WHEN THE CENTRE HOLDS NO MORE, DOOM ENSUES AND CHAOS REIGNS
7 min readBy Kon Joseph Leek, Juba, South Sudan
November 23, 2016 (SSB)………and he was declared dead, his acolytes, colleagues, relatives and parents couldn’t help but to mourn, grieve silently in hiding, hiding from fear of being crucified, hiding such that the King’s Angels of ‘darkness and death’ do not get them. They bemoaned in distance – faraway places! In the bushes, valleys and on the mountains for seven days until the agony were gone –until they convinced themselves that he was gone forever and a day, never to return!
Openly crying was the wife, she could not control her voice, the pain in her heart was like a scorpion’s sting, and she couldn’t hold back her tears or at least sit upright but instead lying with her face down! Because of weeping, she was hangovered, her eyes reddened like a drunkard, and her body emaciated due to loss of appetite. Her husband’s death was a big tragedy that had befallen her, at young age she was widowed! Her best friend was gone, her beloved husband was gone. She hated herself for being a rare type, for being beautiful, for being a type men glance at and feels agitated to marry or tempted to touch! She hated herself for being loved, for being a woman. She wished being ‘ugly’ – something the ‘ugliest’ dreaded most!!
She had no better comforter than Almighty God, ‘oh Mighty one she called out, the most high, the only redeemer, come to my rescue; don’t forsake me in such harsh times, such unkind epoch! hear my voice oh Lord, hear the voice of the inferior, voice of the sinner, voice of your lost sheep, I call for your redemption, the world seems to turn its back on me, it’s only you who can heal me now, look into my sorrow oh God, don’t hide your face from me father at the times I need you most, look into the pains in my heart, wipe away my tears, I am a sinner, take away my fear and forgive me’. Amen, she ended her prayer that made some women sobbed
Her husband was sentenced to death, illegal verdict, privately organized murder! He was slaughtered for being brave, professional, discipline and loyal but to the king and his Head of the Army he was not. He was a trouble to be got rid with, he was a piece of burden, indiscipline and a charlatan!
He was one of the mighty men and a loyal soldier in the kingdom and according to the land’s law, it was common for a warrior while in service to abstain from sex as a practice of discipline, he couldn’t also see a reason of leaving his colleagues and goes to enjoy his wife when his friends were not. To the King, it’s indiscipline. The King had ordered him to come to watch his feed (live with his wife), instead he could wake up every morning at King’s gate despite King’s authorization.
Upon seeing this, the King got infuriated and ordered his army chief to put him in the most boiling frontlines ever where he should never return back alive. Alas! He was killed by the Ammonites’ sword. The mission was accomplished; the King and chief of staff’s plan was successful
After crossing rivers and deserts, climbing many hills and mountains, the prophet arrived at the King’s palace for a visit. After they took breakfast of milk and cassava, they were given wine in the gourd and two calabashes and began to cheerfully discuss this and that over the wine.
‘Can I give you a puzzle?’ the prophet requested the king
‘Could you repeat that? ‘Inquired the king
‘I want to test your intelligentsia by telling you a proverb’
‘What’s it?’
‘There were two men, a rich man and the poor one, they were neighbors, the King narrated. The rich man had many sheep and the poor man had only one ewe whom he cared for greatly, a traveler approached the rich man for food where he (rich man) ordered for poor man’s ewe to be slaughtered for the traveler’. ‘If you were a judge what would you do’? The prophet asked
‘As surely as the lord lives, the king self-righteously replied, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for the lamb four times over because he did such a thing and had no pity. In fact, he would be hanged …not by the neck but by the feet, then roasted alive over a fire, a very slow fire!’
‘That is you then’
‘What are you talking about?’ the king inquired
‘I said, it is you fool, the prophet granted a monosyllabic reply, out of many wives, you went for your guard’s wife, your Servant’s only property. Now, be prepared for the wrath of God’, said the King
All the King’s covert were no longer secrets, what was concealed was exposed, the prophet uncovered them and threatened to make them public. The king couldn’t dare entice the prophet with gifts. Where could he (king) turn now? He thought of his dignity and respect …and shame on a wait! He has never been disappointed as this; he has deceived his creator, himself and the Title! If only could he turn back the clock!
What was a rumor was not anymore, a rumor that King David woke up and walked on his mansion one evening and had a view of the great town of Jerusalem. There, he set his eyes in a distant like an eagle in search of prey where he successfully set them on Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife and ordered her to be brought to him and made love with her till she got pregnant. To cover this, he ordered for Uriah to come and stay with his wife but to Uriah, there was no reason to do so according to their military ethic, this later led to the King’s ploy to kill him
The King knelt, bowed his head and grovels under the prophet’s feet beseeching him for forgiveness, to give him another chance but no one would listen to a murderer, not even a lunatic would dare take note
‘Go away betrayer, killer and adultery, sucker of innocent peoples’ bloods, trickster, mis-user of power. there will be turmoil in your household, the Prophet prophesized, your child, the one Bathsheba is pregnant will die not later than seven days after birth and you will see insurrection, the lord will dehorn you, I told you that ears grows first and horns last, whatsoever that has made you grow horns first!. This is God’s punishment for sins of adultery and murder.’ He picked his walking stick and kneed-knocked away
Everyone including the prophet blamed the King for mischievous acts but Bathsheba was just as unjust as the King. It takes two to tango.
Few days later, one of the David’s sons from one of his several wives impregnated his sister from another mother something which prompted Absalom (one of the King’s sons) kill him (the impregnator) and David saw some political threat from Absalom –who later rebelled against his father. And King’s son (the one he had slept with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba) died few days after his birth but luckily, David succeeded in his second trial with Bathsheba and Solomon who later became the great wise King of Israel was born. Prophet Nathan’s prophecies appeared and proven!
- The leader is the centre of administration, when the administration could no longer hold then everything falls apart
…..consider it a fiction…..
Reach the commentator on j.konleek@gmail.com
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