God Authored and Approved Brain Drain

Copyright © 2012 by Emmanuel Oghenebrorhie.

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Appreciation

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Other Published Titles by the Author

Dedication

Prince Charles

The Prince of Wales

Appreciation

All glory to God that this is available for others to read. Lord, a thousand tongues are not enough for me to express my gratitude for this unique opportunity to be a blessing to my generation and future generations. Surely, everything in this call and commission is your doing and it is marvellous in my eyes.

God bless my principal editor, Mrs Yvonne Olatunbosun who did majority of the editing. Cletus Okuguni read initial draft. Doris Okocha edited the final version. It is highly appreciated. May God swell your heavenly account richly, in Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.

Preface

God’s yardstick is different from man’s yardsticks just as His thoughts are higher than man’s and His approach, far different from ours. God can allow the best to be taken away as a punishment just as it can be for a pleasant purpose and the fact that He has set the life of such a person as such. When He took David from his father, Jesse, to serve as king of their nation, it would be wrong for Jesse to say that God drained his household of the most dependable and hardworking son or member. If one of you is very good, he might be good enough to represent you to the outside world and bring honour home from the outside world. For the sake of reputation, it is better to have your best represent you to others so that such outsiders would, for his or her sake, respect you whenever they meet. If your worst goes out to represent you, it would be assumed that you all at home are bad. God works with the best in every family and location. He deals with the rewarding relevant remnant always. If the diligent and competent works for the great, the rulers and the powerfuls, then, the King of kings and Maker of the universe, would not work with the inefficient for any reason, including sentiment or compassion. The incompetent and lazy are not different from the destroyer and keeping them at one’s work place would be detrimental. God told Gideon to weed out the incompetent and an army of 32,000 volunteers were reduced to 300 with whom God gave Gideon victory over the Midianites. Meanwhile, Gideon and his 300 men did not shoot arrows or any other conventional war tools. God won the battle for them in a grand style. Yet, God insisted on the exclusion of the incompetent. In the same way, David used only his capable warriors (66%) to recover the looting of his Ziklag camp by the Amalekites and even brought back some spoils. God allow the weak and the invalid to share in the proceeds of the strong, but they should not be used for any good cause. This is so that they would not constitute a clog in the wheel of progress. Jephthah and David’s initial followers were considered worthless persons but they were willing to be made worthy members of the society and were transformed appropriately to warriors alongside their leader over time. That is something else. Societies need the best more than the worst, the strong more than the weak, the competent and efficient more than the incompetent, mediocre and inefficient, and the workaholic more than the indolent. It made Nebuchadnezzar and his army commander, Nebuzaradan, to leave the worthless in Judah behind when they carried the Jews captive to Babylon.

There is what I understand to be the relevant remnant. Gideon’s three hundred men were the relevant remnant while the incapable 31,700 were irrelevant majority. We shall not view them as the willing but worthless or worthless willing or meaningless majority. Worthless willingness is like what economists call ineffective demand rather than the preferred effective demand for a commodity. Gideon had three hundred viable and valid volunteers and 31,700 invalid or vain/valueless volunteers. They might be valuable for other endeavours but surely not that battle. When David escaped from Jerusalem to escape Absalom’s threat, II Samuel 15 says some Israelites wept as he left Jerusalem but they could not follow David. II Samuel 18:1-2 and 6-8 says the few die-hard loyalists who went with him helped to crush the rebellion when they clashed with Absalom’s army which Amasa commanded. More than forty thousand soldiers who fought on Absalom’s side died along with him. The army of three thousand or so, led by Joab, Abishai and Ittai from Gath defeated Absalom and his army. Society leaders need the relevant remnant’s productivity and contribution to national development to sustain themselves and the irrelevant majority. Even God would be offended to treat the relevant remnant and the irrelevant majority equally. It is economically and developmentally suicidal. God who made and sent all humans to live on earth preferred and preserved David and discarded Absalom, Ahithophel and several thousands of their supporters. He allowed them to die for David to return to rule in Jerusalem and transfer the throne of Israel to Solomon, who God sent to live and build the Temple in Jerusalem.

