AFRICA DIASPORA AND GOD’S PROMISE TO FOREIGNERS IN KING

SOLOMON’S TEMPLE DEDICATION PRAYER

BY

THEODORE AGBEMENU

2

FEBUARY 2014

CONTENT

1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………3

2. God’s choice of the nation of Israel……………………………………3

3. The Gentiles ……………………………………………………………5

4. The Nations Will Seek Jehovah………………………………………..5

5. Promise for Foreigners…………………………………………………6

6. New Paradigm “People of God” ……………………………………...8

8. Africa Diaspora…………………………………………………………11

9. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………..13

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Introduction

God deals with us as individuals. However He also deals with

nations and peoples. God made Adam and Eve commissioned them to

multiply and replenish the earth. When Adam’s generation failed

God, Abraham emerged as a replacement in fulfilling the mandate

of doing the will of God. Out of Abraham came the nation of

Israel with covenant of exhibiting the glory of God to the non-

god fearing nations. Israel was also charged to make room for the

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other non-Israelites who God had always showed that they were as

much his children as Israel.

Although the name of Jehovah could only be found in Israel

(because of God’s covenant) Israel was charged to show kindness

to the foreigner and alien. The purpose choice of Israel and how

the foreigner shared in the promise of God would be considered in

this paper. God’s choice was by grace and on purpose. In the end

non-Jews would stand out as the ones in need of God and would

become the focus of Jewish outreach. In the temple dedication

prayer of King Solomon, the foreigner was included in the

promises of God. Foreigner’s promise would have implications for

the mission of God for foreigner everywhere.

God’s Choice of Israel

Among many nations God chose one nation and called her my

nation. Israel originated as God’s covenant nation when both God

and the people cut a covenant at Mt. Sinai. Arthur Glasser

emphasised that “At Sinai the Israelites entered into a solemn

commitment to God who had delivered them. Election demands

response: the response of worship and service. Israel was called

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to the privilege of responsibility to accept Yahweh’s call to be

his people and to accept God’s covenant.”1

The designation of Israel as the nation of Yahweh

distinguished her as a special nation among the nations of the

world (Genesis 1:28). After the failure of Adam’s generation to

fulfill the purposes of God, Abraham emerged in Genesis chapter

twelfth as the father of God’s new plan. He was torn away from

an idolatrous society to worship the one true God, Jehovah. God

promised to bless him with a land, a people, and through him all

the peoples of the earth will be blessed. Peters asserted

“Genesis 12 introduces a new epoch in the history which is

particularistic in method but universalistic in promises, design

and effect. This needs to be seen clearly and grasped firmly, or

else the God of the Old Testament Himself becomes a

particularist. This could never be. As a particularist He would

cease to be Elohim, the God of creation and the God of the

nations.” 2As God’s plan for Abraham unfolds his direct

1Arthur F. Glasser, Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible.(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker. 2003), 83

2 Peters, George W. A Biblical Theology of Missions. Chicago, IL: MoodyPress. 1984

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descendants become the nation of Israel. The Abrahamic covenant

bound God to deliver all the promises he gave. The children of

Abraham thus occupied a special place in the heart of God. God

endowed the nation of Israel with spiritual and material

resources so that the nation will show forth the glory of God as

a chosen nation. The name and presence of God abides in the

nation of Israel. Whenever anyone who was from outside of Israel

wanted to seek Jehovah he or she would have come to God’s

children. Symbolically Israel contains light whereas the other

nations were full of darkness. The works of darkness was

abomination in Israel. The works of holiness was prevailing

within her walls. Priests and Prophets of Jehovah could only be

found in Israel. Jehovah identified himself with Israel. “To the

patriarchs God gave what might be described as ‘sacred space,’ a

place of order and blessing. Beyond its frontiers lay the world

of chaos, the realm of alien spirits.”3 Israel’s light would

repel the darkness surrounding her. Although other nations in the

ancient Near East also regarded themselves as theocracies, each

with its particular god or gods, Israel’s God was unique. Yahweh

3 Arthur F. Glasser, Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible.(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker. 2003).

