When six nations of eastern Europe were freed from the domination of totalitarian Communism in 1989, there was wild celebration by the people in the streets. They sang, they shouted, they marched, they danced in the streets, they laughed, they hugged each other. This was the happiest time of their lives. They were freed from decades of living under uncompromising dictatorships. Now they could speak out openly about how they felt, and they could march and shout their protests to a hated regime. It was a celebration the like of which they had never before experienced.

Something of the same kind of celebration is described in today’s First Lesson from the thirty-first chapter of the prophecy of Jeremiah. This chapter of the Bible is so important that worshipers would hear eight lessons from …