Slaves to God

 

It’s about high time I did a talk on slavery. Yes, slavery!  Too often I hear sceptics complaining about how immoral the bible is because it condones slavery.

 

Of course, it condones slavery! Why is this even a big deal? Mankind likes to enslave their fellowmen so our creator decided to give us humans a little leeway and set some rules around how do deal with slaves.  Hallelujah!

 

I don’t know about you, my brothers and sisters, but I AM a slave to Christ. And what a privilege that is. I give thanks every day for being God’s slave. I follow what Paul himself said in the book of Ephesians 6 verse 5:

 

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

 

We obey Christ because we are his slaves and likewise slaves must obey their earthly masters! No matter how much we might get beaten and slapped about, we must be good obedient slaves who put our masters first.

 

The same applies to God. He can smash me around, he can send all sorts of horrors and trials my way and he calls it testing. Testing our faith and our loyalty to him. He could destroy your life just like he did Job’s.  I give thanks for those beatings, yes I do. I too want to be as faithful as Job.

 

When we look at the following verses, we should rejoice! Hallelujah!

 

Exodus 21:20-21 

When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished.  If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. 

 

So right here, it shows us that the slave owner can beat the hell out of him just as long as the slave doesn’t die within a couple of days. Praise God! God likewise beats us too and makes us suffer, but we still live, don’t we? Regular beatings by God make us stronger, so thus slaves should be willing to suffer the same when it comes to their earthly masters! Praise GOD!

 

Luke 12:47-48

47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

 

So we as God’s slaves are expected to obey his commands. The more rebellious one is, the more beatings one deserves! And the same goes for slaves of earthly masters too!

 

I have heard the ridiculous argument that slavery in the bible isn’t the same as the slavery we see with the likes of black Africans. That the slavery in the bible is actually indentured servitude where people sold THEMSELVES to people to work off debts.

 

Oh you foolish, foolish people. Have you not read your bible properly? The verses I have already quoted must surely show you that slavery in the bible is EXACTLY the same as the slavery we have known from recent history. You’re not supposed to beat servants are you? 

 

If you had read your bible properly, you would have seen that the bible quite clearly makes a distinction between slavery and indentured servitude:

 

 Leviticus 25:39 "And if your brother becomes poor beside you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired servant and as a sojourner."

 

Look at that verse, my brothers and servants. You can see here, it quite clearly states that your brother gets to be an indentured servant as OPPOSED TO being a slave!  See how even the bible makes this clear distinction?

 

Slaves and indentured servants are DIFFERENT!

 

So what is the difference between a slave and a hired servant (indentured servant)?

 

Well, not a lot really. They are both still owned by another human. It’s just the indentured servant gets to leave after a while, unless his master has tricked him by giving him a wife!

 

Exodus 21:4-6

If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

 

That’s one very clever way to keep a servant forever. Give him a wife. And hey, wives were a dime a dozen back then. Just buy one from the nearest father!

 

Back in those times, indentured servants (not slaves) got to enjoy a 50 year jubilee release (Leviticus 25),  where they were set free (unless of course you were hoodwinked into staying by being given a wife).

 

How kind of God to include this 50 year limit on a servant? How generous! But if you’re smart, just make sure you avoid buying servants a few years before that jubilee and go on a servant buying spree after the jubilee celebrations have ended. Buy up all the servants you need and then by the time the next jubilee rolls around they’ll be so old they won’t be of any use to you anyway! PRAISE THE LORD!

 

Now let me make this one thing very clear… you can ONLY be an indentured servant if you are a fellow Israelite, as Leviticus clearly tells us above. However, if you’re a foreigner then you are just a plain old slave and you will be your master’s property forever!  Jubilee or no jubilee!  

 

Plus you can be handed down to their kids! 

 

Leviticus 25:44-46

As for your male and female slaves whom you may have-- you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you.  You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.

 

See that? Foreigners can be treated ruthlessly! God has given his permission! Only Israelites get the privilege of being an indentured servant for 50 years. They get better treatment for the fact they aren’t a filthy foreigner! 

 

Nevertheless, you didn’t always have to buy slaves. You could simply invade cities and take slaves for free!

 

Deuteronomy 20:10-14

When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labour and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it.  As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies.

 

Numbers 31:17-18

Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

 

Sex Slaves! Concubines as the bible often calls them.  YES! According to God and the bible, we are allowed them! God rewarded his faithful followers with sex slaves/concubines of their own that they could keep forever and hand down to the next generation! 

 

So don’t get confused between slaves and indentured servants, my brothers and sisters. An indentured servant is sometimes a temporary thing. A true slave is owned forever and treated like property, beaten and abused. Treated RUTHLESSLY.  

 

Still, I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be a slave to Christ than a temporary servant of Christ. HALLELUUUUUUUJAH!!!

 

Pastor Jake