Slavery

Slavery

Slavery was allowed in the beginning, but carefully regulated.

Leviticus 25:44-46

“As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.”

From our perspective of post-abolition and civil rights, it is difficult to understand the teaching of God’s Law about slavery. The people of Israel were allowed to own slaves, and they could purchase them from other nations or even from the foreigners who sojourned in their midst. These slaves became their property and could be bequeathed to children upon the owner’s decease.

Slavery in Israel, however, was not like slavery in the surrounding nations; nor was it like the chattel slavery that characterized the early years of the American experience. Slaves were protected by the Law of God, which recognized them as human beings and deserving of love from their masters. Yes, they were slaves, and their freedoms were thus limited. But, as we shall see, slavery was neither a condition of oppression nor of finality in ancient Israel.

And, as Paul’s treatment of Onesimus indicates, and his advice to Timothy (1 Tim. 1:8-11), slavery is not an institution Christians should continue in the age of the Spirit and the Gospel.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.