The Scourge Of Racism
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After seven weeks in the profound book of Bible prophecy named after its penman and main personality, Daniel, you would think his dream interpretations, dreams, visions and prophecies came to him in the isolated seclusion of a desert or mountain retreat.1 But as foretold (Micah 4:9-10), Daniel was a captive and slave taken over 1,500 miles away to Babylon with others of his people from the 605 B.C. Jewish kingdom of Judah in the first of three waves and accord with the judgment of God (2 Chronicles 36:15-21; Jeremiah 25:1-11; Daniel 1:1-2)! As this was of God, Daniel is also ultimately His slave which is instruction and application for black Americans this Black History Month.
From the outset, Daniel was busy with the king of Babylon’s priorities as he was selected with others of the best and brightest “young men” among fellow slaves from Judah to serve in his “palace” after teaching them “the language and literature of the Chaldeans” in “three years of training.” During this time by royal decree, they were to eat the “daily provision of the king’s delicacies” and drink “of the wine which he drank,” (Daniel 1:3-5, NKJV). The Jewish names of these representative young men were also replaced with those of Babylonian origin given to them by “the chief of the eunuchs,” (Daniel 1:6-7, NKJV). Assignment to him may mean the young men were made eunuchs too.2
It was not just doctrinal instruction from the Lord through His Word during the seven year period beginning in 1986 I waited on Him in prayer and intense Bible study for a biblical worldview of the black American experience that caused me to throw off the yoke of and renounce victimization as a descendant of West African slaves and minority still experiencing systemic racism.3 It was also encountering godly men like Daniel and his companions in the Bible who were forcibly taken from their native land to be slaves in Babylon. For this is just as it also happened to my forefathers forcibly taken from their native land and brought over 4,000 miles in ships to be slaves in America.
Like Daniel and his companions, too, my slave forefathers were required to learn the language and culture of their captors as well as receive new names and be happy about it. All of these painful circumstances were as initially traumatizing and demoralizing for them as they no doubt were for Daniel, his companions and all of the Jews in Babylon (Psalm 137). However, in spite of their captive circumstances, Daniel and his three companions were not crushed as victims, but thrived! How is this possible? Isn’t it because they came to Babylon in a devoted relationship with and as slaves of God; accepting that their captivity was of His permissive, foretold will (Daniel 1:8-21, 9:10-14)?4
This is not to say Daniel and his three companions escaped trouble from the raw power of their oppressors. Even so, God delivered them as they looked to Him in faith! The four of them would have been killed with all of Babylon’s wise men if God had not provided Daniel with the content of the king’s dream and its interpretation for which he praised Him and advanced them (Daniel 2). After this, Daniel’s three companions incurred the king’s “fury” because they refused out of faithfulness to God to worship his image. He threw them into a furnace that was heated “seven times” hotter than normal. But God delivered them! He was praised and they “promoted” by the king (Daniel 3, NKJV).
Early in the new royal administration of the Medo-Persian Empire, men no doubt filled with envy, jealousy and racism plotted against Daniel because the king who had already given him a high position in his government, considered elevating Daniel to the highest place under him. Their evil scheme was predicated on snaring Daniel in his well known faithfulness to the God of Heaven so he might be killed by being dropped into a den of hungry lions. But God delivered Daniel and He was praised by the king! Daniel prospered until his death (Daniel 6). This pattern of trouble, unfair and even harsh treatment attends to the Jewish experience in Babylon and Persia. However, men like Daniel and his three companions trusted in and remained faithful to God and He delivered them.5
There is one major difference in the captivity of Daniel, his companions and other faithful Jews and that of those brought from West Africa to be slaves in America: the majority of my forefathers did not come having a prior relationship with the living God. Presented the Gospel even from nefarious motives and Christianity the religion of men though, many over time came to faith in Jesus Christ.6 What trials they endured being treated with contempt as naked chattel or barely above animals by many of the guilty whites that owned them. They were denied the sanctity of marriage and intact families; violated by rape and castration in too many cases; beaten and murdered with impunity. Yet, like Daniel and his three companions the faithful cried out to and trusted in God for deliverance.
Over four hundred years of black American history is filled with innumerable personal and corporate testimonies of deliverances from God. Those like Daniel and his companions who understood themselves to be His slaves bore with their mortal bondage waiting in hope for freedom which did come! Others refused to compromise their God granted human dignity and persevered through Jim Crow segregation never believing they were less than anyone else. Still others faced just as real furnaces of affliction and lion’s dens making a stand for biblical righteousness opposing the evils of racial bigotry. Many God delivered while some He chose to bring home to glory and rest from their labors. All of His faithful have given and give this nation’s rulers their opportunity to praise God!7
1 See the posts that begin January 9 through February 20, 2022.
2 As students of the Bible note, neither Daniel nor his three friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah are said to have wives or children anywhere in Daniel’s book. While this or the fact they are under the specific authority of the king’s head eunuch are not conclusive proof the young men were made eunuchs, it is truly odd no mention of wives or children is made given the importance of family and lineage to the Jews throughout most of the Bible.
3 Read the two-part post beginning June 2, 2019, Message From A Redeemed Black Man, under the categories Biblical Worldview and Black History. O that all the guilty would repent from seeing our experience through the confused prism of victimization! At https://fromslaverytovictory.org walk through the presentation, Does God Care About African Americans?
4 The result of Daniel’s humble acceptance of God’s will for his life as a slave in Babylon is His loving favor so bestowed on him, that his book remains prophetically relevant over 2,500 years later and will be to the very end and Christ’s return!
5 These men were exemplary of the aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
6 Tragically, a great number of blacks going forward also adopted Christianity as their own religion after the manner of those who had enslaved them. God has not been pleased with this among our people or any others. He leads me to cry out with His displeasure against the corruptions and compromises of the biblical faith in manmade Christianity the religion among all professed Christians in a four-part post that begins February 26, 2017, God Of Restoration And Judgment, under the categories Bible Prophecy, Biblical Worldview, Black History and The Cause. More recently, also read the two-part post starting February 21, 2021, Willful Ignorance Destroys, under the category, Black History.
7 Truly, it is only the black American victors of faith and faithfulness that are being honored to the glory of God in this post as I do them in our national Radio Special, From Slavery To Victory: One Man’s Journey and which I still want to more fully do in a film. The Radio Special sits waiting to be heard as a Webcast on The From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site (https://fromslaverytovictory.org) needing only the funds to obtain renewed music clearances. You can make a designated gift for this cause on the Web Site or even anonymously through the PayPal Giving Fund. If you have the human and financial resources to help realize the film vision, please reach out to me.
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