Helaman 7-12

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NOTE

I’m afraid that I have to say that this week’s block of scripture is a little more discouraging than most, which makes it a bit difficult to teach. There is a rather pessimistic view of human nature offered in these chapters and I personally consider myself more of an optimist. BUT, it is realistic, and there are important truths to be gleaned from it. The problems and attitudes portrayed in these chapters are real and evident in our modern world. These chapters show a society at its almost absolute worst. They stand as a warning to all nations and individuals, “Don’t let this happen to you!”

LESSON #1 THE BAD NEWS (HELAMAN 7-12)

OBJECT

For an object this week, I would bring a newspaper to class with me. Now these may be harder to find these days since printed newspapers have become more and more rare over the years. However, you can usually still pick one up from a local gas station or grocery store. And if you’re teaching the youth, you can bring one in introduce it as a relic from the past. The place where anciently, we used to get our news. It’s crazy how fast things change isn’t it?

ICEBREAKER

Then for an icebreaker I would hold up the newspaper and ask: Can you give me some examples of bad news from the past year in world history? And, uh, I would imagine that they should be able to come up with quite a few examples of bad news. The media does tend to thrive on bad news. There is a lot of it in our world and there always has been. Right now at the making of this video it's the year 2024 and I could easily give you numerous examples of difficult and bad things occurring in our world. Wars, crime, mass shootings, political contention, disease, drug and human trafficking, and on and on. Now I don’t think our world is really as bad as the news seems to let on always, but no doubt, there is plenty of pain and violence in our world to go around.

Well, in this lesson, we’re going to start with the bad so that we can hopefully end on a more positive note. What we find in Helaman chapters 7-12 is one of the most discouraging and dark times in Nephite history. It would be difficult not to have a pessimistic view of human nature while living at that time. Remember last week we talked about the three headed snake that slithers its way into Nephite society. Well here’s the fallout of those problems and in Helaman chapter 12 you’re going to get Mormon’s commentary on this time period and I’m afraid it’s not very flattering. We have to keep in mind that Mormon himself is living in a very dark and discouraging time. So our first item of business is going to be to identify the bad news and decide whether we have the same kinds of things happening in our day. It’s important for us to get a grasp of the setting Nephi and Mormon are describing here.

SEARCH-HANDOUT

Provide your students with the following handout and invite them to look for the bad news in the following verses and write them in the space adjacent to the reference. And we’ll go over the answers together here.

Helaman 7:4-5 Political corruption.

Helaman 7:15-16 The devil has great hold on their hearts.

Helaman 8:24 Rejection of the many evidences of the truthfulness of the gospel

Chapter Heading of Helaman 9 and 10:1 Apathy towards God’s power

Helaman 11:36-37 Repentance is short-lived

Helaman 12:1-2 As soon as God blesses them, they forget him.

Helaman 12:3 God must often chasten his people in order for them to remember him.

Helaman 12:4-6 Mankind is foolish, vain, evil, devilish, etc.

So we begin with

Helaman 7:4-5 What Nephi observes is here great corruption in the government and its laws. The Gadianton robbers have really taken hold of the leadership of the people and justice is just not being served. So we learn . . .

Helaman 7:4-5

4 And seeing the people in a state of such awful wickedness, and those Gadianton robbers filling the judgment-seats—having usurped the power and authority of the land; laying aside the commandments of God, and not in the least aright before him; doing no justice unto the children of men;

5 Condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills—

Hmmm. Doesn’t sound very promising for the Nephites does it? Their society is slowly breaking down.

Helaman 5:2 tells us that

2 For as their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people, and they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were ripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted.

Now that’s a really bad sign. When the evil outnumber the righteous, you know your society is heading for trouble. It reminds me of the truth we looked at back in Mosiah 29:26-27

26 Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.

27 And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.

Well, the Nephites have entered just such a time. The majority of the people desiring the contrary to that which is right, and the lesser part of the people are desiring that which is good. Therefore what can you expect to find in the coming chapters? Yep, the judgments of God visiting them with great destruction. That’s bad news.

