Yesterday vs. Today
There have been several times in my life when I’ve been in a class that mostly all agree on the goodness of something and I bring up an alternative perspective. Let me give you an example.
When I was in junior high school, we were studying U.S. history. We were looking at the groups that immigrated to the “New World” and why they came. We looked at religious freedom groups and people fleeing famine. Then we talked about a group of people who agreed to work for someone for a period of time to fund their journey to the New World. We call them indentured servants.
Indentured servants are pretty close to being slaves, except there is a time associated with your servitude. A contemporary example might be a family looking for a nanny to help them on a vacation to Europe for three months. (I can already hear the arguments that this is not a contemporary example.)
I would say most of my peers, and even the teacher, looked with disdain at the concept of having indentured servants. I pointed out that the agreement allowed them to come to the New World for a chance at a better life. Which is the greater good (or the worse predicament)?
The reality is, at the time, society was ok with the concept of indentured servitude (and slavery for that matter). Today, we have a much different attitude toward both and want to apply that attitude to historical societies to evaluate their level of goodness. That doesn’t work. If you try to apply today’s standards to the past, you vilify bunches of people who may have contributed a lot to our civilization.
“Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” - Genesis 29:15-20 ESV
Was Laban evil because he established an agreement with Jacob for him to work for him for seven years for Rachel? Of course not, because it was common to make those arrangements then. That doesn’t mean God condones slavery, just that sinful people implemented it.
Here is another view from Jewish history that is closer to what God intends for us:
““You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field. “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God. “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land. “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. “If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God. As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.” - Leviticus 25:8-17, 23-24, 35-46
When you focus on the using of resources and returning them after a period of time, that sounds more like an indentured servant concept but under ideal circumstances. In fact, it almost goes socialistic in perspective of commanding us to take care of each other. I have no doubt that man’s sinful nature causes socialism concepts to be an utter failure in this world but may perfectly fit heaven.
The most important message is to be very careful applying how society views things today to past situations.
