I often hear from Black folk say to me: “If Blacks are waiting for God to deliver them, they are waiting in vain.”
They’ll say: God hasn’t helped us in this situation or that. He didn’t deliver the Jews from Hitler. He didn’t intervene in this human crisis. He was absent in that…
It’s foolish for Black people to hope in God.
And, I get it…
For too long, those in the Black Church who’ve argued that we shouldn’t worry about protesting and voting and social justice have simply stated that Black people shouldn’t worry about the injustices of White power and should focus solely on spiritual salvation.
We actually spoke about that on Blacks with Power this week…
It’s the line of thinking that leads to salvation in the “Great By and By.”
Rather than point Black people to the faithful response of social justice for a people in the imago Dei, they argue that we are to simply suffer patiently and find freedom at last in Heaven.
#AintNobodyGotTimeForThat
So, I get it…
The Israelites didn’t believe God would deliver them either. For more than 400 years, they languished in bondage in Egypt. Oppressed so hard they could not stand.
After 400 years of slavery, they too no longer believed God would intervene on their behalf. I mean…why would they?
God had helped Abraham in his lifetime. God had delivered Jacob in his lifetime. Even Joseph found redemption in his lifetime.
But generations had come and gone…four hundred years of Israelite mothers and fathers hoping against hope to find a better life for their children. Calling to God in vain…
So, what caused them to follow Moses? What caused them to trust him and follow this “Lord?”
What enabled the Hebrew People to give this foreign God an opportunity to demonstrate His Power as being greater than the violent power of the Egyptians?
And what does this lesson teach us, Black people in America and of the Americas, in the face of the violent power of Whiteness?
That’s what we’ll be exploring in our study time this Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9AM EST on JahBread TV. Click the video and then click the bell to set a reminder so you can join the discussion. We would love to hear your thoughts and questions…
