More Carnage in Nigeria

“Over 2,000 people were killed by Boko Haram fighters during the massacre [last week]... Hundreds of bodies - too many to count - remain strewn in the bush in Nigeria from an Islamic extremist attack that Amnesty International suggested Friday is the ‘deadliest massacre’ in the history of Boko Haram” (Sydney Morning Herald, January 13, 2015). It was “another bloody weekend for Nigeria in which three female suicide bombers, including one thought to be as young as 10, killed at least 23 people in the restive northeast” (ibid.). The director of UNICEF painfully observed, “These images of recent days and all they imply for the future of Nigeria should galvanise effective action. For this cannot go on” (ibid.). 

The death and suffering of the Nigerian people under Boko Haram’s tyranny should cause all God’s people to “sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done” (Ezekiel 9:4). Scripture states that “the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now”—including all the people on earth (Romans 8:22). Today, many “want-to-be” leaders have little regard for the sanctity of life, yet at the same time many claim to be God’s instruments. However, the day is coming when “the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (v. 21)! The heartbreak in Nigeria and elsewhere certainly provides more reasons for God’s people to pray fervently, “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10).

For more on the positive future that awaits the whole world, view our sermon “Taste of the World Ahead Today.”