1 KINGS

Chapter 11 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

XI. 1 Kings

5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

7 “Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

10 The LORD was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for-both riches and honour-so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” 15 Then Solomon awoke-and he realised it had been a dream.

He returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the LORD’s covenant and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offering. Then he gave a feast for all his court.

16 Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 One of them said, “My lord, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was there with me. 18 The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us.

19 “During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. 20 So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. 21 The next morning, I got up to nurse my son-and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”

22 The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.”

But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king.

23 The king said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while that says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.’”

24 Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. 25 He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

26 The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!”

But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!”

27 Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.”

28 When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.  1 Kings: Chapter 3:5-28 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

In this chapter we continue the story from chapter 5-Deuteronomy-where we left Chipo Rawlings and her husband, Richard at the Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka, Zambia. Chipo and Richard had just attended the wedding of their son, Nhamo, who had married a Zambian girl.

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Tambudzai, Chipo’s daughter and, of course, Nhamo’s sister, lay in a hospital bed in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was in labour, with the baby being expected to “arrive” any minute. It had been a difficult pregnancy and Tambudzai prayed, for the thousandth time, that the baby would come into the world smoothly. Although, she had heard all the “horror” stories about the pain of giving birth, she also prayed that God would see it in His wisdom to allow her to experience a natural birth. She preferred the “natural way” as opposed to the Caesarean operation. She could not understand why any woman should prefer it otherwise, despite the pain associated with natural birth.

Right now, she was not in pain but she knew it was going to come back within a few moments. She told herself that everything was going to move smoothly and she was going to be out of the hospital in no time. She was pleased with the fact that her mother and step-father had come to Johannesburg to welcome the baby. Richard, her step-father, had really been good for her mother. In all her life, she could not remember a time when her mother had been so happy. These days she was full of life, always exuberant and infecting everybody around her with her new found happiness.

Tambudzai regretted not having been able to attend her brother’s wedding. She vowed to make it up to him somehow although she had had no choice but to follow doctor’s orders and stay away. She hoped that Nhamo would be happy in his marriage as she was in hers and indeed, as their mother was in her new marriage to Richard.

Tambudzai and her husband had not yet come up with a name for their “yet-to-be-born-child”. No doubt there was going to be a lot of suggestions from well-wishers. In her mind, she began to play around with some Shona (her mother tongue) and Zulu (the husband’s language) names. As she did this, she drifted off to sleep.

  

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Tambudzai was dreaming. And the following is an outline of her dream:-

“This was like nothing she had seen before. It was like what she had imagined the “Second Coming of the Messiah” would be like. There were people everywhere. From her vantage point on the twelfth floor of her employers’ Head Office Building in Cape Town, she could see that the type of reception the Great Man was receiving was out of this world. There were people everywhere!

Most of the people where on the street, surging forward, threatening to break down the police barriers. There were people now climbing on top of parked cars in a bid to get a good view. In nearby buildings, people were “hanging” out of their windows. The majority of the people were blacks and Indians but there were some white people as well. Tambudzai had never seen anything like it in her ‘twenty-something’ years on earth. Yes, the only thing she could relate to was her “imagined Second Coming.”

There was also something like a magnetic force coming from the street. Tambudzai felt an almost irresistible desire to rush down to the street and join the multitude. But she knew that she was not expected to leave her office unattended. A small voice, from deep inside her, told her that nobody was going to mind if she did actually go down into the street to join the multitude. Her boss, who happened to be white, came to join her at the window. He was also fascinated by what was going on in the street below.

Tambudzai’s boss found himself saying almost to himself, “You know Tambu; I grew up being told that this man was a terrorist. I was told that this man, who is causing all of this adulation downstairs, was a dangerous terrorist who needed to be kept locked up in jail. But recent developments do not support this view. My uncle, a Special Forces officer, was tasked to liaise closely with the VIP Protection Unit as the Government had not wanted anything to happen to this man during critical secret negotiations. What he had heard was that every negotiator on the Government’s side had been highly impressed by the sayings and actions of this so called “dangerous terrorist.” Some even went on to say that he was the sort of man you would want to call “Your Majesty” before knowing whether he was a king or not. My uncle had heard that this was the sort of effect that this man had had on his former captors”, Tambudzai’s boss continued talking softly, all the time looking down at the historical event unfolding down in the street below.

The day of these historical developments had been Sunday 11 February 1990. The Great Man was Nelson Mandela on his release from prison.

