Slavery (Exodus 21-23)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Foreign good morning so my name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here so we made a shift last week in the book of Exodus where we left the Ten Commandments and entered into what most people think of as the law this is the teachings and the Commandments of God of how we're called to live and love and honor and worship Our God and live in harmony with one another so for the rest of Exodus into Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy you're going to.
See these these commands that are helping the people understand how to worship God how to live in harmony with one another last week Chet kind of introduced the law as a whole that he kind of gave us Calvin's framework for how to view it that some law is civil that deals with kind of the societal structuring of Israel as a nation that some of it is ceremonial that deals with uh some of the the priesthood and the sacrificial system and then some of it is moral these are morals that.
God has always wanted his people to follow and then with that frame where we get to approach the rest of the law coming out of the Ten Commandments in the into Exodus 21 and then we get to the first two verses of Exodus 21 which says 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 so that is our.
First entrance into the law when you hear that you might go wait what that I haven't encountered that in the Scriptures before God sets them free from slavery in Egypt gives them the Ten Commandments and the very first thing that shows up is slavery isn't slavery bad isn't God good when you read this is it 2023 or 18 23 there's this feeling in this as we approach the text here and Exodus 21 has a lot to say about slavery and in his passages like these that Skeptics have taken and latched on to attempt to delegitimize Christian faith there's one uh atheist thinker as a podcast his name is Sam Harris and Sam Harris once said.
The entire civilized world now agrees that slavery is an Abomination what moral instruction do we get from the God of Abraham on this subject consult the Bible and you will discover that the creator of the universe clearly expects us to keep slaves and that's kind of an argument that you will hear is that no your Bible justifies slavery and a lot of Christians will just kind of respond saying uh-uh no like I disagree that's not true but if you believe that.
Then what do you do with Exodus 21 what do you do with the parts of the Bible that speak about slavery from the Old Testament into the New Testament that is what we're going to be doing today we said that we'd be approaching the back end of Exodus differently than we did the front we went verse by verse all the way up to this point now we're approaching the last part of Exodus topically and we're going to look at the topic of slavery starting in Exodus 21 and through the rest of the Bible.
God willing when we are done I'm going to show you how the Bible dismantles any attempt to uphold slavery and that ultimately how God brings about individual Christian change in our hearts on issues like this that ultimately snowballs into societal change away from a system of servitude that has dominated Humanity for thousands of years so that's a big task let me pray and we'll walk this together Heavenly Father I pray that you would help us be present this morning that we would.
Listen that we would not be quick to make judgments on the text but we would sit in this and think through it and we would see what your ultimate desire is concerning slavery in Jesus name amen all right so back to verse one and two it says now these are the rules that you shall set before then when you buy a Hebrew slave He Shall Serve six years into the seventh he shall Go free for nothing now we run to a problem immediately.
When we read this text and it has to do with the word slave there are words in the Bible that we're not familiar with that we may not be familiar with like cistern or threshing floor and if you don't know those terms you go and you look them up you learn what that is and then we come back to the text and we try to understand it but no one in the room is unfamiliar with the word slave in fact I would argue that everyone in the room has a pre-loaded understanding of what slave means and what slavery is that.
When we hear the word slave we think of the horrible practices of American slavery we think of African men and women who were stolen and put in Chains and put on ships were 1.8 million black men and women died on the way to Europe on the way to America we think of the horrors of them Beyond the seller's block and going into a brutal system that's what we think of I would argue whether consciously or unconsciously that's how we approach the text.
Because we're so familiar with this word and this concept is a part of our nation's history so when we read when you buy a Hebrew slave He Shall Serve six years and seventh he shall Go free for nothing what we need to do is to strip the context that we know for that word and put it aside and try to understand this word in its context and that's we're going to look at first it's context in the Old Testament so slavery was a widespread practice at the time that Exodus was written it was all over the ancient near East and we there are all types of cultures that was very much a part of the.
Fabric of their economy the slavery and servitude class built many empires we saw this early on in the book of Exodus we saw in the book of Exodus how the Hebrews were enslaved how they were forced into labor we saw the brutality of that that Pharaoh at the at a whim could just decide I'm going to kill all the firstborn males amongst my slaves we saw a Taskmaster beating a Hebrew we saw that they could not leave we saw the brutality that as a picture of slavery in the ancient near East that one that of one of conquering enemies making them subject to you and building your Empire with their labor.
