Doleful Creatures

This week’s Come, Follow Me readings include these verses from Isaiah about the land of Babylon after its destruction: “But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged” (Isaiah 13:21-22). This is certainly unique language, and the imagery of wild beasts and owls and satyrs and dragons gives this passage a mythical kind of feel. But the point of the text is that there are no humans left. Babylon, once such a great city, has been reduced to wild animals that roam it and who are “doleful” (sorrowful). Where there once was a great empire, there is nothing left. This must have been an astounding prophecy for the people of Isaiah’s day when Babylon had great power. It is estimated that around the time that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, Babylon was the largest city in the world. And yet, despite its grandeur, about 50 years later it was reduced to desolate houses and owls and wild beasts which no more humans at all. The message for us is that the things of the world that we think are so important will ultimately come to naught and be far less enduring than we might think originally.

            The Preacher in Ecclesiastes famously said this: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-4). The scripture help for this passage explains what was meant here: “The Hebrew word translated as ‘vanity’ refers to something that is ‘fleeting, useless, or of little or no substance.’ A prominent theme in Ecclesiastes is that in mortality and from a limited perspective, everything is temporary and quickly fades away.” That idea is consistent with the symbol of this great empire that fell and ultimately left nothing. What the world would have thought would have endured almost indefinitely was left completely desolate and was, in the end, just vanity. One of the challenges of mortality is understanding what is really important and what is not, what will last the longest and what is really only temporary. My children frequently find something that they feel like they must have, they save up money by frantically doing every job in the house that we will give them, buy it, and then within a short time it is long forgotten. That happened recently with a child who heard a friend talking about blankets, and he decided he must have a certain type of expensive blanket. So he asked us for chores to do around the house, and was devasted when after working for much of one day he hadn’t earned enough money to order the blanket. But with a second day’s worth of work, he obtained enough money and ordered the blanket as soon as he could. He has enjoyed it for a time, but I dare say he was far more interested in it when he didn’t have it than now that it is in his room. I’m led to say with the Preacher, “What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?” We spend so much of our energy on those things that, in the end, matter so little.

            The gospel invites us to focus on that which matters most and which endures the longest. In our dispensation the Savior gave us these words (twice) to guide us in our decisions: “And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father” (Doctrine and Covenants 15:6, 16:6). It is easy to think that these words don’t apply to those of us who are not full-time missionaries, but that is certainly not the case. It suggests that whatever actions help to bring souls to Him through repentance (and that might be our own) and lead us and others back to His kingdom, those are of the greatest value. As President Nelson would put it, “Anytime you do anything that helps anyone—on either side of the veil—take a step toward making covenants with God,” those are the things that matter most. If we focus only on the vanities of the world, on the other hand, then we will in the end find that we too are doleful creatures.