Opinion / Columnist
Till Mujuru's sins be white as snow
02 Apr 2016 at 14:02hrs | Views
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
This is a well-known passage from Isaiah 1:18.
It is basically an exhortation by the good Lord, God, that man, the sinning man, must turn from his ways and seek the face of the Maker and find forgiveness.
God has the power to forgive and forget.
He can damn. He can redeem.
He is a good God.
He is all too powerful – he the Omniscient one.
But we all know about that, don't we?
We all know that God is the only one who has the power to forgive sins, and even in Biblical times, his Son, Jesus, got himself into trouble when he appeared to expropriate this power.
He would say, "Your sins are forgiven", and the people would be mad at him.
The people had their right to cry blasphemy: they knew only one God.
After all, they were all ignorant.
Which explains why Jesus would then intercede on their behalf and say to his Father: "Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing."
We are pretty sure that coming from Easter as we are doing, these tales are still fresh from our annual memory.
Just these days past we were celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The resurrection is hailed as the victory against sin.
Jesus' death; Jesus' blood, were used to cleanse us of sin.
So we are already forgiven!
But it brings us to a fundamental point: that two Men, most probably One, have the power of forgiving sins.
His name is God, Almighty.
A jealous God
It is quite clear that God does not like the idea of people worshipping other gods.
He said so.
We are told: "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God".
That comes from Exodus 34:14.
There are other texts that tell us about this Divine quality in Him.
Deuteronomy 6:15 tells us that: "(For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth."
Nahum 1:2 says: "God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies."
This all points to our God being somebody who guards his turf with keenness and who won't take it kindly when his duties, responsibilities, powers and talents are taken away – perhaps stolen.
We are sure the issue of forgiving remains one of his vocations.
That is why he had the power to say that which quoted about above about crimson and scarlet sins and snowy and white wool.
A god called Jealousy?
Which brings us to the main point of this piece.
There is a guy called Jealousy Mawarire.
He shot to fame a couple of years back when he, posing as a mere "Harare man", approached the courts to cause the State to hold national elections as per constitutional requirements.
The courts bade the State to abide by the laws of the land – which gave us July 31, 2013; the date on which general/harmonized elections were held.
The elections signalled the end of the inclusive/hybrid Government composed of Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations.
Harare man Jealousy Mawarire stood out as an unlikely hero – or villain – in his apparent sole precipitation of elections which were desired and not desired almost in equal measure.
More paradoxically, unwanted when the inclusive Government itself was often described as dysfunctional, a marriage of convenience.
Elections were come – and so much water has since passed under the bridge.
Significantly, President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF won the election at the expense of his rivals fronted by MDC and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
As history will now record, 18 months after that victory the ruling party underwent a rebellion that was led by one Joice Mujuru who happened to be President Mugabe's Number Two.
The party did not take much time to deal with her, which it did by making sure that by December 2014 she was but out of the party – expelled.
She did not even attend the party's elective congress which she had planned to use to stage a palace coup.
A couple moons down her fate was sealed – a mere formality.
In the run-up to her purge from then ruling party we heard a lot of things about Mujuru and her corrupt behavior and morals.
Some accusations and allegations, in fact, predated her ejection from the ruling party as she was largely known to be a greedy, corrupt individual whose ill acquired wealth, which may as well run to this day, was said to be bottomless.
It has also been pointed out that her husband was really the man behind the ills of acquisitiveness.
Thus Joice Mujuru has been identifiable with corruption and greed which even her expulsion from Zanu-PF has not cleansed her of.
Those in the opposition and indeed neutral observers often ask hard questions of her and that has been her biggest Public Relations headache.
Enter Jealousy.
He thinks he can wash Joice Mujuru's crimson sins, as we the public know them, until they are as white as snow.
Scarlet sins until they are like lamb's wool.
He started a fortnight ago with a full page in the Daily News.
He has followed up on that again.
He promises to continue to do so.
He will tell us about, nay deny, corruption, about the Econet saga, about meeting Western diplomats, about immorality, about her diamond looting in Chiadzwa, about her demands for 10pc stake, about witchcraft.
Everything.
Jealousy Mawarire is playing god who will was every sin Joice committed or is alleged to have committed.
He is digging deep the archives and dusting up every piece of evidence that will exonerate his Joice.
He is most likely blasphemous, too, for she most likely sinned against God, and he cannot replace him and seek to wash her sins white.
But, of course, there is a context to understand Jealousy's blasphemous commitment.
Ironically, it has to do with bitterness arising from the same 2013 case of the Harare man who precipitated elections and soon afterwards felt ill-used and on the verge of losing some property only for one Joice to come to the rescue.
You would do what Jealousy is currently doing, even to the point of posturing a blasphemous god who washes crimson sins white.