Chapter One

I had a colleague several years back that made the saying that ‘truth is the first casualty or victim in every argument’ to register in my sub consciousness. Sometimes the parties in any dispute know the real truth. It is like the common experience while counselling couples. It is common when such dispute has to do with something they are not comfortable sharing with a third party. They know the reason they are disagreeing but cannot readily talk freely about it. So, they start with giving excuses or reasons that do not make sense enough to cause the magnitude of dispute at stake. Interestingly, we do not limit this attitude of ours to our dealings with fellow humans. We sometime do with even God. Ruth 1:1-10, 18-22 and Proverbs 19:3 say:

1   Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion-Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4 Now they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two sons and her husband. 6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had visited His people by giving them bread. 7 Therefore she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother’s house. The LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 The LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10 And they said to her, Surely we will return with you to your people."

18   When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her. 19 Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them; and the women said, Is this Naomi? 20 But she said to them, Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?" 22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

3   The foolishness of a man twists his way, and his heart frets against the LORD. (NKJV)

3   A man may ruin his chances by his own foolishness and then blame it on the Lord. (TLB)

3   A person’s own foolishness will ruin his life. But he will blame the Lord (Easy-to-read-version)

3   A man’s own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord. (NIV)

3   Some people ruin themselves by their own stupid actions and then blame the Lord. (TEV)

Naomi claimed that God was responsible for her misfortune. She did not make any reference to the fact that her husband did not get God’s approval before going to Moab. Unlike the case of the rich woman of Shunem in II Kings 8:1-6 who relocated to the land of the Philistines during the famine of her generation and returned immediately after the seven years which Prophet Elisha predicted the famine would last, Naomi waited until her sons died before leaving Moab. If she were wise, she would have set out with her sons after the death of her husband. She did not remember to blame herself for waiting after the first son died soon after his father. In fact, she did not blame herself for waiting till she learnt that God had prospered the economy of Bethlehem. Perhaps, she thought since God chose them to be His beloved citizens of the earth, God should not have allowed them to experience famine like other nations of the earth. This is particularly so because most Bible dictionaries say Bethlehem means the house of bread. In her mindset, God should not have watched her follow her husband to Moab when He knew that some day, he and their two sons would die there and she would return to Bethlehem alone except for Ruth who was kind enough to leave her people behind and come with her to Bethlehem.

Disregarding God to do only what we want is not as bad as God letting us suffer for the consequences of our actions. That is how we think and act as humans. Yet, we do not want to agree that it is a heinous habit, curious culture, monstrous mindset and wrong reasoning. Naomi would not reason and remark to the hearing of others that actually, the other Bethlehemites she met upon her return must have remained in Bethlehem throughout the period of the famine or even if some left, they returned on time and, as such, never lost any loved one. More interestingly, Genesis 16:1-6, 20:11-12; Leviticus 18:9, 20:17 and Deuteronomy 27:22 say:

1   Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her. And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 3 Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me. 6 So Abram said to Sarai, Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please. And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.

11   And Abraham said, Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife. 12 But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

9   ‘The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or elsewhere, their nakedness you shall not uncover.

17   ‘If a man takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a wicked thing. And they shall be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness. He shall bear his guilt.

22   ‘Cursed is the one who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ (NKJV)

There is no doubt that the first reaction of some persons would be to say that the Mosaic Law had not been given when Sarah married her elder brother Abraham. Meanwhile, Sarah and such postulators would not admit the fact that her father had other male sons and might have had other daughters and no other of their siblings married one another. She could not have said that she had female friends who married their father’s son. She could not have said that she learnt of some who did, hence she followed in their footsteps. We see her not admitting that perhaps marrying her brother was responsible for her barrenness. She chose to heap all the blame for her barrenness on the Lord who never told her to marry her elder brother in the first place.

There is no culture where a lady marries her father’s son whether older or younger or of the same age. It is an abomination since creation. When Hagar got pregnant and mocked her, Sarah came up with the fact that it was Abraham’s fault that Hagar mocked her as if it was Abraham who came up with the idea of converting Hagar into his concubine. Refusal to own up to one’s mistakes is one of the greatest banes of the human nature. Mankind enjoy blaming every other person for his misfortune. This is one of the greatest proofs of man’s cowardice. I call it Mankind’s Blame Game Beastliness. It is mankind’s culture and wearisome way of life. Some would say that they are poor because they did not get help from any relative. When you tell them of the professor who combined work with schooling to obtain his first school leaving certificate, secondary school leaving certificate, university degree before getting scholarship to study for his second and third degrees and becoming a professor, they would say it was because they were not born and bred in the same locality with such a professor.

