Race and the Gospel Race in the Bible 1. Myth 1: ___________ 2. Myth 2: The People of God in the Bible Were ____________ 3. Myth 3: The People of God in the Bible Were All ___________ a. Judah (Gen 38:2) b. Joseph (Gen 41:50) c. A mixed crowd (Ex 12:38) d. Moses Marries a Cushite1 (Numbers 12) i. Cush = Ethiopia = Nubia = Meroe = modern day Sudan ii. Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian [heb., cushi] change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. (ESV) iii. Is this marriage legal? 1. Deut 7 vs. Deut 21:10-14 4. Application a. The Bible gives __________ to people with black skin i. Ebed-melech, the Cushite who saved Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38-39) b. Jesus is not the ___________________ Further Reading: J. Daniel Hays “From Every People and Nation” 1 Some older commentators have argued that the Cushite woman of Num 12 is the same person as Zipporah (Ex 2). This argument seems less motivated by the text and more motivated by race. There is no reason to equate the two. Zipporah is a Midianite (Ex 2:16-21) Moses may have had two wives. Or he may have married the Cushite after Zipporah died. Or he could have married the Cushite while he and Zipporah were divorced (most likely the implication of Exodus 18:2 [cf. Deut 24 “send away”]) and before they reunited (Ex 18:1-6). Holy Trinity Presbyterian Church 2016 Race and the Gospel Race in the Bible Cut for time: 5. Ebed-Melech: In Jeremiah 38, the king throws Jeremiah in a cistern to die. He does this because he hates the word of God which Jeremiah preaches. It is an act of rebellion against God. All the officials of Israel approve of this action. a. But then, on to the scene comes a man who reveres the word of God enough to confront the king. He is not an Israelite official. He is not an Israelite commoner. He is a foreigner, a Cushite, a man with African features and dark skin. Only this foreigner has the courage to face the king and to defend the word of God. Because of Ebed-melech’s actions, the Lord’s prophet is saved from slow and painful death. b. And God gives him what very few people in the Bible get, a direct word of blessing from one of his prophets. Jeremiah tells Ebed-melech in chapter 29, “For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the Lord.” c. Christian, this man is a hero in the faith for you. He is your spiritual father. As a white person, we may never have thought of looking at a black person in the Bible as our father in the faith (to our own shame), but here he is. He is more a brother to us than many of our white friends and family are. 6. We make a mistake to underplay the significance of the black men and women of the Bible, but we also make a mistake if we make them the mascot of a race. a. Ebed-melech is an example to follow and a person to look up to regardless of what color you are. b. This is not a “I follow Paul, you follow Peter, you follow Ebed-melech” situation. If we hold up Ebed-melech as representing black people, or if he is turned into the example of what black Christianity should look like, we’ve done something wrong. c. That is buying into the false worldview of race. d. Ebed-melech is a father in the faith to all of us with equal relevance. Holy Trinity Presbyterian Church 2016 .