December 31, 2020
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in some Exodus? Here’s today’s reading:
Exodus 21 (NIV)
1“These are the laws you are to set before them:
Hebrew Servants
2“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything.........Continue Reading
This chapter begins the framework of laws for the Israelites. They do seem reasonable and protect those that need protecting such as slaves and women and children.
I do see the “eye for an eye” verses more as a reminder that punishments should fit crimes and not exceed them. It is God’s reasonable approach to keeping peace and avoiding unnecessary, brutal consequences for crimes.
I found it interesting that for crimes against slaves resulted in their freedom. Another way God is discouraging brutality and unfair treatment.
God is shown as a just, merciful God through these laws.
Exodus 19-21
Gods Laws never changed showing a connection with him (1-4) and the intended man-man relationships (5-10). A representation of the cross. Chapter 20 is great to check with in these days, what God intended for the Israelites still more important and a great reference for us.
It’s important to remember that these laws were given at a very different time, and what may seem archaic in approving things like slavery, it is far more gracious than standards of the times and protects the most vulnerable of society. We also see a consistent strain of rules that make things fair and equitable. Personal responsibility is another principle that is seen consistently. But mostly the wisdom of God knowing that any group of people require a set of standards to live by and who better to give them than the one who created us…..
Exodus 21
Exodus 21
I found many of these laws interesting and mostly appropriate.
I think that our current understanding of slavery is limited to our knowledge of slavery in the US, but I think that it is much more complex than that. I believe that people were enslaved when nation conquered nation, like the Jews in Egypt. Or a person may be enslaved because they were indebted to someone. Or people might enslave themselves as provision when entering a foreign nation. Or children may be sold as slaves….sounds harsh, but perhaps there was no other way to provide for them. I wonder too, if in some cases the term servants/slaves were used synonymously and a person who was a servant was a free-working person. This would be an interesting Bible word-study.
One thing that slavery is/was NOT supposed to be, was a kidnapping and selling of people: “He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.”
2“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4If 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.
5“But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6then 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.