God, death and the bullet proof cars

I sometimes wonder if God is interested in what we do as men. Some atheists believe He created the earth but has since left it to the initiative of men to run. Christians, like most other religious groups, believe He created the earth, form every soul in it and is interested in everything we do. Little wonder the psalmist said “the Lord looks from heaven; He beholds all the sons of men” Psalm 33:13. Every activities of man does become a subject of interest to Him, remember He made all things and for His pleasure they are and were created (Rev 4:11). So I asked, how amused was God when a team of our finest economists went to the World Bank to secure a $1.2million loan for power and infrastructure, and before they came back, we realised that the minister of aviation dipped her hands into the coffer of same government and got herself two armoured cars for $1.6 million.

As Thomas Hobbs rightly noted in his classic, Leviathan, every man has right to everything, and there is nothing he can make use of, that may not be a help unto him, in preserving his life against his enemies. Stella Oduah thus have the fundamental human right to live, but so do every of  the 167 million Nigerians, or at least, every man living in the fear of being killed by stray bullet in Borno, Yobe and other war-torn areas of the country. To whom do the ordinary man turn?

That Nigerians turn to God at every point and for everything is no more news, we believe in Him and His existence, therefore He must do everything for us. God must win us football matches, make us pass exams, get our wives pregnant, make our roads good (even though the contract for such has been fully paid for), make our water run and give us light in an area with faulty or no transformer and ultimately win us election (or give us the ability to out-rig our opponents). And as the minister of Aviation herself rightly noted, those that crashed in a plane, under her watchful eyes, were victims of “an act of God”. Acquiring two armoured cars at a time, is Stella scared of the “act of God” or doubt His ability to keep safe or she has gone atheistic?

Psalm 33:18-19 Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive.

When Saul became the king of Israel, he built an army of great strength but a very thin patience and reference for the saving hand of God. His military capabilities were tested by the presence of a single giant, and his army trembled. David came to the rescue, rejecting the heavy armour and the shining edges of the sword. Pondering on his victory in that particular war and several others, David said “There is no king saved by the multitude of a host; a mighty man is not delivered by his great strength” Psalm 33:16. I cannot tell if the ousting and eventual murder of Saddam Hussein and Gadaffi were acts of God but I know for a fact that they had more than enough armoured cars and foot soldiers to have prevented their fate.

Leaders who claim to know and serve God should not be sceptical of His ability to save them from death, if that is what the purchase of the armoured cars is truly for. For, if the way of a man pleases the Lord, He will make him to live in peace even with his enemies. The welfare of the millions who elected you into office is a cry in the ears of the Lord and no bullet proof car can save a man when visited by the anger of the Lord spur by the cry of the people.

The hand of the Lord is never too short to save, I pray Stella and other politicians come to this realisation as they journey the holy land without a bullet proof car around the Palestinian borders?