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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