Why Black History
Scripture: Deuteronomy 4:7-10; 6:5-12; Genesis 9:21-25
Good morning Strangers Rest. The title of my message this morning is “Why Black History.” This month we have celebrated Black History month, but have you asked yourself why we continue to do this year after year? Has this become a check the box exercise or has its importance increased considering our current political environment. This morning, I will share with you why I believe understanding and remembering our history from a biblical and national viewpoint continues to be important for the next generation. If we do not teach those following us what it has taken for them to enjoy what they have available to them then they could end up taking what they have for granted. Let me demonstrate this with a brief look at some individuals who has a historical standing in Black History.
How many of you know the story of Ebed-Melech? He was a Black man who saved the life of Jeremiah when King Zedekiah gave permission for him to be killed. Because he saved Jeremiah’s life, God saved his. Jeremiah 39:18 records, “(18) For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me,’ says the LORD.’”
I am sure that most of you have heard about Simon of Cyrene, the Black man who was pressed into service to carry the cross of Jesus. Luke 23:26 records, “Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus.”
Then there is the story about Ethiopian eunuch, another Black man. His story is found in the eight chapter of the book of Acts. He was the first non-Jewish person to be baptized into the faith. But here is what’s unique about his story; God proactively sent Phillip to save him. Acts 8:26-29 records, “(26) Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, ‘Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is desert. (27) So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, (28) was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. (29) Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go near and overtake this chariot.’”
These are just three stories but there are others. There was Moses’ wife Zipporah, remember how Aaron and Miriam complained about him marrying her in Numbers chapter twelve? And if you read the Song of Solomon you will find, if you study the verses which are very passionately written, that this woman, Solomon’s wife, was also black. I am sharing these examples just so you begin to understand that the Black race has an intimate history in Scripture. Now I want to share a few examples from America’s history.
My youngest daughter came home from school one day complaining. She was frustrated with the Black history lessons at school because all they ever talked about was Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr., and the Civil Rights movements. As a child she recognized that our history goes deeper than just the Civil Rights movement. To her point, I want to give you just a few examples before I get into the heart of why Black history. How many of you have heard about Sarah Breedlove? You might know her better as Madam CJ Walker. She is said to be the first Black woman to be a self-made millionaire (in today’s dollars her estate was worth eight million dollars at the time of her death in 1919.) Do you remember the movie “Hidden Figures?” This movie tells the story of three female African American mathematicians: Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, who worked at NASA during the Space Race. And then there is Dr. Shirley Jackson who paved the way for the touch-tone telephone and Marie Ban Brittan Brown, a nurse, who developed the foundation for our current home security systems. This is history that our young girls should know so they understand that there is no limitation on their future except what they themselves establish internally.
Now I do want to call out a few names from the Civic Rights movements, but these names you might not be as familiar with. How many of you have heard of Rev. James Reeb, Rev. Bruce Klunder, William Moore, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Viola Liuzzo, Jonathan Daniels, and Juliette Morgan. Each of these individuals participated in and died during the Civil Rights movement. I am calling them out because they gave their lives fighting for racial equality and they were white. Do I need to say more? Our history includes the Civil Rights movement which included white Americans who believed in equal rights for all races. We must remember that there were many whites who supported and believed that all men were created equal and were willing to take a stand for that belief and some of them died for doing so. Our generation and those that follow us need to know, understand, and accept our history – the good, the bad, and the ugly to navigate their future. So why Black history? If we do not remember and teach it to the next generation then it is subject to be lost or taken for granted.
When Moses delivered the commandments of God to the Children of Israel, he did so stressing their obedience to God’s commandments. But he did not stop with them. He told them to teach them to their children. Deuteronomy 4:7-10 records the following, “(7) For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? (8) And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? (9) Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, (10) especially concerning the day you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’” Also, this is recorded in Deuteronomy 6:5-7, “(5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (6) And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. (7) You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
In Deuteronomy chapter four Moses told the people to remember God’s commandments and to teach their children otherwise they would forget. In chapter six he goes a step farther. He tells them to diligently teach their children. That word diligently means to show persistence and hard work in doing something. In other words, Moses was telling the people to make teaching their children about everything God had done for them a priority. He told them to talk about what God had done and His laws when they sat in their homes, when they walked down the street, when they went to bed and when they got up. The image that he was painting was that they should always (persistently) be teaching their children and their children’s children about God and everything He had done for them. They were to always be talking about it. Finally, he told them that they should write the words on the doorposts of their homes and on their gates. This was to ensure that the words were forever before their eyes.