Now we saw how God violently rescued them out of Egypt now they're in the wilderness they're receiving the law before they enter into the Promised Land and when they enter into the Promised Land they're going to run into situations where people fall on Hard Times where they lose everything and there was no social safety net in the ancient near East if you lost everything if you'd had no money you could not buy food and you starved and if you could bag it to get enough you might make it.
But you most likely would die there was no social safety net so a lot of people would sell themselves into slavery because that's better than death at least you're not starving to death that was a widespread practice at the time as well now God takes that practice modifies it for the people of God and to A system that we would most likely understand as indentured servitude which if you can remember American history classes and entered servitude was there are a lot of Europeans that that could not afford the ship ride over to America to start a new life.
So they would sell themselves into indentured servitude they get to the states they'd work as an injured servant to pay off the debt for a few years and they would be free and that's more of what we see with the system that God has modified for the people of God in the book of Exodus 21 and onward we see this again in Leviticus 25 verses 39 41 it's as 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 Jubilee that's the seventh year.
That we saw in Exodus 21 you'd work six years then you're set free on the seventh then he shall go out for you from you he and his children with you and go back to his own Clan and return to the possession of his fathers now notice the qualifications that is put on that he's not going to be like a slave treat him like a hired worker take care of him or her and when he gets back on his feet and he has worked.
For six years release him and not just empty-handed he will retain The Inheritance that God has given to the people he will go back to the land of his forefathers he will retain that inheritance and not go out empty so God takes the system that was common in economies across the ancient near East and he modifies it basically to a system of indentured servitude that is more worker employee style relationships but they're working with that word slave and that is the word that they get that they're using to show someone who is working and not getting paid.
For their work that when you go back to Exodus 21 you see some other qualifications that are put on this system Exodus 21 verse 16 says whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him he shall be put to death so this has to be something that someone volunteers into you cannot force someone to do this you cannot steal them into slavery and if you're caught selling or you're caught with someone who's a stolen person forced into slavery you will die you will get the death penalty.
So that if the American South lived under the Mosaic law there would not be a lot of people left that's just the reality of how God treats people who are forced into slavery you sell or you buy you die that's the law then these other qualifications We're not gonna go through them all because we're not the time they cannot be killed verse 20 when a man strikes his slave male or female with Iran and the slave dies under his hand he shall be Avenged not going to mistreat you're not going to kill.
So the qualifications once they had worked six years that they didn't like the prospects of being free that they could permanently enter into servitude we see that in Exodus 21 verse 6. and then there are other laws in Exodus 21 related to slavery that were so far removed from the context that are hard to understand but the gist of the majority of them is to help them see that this is different than the ancient near East it's different than the surrounding Nations they're meant to protect the people within the system itself and that's how God's people are to treat one another.
Now it's a little bit different Leviticus 25 there's there's if there's a Sojourner or a foreigner who is in your land who decides to sell them itself into slavery they need to understand upfront that it's permanent they don't get that seventh year Redemption at the Year of Jubilee so if there are foreigners in the land they sell themselves into slavery it will be permanent so that's a bit of a system that was very different than the surrounding Nations and very different than how we understand American slavery that was built off of stolen people and brutality.
God was doing something different and it stood out among nations as different but if we're honest as Christians living in the New Covenant of Christ as Christians we look at all of this still and go yeah but why take something that was common and reduce that down why modify that why not just end it all together why why what's this what what's this about someone being going in a permanent servitude like I don't there's part of us that looks at this and says yeah they're treated like hard hands yeah they're different.
But what's why didn't God just end it all together this is certainly better than we have in our heads when we hear the word slave but this still feels like it's not enough we what we as Christians need to understand when we read about slavery and the law is that God was doing something that was uniquely different that was counter-cultural to the cultures of that time and that thread of doing something different than the Nations different that was counter-cultural that threat is going to be pulled into the New Testament.
Because when Jesus comes along he's going to flip the law on its head that's what chap was getting out last week that Christ come and fulfills the law and that means that there's certain civil aspects to servitude that are fulfilled in Christ that no longer remain so Christ fulfills the law so we don't we're not under the Mosaic law anymore but there's even something more unique that's happening in Jesus approach to the Mosaic law the law of Moses that if you.
