Leaders who allow sinful practices
Aleader is held accountable for the actions or inactions of the organisation he leads. A nation succeeds of fails because of the policies and practices of the ruler and those that surround him. Good crafting of regulations, goals and the proper management of behaviours can bring prosperity. Mismanagement and an absence of controls on human behaviours can bring doom to a nation. Likewise, a ruler who allows immorality and a host of other sinful practices to prevail among the inhabitants risks inviting God’s wrath upon such a nation. While there are some charters giving guarantees to the freedom of worship or association, leadership should always be guided by the instructions and statutes of the Lord our God. Is it better to give the people moral freedom rather than to be guided by the Lord our God?
Not only was King Solomon a rich and wise man, but he was God-fearing too. He, however, allowed some evil practices to exist among the people of the land, against the instructions of God. The scriptures tell us that the Lord is a jealous God, who does not allow the worship of other gods besides Him. His most important and first commandment reads; “You shall have no other gods besides me”. He was cognizant of the fact that many nations and cultures subscribe to the worship of multiple gods. Current laws in our constitutions also stipulate the freedom of worship. Despite warnings from the Lord, King Solomon likewise chose to ignore it. Consequently, God declared a curse to the nation of Israel, saying, “Since this has been your mind ( Solomon) and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you, I shall surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son …” (1
Kings 11:1-13). This came to pass. The first and second books of Kings carry numerous other examples of many other rulers who brought divine rebuke and consequences for allowing breaches of some important statutes of the Lord. The second commandment reads: “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments”. Leaders should stand steadfast in condemning immorality, harlotry and many other ‘abominations’.
Moses, the most trusted servant of God, got punished for having allowed a rebellion against God. In Deuteronomy 4:21, he laments to the people; “The Lord was angry with me on your account, and he swore that I should not enter the good land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance”. Yes, leaders are ultimately responsible for their people’s behaviour.
It is written that Kings are chosen not only to serve the people, but to act for God (Deuteronomy
17:15): “When the ruler sits on the throne of his Kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of the statutes of God, from that which is in charge of the Levitical priests; and it (book of God’s laws) shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, and that he may not turn aside from the commandments, either to the right hand or to the left; so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children”.
Leaders should remember what happened to the ancient doomed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
(Genesis 18 and 19) as a consequence of some freedoms of association, of men sleeping with men, rife prostitution, desecration of holy things and many other abominable practices. Let us also be reminded of the floods that consumed the earth because of the sins of man (Genesis 7 and 8). Scientists and geologists are discovering past millennium recorded catastrophies that caused the extinction of prehistoric dinosaurs and human settlements buried underneath the surface. Were some of these also possibly triggered by God’s anger as punishment for the transgressions of man?
Although God then sacrificed His Son, Jesus Christ, whose blood paid for the atonement of our sins, it does not mean that we can perpetuate to sin willy-nilly, on the basis that our sins have already been forgiven. The Lord warned, “…The Lord will smite you with consumption, and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat and with drought and with blasting, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. And the heavens over your head shall be brass, and the earth under you shall be iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down upon you until you are destroyed… (Deuteronomy 28:1-68)”.
In this current pandemic caused the so-called coronavirus (Covid-19), I have noticed that it would seem nations that have legalised some “abominations’ seem to be most affected by the virus. In Africa, the nation that was in the forefront of institutionalising same sex marriages and etc takes the lead in terms of affected population. The same applies to the North Americas. One severely affected South Asian nation cherishes the worship of multiple gods. A South American nation that boasts of annual nude festivals is hard hit by the pandemic. Europe has not been spared either. Are these pandemics not the “fevers and inflammations” prescribed for our sins as mentioned by the Lord our God?
Food for thought.
l Prosper Tingini is the Scribe of the Children of God Missionary Assembly - God’s messengers. Contact details: Mobile & WhatsApp – 0771 260 195. Email address: ptingini@ gmail.com