By By Babatunde Oladele
THERE are times life happens to us without any immediate trace to what we have done wrong on the surface. The truth is life doesn’t just happen unless certain edges are broken. One of those edges are spiritual laws and fundamental principles that we break that we may not categorise as sin, because they do not seem sinful. Ridiculing a leader or an authority figure is one of them.
I will give some instances in the Bible. Noah became drunk and sprawled on the floor naked (bad example of fatherhood). His son, Ham, saw it and went to joke about it to his other siblings. They were more mature; they did not laugh. They walked backward and used clothes to cover their father’s nakedness. The joking son was cursed, and the other two sons were blessed. History reveals that the good-natured son who knew how to have a good laugh at his father’s failing was the progenitor of Africans. Little wonder we are still having a good laugh at our authority figures today. This is a parental authority example.
Meanwhile, there is an Antebellum angle to this historical reference. But that is not relevant to this particular issue.
Secondly, an example of organisational authority, Sarah asked her husband to sleep with her maid so they could have a child through her. The maid got pregnant and started to misbehave towards her mistress. Sarah asked the husband to send her away in her pregnancy. Abraham did not want to. God told Abraham to listen to his wife. They sent the lady packing out of their house into the wilderness. An angel of God saw her crying and asked her what was wrong. You can imagine what she must have told the angel about her bosses. But the angel told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” Period. God wasn’t going to side with her in her pity story because He knew better. That was an example of work-related authority.
Thirdly, political figure. Moses did something wrong. He married an Ethiopian against God’s command. His lieutenants, who were also his older siblings, Miriam and Aaron, criticised him publicly for doing that. God took an umbrage at this and severely disciplined the two for daring to criticize Moses and undermining his authority. Moses was wrong, but God sided with him. Moses had to beg God on behalf of his critics before He healed Miriam that He plagued with leprosy. Moses was a political authority.
Another example, David did nothing wrong, but at a point, the King, the political authority in his time, wanted to kill him at all costs. David became a fugitive, running from wilderness to wilderness and living in caves. As fate would have it, at two different occasions, David got the king who wanted his life in a vulnerable situation and could have killed him at a strike. But he did not. His lieutenants urged him, this is a lifetime opportunity to do away with the person who wanted to take his life. But David said he dared not touch an anointed of God. Mind you, Saul was not a good or popular leader. But David knew something 98% of humanity do not know, that you do not just get trigger-happy or run your mouth when it comes to dealing with a constituted authority. Little wonder God called him a man after his own heart.
Another interesting angle to this, when King Saul finally died in battle, a young soldier who wanted to look good in the eyes of David came to him with the news and claimed that he was the one that struck Saul to death. Perhaps, he was expecting compliments and reward from David. He got the shocker of his life. David, livid with anger, roared at the young man and asking how come he had no gumption about laying his hand on an anointed ruler of God. Now, please note that Saul was not a popular king. He was also not well-liked. However, David respected the calling upon his life as king and was enraged that the soldier did not share the same mindset. He immediately ordered the young man killed.
Now, these are subtle lessons of life, and I do not expect everyone to understand. Those who ridicule authorities, either they are liked or disliked, are violating fundamental principles and that usually has consequences. Selah.
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