Your Brother's Blood Crieth- Thoughts on Nottoway Plantation
Gen. 4:9-10 (KJV) And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
Ok, so the recent talk is about the Nottoway Plantation burning to the ground. Not only that it burned down, but that Black people were celebrating about it. People in and out of faith based circles are discussing about “the ancestors” standing as witness to the fate of one of the largest plantations in the US meeting it’s demise, while white people are saddened that they lost a resort venue…yeah.
I’m not on the “ancestors” bandwagon, but I do believe that there is a God who sees (El Roi), whose eyes run to and fro about the whole earth (2 Chron. 16:9) and who stands as witness to the evils that men in the earth do.
America is, much like Israel in the Bible, an unrepentant nation. It has YET to reckon with the multiple genocides and other atrocities it has committed. The story of Cain and Able in the book of Genesis is, for many, a basic narrative and well known story of brother against brother. Cain slew Able because Able offered a more acceptable sacrifice. When Cain is called before God, he is asked where his brother is. The response he gives to God is still being given today. “Am I my brother’s keeper"? Knowing full well what he had done, he callously dares to give the Living God a snarky answer! Most recently, we saw this attitude come from the Director of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. When asked if she could be bothered to check on a kidnapped person sent to CECOT, she blithely replied that it would be up to the president of that country… Not a care or concern for her fellow man.
America has much blood on it’s hands. Now as a Christ following Christian, I do not ascribe to “the ancestors” language, but do not knock those who choose to follow that belief. From wars on this soil and abroad, to eugenics, Jim Crow and much, much worse. There is blood all over this stolen land. That blood does NOT rest easy!! I live in the Capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, Va. I often tell the story of a historical marker here name Devil’s Half Acre and the spirits that are stirred there. See my post titled What’s in A Name? for details.
Concerning Nottoway and many other plantations, many reservations, many trails of tears… There is a reckoning coming. Because America continues to be stiff-necked in it’s unrepentance, reckoning must come. God will not allow it not to come. Your brother’s blood is crying out…
An interesting thing that I find many who claim the Christianity label is that they have never related to the Living God as the Righteous Judge, the Bringer of Justice. That aspect of God’s nature is completely foreign to them. However to those who suffer oppression, often recycled century in and out in America, we KNOW God as just that. There is a reason The Slave’s Bible has all of those scriptures about mercy, justice and liberation stripped out…
There was a question raised in the Gospels of “Who is my neighbor?” The answer comes in the parable of the Good Samaritan. The 2 greatest commands to love God and your neighbor (which is ALL of your fellow man) still is a command for us today. The warning that you cannot love God whom you cannot see if you do not love your brother (again, everybody) whom you see everyday.
Your brother’s blood is crying…