Slavery in the Bible, It’s Not What You Think

We started our new teaching series on slavery in the bible during Christian Education this Sunday. In this first session we:

1. Discussed the differences between slavery in antebellum America compared with slavery in the Ancient Near East.

2. Discussed the causes of slavery and exploitation (a brief exposition of Genesis 2 and 3)

3. Began to look at God’s provisions for the poor under the Old Covenant as a means to prevent any kind of slavery…and finally

4. Began to look at the Old Testament laws pertaining to the Hebrew slave (whether due to debt or poverty).

The most crucial observation so far: ‘slavery’ under the Old Covenant was always voluntary and always as a last resort to save the lives of the poor. In fact, taking a Hebrew slave is presented as of an act of generosity for a poor brother – a beneficial act for him – not an exploitative one against him. Toward the end of the session I was stretching for the text (which had escaped my mind…I hate when that happens) in which God commands his people to take care for the poor up to the point of taking him on as a slave. The text I was trying to remember is Leviticus 25:35-43. Here it is, followed by the audio recording of the class:

“If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. 36 Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. 39 “If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: 40 he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43 You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God.” (Leviticus 25:35-43)