31. That the glory and the honour for the triumph..

31. That the glory and the honour for the triumph . . .

The events of the year 1838 in Natal would first really mean glory and honour for his Name when the conquered people would jubilate as forgiven Christian people, like the conquering people, at the experience that the death also for him is swallowed up in the triumph by Jesus Christ, in the face of death and grave: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (I Corinthians 15:55)
Nevertheless, the conquered Zulu People become such a “more than conqueror” only after his military defeat when he also is worsted against - decisively conquered by - “ . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) Only this second defeat, that of all people’s natural resistance against the almightiness of God’s love in Jesus Christ, makes the Zulu People, with the then only triumphant Vow People, “ . . . more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Romans 8:37)

The Vow “ . . . that the glory and the honour of the triumph be given to Him . . . ” becomes real when:

-the Zulu People on his own people’s birth day, like his fellow believing neighbour people, the Vow People on Vow Day, to the same “holy God of heaven and earth”, gives the honour for his people’s existence as believing, proud and free people with an own calling;
- he, like the Vow People on Vow Day, brings thanks to the same God who on 16 December 1838 opened the road for Christianity and civilization at the south end of Africa, exactly by opening a road to a future for free peoples in submissiveness and responsibility to Him alone;
-he, the Zulu People, like the Vow People, reaches out to the completion, to have as people part in the fulfilled promise that God himself will abide with them and they will be his people (Revelations 21:3)