8 weeks ago this day while flying out of Ethiopia, I shared with you what the Bible has to say about that country. As I fly to the same country Tuesday and over other countries mentioned in the Bible, I thought this might be a good day for a follow-up post on what the Scriptures have to say about this continent.
The Bible doesn’t mention America directly, but you might be surprised to know how much the Bible has to directly say about Africa and God’s heart and plans for its people. Although the word “Africa” was not used when the Old Testament was written (this term as a common designation for the continent came later), references to peoples and countries from this continent abound from the opening chapters of the Old Testament through the New Testament Scriptures. Noah’s son Ham had many descendants settling here, and it came to be known as “the land of Ham” in Scripture. The Greeks in Bible times used their word Libue to refer to the continent we call Africa, especially northern Africa and west of Egypt, or the entire continent beyond Egypt (as the Romans did by NT times). So for example Acts 2:10 refers to districts or regions of Libue around Cyrene. Luke the Greek writer of Acts uses that term for the land we call Africa, not to be confused with or confined to borders of modern “Libya” (as some translations render that Greek word). Some modern nations on the continent we call Africa have retained ancient names (Ethiopia, Egypt, etc., though the territories have changed somewhat) while other countries in Africa had different names in Bible times (Cyrene, Cush, Chub, Phut, Put/Punt, Pathrusim, Seba, Sabteca, Havilah, Lehabim, Ludim, etc.). The exact locations of some of these are debated by some scholars, but for the purposes of this article, I am using the word “Africa/African” in the sense of referring to these lands and people from those nations.
Here’s a little quiz I shared with our congregation on a Sunday evening this summer (Scripture references will be listed on a future post). How many of you have noticed any or all of below in relation to “Africans” in Scripture?
1. In the opening chapters of the Bible, several African nations are mentioned by name and promised to be blessed by God
2. Abraham’s firstborn son is half-African and is blessed by God and becomes a great nation and marries a wife from Africa
3. An African woman in Genesis becomes one of the few people in Scripture who were blessed with a personal appearance from Yahweh (twice). She also receives divine promises and she is also one of a few people in Scripture who gives a name for Yahweh (El-Roi – the “God who sees”)
4. Abram’s grandson Jacob, renamed Israel, moves to Africa at God’s command, and pronounces God’s blessing on an African King, and adopts 2 African-born sons, and makes them part of Israel’s 12 tribes, and one of these half-African sons becomes father of the most prominent tribe of Israel, and his name becomes even a substitute name for Israel.
5. Most of Israel’s first 500 years are spent in an African country where they had interactions with many peoples from other African nations, some of whom came to faith in Yahweh and worshipped in the first Passover with Israel and also left with Israel in the Exodus.
6. Israel’s great leader is adopted by an African and raised as an African
7. Arguably the greatest Israelite leader in the OT marries a black African who had come to faith in the God of Abraham, and God Himself defends and commends and blesses that marriage
8. One of Israel’s priests, whose name can mean “the Negro” or “the Nubian” is celebrated alongside Moses as one of Israel’s 2 great intercessors during the wilderness wandering, and this man is the only other person in the OT besides Abraham who it speaks of God’s righteousness reckoned to, using the same phrase of Abraham’s covenant grace. The book of Numbers says this priest received an everlasting covenant from Yahweh
9. One of Israel’s greatest kings in history marries a woman who describes her skin to the Jews as “black/dark,” in a marriage passage celebrated for all time by the inspiration of God
10. Black Africans had close, friendly relations with Hezekiah, king of Judah, and fought to defend Judah against Assyria
11. These Africans also sent out a large army to relieve a siege against Jews in Jerusalem, that both 2 Kings and Isaiah records
12. King David has one of his black soldiers tell him the news of the death of Saul and Jonathan in battle, and a number of the men in King David’s army were from other nations but had come to follow Yahweh (ex: Uriah the Hittite, other Gittites, etc.)
13. A black man helps the Jewish prophet Jeremiah out of a well, an African with true saving faith in Yahweh when few in Israel had true saving faith
14. Nations of Africa by name are mentioned and prophesied to become recipients of salvation, which began in OT times and is promised in even greater measure before the end of time
15. The land of Cush in black Africa appears in the OT about as many times in the OT as the land of Canaan in the Pentateuch, which is where Canaan’s land is repeatedly promised to Israel, but many have never heard of Cush or God’s plan for that land
16. The African nation of Egypt is mentioned about as many times as the Jewish nation of Judah in the Bible – nearly 700x!
17. God tells one of the minor prophets He views the black Africans the same as the Jews
18. An African nation is prophesied to become “My people” by God
19. Young Jesus lived in Africa for some time before living in Nazareth/Galilee, by God’s order to his family by an angel. The NT records that it was important for God’s Son to come out of this African country in keeping with OT Scripture
20. A man from Cyrene in Africa helps Jesus carry His cross, and Romans 16 suggests this man was a believer, or became one
21. In the book of Acts before the gospel goes to the Samaritans or Greeks or Romans, God sends the good news to an African on his way back to his continent, and the eunuch in turn brings the Christian gospel to Africa, according to the church fathers
22. In the place where believers were first called Christians, one of the first church leaders is a man nicknamed “black” in Latin
23. Arguably most powerful preacher in the NT, who has the highest language of praise for his power in preaching, is a man who Acts says was a native of a prominent city in Africa
24. Paul and his companions more than once travelled on a ship from this African city
25. The Apostle Paul himself on one occasion was mistaken for an African from Egypt. He was asked “aren’t you the Egyptian?”
To Be Continued …
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