DOES GOD HATE BLACK PEOPLE
Grace and peace to the children of God, and greetings to the lost.
A friend asked me a couple of days ago why it is that blacks are hated the world over. Every race, she noted, has its problems, and in just about every culture there are those groups that are demonized for political, religious, or other reasons. But blacks are the only people in the history of the world that are hated as a race. “Does God hate blacks?” she asked in frustration.
I can understand her frustration: for blacks have certainly suffered their share of hatred and persecution. But I reminded her that it is not entirely true that blacks are the only people in the history of the world that have been hated as a race. The Jews have also suffered their share of hatred and persecution. As I said this, the force of this realization hit me like a sledgehammer. No other people on the face of the earth have suffered such intense hatred and persecution, as have the Negro and the Jew.
I believe that everything going on in the world today, even political and social-economic issues, can be explained from a biblical perspective. I further believe that God is firmly in control of everything—the good and the bad. If it is good, it comes from God and is a blessing. If it is bad, it is of the devil and is allowed by God. Racism is bad, therefore, racism is of the devil. This means that the root of racism—specifically hatred of blacks and Jews—is of the devil. Satan must hate blacks and Jews. And if Satan hates blacks and Jews, then we should be able to find the genesis of this hate in the Bible.
But before we discuss the genesis of Satan’s hatred of Blacks, let us dispel the popular myth that God hates blacks. God does not hate blacks, as this verse of Scripture clearly shows:
“Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel?” (Amos 9:7).
The Ethiopians are the Negro race—the Blacks. The name Ethiopian has come to mean those black Africans from the country of Ethiopia. But when the Bible was written, Ethiopia, as a country, did not exist. Christian historian Alexander Hislop in The Two Babylons, tells us that the name Ethiopia means “Land of Ethiops.” Ethiops was another name for Cush, a son of Ham and grandson of Noah (Hislop, 48). Cush, also known as “Al Khem” (The Black One), was the father of the black race. For centuries, Africans were known as Cushites and Khemites. So, when the Bible speaks of Ethiopians, it is referring to all blacks.
Notice that Amos 9:7 compares God’s chosen people, the Jews, with the Ethiopians, the blacks. This is proof that rather than hating blacks, God loves Blacks: so much so, that He compares His love for them with His love for His beloved Jewish people.
Noah’s son Ham, the father of Cush, was the father of all dark-skinned people, including the Egyptians. The Bible calls Egypt “The Land of Ham” (Psalms 105:26-27, 106:21-22). Ham was known as “The Burnt One” (Hislop, 25). Throughout the Bible, there is an indelible link between Egypt and Israel. God told Abraham to sojourn in Egypt with his wife, Sarah, and later, Abraham fathered a child with an Egyptian woman, who bore him a son. We read that Jacob’s son, Joseph, was enslaved and taken to Egypt, where he later rose to prominence as its first prime minister. Joseph also married an Egyptian woman. God used the Egyptians to punish the Jews for having forsaken Him and turning to idols, and it was in Egypt that God revealed His power by bringing Israel out of that land with a mighty hand. Moreover, God told Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather, to flee to Egypt with his family to avoid being killed by Herod’s troops. God had no problem sending the family of our Savior to “The Land of the Blacks.”
Even further proof of God’s love for the Black race is the fact that Moses, the prophet of God, married a black woman:
“And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman” (Numbers 12:1).
Miriam was the sister of Moses. Chapter 12 goes on to explain how God was angered because of Miriam’s criticism of Moses saying, “[W]herefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” At this, He struck Miriam with leprosy (v. 10). Now, God did this because, as He explained in verses 6-8, He spoke to Moses face to face and not in dreams or visions like other prophets. God was saying, in other words, that if He had had a problem with Moses marrying a black woman, He would have told Moses so.
