There are some uncomfortable economic realities in this
section of the Law. Initially, we see
regulations regarding poor brothers (fellow Israelites) and their
treatment. They are to be provided for
as members of the family or, if their situation becomes dire enough that they
willingly sell themselves into slavery to repay their debts, at the Jubilee
Year they are returned to their ancestral land, debt-free. While they serve they are to be treated as
brothers, not as slaves. There were
always restrictions on what such indentured servants could be either asked or
required to do, some things were too demeaning for those in covenant with the
Lord. The uncomfortable part is that the
Hebrews are to be allowed to buy slaves from other nations and to treat them as
their property, including passing them on to their heirs. Slaves could, however, own property and have
independent income, through which they could potentially gain their freedom. The Law is more generous towards such slaves
than surrounding law, they retain personhood at some level, their lives are
treated as important, but this part of the law is not equally applied to aliens
and strangers, Hebrew slaves were treated better because they willingly entered
a contractual agreement for their services.
While certainly an improvement on the surrounding nations it isn't what
we would say is our ideal. Sometimes we
just have to defer to God's wisdom in things and allow for our own weakness in
understanding. The good news is that it
was Christianity, in the end, that did away with this practice.
I believe that this parable operates on many levels, perhaps
more complex and layered than any other.
Apparently the sower is not particularly discriminating as to where he
scatters seed, seemingly haphazard in his work.
Why would anyone scatter in such environments as these? A bit more care would certainly produce a
better return, but his work is not criticized nor is the point of the parable
to say we are to learn how to be better sowers to produce God's intended
return. The point is that we are to sow
and that sometimes it will bear fruit and other times it will not bear
fruit. The soil of our own hearts is not
always prepared enough to receive certain seed of truth, the soil needs
improving before we can receive it.
Perhaps that is true also with the Law and slavery, there were certain
truths not yet plain, awaiting the fuller revelation of Jesus.
Paul's prayer for the church at Colossae is that they
"be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and
understanding" and that they be always increasing in the knowledge of
God. We don’t get everything at once, we
continue all our lives, as we walk with the Lord and seek from Him, to grow in
wisdom, knowledge and understanding. If
the people had walked with Him and kept His commandments in the Law, would they
have understood such that the practice of slavery would have gone away? It seems likely doesn't it? Consider the reality that we are all created
in the image of God and what that means for the way we treat one another and
see that reflected in the way the law treated Hebrew slaves as brothers. Ultimately, since the law was to be applied
equally to Israelites and aliens and sojourners, it seems likely that the
extension of brother would be applied to all.
The parable tells me that we receive as we are ready to receive. Paul's prayer tells me that we should always
be seeking to know more and live into that which we already know.
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