Look closer you'll begin to see that God goes a step further with the law to show that the law did not capture God's ultimate desires for his people the law was not the finished product it did not capture the heart of God and how he expects his people to live in community with one another and that happens in a few different teachings multiple times Jesus quotes the law by saying you've heard that it was said but I say to you you've heard that it was said which is ironic.
Because that's Jesus who is God who gave them the law you've heard that it was said but I say to you and he's doing something different he's flipping the law on its head I'll give you one clear example of how he does this he does it with a divorce in Matthew 19. in Matthew 19 he's teaching on divorce he says as they're asking him questions about divorce he says they said to him why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away they're quoting Deuteronomy 24 as they're asking.
Jesus about marriage and it says he said to them because of your Hardness of Heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so and I say to you whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery he says this because of the hardness of the people of God's hearts they weren't ready for this because of the hardness of their heart they weren't ready for the ultimate desire of marriage and because of that they were not able to live under the law as relates to marriage and let out the desires of what.
God had always wanted for marriage so he says but I tell you now here's the real desire you stay married that's the desire for marriage this happens also in Matthew 5 verse 38-39 since you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth that's out of our main chapter today which is Exodus 21. he says you've heard that it said eye for an eye tooth for tooth but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil.
But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also he says but I say to you and then gives them what God ultimately wants for his people Jesus is helping them see that the Israelites were too hard-hearted they were too Wicked to receive God's ultimate desires for his people and how they should live and treat one another so Jesus is doing that in his teachings pressing on this then he fulfills the law perfectly with his life.
And then he goes to the Cross where he has his his blood is poured out to make atonement for the people of God for all of our sins and then he rises from the grave defeating death and making a way for his new covenant people to be born again to have a new life in Christ Jesus ascends into heaven and the Holy Spirit descends upon the Church and empowers the Church to finally start to live out the ultimate desires for what.
God has for his people in this new covenant faith so what I'm going to argue is that God has a more subtle but I say to you throughout the New Testament a more subtle but I say to you that is going to change the way his people approach slavery in servitude but in order for me to do that from the New Testament we've got to go back to redefining slavery again because when you get to the New Testament there's a Roman system that is different than Israel's there's a Roman system that we need to understand that we we can't just read that and think of what we commonly know as slavery we've got to understand.
The Roman system itself so in the New Testament which was written in Greek there's one word for slave it's doulas now do loss and if you have an ESV Bible around you there's this blue Bibles around you that's the English Standard Version the way they translate doulas and it tells you this in a lot of the prefaces of the ESV the way they translate do loss is one of three different ways one of them is Bond servant if you've read that in the New Testament that's the Greek word dulos bond servant we're going to get to that in a moment.
But that was a branch of the servitude system of Rome that was more like indentured servitude you'd work for six years then you'd be free work for seven years then you'd be free it's also translated as slave which is a different part of the Roman system that's permanent slavery and then every now and then it's translated servant and what the ESB is doing with uh the word when it translates its servant is it's it's telling us that it doesn't give us it the the text has enough context where it can be translated either Bond servant or slave.
So that's the ESV just punting and saying you need to figure out from the context whether the spawn servant or whether this is slave so that means we also need to understand the difference between a bond servant and a permanent slave enroman Society so up to a third of the Roman Empire was in the servitude class think about that up to a third of the entire Roman Empire was in the servitude class and many of them were what were called Bond servants let's deal with that word.
First Bond servitude was very much like indentured servant servitude that if you fell on Hard Times just like an engineer East there was no social safety net there was no one coming to bail you out if you didn't have the money you couldn't buy food if you couldn't buy food you died so a lot of people that would get into debt and not be able to pay it off would enter voluntarily into Bond servitude you'll become a bond servant and your debt would be paid and you'll be able to work that off over a seven year period and there's a lot of people that were free that would do this that would sell themselves into.
This I mean a lot of bond servants were doctors a lot of bond servants were teachers they just fell on Hard Times and they had uh to sell themselves into Bond servitude in order to survive because there was no social safety net so it's similar to how Israel did it but very different because there weren't a protections built in if you sold yourself in a bond servitude to a free Roman you were property there there's you are you were property they can do with you what they want.