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alone claimed to be the creator of the entire universe, forbade

all efforts to image him, and regarded all other all other gods

as nonentities, devoid of all function and power.4

The Gentiles

The Jews called those who were not citizens of Israel

gentiles. All non-Israel nations were Godless. Gentiles were

generally abominable to the children of Israel because of their

relationship with idols. These nations worshipped other gods made

with human hands. They offer their children as sacrifice in fire

to the gods. The King James Version translates the word for

gentiles as “heathen”. “Separation between Jews and Gentiles

become more strict, until in the New Testament period the

hostility was complete.”5 The word “gentiles” carries an idea of

“ethos”. In the scriptures it is generally rendered in the plural

as in “nations,” comparing with the nation of Israel which is

rendered in the singular.6

4 Arthur F. Glasser, Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible.(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker. 2003).

5 Merrill C. Tenney New International Bible Dictionary. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House. 1989).

6 W.E. Vine. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary. (Nashville: Thomas NelsonPublishers. 1996).

8

The gods of the nations were no God yet nations identified

with them. Individual non-Israelites sought to acquaint

themselves with the God of the Hebrews. Naaman , the Syrian

Captain, for example needed healing for his illness from the God

of the Hebrews. His gods could not help him of his leprosy. He

was convinced that Jehovah’s prophet had the answer. The desire

to seek after ones creator was built in all people. Man was empty

without God.

The gentile nation of Nineveh repented and sought Jehovah.

People of Nineveh were not originally identified with Jehovah.

However when they heard the word of God, they repented of their

sins immediate. Kaiser advocated that from the Old Testament God

showed that he had plans for non-Jewish nations. “No one can

charge the Old Testament with beginning its story in a

chauvinistic way. Genesis 1-11 is decidedly universal in its

scope and outlook”7

Promise for Foreigners

7 Kaiser, Walter C. Jr. Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the Nations.

(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker. 2000.) 11

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Moreover concerning the foreigner, that is not of thypeople Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for thyname's sake (for they shall hear of thy great name, and of thymighty hand, and of thine outstretched arm); when he shallcome and pray toward this house; hear thou in heaven thydwelling-place, and do according to all that the foreignercalleth to thee for; that all the peoples of the earth mayknow thy name, to fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, andthat they may know that this house which I have built iscalled by my name.

(1Ki 8:41-43 KJV)

The context of King Solomon’s prayer was the Day of

Dedication of the new Temple. The Temple was the house of God for

the children of Israel. God chose to confirm the place as his

place. This is the only place God has specifically said

Israelites must come to pray. Solomon rightly prayed about the

benefits that citizens of Israel stand to enjoy when they pray in

or towards the temple in Jerusalem. In his dedicatory prayer King

Solomon mention the foreigner and what he/she could also benefit

from God alongside the people of Israel. The foreigner would come

to seek God because the fame of the name of God would spread to

foreign lands.

The tone of 1 Kings 8:41-43 indicates a distinction between

a resident alien and the foreigner. The text suggests that the

people from foreign countries will hear about Jehovah and would

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come to inquire of him. The needs of the foreigner were

anticipated in God’s promise for Israel. The foreigner who “shall

come out of a far country for thy name's sake”8 was distinguished

from resident alien. The alien in Israel was referred to in

several instances in the scriptures. This paper does not seek to

discuss the distinction. The goal of the paper is to consider the

important element of the place of non-Jewish people in the

promises of God for the Jews.

Achenbach and Albertz both deal diachronically withdevelopments in the sense and legal position of gerim(resident aliens) and other comparable groups in thedifferent legal corpora, while the studies of B. Wellson Lev. 25.35-38 and C. Nihan on their position in Hare also closely related to this topic. Similarly,Wöhrle and T. Naumann both deal with aspects of theinclusion of Ishmael in the covenant by circumcisionin Genesis 17. S. Olyan traces the vocabulary used todenigrate aliens and V. Haarmann analyses thedifferent positions adopted with regard to theirparticipation in the cult in the postexilic period.There is much detailed learning on display here andsome of the contributors expect close familiarity withcomplex redaction-critical positions in connectionwith the various law codes. 9

8 foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel. One who comes from a foreignland to pray to Israel’s God at the temple, as distinguished from a resident

alien (NIV Study Bible)

9 A c h e n b a c h , R e in h a r d , R a in e r A l b e r t z and J a

k o b W ö h r l e (eds.), The Foreigner and the Law: Perspectives from the

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The reference above suggested how much scholarship covers thestudy of the difference between

alien and foreigner in the life of the people of Israel.

