Posted by Ambassador T. Brikins
About a year ago, my intimate friend from Michika in Adamawa State in North East of Nigeria intimated
me of how young girls in the area and environs were committing suicide to avoid
rape and forceful marriage by the Boko Haram sect.
Few months ago, a prominent Pastor Kalejaiye of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God wondered
openly why Christians were being killed now in the churches when the church is
praying.
Like we said in the introduction of this blog, challenges
don’t respect geographic boundaries, economic or political blocs. They are as
historic and ancient as they are modern and contemporary.
They become news
when they put on new personalities or methods or come close to us.
Behind these problems are unseen forces powered with the
mission to kill, destroy and steal.
David was a 10th
century king of king of Israel.
He was “a man after God’s heart”, who
killed Goliath who defiled God and Israel’s army. By this bravery he
came to the lime light in his nation. The Hebrew nation attained its most
powerful during his rule. But his girls
were once abducted into captivity.
One day in history, “the good looking man, redhead, and with
beautiful eyes, skillful in music, undefeated warrior, a man of war, prudent in
speech and handsome’
“… arrived home at their town of Ziklag,”
and their wives and daughters had vanished. “… they found that the Amalekites
had made a raid into the Negev and had burned Ziklag to the ground . . . 2.They
had carried off the women and children and everyone else but without killing
anyone . . . 3.When David and his men saw the ruins and realized what had
happened to their families, .4.they wept until they could weep no more. “..5.
David’s two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of
Carmel, was among those captured. .6.David was now in serious trouble because
his men were very bitter about losing their wives and children and they began
to talk of stoning him.
But David encouraged himself in the LORD his God
These were great men of war. The Bible described them as
David’s mighty men. They were the best soldiers in Israel at the time. The great army
of Israel
that was chasing them could not defeat
them. When women weep. It’s normal. But when men, and men of war weep. That’s
news. They wept until they had no more strength to weep.
Victorious armies in ancient times took from their captives
those they desired for slaves and wives. “Such removal from their land nearly
always meant the destruction of national existence and a feeling of severance
from the care and protection of their local or national god…” The practice of
deportation was reversed by the Persians in 536 B.C.This new policy was
actually by divine intervention. God through Isaiah prophesied that He had
anointed the heathen Cyrus to free and return the Israelites from Babylonian
captivity. [Isaiah 45; 44].
Babylonians were fierce fighters. “Documents reprinted in
the Old Testament tell us that in his first year in Babylon,
Cyrus decreed that the house of God at Jerusalem
could be rebuilt.[2Chron. 36:22-23,Ezra 1:1-3;6:2-5]. “During excarvation
[1879-1882] at Babylon,
archeologist Hormuzd Rassam discovered an inscription telling of Cyrus’s
conquest of the city and his policies. The books of Isaiah and Chronicles agree
with the content of the inscription, which says that captured peoples were
allowed to return home…”
So these things do happen. What is important is how
challenges are handled. David’s men lost confidence in his leadership just like
what the President of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria,
Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan may be experiencing from some stakeholders now
over the abduction of our Chibok girls.
However, David
believed in the leadership of God and turned to Him for what to do.
Josephus, the legendary Jewish historian whose work provides
substantial first-hand corroboration of biblical record said, David “…desired
the high priest Abiathar to put on his sacerdotal garments, and to inquire of
God, and to prophesy to him...”
7 “Then he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring me the ephod!” So
Abiathar brought it. .8.Then David asked the LORD, “Should I chase them? Will I
catch them?”
And the LORD told him, “Yes, go after them. You will surely recover
everything that was taken from you!”
9. So David and his six hundred men set out and they soon came to Besor
Brook.
10 but two hundred of the men were too exhausted to cross the brook, so
David continued the pursuit with his four hundred remaining troops.
Two hundred soldiers were incapacitated by emotional and
psychological stress.
11 “Some of David’s
troops found an Egyptian man in a field and brought him to David. They gave him
some bread to eat and some water to drink.
12 They also gave him
part of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins because he hadn’t had anything
to eat or drink for three days and nights. It wasn’t long before his strength
returned.
13 “To whom do you
belong, and where do you come from?” David asked him.
“I am an Egyptian—the
slave of an Amalekite,” he replied. “My master left me behind three days ago
because I was sick.
