Devotionals
“The Journey,Aaron and The Cult of The Calf”
The Chinese sages have said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” It does not matter wherever you are destined to go, you simply have to take the first step. This life has since antiquity has always been symbolized as journey. At the funerals when the eulogies are read, we often hear words such as ‘so and so has finished his journey and finally crossed the river.’ Pardon me, for the example, although the issues at hand are as grave as they should, however today’s discourse is not about death and funerals, but the journey or decisions that are before us.
Some few weeks ago, Rev. Timothy Njoya, was quoted in the media cajoling the President into taking us to the Promised Land, as Moses did. He even intimated that it was indeed Moses who helped the children of Israel to cross the river Jordan. While his hermeneutics of the Biblical narrative begs, I will not dwell on that. Moses actually never reached at the Banks of River Jordan it was Joshua.
Moreover, Joshua as distinguished as he was, like all of us human beings was more interested with his part in the role of dividing of his personal and family heritage – the Mountains. His leadership policy unlike that of his predecessor, his was more leaning to a laissez-faire form of governance. Joshua a product of Moses’ leadership legacy, on entering into the Promised Land, and probably being a democrat at heart forgot to give to Israel a new leader. Instead, he created an open leadership system, which was leadership by or through a group of Elders. It is instructive to note an observation highlighted in the following verse, “Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.” (Joshua 24:31).
Now that we are at the crossroads of our destiny in this country, we have several choices; one of them is probably what happened to the Israelites after crossing the River Jordan into the Promised Land. Joshua after dividing the land into the inheritance of each tribe, “. . . assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves to God.” (Joshua 24:1) The second choice that we have is to point fingers at each other, and the third one is that one taken by the Hyena in that childhood story. The self-serving and greedy Hyena, on reaching at the crossroads, thought that he could eat the sweat smelling meal from both the houses in the opposite directions. The greedy Hyena had to split himself into two in order to try and move towards the two different directions at the same time, he never ate his meals, and instead he became a ‘carcase for the hounds’ or is it vultures.
Joshua in order to give his people a direction into how they could positively exploit the Promised Land first had to become historical and not hysterical. Joshua essentially gives a prologue and a preamble on the covenant that they were to renew. By giving the background or the history of the Covenant, he finalized by asking them as it were to append their signature to the new document or to go through a referendum vote as it were. He says to them, “If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the God’s your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of Amorite, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
After wiping KANU away in the last General Elections, the country was euphoric of the way forward. What we almost forgot is that before we move forward we have to deal with our sometime undesirable past. This transitional period requires soberness and firmness of resolve in the way forward. As much as we wish to start harvesting and exploiting the ‘Promised Land.’ It would be wise to learn from Abraham. “By faith (Abraham), he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.” (Heb. 11:9)
The current “Covenant Document” is a title deed of sorts that bequeaths to us the national cake as it were. However, this Covenant, Testament, Social Contract, or Constitution for that matter should not be a means to an end to individuals or some favourable communities. Groups of persons should not append their signatures on my behalf; I demand to represent my self in this very important issue.
In our long journey to the ‘promised land,’ sometime the delays of Moses on the ‘Mountain of God,’ would create a vacuum of sorts and the uneasiness that follows could send our ‘Aaron’ into creating a ‘fill in’ by forging the ‘Cult of the calf.’ Grumbling will also bring about the scourge of the snakebites; we will even come across open rebellion. All leadership or societies must undergo this process before we even cross the River Jordan.
In fact, we are still in the desert, where by the ‘absence of Moses’ has created the false vacuum and there has emerged as it were the “Cult of the Calf” as it were. The Cult of the Calf is the true essence of hedonism and self-destruction and much more so by noise. (Exodus 32) Remember? Miriam and his brother Aaron the High Priest complaining and comparing themselves to Moses. It was unfortunate, that Rev. Njoya had to shift the responsibility of constitution debate and enactment to the President. Knowing too well, that the constitutional impasse that we are in is actually as a result of his legal action against the CRCK Bomas zero-draft. Njoya presumably knew the power of the Law, and that’s why he went to the Law Courts. He is aware that it is only parliament that can create the necessary avenues that are important for the enactment of the document.
Mr. Shikuku and the Katiba Watch group are presumably well aware that it is their Members of Parliament who are holding the rest of the country at ransom in regards to the constitution. They should therefore desist from throwing dust at our faces. The journey and the decisions that we will take, will in one way or the other take us a step closer to our pleasurable destiny or to the precipice of the dark abyss. Leaders are beacons and buoys in this journey called life, they can only show us the direction otherwise we are the ones who have to travel the road and the journey. Fortunately, we are entwined in the destiny called Kenya together, are we going to agree or disagree.
kabukuru f.m.
box 5251, 00506
Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi
Kenya
copyright 2004 kabukuru f.m.
email: [email protected]
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Interesting article. I got lost at the end because it wasn’t clear who you were addressing until I read the address at the bottom. It you would edit this article and put in white spaces between the paragraphs, it would be so much easier to read. Thanks for sharing with us. Many Blessings.
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