YOU know that even at my lowest ebb, when my spirits have hit rock bottom and there seems no hope at all. When nothing seems to work, when the demons in me wreak havoc on my soul, and I’m teetering on the fringes of absolute belief in God or to simply go rogue and full blown atheist.
There is a book that wows me back to sanity, and it is called the Holy Bible!
Reading any one passage jolts me back to the realm of the living and the reality almost instantaneously dawns on me that therein is indeed the living word. Every one single word of it is teeming with life, a clear sign that it is with no doubt inspired by the creator.
If you care to read a little bit more, I will in a few words demonstrate to you just why I say so
I was reading one of the daily tabloids and there, in living colour, a screaming double decker headline read: “ They promised u the sky, moon…. but they can’t even deliver the earth”
This is in apparent reference to the UPND government and its performance in government so far. Two years after they assumed government.
This statement is attributed to a very senior prelate in the catholic church and perhaps, I should have added the word Emeritus, but just as well I did not because I would be abusing the true meaning of the word.
For purposes of better understanding about what I mean is the true meaning of the term Emeritus. According to some dictionary translations, it is an honorary adjective meaning veteran, and it is often used with the word professor, but could apply to other professions whose retirees continue to hold their titles like ministers. Emerita is sometimes used for women.
Please note the word HONORARY. as we proceed with the discussion.
So then, as alluded to earlier, that headline was attributed to an honorary prelate who has since retired from active shepherding of the flock of Jesus. And to conclude that the term emeritus is in this regard used in the strictest sense of the word is really a matter of conjecture.
And just as an afterthought I may ask, do prelates really retire from their “Godly” work? Is it not a lifelong covenant that they commit ink to paper to forever serve the one and only true master, who is Jesus Christ, and to spread the good news to all mankind? That whoever
believes in him should not perish but forever live and reign in heaven together with the master?
So then, if the primary or sole purpose of any prelate is to continue as Jesus Christ did, to show humility and servant leadership and spread the good news, why all the fuss about this structured hierarchy and emeritus business, when Jesus was simply referred to as the good shepherd. Simple, and often portrayed wearing close to sack like garments.
This is in total contrast to the expensive royal purple and satin robes, with all the glitter that we see our prelates clad in, denoting what? the kingdom of heaven? And all the while, we proclaim to stand for and speak for the poor, the meek, the downtrodden and all the injustices or perceived injustices meted against the voiceless by those in leadership.
But to pause my argument on the matter,, maybe, just maybe, these are just titles and jobs they retire from, like that of Supervisor, Foreman, Manager, Managing Director, or, Father, Deacon, Bishop, Archbishop and even Pope.
I guess even just a continuation of tradition which we have carried on without even fully understanding where it came from, and how today, it has become part and parcel of most of the religious etiquette in dress code and as alluded to earlier hierarchy.
At this point, I do not seek to lose you in my discussion, but this preamble was important to set the background for the substantive matter at hand.
The captioned headline “They promised the moon……….” and the story therein mocks the current UPND government, arguing justifiably or unjustifiably so that there are no notable strides that this administration has made regarding the pre-election promises they
pledged to the people of Zambia.
And precisely my observation being that the Holy Bible is the true living word of the Lord our God.
Few of us may also be privy to the extent of the age, inspiration and different periods that the various books therein were written by the different authors.
I would therefore like to draw parallels of what was written over 2000 years ago and the lamentations of the figure that I keep referring to as the Prelate.
In the book of Deuteronomy Chapter 8 of the New International Version under the title “Do Not forget The Lord”, we are reminded as follows:
“Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised to on oath to your ancestors.
Remember how the lord your God led you all in the wilderness these 40 years, to humble and test you all the way in the wilderness in order to know what was in your heart whether or not you would keep his commands.
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so your Lord your God disciplines you”
Deuteronomy Chapter 29 Verse 5 also clearly reveals:” Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did your sandals on your feet.
You ate no bread nor drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did so that you might know that Iam the Lord your God.
In the book of Numbers Chapter 14, the Bible reads: “That night, all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud.
All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in? Egypt! Or in the wilderness!
Why is the lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?
