How Two Billion Lives Were Saved – Part One
Submitted By Ted Mock
September 27, 2023
Ge 50:19-20 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Joseph is a type of Christ, and by extension therefore, a type of the Christian. God used Joseph to save his family and a nation from starvation. In a lost and dying world there is a famine, not of bread, but of the Word of God. One life can make a difference, and as Christ brought many sons to glory, (Heb. 2:10) we can be used to share the Bread of Life with the lost around us.
Now the first part of our story:
Moses and Susan were farmers who, in the early 1860’s, lived in a slave state, but did not believe in slavery. Consequently, they were a target for bigots like Quantrill’s Raiders who terrorized the area.
One cold January night, the Raiders rode through their farm, burned the barn, shot several people, and kidnapped a slave woman named Mary Washington who refused to let go of her infant son, George.
Although the Carvers technically owned Mary and her children, as was the case with many farmers in the South at that time, it’s reported that Susan was in fact friends with Mary. In the aftermath of this dark event, she worked tirelessly to contact nearby farms and neighboring cities in order to secure a meeting between Moses and the bandits.
After two days, Moses rode off to meet with the bandits at a crossroad in Kansas, several hours north. At the arranged time, Moses met up with four of them, each carrying torches and with caps over their heads. At the meeting, the farmer traded the only horse he had left in exchange for a dirty sack and its contents. As the bandits took off, Moses fell on his knees and there, alone on that dark winter night, he pulled from the bag a naked, almost-dead, baby boy.
He quickly opened his coat and shirt and pressed the baby to his own skin. Covering him with his own clothes and relying on his body’s warmth, Moses began the journey home. He walked through the night and into the next day to get the child to Susan. There, they made a commitment to the child–and to each other–that they would care for him and make sure he receives an education, in memory of his mother Mary who was already dead.
They also gave the boy their name, and from then on raised him as George Washington Carver.
Yes, THAT George Washington Carver, the so-called “Peanut Man.”
Next week, Part Two.
CONSIDER: I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. Booker T. Washington