14 We were on our way
back from raiding the Kerethites in the Negev, the territory
of Judah, and the land of Caleb,
and we had just burned Ziklag.”
15 “Will you lead me
to them?” David asked. The young man replied, “If you swear by God’s name that
you will not kill me or give me back to my master, then I will guide you to
them.”
16 So the Egyptian led
them to the Amalekite encampment. When David and his men arrived, the
Amalekites were spread out across the fields, eating and drinking and dancing
with joy because of the vast amount of plunder they had taken from the
Philistines and the land
of Judah.
17 David and his men
rushed in among them and slaughtered them throughout that night and the entire
next day until evening. None of the Amalekites escaped except four hundred
young men who fled on camels.
18 David got back
everything the Amalekites had taken and he rescued his two wives.
19 Nothing was
missing: small or great, son or daughter, nor anything else that had been
taken. David brought everything back.
[1Samuel 30:1-19 NLT]
How did David bring
back the girls? What was his secret?
He sought direction by enquiring from God Who knows and sees everything
and everywhere. He recognized that the battle is the Lord’s. He provided rest
for the weary [9-10]. He assisted the abandoned [v11, 12]. He resisted selfish
and foolish officials with God’s truth [v22-25]
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammad Sa’ad
Abubakar 111 was reported in the Guardian of 13th
June 2014, as saying during the
yearly conference of Muslim Lawyers’ Association of Nigeria[MULAN], among other
things that , “… who said you can’t
dialogue with criminals? You cannot fight criminals because you
don’t even know where they are”.
If man does not know where criminals are, God knows.
The world has been calling for action against this
bestiality. Global demonstrations, private and public prayers for the release
of these girls, “#Bring Back Our Girls”
are ongoing. Like in the first century when King Herod threatened to annihilate
the young church, the church became stronger through the prayers of the saints.
These prayers are yielding results. An attempted bombing of
the 10,000 capacity Living Faith Church
in Owerri , capital of Imo State
in South East Nigeria was foiled. The
Living Faith Church world wide had been involved in concerted
intercessions in a program tagged “A
Battle for the Soul of Nigeria”. The following day Monday, June 17, 2014, not
less than 486 suspected insurgents including
females were arrested by the military
personnel of 144 batalion of the Nigerian Army with base at Asa in Ukwa West council of Abia State.
We need to consider at this point the seeming total
dependence on scientific powers for the resolution of challenges facing
mankind. The mystery of the missing Malaysian
Airline MH370 is still with the world. The technologies of the nations are
yet to produce results.
If David brought back the girls by the prayer of enquiry, with His grace we may need to
follow his steps.
Dr.David O. Oyedepo, who is the President of Living Faith Church Worldwide Inc., writes on the prayer of enquiry in page 98 his
book, “Winning Prayers”.
“We are full of prayers of petition, calling on God to
intervene and do something about our situation. But we have more often than not
ignored the place of enquiries, which is what gives us access to God’s ways. It
is the access to the secret and hidden things of life. You must make enquiries
from Him, if you really desire the way out of your predicament, for God’s ways
are higher than ours and His thoughts
than ours [Isaiah 55:9]…”
“In the prayer of enquiry, God shows you what you need to do
in order to get what you are looking for.
“King David won all his battles because he was a man of
enquiries.
17 “When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king of Israel,
they mobilized all their forces to capture him. But David was told they were
coming and went into the stronghold.
18 The Philistines arrived and spread out across the valley of Rephaim.
19 So David asked the LORD, “Should I go out to fight the Philistines?
Will you hand them over to me?”
The LORD replied, “Yes, go ahead. I will certainly give you the
victory.”
20 So David went to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there.
“The LORD has done it!” David exclaimed. “He burst through my enemies like a
raging flood!” So David named that place Baal-perazim (which means “the Lord
who bursts through”).
21 The Philistines had abandoned their idols there, so David and his
troops confiscated them.
22 But after a while the Philistines returned and again spread out
across the valley
of Rephaim.
23 And once again David asked the LORD what to do. “Do not attack them
straight on,” the LORD replied. “Instead, circle around behind them and attack
them near the balsam trees.
24 When you hear a sound like marching feet in the tops of the balsam
trees, attack! That will be the signal that the LORD is moving ahead of you to
strike down the Philistines.”
25 So David did what the LORD commanded, and he struck down the
Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.
2 Samuel 5:17-25 [NLT].