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When Tambudzai woke up, she did not know why she had had this dream. The dream had faithfully followed the actual events that she had witnessed herself that day, 11 February 1990. Suddenly, she thought she knew what she was going to call their “son”. From the numerous scans that she had had, Tambudzai knew she was going to give birth to a baby boy. She would, of course, discuss this with her husband but for now she thought the baby’s name should be Nelson, after the Great Man himself.

The next chapter-2 Kings- will be published not later than Monday, 7 February, 2011

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2 SAMUEL

Chapter 10 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

X. 2 Samuel

1 In the course of time, Amnon son of David fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David.

2 Amnon became frustrated to the point of illness on account of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her.

3 Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab son of Shimeah, David’s brother. Jonadab was a very shrewd man. 4 He asked Amnon, “Why do you, the king’s son, look so haggard morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?”

Amnon said to him, “I’m in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.”

5 “Go to bed and pretend to be ill,” Jonadab said. “When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘I would like my sister Tamar to come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I may watch her and then eat it from her hand.’”

6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to him, “I would like my sister Tamar to come and make some special bread in my sight, so I may eat from her hand.”

7 David sent word to Tamar at the palace: “Go to the house of your brother Amnon and prepare some food for him.” 8 So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made the bread in his sight and baked it. 9 Then she took the pan and served him the bread, but he refused to eat.

“Send everyone out of here,” Amnon said. So everyone left him. 10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food here into my bedroom so I may eat from your hand.” And Tamar took the bread she had prepared and brought it to her brother Amnon in his bedroom. 11 But when she took it to him to eat, he grabbed her and said, “Come to bed with me, my sister.”

12 “Don’t, my brother!” she said to him. “Don’t force me. Such a thing should not be done in Israel! Don’t do this wicked thing. 13 What about me? Where could I get rid of my disgrace? And what about you? You would be like one of the wicked fools in Israel. Please speak to the king; he will not keep me from being married to you.” 14 But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.

15 Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out!”

16 “No!” she said to him. “Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me.”

But he refused to listen to her. 17 He called his personal servant and said, “Get this woman out of here and bolt the door after her.” 18 So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her. She was wearing a richly ornamented robe, for this was the kind of garment the virgin daughters of the king wore. 19 Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the ornamented robe she was wearing. She put her hand on her head and went away, weeping aloud as she went.

20 Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has that Amnon, your brother, been with you? Be quiet now, my sister; he is your brother. Don’t take this thing to heart.” And Tamar lived in her brother Absalom’s house, a desolate woman.

21 When King David heard all this, he was furious. 22 Absalom never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad; he hated Amnon because he had disgraced his sister Tamar. 2 Samuel: Chapter 13:1-22 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

In this chapter we continue the story from chapter 4-Numbers-where we left the two Dlamini farm supervisors realising that they had made a terrible mistake which was going to cost them their jobs.

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There she was again. It was, as usual, just before 05:30 in the morning and she had started her jog around the farm. Sipho had first noticed her about five or six days ago. Since the first time he had seen her in her jogging outfit, he could not get her out of his mind. Sipho knew that his fascination with this girl was slowly developing into a dangerous obsession.  He, however, could not help himself.

According to Sipho, this girl had come out of those “fancy fashion magazines” and somehow made an appearance at the farm. As Sipho looked at her now as she increased her jogging pace, his focus was on “those bouncing breasts”. The breasts were, of course, not exposed in any way but in Sipho’s obsessed mind, he could clearly “see naked flesh” in such detail as to imagine the actual shade of the girl’s nipples.

The girl was about sixteen or seventeen years old. Sipho, who was in his early forties, was old enough to be her father. This fact did not stop him from imagining all sorts of possibilities. The girl was now getting out of view as she jogged towards the far end of the farm. If she continued to follow the path around the orange orchards and cut across the farm in an easterly direction, she would end up also going past the apple trees and could easily cover a round trip of over 10 kilometres.

Although the girl was now completely out of sight, Sipho continued to see her clearly in his mind, imagining each “bouncy step” she was taking. Last night, Sipho had surprised his wife with the intensity of his love-making because he had not shown such great ardour for a very long time. The wife, of course, was not aware that her husband was actually imagining making love to some young girl he had seen jogging earlier that day. “How can I make my dream come true?” Sipho wondered in his thoughts.

