WHERE THERE IS NO GOD

Chapter 1
A Godless Place 

“I figured this to be a godless place. I thought, ‘They will want my wife and kill me to have her’”. (Genesis 20:11 NLT).

Abraham is a gazelle of a kind, elegant, athletic, and with sharp penetrating eyes that mock the numerous gray on his head. Picking his steps cautiously, and with an unusual sensitivity, he sniffs the air, not in search of a desert rivulet, not to savor the fragrance that saturates the air at the time of the day when the sun is on the run to cross the border, but for something he alone can perceive. Suddenly, he pulls his wife, stands breathless, and sniffs again and again, throwing cautious glances around.

“Any problem, my Lord?” Sarah whispers, a little perplexed.

“I figure there’s something wrong with this place”.

“What do you mean?”

“The air is heavy with godlessness. We need to be careful”.

Why does Abraham perceive what most people could not? Why does he see beyond the rolling landscape whose allure is accentuated by the fast receding sun? Is he just acting queer, drawn by the charm of scenic bumps of jutting hills and rocks but restrained by an inner knowing of a lurking moral conflict?

Abraham has to pay a courtesy call to the king the following day. It is necessary; what with the size of his flock and retinue of domestic staff. Before sunrise, whispers have gone round of the presence of an invading army, or an advance party of an invading army. The king of Gerar has his ear to the ground through the night until Abraham, with his wife, comes to make a salaam. To the king, the visit dispels the rumors. But to Abraham, the chat, a stroll through the town and a passing visit to the local market confirm his fears.

Sarah screams and sits up, looking at her husband with shock. “Why on earth should you say that?”

“I’m convinced there is no God in this place. From the name, Gerar, the people must be rough and mean; they can do anything to gratify their lust. Didn’t you observe the way the king stealthily threw lustful glances at you? Didn’t you notice a general wild mien among the men of the town? I believe we should be alive to remain husband and wife; they can easily kill me to have you.”

Abraham is right in his observation; but his reaction? A godly man comes in contact with a godless people, in a godless environment; he becomes uncomfortable because he does not fit in. Why? The people’s lifestyle does not reflect God. A godless man lives on instinct, dictated by the desire for self-gratification and preservation. The effects of his actions on others do not bother him. He can do anything without fear of its consequences. If, however, he wants to assuage his conscience, he sets his mind to cover up his actions, believing that no one can discover, somehow. A man without God is like a beast in the jungle, wild and lawless.

There is nothing queer about Abraham’s conclusion on the people of Gerar. He has been with God since his call, taking delight in doing whatever God asks him to do. In addition, he puts in time thinking over and over God’s instructions, warnings, and promises. Abraham has been in a godly environment, guided by godly lifestyle and values, and, therefore, has no place among the ungodly.

What do we mean by godlessness? It means conducting oneself without regard to God. It does not necessarily mean that the person does not believe the existence of God but rather he chooses to live as if there is none. So, godlessness is a matter of personal choice by one who is old enough to take responsibility for his actions. Godlessness is not just a sin; it is worse than one. It is a deliberate decision to damn the consequences of rejecting ones maker.

Godlessness is infectious. Because man is a social being, he has to identify with and survive within his social setting. So, the instinct to survive pressures him to conform to the social atmosphere he finds himself in. Abraham fears for his life and so lies a little (A man of faith has to scheme his way out of danger, forgetting that God could keep him from harm). So, Abraham has a brief test of godlessness.

Godlessness is pervasive. Man loves uncluttered freedom. Godliness restrains this freedom and man is not happy with it; he cannot freely gratify his lustful desires. So, godlessness takes the lid off, frees his conscience, and brings out the beast in him. This ‘lease of freedom’ catches on the society like a wild fire. Thus, an ungodly lifestyle in a big city, or as seen on television, easily spreads to other parts of the country.

Godlessness is possessive. It does not easily give up once it takes root in the life of an individual or society. Israel has a history of cycle of godless rules, with cases when a promising godly son succeeds his ungodly father but turns out later to be worse in an ungodly rule. We, then, see that godlessness has a vice grip on the natural man who loves to be in charge of his life. It has a pull which no man can resist by his own power.

On a personal level, a godless lifestyle creeps in without notice. It starts with minor issues of perception and attitudes in ones conduct. This continues and gradually wears down the edge of conscience until it becomes completely dulled, ‘seared with hot iron’ (1 Timothy 4:2). Thus, the instinctive desire to preserve or gratify self determines the course of ones actions. Abraham fears that the people could, without the scourge of conscience, kill him because of lust for his wife.

On a societal level, a godless lifestyle could become a popular culture. In this case, an action does not need to be godly; if it is generally accepted, it should not prick the conscience. Abraham observes this in the land. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah are comfortable with all manner of sexual perversion. So, they press to have a carnal knowledge of God’s angels; they are ready to kill Lot, in spite of his entreaties. “Where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out so we can have sex with them,” they clamored. To them, there is nothing wrong—it is normal.

