We are all Slaves to GOD

I came across this comic the other day and at first thought it was going to be a funny joke, but as I read the last frame I was at first flabbergasted then angry… How dare they call God a liar! So I began to investigate the grounds they used for this comic.

Genesis 3:16 is the one that was used to say that Bible allows subjugation. Well, let’s see what  Genesis 3:16 says shall we? “To the woman he said, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”  Now there is a back story here, God created Adam and Eve, he told them they could eat anything in the Garden of Eden except for the fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil or else they will die, SIN came into the picture and told Adam and Eve that they could indeed eat from the tree and they won’t die. STOP!

This is the make or break moment in the history of all Mankind. During this time Adam and Eve had the perfect relationship with God, they were never separated from him. They CHOSE to DISOBEY to BEILIEVE the LIE and not the TRUTH. The tree was not put into the garden to tempt us because God does not tempt, it was there to hold us accountable to either obey or disobey. To Obey is to worship God to Disobey is to SIN. 

We all know how the story of Adam and Eve ‘ends’ they CHOSE  to DISOBEY.  

Disobedience demands discipline.

God is our creator, our friend, our support, our rock, our father; he could have very easily destroyed us when our ancestors chose to willfully DISOBEY, instead he cursed us. To discipline us and show us that he loves us. Are we not all children of God? And as His children does he not have to lovingly discipline us when we do wrong in His eyes? Hebrews 12:4-11 states: “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and punishes everyone he accepts as a son.’ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined(and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; bur God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later, on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

God punished us because He LOVES us! He wants to have that relationship that we once had with him. He disciplines us to mold and lead us to be more righteous and to be more like Jesus. Genesis 3:16 is not an example of subjugation, but an excellent example of God’s amazing and never ending love, mercy and grace for us; the people that then and to this day turn our backs to Him.

Now onto the slavery issue; I have got to be honest and let you know that this one gave me a little more trouble than the previous one. On the bright side this one gave me a golden opportunity to delve deeper into God’s word to find the answers I was seeking. Let’s start at the verse in question: Leviticus 25:44-46:

“Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living in your country, and they will become your property. You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.”

Ok at first glance this does sound pretty bad, but the Bible isn’t just this one book, this one chapter, or these few verses. You have to compare scripture with scripture. Also, back then slavery didn’t have the negative connotation that it does today, most slaves were better off than some free men. In ancient cultures this was more viewed like an employee-employer relationship.

The Jews are no strangers to slavery and oppression. Exodus 1:11-14 states, “So they(the Egyptians) but slave masters over them (the Jews) to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians began to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brink and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.”

This of course was during the Israelites subjugation under Egypt. Moses was risen up by God to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt. After Egypt the Israelites were free men and women; that being said Exodus 21 shows that slavery was then voluntary to pay off debts, or to make restitutions, for 7 years the voluntary slaves served and when the 7^th year came they were released and all debts were forgiven.

Slaves in Israel were relatively well-treated because they were protected under the Mosaic Law.  Slavery back then was the normal. Slaves were the backbone of the great empires, Rome, Egypt, and Persia to name a few. I’m not saying that because it was the norm, that it makes it right. However, the Bible doesn’t condone the act of slavery, it recognizes the moral and ethical dilemmas that were present in that day and age. The Bible does however, give guidelines and rules on how a slave is to be treated.

Back to really the true issue at hand, Slavery. Are we not all slaves of God?

Job 13:27 “You fasten my feet in shackles; you keep close watch on all my paths by putting marks on the soles of my feet.”

Psalm 139: 2-4 “As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy.”

Psalm 129:1-4 “They have greatly oppressed me from m y youth-let Israel sat they have greatly oppressed me from my youth, but they have not gained the victory over me. Plowmen have plowed my back and made their furrows long. But the Lord is righteous; he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.”

Matthew 20:25-28 “Jesus called them to together and said ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them . Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as ransom for many.”

Romans 6:16-18 “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”

Romans 6:22 “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life.”

1 Corinthians 7:21-23 “Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.”

We  are all slaves of God.

While I was researching and praying about these two attacks on the Bible and God himself, I realized that there is a theme to both of these ‘issues’.

They both deal God showing himself to us, how loving he is, how gracious. Slavery and Subjugation of women, is all about someone ruling or conquering someone else. Well guess what? There is someone that rules over everybody: GOD! He is the highest of highest.  

God used the enslavement of the Israelites so that they would become more pure and more devout. As Deuteronomy 4:20 “But as for you , the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you are now.”

I Love the play on words here: the Iron-smelting furnace- Egypt: the oppressors of the Jews through suffering and slavery were the heat that was used to purify them; just as Iron must be heated to rid it of impurities.

The Lord oppresses =  the Lord Disciplines= because the Lord Loves.

 It’s as easy as that. God uses the situations to bring those he has his eyes on closer to him. In the case of the Jews it was the Slavery and oppression of the Egyptians.

WOW! What an AMAZING God we have!