Exodus 21:1-11

Transcript

00:00:00:45 – 00:00:35:02
Clint Loveall
All right, friends. Welcome back. Good to see you. Thanks for being with us. Tough day today. I’m going to be honest as we move into the 21st chapter of Exodus. I warned you yesterday. We warned you yesterday. The next several chapters are sections of laws and golly, Michael, we start. We start difficult. The 21st chapter. The first part of it are some laws concerning slavery and and specifically concerning slaves.

00:00:35:02 – 00:01:02:11
Clint Loveall
Concerning what ownership of a slave or master ship of a slave, which probably is better said, entails. And we have to do some preface here. It would be wonderful if we open the Old Testament and it said Don’t have slavery. It’s not an equitable arrangement. It’s not a good use of time, resources, money. It is destructive force on society.

00:01:02:29 – 00:01:39:30
Clint Loveall
You would think in a book that is about the the literally the people of Israel getting freed from slavery there, there would be more of a pushback upon the idea of slavery. But that isn’t the case. And so because it isn’t the case, we can be pretty dismissive of this. And maybe that’s okay. However, the reading the Old Testament is at least in part, are trying to enter the world of that day and time.

00:01:39:52 – 00:02:01:58
Clint Loveall
Yes, we try to bring that world to us to some extent, but we also try to look in that day, that time, that culture for something we can see. And so there are some positives in this, though. I’m going to be honest, this is one of the tough sections. I think, even given a tough subject. So I’ll read it for you then.

00:02:01:58 – 00:02:20:36
Clint Loveall
There’s a lot we can try and unpack. These are the ordinances you shall set before them when you buy a male Hebrew slave. He shall serve six years. In the seventh, he shall go free as a person without debt. If he comes in single, he shall go out single. If he comes in married, his wife should go with him.

00:02:21:18 – 00:02:44:24
Clint Loveall
If his master gives him a wife and she bears sons and daughters, the wife and her children shall be the masters and he shall go out alone. But if he decides declaring, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out of free person. Then his master shall bring him to God. He shall be brought to the door or the door post and the master shall pierces year within all, and he shall serve him for life.

00:02:44:24 – 00:03:11:02
Clint Loveall
I think we can stop there, Michael. So one thing I don’t say this is in terms of justification, but just a reminder that when we talk slavery in the Old Testament, we by and large talk a different arrangement than the slavery we’re familiar with, say, in our own history. Typically a person brings themself presents themself as a slave.

00:03:11:02 – 00:03:40:55
Clint Loveall
They are purchased, the purchase possibly goes to their family, particularly in the case of a female. But it is not a capture situation. It is not generally forced, though you could argue that economics could have that same effect on somebody, but it it is a little different. And the other thing that distinguishes is in this instance, at least, there’s not a racial ethnic divide here.

00:03:40:55 – 00:04:07:22
Clint Loveall
These are Hebrews and other Hebrews, Israelites and other Israelites. There are laws later on concerning slaves that may be an alien or an outsider, but in this case it really is more of a divide between the wealthy and the poor or the wealthy and the needy than it is any kind of racial distinction or ethnic distinction. And that doesn’t make it any better.

00:04:07:22 – 00:04:09:28
Clint Loveall
But I do think it makes it different.

00:04:09:50 – 00:04:49:42
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, of course, the context of this story is troubling because of its historical difference, as well as the realities of slavery and subjugation that continue on in the world in various forms today. And so that does make dealing with this topic really difficult. I want to make note of the fact that though this does not explicitly deal extensively, at least in this section, like it does in others, with what you make as a distinction between a Hebrew slave and a foreign slave, there is this idea that after six years, the Hebrew slaves who slept free by Tom and Terry makes no the fact that that may be implicitly stating that that’s not the case for

00:04:49:42 – 00:05:19:10
Michael Gewecke
a foreigner, that there may be some allowance for those within the family, that of course, that time frame, six versus seven, is very much connected to that Genesis idea, the idea of the Sabbath on the Sabbath day. And so this idea that there is freedom on the other side, of course, in other forms of slavery, the idea that you could earn your freedom or that your freedom could be granted to you was more of a philosophy, you know, as a philosophical idea than a reality.

