I have been chronologically reading through the book of Exodus this month, and earlier today, when I cracked my Bible open, I found out–to my dismay–that the next chapters (Exodus 21-23) concerned laws about slavery, restitution, social justice, and Sabbath and festivals. I gotta be honest–wasn’t too pumped to discover that that was going to be the topic of my reading this morning, especially since I was still wiping the sleepy out of my eyes.
I got bummed because the past several chapters I’d read had been full of rich theology and epic narratives, and now I was about to dive into a bunch of seemingly irrelevant, outdated laws that bear no effect on today’s world. At least that’s what I thought.
Of course, the persistent realities of racism and slavery are volatile topics in our current cultural milieu, and the Bible notoriously gets a bad rap from the non-Christian community when the words ‘slavery’ are brought up because of the apparent ‘endorsements’ of slavery in the Bible. But what I found out this morning is that many of the accusations toward the Bible about slavery simply aren’t warranted. What I discovered, however, is that the Bible powerfully upholds a convincing stance towards the sanctity of human life, especially in the issue of slavery.
Certainly, you can read Exodus 21-23 for yourself, but if you want my condensed, spark-noted version with some discussion below, be my guest. So, here are some principles that underpin the laws that God gave to Israel about how to deal with slaves:
- Slaves are not property, but are people, and should be treated as such (21:1-32).
- Whatever debt the person owes you (and has become a slave to you for), you must nevertheless set them free after the end of their 6th year of working to pay off that debt (21:2-4).
- Even though the slave is set free, he has the choice to stay if he loves his master and enjoys the situation that he is in (21:5-6).
- A daughter sold into slavery can be redeemed (21:7-8).
- If the daughter sold into slavery marries a son of the master, then she is deemed as his daughter and treated as such (21:9).
- If a female slave becomes married to a master, then she is ensured total marital rights. If she is not treated as such, then she may be freed without any cost (21:9-11).
- Whoever strikes a slave and puts him to death shall be avenged (21:12, 20).
- Whoever kidnaps someone and tries to sell them as a slave shall be put to death (21:16).
- If you strike a slave and hurt them (but not kill them), then the slave shall go free; as a result, you effectively lose the slave’s work capacity to pay back your debts, so you functionally eat the cost of the debts they owe you (21:26-27).
- If an ox gores a free person or slave, then the ox shall be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten (oxen were large streams of revenue in that day; to have an ox meant you were rich. So if it killed a person or slave, you pay for it big time). Additionally, if an ox kills a slave in particular, the owner pays the master of the slave 30 shekels of silver. Even if the slave only owed 5 shekels of debt to the master, the ox owner must pay 30 shekels regardless (21:28-32).
- Additionally, if an owner’s oxen have a repeated history of goring people (free or slave) in the past, then the ox owner shall be put to death for not taming the oxen appropriately because of the way it threatened the lives of others (21:29).
In other words, God takes all human life very seriously. And this basis starts in creation when God created humanity uniquely in his own image (Gen. 1:27). Significantly, this means all humans inherently, intrinsically possess the same value in God’s eyes–whether individuals are societally deemed ‘slave’ or ‘free’ by their economic situation (Gen. 1:27). In other words, the idea that all humans are made in God’s image essentially means that the value of humanity is equally democratized into each individual person. Thus, God places a high premium upon human life across the board and legislates laws that will protect that value accordingly–even those laws about slavery.
As such, God expected the Israelites (and us today) to honor that design of the inherent value of human life. He expected that this premium on life would be manifested externally in society (including slavery) as much as it is written internally into the human design. And the results of doing so are huge, too. Upholding this God-given ordinance essentially produces two things: 1) it creates humility in each person and facilitates community between all diversities and classes of people, and 2) it destroys self-righteous, smug attitudes and safeguards against unfair subservience based on classist, sexist, or racist notions.
To be sure, the principles that underpin the Bible’s laws about slavery are nothing like what we see in the African Slave Trade, the Confederacy, or other parts of the world today. The Bible’s stance towards slavery and the value of human life is primarily shown by the way that its laws serve to protect the welfare of those aiming to pay back their debts. The main objective of these laws, as seen above in bulleted format, was to protect slaves from being abused and taken advantage of. In fact, the most startling aspect about these laws is that they were not geared specifically toward the slaves, but the slave-owners! The laws were more about constraining the sinful inclinations of the masters than about maintaining the subservience of the slaves. Ultimately, these laws, if anything, speak to the notion that all human life matters and must be honored regardless of said earning potential, skin color, or background.
Yet, to conclude, however, what might be the most compelling factor behind God’s commands surrounding slavery is not found in the imperatives themselves, ironically enough. The compelling factor behind these laws is actually found in the broader context of the entire book: Gratefulness to God for how he delivered the Israelites themselves out of the brutal, oppressive, and exploitative reality of their slavery in Egypt.
So, the laws that God gave to slave-masters about how they should treat their slaves was not predicated solely upon their observance to honor of life as God sees. It’s important to note that these laws of slavery were given in a context to a people who had just been redeemed out of a really, really bad type of slavery in Egypt. This means that these laws helped the Israelites remember what inhumane slavery feels like on the receiving end and prevented them from becoming what the Egyptians were like on the giving end.
But the critical, necessary motivation underneath all of the laws that enabled slave-masters to truly care for the welfare of their slaves was not primarily fear of God’s retribution, but gratefulness for God’s deliverance when they themselves were slaves in Egypt. A personal reminder of Egypt compelled slave-masters from exploiting their slaves and compelled slaves to respect their masters. It was personally moving. Indeed, it was this motivation, and this motivation alone, that was the ‘secret sauce’ or ‘X-factor’ that kept this whole paradigm in tact in a non-exploitative manner. It was this reminder of God’s deliverance that proved to be the fulcrum that not only kept this system of economic slavery in check, but also safeguarded it from becoming anything more than a system of paying back fair debts.
Overall, the laws concerning slavery in the Old Testament were not exploitative, but protective. Unlike other institutions of slavery throughout history, these laws show that human life is to not be demeaned, but esteemed.
