Hank Smith: 00:04 Hello, my friends. Welcome to another followHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I’m here with the wonderful John Bytheway. Welcome, John Bytheway.

John Bytheway: 00:11 Thanks. I wonder how wonderful I am. Thank you.

Hank Smith: 00:13 You are wonderful. The question for today’s followHIM Favorites, John, is what are the two shortest verses in scripture? And interestingly, they’re both in this week’s lesson. So tell us, what are the two shortest verses in scripture?

John Bytheway: 00:29 Wow, they are. In John, we have, “Jesus wept.” Why is he weeping, Hank?

Hank Smith: 00:35 Yeah. So this is at the death of Lazarus. Everyone is around and he sees everybody weeping. He sees Mary and Martha weeping because Lazarus is their brother and he’s gone. And it says that Jesus wept. When I was a seminary teacher, I used to have students want to do this verse for their devotional. And they’d stand up and say, “The devotional for today is John 11:35, Jesus wept.” And they’d usually laugh. They’d think that was funny. And I would say, “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Stay up there. Why is Jesus weeping?” And they would say, “I don’t know.” And I’m like, “Well, look it up. Let’s look it up.”

  01:08 So we’d go to John 11:35 and they’d say, “Well, he’s weeping because Lazarus is dead.” I’m like, “Well, does that make a lot of sense? Because Lazarus is about to be alive. He is 10 minutes from being alive. So could Jesus be weeping for that?” And eventually we would come to the conclusion that Jesus was not weeping because Lazarus was dead, but he has that much empathy for the people around him that he’s able to feel what they feel.

John Bytheway: 01:32 Perfect. It always reminds me of Alma the Elder, after he talks to the wicked priests of King Noah and some of them believe. And he takes them out to the waters of Mormon and says, “Here’s the waters of Mormon.” Are you willing to come into the fold of God and be called his people?” And one of the things he says, “Are willing to mourn with they that mourn.” And that’s exactly what Jesus was doing there. Showing the empathy you just mentioned.

Hank Smith: 01:55 Yeah. “Mourn with those that mourn.” I love that, John. We could be better about listening so closely to other people that we start to feel what they feel, and start to put ourselves in their position.

John Bytheway: 02:06 And it’s so affirming for them that if you can say, Wow, I’ve been there. I know what that feels like.” Or “I don’t know exactly what that feels like, but wow.” That can be so helpful to them to help them carry that.

Hank Smith: 02:18 Yeah. So validating. John, what is the second-shortest verse in scripture?

John Bytheway: 02:23 Well, I guess that would be Luke 17:32, “Remember Lot’s wife.”

Hank Smith: 02:30 “Remember Lot’s wife.” John, what is Jesus talking about?

John Bytheway: 02:34 What are we remembering there? Well, we talked about this, I suspect last year quite a bit, but they’re leaving Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife looked back. Elder Holland gives this beautiful talk called, Remember Lot’s Wife, where he says, “It wasn’t just that she looked back, she wanted to go back.” And what happened to her, Hank?

Hank Smith: 02:55 The scriptures say she turned into a pillar of salt. So hopefully Lot had his fries there.

John Bytheway: 03:03 It sounds kind of harsh. Please read Elder Holland’s talk to see what may have really happened there. And I have a commentary, Hank. Our friend Kelly Ogden, D. Kelly Ogden. His commentary, they actually quote the Quran, the Holy Book of Islam, which says that she is one of those who went back. Maybe more than just looking back, but went back. But it wasn’t a good choice to make. So the Savior is saying, “Remember Lot’s wife.”

Hank Smith: 03:30 Remember Lot’s wife. Don’t look back. I remember Elder Holland saying it can be, don’t look back at the good times and think, oh, those were … my best days are behind me. Or don’t look back at your former sins. Leave those in the past. When something has been repented of as much as it can be repented of, then leave it. Leave it in the past. He says at the end of that talk, “Keep your eyes on your dreams. They’re in the future. You’ll live to see miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today and forever.” He says, “Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past, but it doesn’t stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us, and that Christ truly is the high priest of good things to come.”

  04:14 So, yeah. How fun. The two shortest verses in scripture and we got him in the same lesson. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast, it’s called followHIM. And we’re with Dr. S. Michael Wilcox this week. You’re going to love what he has to say about these chapters. And then come back and join us on another followHIM Favorites.