A Tale of a King and His Men
Once upon a time in a land not so far away lived a king who was also a top-rate city planner, architect, and engineer. The king's plans included developing many huge new cities with beautiful buildings, housing and other amenities for his rapidly expanding kingdom.
To implement his plans and projects, he assigned a project manager for each new proposed city whose sole duty was to make sure that the construction proceeded according to the plans without any impediment. The king provided all the skilled foremen and workers who knew how to read and execute the paper plans and designs. The king also made available all the needed materials including steel bars, lumber, cement, nails, etc., and all necessary hauling and construction tools and equipment. Everything was set for the timely and successful construction and completion of each new city.
And so the construction of the group of cities began.
Some project managers wanted to please the king and proceeded to construct the new city they each were assigned to build. The buildings started to rise one after another under their direction, and the proposed cities began to take shape.
Some project managers accepted the responsibility but later decided not to do anything because it would interfere with their own plans and activities. No buildings were constructed, and the project sites remained undeveloped. These project managers had nothing to show to the king.
Other project managers were happy to be entrusted with a project because they could put their building skills to use. Some of them, however, decided to discontinue buildings already half-way constructed and just sold the usable construction materials to those who could use them. Some they conveniently left on the ground as piles of rubble.
Some managers who had actually completed buildings, for some reason known only to them, decided to demolish them and leave the rubble to be disposed of in landfills or sold the usable materials to furniture makers. There have been to this date millions of such finished and unfinished buildings consigned to the junkyard or sold to junk dealers.
The latter two groups of project managers banded together and asked a group of ministers disloyal to the king to declare that it was perfectly okay to destroy the buildings completed or in the process of completion even if all the materials, equipment, and the whole projects were owned by the king. When the disloyal ministers made their ruling all the unfaithful project managers cheered and to celebrate the event lit up the tower of a building in the place where they lived.
At present, the landscape of the king's kingdom includes beautiful flourishing cities still continuing to be built as planned. However, some cities in the making are areas of desolation showing only destruction and stark reminders of the refusal and failure of the project managers to obey their king. If only they had been faithful, they could have contributed to the grand vision of a kingdom filled with beauty and grandeur!
The unfaithful project managers in the king's kingdom are growing. And so are the unfaithful ministers of the king who would rather please these unfaithful project managers instead of their king.
Some of the faithful project managers tried to change the minds of their unfaithful counterparts. However, they were not successful. In the meantime, the king appears to be silent. But he cannot continue to be taunted, to be forever mocked by his unfaithful subjects.
After all, he is the king.#
The LORD said, "Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart . . . I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them." (Jeremiah 9:13, 14, 16)
