#brutalization of the indigenous people. there’s like a chapter on slavery that’s like ‘Africans came on boats to help work the fields 😁’

[zouisalmightie]

i feel like all i ever do is complain about my job like there are some parts i really love about teaching but then some days i want to run and nosedive out the window

[perspectivemattersministries]

Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So!

PERSPECTIVE MATTERS...

“As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.” ~ Genesis 15:12-14 ESV

This very month, August 2019, marks a momentous milestone in the history of humanity. For it was during this very month, exactly 400 years ago, that the first ship carrying African slaves made its long three-month transatlantic journey from the coast of West Africa weighing anchor in the harbor of Jamestown, VA in August of 1619. It was the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, which along with the genocide of the indigenous native people upon whose land these great sins were committed, was singularly the most brutal period in American history. 

The transatlantic slave trade was the single largest deportation in world history and was perhaps the single greatest determining factor in the world economy of the 18th century. Millions of Africans were torn from their homes, deported to the American continent and sold as slaves. It is estimated that between 10 and 12 million Africans were deported from Africa to continental America during the transatlantic slave trade.

The Atlantic passage (or Middle Passage) was notorious for its brutality and for the overcrowded, unsanitary conditions on slave ships, in which hundreds of Africans were packed tightly into tiers below decks for a voyage of about 5,000 miles. They were typically chained together, and usually, the low ceilings did not permit them to sit upright. The heat was intolerable, and the oxygen levels became so low that candles would not burn. Because crews feared insurrection, the Africans were allowed to go outside on the upper decks for only a few hours each day. Historians estimate that between 15 and 25 percent of the African slaves bound for the Americas died aboard slave ships. The autobiographical account of the West African Olaudah Equiano, published in 1789, is particularly well known for its graphic descriptions of the suffering endured on the transatlantic voyages.

But aside from its purely historical standpoint, there are richer and even more far-reaching aspects of this vile chapter in human history generally and American history specifically. The biblical narrative suggests that, given its broad significance in the annals of human history, God may have undoubtedly referenced this event prophetically in the biblical record thousands of years in advance. In the above-captioned passage of Scripture that begins this blog, I quoted from Genesis 15:12-14. God reveals to Abram, before changing his name formally to Abraham, through a vision that had all the makings of a nightmare, that Abraham’s future offspring would be servants and afflicted in a foreign land for four hundred years. The specific nation of their bondage remains unnamed in the text. Tradition has held that the nation in question is Egypt where the Hebrews lived for exactly 430 years (see Exodus 12:40). However, if the text was only to apply to Egypt would not God reference it as the nation specifically? God has not been shy to supply us with details regarding the identity of nations His prophetic Word was referencing. The coyness of the text in not spelling out the nation may imply that God had more than just one incident of captivity and more than one nation in mind concerning the saga of His people, the seed of Abraham. 

There were, of course, other incidents of captivity that the biblical Hebrews, the seed of Abraham endured. In 722 BC, the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians and the Israelite tribes of the northern kingdom were exiled. Later in 587 BC, the southern kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonians and the Judean Hebrews were exiled to Babylon where they remained for 70 years before a remnant was allowed to return to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. This was a far cry, however, from the four hundred year sojourn of bondage and affliction prophesied in Genesis 15:12-14. There is only one other time in human history that fits this prophecy like a glove: the slavery and affliction of Africans stolen from the shores of West Africa and their descendants. Further evidence of this prophetic fit appears in Deuteronomy 28:15-68.

“And the LORD will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer” (Deut. 28:68 ESV).

To be clear, neither with respect to the Egyptian, Assyrian, or Babylonian captivity did the Hebrews travel to the destination of their bondage and affliction in ships... All except for one, that is. The transatlantic African slave trade to the Americas, the height of which occurred in the 18th century. The specific reference to Egypt in the Scripture here was likely symbolic for any lands where the Jews have been taken into bondage or sold as slaves. But it is true that after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, which was a judgment on the apostasy of Israel and their rejection and execution of the Messiah causing the Jews to disperse south into Africa, among the noted lands of the Jewish diaspora at the time, this prophecy was actually fulfilled. The Roman general Titus, who conquered Jerusalem and Israel, sent 17,000 adult Jews to Egypt to perform hard labor there and had those under 17 years old publicly sold. Under the Roman emperor Hadrian, countless Jews were sold and suffered bondage and cruelty but certainly not in the numbers compared to the Africans caught in the affliction of the transatlantic slave trade. The key distinction here being the historical fact that the only exiled people taken by ship in accordance with this prophecy were the Africans, many, if not most of whom, were descendants of the original biblical Hebrews, the actual genetic seed of Abraham. I invite you to research the plethora of information available from credible scholarly sources online on this very subject.

Now, for the good news... God revealed to Abraham in his vision first a nightmare - the bondage and affliction of his offspring for four hundred years, followed by a dream: “But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions” (Gen. 15:14 ESV). As we recognize this the four hundred year anniversary of the arrival of the first slave ship carrying African - Hebrew slaves - to the shores of continental America, remember the promise that awaits the faithful offspring of Abraham: “afterward they shall come out with great possessions.” Let your expectations be kindled with the excitement that such a prophetic promise from the Lord your God should provoke! It should be relatively clear by now, that this nation has slipped deep into the abyss of crisis bearing all the hallmarks of God’s judgment at hand, including epic division that has seized the land and right out of biblical central casting, a characteristically wicked ruler analogous to the idolatrous haughty kings of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah depicted in the Old Testament.  

But fear not! Just as the Hebrews of the Egyptian captivity and subsequent exodus came out with reparations provided for by God-given favor shown to them by their former Egyptian captors because of their faithfulness during their affliction, and the Hebrews of the Babylonian captivity and subsequent exodus came out with reparations provided for them by God-given favor shown to them by King Cyrus of Persia the conqueror of Babylon because of their faithfulness during their affliction, know for certain that the precedent has already been well established by the Lord your God to bless you on your exodus out of your personal period of affliction and anguish. The clock is about to strike midnight and the blaring sound of the trump will alert you that the preparation you are now making for your exodus out of your season of affliction and into your season of blessing has not been in vain! Your faith and your faithfulness to the Lord your God, in season and out of season is about to be rewarded. 

For if you have taken up the offer of redemption from your Redeemer - Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah - making Him your personal Lord and Savior, then your liberty and absolute freedom has been fully purchased by the blood He shed for you on Calvary’s cross. On this solemn anniversary, break out into proactive praise saying in the words of the Psalmist, “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south” (Psalm 107:1-3 ESV). Without question, to mark an occasion as profoundly unique and as consequential as this, above all else, Perspective Matters...

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