Well how did slavery exist typically in Israel, back in the day? It was actually
an "indentured servitude". It was less than a "slavery". Like, you are kidnapped and
brought over and you're put into service. Rather it was more of an indentured
servitude or a work for for a contract period of time. It really was. It was a
contracted period of time it was voluntary.
Rather than starving I would hook myself up with someone who had the money,
I would say, "I will serve you for X number of years if you provide for me"
housing and clothing and perhaps a wage above and beyond that". You can think of
Jacob and Laban as being an example of this. Jacob leaves, Esau is chasing him, and he's
got nothing. Just the clothes on his back basically. He finds Laban, he ends up
coming into a seven-year contract with him. Seven years was the maximum right
So he gets in the seven-year contract with him and then his
pay changes. And Laban was a bad owner, he would have been rebuked
under the Old Testament Law. But there's an example of how somebody moved into
that position. It was, again, it was caused by poverty not racial status. It was not
caused by racial status but by poverty. There was no rape involved in God's
regulations of slavery. Firstly because rape was punishable by death
and you had the same law for the slave as you did for the free in Israel. There was
also no sex outside of marriage, so there would be no outside of marriage
fornication allowed, whether they were a slave or not a slave. And if they were
married if a master, or whatever you want to call him, married this
servant girl then the Bible requires that he give her the full status of a
wife. And he's not allowed to just divorce her, so he can't do this
"one-night-stand" kind of thing. Ne he has to give her the full status
of a wife! so it actually elevated her rights dramatically. Here's one of the
laws in Israel "He who kidnaps a man and sells him or if he's found in his hand
shall surely be put to death". This is an important law in Israel, kidnapping was
dealt with very seriously it wasn't a $5,000 fine and up to six months in jail.
You would die. If you kidnap somebody you were you were to be put to death, you
know, executed through capital punishment. This one law, this
single law would make new world slavery completely impossible because so much of
it was fueled by kidnapping. That's Exodus 21:16. Notice that if
you're either the kidnapper or the guy that's found with the kidnap victim (he
who kidnaps a man and sells him or if he's found in his hand he shall be put
to death). So you could be the guy that has these
slaves on your plantation and you're like, "well I didn't kidnap him", tough!
You know, this would not work. What about abuse? What about when the
slaves were being abused? Well in Exodus 21 verse 26 and 27 it says,
"if a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant and destroys it or
damages arise so they can't see he shall let them go free for the sake
of his eye and if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant he
shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth." Now is God only concerned
with eyes and teeth? It seems to be that the point is if he does some sort
of serious permanent bodily harm to this person, although you wouldn't consider
losing a tooth to be "serious" but your point is, it demonstrates abuse. Then he
goes free. They go free. They break the contract and they go completely free
This also would be really protective and really, actually elevating
the rights of those who were servants during that time. Verses 20 and 21 says
this, and here's one the critics will quote, and wrongly I think.
"And if a man beats his male or female servant with a rod so that he dies under
his hand he shall surely be punished notwithstanding if he remains alive a
day or two he shall not be punished for he is his property." So let me dig into
this, because here's what the skeptics say, "you can beat them within an inch of
their life and it's okay, you get off scot-free!" But that's really not the
context of the passage. Let's look at it. First off, if he beats the servant and
they die, he shall be "punished", that is the word "naqam" and it's specifically
used regarding the death penalty. The point here is that just because you are
the "master" you don't get off scot-free. If you slay, if you kill
someone you get the death penalty! And that applies if they're a slave or if
they're not. So then they go, "well, but if they don't
die you can beat them within an inch of their life!" Well, no, no, no. Let's read this
in context cause we just read a few verses back that, what, if there is a beating or
loss of a tooth, loss of the use of the eye or something along those lines they
go free. So what does this verse 21 really mean? "Notwithstanding if he remains alive
a day or two he shall not be punished (naqam, he shall not be put to death) for
he is his property". Because what's going to happen? He's going to lose this servant!
So there's your punishment. You just lost the money, say you had a work contract,
I'm gonna give you such and such and you're gonna serve me for this much time.
Well I've defaulted the contract. Here's your money, bye! I'm out!
And so it becomes a protective device for the servants. Deuteronomy 23:15-16
talk about this. It says, "You shall not give back to his
master the slave who is escaped from his master to you." let me read that again.
"You shall not give back to his master this slave who has escaped from his master to you.
He may dwell with you in your midst in the place which he chooses within one
of your gates where it seems best to him. You shall not oppress him." Wow! Why would
this be going on? This doesn't make sense, right? Well, it's because, if the master
was violating rules or being abusive or being somehow harsh and ungodly to
the servant, then they could flee and the other people in Israel are required to
help them! To help them hide to let them... "oh you want to place okay let's
help you set up a place over here, over here, over there." That was required under
this Old Testament system. That is, yes, it's regulating slavery but in a way
that seems to be only meant to bring godliness into the picture, to bring
protection and bring help. But now let's look at the New Testament. What about the
New Testament? New Testament slavery did exist but it wasn't a Hebrew thing, it
was a Roman thing and it didn't have the regulations of God on it at all.
So there are no regulations given in the New Testament because God was not
starting a nation. There was no national laws given in the New Testament but
rather individual personal laws. How should I behave? How should I behave?
Right. So there's advice given to those who are slaves, that is not
however an endorsement of their slavery. For instance, we are given advice if
we're persecuted, "if you're persecuted do this do that", does that mean that it's
good for people to persecute Christians? No. And so the fact that we have advice
to those who were enslaved is not an endorsement of their slavery. But first
Timothy 1:10, check this out, here's another verse about kidnapping
"it says fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers
and if there's any other thing contrary to sound doctrine", saying the law is for
these people, and who's on the list? Kidnappers and this is a word that had
the connotation of slave traders whether that would be for a sex slave trade or
for some other kind of slave trade. This is a wicked, detestable act, Old Testament
through New Testament, it is something that no God-fearing Christian should
ever be caught having anything to do with. And we should all be ready to
stand against it if at all possible. The scripture, throughout it, condemns the
elements of slavery that made slavery so wrong; the kidnapping, the forced elements
of it. It condemns the violence or the abuse or the rape or the sex slavery
type of stuff that's gone on. It condemns throughout all that type of
thing and then it also endorses the fact that with God there's no partiality.
There's just no partiality. Slave, free, they're all the same to the Lord and He
will judge each one individually. Acts 17:26 says that God
has made us all from one blood, "He has made from one blood every nation of men."
Every nation has been made from one blood. Even the idea of racism is kind of
strange because, I mean, how many races are there? We're just
humans you know. That's it, we're humans! I wish we could, like, get on
a on a big lineup just everybody from the widest white guy in the world
to the darkest black person on the planet. And then have everybody
in-between just showing there isn't this clear-cut, like "here's these
people" and "here's those people" and "here's those". We're just this great
variety of humans and there's really no significant difference between them.
None. We're all made in the image of God and we're all made from one blood we all
come from Adam and Eve and so that discounts the whole idea of racism which
of course fueled slavery back then.
What you've just seen is only a snippet of a
larger teaching on the topic of "Slavery in the Bible". If you'd like to hear the
whole thing then please click here. Now, if you want
to learn how to think biblically about everything I encourage you to check out
my channel, to subscribe, to look through the video lists and the series that I've
got there. Because a lot of work has gone into helping people to learn to think
biblically about everything.
That's my cat. :)