Biblical Meditations from Ethiopia and About Ethiopia

We are almost to Africa as I write this and hope to send where I can find internet after arrival. Our flight was rerouted to fly over Spain, Northern Africa, and down over Egypt to Ethiopia, rather than the normal more direct route, as weather did end up delaying our connection to Congo until Tuesday AM (leaving around midnight Monday U.S. time). Our flight path today takes us over and many nations mentioned in the Bible. Tarshish in the Bible most think refers to Spain and possible Carthage in North Africa. Some of the other nations we flew over were mentioned in Genesis 10:13, Ludites were African tribes west of the Nile Delta, the Anamites lived in North Africa west of Egypt near Cyrene, the Lehabites are identified with the Libyans, and the Naphtuhites lived in Lower Egypt (the Nile Delta region, accoring to NET Bible Notes). Seba has also been identified in Africa perhaps near the areas we’re flying over as well. Egypt’s role in Scripture is familiar to many, but not as many are aware of the significance of and statements about Ethiopia in God’s Word. Since I have extra time with our longer layover today, I thought I’d share some things a little later in the post about the nation we are staying in, in relation to God’s Word.

We are among the few Caucasians on this flight to Ethiopia (there is also a mission team of 7 or 8 young Americans going to Zimbabwe I think and another humanitarian team to another nation). There is an African baby in the row behind who is about the age of Mark Joseph and I have to confess today has been a little more emotional then yesterday the closer we get, and it’s painful to know I won’t be bringing our little son with me on this same flight coming home that I see these other cute African kids on. It still seems somewhat surreal and the shock and sadness is still fresh, and undoubtedly waves still to come. But I find comfort from the Lord who is “a Man of sorrows and familiar with grief … surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3-4). His mercies were new last morning and will be each day (Lamentations 3, Sunday’s blog post). I am strengthened by the prayers of many on earth, and my mighty Advocate interceding at the Father’s right hand in heaven, and the Spirit’s help in weakness and groans too deep for words. By way of practical physical mercies I was able to get at least 4 hours sleep on this flight, I have emergency row exit legroom, and I have the whole row to myself, and the food and service on Ethiopian Air has been outstanding and far better than my domestic experiences, and the airline is also covering all our meals and lodging for our delays.

Ethiopia is a beautiful country and its people are beautiful, marked by beautiful skin, and a beautiful spirit that seems to be about many of them. An Ethiopian man in our hotel was very friendly to us and as I write there is a sweet couple across the aisle in bulkhead seating with 2 little girls aged 2 and 9 months. They are adorable and are doing quite well considering it’s a 14-15 hour flight. The girls have the cutest braids and smiles that cheer my heart and make me smile – I find it hard to believe any person could look at them in the eyes and not burst into smiles. I am playing peekabo with the older one. They have a secure bassinet in that section that fits into the wall as a baby bed … it brings back fond memories (or at least memories :) of a trip Jaime and I took to Germany when Ella was 2 and Annalee was 6-months. As I post this message we are now checked in to a small hotel in Ethiopia complete with leopard comforters on our beds - I feel like I'm really in Africa now! The city reminds me of Manila, Philippines in many ways, where I spent many years, but here there's not as much traffic and heat.

In God’s providence (different than our plans) our longer route will cause us to miss the only connecting flight to Congo Monday so we will spend the night in Ethiopia then fly to Congo Tuesday morning arriving at noon in Lubumbashi to meet Dider. I sent Didier an email from D.C. airport but am hoping he got the message and doesn’t waste Monday driving to the airport but that God will grant Him instead some rest that day before a busy Tuesday and week. We are concerned for Didier’s health and as you read would ask you say a prayer for his continued and complete healing in every way, and also that we would be efficient in getting done what we need to for the adoption of the Wilmarth twins and not be set back. For now God has chosen to allow us to spend more time getting to know another people who are part of His manifold plan of grace – the Ethiopians. They strike me as a very hospitable, honorable, hard-working people … many of the traits I admire about Filipinos seem to be true of Ethiopians in their own way as well.

