Mountain Top
When a man of peace dies at the hands of violence, resulting from people who are willing to inflict physical harm, to silence the soft-spoken.
As the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday approaches; businesses and schools are preparing to observe the day in different ways. Dr. King’s passionate calling was to bring attention to the world that injustice to a few is an injustice to all.
Dr. King’s mission meant endangering himself for the sake of others. He angered White Supremacists, broke down barriers, and went against civil laws even though it ultimately cost him his life. Why would a man risk so much? It had to be God’s Peace that enabled Dr. King to stand courageously, but humbly against his enemies with such resolve. At the time some people might not have understood this as a calling at that time, but the news of the peaceful man’s death made him a world-renown martyr for the cause of human injustice.
Dr. King reminds me of being a student of our Jewish Messiah Yeshua, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Yeshua came to help those who couldn’t help themselves. He didn’t just talk to us about change.
He demonstrated what that change would look like in the human flesh. As a result of giving up His life, He has given us the power to become liberated into new creatures. In other words, Adonai’s Messenger, the Word of God (or Son of God), was sent to animate the heart and personality of His Father.
(Amplified Bible – AMP)
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (the Messiah),
Because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to announce release (pardon, forgiveness) to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed (downtrodden, bruised, crushed by tragedy),
19 to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the favor of God abound greatly].”
Luke 4:18-19
The same is true for those who accept Yeshua, Jesus Christ as Savior. The Lord will cleanse us, then put His spirit into us to guide us.
(AMP SB Notes)
36:25 sprinkle clean water on you. This symbolized cleansing from sin.
36:27 I will put my Spirit within you. The regenerating and empowering work of the Holy Spirit on individuals would not only restore the people physically to the land but would restore them spiritually, by giving them a new heart and new spirit to help them follow Him and do His will
Ezekiel 36:25-27
While some may not realize it, ancient history of Jews and struggles of Blacks are similar in many ways. For instance, both groups have experienced horrific oppression such as slavery, bondage, and even murder. I believe that we as a people have been called into service by Adonai whose actual name is only known by the High Priest.
Jewish tradition says that if the name of God was ever mispronounced, or improperly invoked; the universe would uncreate. In the same way, the priests created Tetragrammaton, (Hebrew alphabets that point to pronouns representing Who He is) for safety purposes. We say this because God’s message is so powerful, that He places His spirit in individuals to motivate them to complete His plan.
Below are Scriptures that show how God put His Spirit upon Africans and others throughout history to express Himself and to declare His purpose.
(Complete Word Study Bible)
15 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying,
16 Go and speak to Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring — my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.
17 But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.
Jeremiah 39:15-17
For example, the eunuchs Hegai and Shaashgaz served as guardians of the wives and concubines of Persian King Ahasuerus, who is thought to be Xerxes I.
However, not all whom the Bible calls eunuchs were actually castrated. Some scholars say that the term was also used in a broader sense to refer to an official assigned to duties in the court of the king. This appears to be the sense in which the term is applied to Ebed-Melech, the associate of Jeremiah, and to the unnamed Ethiopian to whom the evangelizer Philip preached. Ebed-Melech evidently was a high-ranking official, for he had direct access to King Zedekiah. (Jeremiah 38:7, 8) And the Ethiopian is described as a royal treasurer who “had gone to Jerusalem to worship.”
Queen Candance of Ethiopia
Easton’s Bible Dictionary The queen of the Ethiopians whose “eunuch” or chamberlain was converted to Christianity by the instrumentality of Philip the evangelist (Acts 8:27). The country which she ruled was called by the Greeks Meroe, in Upper Nubia. It was long the center of commercial intercourse between Africa and the south of Asia, and hence became famous for its wealth (Isa 45:14).
It is somewhat singular that female sovereignty seems to have prevailed in Ethiopia, the name Candace (compare “Pharaoh,” “Ptolemy,” “Caesar”) being a title common to several successive queens. It is probable that Judaism had taken root in Ethiopia at this time, and hence the visit of the queen’s treasurer to Jerusalem to keep the feast. There is a tradition that Candace was herself converted to Christianity by her treasurer on his return, and that he became the apostle of Christianity in that whole region, carrying it also into Abyssinia. It is said that he also preached the gospel in Arabia Felix and in Ceylon, where he suffered martyrdom. See Philip)
The significance of civil and political rights is to be a class of rights that protect individuals’ freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one’s ability to participate in the civil and political life of the society and state without discrimination or repression.
(Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Therefore, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and US labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It prohibited unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations.