African Tribes Are Washing Each Other’s Feet
BEYOND THE DECADE PRAYER GUIDE: AUGUST 2024
The second book of Chronicles, chapter 28 reads like a chapter from an era in Africa. Both kingdoms of Israel were under pressure from the Assyrians. Coalitions became very important among neighboring tribes and kingdoms. The kingdom of Israel aligned with the Kingdom of Aram to fight off the Assyrians. The kingdom of Judah became a target of their broader agenda to fortify themselves against Assyria. “The Arameans defeated him (King Ahaz of Judah) and took many of his people as prisoners and brought them to Damascus” (2Chronicles 28:5). “In one day Pekah son of Remaliah (king of Israel) killed a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers in Judah” (2Chronicles 28:6).
More troubles kept coming Judah’s way. In retaliation for King Amaziah’s cruel treatment of the Edomites, they attacked Judah and carried off many captives (2 Chronicles 25:12 & 17). And the Philistines captured many cities and surrounding villages from Judah in response to King Uzziah annexation of their territory (2 Chronicles 25:18 & 26:6). All these troubles assailed the kingdom of Judah because their king, Ahaz, had set himself against God with an unrestrained rebellion. He turned away from the Lord, passionately acquiring foreign gods he thought could secure safety for himself and Judah. Ahaz would not repent of his idolatry and beggarly help from Assyria despite Prophet Isaiah’s encouraging warnings that Assyria’s power was about to end soon. Isaiah’s calls for Ahaz to repent and reconcile himself along with Judah to God fell on deaf ears. The Lord handed over King Ahaz and Judah to their own consequences.
However, King Pekah’s war with King Ahaz of Judah had historical roots. The inter-tribal crisis that had been simmering since Jeroboam’s revolt against Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when Jeroboam and the ten northern tribes declared, “What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house, David!” (1 Kings 12:16–19), came to a head during the reign of Ahaz, King of Judah.
It was a sad day when the ten tribes of the Northern kingdom saw the two tribes of the Southern kingdom of Judah not only as enemies to be fought against but slaves to acquire. “The men of Israel took captive from their fellow Israelites who were from Judah two hundred thousand wives, sons and daughters. They also took a great deal of plunder, which they carried back to Samaria.” (2Chronicles 25:8). Though the war with Judah was fuelled by their own safety concerns against Assyrian expansionist imperial processes in the region, they displayed an unjustified animosity toward Judah, their own brothers, in deciding to make the captives, their slaves. Likewise, African tribes came under similar pressures, starting with Arab expansionist and imperialistic agenda from 670 AD, followed by Europe’s imperialism agenda from the 1500s. And what happened between Northern Israel and Judah under pressure from Assyria happened between and among many tribes in Africa. Many tribes aligned with the colonial powers to secure their own borders and for strategic advantage in the new avenues for trade and slave-trading.
It is important to note that most of the tribes in Africa descended from Cush, Mizraim, and Put, three of the four sons of Ham who possessed the land of Ham, Africa, after the confusion at Babel (Psalm 78:51; 105:23, 27; 106:22; 1 Chronicles 4:40). However, Canaan, Ham’s last son, stuck it out in Mesopotamia and the Levant, but it is possible that some of his descendants spread to Africa, Asia and the West. The descendants of Canaan who chose to live in Canaan ceased to exist as their own people and culture. And indeed, not all descendants of Cush, Mizraim and Put remained on the African continent. Some moved to Asia and the West. For example, the Bible states that the Philistines, descendants of Mizraim, hailed from Caphtor (Amos 9:7; Jeremiah 47:4), which has a possible connection to Crete and neighbouring islands. Also, there were intermarriages especially between the descendants of Shem and Ham in ancient times, which created distinct tribes that still survive today. Jesus himself has Canaanite ancestry through Tamar and Rahab (Matthew 1:3–5). Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of Jacob’s twelve sons, who became the mother of two of Judah’s children, twins, Perez and Zerah (Genesis 38). And Perez is in the ancestral line of Jesus. Rehab, the Canaanite who saved the spies to Canaan under Joshua’s leadership (Joshua 2), later married Salmon and gave birth to Boaz. God has woven the story of redemption by grafting in Canaan, who was cursed by Noah, his grandfather. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33). However, the most identifiable descendants of Ham are found on the African continent. And it will not be surprising if West Africans descended mostly from Put.
So how should African tribes deal with the impact of their response from the pressures of Arab expansionist and imperialistic endeavours and that of the West?
