Helaman 13

Helaman 13:21-22

Behold ye, the people of this great city, and hearken unto my words; yea, hearken unto the words which the Lord saith; for behold, he saith that ye are cursed because of your riches, and also are your riches cursed because ye have set your hearts upon them, and have not hearkened unto the words of him who gave them unto you. Ye do not remember the Lord your God in the things which he hath blessed you, but ye do always remember your riches, not to thank the Lord your God for them; yea, your hearts are not drawn out unto the Lord, but they do swell with great pride, unto boasting, and unto great swelling, envyings, strifes, malice, persecutions, and murders, and all manner of iniquities.

This chapter is Samuel the Lamanite preaching to the wicked city of Zarahemla. And what I found most interesting this time I read it was how applicable it seems to be to our current society. Is there any question that our current financial crisis was caused by a society full of people with their hearts set upon riches? Whether it was the great masses of people who were accumulating far to much debt trying to get rich off of real estate and other ventures, or the greed of the large financial institutions that irresponsibly exploited the peoples greed for their own profit. Either way the recent events have shown us just how "slippery" our riches can be.

Helaman 13:38

But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.

(Incidentally this is one of my favorite Book of Mormon scriptures) I also felt that this was very applicable to our present society. And it's interesting to note that Samuel says that happiness can not be obtained in iniquity. Many times we look at our neighbors and those around us who we think are living righteously and I have heard some people speculate that maybe God allows the wicked to prosper but he will not uphold them or something like that, the idea comes from people who are trying to understand how wicked people can have all types of riches. Has anyone else ever heard anything like that? Well the whole idea I think is based on someone having their hearts set upon riches. Money has nothing to do with righteousness or happiness and other peoples money is no indicator of whether those people are happy and if someone is unhappy does it really matter how much money they have? The righteous prosper and the wicked do not, and money never enters into any part of the equation. And until we understand that prospering is all about happiness and has nothing to do with money, in some way our heart will always be set on riches.

I also found it interesting that in this chapter Samuel does not say that the people will be destroyed immediately, but that if they do not repent they will be destroyed in four generations from now. Maybe we will have to wait a couple hundred years to see the real consequences of our actions.