That bad news of all this widespread wickedness causes the prophet Nephi (the son of Helaman) to get on his garden tower and lament the wickedness of his brethren. He prays:

7 Oh, that I could have had my days in the days when my father Nephi first came out of the land of Jerusalem, that I could have joyed with him in the promised land; then were his people easy to be entreated, firm to keep the commandments of God, and slow to be led to do iniquity; and they were quick to hearken unto the words of the Lord—

8 Yea, if my days could have been in those days, then would my soul have had joy in the righteousness of my brethren.

9 But behold, I am consigned that these are my days, and that my soul shall be filled with sorrow because of this the wickedness of my brethren.

And maybe you’ve felt that way before. Have you ever wished that you could have been born in another time period? Perhaps during the days of Joseph Smith, or David O. McKay, or some other previous generation where things seemed to be better or easier. Of course there may be some naïveté in the request since all ages have their difficulties and temptations that we may not fully understand. We do tend to idealize the past. But it’s not an uncommon wish, that we could live in some other circumstance or time.

So as the crowds begin to gather around Nephi’s tower, driven by their curiosity, he cries out in Helaman 7:15-16

15 And because of my mourning and lamentation ye have gathered yourselves together, and do marvel; yea, and ye have great need to marvel; yea, ye ought to marvel because ye are given away that the devil has got so great hold upon your hearts.

16 Yea, how could you have given way to the enticing of him who is seeking to hurl away your souls down to everlasting misery and endless wo?

Bad news? The devil had a great hold on their hearts, and he would eventually hurl away their souls to everlasting misery and endless wo. I find the phrase "hurl away" intriguing. That’s what Satan does with those who listen to him. There’s no loyalty or assistance given to those who prop him up. It suggests an uncaring or dismissive attitude towards those who choose to follow and sustain him. It reminds me of Alma 30:60 where we are reminded that “the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell.

Nephi continues his rebuke in chapter 8 and says in verse 24.

24 And now, seeing ye know these things and cannot deny them except ye shall lie, therefore in this ye have sinned, for ye have rejected all these things, notwithstanding so many evidences which ye have received; yea, even ye have received all things, both things in heaven, and all things which are in the earth, as a witness that they are true.

The bad news here. They have rejected all the evidences of the truthfulness of the gospel. They have closed their hearts and minds to all the testimonies of God’s power that surrounds them. What were those witnesses and evidences? It reminds me of Alma before Korihor listing off all of his evidences. Back in Alma 30:44 he says:

44 But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.

These people have had all of the same signs and witnesses from God that Alma is describing here. And they’re about to reject another.

Helaman 9 relates the story of Nephi predicting the murder of the chief judge. He does this as a demonstration of the corruption of their society, and in miraculous fashion, he first prophecies the murder, which turns out to be true, then prophecies who the murderer is, how he will be caught and how he’ll confess to his crime, which all comes true exactly as he predicts. I may not take the time in class to go through that entire story, but I would at least summarize it. It’s an incredible miracle and a great demonstration of God’s power. But how do the majority of the people react to this miracle? Helaman 10:1

1 And it came to pass that there arose a division among the people, insomuch that they divided hither and thither and went their ways, leaving Nephi alone, as he was standing in the midst of them.

And then 10:13

13 Now behold, notwithstanding that great miracle which Nephi had done in telling them concerning the death of the chief judge, they did harden their hearts and did not hearken unto the words of the Lord.

What’s the bad news here? I would call this apathy. They are apathetic people, even towards clear indications of God’s power. After this miracle, they just leave, and go home, leaving Nephi alone in the midst of them. No change, no desire to repent, just a, “Huh, that was interesting, oh well, back to life as normal”. It’s a perfect example of the principle that miracles and signs do a very poor job of creating faith. They’re wonderful for faith that already exists, but very ineffective at producing it.

I feel there’s great evidence of this attitude in today’s world. God’s miracles and displays of his power are all around us, and yet, most just shrug it off as coincidence and then go about their day. Or, on a more personal level, do we as members of the church listen to the prophets at general conference, say things like “Well that was a good talk”, but then walk away with no plans or intentions to change or apply their lessons in our lives.

Now Helaman 11 is a little more hopeful as Nephi calls a mighty famine in the land, which causes the people to eventually humble themselves and repent and they do enjoy a time of righteousness and peace. However, the bad news is in 11:36-37.