Our wives and children will be taken as plunder, wouldn’t it be better to be taken back to Egypt? And they said to each other, we should choose a leader to take us back to Egypt”
The book of Numbers Chapter 11 reads: ‘We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost- also the cucumbers, Melons, leeks, Onions and Garlic.
But now, we have lost our appetite, we never see anything but this Manna.”
Does the foregoing passage ring any bell? Do you now understand why and how the Holy Bible inspires me and many others, That it is alive and confirms the belief that history has a tendency to repeat itself.
There are many suggested dates and authors believed to have written Deuteronomy. According to some scholars, the book of Moses Deuteronomy is believed to have been recorded and written by Moses. Although it was traditionally attributed to Moses, some modern scholars believe that an anonymous author or authors wrote the book around the 7th Century BCE
We can all imagine how long ago that must have been and yet the message still resonates with our current political posturing in this year of our lord 2023.
Just as the Israelites probably forgot so quickly, we as Zambians who went through one of the most excruciating periods of our life time have so soon began to moan and groan about the few temporary discomforts that have been thrown our way in a bid to fix that which was destroyed.
Just as the Israelites, they quickly lost faith in their anointed leader Moses and they began to yearn for the life they painstakingly endured while they were enslaved by the Egyptians.
They plotted against Moses and his brother Aaron threatening to find another leader and march back into Egypt because they missed the morsels of Cucumbers, Melons and Leeks in comparison to the manna that they had for forty years survived on.
They were blinded and refused to understand that in the past forty years, their clothes never wore off, just as their sandals remained immaculate and as good as new.
Little did they understand that theirs and the destiny of their ancestors was already etched for greatness and one day, they would emerge as one of the greatest nations on Earth because God was with them.
Today, we see those leaders who mismanaged Zambia want to return to the high echelons of political power by usurping the leadership of a nation, when they themselves are responsible for the current economic woes the citizens are facing.
They not even for once envisaged that they would have the lee-way to even utter a single word in this New Dawn administration, and yet, they criss-cross the country undeterred, unhindered, unrestricted, unperturbed.
They have already forgotten that because of atrocities they committed while they reigned, the people have not forgotten. They still hang on a single strand of thread which may easily snap as everyone watches with bated breath, they could fall into a bottomless dark abyss they themselves dug up to punish their perceived enemies. and nobody will shed a single tear, not even a crocodile tear.
The children of Israel defied God and neglected to follow the instructions which God passed on through their appointed leaders.
Prosperity eluded them a few times over, not because God had given up on them, but because they needed to be still and know that he was God.
The failure of the people of Israel to be patient and to endure discomfort in the short term, just before they arrived into the promised land, save for the strength of character of their leader Moses may have lost the favour of God.
Zambians need to be resolute and focused on what they truly want to achieve after years of misrule, rampant corruption, the plunder of national resources, disrespect of human rights and so many other injustices. But to get there, we need to collectively remain resolute to achieve that which we aspire for.
Those politically persuaded prelates whose only preoccupation is to purvey provocative prepositions must give God a chance to reign in this country, and not to be used as agents of turmoil. Nobody should in the name of vanguards of social injustice, drive their own agendas to an obedient flock of God-fearing people.
And anyway, remember that it is recorded in Matthew 22 that a group of Pharisees confront Jesus and ask him for a yes or no answer on whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, the Roman emperor and Jesus asked them whose face was engraved on the coins used to pay the taxes .
Bible commentary describes the incident as essentially representing a trap against him because they figured that, if he said pay to Caesar, he would offend his followers and if he said to pay his father in Heaven, he would have been cited for treason by the authorities.
In short, Jesus was propagating the kingdom of God which was essentially different from the earthly Roman empire.
So it follows that all those masquerading as spiritual champions of social justice must keep their lane and allow President Hichilema to rule over the people of God as dictated by the principles of leadership.
Let us not be modern day Sadducees who according to Jesus bore the hallmark of hypocrisy spiritual pride and self-righteousness,
This Bible could only have been inspired by the spirit of God because the messages herein are alive and well, The Bible speaks to us every day, it guides us and it is replete with all that people require to live their lives to the fulfilment of God.
It is the all inspiring best seller of all time!