Before God All Are Equal

Before God All Are Equal

Are some groups of humans inherently superior to other groups? Not in
God's eyes. The Bible says: "[God] made out of one man every nation of
men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth." (Acts 17:26)
Moreover, the Creator "has not shown partiality to princes and has not
given more consideration to the noble one than to the lowly one, for
all of them are the work of his hands." (Job 34:19) All humans are
related, and before God all are born equal.

Remember, too, that when a person dies, all pretensions that he is
superior to others vanish. The ancient Egyptians did not believe that.
When a Pharaoh died, they placed objects of great value in his tomb so
that he could enjoy them as he continued to occupy his high position
in an afterlife. Did he? No. Much of that wealth ended up in the hands
of grave robbers, and many objects that escaped the robbers can today
be seen in museums.

Since he was dead, the Pharaoh got no use at all out of those
expensive objects. In death, there are no upper and no lower classes,
no wealth and no poverty. The Bible states: "Wise men must die; stupid
men, brutish men, all perish. For men are like oxen whose life cannot
last, they are like cattle whose time is short." (Psalm 49:10, 12, The
New English Bible) Whether we are kings or slaves, these inspired
words hold true for all of us: "As for the dead, they are conscious of
nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages . . . There is no
work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in *Sheol, the place to
which you are going."—Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10.

We are all born equal in God's eyes, and we all end up equal in death.
How futile, then, to promote one group of people over another during
our short lifetime!


*Sheol is the Hebrew word for grave