The following is from Midtown Fellowship: Two Notch’s Q+A sermon on 2/23/2020.
Because we see slavery throughout the Scripture - Old Testament and New Testament, does God condone it? Does he accept it or allow it or even as some try to twist the Bible and make it say - does he even endorse it?
Let’s start with big fat “No.” Now let me explain….
Three thoughts swirling around in my head on this one. Hopefully, as I give these three individual thoughts it’ll all make sense as an answer to this question:
Thought 1: The Bible, over and over and over and over again, condemns oppression.
If you want to see it, Ant has a whole document he’d love to share with you that has like 60 passages about how much God hates oppression and how we as His people should respond to it. Let me give you three.
Exodus 22:21-24
“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 22 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. 23 If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, 24 and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
Deuteronomy 24:14
“You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.
Proverbs 14:31
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.
The Bible and God Himself clearly and overwhelmingly condemns the actions of those in power using their power in cruel ways against those who have less power than them.
Thought 2: Slavery in the modern world (400+ years) is very different from slavery in the time of the Bible.
Slavery in the Greco-Roman world, the time of the New Testament, in particular, was very different than slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries and today in some pretty key ways:
1. Terms of slavery
Ancient World:
Economic agreement - often to pay back a debt or to be taken care of
Not perpetual - didn’t transcend generations. Had set times where slaves would be set free.
Modern World:
Slaves were forced into slavery by capture and sale
The whole industry of the West African slave trade was built off of stealing people against their will and treating them as if they aren’t people made in the image of God. Which the Bible condemns explicitly in Exodus 21:16 - “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.”
2. Treatment of slaves
Ancient World:The whole system of laws in place for much of ancient time (goes badly later on in the Roman empire) to protect slaves from harsh treatment
Clear example - slaves often were given an education (V Diff from 18th and 19th century)
Wasn’t essentially oppressive
Modern World:
No rights, protections, freedoms
3. Racial and Ethnic Component
Ancient World:
Almost never racialized. Someone was not made a slave or justified as a slave because of certain racial features or traits or characteristics
Modern World:
A whole system built off of racial differences and prejudice
In fact, we have a clear example of slavery in the Bible that looked more like our modern-day slavery - Israelites in Egypt in the narrative of Exodus:
Passed down over 400 years
Oppressive and harsh treatment
The whole slavery system of oppression was because they were a different people than the Egyptians and the Egyptians wanted to keep them down
And what does God do? Steps in and says, “No, this is off. This is wrong.” And He frees them from captivity.
Thought 3: Be careful with what you say God condones because of narrative accounts.
You have to distinguish in narratives - in these historical accounts - between what God explicitly commands - do and do not’s in the broader scope of Scripture - and how he relates to His people and how His people relate to Him.
There are things in Scripture, particularly in narrative accounts - where God allows people to do a certain thing or act a certain way, even though it was not how he intentionally designed things to work. And much of those instances being included in Scripture is to show - “hey, this is bad and it doesn’t work.”
And so you can’t make an argument from silence. You can’t simply say, “Well God doesn’t step in and say - no more slaves! This is bad!”
But you can see what He does say:
First, He does explicitly condemn oppression.
Slavery in the modern world is an entire system built on oppression. In the Bible, God hates oppression.
Second, throughout Scripture you see God’s heart that men would be free:
At the end of Philemon, Paul tells Philemon to welcome Onesimus, his runaway slave back not as a slave but as a brother in Christ.
In Leviticus and Deuteronomy, God establishes a whole system that includes regular periods of time when slaves would be set free from their commitments and their debts.
In Galatians 3, we are reminded that in Christ, there is neither slave nor free → All are set free by the blood of Jesus.
So what you have to do with good study of Scripture is to say - “Ok, in the narrative accounts it seems like God doesn’t outright condemn or punish this, but it also seems like 99% of the time it goes really poorly or causes problems. Maybe this is to show a bad example of why this is against God’s design.” God’s heart is clearly shown in that he desires all men to be free.