With regards to the gravity of Sarah’s marriage, Leviticus 20:7 says part of the punishment is that offenders would be driven out of the land of their birth so we can readily say that it was part of the reason God instructed her and Abraham to relocate to Canaan. Then, Deuteronomy 27:22 says such couple would suffer the consequence for their sinful marriage and we can argue that it translated into the prolonged childlessness they had suffered. The fact that Hagar got pregnant quickly meant that something was wrong with Sarah’s marriage to Abraham. Therefore, she should have said in Genesis 16:1-2 that since ‘I have gone past menopause and cannot be pregnant with a child because of the punishment for this ungodly marriage, let us have a child through my maid’. But she jumped what she did wrong which made God to keep her barren.

The way the story of Hannah was presented in I Samuel 1 suggests she could have made such a statement because there was nothing we could point to that she did wrong to warrant her barrenness, and in turn, Peninnah’s mockery but she did not apportion blame to the Lord whereas it was clearly stated that the Lord kept her from having any child. It sounds like Sarah and Naomi consciously covered up their contributions to their problem. Even if Naomi had said she followed her husband to Moab as part of submission to him as her household head, it might have made some sense but still did not exonerate her from the blame of failing to return after the death of her husband. Let us resist the temptation to consider the fact that Naomi considered the economic fact of the nation or city she would live more than any other fact. Even if everyone died around her until she learnt of improved economic fortune, she would never have changed location.

I had dealt with this subject briefly in my other work The Many Unforgivable Sins of Jesus of Nazareth published by Xlibris, USA, 2011. The thought emanated from the study of I Samuel 27 which says that King Achish of the Philistines who had his throne at Gath, the hometown of Goliath whom David killed in I Samuel 17 and for which David’s King Saul of Israel hated him to the point of death, hosted David when he escaped from the land of Israel to avoid Saul. I Samuel 18 and 19 say that Saul was very happy with David initially but began to abhor him when Saul meditated on the victory celebration songs of the women of Israel. I Samuel 17:1-16 (Exodus 13:17; Deuteronomy 28:68; Isaiah 31:1; Jeremiah 42:15; Ezekiel 17:15; Hosea 11:5) say that David was a gifted individual and God meant him to be a blessing to the nation of Israel, but envy and jealousy spurred Saul to abhor him like a plague. Achish’s reason for hosting David was to enable him benefit from David’s resourcefulness. The implication was that God’s grace and gift upon David made a foreigner desire him while the natives could not benefit from him because their leader chose to be unreasonable in his relationship with the bearer of the gift of God. Let us not presume that David loved to live amongst foreigners. His comment about the Philistines just before he killed Goliath strongly suggested that he never loved the Philistines. In fact, several instances proved beyond reasonable doubt that David never loved the Philistines. I Samuel 18:26-27 confirm that he killed 200 of them in order to marry Saul’s daughter. I Samuel 23:1-11 says he freed the town of Keilah from their oppression. I Samuel 18:30 says he led their defeat repeatedly. I Samuel 27:8-11 says when he lived amongst them he was never kind to them. Therefore, he went to live amongst them only for the safety of his life. It is like when I Kings 11:26-40 says Jeroboam, son of Nebat, was forced by King Solomon’s threats to his life to escape from the land of Israel to live amongst the Egyptians until Solomon died. The implication is that Solomon forced Jeroboam to disobey God’s command in Deuteronomy 17:16 that the Israelites must not return to Egypt where their ancestors had been slaves. Jeroboam was a useful Israelite but because of Solomon’s threat to his life, he went away to Egypt. Now, much as we are not told how long he lived there, even if it was a year, it meant that his usefulness to the nation of Israel was denied the citizens because the king wanted him dead. If he found something to do to contribute to the national development of Egypt during his stay, God expected him to do it since they hosted him and preserved his life. We say this because Jeremiah 29:4-9 says—

4   "The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those people whom he allowed Nebuchadnezzar to take away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia: 5 ‘Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them. 6 Marry and have children. Then let your children get married, so that they also may have children. You must increase in numbers and not decrease. 7 Work for the good of the cities where I have made you go as prisoners. Pray to me on their behalf, because if they are prosperous, you will be prosperous too. 8 I, the LORD, the God of Israel, warn you not to let yourselves be deceived by the prophets who live among you or by any others who claim they can predict the future. Do not pay any attention to their dreams. 9 They are telling you lies in my name. I did not send them. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken.’ (TEV)

