...slaves and servants of God...

The Law concerning Slaves

1 These are the ordinances that you shall set before them:

2 When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt. 3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4 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. 5 But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person’, 6 then his master shall bring him before God. He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost; and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him for life.

7 When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. 8 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 dealt unfairly with her. 9 If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. 10 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife. 11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out without debt, without payment of money” Exodus 21:1-11.

There are various Hebrew terms that translate into terms such as “servant,” “slave,” “maidservant,” and these words occur more than a thousand times in the Old Testament, and in these verses the most common words used for the servant is “worker,” “employee,” “servant,” or “slave.” Anyone in any of these categories came under the protection of Yahweh’s covenant laws. The laws of this section also do not differentiate types of employers: the standard term used here, “master”, can mean “boss,” “employer,” or “owner.” Similarly, the words translated “buy” in 21:2  and “sell” in 21:7–8 can refer to any financial transaction related to a contract, much as in modern sports terminology a player can be described as being “bought” or “sold” from one team to another. Players are not actually the property of the team that “owns” them except as regards the exclusive right to their employment as players of that sport.

Much misunderstanding of Israelite law has arisen from failure to appreciate these distinctions that prevailed in ancient Israel. When the law was properly followed, persons who were servants/slaves/workers/employees held their positions by reason of a formal contract that related primarily to the job that they had “signed up” to perform, for a period of time, much as one enlists in the military today. In addition, some of the misunderstanding of biblical laws on service/ slavery arises from unconscious analogy to modern Western hemisphere slavery, which involved the stealing of people of a different race from their homelands, transporting them in chains to a new land, selling them to an owner who possessed them for life without obligation to any restrictions and who could resell them someone else (although such did also occur in the ancient world). Whether one translates it as “servant,” “slave,” “employee,” or “worker,” it is clear that the biblical law allowed for no such practices in Israel. Indeed, the law reflects the fact that when obediently practiced by “boss/employer/owner” and “servant/ slave/employee/worker”, Israelite service could be so beneficial to a worker that he or she would choose to enlist for a lifetime with the same employer (21:5–6).

This reflection is important to each of us when we attempt to understand our relationship with God. We are His children, but also His servants and workers. But God is more than just our boss. He is our Creator and Savior, our Father in heaven, and Jesus, the Son of God who gave His life as a ransom for our sins. The Spirit of God lives within us, strengthening and giving us faith. 

So take time today to understand the meaning of slave and owner in the Biblical context. But also take time in prayer to consider who God is and who you are in His presence. May such reflections and prayers bring a blessing on you in this pursuit.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.