The Riches of Eternity

One of the themes that I see in the Doctrine and Covenants is that we should seek to obtain true riches, meaning the riches of eternal life.  While the Lord does promise His Saints material blessings--such as a land flowing with milk and honey--the Doctrine and Covenants emphasizes that the riches we should focus on have nothing to do with money and earthly possessions.  In the early revelations the Lord said twice, "Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich" (D&C 6:7, 11:7).  We cannot take earthly riches with us when we depart to the next life, but we can take the wisdom that we have gained from God.  Ultimately the only kind of riches that will matter are the riches of eternity.  The Lord said in another revelation, "And if ye seek the riches which it is the will of the Father to give unto you, ye shall be the richest of all people, for ye shall have the riches of eternity" (D&C 38:39).  The riches that the Father wants to give us is the knowledge He has and which will lead us to eternal life--and He will do it so long as we faithfully seek it.  As the Prophet Joseph declared, "As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints" (D&C 121:33).

                 Other passages of the Doctrine and Covenants similarly encourage us to "lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better" (D&C  25:10).  The Lord lamented in a 1831 revelation, "How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not!" (D&C 43:25).  The Lord offers us the "riches of eternal life" and all too often we choose to "covet that which is but the drop" compared to the riches the Lord has for us (D&C 117:8).  The Lord promised us in another revelation, "Behold and lo, mine eyes are upon you, and the heavens and the earth are in mine hands, and the riches of eternity are mine to give" but then lamented that there are those in Zion who "seek not earnestly the riches of eternity, but their eyes are full of greediness" (D&C 67:2, 68:31).  If we are greedy for the riches of the earth then we will not obtain the far greater riches of eternity that the Lord has promised the faithful: "Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours" (D&C 78:18).  It's interesting to me how both John and Joseph Smith described their visions of a future heavenly state.  John described the "holy city" that came down out of heaven this way, "And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass" (Revelation 21:21).  Joseph Smith wrote this of his vision of the celestial kingdom, "I saw the beautiful streets of that kingdom, which had the appearance of being paved with gold" (D&C 137:4).  I've wondered before why the Lord would have gold in these cities if gold and silver and earthly riches are of no real value in the next life, but perhaps that's the very point.  The gold was on the streets, the place where we walk and where that which is of little value is typically placed.  If gold is so abundant that it will be on the streets--or perhaps so worthless that its use will be to walk upon it--then surely in that heavenly sphere our energies and focus will turned away from the kind of worldly wealth we spend so much time seeking after.  The challenge, of course, is to live with that kind of spiritual focus now.