Wake-up! Our Call to Accountability Looms Ahead! Part 1

The nearly 37 million African Americans in the United States confront a gargantuan challenge prophesied by God more than 5,000 years ago, the third significant prophecy after the Noahian flood, and I believe we are about nine years from being held accountable to its responsibilities.

As the record reveals in all other prophetic accounts in the Bible, God has positioned African Americans to fulfil this prophecy and I believe the countdown to accountability continues. In this series of articles I will share with you what that prophecy says, why it's important, why God holds us accountable to its fulfillment, and the tremendous blessings He has provided to that end.

Here's a quick overview of the prophecy, which has been viewed and interpreted from a racism point of view for hundreds of years. You find it in Gen. 9:24-25 "So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said: 'Cursed be Ca'naan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.'"

Before giving you a new revelation about this so-called "curse," let's get a broader context by surveying this time, almost 5,000 years, referred to in the Bible as " . . .the days of Noah."

For those unfamiliar with this character from the Bible, Noah was the son of a man named Lamech. His grandfather was Methuselah, who lived for 969 years, and his great-grandfather was Enoch who is described in the Bible as the only man at that time who "walked with God," and " . . . he was not for God took him." Bottom line, Noah came from pretty good stock physically. We actually trace this man's lineage in a direct line back to Adam, and when you calculate the times of these men listed in Genesis, chapter five, as I have, you see that all of them, except Noah lived contemporarneously with Adam.

Okay, so what has a man who lived almost 5,000 years ago got to do with us today? Quite a bit it turns out. Let's consider just one example. In his famous Olivet discourse, Jesus, the Christ, went into exhaustive detail answering three questions that four of his disciples--Peter, John, James and Andrew--asked Jesus as they relaxed one night on the Mount of Olives, less than two weeks before the crucifixion. You can read three accounts of this Olivet discourse in Matthew, chapter 24, Mark, chapter 13, and Luke, chapter 21. In this discourse, as Jesus, the ultimate prophet, looked at human history from a prophetic perspective and thought about a way to describe characteristics of the times immediately before His return to earth, referred to the days of Noah in this way: "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." (Matt. 24:37--All Scriptures quoted from the New King James Version, unless otherwise noted). " 'For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.'" Jesus simply pointed out to His disciples that most people of Noah's day ignored the significant signs of the times illustrated by this man focusing all of his time, energy, attention and money on this massive construction project that appeared to them to be without sensible purpose. This construction project that Noah, his family--Noah's wife, three sons--Ham, Shem and Japheth--and their wives worked on was to build a huge boat, called an ark. This boat was 450' long, 75' wide and 45' high. This boat's volume--available storage space--was 1,518,750 cubit feet. This boat was huge. The biblical record does not mention anyone previous to Noah undertaking such a massive construction project. For example, it took Noah, his family, and whoever else helped him, 120 years to complete this project. For this entire period, no one believed Noah's warning--a super destructive flood was coming. In quite the same way, people will ignore warnings today and beyond that Jesus is returning to this earth to assume worldwide rulership and to end more than 6,000 years of recorded history of human misrule. That's just one way that the days of Noah--its events, circumstances and conditions affect us today and beyond.

To get our bearing for the remainder of this discussion, let's deal first with my assertion that a continual population explosion dominated the "news" of Noah day.

People today appear to be particularly oblivious to current and developing trends. For the most part God's children pay little if any attention to these parallels, and hold even less focus on what the apostle Peter called "the more sure word of prophecy."

With that explanation of one concrete comparison between our time and the "days of Noah," , let's return to our survey of those days.

What was it like back there? First, population increased rapidly. As you study the genealogy of this 10 generations with certain men selected specifically for mention because of the progressive revelation of God's plan in their names, you see that until we get to Noah, the listing emphasizes having children. To get a handle on this emphasis, let's proceed along the following assumptions: let's guess-timate that the collective birth rate was a child every two years. Now with just Adam alone, we potentially see 465 children born to Adam and Eve. Now, let's say that every couple in their generations produced just two children each. By the time we get to Noah's generation, Adam's progeny alone would number more than 200,000 individuals. So if you simply multiplied that by nine--remember, this serves as the most conservative of estimates of the population growth--you would have more than 1.8 million people living on the earth during the days of Noah.