So if you're going to intervoluntarily into Bond servitude you better choose someone who is nice because they absolutely could do whatever they wanted to you so that's one aspect of servitude in the Roman Empire's Bond servitude the second as a class of permanent slaves and that's when the New Testament is going to translate that slave slaves in Roman society were permanent unless they could a buy their freedom so make enough money on the side to be able to purchase their freedom or be unless their Master freed them.
But you did not volunteer for permanent servitude in the Roman Empire much of the Roman slaves were people that were stolen and sold into it so that's that was a big I mean this the stolen uh man's ceiling and and enforcing people into slavery uh to make money was very much a part of the Roman Empire this was also uh enemies who roam conquered and said we're not going to kill you but we're going to make you slaves and permanent servitude was harsh there are a lot of people that ended up with really brutal jobs working in the mines until they died it was a brutal system some criminals were forced into this as.
Well and they were treated horribly permanent slaves were treated horribly it was very common to sexually exploit slaves in Rome very common practice now this happened also a little bit in American slavery we see that even with Thomas Jefferson but sexual exploitation in American slavery was still stigmatized because of racism with white slave owners it was not stigmatized at all in the Roman Empire you could rape your slave no one it was commonplace you did whatever you want with them they're your property they belong to you and that was a brutal part of Roman slavery was the sexual exploitation that was widespread and not stigmatized at all you could physically beat even kill your slave.
In the Roman Empire was not uncommon so you did not want to be a slave in the Roman Empire at all I've seen some Christians attempt to try to clean up a little bit historically you just can't the Roman system was brutal so that's the context for the Greek word doulas says it shows up in the New Testament that Jesus steps into so what does God expect of as New Covenant people they're Skeptics that will still go but your new testament still justifies it your New Testament says things like Ephesians 6 5 Bond servants obey your Earthly masters with fear and trembling and the other passage is just like that one Colossians 3.
First Peter 2. and they'll say see your Bible justifies slavery it justifies servitude but I argue if you're willing to do the work you're going to see that God is doing something counter-cultural and different with his new covenant people for the rest of our time the New Testament I want to show you what God is doing so be very upfront about this the New Testament does not make its aim to overthrow governments or overthrow oppressive systems that is not the aim of the New Testament on a whole bunch of different subjects whether it's slavery or poverty whatever the the New Testament does not have the approach of overthrowing governments in oppressive systems that's not what.
The New Testament is doing so the Gospel is doing the Gospel brings about radical individual change that calls people into a new covenant of Faith where they look differently with the Holy Spirit changes them and molds them into the image of Christ in a way that looks different from the world and that individual change ultimately snowballs into societal change and we see that historically because when Christianity started to spread across the Roman Empire when it became the dominant religion in the Roman Empire you saw servitude start a decrease.
So why why is that the case where's the New Testament argument for that where's the but I say to you that ultimately dismantles the idea that you can own people as property so much so that it changed the Roman Empire let's start with how the Scripture firsts uh dismantles the purchase of New Slaves then we'll move to uh those who already have slaves we're going to look at the seed Bedford abolition for the freedom of people from the system that shows up in the New Testament we're going to start with how the New Testament dismantles the purchase of New Slaves.
First Timothy 1 10. in first Timothy 1 10 Paul is like he does in a lot of his letters he's giving a list of sins that he's ultimately going to address with the Gospel but in first Timothy 1 10 he says the sexual immoral men who practice homosexuality enslavers and then he goes on to say Liars perjurers and whatever else this contrary to sound Doctrine so that word enslavers that is the term used for man stealing that's forcing people into slavery that follows the Old Testament law and Exodus 21 16 that would give people the death penalty.
For being caught with stolen people so we see that that part of the law isn't civil it's actually moral and that from the Old Testament end to the new forcing people into slavery is not the heart of God so enslavers no that's sin forcing people into slave trading throughout the Scriptures is either out either explicitly condemned or it's very much looked down upon and I'll have time to get to the Book of Joshua because if you may be familiar with the Old Testament.
But even the Book of Joshua when they don't obey the Lord and bringing his judgment upon the Canaanites and they make slaves instead there's judgment for that God never not once commands his people not once does he command his people to ever Force anyone into slavery the Bible roundly condemns this the Old Testament roundly condemns forcing anyone into oppression I mean over and over again the prophets are are attacking oppression in the land then you get to the New Testament.
