Between Honourables and Hooligans

By Rev Emmanuel Oghene

Between Honorables and Hooligans reveals the synergy between certified respectable citizens and the supposed nonrespectable citizens of societies. Also, the seed of hooliganism in all honorables is not left out, as well as the original purpose of God for sowing the seed of hooliganism in every being. The usefulness of hooligans to the society and their otherwise painful presence is equally noted as well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Dec 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524596446

Rev Emmanuel Oghene

Rev. Emmanuel Oghene can be described as a paper-pulpit pastor and Bible preacher by publication. He is divinely ordained to teach, preach, and publish the gospel of Jesus Christ and has been teaching and preaching since 1994. He began to publish in 2004 and presides over Emmanuel Oghenebrorhie Ministries that encompasses several arms. He makes the working word of God relevant to daily living in order to prepare the saints for heaven. His audiences often comment that he gives a realistic interpretation to the word of God in a way that they never heard or read previously and that he directs the word of God to where it matters in a man’s life and when it matters most. He can be reached on [e-mail] or [e-mail].

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Copyright © 2017 by Rev Emmanuel Oghene.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

TEV

Scripture quotations marked TEV are taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s English Version®. TEV® Copyright © 1976, 1978 by The Bible Societies®. Published by the Bible Societies, 146 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 4BX. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Rev. date: 12/22/2016

Xlibris

800-056-3182

www.Xlibrispublishing.co.uk

753565

CONTENTS

Dedication

Appreciation

Introduction

Chapter 1    Like Jephthah like David

Chapter 2    Gideon’s son and sadistic successor, Abimelech

Chapter 3    Jacob’s Diversely Destined Sons and Descendants

Chapter 4    Habitual Hooligans

Chapter 5    Jesus’ Detractors

Chapter 6    Finally

Author’s Other Published Titles

DEDICATION

All the victims of the ignorance of the synergy between the honourables and hooligans of this wearisome world.

APPRECIATION

Yet, my greatest gratitude goes to the Lord who, during the final phase of this work, proved beyond all doubts that this is His project. His presence and intervention were so real that whenever I was ready to work on this manuscript, He made electricity from the national grid to be available to the last minute. It was an unprecedented experience indeed.

INTRODUCTION

The focus here is to highlight the lifelong synergy between honourables and hooligans that no one can do anything about. No man is different from the other because God made them all in His own likeness. Proverbs 22:2 and 29:13 say the same God of Israel made the rich and the poor gave them both eyes. Honourables need hooligans as much as the hooligans need the honourables. They cannot do without one another despite their presumed social disparity. Their social disparity does not make them better than each other. God treats them equally because He believes that they are equal. Revelations 20:11-15 confirms that they would be judged equally on the dreadful day of the great white throne judgement. A man who retired from an oil company after many years of working with them and have travelled and lived in many overseas countries where this oil company has projects. One of the constant features in his Nigerian home is housemaids and it is on record that he keeps two maids at any point in time. His reason is that it is not fair to keep only one maid in the big house without someone to talk to when all of them would have gone out to work. Let us not make the fact that he is considerate in his dealings with the maids our immediate focus even if we might come to that where necessary.

Let us make our immediate concern the fact that despite his privileged position, he is not able to do without maids even when his children are all adults and do not live in the family house again. Whenever his less prosperous relatives treat the maids unwholesomely while visiting, he would warn such relatives claiming that the vital job the maids are doing in the household, these relatives would not be humble and remain with him to do them. In any case, the relatives visit only when they need his assistance in any form and it is ungodly to ill-treat the maids who are doing marvellous jobs in the house. He cannot wash his plates after eating and his wife could be too tired to do it because she had gone out to work since morning, it is these maids who keep the kitchen and in fact most part of the house clean which he considers very important.

There is no doubt that the maids need the wages he pays them, yet he has wisely recognized that by reason of his status in life and society, there are some essential duties he cannot perform personally and the persons who have to do them must be respected for it. The fact that they are not as privileged as himself does not make them less important because his children did not grow up to do such duties very well and even if they could, they have left home to live their own lives and he still needs someone to do such domestic duties. Therefore, this could have been titled Between Masters and Servants or Between Madams and Maids.