From his knowledge of the farm, Sipho suspected he knew the actual route that the girl was taking during her morning jog. He was convinced that “if something were to happen to the girl” when she was at the far end of the farm, nobody would hear her. A crazy idea was beginning to form in Sipho’s mind. What if he woke up early and waited for the girl to come along when she reached the far end of the route? Maybe the girl was actually “looking for some action”; one could never know these days with some of these teenagers. But if Sipho were to way lay her and the incident were to turn nasty, then Sipho could be in deep trouble. By now, he knew that the girl’s name was Nokutula and she was the farm manager, Themba Khumalo’s sister. She had come to the farm to visit with her brother during the school holidays.

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Themba Khumalo was now the new farm manager. When Robert Lara had come back from Jamaica, he had, almost immediately, been transferred to the company head office in Cape Town, South Africa. Although the move was a big promotion, Robert had not been entirely happy because he did not like the idea of leaving Swaziland. In the end, it was his wife who had urged him to accept the move by pointing out that they could always have time to visit Swaziland. After all Swaziland was not as far away from Cape Town as was Robert’s original home near Kingston, Jamaica. Lara’s wife was herself thrilled about the move. She had always imagined living outside Swaziland and Cape Town sounded like a perfect place.

Robert’s promotion was also good news to Themba because he took Lara’s place and became the new farm manager. Sipho and Peter Dlamini were still at the farm despite having committed an offence that would have cost anybody their job under different circumstances. It was actually Themba, the intended victim of the Dlaminis’ devious scheme, who had saved the two Dlaminis. Despite what they had done, Themba had managed to persuade the company not to fire the two men, but to just demote them whilst still retaining them at the farm. Peter and Sipho were now tractor drivers at the farm, having been demoted from their positions as supervisors.

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Sipho was still very close to Peter. It was no surprise, therefore, that he confided in him about his fascination with Nokutula, Themba’s young sister. Sipho had half expected Peter to admonish him for his thoughts but true to form, Peter thought Sipho should do something to satisfy his “lust”. In fact, Peter told Sipho that he was sure the girl “was looking for action”. Peter recounted an incident that had happened to him the other day when he had come across Nokutula soon after she had returned from her jog. Peter was convinced that the girl had winked at him and also “wiggled her behind” as she went past.

Sipho did not need much persuasion to accept this information from his trusted friend as “gospel”. He told Peter that the following day he was going to wait for the girl along her jogging route and find out “if she was ready to play”.

 “Sipho, I tell you my friend that you will be surprised that this girl is the one that is going to attack you. Maybe you should ask me to come along for your own protection!” Peter joked. On hearing this, Sipho could hardly wait for the next day to come.

The next chapter-1 Kings- will be published not later than Thursday, 27 January, 2011

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1 SAMUEL

Chapter 9 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

IX. 1 Samuel

1 The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me.”

The LORD said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”

4 Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?”

5 Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.”

7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.” 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the LORD chosen this one.” 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The LORD has not chosen these.” 11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered, “but he is tending the sheep.”

Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”

12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.

Then the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; he is the one.”

13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah. 1 Samuel: Chapter 16:1-13 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

1

Surely, this could not be happening to her. This is a nightmare! Any moment now she is going to wake up and find out that it was just a dream. But it was not a dream. He had sprung from the sofa on which he had been sitting and suddenly, held her tight from behind. Almost in the same motion, his hands were fondling her breasts and his groin was pressing against her from behind. She could actually feel his erect member pressing against her buttocks. Surely, this could not be happening to her!

At first, she was still, the shock of the attack having rendered her motionless and speechless. This inaction on her part must have given him some encouragement because he hoarsely whispered into her ear, “Mama, I have been waiting to do this for a long time.” On hearing this, she was galvanised into action and let out a scream of “Noooooo!”

She began to struggle. He was a strong man and he held her tightly, his hands firmly holding her breasts. Unfortunately for her, she was not wearing a bra underneath her flimsy blouse as she would only normally, properly dress up for the day after completing her “morning-house-cleaning-chores.” She also had not put on a “real” skirt but had just wrapped the traditional piece of African cloth around the lower half of her body. This was, of course, her normal way of dressing early in the morning up until the time she finishes cleaning the house when she would then take a shower and get properly dressed up for the day. She would also not usually have visitors that early in the day, but he had arrived just after 7 a.m. and she had had no option but to let him into the house.

She kept on struggling but he held her firmly. Then, he forcefully tore off the buttons from her blouse and her breasts were now exposed and he was fondling them. He was breathing heavily into the back of her neck and dragging her to the sofa on which he had been sitting. She continued to struggle and in the process her “improvised skirt” became loose and fell down to the carpet. She was now almost completely naked, with the only pieces of clothing on her being her panties and the torn blouse. She tried to wriggle out of his grip using all the strength she could master but he was just too strong for her. He tried to push her down onto the sofa but she resisted strongly and they both fell down onto the carpet. For him, the carpet was just as good as the sofa for what he intended to do.

