The Blessed and Happy State

After a time of great wickedness among the Jaredites, the Lord caused a famine to come upon them. The destruction eventually led them to repent during the reign of Heth, and then his son Shez became king. We only have a handful of verses about him, but we know that he was righteous. Moroni recorded, “Shez began to build up again a broken people. And it came to pass that Shez did remember the destruction of his fathers, and he did build up a righteous kingdom; for he remembered what the Lord had done in bringing Jared and his brother across the deep; and he did walk in the ways of the Lord; and he begat sons and daughters” (Ether 10:1-2). He remembered two things about his fathers: some had been destroyed through their wickedness, and others (at the time of Jared) had been greatly blessed by the Lord with incredible miracles. We might summarize these two lessons with words from Alma to his son Helaman: “Inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land; and… inasmuch as ye will not keep the commandments of God ye shall be cut off from his presence” (Alma 36:30). Because Shez understood this, he “did walk in the ways of the Lord” and kept his commandments.

Shez’s small story reminds us of “the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God,” whereas the subsequent account of his two sons reminds us “of the awful situation of those that have fallen into transgression” (Mosiah 2:40-41). We read this of the oldest son of Shez: “And his eldest son, whose name was Shez, did rebel against him; nevertheless, Shez was smitten by the hand of a robber, because of his exceeding riches, which brought peace again unto his father.” Clearly Shez Jr. did not keep the commandments of the Lord, and his rebellion and love of money ultimately led to his death. Another son was similarly worldly: “And Shez did live to an exceedingly old age; and he begat Riplakish. And he died, and Riplakish reigned in his stead. And it came to pass that Riplakish did not do that which was right in the sight of the Lord, for he did have many wives and concubines, and did lay that upon men’s shoulders which was grievous to be borne; yea, he did tax them with heavy taxes; and with the taxes he did build many spacious buildings.” Riplakish was clearly obsessed with possessing the things of the world, and he caused his people to suffer because of it. But ultimately he too found out that when you do not keep the commandments of the Lord, your situation becomes awful: “And when he had reigned for the space of forty and two years the people did rise up in rebellion against him; and there began to be war again in the land, insomuch that Riplakish was killed, and his descendants were driven out of the land” (Ether 10:3-8). Later on in the chapter, after giving details about several more generations, Moroni said this about the people in their righteousness: “And never could be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord” (Ether 10:28). The story of the Jaredites teaches us again and again that we are blessed and prospered when we choose to keep the commandments of God.

This week in our Come, Follow Me lesson we are learning about the Word of Wisdom. It states, “You may have had opportunities to explain to others why you live the Word of Wisdom—and you may have more opportunities in the future. Consider how you might use these opportunities to testify of the Savior, the sacredness of our bodies, and other spiritual truths.” One of the reasons we live the Word of Wisdom is for improved health as the Lord promises: “And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones” (Doctrine and Covenants 89:18). Surely most people today would agree in general that our health is improved by avoiding substances such as tobacco, alcohol, tea, and coffee. And yet, if our only reason for keeping this commandment is to improve our health, we may become frustrated facing arguments from the world about whether this or that thing is best for our health based on the latest science. For example, some will argue based on research that a little bit of wine is good for the body—and perhaps it is. We have to remember the most important reason that we keep the Word of Wisdom: because God commanded it through a prophet. For me that is the primary reason, and we trust that whatever health blessings come (or don’t come), we will still be blessed for living according to His commandments.