The Aftermath of Corruption

Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. (Proverbs 20:17)

I have been writing about corruption for some time now. I want to put closure to this topic by looking at some outcomes of the same, this time looking at the beneficiaries of the said corruption.

I am doing this because the victims of corruption are clear to most. But I may have to mention a few beyond the obvious.

When someone diverts drugs from the public hospitals, the ones the drugs were meant for could die or live in ill health because they can’t afford those drugs in your pharmacy.

When someone sells food meant for the poor (that is why it is called relief food), the said poor could very easily die of hunger when you are using the money you made from selling it to buy a piece of land or new car.

When as a traffic officer you overlook an overloaded and underserviced vehicle under your watch and it has an ‘accident’ that kills several, you really are partnering with the criminals causing death by dangerous driving.

When you are harassing children to pay for extra tuition, the parents who took their children to public schools because it was free may pull them out of school due to that pressure, or the children may drop out of school due to that harassment.

Some might decide to take the teachers to the education offices and discover that the illegality of private tuition is a ‘private’ matter as the teachers may be sharing the spoils with those bosses. Then their children are harassed even more. Or the parents know how it feels to be jobless and choose not to report the law-breaking as it could make some other persons suffer as they are suffering.

When you use your office to profit instead of serve, the ones who will be unable to afford you will have to suffer the consequences of that decision you made.

And when a Christian minister has preferences it is the worst of a bad case because he is assumed to be representing God, the epitome and reality of what justice and fairness is.

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: (Romans 13:3)

Corruption is thus an affront to God. That is why He strikes back in His own way.

He does this by overturning how we may want to enjoy those fruits of corruption, making them a grief instead of a joy.

How many have bought those superfast automobiles so that their children literally get to enjoy life on the fast lane end up becoming victims of that fast life? They then have to bury those heirs they had amassed all that wealth for.

How many used dark forces to get into a position discovered too late that they had bartered with their posterity and die in great frustration and regret?

How many families are in those leafy suburbs yet probably have their only child sleeping on the streets, by choice? Yet they would willingly surrender that wealth to redeem that child, not realizing that it was their choices that ‘sold’ that child to the streets. Their hearts bleed every time they see him all dirty, smelly and haggard, begging for food or coins when their wardrobe is full to overflowing with imported clothes and the new car they bought to bribe him into coming back home is rotting in the garage.

How many have everything they may desire yet are unable to enjoy the taste of food as taste is poison to their system? The doctor has recommended they eat nothing they enjoy.

How many wealthy people are literally walking pharmacies? They must be swallowing this or the other almost by the hour that they must employ someone to manage all that drug taking.

How many wealthy people would not dare eat anything from their family members because they are sure that they want to eliminate them so that they share that wealth without caring to know how it was gotten?

God is fair just as He is just. It goes without say that we must reap what we sowed.

You see, corruption is a sin like any other only that it many times affects more people, people you may not know. You bribe to get a job that was meant for a person in desperate straits. You are accountable for some of the sins they might get in to survive. Can you imagine that you pushed a girl into prostitution because you bought her job? And she went that direction because that was the only job that did not require financial capital and she had to do something for her family that sold their land and only cow so that she completes her education.

Or you decided to double the fare because it had rained. What will you do about the mother who is unable to raise that fare? Then she is caused to arrange alternative accommodation that may compromise her morals. All the time her children are crying for their mother. How will you account for that student who may be forced to sleep on the streets as their neighborhood is dangerous beyond certain times, times that the fares would have gone down?

Maybe you thought that your money or position justified your experimenting with sex. You therefore took any attractive girl and woman to bed, irrespective of their moral standing because you could either pay them to keep quiet or use the law to cover up your crimes. You therefore destroyed destinies and marriages at will because your money or position spoke volumes. Do you think God is swayed by the volume of that money?

God’s justice goes beyond the present, though that does not mean He overlooks the present. If you destroyed people’s destinies, God will deal with your dynasty. If you destroyed people’s children, God deals with your posterity. The level of your corruption will be the extent of the gravel you will be forced to eat. Remember Achan? His whole family was destroyed by his sin. Remember Korah and his cohorts? Their whole line was swallowed when the earth opened up. Remember Daniel’s accusers? Everybody in their line was eaten by the lions.

In my not so few years, I have seen God doing similar things in this dispensation of grace. And it may be worse because many times the guilty may have forgotten the offense and are therefore wondering where their curse came from. Many will go unceasingly to prayer experts and witch hunters to reverse the consequences of their corruption.

Some of the doctrines people preach are meant to soothe people suffering from the consequences of their sins, especially corruption as many times they do not know their victims and so may assume they are guiltless. Some of the generous givers in churches are suffering from feeding on gravel looking for a way to come out of that suffering.

From generational curses to being bewitched to deliverance, you might be surprised to learn that the root cause might be blood crying out or the destitute shivering of cold, even at the generational level.

Or you not remember what happened to Abiathar in 1Kings 2:27? Eli had taken advantage of his position of priest to fatten his posterity until he crossed God’s line. Abiathar was just reaping what his forebears had sown. Even the captivity of Judah and disintegration of Israel was a result of the corruption of their leadership and consequently of the populace.

On the contrariwise (KJV), coming out of that wickedness attracts favor, even a reversal of fortunes.

Rahab the harlot was a doomed person in a doomed city. Yet her intervention on the spies saved her father’s house. That double condemnation was cancelled by her radical faith in the God of Israel.

Remember also the midwives of Egypt? Choosing life above abortion opened God’s favor upon them. Their curse was changed to a blessing.

How does one do that? You may be wondering.

And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. (Luke 19:8)

He knew that giving offerings was not enough to counter the effects of his corruption and so basically gave out almost everything he had. Half of his wealth would cater for the people he (and they) had no way of remembering the injury while the rest compensated those who could trace their injury.

Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity. (Daniel 4:27)

That is the pill the corrupt will have to swallow if they must get a chance to reverse or at least soften the whip heading their way from the heavens.

Being active in church and giving fat offerings have no capacity at all to reverse the judgment due them.

Yet it is wise to avoid corruption at the onset. It will save you so much pain, especially on your posterity.