Mighty Ones

And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. (Ecclesiastes 3:16, 17)

Today I want us to look at some sources of lasting judgment that may not appear so because many times it is the offender who may have an inkling of the injustice. He may even be hailed for that injustice because nobody else understands the dynamic of his cruelty.

God brought this message as I came across an incident in a university, sadly an incident that is all too common in very many institutions of higher learning. And it brought enough memories of similar incidents.

Some students were being excluded from their graduation yet they had done their course and passed all the exams satisfactorily. The only issue was a very flimsy yet illegal technicality introduced to lock them out. But the person holding the pen was incidentally the one with the final word on their graduation and there was no other avenue of appeal. And we are talking of a six year course! And the worst part is the student I know was targeted to get back at his parent who had a tiff with this pen holder.

What do these students tell their parents if they will not graduate? How do you convince them that you were really in school and not wasting their millions ‘enjoying yourself’ because you were far from home? How will you convince them that they made a wise choice selling that parcel of land or livestock to take you for an engineering or medical course? How do you convince your siblings who dropped out of school to allow the brainiest of the family to use their resources to educate you? What do you tell your sister who was hurriedly taken from school and married off to get resources to make you an engineer?

Yet that is the lot for many students, however small their percentage may appear. And many times the reasons they are unable to pass that crucial exam are flimsier than flimsy. They range from a rejection of a sexual advance to a tribal bias to I do not like you to you are too beautiful/ handsome/ rich/ intelligent to pass this test. Yet the student will be condemned to a waste of time. Those who realize early enough will ship out to another course or college but they will lose at least two years before then.

The bulk will give up. Some will be unable to face that injustice and commit suicide. And you will realize that most suicides in universities are among the elite courses. Others on dropping out will seek solace in drugs to dull that pain of disappointment. Others will get to crime to get back at society for that injustice. The most stable will start a totally different life, becoming from hawkers to waiters, but with a continued dull ache in their hearts.

Their parents and entire families do not fare better. They must face life with the loss of the wasted millions they had wisely invested in their brain bank to improve the family lot. Sometimes they may sink into poverty as that ‘investment’ had gone down the drain.

All this because a mighty one has decided to throw his weight around and in the process messed many lives in his way.

Do you think God is applauding your display of power? Do you expect Him to take no offense at that disregard of humanity? Will He keep silence as you continue playing games with the hearts and lives of men? And will He support your pretended superiority over others?

Who will be held accountable over the suicides that occur? Who is responsible for those who sink into drug abuse and crime? Who is liable for the family that has sunk into poverty because you have trashed their investment  through your big office?

But that is not the only place such injustice prevails.

I remember a headmistress who had made it her business to ensure all the children of a particular parent repeated classes, even when they were topping those classes (probably because they were topping those classes). Her family was way too high in all ways then. Imagine a husband and wife each having a car when less than a handful of the students in that school had shoes. Interestingly enough the latest I heard concerning her and her family everything has disintegrated as most died miserable and others shameful deaths. Their empire crumbled completely.

There was another headmistress who was not much different progress wise though that was not the school I attended. One thing I know she did is made sure that the person who had highest grade failed to get a national school and had to be content with something much less. Again I heard a few complaints along the same lines. Again her family is in tatters.

There is a pastor who believes he is the conduit of God’s call and behaves so. A person who goes to him for assistance or counsel concerning God’s call has to contend with his wrath if it does not agree with what this mighty one thinks. I have gone to a few such pastors in the course of my ministry and really pity those who must be looking up to them for guidance. This is because they simply trash what they do not understand. Reminds me of the false teachers.

But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. (Jude 1:10)

Yet they have people who are totally submitted to them being subjected to their tyranny. I remember I have encountered such in fellowship and really pity those following their counsel. I remember a few times hearing them say that God could not give me an order He had very clearly given me. Suppose I had been seeking clarity for that order?

Many visions are killed at the pastor’s office. The sad fact is that eternal destinations are altered through those visions. God calls someone to reach the Somali and the pastor thinks that is a crazy and impossible order. Or God calls someone to reach the drug addicts or prostitutes and the pastor trashes it instead of helping this person gain clarity about that call to deal with the whims and messiah mentality that can delude someone into such visions.

And I repeat this is the reason much of the world is unreached yet we have more than enough resources to do so in a very short time. Many pastors have become road blocks instead of bridges to connect people to their calls, their burdens, their ministries. Many pastors do not believe there is ministry outside their narrow understanding. They do not believe there is mission outside their narrow view. And sadly enough they do not keep that folly to themselves. They must broadcast for the whole world to hear. And they must block any support that should go to the direction they do not expressly agree with. They forget what they always teach.

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (Ephesians 4:11, 12)

And the certain thing is that these pastors have set themselves up for judgment for the ministry they have blocked.

Therefore I want to remind you in that high office that God is holding you accountable for the conduct of that office. That you may condemn your posterity to destruction because you have the power of destruction in your hands.