He pulled back both her hands, forcing her face downwards onto the carpet. He was now on top of her while she lay on her stomach, still struggling but not managing to get free. Amazingly, he now managed to hold both her hands behind her back using only his left hand. The free right hand then went down to her panties and with one massive tug, he tore the flimsy material off her. From his movements, she could tell without seeing that any moment now, if she failed to get free, she was going to be raped. She felt his strong hand go between her thighs, forcing them apart. She screamed but some of the sound of her scream became muffled as her mouth was pushed into the lush carpet. His knee had now managed to go in between her thighs and he let go of her hands as he used both his hands to raise her slightly by the waist from the carpet as he prepared to enter her from behind. She tried to crawl away but he pulled her back towards him and with one mighty thrust, forcibly entered her from behind. With that penetration, she screamed, feeling both excruciating physical pain and extreme emotional betrayal.

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Mrs. Martha Matombo always looked forward to the weekend with pleasure. Every Saturday, she spent the afternoon at church practising with other members of the church choir, preparing for the  following day’s Sunday service. She was forty eight years old but she looked like someone in her thirties because she was blessed with a good body which she took great care of. She had two grown up daughters. The elder of the two children, Elizabeth, was thirty years old. Martha had married when she was only seventeen years of age and Liz had been born a year after her marriage. Unlike her mother, who had married at an early age, Elizabeth (or Liz as she was normally called) was still single at thirty. Martha sometimes blamed herself for this because she had always told Liz not to rush into marriage as she herself had done. But now Martha thought going beyond thirty without getting married was probably putting it off a little bit too far.

The younger daughter, however, was already married at twenty six and living with her husband in Cape Town, South Africa. Elizabeth was still staying with her parents in a middle class suburb called Marlborough in Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. Liz had a job in the city at one of the big commercial banks. Today, Saturday, Liz was at home and Martha, as she always did, tried to convince Liz to accompany her to church where she was about to go for choir practice. As always, Liz turned her down, repeating what she usually said to her mother, that being part of the choir was not for her.

As Martha walked the short distance to the church, she thought about the other reason why she kept asking her daughter to join the choir. There was a particular young man of about Liz’s age in the choir whom Martha regarded very highly and always thought of as “the son that she never had.” His name was David and he always carried himself very well and was adored by everyone in the choir. He had a very deep voice and sang bass in a manner that brought tears to some members of the congregation. “If only I could find a way of getting Liz and David interested in each other,” she thought for the hundredth time.

When Martha arrived at the church, David was the only member of the choir who was there before her. As always, he greeted her enthusiastically but also with great politeness. He also mentioned that he was turning thirty the following Saturday and he was inviting all the members of the choir to a party at his apartment in town, after choir practice. The invitees were also free to bring anybody they liked to the party as David really wanted it to be a big event.

David was also a very successful businessman who had grown the chain of shops he had inherited from his father into an enviable enterprise. How he had managed to stay single with all that wealth, Martha had no idea. Martha resolved to drag her daughter, Liz to David’s party the following weekend. She was determined to work on Liz throughout the week to ensure that she would agree to attend the party.

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To Martha’s amazement and  joy, not only did Liz agree to come to David’s party, she also accompanied her mother to choir practice on that Saturday afternoon. At the end of choir practice, David gave a lift to Martha, Liz and two other members of the choir who also did not have their own cars but were coming to the party. It turned out to be a wonderful party  and quite boisterous, although, of course, no alcohol was served.

After the party, David actually offered to drive Martha and Liz back to their home in Marlborough. They accepted the offer and when he was dropping them off, David indicated that he would love to take Liz to a movie sometime if she was interested. The invitation for a date was made in front of Martha and she almost leaped up in joy, thinking that at last, her daughter and David might start “seeing each other.” As it turned out, her prayers were answered as the first movie led to the beginning of a true romance between David and Liz.

After going out for six months, David and Liz were engaged to be married. Martha was filled full of joy and she could not wait to start planning the wedding. So when David came to the house at about 7 a.m. that fateful morning, after Liz and her father had gone off to work, Martha had, of course, let him into the house without a second thought.

It was then, a great shock when “David turned into a monster and attacked her”.

The next chapter-2 Samuel- will be published not later than Tuesday, 18 January, 2011

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