Now, Miriam and Aaron did not rebuke Moses because they were racists, but because Moses took a non-Jew to wife and it was the Jews’ custom to marry only other Jews. God is not a racist. Recall that one of the first converts to Christianity was an Ethiopian (Acts 8:37). And the Holy Spirit specifically directed Philip to talk to him. It is clear then, that God loves the Black race.
The question, therefore, is not if God hates blacks, as we have just seen biblical proof to the contrary. Neither is there a question of Satan’s hatred of blacks, as the historical record of atrocities towards blacks bears sufficient witness that this is the case. The question, therefore, is why does Satan hate blacks.
The short answer is that Satan hates blacks because God loves blacks, just as Satan hates the Jews because God loves the Jews. But this answer does not sufficiently explain the world’s intense hatred of the black race. There must be a particular biblical incident that we can point to that explains the enmity between Satan and the Blacks.
And there is. But before we look at it, it is important to our discussion to understand that Satan’s hatred of Blacks has its origin in the Garden of Eden. Subsequent to Satan tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, God pronounces the undying enmity between Satan and the Jews:
“And I will put enmity between thee (Satan) and the woman (Israel), and between thy seed and her seed” (Genesis 3:15).
Now the woman, Israel, has two seeds: physical and spiritual. The physical seed are the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob: the Jewish people. The spiritual seed of the woman are Christians and non-Jewish proselytes to the Jewish faith, who worship the God of Israel. With regard to Christians, the Bible says that all who believe on the name of Jesus Christ are saved by faith, and are thus the spiritual seed of the woman:
“And if ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed (spiritual Jews), and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).
It is the spiritual seed that concerns our discussion regarding Satan’s hatred of Blacks; for the first spiritual seed of Israel just happened to be a black man. That’s right: a black man.
But before we go into that, understand that blacks were not always the enemy of Satan. The first king of Babylon, and, in fact, the world, was a black man, and his name was Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-10, Hislop, 69). It is a known fact that idolatry began at Babylon, as Nimrod and his wife were worshipped as gods (Genesis 10:8). (“Mighty one” is the word El, which means a god or an idol.) Nimrod was a very immoral man, who married his own mother, Semiramis. It is also known that Nimrod worshipped Satan and he and the Babylonians practiced child sacrifice.
Nimrod seemed to be doing everything that Satan would approve of, so something must have happened, besides the prophecy of Genesis 3:15, that made Satan the bitter enemy of the Black race. Something did, in fact, happen. And that something can be found in Chapter 18 of the Book of Exodus, which reveals an important dialogue between Moses and his father-in-law, Jethro.
It happened on this wise: shortly after the exodus out of Egypt, Jethro, a Black man, brings Moses’ wife and children to where the Israelites are encamped. Now, the next day, all the Israelites come before Moses, as was their custom, with all their grievances. The Bible tells it thus:
“And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from morning unto the evening.
“And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is the thing that thou doest to the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?
“And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to inquire of God: When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and His laws.
“And Moses’ father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.
“Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone” (Exodus 18:13-18).
Jethro went on to suggest to Moses a way to minister unto the people without killing himself. I have never, ever heard a sermon preached on this passage of scripture, but it is crucial to an understanding of Satan’s rabid hatred of Blacks. It also showcases his diabolical cunning.
Understand that God and the Israelites had just scored a major victory over Satan and the powers of darkness. Tradition has it that Noah’s son, Shem, the father of the Jewish people, killed Nimrod because of his abominable practices like child sacrifice. Satan then took revenge on the descendants of Shem, the Jewish people, and He used Pharaoh and the Egyptians to do it. Pharoah was Satan’s man, the new Nimrod, and Satan used him to persecute God’s people, Israel. But Moses, the mighty man of God, went in and by the power of God, led Israel out of that land and forever destroyed Egypt as a world power.
