- Case Three: Occupied Vacancies
A few months back this year, an Old Testament scripture hit me with a newness that I had never known. I find that scripture an applicable next file to open. Again, the scripture is a Heavenly announcement about an incumbent earthly king; a Heavenly verdict of which the majority on earth was tragically ignorant, or chose to be vehemently, brutally so, even the man at the centre of the matter (1 Kings 22: 24, 27). That notice from Heaven came in the discriminated minority voice of a very disliked prophet of God.
And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a SHEPHERD: and the LORD said, These have NO MASTER: let them return every man to his house in peace (1 Kings 22:17).
That was a great paradoxical indictment. How could Heaven say of a great nation that still had a powerful king ‘in office,’ that its people were without a shepherd (in Hebrew, ra`ah – a carer, a friend, a pastor), and without a master (in Hebrew, ‘adown – a sovereign, a ruler, a leader)? In other words, according to the news from Heaven, the throne of that kingdom had become vacant despite the very powerful Ahab still ‘in office,’ with Queen Jezebel his very newsy wife. God no more recognized that man’s many achievements that the press daily reported. As far as God was concerned, therefore, all the glamorous photos that filled the front pages of newspapers and announced him as king of Israel; all the TV clips and radio broadcasts, were a lie; a decorated branded lie that only the coming days would disclose.
As God saw no king over the many citizens of that country on whose throne Ahab still sat as king, they were described as “scattered” (in Hebrews, puwts, meaning dispersed, broken or dashed into pieces, cast abroad, scattered, etc.). The press certainly did not share that ‘minority’ view about that ‘powerful government’ or its prosperous people, and never promoted the view. They might even have been sanctioned if they had dared.
Alas, Heaven lamented a people without a shepherd or friend or care-giver; a very religious nation without a master or leader or pastor; a people broken and dashed into pieces and scattered and cast abroad – as forced immigrants and exiles! Does that describe a land you know? Does God really recognize the occupant of every throne? Does Heaven respect their splendorous voice on such thrones? Does Heaven celebrate them as Earth often does?
Ahab simply expired on the throne. He did not continue to hold the place in wait for another specific prophetic comer, as in the case of Saul and David. To that extent, I shall describe the present case as an occupied vacancy. All the same, it is another case of a vacant throne – even if mortal eyes did not see it so.
- Case Four: Protected Vacancies
Whereas a throne may have an occupant whom Heaven does not see in that capacity, the reverse is also possible, that a throne could appear vacant while it is not actually empty. That was the case with the throne of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Heaven pronounced on that pompous king a sentence of seven years of isolation in the wild; a stipulated Peace Corps mission (in Nigeria they would call it NYSC) with wild beasts; a term of practical orientation at the Department of Humility in the University of the Wild, with the beasts as instructors and classmates – and the angels of God as supervisors.
While the king was thus dispatched from the throne on that ‘study leave’ abroad, God ensured that the throne was protected from usurpers; that it was kept preserved specifically for him until he should return a changed person after his years of compulsory service outside. The throne was apparently vacant, but it was not free – at least as much as the supervising spiritual powers ensured (Daniel 4:26, 36).
Does Satan also ensure protected vacancies, where a seat is vacated yet none can sit upon it, until the Wicked should return, more wicked than before? Do celestial spirits so rigorously supervise terrestrial thrones? Is God in Heaven interested in human politics? Does Satan also care much about who becomes a king among mortals? Should earthly politics really matter to spiritual folks? Next slide …
- Case Five: An Angel’s Message to a Praying Girl
About three years ago, a little nine-year old girl who sometimes came with her mother to our Monday prayer meetings for the country, had a rare experience. There had been an election the outcome of which had made many very sad. That night, after the announcement of the electoral results, she and her sisters went to bed weeping that her ‘friend’ – Jonathan – had been dishonestly denied the outcome of the presidential elections. Her mother had also contracted their tears and everyone had cried. That night, she had a rare dream, as she sometimes does. For example, about a year ago, I shared her unique dream about the strange death – and why – of a bloody gubernatorial candidate in a Middle Belt state of Nigeria whose name she had not previously known. She had woken up announcing, to the disquiet of her mother, “The governor of X State is dead! The governor of X State is dead.” She didn’t even know where that state was on the map. Her mother was rattled. How did she come about the name of that state? Well, it was judgment from The Most High, for the much ritual human blood in which that man had been swimming and had drowned. About three days later, the nation woke up to the shocking news that that man had suddenly died overnight in the process of the counts of the gubernatorial election in which, it is claimed, he had been leading. Somebody certainly knows what I’m talking about, even though I have chosen to avoid the names.