36 And in the eighty and second year they began again to forget the Lord their God. And in the eighty and third year they began to wax strong in iniquity. And in the eighty and fourth year they did not mend their ways.

37 And it came to pass in the eighty and fifth year they did wax stronger and stronger in their pride, and in their wickedness; and thus they were ripening again for destruction.

So it doesn’t take long before the people have fallen back into a pattern of pride and wickedness. Their repentance is short-lived and not long after the famine is ended, they’ve returned to their old, wicked ways. Which reminds me of one of the most disgusting scriptures of all time yet very effective in its visual message. Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. Gross, but true. Any of you dog owners out there seen your dogs do this? Eat their own vomit. Yuck. But when we return to our sins after we’ve gone through the repentance process, it’s just as gross. Which leads us to chapter 12.

Helaman 12 is full of bad news. Like I said earlier, it’s Mormon’s commentary on the whole situation. Here are his disheartening conclusions.

Helaman 12:1-2

1 And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him.

2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.

The bad news here? It seems that at the very moment God blesses and prospers a righteous people, they begin to forget Him and trample His commandments under their feet. It’s such a sad truth. I mean, what’s a God to do? Of course he wants his children to be happy. He wants to reward them for their goodness. In fact, the principles of righteousness naturally lead to good and rewarding outcomes. BUT, He realizes there is a great risk involved with prosperity. When people have their hands full of worldly wealth, they don’t seem to leave room for God. Or they begin to become very satisfied with the type of happiness materialism and wealth can provide them. So, the next bit of bad news.

Helaman 12:3

3 And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him.

Sometimes the only way God can turn around a wicked people is with chastening and challenge and consequence. I’m sure God doesn’t enjoy seeing his children suffer in these ways. It’s not his desire. But how else can he help them to remember his gospel and the source of true happiness?

So:

Helaman 12:4-6

4 O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the world!

5 Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom’s paths!

6 Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide.

Mormon has a very unflattering view of human nature. What does he conclude about mankind? They’re foolish, vain, evil, devilish, quick to do iniquity, slow to do good, quick to hearken to the evil one, they set their hearts upon the vain things of the world, quick to pride, quick to boast, quick to iniquity, slow to remember God and his counsels and his wisdom. They are rebellious and want to do their own thing rather than listen to their good and merciful Father.

Any evidence that this is true? Yeah. I think he kind of hits the nail on the head there. I can think of many examples of individuals that fit this description in our world today. Even more discouraging, I see myself in that portrayal. Unfortunately, there are times when I fall into these categories. Times when I’ve been foolish and prideful, when I’ve set my heart on the vain things of the world. Times when I was slow to remember God, and rebellious and would rather just do what I want to do, instead of trusting in the wisdom and counsels of a merciful Father in Heaven.

LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES

So as you look at that list, I ask my class:

Have you seen any evidence of these problems nowadays? I’ve shared a few examples of these things already, but I’m sure that you all could come up with many examples of your own.

TRUTH

As we prosper, the temptation to forget God increases. The more we forget God, the more miserable we become.

THE TAKEAWAY

The big takeaway then could be that prosperity might not be all it’s cracked up to be. It just may not be the most desirable thing in the world. Piety or prosperity? Which are we going to turn to when temptation arrives? So if we have challenges in life. If we struggle financially or in other areas, maybe we could be grateful for the extra help those things might give us to turn to God and trust in Him. That’s not to say that all prosperous people will suffer from these problems, but it’s a real temptation and it’s take active and conscious effort to stay out of that trap. Let’s not let this bad news turn our lives into bad news.

LESSON #2 THE BIG SIN (HELAMAN 7-12)

ICEBREAKER

For an icebreaker to this next section, I like to do a Wordle puzzle to introduce what I feel is the biggest problem that the Nephites have throughout all of this portion of the Book of Mormon. It’s the issue that has basically led to all of their other problems. It’s the fundamental or root cause. Now I’m pretty sure that most of you know how the Book of Mormon ends as far as the Nephites are concerned. They’re destroyed, completely. My question, what destroyed the Nephites? If you said Lamanites, I’m afraid you’re only partly correct. The WORDLE activity will introduce that problem to us.

