What Do You See?

Zec. 4:2

This was a question God the Almighty for warded to Jeremiah when He was to send the prophet to the House of Israel. The question was repeated two times in one chapter with a gap of Just a verse thereby emphasizing the importance the prophet Jeremiahs was expected to attach to what he had seen in the revelation.

Jeremiah was a prophet called before his conception for the grand service of teaching the people of Israel in the way that pleases the Lord. Jer.1: 5. Accordingly, he unceasingly taught them for decades to turn their faces back to God. He had also seen through revelations the sorrow that Israel would undergo due to their refusal. It was when he saw two revelations about Israel that God asked Jeremiah the questions we have taken as the title of this epistle, what do yon see?

The prophet responded that he turn by turn saw a branch of an almond tree and a boiling pot facing to the north. Both had symbolic values. An almond tree offers a fruit that has an alerting effect. The pot, the water and the fire of the second revelation respectively symbolized Nabuchedenezar, Israel and the sorrow to come. That it was from the North was indicative of the captivity to come by a force from the North, Nabuchedenezar. As the fragrance of an almond fruit has alerting effect, the Almighty God was also on alert or wide awake to penalize Israel for their refusal to heed His messages.

Even if Jeremiah was underscoring the need for their immediate repentance, they rather resorted to committing more and more sins. In fact, they gave the prophet all sorts of harassments, which their diabolic intent willed. Jer.11: 21-20: 1. Their refusal was 'as a result' culminated in their captivity to Babel.

If a society has to redeem itself from the wrath to come, it has to see what the future holds as Jeremiah did. We need to be prudent enough what are set at our disposal. It must be clear to us in due time that opting for the first means war, conflict, famine and other calamities on earth and a timeless suffering in Hades in our after life. Going for the water on its part means blessing oneself in the peace, tolerance and other virtues reaped from the stable life in the world and living in paradise forever in our afterlives. We need to have the vision to see what is destructive and what is constructive. That is why Solomon the wise says, “where there is no revelation [prophetic vision], the people cast off restraint; but, happy is he who keeps the law.” Prov.29: 18.

Israel who were reputably called the Nations (the people of God), failed to accept our Lord and savior Jesus Christ as their Messiah Just because they never cared to look deep into the messages delivered by their prophets. It was not only through Messengers but which others did Christ in person that they were able to witness miracles exposing to only through scriptures. Unfortunately, works of the flesh-fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry and others blindfolded Israel. Thus, they lacked to embrace the Savior with clean hearts. As the scripture says, Christ's had to weep for them when they could not see what was to be their Source of unshakeable peace. Luke.19: 42.

With the Son of God with and for them, they had to rise. Yet, they were demise. They had to rule over death. Yet, they chose to live under death.

Our Lord has taught us that, if we are able to forecast the weather, we have to also forecast the ages. We have to decipher indications of the future as we are created in God's image to be conscious and masters of our destiny. It will really be so myopic of us to be solely restricted to daily life. It amounts to demoting ourselves to the status of animals over which we are created to rule. Matt.16: 1-4.

Human beings could not have a fully functioning existence unless they are able to look closely into their history, culture, environment and lives in general. Who knows, today many snakes may be laying eggs, which would make our future unmanageably dangerous. Unless the eggs are short-lived, they would be busy biting us tomorrow. Contemporaries of Noah were mercilessly flooded because they rejected his warnings. Thus, the Apostle says, “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the Ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will the coming of the son of Man be.” Matt.24: 38-40. Our own time has also come up with its own threats which we will try to expound in the following pages.

It is a naked truth that countries which are known to have served as countries of Great Christian Fathers of the second and third centuries are no more so. Turkey, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia and Palestine could be examples. Fathers from these and other lands are celebrated for propagating Christianity through not only their exemplary lives but also through scriptures which have an undying bearing in making the church stand on its feet Unfortunately, their children have now identified themselves as sworn enemies of the church for which for former have contributed pricelessly. This gap, which is indeed to be felt to bones, has been created because what the future held was not seen as much as it demanded.

If the question God asked Jeremiah were posed to us now, what would really be our answers? What do we see about the future? Or, Have the countless problems of war, HIV and others made us solely focused on today? As Christians, we need to be sufficiently powerful to master both to day and tomorrow.

We are at a time in which the world is being carried away with Globalization, a development that seems to be finding its best expression in the fight between.

Arabization and westernization. Our Christianity demands us to ransom the time. We have to be extremely cautious not to get ourselves irrevocably devoured in this fussy order of the time. Unless we wake up right now and say no to non Christian faiths and traditions that are very hungrily roaring to swallow us, we will surely find ourselves lost at one point of time. This happened means we will lose pride in us and we become damaging grounds of all sorts of evils that would slum the door to the Heaven against us. It is only aggressive instilling of pride in our faith and tradition that could save us from these dangerous developments. Look at what is happening against kids these days.