Jesus starts to teach something even different he starts to teach things like love your enemies which when you follow the threat on that realizing that no we're not going to force people into slave we're not going to conquer enemies and force them into this system love your enemies so when you look at how the Bible approaches how people are made permanent slaves through Force you start to realize there's no biblical justification for that at all and without New Slaves you don't have a system of servitude at all that you're not able to make New Slaves.
So without forcing anyone into permanent slavery you don't have a system and that's what first Timothy flow of the Old Testament in the New Testament is planting the seed for Don't force people into this which begs the question but what if they volunteer what if an individual Christian decides what if a person's decides they want to they want to sell themselves in to this you can't take first Timothy 1 10 you can't take some of the arguments against forcing people into slavery and apply that to someone who would sell themselves into Bond servitude that you can't do that the Bible does not go there.
So that begs the question is some form of indentured servitude okay is some form of bond servitude still okay is it okay for a Christian to look at his brother who is in need and say yes I'm going to help you I'm going to pay your debt off come and work for me for six years and then I will release you what does the Bible have to say about them well then you've got to look at some other passages to see the right Christian ethical approach to helping those who are in need.
When the early Church began and began to explode in the book of Acts in Acts 2 verses 4 44-45 it says and all who believe were together and had all things in common that some of the first Acts of Christians had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need that you see very early on they had all things in common that they helped each other that they obeyed the teachings of.
Jesus that showed up over and over and over again when Jesus in Luke 12 33 amongst other places says sell your possessions and give to the Navy these aren't conditional statements you get read into this that there's some type of back-end service that's going to be required First John 3 17 says but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him how does God's love abide in him how do you see from the New Testament this radical change that you're called to love and help and serve others that somewhere in that embedded is some type of exchange to where they become property.
For a period of time and more to the point the New Testament explicitly forbids a Christian from selling themselves into servitude First Corinthians 7 23 you were bought with a price do not become Bond Servants of men do not become Bond Servants of men that if they were to sell themselves into Bond servitude they would be sinning against God which means that if a brother came to you to do that and you allowed them to enter into Bond servitude you are facilitating sin and rebelling against the will of.
God so the New Testament gives us the prescription to those who are in need over and over again you help them you don't make them do you value themselves as image bears to become property as a condition of help so If There Are No New Slaves can't force people into this and it's a sin to actually have them sell themselves into this then eventually you don't have a system of servitude then eventually as we see in the Roman Empire servitude starts to decrease.
But let's dive a little deeper here let's live in a hypothetical if you're a new Christian and 55 A.D and you're convinced of the arguments that I just made from the Scriptures you're convinced that I can't make New Slaves of anyone what do you do with your current slaves or more practically what could happen in this day and age you take the Gospel to a culture that still has servitude built into their economic fabric what do you do when you take the Gospel there and they say you've convinced me I'm not going to join in slavers I'm not I'm not I'm not going to cause anyone else to sin what do you say to that.
Brother who's a Christian master especially when they go but yeah the New Testament Ephesians 6 5 Bon servants obey your Earthly masters of fear and trembling I'm not going to make new ones but what can he not just can where's the justification that I need to release the ones I currently have and that's the second thing I want to look at not just the purchase of New Slaves what do you do with current slaves so if they were forced into slavery in the.
First place that's an easier thing to address it's easier to point to First Timothy 1 and Exodus 21 that shows you're participating in a system that's morally repugnant and Evil that you need to repent and release someone who was forced into slavery that's an easier argument to make so it's all right you've convinced me the permanent slaves that I have I'm releasing them they're now free but what about the current Bond servants that I have I paid off their debts I got three years left to serve out their sentence just let them serve it out I I paid a lot of money.
For this so what do you say to the current master that has Bond servants I'd start by going to Ephesians 6 9. so after Paul makes the argument about Bond servants obeying he gets to verse 9. and he says this Masters do the same to them and stop your threatening knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven that there is no partiality with him so I would say to them and say okay they want to continue to serve out their sentence fine you cannot threaten them anymore zero force zero threat to which they might reply.
Well if I can't threaten them if I can't use Force what if they decide to leave what if they decide they don't want to be Bond servant anymore threat and force is what keeps the system in place in the first place and I'd say you can't threaten them anymore but if I can't threaten them you understand they're going to walk free and I would say exactly exactly that is the ultimate desire of God anyways is that he wants them to be free.
