When The People Asked For “Change” (Part 1)

Good day people.

The outcome of the Nigerian elections is still weighing on my mind. I have to admit that I don’t feel as jubilant as many of the ‘Change’ agents. I sincerely hope that my misgivings are immaterial.

Today, I have to think of a period in the history of Israel when the people asked for a “change”. The story is found in 1 Kings 8. Everyone agreed that Samuel was a great judge. However, it got to a point where Samuel became old and had to appoint new judges. I am not sure Samuel consulted with God before making his sons judges. There is no record of him consulting God on the matter.

Samuel’s sons were corrupt, they took bribes and they perverted justices. They were oppressing the people so the people cried to Samuel and asked him to give them a king like other nations. Their request displeased Samuel but thankfully, he had enough sense to pray unto the Lord about the matter. God told him to listen to the voice of the people and give them what they asked for. However, that was not ALL God told Samuel about the request. He told them that they (the people) had rejected Him – the Lord. I thought the people were rejecting obviously corrupt leaders…Uhmmm

God asked Samuel to tell the people the manner of king they’ll get –

·         He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen ; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties ; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.

·         And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

·         And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

·         And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

·         And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

·         He will take the tenth of your sheep : and ye shall be his servants.

·         And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you ; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.

In spite of the message, the people insisted that they wanted a king. Samuel went on to anoint a king – Saul. Saul started well but he did not end well. He was so conscious of the ‘people’ that ‘voted’ him in. The will of the people is not ALWAYS the voice of God. We need to be careful what we ask for; we may just get it.

I pray that in our case, we will not have need to cry out because of the “change” we have chosen. May we clap, dance and party harder than we’ve done now in 2019. We will look to God AND hold our leaders accountable for each campaign promise. I’ll share 4 pictures with the promises the General made during the campaigns. I’ll share more pictures intermittently. I hope we’ll use social media to sustain the “change” we agitated for. It's really up to us to decide if this will be positive change or not...