The focus is entirely on exposing them to western languages and traditions. Very little attention is paid to cultivating them is their own mother tongues and traditions. If you take the case in Ethiopia, for instance, many educational institutions are busy advertising themselves saying they offer English, French and Arabic languages for free. This could be taken as a pretty constructive offer provided equal emphasis is also given to the local languages and heritages. Unfortunately, since this is not happening, all the effort seems to end up at some point in time by forging a generation that is irreplaceably lost in the ocean of Eurocentric and Arabocentric Philosophies. Frankly speaking, Globalization poses a threat of homogenizing mentalities by denying the less powerful their right to enjoy the self. It is not just gluttonous to scramble natural resources of poor countries. It is also aimed at denying their identities. This could not be reversed unless we work hard for the survival and enrichment of our faith and traditions. Quite contrary to this, we are being overcome by adultery, homosexuality and other evils- our heritages-books, icons, and others-are being stolen very busily and they are being trafficked to the west. With the goal of leaving us with no expression of identity at all. On the one hand, they are selling their chapels; on the other, they orchestrate the stealing of our heritages for which they have no sense of veneration. A good number of our faithful are also being lured to such an alien camp for the sake of glittering secular advantages. All this sort of campaign boils down to one evil objective helplessly leaving us in a vacuum of identity. If and infidel vows to steal ad many of our icons as possible and works towards denying us our tangible and intangible heritages, what does this mean? This means gradually eroding our sense of faith and ultimately making us heathens.

There is also the danger of extremism, which is being waged under the banner of Islam. Strangely enough, this has been launched even against Ethiopia, a country which is known to have been given a special place by the founder Mohammed himself. The Middle East was not ready to tolerate the first converts of the faith. Mohammed, therefore, recommended for his followers to be sheltered in tolerant Ethiopia. This history seems to have been damped in garbage and misguided upstarts are beating their drums of was against this land of peaceful co-existence. We do not know what these naïve upstarts are reading; we really do not know. But, what we read forbids us from breaking even the brittle reed. It says, “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love…” Rom.12:10. It also reads that “He [God] shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people, they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; Neither shall they learn war anymore. House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Is.2: 4-5

We are in short expected to live for peace. This firm foundation of tolerance is, however, being mocked at be extremists who are cowardly and faithlessly burning churches into ashes, slaughtering Christians, converting some by force and displacing thousands. They have also committed many unnamed sacrileges on holy utensils of churches and are busy sowing seeds of animosity in their different treatises.

There are two basic causes for this dangerous move. The first is the earlier mentioned globalization. As the west launches its was of absorbing all, the others are counteracting with a nightmare of Islamizing the whole world. For us Christians, both age manifestations of the raging archenemy the evil spirit that lives with the ill will of swallowing us all. Some people within us may wrongly dream that the two movements may take them out of poverty this is far from being true. In face, we ask them to observe whether people in lands where extremism is reigning are living in freedom. The same is true with westernization. Ask yourself if the political and economic policies of the wealthy nations are fair to the poor-so, Globalization and Islamisation have nothing to with poverty reduction or elimination.

The other major cause of the diabolic move is interwoven with geo –political interest. This particularly explains the focus on countries nations. So, if the horn of Africa region has to be entirely Isalmized, which has for ages remained to be a stronghold of Christianity.

Attacking Ethiopia means attacking an important obstacle, which could play a decisive role in aborting the mission.

Thus, the tide has an international magnitude while preserving the staunch belief of tolerance, which is part and parcel of the basic tenets of our creed, we Christians should. However, see the water being boiled by the furnace of fanaticism. We have to pray unto our Lord who could save us from this danger as he saved Daniel. Dan. 3:17

Another threat to the church is heresy. Heroics are people who have diabolic teachings in the name of Christianity. in the words of Stephan, they have a sign of worshipping but they do not revere the power of God .In the name of religion, they disseminate non –Christian value of globalization .They sell their chapels in Europe for a manifestly secular business. yet, they come to Africa and Claim to be working for the dissemination of the Gospel. if they are really Christians, why don't they preach Christianity there in the west? are they claiming that it is living up to the will of the Lord? Obviously, it is not. Whenever orthodox Christians make misfortunes, there heretics capitalize on this to materialize their sheep-stealing. Whenever there arises misunderstanding among our fathers, these heretics will automatically make a mountain out of the molehill.

They are also busy distorting versions and by repealing some in their own accord. A case in point is their recent publication of the bible, which they called a simplified Amharic edition. They would have been closer to the truth had they labeled it distorted and decontextualised Aphasic. Thy do this not to serve the Gospel byte their earthly whims. if they were for the Gospel as they claim, they could not have labored to demolish the firm foundation. Rom 14:20. They work hard to take our monastic fathers and mothers of who are living the Christ in their words and form God.

Thus, their aim is the other side of the coin of globalization, which is a campaign of absorbing all.

The next issue will naturally be to talk about the possible means of defending ourselves from these threats (Globalization, Illumination and heresy). If we have to transcend the faith, order and traditions we have inherited from our fathers and mothers, there are things to do before it is too late. The first thing to do is adjusting our life to the tunes of Christianity. God has created expected to divorce ourselves from sin. Whenever we gorged this, what we reap so war, famine and other sorrows. What we are witnessing now assays is a reflection of this .We live with God wholeheartedly. That is why the Lord of Hosts says,”...you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and i will return to you..” mal 3:7 .It is this repent ache and life of sanctity that will make us beneficiaries of the mercy and protection of God.

We also have to unifier. As the saying goes, united, we stand; divided we fall “ our Lord has also underscored that he will be a midst us provided. We stand agreement in his name Matt 18:20

Boosting the service we offer for the church is equally essential. In his wires to roman, stupid writes that we have different gifts with which the church room 12:4-8. It is this contribution we will be condemned for falling this live up to our calls challenges of the time to save our church ourselves so watch out!!

May God Bless us, Amen.