And what is our secret word here? (I won’t go through all of the instructions on how to do this here since we’ve done this activity a few times in the past. If you need some help with it, I encourage you to watch the video I put out for Mosiah 4-6 and this activity makes an appearance right at the beginning of that video.)

And our secret word here is PRIDE. Pride was the major reason for the Nephites downfall.

Take a look at Moroni 8:27 where Mormon says:

27 Behold, my son, I will write unto you again if I go not out soon against the Lamanites. Behold, the pride of this nation, or the people of the Nephites, hath proven their destruction except they should repent.

And the Lord warns us in the Doctrine & Covenants 38:39 to “beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old.”

Pride is one of the biggest and most dangerous sins we can grapple with because it is so easy to fall into and acts as a type of gateway sin to various other spiritual sicknesses.

Remember last week how we identified the problem of pride and how it works. We saw the evolution of it amongst the Nephites as it went from being little pride, to just pride, to exceedingly great pride over a period of "not many years” and that it did grow upon them from day to day. Pride is the type of problem that poisons slowly by degrees. In chapters 7-12, look how many times it’s brought up. Mark these in the same color you used last week to mark the pride problem.

SEARCH-MARKING ACTIVITY

Helaman 7:5 The reason there is so much corruption in the government is because they wish to “get gain and glory of the world”. That’s pride.

7:20-21 They’ve forgotten God because they want gain and to be praised of men.

7:26 Yea, wo shall come unto you because of that pride which ye have suffered to enter your hearts, which has lifted you up beyond that which is good because of your exceedingly great riches!

8:25 He says that they aren’t laying up for themselves treasures in heaven. Why do you think that is? Because they are laying up for themselves treasure on earth, and heaping up judgments in heaven.

What do you think it was that caused them to reject the miracle of Nephi’s prediction of the chief judge’s murder in 9 and 10? Pride.

Then after their short-lived repentance during the famine of chapter 11, what creeps back in? 11:37 they did wax stronger and stronger in their pride and in their wickedness.

In 12:5 Mormon observes how quick they are to be lifted up in pride.

DISCUSSION QUESTION

Now a discussion question here. Why is pride so spiritually dangerous? Allow your class to wrestle with that for a bit.

A few personal thoughts. Pride is a sparkplug sin. What do I mean by that. It’s the sin that kind of starts the engine of wickedness running. And pride can work from both directions. It can come from the top looking down in the form of arrogance, selfishness, and boastfulness. Or it can also come from the bottom looking up. That can be manifested in the form of jealousy, covetousness, faultfinding, and ingratitude. Ezra Taft Benson referred to pride as the universal sin. And Elder Ucthdorf said the following concerning it:

“Every mortal has at least a casual if not intimate relationship with the sin of pride. No one has avoided it; few overcome it.”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf (Pride and the Priesthood, Conference Report, Oct. 2010)

If we take a look at the two great commandments, to love God and to love our fellow man, we can see how pride can wreak havoc on both. I can have pride towards God by feeling like I don’t need his commandments, that I know better, that I’m smarter than all those mindless sheep out there who feel like they need a belief in God as a crutch. And I can have pride towards my fellow man which will cause contention, neglect, and self-centeredness. You see, we are constantly surrounded by invitations to pride. And one of the reasons why is that God made each of us very different. We all come from different backgrounds, have different gifts, look differently, experience varying levels of prosperity, and have been blessed in different ways. Now why did God make it that way if he knew that pride would be a constant problem for us? Well, what was the alternative, make us all exactly the same? How terrible would that be?! What I think God hopes, and what he intended with that is that we’ll celebrate those differences, admire them and be grateful for what we have been given and then rejoice in the strengths and gifts of others. He also provides us with opportunities to bless others who have been given less and power and love is created through that giving and receiving. We all have something unique and valuable to give. Unfortunately, Satan is going to take everything positive and good created by our Heavenly parents and twist it to his purposes. The downside to all that diversity is that when we see a difference between ourselves and others, we are so easily tempted to decide whose way of being different is better. Or we come to the erroneous conclusion that because we have more, we are therefore better of more worth. Whether that’s money, or intelligence, or talent, or good looks. We can’t help but feel superior.

C.S. Lewis wrote some brilliant things about pride, and he’s been quoted by a number of Apostles in General Conference. He said:

"The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with everyone else’s pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise. Two of a trade never agree. Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive—is competitive by its very nature—while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.”