In her present dream, she was taken to a Palace that they call a Rock, and was shown a vacant throne. She wondered why the sick and dying old man in the other room was not sitting in the empty throne into which they had just announced him elected. The soldier-angel that was guarding the throne from attempting Ishamaelitish sitters informed her that the vacant seat was awaiting the coming David… and on and on. The angel did not say when the David was coming; whether in two days or two years or twenty or fifty years. That was probably left to the intervention and ‘decision’ of the country’s Christians and intercessors.
While she watched, while the throne remained vacant, there was an invasion of strange flying stinging creatures, guarding the empty throne. She woke up with a scar on her hand where one of the flying creatures, in the dream, had stung her as, in her childliness, she had attempted to approach the throne despite having been cautioned by the guarding angel. That physical scare on her hand was a significant connection between the dream realm that she had left, and the physical world into which she woke. In her dream, the dying old man eventually died, and his wife kept lamenting how she had often warned him about that.
While Israel’s throne awaited David, Saul the desperate throne-holder went on a killing spree that did not respect even the priests of the Lord, and that bloody term was not just for a year or two. While Athaliah kept the throne that awaited Joash, the land groaned under that daughter of Jezebel and Ahab. That, too, was not just for one year or two. While the land awaits its David, will Saul spare it of much blood? While Herod waits about the new Baby that would become King of kings, will he spare the suckling infants of Ramah? While the prophetic Mother travails to bring forth the man child that should rule the world with a rod of iron, will the malevolent Great Red Dragon sit idly by? Will that dragon cheer like a fan or threaten with angry tsunami floods (Revelation 12:1-17)? Vacant thrones are not usually a pleasant announcement, especially as the enemy will use the season to try his worst, scheming to steal that throne or fill it with his own.
- Case Six: A Message from the Master
About a year ago, while we were having special prayer programs for the nation, a lady from the same Monday prayer altar with the Wailing Women ministry, had a rare dream where two strange men took her aside from her busy spot and said that they had a message for her from the Master. The Master had told them to say to her that He has heard our cries but did not see whom to put on the throne as replacement. She quickly reminded the messengers that the matter was very simple, according to a previous scenario, or precedence: Remove A and automatically constitutionally replace with B. Strangely, the Messengers told her that Heaven didn’t see it that way. In other words, maybe, Heaven did not recognize Mr. Option B as she had proposed, according to the permutations of many a Christian folk. She then replied, in tired surrender, “Ok then, please, go back to the Master and tell Him to help us quickly, any way He knows best, because the suffering is getting unbearable in the land.” She woke up.
Pharaoh in the Old Testament was not throwing Christmas parties for the Jews while they awaited Moses. Herod in the New Testament got murderous when he learned that a Messiah was coming. In the devilish pre-emptive hope of collaterally liquidating the unwanted newborn King, Herod undertook a genocidal campaign that targeted the defenceless infant ‘tribe’ from where it had been predicted that the Messiah was coming. Sometimes, then, the tribe that a throne bloodily targets tells the gate from which the dreaded and undesired messiah could be coming. In other words, even when we might not know when and where, Pharaoh’s demonic malice, Herod’s targeted bloodiness, can be a significant pointer to the timings and the gateway or ‘tribe’ from which to expect the coming messiah.
The promise of a David is not an announcement for which to retire thankfully into bed. It is a call to beseech the Master, “Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD” (Psalm 69:17). Vacant thrones don’t always lie silent. The evil powers that eye them often fight bloody to prevent the coming messiah. But our consolation is this: there’s an angel guarding the place, and flying creatures too, until…
From The Preacher’s diary,
August 7, 2017.