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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Laws About Male Slaves Bible Verse :Exodus 21:1-6 "“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever." Message:
In the Old Testament, what we might call slavery is abolished here, and what we would call “indentured servitude” substituted in its place.
Slavery is part of the natural order of society and is practiced in its cruellest form wherever religious sentiment has not affected the laws of a nation. Innumerable variations have existed; as late as 1865, we saw a sort of slavery almost identical to the Egyptian/Hebrew relationship — permanent racial slavery — in the United States.
Note that this law applies only to Hebrew slaves. People desperate for money would sell themselves or their children into “slavery”; but again, this relationship is poorly described as slavery, as it was voluntary and temporary.
The laws about an indentured servant who marries are just what one might imagine, given the marital customs. No woman would marry a slave voluntarily; the Hebrew custom of marriage was that the groom's family paid money to both the bride and the bride's family. (Whereas in Western culture, the bride's family was expected to pay the groom — and the amounts could be substantial. This custom lives on, in the widespread expectation that a bride's family will fund the wedding, although men are expected to provide an engagement ring.)
So, a male slave, who was destitute by definition, would never be able to marry unless his employer/master provided him a bride. In such cases, the master would not lose his rights to the female slave or the children. The indentured servant would have to choose permanent service to keep his family, or he could leave service as he entered it.
The salient point here is that the relationship was governed and constricted by law. The powerful master could not treat the slave purely on his whim. Nor could he cheat; the man who would make his service permanent slavery would have to state his voluntary will to do so in public, before witnesses.
Meditation : Prayer : Now the God of patience and consolation grant to me, and to all who pray in the name of Christ, to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That we may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. .....Amen |
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