May
2003: Most of us as born-again believers in Jesus (Yeshua) do not have a
problem with racism. That is a gross sin that we left behind along with lying
and stealing. However there are subtler dimensions of racial prejudice and
ethnic pride that have more of a negative influence on us than we are aware.
Recently
I took part in a weeklong hike in the desert around
I
was asked to give a brief teaching on location. As I opened my Bible, the first
verse of Numbers 12 jumped out at me, in which Aaron and Miriam complain about
Moses because his wife was a "Cushite." I
looked at our dark skinned Bedouin guide, and realized that Moses' wife was
Black!
God
came down in a cloud of fire and fury to rebuke Miriam and Aaron. There are
many ways to look at this passage, but I saw it then from a new angle. God was
saying, among other things, "How is it in the midst of this great
prophetic event, when I am speaking to Moses face to face, raining Manna from
heaven, doing signs and wonders; that you are focusing on the color of the skin
of Moses' wife?"
1. Ethnic pride can cause us to miss major
prophetic events.
Yeshua
had a similar encounter with the woman at the well of
Israeli
Messianic Jews and Palestinian Arab Christians face similar obstacles to the
gospel in our peoples. Both Arabs and Jews have a cultural wall, built up by
thousands of years, against the gospel. When we try to share with our people,
they call us Gentiles, even Nazis. When the Palestinians try to share with
their people, they are called, "Suheina" -
Zionists, about as dirty a word as you can get in their culture.
2. Cultural walls can form a strong obstacle to the gospel.
Finally
Yeshua overcame her first objections to salvation. Then she immediately
switched to a rare form of religious debate as to whether temple rituals should
be performed in
Our
theology is affected by our worldview, which in turn is affected by deep-seated
ethnic and racial prejudices that may have been shaped by historical events
that we are not even aware of.
3. Racial Prejudice causes wrong interpretation of biblical texts.
While
everyone has prejudice in one way or another, the teachings of Yeshua challenge
us to repent of our own wrongs before pointing out the wrongs of others. We are
called to take the beam out of our own eye, before the speck in the other's eye
(Matthew 7:3-5).
The
problem is that it feels just the opposite to us.
"They're the ones with the beam, while mine is really just a speck."
The other side's prejudices are so big and bothersome, compared to our own
delicate and discreet imperfections. I don't want to confess my very minor
racial discriminations because it might appear to be condoning the enormous
racial sins of the other group. But that's not Yeshua's
way.
The
Palestinian brothers are sometimes shocked at our inability to feel the
suffering of their people and the burden they have to share the gospel to the
several hundred million people in the Muslim world. We Israeli believers are
often shocked at their inability to see the enormous fulfillment of prophecy in
God's bringing back our people from the four corners of the earth, and of the
importance of Jewish people coming to salvation as a pre-requisite for the
second coming of Yeshua.
Each
side has to deal with their own sins and ethnic failures. The problem for us as
Jews is that our sins are written in the Bible, for goodness sake. The Hebrew
prophets were replete with descriptions of our people as stiff-necked,
stubborn, rebellious, hard-hearted, idolatrous, adulterous, and murderous.
In
the New Covenant period, we are described as the very "enemies of the
gospel" (Romans
As
we go to present the good news of salvation to a lost and dying world, we need
to have the humility to know that all peoples have sinned and that we have
forgiveness by the grace of God. Ethnic pride must be removed from each one of
us if we are to see the fullness of the
It
is God who created us in different racial groups. In each group we have a
certain destiny. In our fallen nature, our races reflect something ugly. As
born-again believers, we are to redeem the beautiful treasures that God has
hidden in each ethnic group.
God's international
kingdom is pictured as a rainbow; each people group is a strip of color in that
rainbow. We are to maintain our distinctives, yet
live in harmony, respecting and appreciating the gifts and calling in every
nation, tribe and tongue.
İMay,
2003 by Asher Intrater
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