire to accomplish it and your confidence that you could achieve it?
The coach, who knows you well, has worked with you for years and tailored the challenge specifically for you.
A new coach who doesn’t know you has given the same challenge to the entire team.

Display the following self-assessment to help students reflect on how perfectly Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know them and their divine purpose. (Note: Students will be invited to refer back to this self-assessment in Lesson 148: “Assess Your Learning 9.”)

How would you evaluate yourself (1 – true of me; 10 – not true of me) on the following statements? Record in your study journal why you rated each statement how you did.

I believe Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know me better than anyone else knows me.
I believe They have given me a divine purpose I can accomplish with Their help.
I want to know and fulfill the divine mission Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have given me.

Invite students to pay attention to thoughts and feelings from the Holy Ghost as they learn more about their divine purpose.

“Before thou camest forth out of the womb … I ordained thee”

To help students relate to Jeremiah, you could ask them how they might feel if the Lord asked them to do something difficult, such as speaking in church, teaching a lesson, serving a mission, and so on.

Jeremiah may have felt similarly when the Lord called him to serve as a prophet to the kingdom of Judah. Students may be interested to know that Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem around the same time as Lehi (see 1 Nephi 7:14).

Jeremiah 1:4–5 is a doctrinal mastery passage. Consider inviting students to mark doctrinal mastery passages in a distinctive way so they can locate them easily.

Read Jeremiah 1:4–5 and the following statement from President Russell M. Nelson. Then, summarize what you learn about our relationship with the Lord.

14:25

Your spirit is an eternal entity. The Lord said to His prophet Abraham: “Thou wast chosen before thou wast born” (Abraham 3:23). The Lord said something similar about Jeremiah and many others. He even said it about you.

Your Heavenly Father has known you for a very long time. You, as His son or daughter, were chosen by Him to come to earth at this precise time, to be a leader in His great work on earth. You were chosen not for your bodily characteristics but for your spiritual attributes. … (“Decisions for Eternity,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2013, 107)

What truths can we learn from Jeremiah 1:4–5 and President Nelson’s statement?

As students share, help them identify that before we were born, the Lord knew us and gave us specific responsibilities to perform in mortality.

Consider inviting students to ask any questions they may have about this truth. If they ask questions that the Lord has not yet clearly answered, thank them for their thoughtful questions, but be careful not to speculate about answers.

Statements in Additional Resources may help to answer student questions.

For examples of others who were called to perform specific responsibilities in mortality, students could read one or more of the following: Luke 1:13–17, 1 Nephi 11:14–20, Mosiah 3:5–10, Doctrine and Covenants 138:53–56.

Based on your students’ questions and needs, select one or more of the following three sections of the lesson you feel would best help them.

Option 1: The Lord’s promises

For the following scripture study, you might invite half the class to mark counsel the Lord gave and the other half to mark promises the Lord made. Then, have students find a partner who marked different things to share with.

Then, discuss the questions below as a class.

Read Jeremiah 1:6–9, 17–19 and mark the counsel and promises the Lord gave in response to Jeremiah’s feelings of inadequacy.

How might the Lord’s promises to Jeremiah have helped him see his calling from an eternal perspective?
What did the Lord tell Jeremiah that could help youth today with the responsibilities the Lord has given you?

Option 2: Knowing my divine purpose matters

How would it help you to know what divine responsibilities the Lord has given you?

Option 3: Learning my divine purpose

Invite students to brainstorm in small groups as many different responses to the following question as they can in two minutes. Then, invite them to make a list on the board of the ideas they came up with.

Students may share answers such as reading patriarchal blessings, prayer, personal revelation, counseling with loved ones, and magnifying callings.

How can I learn about divine responsibilities the Lord has given me?

Consider displaying the following statement. Invite each group to choose one of Elder Pingree’s four suggestions and discuss how following that suggestion could help a teenager understand the divine responsibilities that Heavenly Father has given them.

Elder John C. Pingree Jr. of the Seventy shared four things we can do to understand what responsibilities the Lord has given to us:

First, focus on others. …

Second, discover and develop spiritual gifts. …

Third, make use of adversity. …

And fourth, rely on God. When we ask Him in faith with real intent, He will reveal our divine assignments to us. (“I Have a Work for Thee,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2017, 33–34)

The Lord knows me

To help students share what they have learned and felt today, invite them to do the following. Encourage students to follow any promptings they may receive from the Holy Ghost as they do this.

Using what you have learned today, write a message to your future self in your study journal. Write what you would want to remember about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ’s knowledge of you and the divine responsibilities They have given you.

