Sleeping Watchmen 5

As I seek to close this message, I want to go back to where I started by asking and talking about the solemn assembly.

Who convenes the solemn assembly?

The prophet hears the order from above. Then he orders the king to summon it.

Of course the king must have been desperate enough to realize that something must give. All his strategies have become hopelessly ineffective and useless.

Let us look at Elijah at Carmel.

Elijah has promised a drought of monumental proportions.

It must be that the idols that had been institutionalized represented the provision of rain. Israel had prayed and prayed to those gods for a reversal of that prophecy in vain, for three and a half years. Everybody was desperate for a solution.

Ahab had sought for what he thought was the source of the problem (Elijah the prophet) in vain as God had hidden him. Yet he was the problem.

As things stood, everybody was ready for God’s solution as all other options had hopelessly flopped.

That was the context under which the solemn assembly was convened.

It was a confrontation of the gods. The only good thing was that for the populace there was nothing to lose.

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. (1Kings 18: 21 – 24)

Why am I comparing this to our situation?

Corona looks like a plague on the leadership. I bet (I do not bet, this is just a statement) that had it been visited on the ordinary citizens nothing much could have been done. Even now I suspect that if an outbreak was to happen in a slum or an ordinary estate, it would simply be blocked for them to die in isolation as there are not enough resources to treat them. (You see, before the virus were the locusts I suspect are still ravaging the land and the memorable thing they did was teargas them as they did to those who were desperate to get into the ferries to escape the curfew. They have not responded as a father would do to the genuine cry of his children)

But it affects the high and mighty and so we must bear the brunt of making sure that they do not die. We must be protected because we are the ones who slave for them and so could be carriers as we interact with our type in our shacks after leaving their palatial abodes. This especially because they have no abroad to fly to and must therefore sanitize the ghetto hospitals they had all along neglected and exploited since they were too low standard for them.

That is why they close parliament at a time it should be operating at full steam being the voice of the citizenry. They are the ones who should be protecting us from the battery of the police when we lack transport to beat the curfew and defend the right of the vulnerable and unemployed to also eat.

But they fear infection. They therefore would not mind if we died for them to live. Our rights are irrelevant. They only matter when superceded by theirs.

How did it come to us? Corona is for the most part airplane borne. It is initially imported. It means that only those who fly can ferry it to others. And we knew this for a long time.

Why then did we not close our airspace? You see they are the ones who fly with their friends and business partners. And their businesses do not have the luxury of waiting. And as usual the virus seemed so far removed to their immediate circumstances as they are not used to caution. You see, for the longest time their money could buy them anything so they thought it could buy them insurance from the virus.

Remember the guy who alerted us concerning a plane from China, the then source of the virus?

He was sacked. And even after a court reinstated him due to public uproar, he was refused from accessing his work station.

You see, the common man’s concerns are irrelevant unless and until they touch captains of industry and politics.

But the virus decided to play by a different set of rules by attaching to those who facilitated its spread.

I was surprised to learn that even in Europe the places most affected are the ones with the best healthcare and facilities.

And this is what will move the king as it has come too close to home, sometimes even entered the bedroom.

But even then they do not change. Following the saga of compulsory quarantine we are able to see that nothing has really changed in the leadership. The bosses have their own being picked from the airport whereas the rest are taken round and round in buses until places are got that are so squalid and at the same expensive that you wonder whether the leadership wants to make sure they either contract the virus or other bacteria even as they fleece them.

They must reach the point at which Ahab reached where he had to physically look for pasture for the remaining animals. He was throwing in the towel when the prophet showed up.

Has our leadership got there? Of course not. But I think they are not very far.

They are still grandstanding and pouring scorn on us for not protecting us (of course meaning them), yet they are not doing anything to ensure that the discomforts protecting them occasions us are even a little compensated. People could die of hunger because they are losing jobs because capitalists like them will not pay for the reduced hours the curfew entails.

Yet a few world leaders have taken their citizenry and their needs properly. Between subsidies to actual food rations they are showing that they value those they lead. But others are looking at the needy as a necessary evil instead of the drivers of industry.

The prophet must thunder what God is saying. He must give the leadership the options God has for them before He can conclusively deal with this virus. And I believe God also wants the led to get rid of the gods they worship and have worshiped for the longest time.

Among the gods is Mammon. He is represented by the greed that drives us. Though we call it ambition the reality is that it is a god we worship in not so subtle ways.

For example, how many people take a course because of how much difference it will have on society? Don’t we take even the noblest ones for the self-gratification and emoluments it will offer?

That is why you see a pastor becoming a sales executive and a doctor an entrepreneur or manager in a job unrelated to his field of training. That is why a businessman starts a church because it has a better income stream. And that is why searching for greener pastures has taken interesting turns. That is why a parent will neglect his children for a promotion or salary raise. That is why someone won’t mind his marriage breaking if it gives him a classier car.

These lockdowns will give us a chance to examine these gods.

The other god is the leadership. You see, it is not only Caesar who was worshipped as God. It is only that our leaders are craftier in asking for worship from their followers.

You just need to make a post critical to a leader to know how deep that worship is. From insults to a reminder that you are as a minister is supposed to be apolitical, they will leave no doubt who their god is. All this as the worshippers of an opposing god will applaud you for how spiritual your post is. But none will agree to worshiping the leader.

Again that is something God is challenging us to examine.

A more dangerous idol is our spiritual leadership. Far too many believers have more faith in their leaders than they have in God. The leader’s word carries more weight than God’s word just because the leader appears to be quoting from it.

I pass over many messages when I notice they are forwarded, especially consistently. And the reason is because I wonder when the people forwarding will ever get their own word to share. I love a fresh word from God, however unpolished it is. I prefer a word from a stuttering child than a secondary one from the expert because God’s word is always fresh.

I laughed when the pope recently gave his worshipers permission to confess their sins directly to God. Imagine all these years these people have been depending on a secondary mediator when Christ Himself said He is the ONLY mediator between God and man. And that because of the virus!

There are many believers (and I am especially talking about those who boast of their spirituality) who will rarely move before ‘papa’ has sanctioned it. They will not start a business before he has anointed it. Even their understanding of the Bible is dependent on how he sees it. The only Bible or Bible Study or book they can take is the one he has written or sanctioned. They will only give to causes he sanctions. In short even his prayers depend on what ‘papa’ says.

That is an idolatry more destructive that all the others because it takes the place only God should occupy. And that is the point His jealousy hits at. It pretends to point people to God by blocking them from Him. And this draws in His judgment.

Like was in Egypt during the exodus, God is about judging the gods we worship.

Like Elijah, the prophet must be consistently listening and obeying God’s orders to be able to know what he should be saying and when.

But that confrontation is a must.

And I believe that is the point at which God will deal conclusively with this ravaging virus as He dealt with that drought. And I will say again that it could be so sudden that we will be left reeling with shock to realize that there is not the smallest trace of this microorganism that has literally brought the world to a standstill in this digital age.

May I be found like John the Baptist, not only speaking and praying, but living in such a way that Jesus increases and I decrease.