In line with this principle and prescription to foreigners, we remember that God prospered Jacob’s host and uncle, turned employer, for twenty years, and double father-in-law, Laban as well as Joseph’s host in Egypt. As long as those supposed foreign masters accommodated Jacob and Joseph, God thought it was enough reason for Him to bless them. Now, the reverse of this fact is regrettable to the kinsmen who were at home. If God blessed Joseph in Egypt, it meant that the blessing that should have accrued to Joseph’s family and siblings because of his presence with them was lost to the Egyptians who hosted him at this time. And we know the story, eventually it was his father, siblings and their families that went to join Joseph in Egypt so that they would not starve to death. It meant that while Joseph’s presence was prospering his host country, Egypt, his native country of Canaan was starving. In this respect, Genesis 37:25-28, 39:1-6 and 21-23, 41:31-49 and 53-57 and 42:1-7a say—

25   And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. 26 So Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh." And his brothers listened. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

1   Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 3 And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. 5 So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had in the house and in the field. 6 Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

21   But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. 23 The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

31   So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. 32 And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass. 33 Now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years. 35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming, and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. 36 Then that food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land may not perish during the famine. 37 So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. 38 And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God? 39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. 40 You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you. 41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand; and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. 43 And he had him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried out before him, Bow the knee! So he set him over all the land of Egypt. 44 Pharaoh also said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. 45 And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-Paaneah. And he gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On. So Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. 46 Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. 47 Now in the seven plentiful years the ground brought forth abundantly. 48 So he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them. 49 Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable. 53 Then the seven years of plenty which were in the land of Egypt ended, 54 and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. The famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Then Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph; whatever he says to you, do. 56 The famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians. And the famine became severe in the land of Egypt. 57 So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all lands.

1   When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, Why do you look at one another? 2 And he said, Indeed I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may live and not die. 3 So Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, Lest some calamity befall him. 5 And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. 6 Now Joseph was governor over the land; and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. 7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, Where do you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food. (NKJV)

We have to close our eyes to the fact that they ate the food he brought and still remembered to sell him. They did not hate him to the extent of not eating the food he brought to them from their father. That is nothing short of battering their benefactor which is equivalent to being ingrates. They constitute the most heinous group of brotherhood of bitterness except they did not eventually kill him like Cain had done to Abel much earlier in Genesis 4. This is heart-rending in any meaningful men’s estimation. The man they threw away forced them to go over to depend upon a foreign nation. If they had him with them, the foreigners would have come to bow down to him and them for the same reason they went to depend and bow down in a foreign nation. Learning to endure your God-sent in order to enjoy him or her, is one powerful message in this story. As long as they could not endure Joseph because of envy, they could not enjoy him honourably. They did enjoy Joseph twenty two years later but not heartily

It is striking that God says foreigners should work for the benefit of the nation where they live. There are different ways to work for the benefit of the land where one is a foreigner. We are all sojourners on earth and we can not say that because we are only on a brief sojourn, we would not better the lot of the earth than we met it. God seems to be saying that this principle applies to wherever anyone lives. As unpleasant as captivity is, God says that even those living in captivity should work for the good of their captive country. If you permit me this once, I would say that God meant that no foreigner should resent the land in which he or she lives at any point in time. God knows that you are living in that foreign land. He wants to bless you there but He will not single you out to bless. Rather, He will either bless the natives to bless you or He will bless both of you at the same time.

Someone might say, ‘but why would God insist on blessing you along with those who are looting you even when they are heathens?’ there are several reasons but we would mention only a few. First, if you find Isaac, son of Abraham by Sarah, ask him. He would tell you from his experience in Genesis 26 that any attempt to be singled out for blessings in the midst of foreigners who are not as privileged to enjoy God’s blessing as you, would cause you unprecedented unbearable pains. Interestingly, that passage implies that God did not think that hating Isaac for enjoying God’s blessing in the nation alone was enough reason to punish them. I thought God would blame the Philistines for not seeking Him through Isaac. Upon seeing His blessings on Isaac during famine, God watched them force Isaac out of the land God gave him to possess and enjoy. Whether God expected Isaac to have asked Him to bless the Philistines along with him we cannot readily say, but it is a possibility.

Secondly, Isaiah 56:1-8, Jeremiah 12:14-17, John 10:16 and Acts 9:15-16 and 10:34-35 say—

1   Thus says the LORD: Keep justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed. 2 Blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who lays hold on it; Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. 3 Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD speak, saying, The LORD has utterly separated me from His people; nor let the eunuch say, Here I am, a dry tree. 4 For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, 5 even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. 6 Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the LORD, to serve Him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants-everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast My covenant—7 even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. 8 The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, Yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him."

