“If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave, he shall leave single. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife must be freed with him. “If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave and they had sons or daughters, then only the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. But the slave may declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I don’t want to go free.’ If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will serve his master for life. “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not satisfy her owner, he must allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. But if the slave’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave but as a daughter. “If a man who has married a slave wife takes another wife for himself, he must not neglect the rights of the first wife to food, clothing, and sexual intimacy. If he fails in any of these three obligations, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. [Exodus 21.2-11]
We certainly live in different times.
Has it occurred to anyone else that God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, but then gave rules for dealing with their own slaves afterward?
Is slavery a problem with a solution? Or is slavery a solution with a problem?
In the context of this blog, I have said it before and I will say it now again: Slavery was once a social solution through which people who fell upon hard times (resultant to their own shortcomings or chance) were humanely cared for and given a way to continue to survive as well as have the opportunity to be free again after a period of time. There were neither shortsighted government control nor lifeless welfare programs to perpetually fail. When a person got into financial trouble, they simply offered themselves to another as a slave. In return, they could either receive initial compensation for their person and/or, for a prescribed period of time (until the established "seventh year"), receive food, clothing, and shelter in exchange for their servitude. Slavery provided as ideal and non-permanent (unless voluntarily agreed to) environment as possible to a person fallen upon hard times to rehabilitate and get re-established.
Nothing about Biblical slavery pertained to race or color. It was purely a socio-economic plan to deal with both the real human problems of individual financial carelessness and circumstances beyond individual control (tragedy, death, despair, etc.).
If slavery was NOT a viable and humane social solution, why in the world would it be the second issue expounded upon (after the Ten Commandments) by God through Moses (second only to instructions for building an altar to worship God)?
Here is a thought! Egypt enslaved the Israelites through government edict. In fact, in the USA, the predominant social programs in place to help the financially disabled today are more like Egypt's government control than they are like God's remedy! Plus, the efficiency of government control is practically nil compared to the more personal slave-owner oversight. If the USA has proven anything to the world, this would be it!
Human rights? Absolutely! Everyone has the right to attempt to succeed. If however any person fails to succeed, then it is a simple fact that that person will require oversight - at least for a time - to get back to a place of independence. Slavery, as non-alarmingly presented in the Bible, gives as good a solution as any social program could ever provide. I would furthermore interject that the Bible's early priority of addressing the issue of slavery is proof positive of slavery's importance to the function and survival of any society! And, it is much more humane for a person to look to another actual person for social "help" than to depend on an over-size, inefficient, and largely corrupt and entirely impersonal government!
The social programs found in the USA today do more to retard the financial stability of its recipients that they do to rehabilitate and restore personal financial stability.
For the record, the 'slavery' of early USA history was nothing less than human trafficking. Human beings were bought and sold based entirely upon the color of their skin with no hope of release. The human trafficking of early US history was no different than the ever-increasing human trafficking problem present today in the United States and abroad involving mostly women and children.
Here is the primary difference between human trafficking and slavery: human trafficking cares nothing for the individuals fallen victim to it; slavery, on the other hand was about rehabilitation and restoration of those incapable of caring for themselves.
Of course it is a touchy subject. I suppose the damage upon the positive social aspects of Biblical slavery inflicted by human trafficking will never be overcome. Human solutions (government social programs) have effectively enslaved the majority of tax-paying citizens. The irony is limitless.
Father, while it is encouraging to see Your loving care for all humanity portrayed in the Bible, it is also disheartening to see that mankind has grossly ignored the Bible and offered solutions that are in fact more problem than solution. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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