The book of Ezra relates the overwhelming emotions experienced by the people in Jerusalem when the foundation of their temple was laid:
All the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
Ezra 3:11-13
But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:
So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.
It sounds loud, and it sounds confusing! The tears of the old men, who had seen the prior version of this house of God fifty years earlier, might have been tears of joy but were most likely tears of mourning. A few years later, the prophet Haggai wrote, “Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?” (Haggai 2:3).
A similar scene, in which great mourning is blended with great joy, appears in the Book of Mormon. After the people of Limhi and Alma are freed from bondage and arrive home in Zarahemla, the people hear their stories and are “struck with wonder and amazement. For they knew not what to think.”
- They felt joy that these people had been delivered.
- They felt sorrow that many of the people had died.
- They were grateful that Alma and his people had experienced miracles.
- They felt pain that the Lamanites were so far from God.
They may have felt these contrasting emotions simultaneously, like the people in Ezra’s Jerusalem, but Mormon describes it more like an oscillation, with their emotions changing as their focus changed.
After the temple was completed, Ezra and his associates read the law to the people in Jerusalem. After hearing these words of scripture, the people were again overwhelmed. “And all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law” (Nehemiah 8:9). But their leaders, including Ezra and Nehemiah, urged them not to mourn but rather to rejoice:
Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Nehemiah 8:10
The people followed their counsel. They worshipped God as described in the book, “and there was very great gladness” (Nehemiah 8:17).
President Russell M. Nelson taught, “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives. When the focus of our lives is on … Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives” (“Joy and Spiritual Survival,” October 2016 general conference). Ezra and Nehemiah were able to direct their people’s focus to those things which bring joy.
Today I will find joy. When I feel mixed or confusing emotions, I will choose to focus on joyful things.
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