God’s plan for the people of Ethiopia is stated in His Word in some special and specific ways (did you know 22 verses in the Bible mention these people, depending on which translation you have?). You may not be reading this blog for a Bible study, but I hope you’ll read to the end of this one and say a prayer for this people group that God cares much about and says much about. When the Bible mentions Ethiopia (or the literal Hebrew Cush in some translations), it’s speaking of a nation that included not only modern Ethiopia, but Sudan and perhaps beyond to the south, and alternate names in ancient times included Nubia and Meroe. History from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome consistently portray the people from the nation Ethiopia/Cush as black-skinned Africans, as some Scriptures also seem to acknowledge and allude to this trait, which became proverbial.

Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

Jeremiah tells the Israelites (and all peoples) that we cannot change our wicked hearts (Jer. 17:9) that are marked by sin, just as a leopard cannot change its external appearance or an Ethiopian his skin, man cannot change his sin, the most notable thing about him. But God looks past the external things that man finds so notable, He looks to the heart (1 Samuel 16:7), and God can change hearts, Jeremiah argues, and Jeremiah in particular highlights how Gentiles, including black Africans are part of God’s plan of grace.

Ethiopia in the family of Faith in OT Times

Many Bible readers don’t know Jeremiah had a friend who was a black-skinned believer in the Lord from the nation called Cush or Ethiopia/Sudan today. Ebed-Melech befriended Jeremiah and saved Jeremiah’s life and God saved this Ethiopian when the Jews of Israel were destroyed (Jeremiah 38:6-13, 39:16-18). Like another famous Ethiopian later, this man was also a court official with significant responsibility, a eunuch, and a believer in the God of Israel when most of Israel rejected God’s Word.

As I mentioned in a sermon a few Sundays ago, Moses married a wife from this same African nation, according to Numbers 12. This seems to be some 40-years after his marriage to his Midianite wife of his youth, who seemingly had died by then. Possibly this Cushite/Ethiopian wife was part of the “mixed multitude” of Africans and other non-Jews that feared God and came out of Egypt with Israel (Exodus 12:37-38) or part of the foreigners who chose to join Israel and her faith, as the Law repeatedly references. In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron objected to Moses marrying her and question his leadership, but God affirms this marriage and Moses’ faithfulness in all his household. More than one writer has noted how striking it is that when Miriam criticizes Moses as he marries a black African, that God strikes Miriam white as snow (leprous) in judgment. John Piper develops further the implications of that passage for Christians who oppose so-called interracial marriages or families (as an aside, biblically and scientifically there is no such things as “races” as biologically defined, we are all part of one race, united in Adam, so we should get rid of the largely evolutionary terms “races” or “interracial”).

Moses’ wife was not the only Ethiopian/Cushite in the family of faith in the OT. There is also Ebed-Melech mentioned earlier (Jeremiah 39:16-18) and others from Ethiopia who became converted Jews during the reign of Ahasuerus. Ethiopia was part of the kingdom that Mordecai the Jew was given a prominent role over in Esther 8:7-10, 9:3-4, 10:1-3 and Esther 8:17 suggests that people in lands and provinces including Ethiopia became Jews, and celebrated Jewish feasts (9:28-32). In God’s providence, in a day when Haman wanted to exterminate the Jews, God greatly expanded the Jews (including converted Jews) with people from India to Ethiopia apparently coming to the Jewish faith! Acts 2:4 and 2:10 records nations of Africa that had God-fearing Jews and proselytes (ethnic Africans who had come to the faith of Israel and come under its laws and worship).

Ethiopia in the New Testament

What God was doing in the days of Esther, a book where He’s not mentioned by name, was spreading His name abroad, so that we read many centuries later of God-fearing “Jews and proselytes” from several nations on the continent of Africa (Acts 2:4, 2:10; Libya/Cyrene on North Africa east of Egypt). “Proselytes” included ethnic Africans who had come to the faith of Israel and come under its laws and worship. One of these Africans carried the cross for Jesus (Mark 15:21) and other Africans from the nations in Acts 2:10 were instrumental evangelists in the early church (Acts 11:20) and prophets and teachers (Acts 13:1, one from Cyrene, another named Simeon who was nicknamed “black,” which NET Bible Notes says is a Latin term meaning black in complexion).