I was once in the habit of blaming the political class for the woes of corruption and manifest godlessness in the land. I tried, as much as possible, to exonerate the lower class and the church. Then the Lord gave me an insight into the state of things as He saw it. I had a dream where all classes people in the society—beggars, house helps, children, housewives, and the so-called masses—were scrambling for some petroleum products from two gas stations. It was a free for all affair. One of them, a boy of about 7, said to me, “Sir, better take your own; it does not belong to anyone.”

I never saw the situation that way, hence my misplaced anger and frustration. God just showed me the state of the nation from His point of view. A godless person does not associate God with his or her perception of reality. His life, his environment, and his nation—none belongs to anyone; life is ‘As you like it.’ Where there is no God, actions are not referenced to God’s standards; people are always right in their own eyes. This feeling cannot be right, however. The nation does not just belong to nobody; neither does the church. Both belong to God who handed the nation over to the church to enlighten, preserve, and prepare for Christ’s Second Coming.

Godlessness started with Adam’s fall from God’s favor; a fall that came as a result of sin and loss of his divine essence. Because Adam separated from God, he had to fend for himself through life, a situation that led to all forms of evil works. In effect, when God is no longer relevant, His moderating influence on life wears off, and a godless lifestyle sets in. Therefore, sin rejects God and everything about Him. It makes God man’s natural enemy, and both cannot connect.

Godlessness reflects man’s desire to be free from external control; a desire that is quite presumptuous because the creature cannot be free from its creator. There is no absolute freedom for the creature. Adam acted misguidedly on this assumption, but ended up a slave to sin and Satan. In effect, one is either under God’s authority or Satan’s. Peoples and societies that opted out of God’s control are individually and collective responsible for the spate godless acts we see daily in the world because they are controlled by a strange spirit.

The feeling that man can provide for himself plays a part in the growing godlessness. What is the place of God if I can take care of myself? God is no longer relevant when a person can depend on science and technology, or on the State to provide his needs and wants. At this point, the person’s refined moral character determines his right standing with society rather than with God.

Abraham’s experience leaves a lesson for us all: without the cross and grace, no one can face the bullish godless world’s system and remain true to the divine call. The world presents the believer with three options: backsliding, compromise, or rejection. Christ provides us with the cross and grace. While we contain the world’s first two options with grace, the cross makes a mockery of their rejection. In other words, one who has been crucified with Christ has rejected the world even before the world rejects the one. To such a person, the world has nothing to offer.

Does this sound simple? Yes, it does. But the proof lies in real life situation when the threat to the comfort zone is strong. Human experience shows that real life situations prove our Christian faith and trust in God. There must be a Gerar to expose ones ingenuity at improvising ways out of untoward circumstances.

Gerar is the world we live in. Even as you read this book, there are many Abrahams facing the same situation. We meet with the same problem and we behave in the same manner, with or without a Sarah beside us. But Sarah is with us always; there is something we value so much that we cannot bear to lose it. In our naivety, we forget that God is with us always, ever ready to defend and protect. Thus a general dilemma faces everyone that steps into Gerar: business is threatened, bills cannot be picked up, the family faces hard times, the kids are not sure of their education just because the people of Gerar want us to be like them. Desperation sets in and we have to find or devise a way out by all means; and ‘by all means’ I mean with or without God.

We earlier defined godlessness as acting without reference to God. Yes, we, believers know too well that we are His children and He is always with us. At least, we profess this at fair weather moments. But wait until a ‘damsel’ boldly confronts you with an unexpected question: ‘You look like one of his followers, aren’t you?’ Or a friend advises you: ‘You’ve to do business the Nigerian way; this is no place for the Bible’. So, Abraham typifies most of us.

Does God understand? Yes, He does. That is why He enjoins us to forsake the world, deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow Him—an instruction that is like honey in the mouth but bitter in the belly.
How easily we forget God’s promises and scheme our way out of tight corners! This is a general weakness in all of us. But the Alfa and Omega knows the end from the beginning. He knows that such situations would arise, yet He makes us great promises and sets us in the way to achieving them. So, when we lose sight of the integrity of the One who promised and His faithfulness in fulfilling same, we act without regard to Him—sort of helping Him along the way. Abraham believed God that he would be the father of many nations, and so, the people of Gerar could not have stood in the way of God’s word. He who has promised is faithful; He cannot break his own covenant nor withdraw the word that has gone out of His mouth.

Abraham chooses to act according to his human wisdom. God acts His own way. The king of Gerar accuses Abraham of deception that put his own life on the line—the supposedly godless king gives a godly Abraham a lesson on the fear of God.

There is no godless place. Godlessnes s may exist in the minds of people but not in a place God created for His pleasure and glory. Even in the midst of widespread godlessness, evidenced in the life of the people, God gives the believer all that patterns to life and godliness. With this at the back of our minds, we do not have to be like the people of Gerar to live and fulfill God’s eternal promises—we will never be in a place or situation where there is not God.