LIFE SCRIPTS

Zerubbabel the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Elihud, Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob,
Matthew 1:13‭-‬15 NIV

These were the generations that existed between the Old and the New Testament. This period between the books of Malachi and Mathew are sometimes (inaccurately in my view) referred to as the years when God was silent. But is it so? Certainly not. God was still at work. He still was in the business of raising a new generation. When I think of this period, I am tempted to go to the last chapters in the book of Judges. Here, scripture is explicit about people’s perverseness and God’s loud ‘silence’. People had lost their spiritual bearing and had let themselves on the loose. They forgot God and followed their own passions. But was God silent? Was God absent? Certainly not! He was raising a new generation. A generation that would come through the birth pangs of a woman called Hannah. The generation of Samuel. During this inter Testament period, God was laying ground to reveal His Son. Generations past had failed Him. Humanity was at the edge of total damnation due to sin. He was setting the stage for a grand reception. Through the birth pangs of a woman called Mary, He would usher in the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb of God, the Son of Man, Christ, the Messiah. It’s a warning to us and our generation. As Bishop David Oginde says, God has the advantage of time. We don’t. We therefore have a choice. To serve God in our generation. If not, then He has the power to wipe us out with time and still from our children, raise a generation true to Him. As the Book of Romans states, the creation is yearning with deep expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. This creation continues to yearn as it witnesses destruction in the world with no one speaking out…it witnesses the perverseness of sin with no one standing for right…it witnesses the perversion of justice with no one to speak the truth. As Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr said, bad people succeed because of the inaction of good people. Prof P. L. O. Lumumba also says that bad people are more organized than good people. As a generation, we need to have a conspiracy of good people (borrowing the words of Prof Lumumba) to strategize on redeeming our society and nation. Otherwise, God can just let us fade away like the grumbling generation that refused to listen to the words of Joshua and Caleb. May God help us.