Jacob's Ladder: The Spiritual Nature of the King Years

Not long ago, I was at the barber shop having a discussion with a number of guys waiting for their weekly cut. We bantered back and forth about politics and religion as we attempted to solve the ills of our society, and I made the following statement that caught everyone’s attention: “There are three institutions in the black community that are contributing to its demise: fast food restaurants; liquor stores and churches.” This comment, as expected, provoked a passionate rebuttal from one of the guys as he concurred with me on my submission that fast food restaurants and liquor stores were destroying the black community; however, the notion that churches are also participating in its demise was absurd.

I responded thus to those who were listening: “The Western theologian had been enlisted by the global powers to offer a corrupt version of the Word of God by controlling the interpretation of the Scripture. Consequently, those who subscribe to it will never go beyond that Purgatory between darkness and light. And if the leaders of black churches [or any church] parrot what has been advanced by the Western theologian, then isn’t that corrupted version of the Gospel doing as much damage to you spiritually as alcohol and fast food does to your physical body?” I went on to ask the brother who was bothered by my comment if he could tell me what Job’s profession was before his engagement with the devil. He looked puzzled at first and then said, “I don’t know.”

I said to him, “See, you’re making my point. The Western theologian has controlled the story of Job, because he does not want you to know who he really was. He only wants you to see Job as an excessively patient man in the wake of personal calamity so that you will never aspire to be like him. I mean, who wants to follow in the footsteps of a man who lost his family and all of his possessions, and then had to contend with issues of health and betrayal? But if you understood who Job was and that the story of his patience that covers most of the book attributed to him is only a footnote in his life, then perhaps you, along with many other men [and women] would desire to be like him.

“The story of Job’s encounter with the devil and subsequent period of personal misery and misfortune is the story behind the story. The true story of Job is that he was the greatest social advocate of all time. If you look at the 30th chapter of Job, you will see that he was disturbed at the mockery he sustained regarding his condition and subsequent standing in society: But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock [Job 30:1]. The children of men who were so vile, Job said he would not permit them to be in the company of the dogs that watched over his sheep, were ridiculing him. However, if you go back to chapter 29, you will see Job lamenting over his inability to defend those in need.”

The 29th chapter of Job is his resume, and it has been buried in the cemeteries of the Western schools of theology so that you and I would not recognize how truly great this man really was. I mean, being patient in the face of personal turmoil is no more than what some of you have endured, or at least most of us have a parent, grandparent, or other loved one who has patiently borne extreme trials. However, Job’s activism has been duplicated by very few during the course of human history, because the aristocracy has always employed techniques of social control to limit the possibility of the rise of the Jobs of the world, or the Gandhis of the world, or the Bonhoeffers of the world, or the Martin Kings of the world, because these are the types of men who will alter the course of human history and disrupt their plans for the future.

We are introduced to Job through an encounter between God and the devil in the first chapter of Job:

1.There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil… 6.Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. 7.And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. 8.And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? 9.Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? 10.Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land (Job 1:1, 6-10, emphasis mine).

It is significant to note when satan was queried about Job, he said, “Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him. [s]atan had already attempted to destroy Job, but was prevented from entering into his restricted airspace by God’s protection. Job was disrupting satan’s efforts in the land of Uz, and he wanted to have him assassinated, but when God issued the devil permission to encounter him, the one prohibition was that he could not take his life.

Let’s take a minute to see why satan wanted to destroy Job:

The secret of God was upon him (see Job 29:4);
The Almighty walked with him (see Job 29:5);
In addition to the above, he was the most prominent man in Uz who pronounced judgement on wickedness (see Job 29:7);
Job’s judgements were so profound that the mischievous refrained from his presence (see Job 29:8);
The elders revered him (see Job 29:8);
The aristocracy was fearful of him (see Job 29:9);
Verse 10 seems to suggest that those who dared to speak out against him suffered strokes (see Job 29:10);
The multitude were followers of him, because he delivered the poor that cried, and he aided the fatherless and those who were on the margins of society (see Job 29:11-12);
The fortunes were reversed for those who were about to perish, and their good fortune was duplicated upon him as well (see Job 29:13);
The widow; often society’s most downtrodden, was lifted to heights of joy that she had never experienced (see Job 29:13);
Job was such a righteous man that when he spoke, the people thought they were hearing God’s voice (see Job 29:14);
He corrected the vision impairment of those who could not see the truth, and he corrected the gait of those who were not walking in the ways of righteousness (see Job 29:15);
He was the poor's only hope (see Job 29:16); and
He plucked the spoils from the teeth of the wicked and returned it to those who had been devoured (see Job 29:17).

Job is not the only historical character whose life has been buried out of sight. If the men who stand at the signpost of civilization, directing our paths into the future can conceal the lives of the great men and women who opposed them, then it reduces the possibility that other men and women will rise to emulate them. To buttress my point consider that Enoch (see Genesis 5) is credited with perhaps the greatest miracle in the holy writ, yet have you ever heard one sermon that was exclusive to him? I mean, wouldn’t you think that a man who has escaped death, and to our knowledge has yet to die, that we would want to know as much about him as possible?

The dearth of material on Enoch and Job, as well as many others, can now be seen in the legacy of Dr. King. Immediately after his assassination, the networks stumbled over themselves producing programs on Civil Rights and his life. In fact, my family watched the documentary, From Montgomery to Memphis, so often that we wore out three video tapes. However, although today would mark his 82nd birthday and this Monday will be the national holiday that has been set aside in honor of his birth, I was unable to find one single program about his ministry or on his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement. The two channels where one would expect to find programming dedicated to the life of Martin King around this time of year – Biography and BET – did have three episodes of American Gangster slated for the prime time slots on Monday and a Jamie Fox marathon running today.

The diminishing of Dr. King’s legacy has already begun, and I predict that within the next 25 years, the national holiday in recognition of his birthday will be expanded to include all men and women of conscience who opposed oppression and made a mark on society. Now don’t get me wrong, they do deserve a day of honor and recognition too, but I am one voice that is saying, “Do not dilute King’s legacy and work by renaming the date to include others.” And there is precedent for this alteration: Some of you are old enough to remember when the third Monday in February was celebrated as George Washington’s Birthday, but now it is considered Presidents’ Day. This apparently benign change, has effectively reduced the stature of the first president of this nation, and do not think for one minute that there is such loyalty to King’s affect on society that the holiday named in his honor will be immune from any amendment.

…to be continued