That God had included non-Jewish people in his promises has

already been demonstrated in the Genesis account. “The Lord God

took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and

take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are

free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat

from the tree of the knowledge of good or evil, for when you eat

of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:15-17NIV). God loved all

human beings before and after they fell from grace. Latter in

the New Testament we heard that “For God so loved the world that

he gave his one and only son that who believes in him shall not

perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son

into the world to condemn it” (John 3:16NIV). Before the

Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. H.G.M. Williamson.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=9285914e-

6083-4dd4-9ebc-9e5eae4b847b%40sessionmgr4005&hid=126 assessed January

23, 2014

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beginning of Israel, God was dealing with all humans as his

created, loved children of God. Israel was created to fulfill the

same goal – to make all human relate with God (Genesis 12:2-3).

Every person bears the image of God, and as a result all people

are equally the object of God’s love and desire to save. Every

person has built within them the capacity to respond to the

conviction of the Holy Spirit (Gen 1:26).

New Paradigm “People of God”

The foreigner motif has been discussed extensively in the

New Testament. A new understanding of “foreignness” captured the

theological vocabulary of the followers of Jesus. During the time

of Jesus earthly ministry and immediately he left for heaven, the

first century disciples struggled with accepting aliens and

foreigners without condition. Paul’s felt called to lead the

crusade of registering the details of the New Paradigm among the

disciples. Galatians chapter two revealed how passionate he was

in defending the truth of ‘foreignness.”

Paul minces no word in opposing even the so called leaders

of the Christian movement. “When I saw that they were not acting

in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of

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them all, You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like

a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish

Customs?”10 Paul was blunt in pointing out that a new era had

dawned in God’s dealing with his people. The term “People of God”

took on a new meaning for the rest of time. Later, Peter got the

point and would write, “But you are a chosen people, a royal

priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you

may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness

into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you

are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now

you have received mercy”11

The New Paradigm that the gentile have taken on a common

designation with the “people of God” have historical antecedent.

From the beginning God indicated that he was interested in all

human beings and not only a special few. Spina observed, “Yet it

is precisely this extraordinary emphasis on Israel’s exclusive

election and its indisputable insider status that makes it so

10 Galatians 2: 1411 1 Peter 2:9-10

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surprising to come across a number of Old Testament texts that

prominently feature outsiders of one kind or another12

From the view point of the Jews the gentiles had no

prominent space in the commonweath of Israel. Gentiles as

“outsiders” could not claim right to any inherintance in Israel.

Consequently Gentiles failed to call Jehovah their God. The New

Testament embraced all peoples. The foreigner had new status

because of his or her identity with Jesus and not with the Jews.

Prosylites had to change to Jews traditions and customs first in

order to identify themselves with Jehovah. David Filbeck wrote a

book on a relevant theme, “Yes, God of the Gentiles, Too.” He commented

on the biological growth of the Jewish diaspora: “Biological

growth accounts for a lot the Jewish growth in the diaspora;

“additional growth was due to Gentiles converting to the Jewish

belief and way of life and becoming proselytes in the process”13

12 Spina, Frank Anthony. The Faith of the Outsider: Exclusion and Inclusion in the Biblical

Story. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Pub. Co.2005)

13 Filbeck, David. Yes God of the Gentile Too: The Missionary Message of

the Old Testament. (Wheaton, IL: Billy Graham Centre. 1994.) 121

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How such requirements were not necessary or demanded before non-

Jewish folk could call on Jehovah as their God.

Commenting on the Apostles missionary motivation Peters

listed a number of resons in favor of apostolic missionary

enterprise. First the apostles knew God had acted. Second the

apostles were convinced that the decisive, redemptive act of God

had taken place in Christ Jesus, the man of Nazareth. Third, the

apostles were convinced that the art of God in procurring

salvation was a historical event with consequent historical

results. Forth, the apostle were convinced that all that had

happened was in perfect harmony with the prediction of Old

Testament prophecy. Fifh the apostle were convinced that

repentance and faith were the God-ordained way to enter into the

salvation of God.14

Against the forgone background, Peters insisted that the

apostles gradually accepted the truth that the gospel entrusted

into their hands was not for the Jews exclusively. That the

gospel had world scope – it was for all nations including the

Jews. The Jews came upon a hard truth that they as a nation do

14 Peters, George W. A Biblical Theology of Missions. Chicago, IL: Moody Press. 1984

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not have any privileged place with the new era. The situation was

a foreshadow of what God has done in the advent of Jesus for all

people in that in Christ Jesus all believers have become the new

priesthood 15

A new day has come upon us where migration of people is

moving in all directions. Not long ago, Europeans migrated to

take colonies in Africa and elsewhere in the sixteen century. A

reverse trend is flowing back from once colonized people to the

territories of the colonizers. Besides, major cities of the world

have large segments of foreigners. Non-natives are common sites

in every country.