Yet there is the real God in heaven – and in the political world an equally real god called the electorate, which always knows better.
This is a well-known passage from Isaiah 1:18.
It is basically an exhortation by the good Lord, God, that man, the sinning man, must turn from his ways and seek the face of the Maker and find forgiveness.
God has the power to forgive and forget.
He can damn. He can redeem.
He is a good God.
He is all too powerful – he the Omniscient one.
But we all know about that, don't we?
We all know that God is the only one who has the power to forgive sins, and even in Biblical times, his Son, Jesus, got himself into trouble when he appeared to expropriate this power.
He would say, "Your sins are forgiven", and the people would be mad at him.
The people had their right to cry blasphemy: they knew only one God.
After all, they were all ignorant.
Which explains why Jesus would then intercede on their behalf and say to his Father: "Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing."
We are pretty sure that coming from Easter as we are doing, these tales are still fresh from our annual memory.
Just these days past we were celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The resurrection is hailed as the victory against sin.
Jesus' death; Jesus' blood, were used to cleanse us of sin.
So we are already forgiven!
But it brings us to a fundamental point: that two Men, most probably One, have the power of forgiving sins.
His name is God, Almighty.
A jealous God
It is quite clear that God does not like the idea of people worshipping other gods.
He said so.
We are told: "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God".
That comes from Exodus 34:14.
There are other texts that tell us about this Divine quality in Him.
Deuteronomy 6:15 tells us that: "(For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth."
Nahum 1:2 says: "God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies."
This all points to our God being somebody who guards his turf with keenness and who won't take it kindly when his duties, responsibilities, powers and talents are taken away – perhaps stolen.
We are sure the issue of forgiving remains one of his vocations.
That is why he had the power to say that which quoted about above about crimson and scarlet sins and snowy and white wool.
A god called Jealousy?
There is a guy called Jealousy Mawarire.
He shot to fame a couple of years back when he, posing as a mere "Harare man", approached the courts to cause the State to hold national elections as per constitutional requirements.
The courts bade the State to abide by the laws of the land – which gave us July 31, 2013; the date on which general/harmonized elections were held.
The elections signalled the end of the inclusive/hybrid Government composed of Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations.
Harare man Jealousy Mawarire stood out as an unlikely hero – or villain – in his apparent sole precipitation of elections which were desired and not desired almost in equal measure.
More paradoxically, unwanted when the inclusive Government itself was often described as dysfunctional, a marriage of convenience.
Elections were come – and so much water has since passed under the bridge.
Significantly, President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF won the election at the expense of his rivals fronted by MDC and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
As history will now record, 18 months after that victory the ruling party underwent a rebellion that was led by one Joice Mujuru who happened to be President Mugabe's Number Two.
The party did not take much time to deal with her, which it did by making sure that by December 2014 she was but out of the party – expelled.
She did not even attend the party's elective congress which she had planned to use to stage a palace coup.
A couple moons down her fate was sealed – a mere formality.
In the run-up to her purge from then ruling party we heard a lot of things about Mujuru and her corrupt behavior and morals.
Some accusations and allegations, in fact, predated her ejection from the ruling party as she was largely known to be a greedy, corrupt individual whose ill acquired wealth, which may as well run to this day, was said to be bottomless.
It has also been pointed out that her husband was really the man behind the ills of acquisitiveness.
Thus Joice Mujuru has been identifiable with corruption and greed which even her expulsion from Zanu-PF has not cleansed her of.
Those in the opposition and indeed neutral observers often ask hard questions of her and that has been her biggest Public Relations headache.
Enter Jealousy.
He thinks he can wash Joice Mujuru's crimson sins, as we the public know them, until they are as white as snow.
Scarlet sins until they are like lamb's wool.
He started a fortnight ago with a full page in the Daily News.
He has followed up on that again.
He promises to continue to do so.
He will tell us about, nay deny, corruption, about the Econet saga, about meeting Western diplomats, about immorality, about her diamond looting in Chiadzwa, about her demands for 10pc stake, about witchcraft.
Everything.
Jealousy Mawarire is playing god who will was every sin Joice committed or is alleged to have committed.
He is digging deep the archives and dusting up every piece of evidence that will exonerate his Joice.
He is most likely blasphemous, too, for she most likely sinned against God, and he cannot replace him and seek to wash her sins white.
But, of course, there is a context to understand Jealousy's blasphemous commitment.
Ironically, it has to do with bitterness arising from the same 2013 case of the Harare man who precipitated elections and soon afterwards felt ill-used and on the verge of losing some property only for one Joice to come to the rescue.
You would do what Jealousy is currently doing, even to the point of posturing a blasphemous god who washes crimson sins white.
Yet there is the real God in heaven – and in the political world an equally real god called the electorate, which always knows better.
Source - the herald
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