00:05:19:10 – 00:05:55:12
Michael Gewecke
But here it’s at least presented that there are real ways out. It’s an economic arrangement as much as it is also a social obligation and a obligation to a family. So there is a there’s a softer sense to it that’s not justification. And I think that’s helpful language. But it is to say that the rules here are in some ways meant to strike a balance between protecting the person who is the master, but it also has the force of, in some ways protecting those who are serving.

00:05:55:57 – 00:06:12:36
Michael Gewecke
And, you know, it would be nice to think that that even the protections of the slaves are equal. I don’t think it is. We’re going to see how it’s different for women and for children than it is for men. So, you know, but it’s complicated. I mean, there’s lots of aspects to this claim.

00:06:12:46 – 00:06:41:16
Clint Loveall
Yeah, it again, I think we have to be a little bit aware of our own context, which is the idea that a slave is property that is not it’s not untrue perhaps here, but it’s limited in the sense, you know, here again, this is an arrangement between the slave and the master. And then in the seventh year the slave goes free and it and it says without debt.

00:06:41:16 – 00:07:14:46
Clint Loveall
So there’s a reset kind of built into this. And though clearly, as it has always been, the scale is tipped in the direction of the one with some wealth and power. There are some there are some walls here that intend to protect the person who’s come into this arrangement so that the slave owner, the slave master, can’t just say, well, I decided it’s going to be ten years, it’s going to be 12 years, Right?

00:07:15:00 – 00:07:35:56
Clint Loveall
There is a kind of protection in this, you know, in the same is true with the idea that if he wants to stay, you know, this again, I think we see I think we see the the bias here. If the master gives him a wife and they have a family, then the master gets to keep the wife in the family.

00:07:35:56 – 00:08:04:19
Clint Loveall
They have to serve out their own terms. But if the slave declares, I want to stay, then he’s marked and he becomes a servant of that master, essentially a lifetime servant. And there would likely be scenarios in which that was a good relationship. It was a good working environment. Certainly there were experiences to the opposite of that because there’s always an ugly downside to too this kind of practice.

00:08:04:44 – 00:08:18:59
Clint Loveall
But it is intended at least, Michael, to to build some boundaries and some fences so that a person’s power as a slave master, as the household master, doesn’t go unchecked.

00:08:18:59 – 00:08:42:59
Michael Gewecke
Right. I think there is an awareness that there needs to be a structure. I mean, order. We saw that in the Ten Commandments, the way that there should be a structure in order for all of society and now in this particular economic practice, there’s some structure and there’s some order listed here. I think what we’re trying to do at the highest metal level here, Clayton, is try to point out how this culture is different from our own.

00:08:43:30 – 00:09:09:00
Michael Gewecke
We’re trying to make it clear that that’s not a qualitative judgment for or against. We would certainly bring substantial criticism and debate looking back upon this. But then on another aspect of this, we’re looking for what is the ways in which the spirit of this law is intended to impact both of these relationships, both for the one who has these slaves and for those who serve as slaves.

00:09:09:19 – 00:09:37:57
Michael Gewecke
And in both cases, I think you could make a case. Clint, maybe I’m reaching here. I think you could make a case that in both cases there is moderation, that the idea that you, the master, can’t trick the slave or abused the slaves time, that there are limits. And then on the flip side, the idea that if you decide that you’re going to stay, you actually need to do that, that you need to be faithful to your word and that you need to continue the relationship if you’ve entered into it.

00:09:38:34 – 00:10:04:42
Clint Loveall
Yeah, yeah. I mean, there is some there’s certainly some inequity as as it can’t be avoided. And I think maybe we see it even more clearly as we go on here. In the case of a female silver seven, when a man sells his daughter as a slave and actually that could mean arranges for marriage as a wife slave may not be the actual word there that best describes the situation.

