Permanent and Temporary Enslavement

Leviticus 25:39-55 

    39 “And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. 40 As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 And then he shall depart from you—he and his children with him—and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43 You shall not rule over him with rigor, but you shall fear your God. 44 And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. 45 Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property. 46 And you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.
    47 “Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger's family, 48 after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49 or his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him; or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him; or if he is able he may redeem himself. 50 Thus he shall reckon with him who bought him: The price of his release shall be according to the number of years, from the year that he was sold to him until the Year of Jubilee; it shall be according to the time of a hired servant for him. 51 If there are still many years remaining, according to them he shall repay the price of his redemption from the money with which he was bought. 52 And if there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him, and according to his years he shall repay him the price of his redemption. 53 He shall be with him as a yearly hired servant, and he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight. 54 And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee—he and his children with him. 55 For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

These are difficult issues concerning willing slaves and those bought from foreign lands of the people Israel was to conquer and possess their lands.  It is easier to understand those from among God’s people who find themselves poor and without any other recourse than to enter indentured servitude.  It is harder to grasp owning slaves from the other nations, even if they were commanded by God to be driven out and conquered.  The hired servants were to be set free in the fiftieth year of Jubilee, which could be a long time if servitude was entered into just after a year of Jubilee.  However, those bought and sold from the other nations became inheritable property.  This is not as horrific as the scourge of African slavery, which was cruel and inhuman in all aspects, yet it still was not God’s original plan apart from fallen mankind.  Those indentured slaves of God’s people could be redeemed if they did not want to wait for the fifty-year cycle of the Jubilee, but those from other peoples had to be given freedom.  Who do we most resemble?  On one hand, as His people we are willing slaves to Him forever, and on the other hand, before we are reconciled to God in Christ we are permanently enslaved to the sin of our fallen nature.  We know it is sinful to call modern slavery as if it were the same thing as in these times of Moses, and should never condone or excuse such slavery.  On a purely spiritual level, however, we ourselves are such slaves, beaten and mistreated by our adversary as we rebel in servitude to sin.  Ah, but in Christ we are free from being slaves of sin and, having been bought by the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, become Bondservants (willing slaves) to our Lord (Romans 6:16-22).  Our slavery turns from a horrific unwilling servitude to a joyful and willful service to our Lord and Master of all creation!  This permanent willing enslavement is so much better than the temporary unwilling bondage we have been set free from (John 8:36).