When dealing with chronic ailments like high blood pressure or heart disease, most people trace their susceptibility to those things to a parent or grandparent. I’ve heard comments like “High blood pressure runs in my family.” What if it were deeper than that? What if the scriptures could tell us why we (so-called African American) people lead all statistical categories for sickness and disease?
When people state the comments mentioned above they are tracking aspects of their health by their lineage. God has a people and they have a distinct bloodline/lineage as well. Let’s look at the scripture and see if we can trace God’s bloodline back to us and understand how it has impacted our health.
God’s Chosen People
It started with a promise to Abraham:
Genesis 17:7
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
These generations of God’s people are known as Israel or Jacob. The bloodline is established through the Father and identified by different tribes according to the sons of Jacob. This is important to understand and is a clear note of distinction between the Israelites of the bible and the Jewish people today. Jewish people trace their lineage through the mother and not the father.
Exodus 1:1-7
1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
Numbers 1:18
18 And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.
Then you see the bloodline make its way out of Egypt:
Exodus 6:7
7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
Lets park here for a second because the bible rarely speaks about color, but there are some ways to identify people by their color. Moses was an Israelite and was the leader God chose to bring the people out of Israel. In Exodus 4:6-7 God showed his power to Moses by making his hand leprous.
Exodus 4:6-7
6 And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.
One of the symptoms of leprosy is a loss of pigmentation. It seems that God’s intention was to show a stark contrast between Moses’ hand and the rest of his body. HIs hand lost its pigment and was white as snow then was restored to its normal color.
In Numbers 12:5-11 something similar happened to Moses’ sister Miriam. She turned leprous as well.
Numbers 12:10
10 And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.
Seeing an all white hand against a dark skinned body would be shocking contrast and bold proof to Moses and Miriam that the God of Israel is real. A white hand against a white body…eh not much of a statement.
Now we see the promise continue through David
Ezekiel 34:24
24 And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken it.
There are some characteristics of David given in the scripture that indicate his color. He was referred to as “ruddy”.
1 Samuel 16:12-13
12 And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
The word “ruddy” in the Zondervan Bible Dictionary says the following: A word used to refer to a red or fair complexion in contrast to the DARK SKIN OF THE HEBREWS.
So basically David was what we would consider “red bone or light skinned” in our modern day language. His brothers were likely dark as the typical skin of the Hebrews as pointed out by Zondervan. It was never said that David’s father Jesse had multiple wives, therefore, I assume that David and his brothers had the same mother. His brothers being darker skinned Hebrews.
So now you have to ask yourself, “Are we from Africa as we have continually been told?” Let’s see what the Zondervan dictionary has to say about that.
Noah had 3 sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. Abraham can be traced back to Shem. Shem was his grandfather from 9 generations (great great great, etc…grandfather). As we established earlier, Abraham began the lineage of Israel. Ham was dark skinned and had a lineage of people as well. The Zondervan Bible Dictionary describes Ham as the following: He became the progenitor of the dark races; NOT THE NEGROES, but the Egyptians, Ethiopians, Libyans and Canaanites…
So there is a clear distinction between the descendants of Ham and Shem. Both are dark but Ham mainly consist of Africans while Shem consist of another dark skinned people (spoiler alert: the negroes among others came from Shem).
So let’s continue as we establish our bloodline and show why it is important pertaining to our health.
We know that Christ came from the seed of David.
Romans 1:3
3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
We also see some color characteristics of Christ. We know that he was hidden in Egypt. It was established that the Egyptians were dark. It would be difficult to hide a “caucasian” baby in Egypt.
Matthew 2:13
13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
We also see Christ described in revelations as the color of fine brass. Brass skin tone is brown skin ranging from a medium tone like actor Michael B Jordan to a darker tone like former basketball player Michael Jordan, with white wooly hair like the texture of an afro.
Revelation 1:14-15
14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
We also see that Paul was confused with the Egyptians based on his appearance (Acts 21:38). Paul was also an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin
Romans 11
11 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Hopefully now you see that there are a specific people that God has chosen and that it is people of color like the so-called Blacks, Spanish, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, Samoans, Haitians, Jamaicans and on and on.