Now why was this so particularly important? Why was this constant, persistent teaching of history to their children so important for those who experienced it? The answer lies in verses 10-12. Deuteronomy 6:10-12 records, “(10) So it shall be, when the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, (11) houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, when you have eaten and are full, (12) then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” Moses told the people that they needed to do this so that when they came into a land with beautiful cities that they had not built; with houses full of all things that they had not purchased; with wells they had not dug; with vineyards they had not planted; and when they had eaten and were full they would not forget the Lord who brought them out of Egypt. When they were living in the fulfillment of the promise of God Moses did not want them to forget Who got them there. He knew it was possible that when they came into their promise and were living the “good life” they could forget what God had done for them and begin to worship false Gods. And it would be worse for their children who were yet to be born who did not live through God’s deliverance but were enjoying the promise being fulfilled. Well, as you know, they did not diligently instruct their children, and they did forget what God had done for them, and they did begin to serve false Gods. Now I do not want you to miss this next point I am about to make.
We need to teach our history so that those who are enjoying the fruits of those who went before them understand the price that was paid. You see, there are many of us making a lot of money and we never once picked cotton. We live in nice homes in multi-cultural subdivisions (not on the other side of the railroad tracks as the old people used to say) and for the most part we are treated as equals. We do not remember the times when we were not allowed to own our own homes and if we were able to do it, it was limited to the neighborhood with people who looked like us. Today we can eat at any restaurant that we choose (if we are willing to pay for it) and don’t remember the signs that said go to the back door to be served. There are many of us who go shopping and try on all the clothes we want in any store we choose to shop in and do not remember the times when we were not allowed to try on clothes unless we purchased them first (and when we did purchase them we could not return them after we tried them on.)
There are many of us who have never voted because we never had to fight for the right to vote. Because it was something always available to us when we reached the appropriate age, its importance is lost on us. When you have been denied something just because of the color of your skin or your gender, when you finally get the right you treasure it. There are many of us who approach learning as if learning is a chore because we do not remember a time when Black people were not allowed to learn. There are many of us who do not read our Bibles with purpose or appreciation because we did not live during the time when we were not allowed to learn Scripture or when the only Scriptures we were given access to taught us to cheerfully serve and submit to our slave masters. This is why Black history is so important for us to remember – it gives us an appreciation for what we have access to today. Where we are today came with a price and a lot of sacrifice and if we do not continuously teach our history to the next generation over time it will lose its importance.
But again, our history is more than just our struggle for equality and the recognition of our accomplishments in America. I strongly believe that we must teach our next generation how real and how important God was to our ancestors. They genuinely believed and knew Him in ways our organized religion cannot seem to duplicate! We must teach them how our ancestors are intertwined in the stories in the Bible so they can defend its truth. If they do not know the truth they will be subject to believing a lie. Let me explain it this way, the French philosopher Voltaire once said, “In the beginning, God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to repay the favor ever since.” Many people are confused about what the Bible says about a lot of things because the world is trying to make God (and His Word) into what we want Him and it to be. We see this in how God’s Word is interpreted and in how pictures are painted of historical Biblical figures. News flash - Jesus does not look like the pictures we have seen of Him as interpreted by those who desired a Jesus that looks like them. But let me get back to Voltaire’s point which proves why our children need to understand our history and our connection to God’s Word.
As you know I grew up in the south. Having grown up in the south I learned about Ham and how the Black race are supposed to be his descendants. As you know, Ham was one of Noah’s sons who helped him build the ark. Ham sinned against his father Noah. Genesis 9:21-22 records, “(21) Then he (Noah) drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. (22) And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.” Ham disrespected his father by seeing him naked. Not only did he see his father naked, but then he went and told his brothers what he had seen. When Noah woke up and realized what Ham had done, he cursed Canaan, Ham’s son. Genesis 9:24-25 records, “(24) So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. (25) Then he said: ‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.”
It has been taught for hundreds of years that the curse placed upon Ham was a curse that caused his skin to become “black.” Therefore, Ham is widely “considered” to be the father of the Black race because the curse placed upon him changed his skin color. Now if you believe this you must also accept the fact that the Black race came into existence because Noah cursed his son Ham (which, based on Scripture, he did not do.) The idea that Ham’s curse was for his skin to be made black and thus all his descendants would be Black justified slavery for hundreds of years both in Europe and in America. People justified slavery because they believed that Noah’s curse was on Ham and in addition to turning his skin black, it also included all of his descendants being servants (slaves) to their brethren.
