1 Enoch 96

1 Enoch 96

Verse 4

“Woe unto you, ye sinners, for your riches make you appear like the righteous, but your hearts convict you of being sinners, and this fact shall be a testimony against you for a memorial of your evil deeds.”

“Woe unto you, ye sinners, for your riches make you appear like the righteous”

This makes me think that the righteous are meant to be blessed…

If riches makes one appear like the righteous, this means that the righteous must seem… not only content and stable… but maybe even garnished, and embellished.  Why do people admire those who have the luxuries and jewels to radiate their countenance?  This natural admiration show that there is something undeniably beautiful about that radiance.  The reason why “embellishments” have gotten such a negative regard is because of extravagance: too many pigs with gold rings.

If riches make one appear like the righteous this means that the righteous have the appearance of one who is rich.  The righteous are content, they have a lot of potential for productivity, they have security and stability, and nothing is out their reach… these are the reasons why people want to get rich, because they think that money will get them these things.  But one does not need money to get these, and money does not necessarily get you these, though it may appear to be so.

The way to obtain these blessings is not through worldly riches (this is only how one “appears to have obtained them”).  The way to obtain these is through righteousness.

Though riches can indeed make you appear blessed, only the truly righteous are blessed with these.

Though they appear like the righteous, their “hearts convict [them] of being sinners.”

Because they do not have stability, nor security, nor productivity, nor contentment, in their hearts; but they are just as tormented by their identity like any other indigent.

If you could walk in the shoes of a rich person, you would see that they are as stressed out as anybody else; which leads them to evil deeds like any other sinner, which convicts them of their false “richness”.

June 13, 2012

Mosiah 24

Mosiah 24:14-15

“And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.”

God does not lighten their burdens, God gives them strength and cheer to bear them. Happiness does not depend on the state in life that one is in, but on how they handle their life and the perspective from which they see it. A rich man can be very sad, and a poor man can be the happiest. When we pray for patience we may get a burden, but we should also get the strength to bear it. Sometimes even if something does not bother us we pretend or try to make it bother us because we want recognition, because we want a reason to rebel, because we insist on our tragedy. The Nephites could have succumbed to these reasons, but they were able to follow along with the cheer that God gave them.

Written 9-24-14