But Satan never rests. He still had a plan to destroy the Jews. His plan was to wear Moses out and kill him by having the people come to him with all of their problems and complaints. The Israelites numbered more than six hundred thousand men, not including women and children (Exodus 12:37). A very conservative estimate of their number could very comfortably be placed at one million. Moses sat alone in front of all these people and listened to their problems from morning until evening. Most professional counselors and psychologists can handle no more than ten clients per day and retain their sanity. Any more and they run the risk of becoming a casualty themselves.
Satan planned to kill Moses with stress. He figured that if he took Moses out, the Israelites would have been left without a leader and would perish in the wilderness. But God had an ace up His sleeve. He had Moses’ father-in-law come and give him godly advice on how to minister unto the people:
“Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee…” (Exodus 18:19).
God allowed Moses to take advice from a black man. And the advice that this black man gave enabled Israel to endure (v. 23).
But what is even more significant, is that this black man’s suggestion affected not only the welfare of God’s people, but also the way that the Jews organized themselves for thousands of years. In fact, Jethro’s suggestion has been used in Israel right up until this very day: and not just in Israel, but all over the world, in a way that is so significant, that I’m going to cover it in a separate post. I could hardly believe it when the Spirit led me to see it. You will scarcely believe it yourselves. But it’s true. You don’t want to miss part two of this essay.
I believe that this is when the Blacks became the enemy of Satan. God used Jethro to save Moses and the Israelites, and his suggestion transformed Israel from an unorganized mob into a feared fighting machine. No wonder Satan hated Jethro, and why he still hates the Blacks. Jethro, a Black man, conferred with Moses, a Jewish man, and they defeated Satan’s plan to destroy the Jews. This league was orchestrated by God.
But there is something else we need to understand about this black man. Not only did Jethro advise Moses, but he also worshipped his God. Jethro was the priest of Midian (Exodus 3:1), but he knew and respected the Most High God. Listen to what the Bible says:
“And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent.
“And Moses told his father in law all that the Lord had done unto Pharoah and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them.
“And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
“And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
“Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly He was above them.
“And Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father in law before God” (Exodus 20:7-12).
Did you see that? Moses’ father in law, a Black man, worshipped God. And not only that, but he worshipped right along with all the elders of Israel. This would make Jethro the first spiritual Jew! Jethro was the very first non-Jewish “seed of the woman.” And Satan’s hatred of Jethro and his seed is a literal fulfillment of the prophecy of Genesis 3:15!
But there is something else very important here that we ought not miss: Jethro ate bread with the Jews before God. Perhaps the significance of this escapes you for the moment, so let me unpack it for you. Moses took the trouble to point out that these men ate bread together before God. He wanted us to know that they weren’t just eating to be eating. This was an act of worship. These Jewish men and this Black man were eating bread together in fellowship and worship of God.
Saints, this was a foreshadowing of the Lord’s Supper. This was a picture of the Christian church! Understand that these were Jews and a non-Jew (Gentile) partaking of bread together as an act of worship. Thousands of years later, Jews and Gentiles would again eat bread together before God in the person of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:42,46; 20:7).
This was a picture of the Lord’s Supper, and the first non-Jew to eat it was a Black man. Is this not glorious? If you understand that nothing is trivial, accidental, or coincidental with God, then you must also understand that this was very intentional on His part. God loves the Blacks.
This is very significant. Understand that all the other nations feared and hated the Jews. But the Blacks loved the Jews—and their God. This is why God loved the Blacks and still loves them, and why Satan hated them and still hates them to this very day. Though not His chosen people, Blacks are also beloved of God. This is the only possible explanation for why of all the nations that were hostile towards the Jews, the Blacks are not numbered among them, though they lived as closely to them as many of the other nations. The Blacks knew God.
There is New Testament proof of this. Remember that in Acts Chapter 8 the Holy Spirit specifically tells Philip to go speak to the Ethiopian eunuch. Listen to this:
“And he (Philip) arose and went: and behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch under great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to worship,
“Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias (Isaiah) the prophet” (Acts 8:27-28).
Did you see that? The Ethiopian was reading from the book of Isaiah. Blacks still worshipped God!