Ethiopia and the Bible (reprise) - blog for Saturday 8/18

A number of years ago before my first trip to Africa, I did a biblical study on Ethiopia where we spent the night on the way there. As I fly on Ethiopian Air again and will have a layover in this country, I thought it good to review some of God's heart for these Africans in His multi-ethnic family.

When the Bible mentions Ethiopia (or the literal Hebrew "Cush" in some translations), it’s speaking of a nation that included part of modern Ethiopia, but also Sudan and perhaps beyond to the south. History from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome consistently portray the people from the nation Ethiopia/Cush as black-skinned Africans. 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 cannot change 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). God can change hearts, Jeremiah argues, and Jeremiah in particular highlights how Gentiles, including black Africans, are part of God’s plan of grace.

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.

Many Bible readers also don’t know Moses married a woman from this same African nation, according to Numbers 12.  Possibly Moses’ 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. The most noted leader of the Israelites was married to black Cushite Ethiopian!

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) is a man from Ethiopia. He “had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah” (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! I pray the Lord will also bring and bless opportunities for me to explain the gospel to men like him!