The earth's population began growing rapidly early during the 20th century, and has continued that rapid growth until recently. According to the United Nations' Population Division the planet's population hit 1 billion people in 1804, and gained another billion 123 years later--1927. It took earth's people oly 33 years--1960--to hit 3 billion in worldwide population, and 14-years later--1974-- we achieve another milestone--4 billion in worldwide population. In 1987, 13 years later--1987--five billion people populated Planet Earth. Twelve years later--1999--worldwide population peaked at 6 billion people. Projections from the Population Divisions predicts a steady slowing of the rate of population growth with the following numbers: 7 billion in 2013, about three years from, and 8 billion people in the planet 15 years later in 2028.

So you see two critical factors--people being oblivious to developing trends and a similar population explosion-- that help make our time and beyond (until the return of Jesus, the Christ) "as it was in the days of Noah. However, many people, including noted biblical scholars seem to not consider that the "days of Noah" included Noah's post-flood years. You see, Noah lived 349 years after the flood. Let's pick up this story in Gen. 8:13-22 "And it came to pass in the 601st year, in the first month, the first day of the month that the waters were driedup from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth was dried. Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 'Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you . . ." As this family, destined to be the progenitors of everyone who would live on earth later, exited the ark, God issued the first post-flood prophecy. In this prophecy, God revealed a set of amazing principles, anchored in time's recurring cycle. Here's what God said: "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination (intents or thoughts, See Jeremiah 17:1,5 and 9) of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. It would take more time and space than I want to allocate her to discuss the farreaching implications that amazing prophetic promise. Now, though, let's consider the second prophetic promise from God!

Gen. 8:22 "While the earth remains, seed--time--and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." What an amazing prophecy! It reveals the principles of cyclical connectivity. Night follows day and day follows night. Winter introduces a cycle that includes Spring, Summer and Fall. Summer introduces a cycle that includes Fall, Winter and Spring. Cold and heat remain inexorably connected, as do the principles of seed--time--and harvest! These principles--seed-time-and harvest; cold and heat; winter and summer;as well as day and night reveal a little known and thereby seldom used principle of expectation.

In other words, if it's now day, I am absolutely assured, as long as the earth remains, that night soons follows. The same truth governs winter/summer; cold/heat. In the same way, seed, cultivated over time, produces a harvest. With this guarantee and armed with expectation, I can:

Set a specific goal!

Prepare for that goal!

Achieve wellness to have the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical capacity to achieve the goal.

Develop the drive that moves me inexorably toward the goal and away from any obstacles or barriers.

Develop resourcesfulness which simply means creative problem-solving because expectation, birthed by the cyclical connnectively, guarantees the outcomes.

Develop perseverance because no matter where I am on this connectivity cycle, this principle assures the inevitable outcomes. Please remember, though, that expectation forms the bridge to the benefits.

Build all that I do on the solid foundation of spiritual prinicples that cannot fail or become altered by circumstances.

Thus in this last days, we should understand that if we plant seeds and cultivate the young "plantings" during the intervening time, we will reap a harvest, based upon this amazing prophecy.

This brings to this third and pivotal prophecy issued by God more than 5,000 years ago, that has incredible and farreaching implications for people today and beyond.

You might remember the story! It's reported Genesis, chapter 9, beginning in verse 20: "And Noah began to be a farmer and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered. And Ham, the father of Ca'naan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside." The Hebrew scholars say that the word "saw" carries such force as to mean: "he gazed with satisfaction." and the word told--nagard--means to boldly announce with delight. This obviously represents and wrong and potentially desctructive attitude.

