God’s Mysterious Ways

God moves in mysterious ways and his reasons may not always be clear to us mortals.

Fortunately, some people are in direct contact with the Lord, such as Mogoeng Mogoeng, who was told by the Lord that He wants him to be South Africa’s next Chief Justice. Based on this overwhelming heavenly endorsement, South Africa’s Judicial Service Commission voted in favour of Mogoeng becoming the country’s highest judge.

Those who paid attention in Bible studies will know that good judgement can sometimes be surprisingly hard and the Bible recommends for example that:

“If a man suspects his wife of cheating he can serve her a cursed drink, if she becomes deformed, then that proves her guilt.”
(Num 5:12-31)

“Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.”
(Prov 23:13-14)

“The rapists of an unwed woman must buy her and make her his wife.”
(Deut 22:28-9)

But even in light of his own strict rulings, I am not sure the Lord would approve some of the sentences that Mogoeng Mogoeng has revised and approved in the past.

In the appeal of a man who was convicted of raping a 14 year old girl, Mogoeng pointed towards shortcomings of the victim’s testimony:

"One can safely assume that [the accused] must have been mindful of [the victim's] tender age and was thus so careful as not to injure her private parts, except accidentally, when he penetrated her. That would explain why the child was neither sad nor crying when she returned from the rape. In addition to the tender approach that would explain the absence of serious injuries and the absence of serious bleeding, he bought her silence and cooperation with Simba chips and R30."

In the case of a 30 year old man’s attempted rape of a seven year old girl, Mogoeng found no compelling evidence that the accused had indeed raped the girl rather than merely assaulted her. Apparently, the doctor found bruising in the entrance of the girl’s vagina which suggested that something had come in contact with her genitals. However, because the victim’s dress was covering her head she was unable to confirm whether the accused used his finger or penis to abuse her. Further mitigating factors were that the accused was 30 years old, married with two children and earned R1800 per month. Sadly, Mogoeng did not disclose how exactly these factors were mitigating... or relevant.

And in yet another case Mogoeng reduced the sentence of a man who had murdered his wife in the presence of his children from life sentence to 18 years on the basis of “substantial and compelling circumstances”, namely that:

“the accused murdered his wife in front of two of his children, aged 9 and 13;

he asked the children if he should kill his wife;

the murder too place after a domestic quarrel in which the wife was accused of spending too much money; and

the accused believed, albeit unjustifiably, that his wife was having an affair.”

To me, it is not immediately obvious why it is a mitigating factor that he consulted his children and made them watch the murder of their mother. But then again, God has not chosen me as Chief Justice but Mogoeng.

And God moves in mysterious ways...