Omoluabi Podcast

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Ìpọ́njú àgbẹ̀ ò ju ọdún kan." INTERPRETATION: "A farmer’s suffering will not last longer than a year."   MEANING & BIBLICAL APPLICATION: The proverb is based on the concept of sowing (planting) and harvesting. The understanding is that if a farmer plants and begins to suffer for lack of resources or even lack of food to eat, such a reversal in his circumstance is but...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Àparò ò ga ju ara-a wọn lọ, àfi èyí tó gun ebè." INTERPRETATION: "No partridge is taller than another except for those standing on earth mounds." (Earth mounds are little heaps of soil usually made with a hoe; in the farm, crops like yam and cassava are planted into the heaps.)  MEANING & BIBLICAL APPLICATION: Usually, this proverb is said of a group of people among w...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Bí ayé bá ńyẹni, ìwà ìbàjẹ́ là ńhù." INTERPRETATION: "If life is being good to one, one is likely to act disgracefully." MEANING: Prosperity (especially material-wise) comes with a temptation to misbehave. REFLECTION: The idea this proverb posits is found all over the Bible. God repeatedly warned the Israelites of the tendency for them to forget that it was God who gave them t...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Ojú onílá nilá ṣe ńkó." INTERPRETATION: "It is in the presence of the okro planter that the fruits become fibrous (and inedible)." MEANING: The negligent person will watch as his or her affairs go to ruin. REFLECTION: When okro fruits are harvested as at when due, they are very edible and bring gain to the farmer, the seller, the buyer, the cook and the eventual consumer. But...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: ""Níbo ló gbé wà?" nìyájú ẹkùn." INTERPRETATION: ""Where is it?" is a great insult to the leopard." MEANING: One should be smart enough to hide one’s ignorance about things one ought to know because there are some truths that are so self-evident that to query otherwise is to reveal one's foolishness. REFLECTION: The idea being put forward in the word picture that informed the p...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Bí ọmọdé bá ńṣe ọmọdé, àgbà a máa ṣe àgbà." INTERPRETATION: "When a child is being a child, an elder must remain an elder." MEANING: One should not permit other people’s immature behaviour to deflect one from the proper course of acting maturely. REFLECTION: The idea being put forward is that people do act according to varying levels of maturity. However, a truly wise person w...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Ògbójú ò tẹ ara ẹ̀ nÍfá; ọ̀mọ̀ràn ò fara ẹ̀ joyè; ọ̀bẹ tó mú ò gbẹ́  ẹ̀kù ara ẹ̀" INTERPRETATION: "The fearless person does not consult the Ifá oracle on his own behalf; the super-clever person does not enthrone himself; the sharpest knife does not carve its own handgrip." MEANING: No matter how powerful and accomplished one might be, one will need other people for some t...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Orúkọ ńroni; àpèjà ńroni." INTERPRETATION: "One’s name affects one’s character; one’s war name determines how one behaves." MEANING: To put it succinctly, people are influenced by their names. BIBLICAL REFLECTION: This belief that people are influenced by their names is common in Biblical records, especially among the Jews. We see cases of God changing people's names and how t...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Ojú àlejò la ti ńjẹ gbèsè; ẹ̀hìn-in ẹ̀ là ńsan án" INTERPRETATION: "It is in a visitor’s presence that one gets into debt; it is in her absence that one repays the debt." MEANING: One does not estimate how much hospitality is costing until one’s visitor has departed. BIBLICAL REFLECTION: Among other things, this proverb reminds us of the fact that HOSPITALITY HAS...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 017 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Eegun àjànàkú: ó ma há ìkokò l'ẹ́nu." INTERPRETATION: "An elephant’s bone: it will be too much for the wolf to swallow." MEANING: This proverb is often said to warn someone who is overreaching [or has overreached] himself or herself. The simple truth is that WE ALL HAVE OUR LIMITS and we must respect that lest we break down. BIBLICAL REFLECTION:...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Bí Ṣàǹgó bá ńpa àràbà, tó ńpa ìrókò, bíi tigi ńlá kọ́." INTERPRETATION: "Even though Ṣango kills the silk-cotton tree and kills the ìrókò tree, no such fate can befall the huge tree." MEANING: This proverb is often said as a boast which is supposedly based on the assurance that the person being referred to is mightier than anyone in the vicinity who others consider to be migh...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Kò sí kò sí; bẹ́ẹ̀ni ọmọ wọn ńyó." INTERPRETATION: "‘‘We have nothing, we have nothing!’’ Yet their children always have full stomachs." MEANING: This proverb is often said of those who are too stingy and too tightfisted to help others. They have enough, but when others come to them for help, they claim not to have. In spite of their claim to be in lack, however, everything po...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 014 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Bí èèyàn-án bá ṣeun ká sọ pé ó ṣeun; bí èèyàn-án bá ṣèèyàn ká sọ pé ó ṣèèyàn; nítorípé, ohun tí a ṣe, ó yẹ kó gbeni." INTERPRETATION: "If a person deserves gratitude, we should acknowledge that he deserves gratitude; if a person is kindly, we should acknowledge that he is kindly, because we all ought to reap the rewards of our actions." MEANING:...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 013 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Ọ̀kánjúwà-á bu òkèlè, ojù ẹ̀-ẹ́ lami." INTERPRETATION: "A greedy person takes a morsel of food, and tears gush from his eyes." The idea is that greed will cause someone to go for a morsel of food that is evidently too big for him/her to swallow without pain or effort. MEANING: Greed can lead to tremendous pain. If anyone bites more than he/she ca...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 012 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Ẹni tí kò ní igi obì kì í léso." INTERPRETATION: "Whoever does not have a kola-nut tree cannot have its fruits." In other words, to be in possession of kola-nuts must be preceded by being in possession of a kola-nut tree. Or, to say it yet another way, having a kola-nut tree is the prerequisite to having kola-nuts (the fruits from the tree). MEAN...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 011 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Bí ìdí ìkokò kò bá dá a lójú, kì í gbé egungun mì." INTERPRETATION: "If the wolf does not have faith in its anus, it does not swallow bones." In other words, the wolf wouldn't dare to eat the kind of thing it wouldn't be able to digest and pass out as excreta effortlessly.  MEANING: One should not attempt a thing whose repercussions one cann...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 010 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Ká ròhìn ẹni ò tó ká bá ẹni bẹ́ẹ̀" INTERPRETATION: "To have people say good things about someone is nothing like getting to meet and know the person firsthand and find those secondary reports to be true." In other words, nothing beats getting to know someone on a firsthand basis. MEANING & BIBLICAL APPLICATION: We thought of this from both ou...

PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Bí ebí bá kúrò nínú ìṣẹ́, ìṣẹ́ bùṣe" INTERPRETATION: "If hunger is removed from poverty, poverty comes to an end." In other words, whoever has food to eat is not poor. MEANING: A need for sustenance (through food) takes precedence over every other need we may have. As such, if we will take Jesus' invitation seriously to come and feed on Him (He being the "Bread of life"), we w...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 008 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Ẹni tó mọ ẹtu ní ńkì í ní ‘‘òbèjé, ẹlẹ́sẹ̀ọwọ̀.’’" INTERPRETATION: "It is someone who knows the duiker intimately who can recite its praise, ‘‘spindle-legged duiker.’’" [A duiker is a small to medium-sized brown antelope native to sub-Saharan Africa, found in heavily wooded areas.] MEANING: Only those deeply knowledgeable about their profession (...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 007 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Ilé bo ilé lójú; òrùlé bo àjà mọ́lẹ̀; awọ fẹ́ẹ́rẹ́ bo inú kò jẹ́ká ríkùn aṣeni" INTERPRETATION: One house obscures another; the roof conceals the ceiling; a thin layer of skin covers the stomach, making it impossible to see through an evildoer.  MEANING: One cannot discern a person’s character, motives or intentions by simply looking on t...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 006 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Yànmù-yanmu là ń jọ̀gẹ̀dẹ̀." INTERPRETATION: Bananas are eaten gracelessly. (Or 'Gracelessly is the way one eats bananas.) MEANING: Certain activities do not permit gracefulness. There is a time to be graceful and a time to not be. There are seasons when it's okay to be delicate and seasons when being delicate is a no-no. To be wise is to...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 005 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Akéde ò jẹ iyán gbígbóná" INTERPRETATION: The town crier does not eat steaming (hot) pounded yam. MEANING: One should be careful to avoid anything that can hinder him/her from functioning fully in his/her primary assignment. TEXTS FOR SCRIPTURAL REFLECTION: 2 Corinthians 5:20; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Timothy 2:22 ✰ 2 Corinthians 5:20 The Passion...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 004 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Aṣọ à-fọ̀-fún kò jẹ́ká mọ olówó." INTERPRETATION: Clothes washed clean make identifying the rich person impossible. In other words, there is a way a 'poor' person can wash his/her clothes and take good care of it such that in public, he/she appears to be rich. MEANING: You can manage the little you have so well that people will reckon with you...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 003 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Ẹ̀gún ò bẹ́sẹ̀rẹ́." INTERPRETATION: Thorns and the soles of one's feet do not reconcile; they are not 'friends'. MEANING: Certain people are, by virtue of their nature or make-up, incompatible with others. Likewise, certain actions are unsuitable for certain situations. TEXTS FOR SCRIPTURAL REFLECTION: 1 Corinthians 15:33 and 2 Corinthians 6:1...

ỌMỌLÚÀBÍ PODCAST | EPISODE 002 PROVERB CONSIDERED: "Òòjọ́là ńṣu imí àgbagbà."  INTERPRETATION: The shit (faeces) that comes from eating a plantain meal comes on the same day. In other words, on the same day you eat plantain meal, expect to visit the loo. MEANING: The consequences of certain actions are virtually immediate. Moreover, by implication, all our actions, ultimately have conseque...