“GOD and Slavery!”
Grace Note #98
By Gary L. Clendenon, May 9, 2021
All Bible passages from The Message Bible, unless otherwise stated
There are racists who miss-use the Bible to support their beliefs, thus making God and themselves racist. I’m sure I join you in believing they are completely wrong and un-Biblical in their beliefs. However, these people do show us a glimpse into the answer of how we got here. It is possible for human beings—even “God Followers”—to be completely sincere and have hugely wrong beliefs. As you no doubt know, the history of the world and our country are full of examples of this and the results that follow.
From my perspective as a Bible-believing Christian who has studied the Bible all my life, it is impossible to legitimately argue that GOD is in any way a racist. Therefore, those who would argue that can only be arguing from a place of misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Knowing what we know about GOD, how could anyone say that some humans—who all descended from the same Adam and Eve that GOD created and loved—are better in GOD’s eyes than other humans based on their skin color or where they live?
We must all be loved equally or not at all. “For GOD so LOVED THE WORLD that he gave his one and only Son, that WHOEVER believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NIV, emphasis mine) “Whoever” means there are no race or color or geographic requirements or limitations. Paul, in Galatians 3:28-29, reinforces this anti-racist message this way: “In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ.” So, no, GOD is NOT a “Racist”!
So, is GOD “Pro-slavery”? Short answer: “No”. Less short answer: “No, because GOD’s ideal for humanity—as stated above—is that all humans would be equal and treat each other equally.” Obviously, that didn’t happen after sin came into the world. Humans in their selfishness struggled and fought for control, dominance, and power over others. Given this sad result of sin, how would GOD respond? That is the “Longer answer” we will now explore.
To understand the “Longer answer”, we need to pull back all the way to the “Big picture” of who GOD is and how GOD relates to broken humans. What I’m going to share next comes from two of the main bedrock principles found in the Bible. 1: “God is Love.” (I John 4:8) and 2: Because GOD is Love, “GOD meets people where they are at” and attempts to grow them up into mature humans. (I Cor. 3:1-3/13:11/(1))
Let’s look at how these principles applied to the Israelites: when GOD rescued the Hebrews out from hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt, the Israelites had long since forgotten the glory days of their ancestors Joseph and Abraham. For many, those old stories of a God who blessed and interacted with His people had almost become “Fairy tales”. The Children of Israel had for the most part, as usually happens, become culturally adapted to the cruel and violent world they lived and grew up in. Given this adaptation, how then could GOD best meet these people where they were at?
Old Testament scholar, Alden Thompson, in his book Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God, answers that question this way:
“The Old Testament people were often violent; God had to meet them there and help them from there. ...when this rough lot of ex-slaves arrived at Sinai, the laws which God gave them through Moses provide clear evidence that these people...were so deeply involved with cruel customs that instant abolition of such customs was out of the question. The best that could be done in some instances was a slight ‘humanizing’ of some of the more barbaric aspects. … God took this people, in spite of the many barbaric and cruel customs which they had adopted, and began to draw them to him. He wished to show them a better way. But if human beings are to be treated as real human beings who possess the power of choice, then the ‘better way’ must come gradually.” (pg. 24-25, 63.)
GOD met the Hebrews where they were at, and through “Baby steps” attempted to pull them in the direction He desired them to go.