As the gospel spreads from Judea to Samaria in the first part of Acts 8, the first representative of “the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 commission) who is witnessed to is a man from Ethiopia who “had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah” (from the Jewish Scriptures, Acts 8:27-28). A man named Philip (great name by the way :) meets him and explains the gospel. This Ethiopian court official of the queen of Egypt who had perhaps converted to the Jewish faith earlier now converts to faith in Christ in that chapter. Early church tradition says he brought Christianity into Ethiopia where it spread and churches were soon founded. This study has stirred the heart of another Philip for Africa!

Prophecies about greater salvations for Ethiopia in the future?

In Genesis 12:3 God promises Abram that all nations will blessed in him (gospel and salvation blessings in Christ, according to Galatians 3:8). In the context of Genesis 12, the “nations” specifically included Cush, which is listed first among other nations in Africa in Genesis 10:5-6, and 13. In Psalm 68 there is a prophecy that along with gifts from foreign kings (v. 29) and envoys from Egypt, the nation of Ethiopia or Cush will soon or quickly stretch out her hands to God (v. 31, image of submission and worship). One translation says Ethiopia will “voluntarily offer tribute to God.” Psalm 87:4 further includes Ethiopia among nations who know God (or will come to know God, if taken prophetically). The text seems to describe believers from Ethiopia and other nations as viewed by God as if they were natural-born Israelites.

Amos 9:7 is even more striking:‘“Are you not as the sons of Ethiopia to Me, O sons of Israel?” Declares the LORD.’ (NKJV)

In this prophecy the God of Israel seems to be saying that He cares for and has a future plan for the Ethiopians just as He cares for Israel and has a future plan for Israel and the nations (v. 9). Nations besides Israel will be called by Yahweh’s name (v. 12, an expression for special blessings and relationship, especially in regards to salvation). It’s interesting that Amos 9 is quoted in the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 as demonstrating that God bringing Gentiles into the church equally with Jews fits with OT prophecy.

Ezekiel 38 lists Ethiopia (v. 5) in the context of nations who will come to know that the Lord is Yahweh (LORD, v. 23). Isaiah 18 is addressed to the land deeper in Africa beyond the rivers of Ethiopia or Cush (v. 1), a people tall and known for their smooth skin (something that stood out to me), a powerful nation feared by others (v. 2). Isaiah speaks of a time after God’s judgment in Isa. 18:7: “At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the LORD of hosts From a people tall and smooth, Even from a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation [one translation says “of strange speech”] Whose land the rivers divide— To the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, even Mount Zion.

Some might argue that began to take place in Bible times, with Ethiopians coming to Zion/Jerusalem to worship like the Ethiopian in Acts 8, but some of the passages seem to go further with a fuller fulfillment still to come. Could it be the explosive recent growth of Christianity in Africa (arguably more than on any continent in any century of history in the rate it is growing there since 1900) is fulfilling prophecy and is part of the fullness of Gentiles/nations God saves before He’s done with Israel and the world (Rom 11:26-27)? Zephaniah 3:8 says when God gathers nations in the end times, it’s not just for judgment on nations, Zephaniah 3:9 says “For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, That they all may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him with one accord [NIV “shoulder-to-shoulder”]. 10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers …”

From the heart of Africa, south of Ethiopia (including Congo?) worshippers will call on the name of the true Lord, and we get to meet some of them! May the Lord haste that day when worshippers from Ethiopia, Sudan, Congo, and beyond and every nation are worshipping the Lord shoulder-to-shoulder with us and all God’s multi-ethnic family singing, “salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9-10)! I look forward to worshipping with some of my African brothers and sisters in Christ very soon! I hope this encourages and excites some of you as it has blessed my heart.