THE SOLUTION

Well, what are we to do? What can protect us from the problems and pitfalls of pride. I believe that Mormon offers us a bit of a solution here in Helaman chapter 12. There’s a realization that we must come to. And I’d like to introduce that idea with a bit of an activity.

We’re going to take a little test. I call this, the Dumber than Dirt Test.

I’m going to ask a few trivia questions from different categories to test your intelligence. Then, we’re going to correct it, and I’ll give you a ranking based on how well you did. Kind of like an oversimplified IQ test. So here we go:

1. Who painted Starry Night?


2. Which country has won the most World Cups in Soccer? 


3. Name a U.S. President that was assassinated besides Lincoln or Kennedy?


4. Put these civilizations in order from earliest to latest. Greeks, Romans, Egyptians.


5. What is the sixth planet in the solar system?


6. Are you completely obedient to all of God’s commandments? 


Well, let’s go through the answers here.

1. Vincent Van Gogh

2. Brazil has one the most World Cups with 5 to their credit

3. James Garfield or William McKinley

4. The correct order is Egyptians, then the Greeks, then the Romans.

5. The sixth planet in the solar system is Saturn

6. And then the answer to number 6, well, only you can know the answer to that one.

Here are the rankings here and be sure to tell your students not to get too offended until they’ve heard all of the rankings.

If you only got 1 right. Well, then you are dumber than dirt.

If you got two right. You’re still dumber than dirt

If you got three. You’re dumber than dirt

If you got four, still dumber than dirt,

5, dumber than dirt,

Now even if you got all of the first five questions right, but had to answer number 6 with a no. Then you got it, you’re dumber than dirt.

Now if you answered all 6 correctly. Or if you answered number 6 with a yes. Then you know what, you are a genius. That is the only other possible ranking you can get on this.

Now why is that? Why would we be considered dumber than dirt if we don’t obey God’s commandments?

Please read Helaman 12:7-19 to find out.

7 O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth. (Or the dirt)

8 For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God.

9 Yea, behold at his voice do the hills and the mountains tremble and quake.

10 And by the power of his voice they are broken up, and become smooth, yea, even like unto a valley.

11 Yea, by the power of his voice doth the whole earth shake;

12 Yea, by the power of his voice, do the foundations rock, even to the very center.

13 Yea, and if he say unto the earth—Move—it is moved.

Now I’m not going to read the entire thing, but do you get the message? He’s saying that at least the dust of the earth obeys God. Anything the Lord commands the earth to do, it does. It obeys. With exactness. Now, this is a rhetorical device of course that Mormon is using to make a point. We should be careful not to make a doctrinal conclusion about the earth itself having agency or a consciousness. I don’t think that’s the message here. Mormon wants us to be humble. And what better way to make us feel humble than to remind us of our nothingness compared to the greatness of God. Since we are so apt to make comparisons, he’s going to give us a comparison of his own. Compared to the dust of the earth, we’re less. And that should make us humble. One of the best solutions to pride is to meet God. To get to know Him and recognize his wisdom and power. We may be tempted to think that we don’t need God’s counsels, commandments, or blessings and we begin to forget that we're completely dependent on him at every moment and everything we have and are, are because of Him.

C.S. Lewis once again:

"In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that—and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison—you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you."

So come to know God. Get to know Him through prayer, the scriptures, the prophets, spiritual experiences, and humility is sure to grow in our hearts.

QUICK WARNING

Quick warning though here as we ponder this truth. There is a bit of a balance to strike here. Of course, as God’s children, we’re not nothing. Each of us has the capacity to become like God and Doctrine and Covenants 18:10 tells us that "the worth of souls is great in the sight of God". But at the same time, if I go around thinking I’m all that, or I get filled with a sense of my own self-importance, then chances are I’m going to begin to forget God.

It reminds me of Moses chapter 1 where Moses, after seeing the enormity of God’s creation, comes to the conclusion that man is nothing. However, by the end of that chapter we get God’s famous statement that his work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”. In other words, Man is everything. Mankind is his work and his glory. So which is it? Am I nothing, or everything. It’s a bit of a paradox, but both statements are true.