Genesis 24 confirms that when Rebecca left home to become Isaac’s wife, her father gave her maids to serve her in her husband’s house. Genesis 25:19-34 and 29 say when her son, Jacob went to marry his cousin in the home of his maternal uncle, Laban, it is on record that Laban gave a maid each to the two daughters he made to marry Jacob. Some could argue that an individual became master over his fellow man because he worked hard to acquire enough resources to employ the services of the other person who needed the resources the rich man is able to pay as wages to the servant. The wealth-made-master do not have enough time to do some of the duties he require to live decently and he has to inevitably employ a fellow human to do the aspect he has no time and strength to do personally. This is the natural and reasonable reason or justification for the employment of another hand to help out. However, there is another angle that seems to depict the title chosen for this discourse more vividly. It might not be the best in the estimation of certain persons and there is no attempt to engage in avoidable controversy but rather to establish from Bible records the fact that it has been the case from generation to generation.

In order to understand part of the subject of honourables and hooligans, it is helpful to remind ourselves that in classifying societal citizens, Proverbs 31:1-9, Ecclesiastes 10:16-17, Isaiah 3:1-5 and Amos 6:1 say:

1 These are the solemn words which King Lemuel’s mother said to him: 2 You are my own dear son, the answer to my prayers. What shall I tell you? 3 Don’t spend all your energy on sex and all your money on women; they have destroyed kings. 4 Listen, Lemuel. Kings should not drink wine or have a craving for alcohol. 5 When they drink, they forget the laws and ignore the rights of people in need. 6 Alcohol is for people who are dying, for those who are in misery. 7 Let them drink and forget their poverty and unhappiness. 8 Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless. 9 Speak for them and be a righteous judge. Protect the rights of the poor and needy."

16 A country is in trouble when its king is a youth and its leaders feast all night long. 17 But a country is fortunate to have a king who makes his own decisions and leaders who eat at the proper time, who control themselves and don’t get drunk.

1 Now the Lord, the Almighty Lord, is about to take away from Jerusalem and Judah everything and everyone that the people depend on. He is going to take away their food and their water, 2 their heroes and their soldiers, their judges and their prophets, their fortunetellers and their statesmen, 3 their military and civilian leaders, their politicians and everyone who uses magic to control events. 4 The Lord will let the people be governed by immature boys. 5 Everyone will take advantage of everyone else. Young people will not respect their elders, and worthless people will not respect their superiors.

1 How terrible it will be for you that have such an easy life in Zion and for you that feel safe in Samaria-you great leaders of this great nation Israel, you to whom the people go for help! (TEV)

There are the strong and the weak of every society. Amos 6:1 above says the weak come or go to the strong of society to get help. Nehemiah 5:1-18 says while the sitting Governor of Judah, Nehemiah was not only kind to them rather he went a step further to compel the strong to join him to show kindness to them. This is similar to when Malachi 2:1-7 quotes God as saying that the priests should do, teach as well as help others to do His will or obey His commandments. In verse 7, He said the people should go to the priests to learn about His commandments so that they would do them. II Samuel 5:11-12, 8:14 and I Chronicles 14:1-2 and 18:14 say David as the sitting king of Israel believed that God made him king so he could help the weak of Israel and, as a result, he ensured that the strong did not oppress the poor and weak. Job 29:1-25 confirms in verses 12-17 that he was kind to the poor. Job 31:13-15 confirms that the reason he treated his employees fairly was because he was conscious that the same God made him and them. Like Proverbs 31:1-9 above, Jeremiah 23:1-2 and 4-6 reiterates that it is the God-given responsibility of rulers to ensure that the strong do not oppress the poor. Let us bear in mind that Deuteronomy 8:18 confirms that it is God who gives man the power to make wealth and is therefore considered great and powerful or stronger than his fellow man who is less prosperous. Also, Isaiah 28:23-29 and 48:17 include the fact that it is the Lord God who teaches any man to profit and for the man’s good. Genesis 30:31-43 and 31:6-13 confirm that God helped Jacob to prosper at the expense of his employer, Laban because God saw that Laban was unkind to Jacob. Considering that Ecclesiastes 5:10-11 says:

10 If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless. 11 The richer you are, the more mouths you have to feed. All you gain is the knowledge that you are rich. (TEV)

We can say that God enriched some who