Hosea 1:10
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
Ezekiel 36:19
19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.
We were disobedient to God’s laws, statutes and commandments and were subsequently scattered throughout other nations. Now is the time that we are waking up (Ezekiel 37:1-14) and realizing who we are and what it means. The dry bones are waking up!
What does this mean regarding my health?
Many will say “ it doesn’t matter who you are” in terms of God’s promises, however, the scriptures say otherwise:
Romans 3:1-4
3 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
We were given the oracles of God (God’s word), which is the law, statutes, commandments as well as the prophets. To whom much is given much is required (Luke 12:46-48). Therefore, it doesn’t matter what men tell you in reference to who you are (Colossians 2:8), God’s word is the only thing that is true. You can see from His word who we are. The curses are another form of evidence that identify us as the chosen of Israel.
Deuteronomy 28:58-61
58 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, The Lord Thy God;59 Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.60 Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee.61 Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
Egypt is defined as the land of captivity, so we are in a form of Egypt right here in America.
The truth is our health as a whole is suffering because we have forsaken and continue to ignore the law that God put in place to protect us and allow us to walk in his ways.
Our people try every diet, every pill, every quick fix and cleanse that is suggested to us by whoever is popular at the time, yet we refuse to go to God’s word and listen with respect to the foods that he clearly stated that are clean and unclean for us. The table below are the clean and unclean foods from Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14:3-21.
| Category | Clean Foods (Permitted) | Unclean Foods (Forbidden) |
| Land Animals | Animals that chew the cud and have split hooves: • Cattle (beef) • Sheep (lamb, mutton) • Goats • Deer • Antelope | Animals that do NOT meet both criteria: • Pig (doesn’t chew cud) • Camel (no split hoof) • Rabbit/Hare (chews cud but no split hoof) • Rock hyrax |
| Seafood | Aquatic animals with fins and scales: • Salmon • Trout • Bass • Cod • Sardines | Anything without fins and scales: • Catfish • Eel • Shark • Shellfish: shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, oysters, scallops • Squid, octopus |
| Birds | Birds not listed as unclean: • Chicken • Turkey • Duck • Goose • Pigeon/Dove | Birds listed as unclean: • Eagle • Vulture • Raven • Owl • Hawk • Osprey • Cormorant • Stork • Heron • Bat |
| Insects | Only locust-type insects: • Locust • Cricket • Grasshopper | All other insects: • Flies • Beetles • Ants • Spiders • Worms |
| Reptiles & Other Creatures | None listed as clean | All reptiles and creeping things: • Snakes • Lizards • Turtles • Frogs • Mice • Weasels • Chameleons |
We lead in every statistical category of disease from Heart Disease, Diabetes, Cancer, even venereal diseases. Yet we still don’t come to God’s word for solutions.
I know most people might say “those are old testament laws, we aren’t under that any longer.”
Look at what Christ said regarding the law.
Matthew 5:17-19
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Christ said, don’t even consider the possibility that he came to destroy the law and the prophets. That word “fulfil” in the Strong’s concordance means “to cause God’s will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be, and God’s promises (given through the prophets) to receive fulfillment.”
Christ went on to say if someone breaks the least of the laws that God gave us (including the food laws) or teaches men that it is ok to break the law, the kingdom of heaven will consider them the least. Meaning, they will not be in the Kingdom but those of the Kingdom will consider them as low as it gets.
The law is a gift to us from The Most High and He does not change concerning his gifts, promises or his judgments.
James 1:17
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Some will read all this and still say, “I’ve been eating pork, shrimp, lobster, etc all my life and I don’t have any health issues.” Here is what the word has to say about that.
Ecclesiastes 8:11-13
11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.12 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
God will not be mocked. Just like His blessings hold true, so do his cursings. Unfortunately our people are continually seeing the cursing based on the statistics.
Finally family, I leave you with this. If you have read this then humble yourself to the word of God (2 Chronicles 7:14-18) and receive it. Let’s not be destroyed because we have a lack of knowledge of God’s law or that we just refuse to submit to it.
