Oh Lord, Please Disturb Us!

Oh Lord, Please Disturb Us!

One of the greatest disciplines I ever learned from my father is the discipline of not disturbing someone when they are asleep. My dad would get furious in any of his children had we disturbed him. The moment he falls to sleep it was a death sentence to our ‘loud speakers’. What would we do then? Of course every one of us would go to sleep. Even today, I don’t like being disturbed while asleep. I really don’t disturb others too. Sleep has been nothing but a sacred experience for me. Eve came as a result of Adam’s deep sleep, am I right? Okay that was a joke. I don’t really sleep a lot.

I dealt about the issue of deep sleep in my first book ‹‹ተነሺ፤ አብሪ›› back in 2015 (if you haven’t read that book, you can still find it at Beemnet Store at Piassa). In that book I urged believers to rise up and shine! The book is mainly an exposition of the book of Jonah, especially the first two chapters of the book of Jonah where we find Jonah disobeying God. Jonah fell in deep sleep in the ship while he was running away from God to Tarsus (Jonah 1:3 ,5 ). God disturbed Jonah’s sleep by sending ‘a great wind, and such a violent storm’ (Jonah 1:4) to the sea. Long story short Jonah went back to Nineveh and delivered the message of God. I have heard many testimonies saying the message is so compelling. If there is a time we need such messages, it should be now. We need to be awakened. We need to rise up.

However, I believe, in addition to Jonah’s sleep, we are also in a very different kind of sleep these days, a kind of sleep different from Jonah’s. We are in type of deep sleep that is even very dangerous than Jonah’s.

The King’s Sleep

Recently I was studying the book of Esther in my personal time with God. God taught me the other kind of sleep we, Ethiopian believers, are in.  I would love to share with you so that we will rise together!

The book of Esther is a book of the influence of individuals on nations and nations on individuals. God is in the back of the stage. It is a story of ordinary Jews, Esther and Mordecai, who became extraordinarily important both to their fellow Israelites and the great Persian Empire under King Xerxes.

The book of Esther speaks of a time where the Persian Empire ruled almost in the entire world (127 countries). They were wise enough to administer over such a very large population and territory. It still amazes me how they were able to deal with all the ethnically different people under their rule. The book says Cush which refers to present day Ethiopia and India were also under King Xerxes.

The synopsis of the book goes like this: In a very astonishing way Esther became the queen of the empire (Est 2). Still on chapter 2 we find Mordecai doing great favor for the king by exposing 2 men who conspired to kill the king. And the story was recorded on the book of Chronicles in the presence of the king (Est 2:23).

As the story continues, we read that the nation of Israel was suddenly found to be in endangered to extinction (Chapter 3). Mordecai refused to bow down to a man named Haman, who was also the man next to King Xerxes in authority. Haman, however, didn’t just want to execute Mordecai rather he conspired to destroy all the Jews from the Persian territory. Unsurprisingly, he got the necessary license and authority from the king. A mass extinction was dated on the Jews and it was to be implemented after a year (compare Est 3:12 & 13). Haman’s idea was accepted by the king.

In those days, where the Jews were in fear and confusion, the King slept so deep and so well. He didn’t care about what’s going on. After all the Jews comprised only one of the 127 nations under the king’s rule. A nation of many God fearing people was going to be cast to genocidal destruction and was counting down days while the king was having his usual merry-mood days.

The king’s usual sleep didn’t last for long. Days after the announcement of the appointed day for the destruction of all Jews, the king couldn’t sleep on one single night (Est 6:1). He ordered the book of Chronicles to be brought in and be read for him. As they read for the king the book of the Chronicles, he hears the story how Merdocai, who was a Jew, saved the king from the 2 men who conspired to kill the king.  The king understood that he didn’t do anything to repay Mordecai’s favor. He passes order to honor Mordecai, and he chose Haman to do the honor.

Merdocai, and all other millions of scattered Jews were counting days before their destruction. It was an expected fact that an ethnic war would break out as a result of it in the Persian territory. However, God disturbed the king’s sleep and saved Mordecai. On the next day, God used Esther to save the entire Jewish race from destruction.

I Admit I am in a deep Sleep, So is the Church

There has not been a time like this in our little Persia, Ethiopia, where more than 80 nations and nationalities live together in harmony. We are living in a time where hope and fear fight with in our mind and of course with in the media. We are living in a time where tribalist and assimilationist ideologists fight over everything to rule over the country. We are divided between those who say we were just divided and those who say we were never one.  

Sadly, we are living in a time where we are not sure when ethnic war will break out. Unlike the time of Esther, it is not a single nation that is being pointed out for destruction but the whole nation is damned to destruction. It is very hard to imagine the mess that is going to come.

The Ethiopian church, like king Xerxes, is having the merry-mood days. We are on our cloud nine. We are in deep sleep. Yes, I admit that I have been in deep sleep, so is the church.

We are in a different sleep from Jonah. In our ‘Jonah type’ of sleep, we were disobedient to God’s word to reconcile people (Nineveh) to God. In our ‘King Xerxes’ type of sleep we have become disobedient to reconcile people to people.

The church is meant to be the light of the world. We have covered our light with the blanket and went to a deep sleep. Our hedonistic desires have blinded us to crave for joy and positive news. We have given our back for “the Chronicles”. We enjoy much sleep. At our best we have taken the church to be another place of enjoyment.

We were told to be the salts of the earth but we have kept our taste at Church and theological colleges. Our voices have been silent when it comes to ethnic reconciliation. We choose to take sides rather than be a mediator. Not only that we have taken sides deep into the crux but also we have awarded ourselves the titles of a political, ethnic and historical commentator rather than displaying Christ like understanding (Philip 2:5). While Christ should be the pacificist hero of the Church, we have replaced him with warlords and political figures. In our worst, we have become war advocates rather than peacemakers. Insidiously it is becoming evident that what divided the country is also dividing the church. In the meantime, we are at the depth of our sleep. Oh Lord, please disturb us!

Lord, Please Disturb Us

As God disturbed King Xerxes’ sleep, I would love to ask the reader to ask God to disturb the Ethiopian church’s deep sleep. Just before God disturbed King Xerxes sleep, the entire Jews fell before God’s throne with fasting and prayer.

God is a restorer. God is a deliverer. God is a disturber! He disturbed Jonah. He disturbed King Xerxes. He knows how to disturb the church from the depth of her sleep. He can awaken us to see the mess we are in. He can bring us up from the mess we are in. Are we ready to fall before the throne of Grace?

Let’s not bow down to the Haman of these days that is the social media hatred and unwise political commentary, that is eying for our knees and let’s bow before the throne of God. Let’s ask our God to intervene. We cannot heal the broken ethnic division with our social media comments. No, it is not helping. In fact it is revealing our desire to stay in the deep sleep.

May God disturb our sleep! Wouldn’t we then become real life evidences of ethnic reconciliation in such time? May God disturb every Christian denomination so that we may they will come out with their lights in the real life to bring people out of the darkness of hate and war.

May God disturb our theologians and seminaries from deep state of sleep so that they can come out with their Christ centered pacifist ideals so that the church can conquer the darkness inside of the country with the love of Christ.

May God disturb the Christian media and Tv stations so that they will reflect much on the topic of ethnic reconciliation rather than displaying same exorcism again and again.

May God disturb all Christians, be Ethiopian Orthodox, Protestants, Catholics and others from their sleep so that they would understand that back in the early days the name they bear (“Christian”) has more to do with peace, love and sacrifice, rather than hate, division and war.

Oh God Please Disturb Us! Amen!