A number of factors have contributed to the movement of

people within and outside national boundaries culminating in the

creation of diaspora communities around the world. Amadu Jacky

Kaba outlined a number of factors contributing to the mass

emigration of Africa’s elite to the West. He mentioned political

situations that resulted in wars as the primary “push” factor. 16

“Pull” factors includes the need for professions like nurses,

151Peter 2:9; Rev 5:9-10. 16 Insidore Okpewho and Nkiru Nzegwu. The New African Diaspora. (Bloomington,

IN: Indiana University Press. 2009)

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midwives, and doctors in so called advance countries. Low

salaries are a major factor for the emigration of highly skilled

individuals from developing countries”17

At the time that foreigners are present at all places or

countries in the world, so also the church has spread to many

territories of the world. For example Communist countries have

allowed their citizens to go to Christian dominated countries to

do business or study. These people cannot ignore the site of

Christianity in their host countries. In God’s sovereign power he

brought them to see the goodness of the salvation of Jesus. They

have plug into the promises of the people of God. Most of them

have been blessed by the same promise of salvation that is in

Christ Jesus. Glassier asserts “The Kingdom of God will then

have no geographic or racial boundaries but will be found

wherever the King is acknowledged in personal faith and

obedience.” 18

African Diaspora

17 Insidore Okpewho and Nkiru Nzegwu. The New African Diaspora. (Bloomington,IN: Indiana University Press. 2009), 116

18 (Glassier, 92)

18

Traditionally the word diasporas was identified with the

Jews who left their homeland for various reason to take

temporarily or permanent residence among the nations of the

world. The histories of their various sojourns have been

documented. They left the land of Israel because of their

disobedience to the commandments of God. God drove the people of

the nations in Canaan out because of their abominable acts and

idolatry. Israel occupied the land of Canaan within the covenant

stipulations that they would obey God and worship only Jehovah.

However Israel did not make good their promise to worship only

Jehovah. By their disobedience they violated the terms of the

covenant. God who was not partial did not have any option but to

punish his own children like he did to the nations whom he drove

out of Canaan. Israel had to lived among the nations as

foreigners – Israelite diasporas.

Diasporas are alternative name for aliens of a particular

country who created their own society in a foreign country.

Africans have moved to other lands and have founded churches in

their respective foreign countries. In these countries are found

non-believing natives and other foreign national. The non-

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believers are behold the vibrant African Christianity in action

in the African Diaspora Churches and communities. They would

benefit from the same promise of salvation that have come to

these African Christians. Glassier observed, “The importance of

pneumatic Christianity to renewal movements with the African

context … have inspired growth and dynamism in the church in

Africa and what the implications of this development are for the

world church.”19

The spiritual context of Africa has prepared African

Christians to be battle-ready to join any spiritual war anywhere

around the world. We reason that spiritual is raging everywhere

at all time and wherever African Christian found the works of the

Enemy they are on familiar ground to destroy Satan’s activities.

Demonic activities are common and sometimes daily phenomenon on

the continent. From the time of birth of the African child,

parents have to start fighting spiritual warfare on behalf of

their kids’ survival, for example. Each stage of human

development of the African is entangled with demonic rituals and

customs. The dead bodies of Africans become an occasion of

19 Asamoah-Gyadu, Kwabena. Contemporary Pentecostal Christianity: Interpretations from an African Context.( Eugene, Oregon: WIPF & STOCK. 2013), 2

20

serious demonic activities. Funeral occasions were worship

services of demons. Rituals for burial were infested with demonic

customs. Almost every aspect of the social life was crowded with

challenges for the African Christian. Separation from these

demonic activities meant you were challenging the spiritual

status quo. In other words you are calling for spiritual war and

sometimes physical war.

Conclusion

When God called Israel his special people, he did so because

he wants all people to become like Israel. Genesis 12

demonstrated the fact that through one man, Abraham, every people

of the earth would also receive the same blessing. The inclusion

of foreigners in the temple dedication prayer of Solomon in the

book Kings supports God’s long standing desire to see all people

from every place enjoy the salvation of the God which is found in

Jesus, the son of Abraham. Foreigner’s promise was prominent in

Solomon’s prayer. Diaspora promises would engage the church’s

mission in the coming decades.

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