Philip Yancey, in his book The Bible Jesus Read, compares our harsh judgment of GOD’s laws to the view of other nation’s laws at the time of the Israelites in the following quote:
“The Hebrews lived in wild, barbaric times. Their laws, which may seem harsh to us, represent a great softening compared to their neighbors’ laws. They established basic rules of warfare and enshrined in their laws respect for the poor and care for the environment. They set limits on revenge and built Cities of Refuge. We must remember, as we look back on a time of blood vengeance, slavery, polygamy...that God had to work with people’s moral condition at a certain stage. … For a time, he [God] allowed behavior that he disapproved of, ‘because your hearts were hard’.” (Preface, p. 12-13.) (2)
Thomas Cahill, in his book The Gift of the Jews, elaborates on this important theme of a kinder, gentler law:
“...this long-winded, unwieldy compilation of assorted prescriptions represents an overall softening—a humanizing—of the common law of the ancient Middle East…. The casual cruelty of other ancient law codes...is seldom matched in the Torah. Rather, in the prescriptions of Jewish law we cannot but note a presumption that all people, even slaves, are human and that all human lives are sacred. The content bias [of the laws of Torah] is in favor not of the powerful and their possessions but of the powerless and their poverty; and there is even a frequent enjoinder to sympathy: ‘A sojourner [foreigner] you are not to oppress: you yourselves know well the feelings of the sojourner [foreigner], for sojourners [foreigners] you were in the land of Egypt.’ This bias toward the underdog was unique not only in ancient law but in the whole history of the law.” (pg. 154-55, emphasis mine)
The other day I was studying the laws given to Moses that immediately follow the “10 Commandments”. Out of all the laws given to Moses—and there were many—the very first laws are about slavery! Exodus 21 commands that if a Hebrew is made a slave, then after serving 6 years, that slave must be released. If that slave enjoys working for the owner, then that slave has the option to choose to become a permanent slave. (Obviously, the slave would have to be treated very well over those 6 years to choose to become a permanent slave!) If a slave owner were to cause permanent harm to a slave, the law stated that slave must be freed—again causing the owner to be careful of how he treated his slaves! (Exodus 21:2-6)
It gets even better! In Deuteronomy 15:12-15,18 after repeating the command to set a slave free after six years of service, it goes on to say: “...don’t send them away empty-handed. Provide them with some animals, plenty of bread and wine and oil. Load them with provisions…. Don’t consider this an unreasonable hardship...after all, they have worked for you for six years at ½ of the cost of a hired hand. Don’t for a minute forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and GOD, your God, redeemed you from that slave world.”
There were also different laws for female slaves, as the intent was for the female slave to become a wife of the slave owner’s son, and then be treated as a daughter of the new family. If that didn’t happen, her family could buy her back. If the slave woman did become a wife and her husband married a new woman, the husband was required to provide for ALL her needs. If that didn’t happen, she was free to leave him, without penalty or cost. (Exodus 21:8-11)
It must also be remembered that as a part of the 4th of the 10 Commandments, all slaves were not to work on the Sabbath day—a reminder that all humans were created of GOD and equally valued in His eyes.
It is clear from these Bible laws regarding slavery that the intent of them was to value and honor slaves as human beings who were important to take care of well. As I read and pondered these laws, it brought to mind a question: “What would have happened if early Americans had followed these Biblical laws?” The logical answer surprised me. I believe that our early United States History would be completely different if slave owners had followed the Biblical laws regarding slavery! The misuse and abuse of slaves is clearly the saddest part of U.S. History and the many, many lives—deaths—it took to get to a healthier place regarding this topic could have all been avoided if only they had followed the Bible’s teachings on slavery. How sad and unfortunate!
It seems that these early Biblical ideas of treating slaves well, knowingly or unknowingly I’m not sure, may have have had some influence in the ancient world as it later developed. In an article entitled “The History of Slavery”, it says “The practice of human slavery grew as the world became more civilized and organized cities and farms were developed. According to historical texts, the lives of slaves in ancient times were typically better than that of peasants in the same era, as they had regular care, food, shelter and clothing. Slaves rarely attempted to run away unless their masters were atypically cruel.” (3, emphasis mine)
Moving on into the New Testament Bible, since, as has been shown, by the time of Jesus and the Roman Empire, slavery was completely common and normal, naturally, in “meeting people where they where at”, Jesus’ parables and stories often included slaves in them. These inclusions confirm the normalcy of slavery in that society. Jesus said nothing against such slavery. Apparently, it wasn’t time.
The Apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament had some things to say about slaves and slavery. Recently Ty Gibson preached a sermon on Ephesians 6:5-9 (4) which included the famous Pauline instruction for slaves to obey their masters and for masters to treat their slaves well.
Gibson said that according to John Stotts, there were approximately 60 million slaves in the ancient Roman Empire. At that time, slaves had no human rights and their owners could treat them however they wished—and they did.
Paul’s words to treat one’s slaves well, were, according to Gibson, at the time they were written, “revolutionary”—re-framing “misuse and abuse of power” to “using one’s power to nurture and create well-being”. Paul’s words were revolutionary in the way they equalized the power dynamics of that age. From his position in History, Paul is scandalously ruling out all abuse of power towards underlings.
Gibson concludes: “This text was not an affirmation of slavery, but the Biblical beginning of the end of slavery.” Paul is setting up the time when the mindset of human equality would not allow for the enslavement of others. Unfortunately, as we know now, that took a long time to come about.
What happened to slavery, and specifically, black racism after Bible times? I found that David M. Goldenberg, after researching this topic for 13 years, concluded that in biblical and post-biblical Judaism there were no anti-black or racist sentiments. He says that the notion of black inferiority developed later, as blacks were enslaved across cultures. His findings dovetail with those of other scholars who have not found anti-black sentiment in ancient Greece, Rome, or Arabia. (5)
So, research tells us that it wasn’t until the 18th and 19th centuries that “Genesis 9:18-27 became the curse of Ham, a foundation for myth for collective degradation, conventionally trotted out as God’s reason for condemning generations of dark-skinned peoples from Africa to slavery.” (5) Turns out American and European slavery were, at best, based on a hugely unfortunate misunderstanding of the “Curse of Ham” by Noah, or, at worst, an intentional, convenient misuse of the Genesis text. Even, at best, though, the clear Biblical commands to treat slaves well—as full human beings—were completely ignored.
There is a factor regarding this topic that we have not talked about. As Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, “...we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked forces in the heavenly world...the cosmic powers of this dark age.” To be more specific, Peter says quite clearly: “Be alert, on watch! Your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (I Peter 5:8)
As I stated in the beginning of this article, GOD is Love. Because that is true, when we ask the question “Who or what does racism and slavery serve?” clearly the answer is NOT “Love”. It is equally as clear, if you think about it, that racism and slavery could not serve Satan’s Kingdom more!
It is the Devil’s desire to completely destroy the Image of GOD in humans, and racism and slavery are a hugely successful method for reaching that goal. Sadly, as we have seen, Christians are not immune from being deceived by “The Father of Lies”. But, this lie has been exposed and cannot any longer stand. Racism and Slavery are Evil, and children of Satan himself.
“Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.” ~ Romans 12:21 (NLT) End of Story.
FOOTNOTES:
1. For those of you who are Seventh-day Adventists, Ellen G. White states this principle often, but best in Selected Messages, Book One, p. 22: “The Lord speaks to human beings in imperfect speech, in order that the degenerate senses, the dull, earthly perception, of earthly beings may comprehend His words. Thus is shown God’s condescension. He meets fallen human beings where they are.” (emphasis mine)
2. Yancey is quoting Jesus from Mathew 19 where he says: “Moses provided for divorce as a concession to your hard heartedness, but it is not part of God’s original plan.” This is more evidence for “God meeting people where they are at.” Jesus was citing that it is the hardness (or softness) of human hearts that causes GOD to make adjustments in how He interacts with us and instructs us to interact with others.
3. The History of Slavery - Restavek Freedom
4. Storyline Sermon, May 22, 21 (https://youtu.be/w5KcYdB_f1w)
5 From-Noahs-Curse-to-Slaverys-Rationale.-NYT-article-about-Ham-Noahs-accursed-son.pdf (epl.org)
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