Memorize

You may want to help students memorize the doctrinal mastery reference and key scripture phrase during this lesson and review them in future lessons. The key scripture phrase for Jeremiah 1:4–5 is, “Before I formed thee in the belly …I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Ideas for memorization activities are in the appendix materials under “Doctrinal Mastery Review Activities.”

Additional Resources

How can I know God’s plan for me?

Elder Richard G. Scott (1928–2015) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles explained:

God has a specific plan for your life. He will reveal parts of that plan to you as you look for it with faith and consistent obedience. (“How to Live Well amid Increasing Evil,” Ensign or Liahona, May, 2004, 102)

Do I have a divine purpose?

Elder Alan T. Phillips of the Seventy testified:

Do not misunderstand or devalue how important you are to your Father in Heaven. You are not an accidental by-product of nature, a cosmic orphan, or the result of matter plus time plus chance. Where there is design, there is a designer.

Your life has meaning and purpose. … You are a beloved child of Heavenly Father. (“God Knows and Loves You,” Liahona, Nov. 2023, 49)

What is foreordination? (Jeremiah 1:5)

In the premortal spirit world, God appointed certain spirits to fulfill specific missions during their mortal lives. This is called foreordination. Foreordination does not guarantee that individuals will receive certain callings or responsibilities. Such opportunities come in this life as a result of the righteous exercise of agency, just as foreordination came as a result of righteousness in the premortal existence. (Topics and Questions, “Foreordination,” Gospel Library)

What can distract me from fulfilling the responsibilities the Lord has given me?

Elder John C. Pingree Jr. of the Seventy taught:

At the same time God helps us fulfill divine assignments, the adversary works to distract and dissuade us from a life of meaning.

Sin is perhaps our greatest stumbling block, dulling our sensitivity to the Holy Ghost and restricting our access to spiritual power. …

Satan also seeks to distract us with less important matters. …

In addition, Satan discourages us with feelings of inadequacy. He makes our work appear too difficult or intimidating. …

Satan may also coax us to view our work as less valuable than the work assigned to others. But every assignment from God is important. …

As God works through us, the adversary may tempt us to take credit for any accomplishments. However, we can emulate the Savior’s humility by deflecting personal praise and glorifying the Father (see Matthew 5:16; Moses 4:2). (“I Have a Work for Thee,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2017, 34–35)

Supplemental Learning Activities

“Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child” (Jeremiah 1:6)

Sometimes, we may feel inadequate for the responsibilities the Lord gives us. Consider doing the following to help students see additional examples in the scriptures of individuals who, like Jeremiah, felt inadequate to do what the Lord asked them to do.

After students identify how Jeremiah felt in Jeremiah 1:6 as the Lord called him to be the prophet, invite students to cross-reference or link verse 6 with Exodus 4:10–12 and Moses 6:31–34.

Then, invite half the class to read Exodus 4:10–12 while the other half reads Moses 6:31–34. Students could identify who the Lord called and what He promised to do to help them in their responsibility.

You could point out that both Jeremiah (“child,” Jeremiah 1:6) and Enoch (“lad,” Moses 6:31) considered themselves young and inexperienced when they received the call from the Lord. Students could then identify situations (e.g., leading others, serving a mission, ministering, speaking in church) where a youth may say, “I can’t do that. I’m too young.” Then, ask:

How can the Lord’s counsel in these scriptures help you fulfill the responsibilities He has given to you?

The gathering of Israel—“the mission for which you were sent to earth”

President Russell M. Nelson taught the youth of the Church that the gathering of Israel is part of their divine mission here on earth. To help students understand their divine role in this gathering, consider watching “Hope of Israel” from time codes 32:40 to 33:36 and from time codes 39:35 to 40:06.

61:35

Students could ponder what divine gifts and talents they have received from the Lord that could help them participate more fully in the gathering of Israel. Encourage them to find ways to use their divine gifts to help others come unto Christ and make covenants with Him.

“My words in thy mouth” (Jeremiah 1:9)

If it would be helpful for students to increase their desire to follow the words of God’s prophets, consider doing the following activity. Invite students to read Jeremiah 1:9, looking for what the Lord said about Jeremiah’s words. You might invite them to cross-reference or link this verse with Doctrine and Covenants 1:38. Then, ask students the following question:

What did you learn from these two verses?

Students could then search the teachings from the most recent general conference, looking for what the prophet is teaching today. Students could share how knowing who inspired the prophet’s words could impact their willingness to follow them.