Noah's was Ham's father and worthy of honor for that fact alone. Noah was also Ham's savior and God's only human representative. Blessed with those three roles, Noah should not have been in a drunken stupor in his tent. But just as importantly, Ham should not have gloated over this father's sin. Even moreso, he should not have "boldly announced with delight" As you know, Japheth and Shem acted responsibly and respectfully. When Noah became aware of what Ham had done, he spoke, probably from anger and disappointment: "Cursed be Ca'naan; a servant or servants shall be to his brethren."

We must pause here and consider two other principles to rightly understand this declaration from Noah and how it becomes a prophecy to be fulfilled by a people thousands of years later. Consider first, Proverbs 16:1 that says: "The preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord." The New Living translation renders this verse: "We can gather our thoughts, but the Lord gives the right answer." The Amplified version says: "The plans of the mind and orderly thinking belong to man, but from the Lord comes the [wise] answer of the tongue." Finally in the New International version, we read: "To man belongs the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue." So no matter what Noah intended--what he planned to say--God determined the words out of his mouth. We had to wait for three thousand years to be positioned to understand this prophetic statement.

Near the end of His ministry, Jesus, the Christ, explained to His disciples the governing principle of achieving greatness and leadership. You find the incident described in Matthew, chapter 20, verses 25-27 "But Jesus called them to Himself and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.'" We see another version of this same incident reported in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verses 42-45 (Amplified version) "But Jesus called them to [Him] and said to them 'You know that those who are recognized as governing and are supposed to rule the Gentiles (the nations) lord it over them [ruling with absolute power, holding them in subjection], and their great men exercise authority and dominion over them. But this is not to be so among you; instead, whoever desires to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wishes to be most important and first in rank among you must be slave of all.. For even the Son of Man came not to have service rendered to Him, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for [instead of] many.'"

In the account in Matthew and in Mark, the word translated "lord it" and "lord it over" is katakurieuo and means to bring someone under your power, to subdue them, or bring them into subjection. The word translated servant is diakronos and it means one who executes the commands of another, especially those of his master. The word translated "slave" is dulos and refers to a freedman who volunteers to spend the remainder of his life as a slave to the one who freed him. This word could also be translated a 'servant of servants."

Now as we return to the prophecy in Genesis 9:25, we see an understanding entirely different than has been traditionally applied to this verse. We see, for example the intent of Noah's heart--"Cursed be Ca'naan . . ." I believe that Noah's comment was more of an admonition and a warning than a statement with punitive intent. I believe Noah wanted to say "It's tragic Ca'naan that Ham is your father because he will infuse you with the same disrespectul attitude that he has demonstrated toward me. Be warned that this attitude, should you adopt it, leads to failure, rather than success.

I also believe that beginning with the word "A" God took over, as we saw in the 16th chapter of Proverbs, and dictated the other words out of Noah's mouth. These words--A servant of servants he shall be to his brethren reveals a prophecy that leads to greatness, not an assignment to perpetual failure. A key to understanding this prophecy focuses on how you understand the word "brethren." The Hebrew can be translated brothers, referring relatives with the same parents; half-brother, same father, but different mothers, and kinsman, members of the same tribe, etc. In this context, the most consistent application of this word would apply to the brothers .
of Ca'naan who would be the other children of Ham. You see Shem and Japheth were Ca'naan's uncles, not his brothers.

In chapter 10 of Genesis, beginning with verse 6 we see a list of Ham's other sons: Cush, Mizraim, and Put. I will have to save the background of the following conclusion for a future series, but modern day descendants of Ham's sons are: the "black" and "brown" people in southern Africa (Cush), Egypt (Mizraim), Northern Africa and especially be Berber peoples (Put) and western African (Ca'naan). History indicates that most of the Africans enslaved in the United States were imported from western Africa and would be by definition descendants of Ca'naan.

