Race and power: What does the OT say?

Genesis
In Genesis, common lineage of all human beings is explicitly affirmed from the beginning (3:20) in Adam and Eve. Likewise, post-flood there remains only one family from which we all descend, namely that of Noah and his sons (Gen. 6).
In the past, some commentators have concluded that Noah’s curse of Canaan in Genesis 9 is actually a curse on the future African race supposedly descended from Ham. However, Hays concludes, with a plethora of supporting evidence, that this division has “absolutely nothing to do with race.” The point of the table of nations (Gen. 10) was that all were acknowledged to have come from the same ancestor. Thabiti Anyabwile on this point exhorts Christians to speak more properly of "ethnicity" instead of "race," since race as a biological fact does not exist. We are all one in Adam, both spiritually and physically speaking.
Notably, the Abrahamic covenant provides for ‘outsiders’ from the outset. God allows and even demands all foreigners within Abraham and his offspring’s households to be circumcised and thus made part of the covenant people (Gen. 17:12), and declares that all nations of the earth will be blessed through Abraham’s line (18:18).

The Law
In the Law, there are numerous generous provisions for sojourners and foreigners who find themselves in Israel’s midst (Ex. 22:21, 23:9; Lev. 19:10,33,34; Deut. 27:19). The rationale nearly always given is that the Hebrews were foreigners themselves in Egypt, where they were subject to terrible oppression. Because God delivered them, they must not in turn become the oppressors. These laws not only show God’s concern for those outside his chosen race, but his disdain for racial oppression and abuse of power. Instead, in the Exodus, he models a righteous use of power. “Already in the Hebrew Bible the power of God liberates rather than subjugates. His use of power, then, is not a contradiction but an expression of his love.” After all, the Lord not only chose a people to give them spiritual salvation, but he delivered them from real physical suffering as well – and judged their oppressors. If this is not an insignificant aspect of salvation to God, neither should the people of God treat it lightly.
Over and over again, it is made clear that God did not choose Israel because of merit or superiority (Deut 7:6-7) but intended them to make him known to all peoples (Deut. 4:6-7, Jos. 4:23-24). Hays also agrees with many scholars that the “mixed crowd” that followed Israel out of Egypt shows that from its earliest existence, Israel was a multi-ethnic people. All were given the same Law and were part of the same community.

Historical books
The book of Ruth is the story of a Moabitess voluntarily joining herself to God’s covenant community, and the kindness of an Israelite man, Boaz, in redeeming and marrying her, much to Ruth’s humble surprise (Ruth 2:10,11). This interracial marriage, far from being condemned, would be the ancestors of David and eventually of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
I Kings 8:41 and I Chronicles 16 both speak of a desire for foreigners to come to God through Israel’s witness, but we find few instances of this actually occurring in the OT. In Esther we finally see Israel’s mission to the nations being successful somewhere: “And many of the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the Jews had fallen on them” (8:17). For the most part, however, Israel has largely been disdainful of God’s call to bring other nations to him.

Psalms
The Psalms continually tell that God rules over all nations (47:2, 65:7, 77:14). Israel is exhorted repeatedly to tell of God’s works (9:11, 57:9, 96:3) and all nations are called to sing and shout praise to Yahweh (47:1,8-9, 66:8, 67:3). Overall, the psalms expect Israel to function as a sort of global worship leader, and demonstrate that God specifically desires diverse peoples to worship him. Even in Psalm 47, where Israel is said to rule over other nations, nations and kingdoms all worship together (47:8).
Psalm 102 also praises God as liberator, as peoples and kingdoms “gather together” to worship (102:18-22). Elsewhere, David sings of true fellowship as being with “anyone who obeys [God’s] commandments” (119:71), while Psalm 133 exults in “brothers” dwelling in harmony. This may refer to Israelite brothers, but in a New Testament context Paul (Phil. 2:22) and Jesus himself (Mk. 3:35) redefine the bonds of kinship from genetic to spiritual.

The prophets
Israel’s failure to reach the nations did not escape God’s attention. Isaiah repeatedly prophesies about a coming era not only of the Gentiles’ ascent to favored status with God (replacing Israel!) but also of unity and peace of all nations (Isaiah 2:1-4, 11:10, 25:6-9, 28:11-12, 56:3-8; 60; 61). Zechariah (8:19-23) tells of a time when “men from the nations of every tongue” will eagerly follow the Jews to their God. Daniel (7:13-14) and Micah (4:1-3) prophesy about future peace among nations and that “all peoples, nations, and languages should serve” (Dan. 7:14) the Ancient of Days.

Summary
In Genesis we are reminded that both human beings’ common ancestry and their diversity are meaningful realities. In the prophets, we also recognize the judgment that Israel faced for neglecting those realities. The Law, Psalms and the prophets all emphasize the duty of God’s people to reach out to all nations and God’s desire for a diversity of worshipers. They all also emphasize God’s role both as ruler and as liberator. This means not only that all power comes from God and is ultimately his, but that he uses his power (and therefore we must use ours) to relieve oppression, humble ourselves and reach out to all peoples. White churches especially would do well not to forget the role of God’s people as liberators of the body as well as the soul and to use their influence for these same ends, which might encourage both compassion and tangible aid toward their brothers and sisters in other ethnic communities. In the Psalms and Ruth, we see that any one of God’s followers ought to be capable of meaningful fellowship with another, regardless of race, status, or tradition.