Year 1, Day 70: Exodus 21

Slavery

Exodus 21 is often thought of as the slave passage.  All the time people take this chapter and lunge into the debate “does the Bible condone slavery?”  So … is slavery Biblically right or wrong?

Without going too far into it, we should note that the Bible does not condone slavery any more than it condones other aspects of humanity’s life such as divorce, polygamy, or anything else.  God realizes that human beings naturally have hard hearts.  People naturally want to be human beings who feel the right to take a slave, apply for a divorce, or have a polygamous relationship.  Just because people feel those needs doesn’t make it right.  Nor does having those needs inherently make them wrong in certain situations as we shall see. 

What the Bible is most interested in is creating and sustaining relationships.  That is why here in the passage it gives rules for slavery.  Of course God would prefer that we all consider each other a brother and sister – but some people will be unable to do so and will want to dominate over another person.  So there are limits as to how much the “evil and hard hearts of humanity” can be tolerated.  For people that felt the need to fulfill their human desire to take a slave, here we have God’s absolute limits.  But in no way should these verses be taken as though we must have slaves in order to follow God.

For the record, the same is true about divorce, polygamy, and just about any other “sin.”  God knows our hearts.  That is why He set up rules.  God would prefer every marriage be perfect and filled with a loving respect mutually shared between spouses.  But when that doesn’t happen, God gives us rules for how to properly deal with it.

God knows that people will want to lie, cheat, and steal, too – and God has given us rules as to how to manage those situations as well.  Just because we have rules as to how to deal with it doesn’t mean God intended those things to happen.  This portion of the Law of Moses is often best seen as a list of moral statues as well as a list of how to deal with people have taken our humanity too far away from God’s desire.

Humanity Makes Things Fun

In the end, I still come down onto this side of the debate: following God is about loving people and being in good spiritual relationships with them.  I don’t see slavery as being too much of a help for that.  I don’t see divorce or polygamy – or lying, cheating, and stealing, either.

But there are extreme exceptions where those things must be accommodated.  For example, is it really wrong for a homeless person to take a mold crusty of bread out of a garbage dumpster?  In most cases, probably not.  It is really wrong for a spouse being abused and suffering under marital infidelity to desire to terminate the ungodly relationship?  In most cases, no.  Is it wrong for a German family to lie to the S.S. squad about the family of Jews hidden in the crawl space below their dining room table?  Not likely.

See, isn’t humanity fun?  We can set up absolutes, but our own hard human hearts will always find out ways to make us break those absolutes or at the very least to muddy the waters.  This is just what it means to be a follower of God.  It means taking what God intended for a perfect world and applying it to a life that is full of imperfect people. 

Yes, I do in fact long for the day when we are in such communion with God that we can follow His ways as intended because they will all seem so natural.  Until then, though, we will do the best we can in balancing human sinfulness, repentance, forgiveness, justice, punishment, right, and wrong.

Grace

What is interesting in this section of the Law of Moses is that people who were subjected to the “ugly” sides of humanity are called out in a special protection under the law.  Slaves had to be released after the seventh year of service (v. 2).  Women forced into polygamous relationships could not be neglected (v. 10).  Unborn infants have rights to live or to be avenged (vv. 22-25)

Also notice that people who are wronged have divinely imposed limits to the retribution that they can seek.  Of course, if death occurs then those limits are steep (vv. 18-20).  I think this is another very important aspect of the law. 

The retribution had to fit the crime.  If a slave lost an eye, that eye buys him his freedom.  The slave had no right to kill the master over the injury because that penalty would have simply been too steep.  If a man is injured in a fight but he can get up and go back to work, he is to be given payment for lost time but no other punishment can be imposed upon the perpetrator.  I think it is important that we all understand that God’s law is set up so that the offense and the punishment are equitable.

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