Wash Your Face By John Obidi

 

The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? 

Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. 

I have chosen one of his sons to be king."

Let me provide you the background of Samuel's grief. 

Israel was at a time governed by Priests and Judges who kept the law, commanded the army and communicated to the people what God's intent was. 

After a while however, the people agitated that they wanted a change of government. 

They wanted a King so they could be like the other nations.

Samuel warned the people against this. He told them their choice would eventually oppress and enslave them.

"He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 

When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 

Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

Samuel knew that the people were not sufficiently mature and experienced to understand the weight attached to handing over executive power to one human, but he had to give them what they wanted.

This led to the emergence of Saul.

He was good looking and a head taller than everyone else.

The people loved him and Samuel swore him in as King.

King Saul did well at first. His 'body language' inspired hope for the people of Israel. 

But in time, he began to make a series of terrible choices and God rejected him.

Samuel wept and mourned for a long time.

Perhaps he wept because he felt personally responsible for Saul's error.

Perhaps he wept because he could foresee the future ramifications on Israel's political future. 

For now, we can only speculate, but perhaps one day, we will get Samuel on a webinar to explain his thoughts.

Please put a bookmark here... I'll come back to connect Samuel's mourning to this narrative.

Meanwhile, I need to talk about another major incident regarding Saul's misdemeanours.

Even after God had rejected King Saul, he went on to commit more atrocities.

King Saul made history as the first leader to order a hit on his own citizens who were also unarmed and non-combatant.

Sound familiar?

All they did was provide bread to a young David, who had been anointed to be the future of Israel.

Saul sought to kill that future and all who conspired with it.

Then the king ordered the guards at his side: “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because they too have sided with David. They knew he was fleeing, yet they did not tell me.”

But the king’s officials were unwilling to raise a hand to strike the priests of the Lord. 

The king then ordered Doeg, “You turn and strike down the priests.” 

So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck them down. That day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod. 

He also put to the sword Nob, the town of the priests, with its men and women, its children and infants, and its cattle, donkeys and sheep.

I need you to read and understand the passage above. 

Okay, wait... I'll explain it to you. 

King Saul ordered his military officers to murder the 85 priests, but because they were also Israelites, bound by a common history and faith, they were afraid to carry out such an unjust order for fear of God's judgement and so nobody moved.

Among them however, was a mercenary, Doeg the Edomite. 

He was not an Israelite and so he had no emotional, cultural or religious affiliations to the Priests.

In case you do not know the Edomites, they were the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother.

And so it was to Doeg the Edomite that King Saul now turned to and gave the order.

Doeg murdered the 85 priests with no hesitation, but you see, as a foreigner, he was more eager to impress the King perhaps for future consideration for promotion.

And so he over delivered and did what he wasn't asked to.

He went on to decimate the entire town of Nob, the town of Priests, killing all men, women, infants and animals.

King Saul made a statement at Nob. 

The people were soon to realize that unlike a 4-year democratic term, they had given King Saul a lifetime Presidency.

They weren't at liberty to simply change their minds and return to normalcy. 

They were going to be stuck with him for a while.

Lagos State under the leadership of Tinubu, voted massively for General Buhari TWICE (2015 AND 2019).

That is not being remembered today.

Just like the people of Nob who aided the young David, could it be that Lagos is being punished for being the origin and eventual hotbed of the EndSars protests championed by the youth?

The soldiers who fired ever so gallantly at unarmed and peaceful protesters, were nowhere to be found in the wake of the recent ransacking and pillaging of Bode Thomas and other affected areas in Lagos, by starving criminals and dangerous cult groups.

The hand of the Federal Government has been withdrawn from Lagos... but only for a time. 

Only for a time.

WHAT YOU MUST DO

You said #EndSars? The current breakdown of law and order are to make you love the police.

You're supposed to want peace and normalcy so much that you take whatever is offered. 

So... 

Take it... 

For now.

There are 2 ways to approach a hurricane.

- Like a strong Iroko tree that stands ever so firmly and gets uprooted in the unyielding carnage

- Or like a tall blade of grass that maintains its roots by bending this way and swaying that way until it eventually outlasts the hurricane

Our unfolding realities are calling for you to be like the blade of grass - flexible but farsighted.

This season has finally revealed the nature of Nigeria to Nigerians, many of whom are too young to have experienced our bloody past and too distracted to read it.

The carnage, intimidation and murderous rampage are all transient, trust me.

The world cannot afford a humanitarian crisis to occur in Nigeria.

Ghana, our other West African neighbours and Europe will be unable to handle the influx of fleeing refugees.

The United States, UAE and other 1st World countries have a lot of visiting Nigerians that they cannot afford to overstay their visas or stay indefinitely due to conflict back home.

We are too many.

You can be certain that they are all prevailing upon the President to deescalate tensions, at least to protect the stability of their own economies.

This hurricane will pass. 

Outlast it with wisdom.

Stay alive, remain vigilant and be safe.

Now let's get back to Samuel and his grief. I told you to put a bookmark there, remember? 

The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? 

Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. 

I have chosen one of his sons to be king."

After mourning comes strategic action, for there is much to be done. 

Just as God told Samuel to fill his horn with oil and be on his way, we are going to need resources for the journey ahead. 

Find a way to continue to earn. You will need the money.

This is the time to get educated on the workings of democracy and strategize on how to get massively involved in the political process.

This is the time for us to redefine what we want Nigeria to be and identify ONE CANDIDATE we can entrust this masterplan to.

This is the time to agree on, fund, massively support, organize around and aggressively market that candidate nationwide. The #endsars campaign proved it can be done.

Again, there can be no confusion. Just one candidate. I'm concerned that we may encounter issues here, but...

Knowing that the other side is not confused should be incentive enough. Look at them.

United in victory, united in defeat.

United even in their silence at this time.

We can pick learnings from it.

And finally, we should refuse to see this as a youth movement. 

We have silent allies in the older generation and this is their country too. 

Their input, experience and foresight will be supremely valuable.

Our respect and open invitations will encourage them to come forward.

I know that this has been hard on everyone. 

I extend my sincerest and deepest condolences to the families and friends of everyone we lost. 

Jesus said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer"

So grieve if you must, but as soon as you're able, be of good cheer...

Wash your face...

The pendulum of choice will eventually swing right back to the people. 

Let us be wiser and ready to act once it does.

Let us be strategic, organized and disciplined.

Hold your head high...

... and make your next move, your best move... 

... as we get back to making the rest of our lives... the best of our lives.

- J.O.

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