D&C 105

With the members of Zions Camp at Fishing River prepared to redeem Zion, the Lord said -

"...were it not for the transgressions of my people, speaking concerning the church and not individuals, they might have been redeemed even now." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 105:2)

But there was one great drawback -

"...behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which I required at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance, as becometh saints, to the poor and afflicted among them..." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 105:3)

The word of the Lord in both the Book of Mormon and Bible is consistent to the essential nature of caring for the poor and afflicted. At Fishing River, the Lord again teaches that the saints in Zion -

are not united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom;
5 And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 105:4 - 5)

"For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 88:22)

Again, the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom is the law of consecration and stewardship. As a consequence of the failure of the saints to live this law, the Lord said to Zions Camp -

"...it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion—" (Doctrine and Covenants Section 105:9)

Having said that Zion would not be redeemed for a season, what seems somewhat hidden in this revelation is the Lords instruction -

"...let those commandments which I have given concerning Zion and her law be executed and fulfilled, after her redemption." (Doctrine and Covenants Section 105:34)

It seems to me that this verse is suggesting the united order is being put on hold and will later be restored at some future date after Zion is some day redeemed. President J. Reuben Clark Jr. commented -

"It was under these circumstances, with the Saints scattered and sometimes hunted like wild animals, with their property gone, their organization largely broken up, wounded in mind and spirit, with the condemnation of the Lord pronounced upon their heads because of their unfaithfulness, not to say wickedness, with ‘Zion’ to all intents and purposes destroyed, that the Lord commanded them, in the great revelation given at Fishing River... It is interesting to note that after this pronouncement, the Lord practically never referred to the United Order in his revelations to the Prophet. The people had had their opportunity and failed. He then gave them the law of tithing in a revelation given in Missouri itself, in Zion, (July 18, 1838, Sec. 119), which is still in full force and effect. . . .

"Thus the Lord directed that the law he had given regarding the setting up of the United Order in Zion was to be ‘executed and fulfilled’ after the redemption of Zion, that is, in the meaning in which the Lord was then using the word Zion, the ‘redemption,’ the reestablishment of the people in Missouri. This has not yet been accomplished." (“The United Order and Law of Consecration As Set Out in the Revelations of the Lord,” Church News, 15 Sept. 1945, p. 9.)