14   Thus says the LORD: Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit-behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. 15 Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land. 16 And it shall be, if they will learn carefully the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of 17 But if they do not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation," says the LORD.

21   Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your regular merchants. They traded with you in lambs, rams, and goats. 22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah were your merchants. They traded for your wares the choicest spices, all kinds of precious stones, and gold. 23 "Haran, Canneh, Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Assyria, and Chilmad were your merchants.

16   "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

15   But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake."

34   Then Peter opened his mouth and said: In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 35 But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. (NKJV)

I call them The Other Jews. God made mankind and have provision for them all. The natural descendants of Abraham are God’s case study to draw the attention of the rest of mankind. All humans are His population catchment area as they say it in demography. So, He does not discriminate when it comes to blessing and keeping alive except it becomes expedient. Matthew 5:45 says He allows rain to water the crop of the saint and sinner at the same time.

Thirdly, Psalms 105:7 says—

7   He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth. (NKJV/NIV/NASB)

7   He is the LORD our God; His judgments are pronounced throughout the earth. (GodsWord)

7   He is the LORD our God; the Lord rules the whole world. (Easy-to-read-version)

7   The LORD is our God; His goodness is seen everywhere throughout the land. (TLB)

7   The LORD is our God; His commands are for all the world. (TEV)

This same passage is repeated in I Chronicles 16:14. If God’s commands are for all humans to obey, then, His blessings are for all to enjoy because He would bless whoever obeys Him irrespective of race and creed. The Jews are His beloved nation, the descendants of His friend, Abraham, yet, He says that He would not bless them without blessing the Babylonians who took them captive. Foreigners do not need another gospel to know that it is their responsibility to work for the benefit of wherever God sends them to live. One of the worst statuses in any country is to be a captive. Yet, God says even captives should work for the good of the nation in which they live as captives. Daniel 6:10 says—

10   When Daniel learned that the order had been signed, he went home. In an upstairs room of his house there were windows that faced toward Jerusalem. There, just as he had always done, he knelt down at the open windows and prayed to God three times a day. (TEV)

My Bible beneficial query culture and instincts stir me to ask what Daniel prayed about each time. The only time he prayed for their restoration to Jerusalem was in Daniel 9 when he understood from the Sacred Scriptures that their seventy years captivity was complete and it was time to return to Jerusalem. With due permission, I dare say that part of the reason Daniel prospered in Babylon and was serving as a lieutenant or noble alongside every king was because he prayed for the greatness of Babylon as long as he remained there. He knew that God had made them live there in the mean time. He knew about God’s directives to them through the prophet Jeremiah to pray for Babylon during their seventy years stay. Let us understand that because he wished the Babylonians well, God thought that he deserved to enjoy the very best amongst them. If you contribute to the cooking of a sumptuous meal, it is only fair that you should share in it. Therefore, the Jews that never prospered as much as Daniel in Babylon must have been those who abhorred the Babylonians for carrying them away from their Jerusalem as captives. Psalms 137:1-6 says they refused to sing the Lord’s song in Babylon. That is refusing to praise God in a foreign land. If Daniel added what Pentecostals call praise and worship to his regular prayers to God looking towards Jerusalem, he must have been singing the Lord’s songs he learnt while growing up in Jerusalem rather than Babylonian gods’ songs because he was in the Babylonian capital and palace. This is what I call Militating Mindsets. Hebrews 4:2 says though they all knew about God’s admonition to them in Jeremiah 29:4-9, majority refused to heed it. So, God left them and blessed Daniel who did the right thing in the same Babylon they all lived as captives. As long as they lived in Babylon with that bitterness, God never bettered their lots there.

Another important point which emerges from Daniel’s prayer for the prosperity of Babylon and the natives is that Jeremiah 29:4-9 implies that God has made provision for profitable prayer points for everywhere we find ourselves. Wherever He leads us, there is a kind of prayer he would like us to pray to him on behalf of the locality. There is the manner of life He wants us to live. There are the projects He wants us to pursue vigorously. Let us remember that He never gave similar instructions to the Israelites who lived in Egypt for four hundred years before He sent Moses to live among them for the sole purpose of bringing them out to the land of Canaan. He never prompted Joseph to own personal estates in Egypt where he served as Prime Minister in the last eighty years he lived. Despite the fact that the Jews would return to Jerusalem after seventy years, which was not as long as the four hundred years the Israelites lived in Egypt, God told them to build houses, as if they would live there forever and their children would be able to inherit them. We know the way such assets are usually treated. The natives would buy them at what is called rock