There is a paper on Ethiopia and the Bible by Sampson S Ndoga that is named "Biblical Portrayal of Ethiopia as a Challenge to Western Perspectives of Africa". I have used several facts from that paper in writing the following...
Cush and the Flow of the River of History
Beyond the 6th Cataract of the Nile
people of burnt faces lived
to rule Egypt in the 25th dynasty
to send officials to Israel during the Babylonian invasions
to field a large structured army
to serve as tools of God
chastising the wayward nation of Jacob/Israel/Judah
-yet Asa appealed to God who let Israel prevail... 2nd Chronicles 14:"8 And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty men of valour.
9And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah."
The Kingdom of Cush began south of Meroe
the prophet Jeremiah with his scribe Baruch
mentions Cush 53 times, later called Nubia
why Ebed-Melech of Cush, The Servant of King Zedekiah
rescued Jeremiah, is known to God
the name Melech means ‘king’
Servant referred to a high official
so the servant-king rescued the prophet
who was incarcerated for being against war
and for peace with Babylonian imperial designs
Melech Malchei HaMelachim- in Hebrew the king of kings
Neuchanezzar chose to destroy Jerusalem
to end its resistance
the region was federalized in a sense
the changes persisting even when Babylon soon left
with regional government infrastructure updated
Africans are referred to 577 times in the Old Testament
often as Cushites
early writers used the term Ethiopians to mean Africans
and Ethiopia the Eastern South Atlantic
Emperors and Kings sometimes
trusted few at court around their women
making eunichs of advisers
Zhenge He and Ebed Melech were cut by royal force
Phillip gave an Ethiopian eunich educator reading Isaiah
the word of the Lord
receiving the good news to edify and save
the faithful to the south
ref. Acts 8:34-37
Ethiopia was the name taken by Ezana
king of Aksumites in the 4th century C.E.
to his national boundaries
somewhat like that of Cush, Nubia, the Sudan
and modern Ethiopia
Like much of the rest of the world
people are challenged by thermodynamics of original sin
in conflict with knowledge, being and time
and the will of the Lord and Spirit
directing the flow of history
goes past them freely willed
with it predermined-
maybe retrocausality lets free will of the lost
choose their course for-themselves
though it is predestined so.
No comments:
Post a Comment