00:10:04:42 – 00:10:29:15
Clint Loveall
But when a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has already dealt unfairly with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall Dell deal with her as a daughter.

00:10:29:34 – 00:10:54:32
Clint Loveall
If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money. So the the sad reality is women are at the bottom of the the pyramid at the bottom of the ladder.

00:10:54:32 – 00:11:23:06
Clint Loveall
They have very little in regard to power. They have very little in regard to opportunity. And so when an arrangement is made, a man would sell his daughter and and she is then designated either for the master, the house owner, or for a son. And then there are these rules. And, you know, it is probably small consolation that there is an idea here of protecting her because it doesn’t this whole arrangement doesn’t seem very protective.

00:11:23:31 – 00:11:50:33
Clint Loveall
But again, the idea is let’s get rid of the system, which we would like to see and more. How do we safeguard those who are in it so that the masters, quote unquote, can’t take even more advantage of their position than they already get? And, you know, we could argue whether or not these rules do that, but that that’s their intention.

00:11:50:54 – 00:12:18:00
Michael Gewecke
This is in some ways a snapshot of a moment in time when there are expectations handed down for how to best push forward the protections of people in a moment with a system that includes enslaving those people. I think the Christians who would come to the Bible make the argument that the Bible is in every word, somehow an argument for today like that.

00:12:18:00 – 00:12:47:49
Michael Gewecke
This is a literal reading that I think is a not just unfortunate. I think that’s an unfaithful reading of the text. This is a calling Christians to turn to this kind of behavior. It’s a snapshot in time when God is demanding that the people treat people with lesser power, with some level of dignity, some level of protection that they were not afforded outside of the community of Israel, that this is not justification for the action.

00:12:48:07 – 00:13:15:55
Michael Gewecke
But it’s important to know the distinction. It’s important to know that there were other nations who did not afford women any of these protections or afford any slaves, any of the kind of, you know, confidence that they, after their six years of service, might be able to go free. So there’s good in this moment of time in the effort to provide some structure and order which benefits the least.

00:13:16:26 – 00:13:41:52
Michael Gewecke
It does not provide a timeless dictate that demands that this inequity must live in this form. And, you know, you’re going to see that in the Old Testament with rules, with the prophets, with different ways in which this conversation even shifts from book to book. But I guess the point being here, Clint, is it’s not one thing to look back on it and to in any way justify it.

00:13:41:52 – 00:14:03:23
Michael Gewecke
It is to say, I think it’s worth noting that there is real protection happening here that would not have been afforded other places in this time and place. So there is a spirit of looking out for the last and least here, even if it really in no way materially changes the lease position in the system.

00:14:03:45 – 00:14:32:54
Clint Loveall
Yeah, this is better than some other societies. You know that again, that may be small consolation, but it is accurate. It is the reality and it is in some to some extent, the faith and the reflection of the faith of the people that adds these kind of safeguards as unsatisfying as they may be to us, looking way back upon a society that’s very different.

00:14:33:57 – 00:14:59:49
Clint Loveall
You know, we have a general sense, I think, Michael, that the law of the Old Testament is sometimes harsh. I mean, we’re going to see next week a variety of things in which the penalty is death. And those things seem harsh to us, but maybe not surprising because we understand, yeah, you would penalize somebody for doing that, though.

00:15:00:28 – 00:15:26:24
Clint Loveall
We may think that penalty goes further than we would we would want it to. But I think when we come to discussions like slavery, they’re so charged and so foreign in in many instances that it is hard to know what to do with these things and it’s hard to see much redeeming value in them. And I will only say this in terms of how we come back and read the scripture.