Pray that every African tribe will see and understand that it is because God so dearly loves us, was the reason he used the pressures from Arab expansionist and imperialistic agenda, as well as the West to expose our nakedness so we will come to him to clothe us in reconciliation. Pray that we will avoid the ways of king Ahaz, who, despite the pressures brought against his kingdom, would not repent and be clothed through reconciliation with God. “Those are wicked and vile indeed that are made worse by their afflictions, instead of being made better by them, who in their distress trespass yet more, have their corruptions exasperated by that which should mollify them, and their hearts more fully set in them to do evil.” (Matthew Henry).
Pray that every African tribe and their leadership will come to realize and acknowledge their nakedness. “They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies) Exodus 32:23–25. When a community is spiritually naked, they become vulnerable to attacks, and this was what Judah experienced under Ahaz and happened and happening to Africa under pressure from Arab and Western Imperialism. “He added to the guilt, by making court to strange gods, in hopes they would relieve him. In his distress, instead of repenting of his idolatry, which he had reason enough to see the folly of, he trespassed yet more (v. 22), was more mad than ever upon his idols. A brand of infamy is here set upon him for it: This is that king Ahaz, that wretched man, who was the scandal of the house of David and the curse and plague of his generation.” (Matthew Henry).
Pray against voodoo practices and other strains of it intensifying and expanding in various African tribes in response to pressures arising from a struggle with relevance in the global family.
Praise God for the many prophetic voices, that is, uncompromised Christ followers, in African tribes calling their tribes to seek reconciliation from Jesus so they will be clothed, and not remain vulnerable. God has promised that the day each tribe does this, the ‘Philistines’ plundering them will be defeated. A remnant from each tribe will be saved unto that day. “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” Revelation 7:9. And God’s Word through Isaiah to Ahaz, the wicked king, would have found its complete fulfillment. “There should be a remnant left to return to the land; and the virgin should bear a son, so there should not fail a king upon the throne of David. The dynasty could never be destroyed, for of Immanuel’s kingdom there shall be no end.” (Knapp)
Pray and nullify past reconciliation processes between and among African tribes sealed through voodoo and occultic means. Where our leaders have erred in misplaced ritualistic endeavours for revenge and retribution between tribes, as King David did by killing seven male descendants of King Saul at the request of the Gibeonites whom Saul had killed in his zeal for Israel, pray for forgiveness and a turning away from these wicked practices. (2 Samuel 21:1–14).
Pray that God will raise voices like Rizpah’s, King Saul’s widow, whose vigil over her slain sons sacrificed to pacify the pagan demands of the Gibeonites to extract justice, to prevail, so the Lord will heal our lands from natural and spiritual famine. (2 Sam 21:14).
Pray that African Traditional leadership will reject the evil reconciliation processes devised by voodoo cults, which most of them engage in by pacifying false tribal gods and ancestors for wrongs done. Some returnees from especially the Americas have undergone these rebellious reconciliation rites under their supervision. They should not follow the error of Cain who challenged God’s prescribed reconciliation process by presenting his own. By this act, he cut himself from accessing holistic and sustainable solutions. The crisis in many traditional leadership circles in Africa should lead them to seek God’s path to reconciliation, Jesus the Son of God, and not other gods. No god in this world can forgive sins and restore relationships! “He (Jesus) told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:46–47).
Pray against a cycle of retaliation among African tribes. In the absence of God’s chosen means of reconciliation, retaliation endures in various forms between tribes. Sometimes to escape the responsibility of straightening things up between tribes in Africa, we rather try hard to elevate our status against each other, becoming pawns in international political dispute and the voodoo cult world. Also, in recent years some tribes and African blocs are claiming to be Jews as though being a Jew is what will reconcile them to God and secure their place in the new earth and heaven. But “the inheritance belongs to those who recognize their wounded or alienated brethren. The inheritance itself is the presence of Christ — God among us.” (Alastair Roberts).
Pray that God will raise prophetic voices and counsellors like Oded to warn tribes perpetuating retaliation in various forms against other tribes, the precarious waters they are placing themselves on account of their sin. (2 Chronicles 28:9–15). The tribes they are maltreating are their brethren, members of Ham’s descendants, “people to whom they have the most immediate and most pronounced of duties.” (Alastair Roberts). “’Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:18).
Pray that God will raise prophetic voices who know and understand the Law of God to assist in navigating inter-tribal reconciliation where: slaves/captives/servants are escorted back to their tribes after being clothed, fed, and anointed; provide a holistic perspective to misunderstandings between and among tribes to stop inter-tribal wars and raids; and to implement restitutions where needed. (2 Chronicles 28).
God richly bless you as you endeavour to intercede for everyone of African descent to be set free to fully live for Christ Jesus, our only Lord and Savior, so we can fulfill our assignment as a people God has planned to use in His Last Days Agenda.
Beyond the Decade Vision is led and implemented by Beyond the Decade Coalition. To learn more about the Coalition, its members, and its mandate, visit www.beyondthedecade.org.
