Bible Gateway link Chapter 21
1. The Concept of Slavery
The concept of slavery in ancient Israel and many ancient near eastern cultures is quite different than the type of slavery practiced in the Southern United States during the early 1800's.1 The term slavery was much broader then, since a king's subjects may be referred to as his slaves.2 Slaves were understood to be human beings instead of mere chattel. Slaves could own land and property - something that was illegal in the modern western version.
2. The Drivers of Slavery
Also, we need to remember that slavery in those ages was an aspect of the economic conditions of the day. In fact, most slave situations were not primarily due to a person being taken against his will, but because poor people either sold themselves or their children into slavery. Slavery was designed to pay a debt to a debtor, and once the debt was paid, the person was free. A slave could buy his own freedom from the profits of his selling his property.3
It is noteworthy that many people became bond-slaves (pledged to remain in his master's household for life) because their situation was better as a slave than as a free person. We sometimes assume a modern frame of reference when we talk about these things, but one must remember that life was extremely hard during these times, and to be free meant you had no guarantees that you would have enough food to eat or even a decent house to shelter your family. Add to that taxes from the ruling governments, no protection from raiding parties or foreign invaders and the expense of buying tools to accomplish tasks and you can see how being part of a larger organization could be inviting. You would share in the collective efforts of many people and have access to the resources of a rich master - much the same way the feudal serf system was constructed in the Middle Ages.
3. The Bible's Approach to Slavery
Now, to the Biblical pronouncements on slavery. One of the great things about the God of the Bible is that He provides a realistic approach to the issues of the times. Slavery is definitely not the optimal form of relationship for individuals, but for most of the world's history it is a reality. Therefore, the Bible addresses slavery and provides certain safeguards to make sure that slave are not mistreated and that their humanity will be respected. Let's look at the passage in question then make some quick points:
"If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you. Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you. You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
"If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave. He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. Then he and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and to the property of his forefathers. Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God. (Lev 25.35-43)
Slavery was designed so that the poor could seek protection - this is noted in the passage of Leviticus that your friend quoted. It's driven by the need of the individual who is poor.
Slaves were to be recognized as human beings first and foremost, not property or chattel. Verse 40 states "He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you".4
Slavery had a specific time of service and afterward were allowed to go free. Note that the passage above even includes the family of the slave so as not to break up the family unit.
As an owner, you couldn't "cook the books". A big problem in those days was the charging of exorbitant interest so that slaves would stay indebted to their masters forever (remember Jacob and Laban?). Here, God specifically declares that this practice is forbidden.
According to anthropologist Dexter Callender:
"The Hebrew Bible refers regularly to the people generally as "servants"(>bdym) of God, on the one hand, yet attempts to restrict the possibility of chattel slavery, on the other. With regard both to the understanding of people generally as "slaves/servants" of the god(s) and to the limited role of chattel slavery, ancient Israel appears to have been similar to other ancient Near Eastern societies, and very different from classical Greek and imperial Roman societies. Yet the Hebrew Bible also articulates an opposition unusual in antiquity, to various forms of servitude, one that appears rooted in Israel's formative deliverance from bondage in Egypt, the basis of its own distinctive social identity."5
Overall, all the admonitions are targeted toward the slave owners. In other words, slavery in this day was inevitable, so let's make sure that there are specific protections in place to keep any abuse to a minimum.
I hope this will help clear up some misconceptions about the Biblical view on slavery. As I said, although the Bible gives certain guidelines for treating slaves, that doesn't necessarily mean the Bible condones slavery - especially the more modern type that was practiced in the pre-civil war South.
We are reminded that slaves were to be viewed as human beings and Hebrew slaves were to be released after seven years. Because God's word always portrayed slaves as human beings, once the Christian concept of inherent human value had spread across the world did the practice of slavery begin to fade from society. Christians such as William Wilberforce and others even fought to abolish slavery in more recent times. These points should not be ignored in any serious study of the Biblical position on slavery.
Scott Hescht
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Exodus 20
Bible Gateway link Chapter 20
Do the sons bear the sins of the fathers or not?
Yes they do
(Exodus 20:5) - "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,"
(Deuteronomy 5:9) - "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,"
(Exodus 34:6-7) - "Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."
