Encouraged by slaves who broght an African kingdom to Christ

I was encouraged today to reread an historical sketch that I wrote 14 years ago.  It involves two brothers named Frumentius and Aedesius who lived in the 300’s.  They were living in Alexandria, Egypt when they accompanied a merchant relative to India.  On the way home their ship had the ill fortune to dock in Ethiopia, where it was attacked and everyone on board was killed except for the two brothers.  For some reason, they were enslaved instead, and given as a gift to King Abreha.  They had become Christians in the Coptic church in Alexandria, and as slaves God gave them boldness to preach Christ to their captors.  The King did not listen, but his wife, although she did not convert to Christianity, liked their teaching and insisted they teach the young prince, Erazanes.  Somehow God gave them the courage and faith to resist bitterness over their fate and to courageously use the opportunities given to them.

When King Abreha was near death, he offered the brothers freedom.  What a chance!  But the queen begged them to stay, to continue teaching the prince, and to advise her on how to rule until he reached adulthood and became king.  As I thought about this, I wondered if they debated the value of one child in comparison to a lifetime of freedom for themselves.  But these far-sighted brothers saw more than just one child, even a royal child.  They saw the opportunity to influence a kingdom for Christ.  They refused personal freedom, and stayed.  Eventually Erazanes became king Ezana, but for all their teaching, he still had not come to faith in Christ.  He continued to worship the idol Michren.  Coins minted in that era show pictures of the pagan gods, and Erazanes’ royal inscriptions gave credit to pagan gods for victories in battle.  The brothers must have been disappointed and perhaps discouraged, but they kept on sharing their faith, ministering to businessmen trading in Ethiopia.  Neither were ordained as pastors, so Frumentius requested Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria to send them a pastor.  Instead, Athanasius ordained Frumentius himself. 

Finally, toward the end of his rule, King Ezana finally did come to Christ.  His conversion seems to be genuine.  He no longer minted coins with pagan symbols, but rather with the Christian cross.  He began to give credit to “the King of Heaven” in his royal inscriptions.  He built churches and named Ethiopia as officially a Christian country, although of course the majority of the people were still idol worshipers.  At last Christians were able to share Christ freely and the door was opened for other missionaries to enter.

Frumentius learned the Ethiopian Ge’ez language, developed its script, and translated the first Ge’ez New Testament.  Slowly, a strong Christian church emerged.  In fact, it grew so strong that when Islam was born and swept out of its birthplace in 639, assaulting all of North Africa with wave after wave of Islamic jihad, giving Christians and others the ultimatum of Muhammed’s infamous three choices:  Islam, slavery (dhimmitude), or death, the Ethiopian church stood firm.  Only it stood firm, and this in spite of the fact that it had many cultural and linguistic similarities with Arabic.  It seems to me that only a deep and genuine faith could have withstood the assault, century after century. 

As I reflected on this, I was amazed at how God honored the faith, vision, humility and commitment of those two young men, Frumentius and Aedesius, who refused to surrender to their difficult personal situation.  Maybe they had discovered the “bloom where you are planted” philosophy. 

I realize that they did not convert Ethiopia alone.  God had long been at work there, from the God-seeking Queen of Sheba in Solomon’s time, and their son, King Menelik I (according to Ethiopian tradition), to the Jews who took shelter in Egypt shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., to the Jews who settled in Egypt in the time of Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies.  Philip brought the queen’s treasurer to Christ, and tradition says Matthew evangelized in Ethiopia until he was put to death.  The persecution of Christians brought Christian witness to Ethiopia, since in 308 A.D., maimed Christians were sent as slave labor in Sudanese mines.  Many faithful men and women had spoken and lived for God in Ethiopia before Frumentius and Aedesius.  But when this pair added years of patient, faithful testimony to that of others, God brought forth fruit.  He did great and mighty things because two young men were willing to use what influence they had where they were and regardless of circumstances.  They gave up their personal rights, and God honored their witness to bring the Gospel to many generations that followed.

God, make me faithful to bloom where I am planted, not seeking anything for myself, but using every opportunity for Christ.  Thank you for the encouragement of these brothers who lived so long ago, but whose influence persists to this very day.