Of
late, I have been keenly looking into the lives of Kings in the Bible and
making a few observations. In this second part of I don’t know how many parts
series, I’ll compare, or rather closely look into the lives of two kings;
Solomon and Xerxes (also known as Ahasuerus).
It
may mainly be because I somehow want to decipher myself into the minds of
ladies who may be thinking that I am a conniving sexist hiding in the overt realities
and teachings of Christendom – one who vivaciously attacks them in order to satisfy
his unpopular and chauvinistic ways. I am not. I may be a guy who so much talks
about issues affecting women, but that does not mean that I think men are
perfect and therefore are not subject to mortification. I don’t think so. Everyone
is a sexist at some point in their life. It s true. There are times when you
think “men are weird” or that “women are prudes”; and to some extend – either consciously
or unconsciously. Everyone is a sexist except God. And that is why ladies and
gentlemen, dudes and dudettes *while
tapping microphone* I allow myself to howl at my loudest voice some basic
lessons from these two kings that may just help us guys (and ladies too…). But mainly
for the guys.
But
before I move to such, I have to make myself clear to you - I am not a teacher.
I’m not anybody’s teacher. Not even yours. I’m neither a teacher nor a ticha. I am just a common boy who loves talking
about things he observes. I’m just a boy who intrudes people’s privacy without
asking for their permission. One who talks too much on social media, and then
here. I guess you also do. But the difference between the two of us is that I
write a lot about what I see and feel, while you may be doing the same or you just
lull them off somehow…
So
back to the point… To begin with, let’s understand why the Bible so much talks
about kings and once in a while, their queens;
When you look at God,
(that is if you mind doing so), you will find out that He has a way that He has
been using to convey His message(s) right from the time of creation. Even
looking at the first words He spoke to the first man and woman after displaying
them as a couple, you realize that this is the first mission He had for them - one
which according to what He said, was to be their eternal mission - to have ruling
authority over all that He had created... kings over all the earth… Not only
man, but also woman, because these words were said to both; (Genesis 1:27-28 – “So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God he created him; male and female he created THEM. God blessed THEM
and said to THEM, “Be fruitful and
increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea
and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”)
The “THEM” put in caps
is just to bring out my point that leadership authority was given to both man
and woman – at creation.
The
words above simplify our understanding of God and are foundational in wanting
to use Scripture as a means of knowing His Ways. It also leaves us wondering why
we sometimes don’t get what He has been saying to us all along while it has
openly been revealed to us. He shows that He really had man in mind as the one
to take over the work He had begun in creation. He had a Kingdom in mind. He
also had ruling and regimes in mind. It shows us that God had subjectivity in
mind and man’s adherence to some rules – because kings don’t rule unless there
are laws and terms to be followed by his (or their) subjects; which means, man
was to formulate some laws in order to get things moving. And if at all man had
to ‘multiply and fill the earth’, that man had to be having HIMSELF rule over himself and the rest of creation…
To
God, kingdoms exist as regimes of power and stamps of authority. To Him, only
kings exist as objects of power and as leaders who should take charge in every
situation that may arise. To Him, presidents and whoever is in authority, right
from the family unit to the place where someone is in charge, kingship rings
itself out so loud. Anyone in authority is a king (God et al). And that, from the beginning is what Adam never understood,
and maybe what some of us never understand – that we are supposed to be in
charge and to get things moving God’s Way… That is our duty…
I
won’t introduce King Solomon. You know him. I won’t start elaborating the
basics on king Xerxes – you already know that he ruled over Persia and that he
was Queen Esther’s husband. Most of us learnt that in kindergarten (OK, there
was no kindergarten in the days nilisoma)
and in “Sunday School”, so why repeat and go through things you already know,
huh? Let’s get to business. Come on let’s just do this…;
Lessons from
Solomon as King
- Don’t
be too wise until you don’t do what you say. That makes you a wise fool. A
desperate wise fool that we all will laugh at. This dude’s behaviour of favouring
variety (when dealing with women) over specificity was and is a big
problem. He should have learnt from what King Lemuel’s mom (who was Lemuel
anyway?) used to tell him (Proverbs 31:2-3:
“O my son, O son of my womb, O son of my vows, do
not spend your strength on women, your vigor on those who ruin kings…”). Does that
really need explanation guys? Concentrating on women (and I am saying, women) ruins your life. Period.
- Riches are life’s best fouler so far.
Riches fool wise men. Riches make a king (you and I) think that we own the
whole world, and that we can buy everyone – even wisdom. If we allow
riches to foul our Wisdom, nothing can really save us. We will end up
thinking that wealth brought us where we are and that only it can take us
where we should be – then we will be wrong! Really wrong.
- Wisdom is cool. Wisdom is protection.
Wisdom is life. Wisdom is a shelter; but Wisdom less application is never
dope. So don’t take God for granted. Just don’t take God for granted. As
Solomon had earlier taught, it is true that the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of Wisdom, but the continued fear of the Lord is what ensures that
our Wisdom is not stolen away by foolish mistakes and that our prosperity
becomes the real prosperity… (He should have learnt from his father David
who had a broken Spirit in the presence of sin or compromise).
Lessons from Xerxes
as King
- If you are a man (or a woman in
leadership), take charge. Don’t wait for your subjects or those you lead
to lead you so that you may come out to lead them
- Make
decisions based on Wisdom, not impulse. Ephesians 5:18: Do not get drunk on wine, which leads
to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit… Wine reduced king Xerxes to a wimp, and caused him to chase away his
rightfully wedded wife, a queen (Vashti), all in the name of disrespect –
divorce on empty terms!
- Wine is dangerous. I
think this guy should have learnt something very important from Solomon’s
proverbs: Proverbs 31:4-5: “It is not
for kings, O Lemuel - not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave
beer, lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the
oppressed of their rights…” A king is expected to give legitimate judgment and sound advice at
all times – wine makes him loose both the sense of good reasoning and that
of good discernment.
- We have authority, yeah. That is
fine. We also have power in that mix. Good. And we probably have influence
too. Wow, that is even better! We may be privileged to be in positions of
power (say at home, at work, at school or just somewhere), but we must inclusively remember that power
without sound judgement is as dangerous as fire without control – the outcome
is always bad enough to be visible to all – and always with bad results (as
in the case of Haman being given authority to destroy the Jews without the
consent of most of his kingdom’s top leaders).
Take
the advice. Apply it. I am trying to.
Morris.
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