And I think that sometimes we may need more of the “Oh how great is the nothingness of the children of men" message. And at other times, we probably need the “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God” and the “You are my work and my glory” message. I’ll leave it to you and the Spirit to determine which message you most need to hear. We probably all need a little bit of both at various times in our lives.

TRUTH

Pride is a universal temptation and sin.

Pride leads to misery and condemnation.

The solution to pride is humility and coming to know and love God.

TAKING IT TO HEART

To take this lesson more to heart, I like to do a little experiment with my students. What I do is I give them all a loose-fitting rubber band to wear around their wrist for the next week. I call it a PRIDE bracelet. And what they do is whenever they find themselves being tempted to compare themselves to others, to just reach down and give themselves a little snap of the rubber band. Now not a painful, giant snap, but just a light little one as a reminder of the lesson and to call attention to the fact that they are comparing. And I’ve done this before myself, and you’d be surprised at how easy it is to slip into comparison and judgment over all kinds of things. And then I have them come back and share the next week what they learned from the experiment. And it’s always fascinating to hear of all the different areas that they were tempted to compare themselves to others in. Since I teach teenagers, the categories are unique to them. But young adults, married couples, and senior citizens will all have their own unique areas of comparison to struggle with. Some of the answers I’ve gotten from my classes though? The clothes they wore and who’s were nicer, or more trendy, or expensive. What sports they played, and which were considered higher status. What classes they were taking. How high their GPA’s were. Who they were dating or whether they were dating at all. The high school they went to and yes, even their perceived level of righteousness or commitment to the Church. If we’re talking about adults, it could be home size, the types of vehicles we drive, occupations, salaries, the accomplishments of our children, politics, or spirituality. Pride can pop up from anywhere. But it can be helpful just to begin to start being more aware and conscious of the problem. I like a metaphor that my Dad uses to explain this process. Have you ever played Whack-a-mole before? It’s that old carnival or arcade game where there’s little moles that pop up out of holes and your job is to hit them back down into their holes with a padded bat. Well that’s kind of like battling pride. All those invitations to compare keep rearing their ugly heads in our minds from so many different areas, and all we need to do is take the bat of humility and just keep knocking them back down. And perhaps we get to the point where we get so good at it, that we look down and no more moles are popping up. And what do we say? Wow! Look at that, I’ve conquered pride. I bet not many people can conquer pride like I have. I must be better. And “pop” up comes another mole head. Pride at our own humility. Ah, it’s so hard.

THE TAKEAWAY

Well, battling pride is going to be a lifelong endeavor. No way around that. But I believe that we can make great strides in this area as long as we stay aware and conscious of it and its dangers. We have our agency, and humility is a choice. President Ezra Taft Benson taught that principle and concluded his landmark address on the subject of pride with the following charge. He said

Let us choose to be humble.

We can choose to humble ourselves by conquering enmity toward our brothers and sisters, esteeming them as ourselves, and lifting them as high or higher than we are.

We can choose to humble ourselves by receiving counsel and chastisement.

We can choose to humble ourselves by forgiving those who have offended us.

We can choose to humble ourselves by rendering selfless service.

We can choose to humble ourselves by going on missions and preaching the word that can humble others.

We can choose to humble ourselves by getting to the temple more frequently.

We can choose to humble ourselves by confessing and forsaking our sins and being born of God.

We can choose to humble ourselves by loving God, submitting our will to His, and putting Him first in our lives.

Let us choose to be humble. We can do it. I know we can.

(“Beware of Pride”, Conference Report, April 1989)

Well, I believe we can too, and hope that we will.

LESSON #3 THE GOOD NEWS

OBJECT

Our object for this final lesson can again be the newspaper you used for the first lesson.

ICEBREAKER

Because now, it’s time for a bit of good news. These chapters are not all doom and gloom. And for our icebreaker, I’d like to ask the opposite question to begin the lesson. Can you give me some examples of good news from the past year in world history? Now they might struggle a bit with that one but certainly there are positive things happening in our world at this time also. Temples are being built and dedicated, missionaries are spreading the gospel far and wide, service is being rendered to many that are in need, and hopefully in our personal lives we can all recognize great blessings God has given us and our families. Yes, the world has problems, but there is a lot of good out there as well.