But I have fields that need to be worked I have things that need to be done the only way I'm going to keep them here is if I pay them exactly now you're tracking yes you're going to pay them what they're worth you are no longer going to force them into this and in fact not only am I going to tell you that you can't use the threat of force to keep them in place I'm going to tell them they should seek their freedom from you which is what Paul does in.
First Corinthians 7 First Corinthians 7 starting in verse 20. it says each one should remain the condition in which he was called were you a bond servant when called do not be concerned about it but if you can gain your freedom Avail yourself of the opportunity which is a convoluted way of saying do it if you can Free Yourself do it four verse 22 he who was called in the Lord as a bond servant is a free man of the Lord likewise he who was free.
When he when called is a bond servant of Christ you were bought with a price do not become Bond Servants of men so I would show that Christian master the ultimate desire is that we would only have one master and his name is Jesus that we only have one master that we serve so yeah you cannot use force and I am going to tell them to go free and if they want to go free you let them go otherwise start paying them.
And then finally I would take them to what I think is the death nail that begins The Snowball Effect that ultimately unravels the system and that is the book of Philemon the book of Philemon is the shortest letter that Paul wrote Paul is writing to a Christian slave owner a Christian Bond servitude or Bond servant owner a master named Philemon and the whole subject of the letter of Philemon is that he is telling him and convincing him you need to free your runaway slave anissimus.
So anisimus is with Paul and he's writing back to Philemon and this is what he argues with Philemon in verse 8 he says accordingly though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required I'm bold live in Christ to tell you what you should do verse 9 yet for Love's sake I prefer to appeal to you I Paul an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus have Love's sake the sake of love I'm appealing to you I appeal to you.
For my child onesimus whose father I became an imprisonment and then he goes on to argue in verses 15 16 4 this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while that you might have him back forever no longer as a bond servant but more than a bond servant as a beloved brother I'm writing to you and appealing to you out of love that you should take onisimus back no longer as a bond servant no longer as property taken back as a brother he is arguing free him.
And then it goes on to say and if you have more verses he basically just says and you owe me anyways because I led you to Christ which is like the ultimate Flex so you're going to do this can you imagine the New Testament churches that were getting these letters that were circulating around and someone brings the letter of Philemon it brings it to this Church and they read the Scripture aloud can you imagine the Holy Spirit softening the heart of Christian Masters realizing that's it that's what I'm supposed to do can you imagine.
God working in their hearts to bring about radical individual change that ultimately helped them see what the heart of God was all along that we are not supposed to make people property if you don't make image Bears property brothers and sisters there are certain subject matters in the Scriptures that take a lot of legwork to understand and slavery is one of them it is one of the most complicated subjects in the Bible and with a few passages ripped from the overall text of the Scripture Skeptics may make you believe that your faith condones making people property don't let them there were certainly a lot of Christians in this very City in the 1800s that made.
Bad biblical arguments to continue the evils of American slavery but they were wrong they were wrong but also don't miss for a moment that the argument against slavery it did not originate from Skeptics it didn't originate from atheists in fact that argue if there is no God and we're all fighting this out together that's kind of the way you'd want to do it to gain power no the argument against slavery never came from anywhere else other than the Scriptures the fight.
For abolition came directly from Christians who were looking at the Scriptures and realizing what it truly said are the seeds for abolition were planted in a I love what the historian Thomas Kidd says he says Christian thought was never uniformly anti-slavery of course until long after legalized slavery vanished in the 1800s and he's dead on because there were Christians in this very City that were not uniformly anti-slavery in the slightest but the sources of anti-slavery thought were always powerfully Chris Christian and you can't study the history of the abolition movement from the UK into America and not.
See that the threat of the Scriptures was always heading towards abolition for there's only one person that is supposed to be our master and his name is Jesus First Corinthians 4 1 this is how we should regard us as Servants of Christ stewards of the mystery of God let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you that we get the whole counsel of your word that we get to see your heart that teaches us and molds us into a people that sees one another as image bearers that sees one another with love I'm thankful.
For the work that took place to bring about the societal change that was planted in individual Hearts 2000 years ago in Jesus name amen the man's going to come up and as we worship I want you to see how good it is that we have a master in Christ and that we get to be his servants he is very good and he is worthy of our worship the one we serve says come to me all who labor and are heavy later and I will give you rest that is the master we get to serve and that is the.
God we get to worship so y'all stand and sing.