Immediately Bless You

I have often wondered at these words that King Benjamin taught his people, “He doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you” (Mosiah 2:24).  The word of interest here is immediately—what does it mean that the Lord will immediately bless us when we keep His commandments?  What blessings will come immediately?  There are many examples in the scriptures where blessings sought by those keeping the commandments took a long time in coming, such as Rachel or Elizabeth who desired the blessing of a child for many years before it came.  The prophet Joseph suffered in Liberty Jail for months, hoping for the blessings of the Lord upon the Saints, but they and he still suffered immensely.  Despite his righteousness, there was no immediate relief.  Job was one who, it would seem, was not immediately blessed for his righteousness during the days of despair when his children were killed, his possessions destroyed, and his health taken away despite his righteousness and faithfulness to God.  Surely King Benjamin’s statement was not meant to imply we always get the blessings we want or even feel we desperately need in a timely manner, righteous though they may be.

             So how do we understand King Benjamin’s promise?  It may be that he did not really mean for immediately to imply “right this second; right now.”  It’s interesting that the record states that King Benjamin “saw that he must very soon go the way of all the earth,” where in this case “very soon” turned out to be three years (Mosiah 1:9, 6:5).  I would not have labeled three years as something coming quickly.  We know that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” so if we were to take that literally then that would put one minute for God at 253 days for us (2 Peter 3:8).  Surely Peter didn’t mean to give us a precise formula for God’s time compared to ours, but it does highlight the fact that what might be a small time period for Him could feel much longer to us.  Amulek also used the word “immediately” to describe how the Lord blesses those who keep His commandments: “Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you” (Alma 34:31).  We may not always see the blessings the Lord gives us, but the promise is that He still blesses us, and most importantly, allows the great plan of redemption to work for us as soon as we obey.  

              Perhaps the final verse of this chapter from King Benjamin gives us the best way to interpret the immediate blessings that come to the obedient.  He declared that for those who keep the commandments of God, they will be in a “blessed and happy state” (Mosiah 2:41).  This is not to say that they will always receive a tangible reward; rather, because the Lord’s Spirit comes to those who keep the commandments, they will have a peace and happiness that is only found in righteous living.  The blessing we receive for obedience is first and foremost a state of mind, a peace and contentment, a blessed and happy state.  As the Lord said it in our dispensation, “He who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward, even peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:23).  That peace is the immediate blessing we can receive for obedience to the Lord.