(1 Cor. 15:22) - "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive."
No they don't
A. (Deuteronomy 24:16) - "Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin."
B. (Ezekiel 18:20) - "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."
Examine the world around you. Sins are passed down. That is why I whole heartedly believe that we should teach our children “Do as I say. Do as I do.” And NOT “Do as I say. Not as I do.”
A man lusts after many women. His children learn the same. A man beats his wife and his children are watching. A woman has no regard for God and her children learn to follow in her footsteps. It is passed down.
Yet each has an internal sense of wrong and right that is only given by God. Each has the choice to step away from their sin by receiving Christ. We can’t get by with saying that we are a wife beater or alcoholic because our father was. We are responsible for our own actions.
We will not be judged for our parent’s sins, but we will be punished if we allow those sins to be passed down to us without repentance.
(side note: As Oprah has sadly mistaken, God is not jealous of you. He is jealous FOR you. No other Gods should be before Him. That is ANYTHING that we put before him.... hobbies, TV, work, etc.)
By Scott Hescht
Do the sons bear the sins of the fathers or not?
Yes they do
(Exodus 20:5) - "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,"
(Deuteronomy 5:9) - "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,"
(Exodus 34:6-7) - "Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."
(1 Cor. 15:22) - "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive."
No they don't
A. (Deuteronomy 24:16) - "Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin."
B. (Ezekiel 18:20) - "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."
Examine the world around you. Sins are passed down. That is why I whole heartedly believe that we should teach our children “Do as I say. Do as I do.” And NOT “Do as I say. Not as I do.”
A man lusts after many women. His children learn the same. A man beats his wife and his children are watching. A woman has no regard for God and her children learn to follow in her footsteps. It is passed down.
Yet each has an internal sense of wrong and right that is only given by God. Each has the choice to step away from their sin by receiving Christ. We can’t get by with saying that we are a wife beater or alcoholic because our father was. We are responsible for our own actions.
We will not be judged for our parent’s sins, but we will be punished if we allow those sins to be passed down to us without repentance.
(side note: As Oprah has sadly mistaken, God is not jealous of you. He is jealous FOR you. No other Gods should be before Him. That is ANYTHING that we put before him.... hobbies, TV, work, etc.)
By Scott Hescht
Exodus 19
Bible Gateway link Chapter 19
My Aunt had a saying; never climb a tree to high trying to get closer to God……….he might shake the tree!
I don’t know if I will get this out right but I am going to try.
We do not go to God’s level, he comes to ours. We are not worthy to climb to the same height as God. Yet HE comes to us daily. The foot of the Mountain is where the Israelites belonged, just like it is where we belong, at the feet of the Lord. We sing praises, and offer Glory up to God, not down to him. This is one of the wonderful yet harder things to grasp sometimes. God does not need us, there is nothing that we can do for God that He cannot do for himself. We need him, yet there is nothing he will not do for us, if we will glorify his name. For those that will follow the Lord, there is nothing that He will not do, he will part the seas, send plagues, he will deliver his people through any hardship, not because he has to, but because he loves us, he wants us to have every reason to shout his name in praise. We are here to experience the joy of loving God, and he will give anything in his power…..and that means more that we can comprehend…..as proof of his love. Even if that means giving his only Son
The Lord is going to make an appearance, by doing so this will again visually prove his existence, and residence among the Israelites. This will also remove any doubt that Moses is in fact a direct conduit for the Lord. There is more than just the boundary being set between God, they must clean their clothes, they must be consecrated, they must stay away form women. SO they have three days to prepare. I do not think that washing their clothes was because God wanted them to “look nice” I am of firm opinion that God does not care about your clothes. I think it is more about being an outward sign of inner cleanliness….. a new start. For the people to be consecrated they must get their thoughts on God, they must lay everything else in their life aside for a while, and concentrate on the glory of the Lord. AS for the no women part, I think this is much like the people who play sports who stay away from the opposite sex before a big game. It is not so much about the physical acts that take place between man and woman. It is more the mental aspect of it. The athletes want to “keep them out of their kitchen”. The people should be prepared to come before God with clean spirit, clean heart, and a clean mind. These are not sacrifices to be made for God; they are outward signs of our love for him that should bring us joy. Nothing that we do, or obtain in this would, not clothes, money, or physical companionship, can compete with the overwhelming joy that would be experienced by the opportunity, not just to give glory to God, but to offer that praise directly to Him when He comes directly to you.
