Preacher Diaries

14.  The Religious Bait

When direct attack by swords and indirect attack through solicitation and outright blackmail had all failed, the enemies resorted to begin to speak the religious language of their target.  They knew that Nehemiah trusted in God, so they hired prophets to prophesy lies to intimidate and discredit him (Nehemiah 6:10-19).  How desperate an enemy can get!  Their apparent ‘invitation to church’ was part of the same grand plan, but Nehemiah was very sensitive and sensible – two important qualities combined.  Since when did those enemies become his spiritual advisers and private prophets?  Since when did they begin to care so much for his spiritual welfare?  How come that those prophets had suddenly begun to speak the same language as the enemies he knew?  He was sensitive and sensible.

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8. For Us or Against Us?

While strategizing to take Jericho, General Joshua saw an armed stranger by the city wall and was quick to ask if he were a friend or a foe.  He asked, “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” (Joshua 5:13).  In other words, alliances also define friends and foes.  Whom you stand with and whom you stand against tells where you stand.  They that are for you will not speak of you in the language of your foes.  Even when they disagree with what you do, they will distinguish the person from their act.

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4. The Dagger and the Kiss

If your enemy cannot kill you with a dagger, they will try it with a kiss. Whichever way, you shall have been dead in the end.  If they cannot get you at the bloody battlefront, they might seek you out on a cherry party floor.  If they cannot get you by a poisoned arrow, they could still send their death by a poisoned apple.  Watch out.  The battlefield is no less the arena of conflicts than the bedroom and the party floor.  Samson did not fall on the battlefield but in the bedroom which was no less a battlefield. He was down and out all the same, no matter the means by which it was achieved at last.

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1. When Radars Fail to Function Well…

In the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza, Israel has had to conduct a sad funeral for some of its own citizens killed in error by its own soldiers who had been searching for those same citizens but mistook them for the enemy when they found them.  Those were Israeli abductees who had managed to escape from their terrorist captors and had been running towards their would-have-been saviours who shot them dead, and regretted later.

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In the market culture of Nigeria and certain parts of Africa, a buyer usually receives a bonus, commensurate to the amount of purchase.  Retailed foodstuff, particularly grains such as rice, salt, groundnut, and beans, are usually sold in standard measures of “cups,” “bowls,” “basins” and “bags,” described by different terminologies in the different language cultures.  In certain parts of Nigeria, the term for describing that bonus is jara.  For example, if you bought a standard “bowl” of rice, the seller could scoop you an extra handful of rice as jara.  If you bought two or three “bowls” of rice, you could get two handfuls.  It was not a compulsory part of the bargain, but it was the expectation of every buyer and the responsibility of every seller to give good jara.  Besides, it was an important incentive for retaining customers.

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And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. 

Luke 1:20.

Twice in this message of the angel to Zacharias the priest, the angel makes it clear that receiving a promise is not the same thing as the fulfilment of it, even when the promise is as authentic as one from God and as credible as one delivered by no less an angel than Gabriel who stands in the very “presence of God,” the unapproachable presence of Light (Luke 1:19).  First, the angel states that the promise would be “until the day” of performance.  So, there was an “until” and a marked “day” for fulfilment.  It didn’t matter how much in a hurry the priest was.  He had to wait for “the day”; wait “until …”; and waiting can be tough, if you have ever been there.  Next, the angel reiterated that the good promise had a “season” about it.  In other words, it had a clearing date.  The point was thus made in two quick and consecutive times in the same sentence, and the beneficiary was not to miss it. 

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Sometimes a blessing on its way to a specified address has been beneficial in transit to an unplanned person somewhere else.  Jesus was on His way to heal the dying daughter of Jairus when a sick woman jumped in the way to get her healing.  She was not His destination, but she got what she needed.  It was so remarkable that Jesus noted it, realising that something He had been carrying to ‘deliver’ somewhere else had just been collected in part by someone else – without her name being on the parcel. 

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All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. 

Deuteronomy 8:1.

Obedience has benefits, just as the opposite has consequences.  In this passage, God Himself announces four blessings that should come to His people IF they obeyed “All” (rather than a convenient selection of some of) “the commandments” that He had given them.  The potential benefits of that obedience are listed as follows:

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8. Baseless Blames 

Everybody will not sing your praise, but it should also be a cause for concern if everybody inputs to you a blame.  Woe unto those whom all men praise, Jesus said (Luke 6:26), but woe unto those also whom all men blame.  It does not matter what you do, some folks will still find a fault.  Some blames are baseless, true, but never give occasion for them.  Miriam and Aaron (the ‘church board’) blamed Moses for marrying whom he did, but God defended him. Why?  They were imputing to him a false and malicious blame borne out of their personal pride and jealousy.

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