SUCCESSION IN OLD TESTAMENT IN RELATION TO MALAWI’S POLITICS TODAY.
BY: Peter Qeko Jere= Doctoral student, University of Fort Hare
Deuteronomy 31:1-8 has one of the most interesting events in Old Testament politics. Many times people don’t associate politics with the bible and some tend to think that politics originated from the Greeks and carried forward by the Romans, which by and large is not true. Of course we appreciate what the Greeks did in the development of politic. Politic is the administration of people in the polis (community) and these people are made in the image of God hence anything that has to do with them involves God Himself.
The Old Testament event in Deuteronomy 31 is very unique and is a great model, which needs to be emulated in today’s politics. For a long time, the whole world and Africa has gone through a lot of hatred, brutal wars, tribalism, nepotism and bloodshed because of ignoring the very architect of politics, God. In these verses we have a clear picture of what politics is supposed to be all about in terms of succession. Moses hands over the leadership mantle to Joshua in the presence of all Israelites. The bible in Deuteronomy 31:7 says, “ Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, Be strong and courageous for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their forefathers to give them as their inheritance”
Moses knew that he was old and needed to hand over the leader ship to someone else and this man was Joshua. Don’t forget that this Joshua was the one who was sent to spy the land. He was a trusted person. Now why did Moses openly hand over the leadership to Joshua? Was it necessary to do this before all the people? What lesson can we learn from this great biblical principle?
Moses was a great leader whom the Lord used to liberate His people from the autocratic Pharaohic rule. He was the one who met Pharaoh head-on. He was a very courageous man and a great charismatic leader. However the handing over of the mantle to Joshua gives us a great principle that great leaders are those who put their house in order before their reign expires. These are those who realize that there is time when God is able to use them to accomplish a particular task during a particular period of time. These are those who realize that no one was born to be a General Manager or a Leader for life. When we look into what is happening in UDF, Aford, MCP and other parties, we clearly see that their houses are not in order. Actually in UDF and Aford, we clearly see the opposite of what Moses did. If UDF and Aford leadership had put their houses in order in good time, they couldn’t be going through the current leadership crisis. Of course UDF could categorically deny this but every Jim and Jack knows that in term of political party administration, something is terribly wrong in the party. The question could however be, shall MCP escape this in the near future? At the pace they are administering this party, they are likely to face the same crisis like the other parties. Anything that is done outside the word of God cannot prevail. No human being has ever prevailed outside the word of God.
Looking into what Moses did, we see that he handed the mantle to Joshua in good time even before he died. He even addressed the people about it. It seems that the people trusted Joshua because they knew his history since he was the one who walked with Moses. Now this gives us another principle that a Good leader hands over the mantle of leadership in good time. When we critically analyze our politics today, is there any political leader who handed the mantle of leadership in good time? Infact a great leader do not wait to be told that he hands over the mantle to someone else. Thus it is vital for the hand over to be done in good time so that they avoid negative political transition from one regime to the other. There was peaceful political transition from Moses to Joshua. The absence of good and peaceful transition leads to more political bickering, hatred, and bloodshed sometimes.
Moses could have chosen to be a leader for life since he alone could communicate to Yahweh face to face. He could have given an excuse but what we see is that he was very open and spoke the truth which tells us that a great leader is the one who speaks the truth and does not twist things for his own selfish gains. Moses made it very clear that he was old and could not govern the people anymore. He told them that my time to rule is about to be over. He wanted people to exactly know what was going on. This is contrary to what happens in politics today. Political leaders many times are not true enough to speak the truth. By and large many of them don’t say things that are true. These people don’t keep their words and many times what they do is contrary to what they once said. May be that is why many think that politician are liars. Politicians who with lie cannot succeed and many times they end their career miserably.
At the same time, a great leader chooses his successor in good circumstance and has no hidden agenda for the choice. Succession in politics has always been a problem all over Africa even in Malawi. In any political succession, circumstances that leads to the election of any leaders in any political grouping is vital because the consequences there after many times tend to be negative. In the bible, there were no hidden factors that lead to the choice of Joshua. He was given the mantle because for a good time the Israelites used to seeing him working with Moses. He was infact the vice president of Israel during the days of Moses. Joshua leant a lot from Moses because they were always together leading the nation of Israel. Moses choice (Joshua) was a genuine one with no extra attachment. There was no nepotism, tribalism or any ism attached to it. This is what is missing in our politics today. Political parties choose their leaders based on some things that are contrary to the word of God. Almost all of them are chosen based on tribe, and region where they come from which is unbiblical. Continuation of this trend of events in politics leads to more political problems.
Deuteronomy 31 says that all Israelites agreed with the decision that Moses made to have Joshua as his successor. The bible says that all Israelites gave Joshua the same support as they did with Moses. There was a clear political transition between the two. This gives us a final principle that in politics, choices need to be supported by the people to be governed. It is always dangerous to ignore those to be governed. The people trusted Joshua because they saw what he been doing together with Moses. This was because of the trust they had in Moses Suppose Moses chose somebody else, what could have happened?
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