Peace,
Brian
My Aunt had a saying; never climb a tree to high trying to get closer to God……….he might shake the tree!
I don’t know if I will get this out right but I am going to try.
We do not go to God’s level, he comes to ours. We are not worthy to climb to the same height as God. Yet HE comes to us daily. The foot of the Mountain is where the Israelites belonged, just like it is where we belong, at the feet of the Lord. We sing praises, and offer Glory up to God, not down to him. This is one of the wonderful yet harder things to grasp sometimes. God does not need us, there is nothing that we can do for God that He cannot do for himself. We need him, yet there is nothing he will not do for us, if we will glorify his name. For those that will follow the Lord, there is nothing that He will not do, he will part the seas, send plagues, he will deliver his people through any hardship, not because he has to, but because he loves us, he wants us to have every reason to shout his name in praise. We are here to experience the joy of loving God, and he will give anything in his power…..and that means more that we can comprehend…..as proof of his love. Even if that means giving his only Son
The Lord is going to make an appearance, by doing so this will again visually prove his existence, and residence among the Israelites. This will also remove any doubt that Moses is in fact a direct conduit for the Lord. There is more than just the boundary being set between God, they must clean their clothes, they must be consecrated, they must stay away form women. SO they have three days to prepare. I do not think that washing their clothes was because God wanted them to “look nice” I am of firm opinion that God does not care about your clothes. I think it is more about being an outward sign of inner cleanliness….. a new start. For the people to be consecrated they must get their thoughts on God, they must lay everything else in their life aside for a while, and concentrate on the glory of the Lord. AS for the no women part, I think this is much like the people who play sports who stay away from the opposite sex before a big game. It is not so much about the physical acts that take place between man and woman. It is more the mental aspect of it. The athletes want to “keep them out of their kitchen”. The people should be prepared to come before God with clean spirit, clean heart, and a clean mind. These are not sacrifices to be made for God; they are outward signs of our love for him that should bring us joy. Nothing that we do, or obtain in this would, not clothes, money, or physical companionship, can compete with the overwhelming joy that would be experienced by the opportunity, not just to give glory to God, but to offer that praise directly to Him when He comes directly to you.
Peace,
Brian
Exodus 18
Bible Gateway link Chapter 18
Jethro had already learned the important lesson in life. We cannot do everything, for everybody by ourselves. Moses was a great man, and God was with him, there is no doubt of that. However even great men have limits. Even great men can only give so much of themselves before there is nothing left to give. When we do not take time for ourselves, we as individuals suffer. Our relationships suffer; our personal relationship with the Lord suffers. I sum it up to say we cannot clearly hear the Lord whispering in our ear, if we are so busy telling everyone else what to do, that we do not take time to listen.
We have to learn to say no. Yes that even means sometimes we have to say no when we do not want to. That means the Church might have to find someone else to head up that next project, or your friend might need to find someone else to help them out this time. I am by no means saying that we should push away from our duties, but we do have to realize our own time constraints. When we try to do too much we become ineffective at most of what we are doing, and everyone suffers. We get so busy trying to do everything, that worst case nothing gets done correctly……or best case we skim over everything, and do not devote enough time to the important work that needs to be done.
This is the situation that Moses is in. He feels that he should be the one to handle everything. Since he is the one person everyone goes to for a ruling, the Israelites as a whole have to put all of their disagreements on hold until they can bring them before Moses. Not only is this quite a burden to place on one person, it is quite a burden to place on the people. They deserve better as does Moses. The wonderful idea that Jethro gives to Moses is an idea we can all use. Find people you can trust, and give them the smaller part of the responsibility.
We all know at least one person that cannot say no. If you do not know anyone like that…..well maybe you are that person! What we have to realize is that while the Lord has a plan for all of us, I can promise you, that the Lord does not expect you to accomplish his entire plan by yourself! We each have a part, and that is all we can do, when we see the need for more to be done, that is when we should be turning to our friends, and asking for help. When we find ourselves stretched too thin, that is when we should turn to the Lord, and ask for help…..and the strength to say no!
