The Black Hebrew Israelites always claim that God is only concerned with Israel and not non-Israelites. They even go as far as to say the word Gentile refers to Israelites who somehow don’t know they are an Israelite and have been living in places in the Bible like Ethiopia, Phenice, Cyprus, Antioch, Seleucia etc. But the Bible is very clear in making distinctions between Israelites and Gentiles.

Passages such as Acts 11 after Peter preached the Gospel to Cornelius a Roman Centurion we’re told that God granted eternal life to the Gentiles in the same way He has given to the Israelites, shows a distinction these Gentiles are not Israelites who were living in these places. That’s not to say there weren’t Jews in other lands but God’s word keeps us from confusion in every occasion when it refers to Jews in another land we read words like synagogue and proceeding are indicators of what land Pisidia in the case of Acts 13:14.

The BHI will refer to Isaiah 14:1-2 and claim that Israelites are going to posses non-Israelites as slaves in the future. Is that what the Bible says, that Israelites will have non-Israelites as slaves or did this already take place? That’s what I’m going to demonstrate here.

Isaiah 14:1-2

Isaiah 14:1-2 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

This is the jumping off text the BHI use for their argument that they will be given slaves. If we read the verse in isolation it does seem to say that Israel will possess non-Israelites as servants, but we must ask the question is did this already take place?

In the Bible we’re told that Israel suffered 3 major captivities, Egypt, Assyrian and Babylonian. The previous chapter in the same book Isaiah gives us the context to Isaiah 14:1-2.

Isaiah 13:17-19

Isaiah 13:17-19 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and [as for] gold, they shall not delight in it. [Their] bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isaiah 13:17-19 says that the LORD “will stir up the Medes against them”, who is “them” in this verse? If we continue on it tells us who the Medes are stirred up against “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,”. We learn that the Medes otherwise known as the Medo-Persia kingdom were stirred up against Babylon and that kingdom will be likened to when “God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah”. We’ll see how this comes together in the book of Daniel. Continuing on the prophet Jeremiah made a prophecy concerning the children of Israel going into captivity.

Jeremiah 27:6

Jeremiah 27:6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

Here we have the prophet Jeremiah telling us that the LORD gave the lands to “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon”. Also, 2 verses down God says that any nation which rebels against God’s will which is that these nations would put themself under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and if they refused they would be punished. How will God punish them? The LORD says that nation will be punished “with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence” until they have been consumed.

Remember king Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan Gentile who ruled over a Gentile nation called Babylon.

Jeremiah 28:13-14

Jeremiah 28:13-14 Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.

Hananiah makes a false prophecy saying the Babylonian captivity will only last for 2 years and the people rejected Jeremiah as he had told them previously the captivity would last for 70 years. Unfortunately, the people harkened to the false prophecy of Hananiah and suffered for it and Israel went into Babylonian captivity.

Daniel 5:25-31

Daniel 5:25-31 And this [is] the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This [is] the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and [put] a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, [being] about threescore and two years old.

Daniel gives the account of what happened when Israel was in the land of Babylon, in chapter 5 Belshazzar a descendant of king Nebuchadnezzar made a feast. While they feasted Belshazzar commanded that they bring the golden and silver vessels of worship which were used in the temple by the priest of Israel. The golden and silver vessels were then defiled by Belshazzar as they poured wine into the cups and drank out of them, and while committing idolatry as they “praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone”.

The finger of God writes on the wall “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN” and in fear Belshazzar has his astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers to interpret but were unable to interpret what was written on the wall. The queen tells him of Daniel, that he has a gift for interpreting dreams as he has done before for his father Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel is brought before the king and predicts doom for Babylon because of this abomination he committed in desecrating the the golden and silver vessels of the house of God.

Daniel tells Belshazzar his kingdom has come to an end and that the kingdom of Babylon is given to the Medes and Persians. Darius the Median took the kingdom and ruled Babylon once Belshazzar was slain that very night. This was a fulfillment of Isaiah 13:17-19 in which the LORD said He “will stir up the Medes against them” and overthrew them (Babylon) like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isaiah 44:25-28

Isaiah 44:25-28 That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise [men] backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof: That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: That saith of Cyrus, [He is] my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.

Here’s where it all comes together after the 70 years of captivity king Cyrus a Gentile was raised up by the LORD as a shepherd and by a decree made by Cyrus, the Israelites were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and city. Not all of Israel chose to return to Jerusalem, Daniel stood behind in Babylon as well as others, only a remnant went back to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the temple.

But not only Israelites returned to Jerusalem, Gentile nations, non-Israelites, would assist returning with them to live in the land. Israel’s former overlords would become bondservants to help in the rebuilding of the city and temple this is recorded for us in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

1 Chronicles 9:1

1 Chronicles 9:1 So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies; and, behold, they [were] written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, [who] were carried away to Babylon for their transgression.

The verse here in 1 Chronicles 9 tells us all Israel was “reckoned by genealogies”, those who returned came back in subsequent waves. Here in 1 Chronicles we’re told that “ the first inhabitants” were “the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims”. In Jerusalem we have “Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim, and Manasseh” which returned.

Here’s the knock out remember Israel would “possess” servants and handmaids, in Ezra 2 we’re given a long list of the rest of the people who returned but in verses 65 it says “Beside their servants and their maids”. and if we read further down to verse 70 it makes a clear distinction that these servants are Gentiles from the time when Cyrus back in Daniel gave the decree for the Israelites to return to their land and rebuild it.

Ezra 2:70 So the priests, and the Levites, and [some] of the people, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.

And those particular servants and handmaids spoken of in Isaiah 14:1-2 at the beginning of this article are these Gentiles here in Ezra 2:65 who cleaved to the house of Israel and helped in rebuilding the temple and walls of Jerusalem. The BHI would try to argue that this is a future event but as we can see through the plain reading of the text this event has already taken place.

Conclusion

This is the deception of the BHI doctrine, they pull a verses out of context and run with it making an erroneous doctrine out of it claiming they will be able to own non-Israelite people as slaves in the kingdom. The BHI is a man made movement which started on 125th Street Harlem, otherwise known as 1West which is in reference to the address where the movement began.

It’s very unfortunate that there are many people who have been deceived into believing that God cares about a persons ethnicity. And if you’re not born in a specific ethnicity then you’re either part of His chosen people or and if not your condemned; this is obviously not the God of the Bible we serve. God is not concerned about what group of people you’re born into. What He does care about is if we’ve placed our faith in the Son of God Jesus Christ.

Next time we’ll take a look at the history of this cult and the different camps which came out of the BHI movement, until then stay in the word of God and be blessed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.