00:15:27:14 – 00:15:55:24
Clint Loveall
There have been Christians trying to justify their behavior who pointed to verses and passages like these and tried to make the case that God condoned, ordained, approved of slavery and that we see in these texts that kind of affirmation. However, they were doing that in a in a radically different way and a radical. This is not ethnic slavery.

00:15:55:37 – 00:16:23:18
Clint Loveall
This is not moral inferiority. This is in no way a kind of status or a declaration of the worth or less than worth of a group of people, that this is an arrangement that was prevalent in the Old Testament society and some rules to try and help govern it, to keep it from becoming worse than it already was for those who were involved in it.

00:16:24:55 – 00:16:43:42
Clint Loveall
That may not seem like enough, but that’s what it is. The other thing I would point out, Michael, is we will get more nuanced laws. These are really in the in the scope of the Old Testament. These are really some of the first laws that we run into. I mean, we’ve seen commandments here and there, notably the Ten Commandments.

00:16:43:53 – 00:17:10:58
Clint Loveall
But when we get to these kind of day to day life situation laws, this part of exodus is the first instance we really get of that as we read our way. I would say books like Leviticus, even numbers, some of those things are more developed. I think as we go through these, we’re getting a snapshot of some pretty early, almost alpha beta versions of communal law.

00:17:10:58 – 00:17:23:25
Clint Loveall
And I think that makes it I think that makes it interesting. It probably gives it a little rougher affect than we might get from later. Similar type passages.

00:17:24:07 – 00:17:53:54
Michael Gewecke
You know, it strikes me, Clint, if we if we pass along some of the extensive lists of laws regarding stock market trading that exists today, these folks would have been baffled by it. But those laws exist for a purpose. They all have a story behind them, and there’s something being accomplished through the ordering of that vast economic system.

00:17:53:54 – 00:18:22:31
Michael Gewecke
Today here there’s a there’s a vast system. This isn’t creating the slavery mass slave master relationship. It’s ordering it. It’s providing a structure to it. Ultimately, that structure will change. And later, as time goes on, the people of Israel are not even going to be the ones holding master status. They will be slaves in someone else’s court if you go far enough down the story.

00:18:22:55 – 00:18:50:06
Michael Gewecke
And so these laws at this point will be far less impactful. But as we come to them today, I think it’s worth noting God does care about the way that society intentionally orders and provides structure and protection for the lost and the least We today would not allow this kind of structure in our own society. But I think the force of the argument might remain the same.

00:18:50:15 – 00:19:02:25
Michael Gewecke
Whoever finds themselves as the lost and the least those would be the people that the law in some way would want to curtail the power of those who have it and protect those who don’t have it.

00:19:03:18 – 00:19:29:36
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and this is you know, this is written from a from a kind of rural perspective. This is written to the one who has the authority. You know, when you buy a male slave, when a man sells a daughter, this is not a word to the those in the system. This is a word to those who are kind of on the top, those who have some of the authority and some of the power.

00:19:29:36 – 00:19:59:16
Clint Loveall
So it is a reminder, I think, that even for the least of those in the community, God is concerned. And again, it’s these are not verses you should take and put on an island because they are a part of a much bigger conversation in the Old Testament. There are there are verses that would push back on these verses a little, though not again, not as much as any of us would like.

00:19:59:34 – 00:20:10:51
Clint Loveall
And it is a snapshot to a very different time and place. And I don’t know what we learn from it, but hopefully that at least gives it some balance and some nuance.

00:20:11:31 – 00:20:34:55
Michael Gewecke
Don’t make this your only study with us. If this is your first time here, stick with us as we go. The next couple studies aren’t going to be that much easier. But as we keep our way going together, you will discover the Bible has a rich series of mountains and plateaus and valleys. And though sometimes you go through a valley, you will eventually find your way of the top of a mountain again.

00:20:34:55 – 00:20:40:12
Michael Gewecke
So bear with us. Keep going, and we’ll continue to see what we learn as we have.

00:20:40:12 – 00:20:47:51
Clint Loveall
A good weekend, everybody.