Peace,
Brian
Jethro had already learned the important lesson in life. We cannot do everything, for everybody by ourselves. Moses was a great man, and God was with him, there is no doubt of that. However even great men have limits. Even great men can only give so much of themselves before there is nothing left to give. When we do not take time for ourselves, we as individuals suffer. Our relationships suffer; our personal relationship with the Lord suffers. I sum it up to say we cannot clearly hear the Lord whispering in our ear, if we are so busy telling everyone else what to do, that we do not take time to listen.
We have to learn to say no. Yes that even means sometimes we have to say no when we do not want to. That means the Church might have to find someone else to head up that next project, or your friend might need to find someone else to help them out this time. I am by no means saying that we should push away from our duties, but we do have to realize our own time constraints. When we try to do too much we become ineffective at most of what we are doing, and everyone suffers. We get so busy trying to do everything, that worst case nothing gets done correctly……or best case we skim over everything, and do not devote enough time to the important work that needs to be done.
This is the situation that Moses is in. He feels that he should be the one to handle everything. Since he is the one person everyone goes to for a ruling, the Israelites as a whole have to put all of their disagreements on hold until they can bring them before Moses. Not only is this quite a burden to place on one person, it is quite a burden to place on the people. They deserve better as does Moses. The wonderful idea that Jethro gives to Moses is an idea we can all use. Find people you can trust, and give them the smaller part of the responsibility.
We all know at least one person that cannot say no. If you do not know anyone like that…..well maybe you are that person! What we have to realize is that while the Lord has a plan for all of us, I can promise you, that the Lord does not expect you to accomplish his entire plan by yourself! We each have a part, and that is all we can do, when we see the need for more to be done, that is when we should be turning to our friends, and asking for help. When we find ourselves stretched too thin, that is when we should turn to the Lord, and ask for help…..and the strength to say no!
Peace,
Brian
Exodus 17
Bible Gateway link Chapter 17
Here again God, the Old Testament God that everyone holds as being so spiteful, gives us another showing of compassion, and uses Moses to magnify his strength. The people rise up against Moses once again, and demand water. They actually demand it! After all the Lord has done, still they demand more. They do not ask, they do not give thanks and glorify the Lord……just as many people still do today, they take everything that is given and demand MORE!
SO the Lord tells Moses to take his staff, and some elders, go to a specific place, and strike a rock with his staff, when Moses Struck the rock water came forth…..not just a little bit, not a small dribble, but life giving water, here again, just as with the bread, enough for everyone! At a time when the people doubt God, even after everything he has done He has done for them, when they want to question if God is even with them any longer..(Let’s not forget they are asking this while they are following the fiery column of smoke….can anyone say HELLOOOO)…..God, instead of striking them down, he gives them life giving water.
A people so undeserving of anything more, and showing quite undeserving of what they already have been given, are given even more, they are given life giving water….does that sound familiar? Just another example of the Wonderful God we serve!
Peace,
Brian
Here again God, the Old Testament God that everyone holds as being so spiteful, gives us another showing of compassion, and uses Moses to magnify his strength. The people rise up against Moses once again, and demand water. They actually demand it! After all the Lord has done, still they demand more. They do not ask, they do not give thanks and glorify the Lord……just as many people still do today, they take everything that is given and demand MORE!
SO the Lord tells Moses to take his staff, and some elders, go to a specific place, and strike a rock with his staff, when Moses Struck the rock water came forth…..not just a little bit, not a small dribble, but life giving water, here again, just as with the bread, enough for everyone! At a time when the people doubt God, even after everything he has done He has done for them, when they want to question if God is even with them any longer..(Let’s not forget they are asking this while they are following the fiery column of smoke….can anyone say HELLOOOO)…..God, instead of striking them down, he gives them life giving water.
A people so undeserving of anything more, and showing quite undeserving of what they already have been given, are given even more, they are given life giving water….does that sound familiar? Just another example of the Wonderful God we serve!
Peace,
Brian
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