Now let's read this prophecy again, including the facts we now know: "Cursed be Ca'naan (the people of West African whose descendants will be taken to the United States primarily as slaves) a servant of servants (taking the only approved pathway to greatness and leadership in the Kingdom of God) he (those descendants primarily in the United States) shall be to his brethren (the descendants of his brothers currently populating North Africa, Southern Africa, along with Lybia and Egypt)."

Before getting to what all this means to us today, let's clarify another error in understanding revealed in the 26th verse of the 9th chapter of Genesis. "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Ca'naan be his servant." Traditionally, translators and interpreters of the Bible have concluded, from a racist paradigm that this verse made the enslavement and mistreatment of the people of African biblically justifiable. No so! This prophecy includes the concept of the enslavement of Africa's descendants in the "House of Israel," just as Israel was once enslaved in the "house of Mizraim," but the subsequent mistreatment, discrimination and continued disrespect cannot and is not justified in the Word of God.

Let's go back to ninth grade English when you learned the following: "Nouns can also modify, by being in apposition to another noun. An appositive is a noun or group of words generally including a noun,that renames a different noun (or pronoun) by providing another way to look at or describe it. If the appositive is needed to identify the noun--if its restrictive, in other words--then no comma is used. However, if the appositive provides only additional incidental information about the noun, punctuation is used, and the appositive is said to be non restrictive. (Grammar Desk Reference, by Gary Lutz and Dianne Stevenson).

Now, let's read verse 26 in Genesis 9: "Blessed be the Lord (Heb. Adonai) the God of Shem (the appositive) and may Ca'naan be His servant." the pronoun "His" cannot refer to the noun "Shem" since that word is part of the appositive that modifies "Lord." A correct understanding, particularly using the rules of English grammar provides this meaning: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Ca'naan be His [the Lord, the God of Shem] servant.

Finally, we come to the conclusion. This prophecy in Genesis 9:24-26 is the third oldest prophecy in the Bible since the flood. We are in a nine-year countdown to being held accountable for its fulfillment. We have been fully prepared to be held accountable for the fulfillment of this prophecy. Here is what all this means. The people in the United States who refer to themselves largely as African Americans have been blessed with more education and training, as a whole, than any descendants of Africa. Additionally, this people have also been blessed with incredible financial resources.

Consider the numbers!

About 37 million African Americans contribute to the United States population and economy. Currently, the collective revenues are about $900 billion and projected to hit $1.2 trillion by 2012. African American own about 1.2 million businesses in this country. As impressive as those numbers are, particularly when you measure them against similar comparisons at the beginning of the 20th century, the economic figures constitute a miniscule percentage of our potential.

In the 2004 update of his blockbuster book--Success Runs in Our Race--George C. Fraser wrote the following: "I believe blacks have everything we need right now to begin the final phase of the civil rights movment, our push for economic equality. In 2001 black people spent $590 billion on goods and services. This number continues to grow 3 to 5 percent each year. You and I represent the sixteenth largest economy in the industrialized world. And we can build on that. As a God-loving people, we must build upon those who have risen from the underclass into the middle and upper classes. We don't need much, but we do need one another." Fraser refers to us needing each other in this country, and he's right. We must network together to maximize our capacity to serve our brothers and sisters in Africa.

According to this new prophetic paradigm of Genesis 9:24-26, we also need our brothers and sisters in Africa because our pathway to greatness leads through our service to them according to the prophetic word of God. The time is upon us.

According to Dr. Lerone Bennett, in his book Before the Mayflower, the initial group of Africans were brought to Jamestown in August 1619 and were first made indentured servants and quickly thereafter enslaved. Thus August 2019--about nine years from now--is the 400th anniversary of our arrival and our enslavement as a people.

I believe 2019 serves as our year of accountability for the fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis, chapter 9. I also believe that God has set myself and others as "watchmen" on the walls of our destiny to raise the alarm, to sound the warning, to encourage us to prepare ourselves for the greatest opportunity of service in the history of our people.

So awake you mighty people! Our call to accountability looms ahead, less than a decade away!