My grandfather, who was a Baptist minister, told me this story when I was a child. I think he did this so I would understand how Scripture could be twisted to fit or justify what one chooses to believe. If you go on the internet today and Google “blacks in the Bible” or just Google “Ham” you will find references to Ham being the father of the Black race. This may be the first time that some of you have ever heard this and yet it is a prominent teaching in racist circles – that God created us inferior because of something Noah’s son Ham did thousands of years ago. In a 2004 review of David Goldenberg's “The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity and Islam” published in 2003, it states that Goldenberg “argues persuasively that the biblical name Ham bears no relationship at all to the notion of Blackness and as of now is of unknown etymology.” There have been others who have argued against this belief since its inception hundreds of years ago and yet the belief still exists. And what is so alarming and dangerous is that there still exist some Black Americans who still believes this because they have not been taught differently or searched the Bible for themselves to verify if it is true.
Now imagine, as a young person, hearing the story that your race came into existence because a son saw his father naked and was cursed because of it. Imagine, because you have not been taught the Bible and knew nothing of this story that you believed what you heard. Imagine the personal impact of believing this story has on you and your potential relationship with God. Because you believed this story you now believe that you are inferior and are supposed to be a servant as punishment for something that happened thousands of years ago. Imagine thinking that there is some truth to ideology that there is something wrong with being black, especially since you came from a cursed individual. It was bad enough when others believed it about you, but it becomes a lot worse when you believed it about yourself. And then the final straw comes when you are introduced to the God Who supposedly cursed you forever and now wants to save you through His Son. Do you see the conflict here? Are you starting to see why we must teach our children all our history?
Mr. Stephen Biko made several statements that I think is appropriate for us today. If you have never heard of him, he was an anti-apartheid activist who founded the Black Consciousness Movement which empowered and mobilized much of the urban Black population in South Africa. The movie, “Cry Freedom” was based on his life and death as he was killed while in police custody. He said, “The greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” If we do not influence now how the next generation thinks about their heritage and their self-worth as a person of color, they will be subjected to going through life believing they are “less than” others. I want to share with you this last quote from Mr. Biko because I think is important for us today. He said, “It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realize that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality. The first step therefore is to make the Black man come to himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth.” If we do not teach our children our history what will their future hold? What will they accept as others try to define them?
Moses told the Children of Israel to teach their children the commandments of the God who brought them out of Egypt. He told them to do it diligently – to be purposeful, intentional about it. We should do the same. We must teach our children our history, but not just the struggle we have faced in America, but also the faith our ancestors had in the God of their oppressors. Think about it, they came here in bondage, many dying along the way choosing the freedom of death over slavery. What would cause them to believe in the God of their oppressors? What would drive them to attend a worship service after their slave masters forbid them to attend under the threat of severe punishment?
I read about one such experience by a former slave named Wash Wilson. He said that when there was a church meeting scheduled for a particular night, the field slaves would sing the song, “Steal Away to Jesus.” Upon hearing this song, all the slaves knew that there would be a church meeting that night. When they arrived at the specified place he said sometimes all they would do was pray and sing all night. These were slaves worshipping the God of their oppressors. Why would they do this? The pains of slavery drove many to look for meaning and hope in a new place – the Bible. Even though most slaves could not read, they heard the stories of salvation and retribution as they listened to their masters read from the Bible. Those stories, as you can imagine, spread like wildfire. Since the slaves could not read the Bible for themselves, they turned the stories they heard into songs. These songs were sung in the fields and in Church teaching the slaves Biblical stories. These songs are known to us as Negro spirituals which are still sung today in some Church services.
Our ancestors believed in God, and they put their trust in Him. When you teach your children about their history, teach them about the God of their ancestors. Tell them what God has said about them like what He said in Jeremiah 1:5 that, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you….” Teach them that God said, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11). Teach them that psalmist wrote, “(13) For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. (14) …. for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works…..” (Psalms 139:13-14)
It is not the responsibility of the teachers in school to teach our children our history - it’s our responsibility. If your children are grown, teach someone else’s child. Do not wait or expect the school system to do something that we will not do in our own homes. And please understand that it is not something to be done just in the month of February! Why Black history you ask? Our history is rich in Scripture and in the accomplishment of this nation that we call home. We need to remember our past to live in the present and to plan for our future. By understanding and fully accepting who we are, then and only then, can we freely embrace all of mankind as equals knowing we “(26) … are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (27) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (28) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (29) And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29)
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
