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“BLACK, BUT COMELY”

A. C. Craig

Song of Songs 1: 5; Luke 7: 39, 40 (to “thee”), 44–50; Ruth 3:

11

The thought at the beginning of this week for some of us was

Moses taking the Ethiopian as wife; he took the Cushite as

wife (Numbers 12: 1). She was not given to him, he took her. It

shows Moses’ choice. He did not take Zipporah, she was

given to him; he was not given the Cushite, he took her; that

caused the whole family upset. Aaron and Miriam were very

much against him taking her; their prestige, pride and

prejudice all came out into expression because he had taken

this Cushite. It brings out how God in the death of Christ was

taking up the nations. Stephen looks up to heaven and sees

Jesus standing at the right hand of God that is what he saw,

“the glory of God, and Jesus”. What he said was different from

what he saw.

He said, “Lo, I behold the heavens opened, and the Son of

man standing at the right hand of God”, Acts 7: 56. Stephen is

the only one, apart from the Lord Himself, who refers to Jesus

as the Son of man. Once you get the Son of man introduced

you cannot confine that to the Jew, in spite of Jewish

prejudice, pride, and national claims. Once you get the Son of

man introduced He is over all. He has universal dominion; He

has claim to everything.

You get the Ethiopian being taken up in Acts 8; that is how it

begins. God takes up the Ethiopian eunuch, the Cushite. This

brings out the whole animosity and prejudice of Aaron and

Miriam, so to speak, as found in Jerusalem. What trouble that

caused! You get it all coming out. The Ethiopian is taken up in

chapter 8, in chapter 9 you get the animosity and pride of Saul

of Tarsus. The taking up of the nations was bringing all that

into the open. Then you also get the pride and the prejudice in