SEARCH-FAVORITES

These chapters in Helaman also have some good news in them. Yes, there is more dark cloud, than silver lining in this portion of the scriptures, but there is a “silver lining”. So for our final activity, browse the following verses. Pick the one that is your favorite, and be able to explain why you like that particular message so much. Here they are:

Helaman 8:15

Helaman 9:39

Helaman 10:4-5

Helaman 12:23-24

Here are some of my own thoughts on these verses:

Helaman 8:15

15 And as many as should look upon that serpent should live, even so as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal.

With all the pride and wickedness and rejection of the prophets out there, Nephi reminds us there is a way out or a way back. If we’ve been bitten by the snake of pride, or contention, or materialism, there is a way to be healed. I love the example of the brazen serpent here because it shows how easy it can be to be healed. All it took for the Israelites was to look. And if we simply look to Christ with faith, we too will live. Sometimes I’m asked why Jesus is represented by a snake in that story. I mean, just last week we talked about how Satan is like a snake. Why the brazen serpent as a symbol for Christ? Well, the brazen serpent is a symbol for Christ, but perhaps not in the way that you might think. I believe that the snake actually does represent the adversary and evil in this instance as well. I mean, the snakes were bad in the Moses story. People were dying after being bitten. So what’s going on here? In Old Testament times, when you defeated something, or killed it, you would often lift it up for everyone to see; to show that you had conquered it. I know it’s a little morbid, but sometimes they would do this with the heads of their enemies. To lift something up was to show you had power over it. Well that’s how the brazen serpent can be a symbol of Christ. That’s what he’s done with the snake. Christ defeated it, overcame it, and if we just turn and look to Him, he will defeat it in our lives as well. That’s some good news! Isn’t it!

Helaman 9:39

39 And there were some of the Nephites who believed on the words of Nephi; and there were some also, who believed because of the testimony of the five, for they had been converted while they were in prison.

The key word in that verse to me is the word “some”. It’s nice to know that some of the people repented at Nephi’s words and miracle. We may not be able to change everybody we come in contact with, with our faith, but we can change some. We may not be able convert everybody who we meet as missionaries, but hopefully we can affect some. Not everybody is righteous and believing in our communities, but some are. Maybe, even within our own families, we can’t say that all are active and believing, but perhaps we can say that some are. Let’s be grateful for the some. That we don’t stand alone. There are plenty of other believers out there for us to draw strength from. That’s good news!

Helaman 10:4-5

4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

This was God’s response to Nephi after so many of the Nephites had rejected him. He gave him power, incredible priesthood power. It’s nice to know that even in a wicked world, priesthood power can be wielded by the righteous. What can we do to more effectively release priesthood power in the world? Do what Nephi did here. Declare the word, don’t fear the world, don’t seek your own life (or don’t be selfish), seek God’s will, and keep his commandments. If I do this with “unwearyingness” then my priesthood power and influence can grow. In fact, Nephi’s priesthood power is so great that God gives him the sealing power, or the ability to do basically whatever he wanted. In a sense, he made Nephi a God. He could control the weather, he could control the mountains, he could control what happened to other people. Now that’s power. Righteousness increases the release of priesthood power. That’s good news.

Finally,

Helaman 12:23-24

23 Therefore, blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved.

24 And may God grant, in his great fulness, that men might be brought unto repentance and good works, that they might be restored unto grace for grace, according to their works.

The good news. We can repent. We can change. God is merciful and we can be restored unto grace for grace. I’m so grateful that God is merciful, because I know I get prideful, towards God and my fellow man. I know that I need a great deal of God’s mercy to get me through this life, but it is there for me, if I seek after it.

THE TAKEAWAY

Well, I know that we live in troubling times, and that bad news swirls around us in a seemingly unending cycle. But that’s why we have the gospel, which actually means good news. In my mind that goodness, and light, and truth ultimately triumphs over all the bad, and one day because of Christ and his grace, all bad news will end, all wounds will be healed, all death overcome, all evil vanquished, and all who have put their trust and faith in God, will have all forgiven. Until that day, let’s push forward like Nephi did. It is possible to be good in bad times, to let our light shine in dark circumstance, and to be humble in a prideful world.