Why does God support slavery?

Question

exodus chapter 12 verse 43:

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the passover: No foreigner is to eat of it. Any slave you have bought may eat of it after you have circumcised him, but a temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat of it".

Notice he makes the distinction between slave and hired worker.

Answer 1

The men that wrote the Bible and create "God" were pro-slavery.

Answer 2

Because the Bible is actually the words of ancient men pretending to be God,  during a time when slavery was the norm.

Answer 3

This sounds out of context to me.  If you researched the language used or bothered to read the rest of bible, I doubt you'd come to the conclusion that God supports slavery.  But I personally don't believe that the bible was all inspired by God in the first place.  It's been revised too many times to be a pure representation of God's word.

Answer 4

It is important to keep reading...when you get to the New Testament, you find out that Christ has set all of us free. As it is written, 'He whom the Son sets free is free indeed."

Answer 5

It could possibly be referring to the tradition in those times for a "slave" to be more of an indentured servant-- someone who worked for one family their entire life, and really became almost another family member. Yes, they served the family, but they were not supposed to be mistreated or abused.

That might also explain the distinction between "slave" and "hired help." A slave, in this regard, would have known the family well and always was with them. Hired help is just a temporary servant.

And for the record, just because people had slaves does NOT mean God condones slavery. God created all people in His image, and they were created to be free. The ancient people had slaves, so he put regulations on what they should and shouldn't do to them for practical reasons. But that doesn't mean he condoned slavery.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)

Answer 6

Also notice that the slave is much better treated than the hired worker.  It's almost like God is making them treat slaves like family.  Scary!

Answer 7

Read it again:

The slave had dibs before the hired worker.

The "hired worker" was grouped in with the "temporary resident".

Slavery was much more of a solid job than a hired worker, someone who you might hire for just one day. It didn't have the connotation then that it does now.  

Answer 8

God does not support anything

The bronze age goat herders who wrote the bible supported slavery.

Answer 9

"'Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death."  Ex. 21:16

God does not condone slavery:  Here is the Amplified Bible's translation of Ex. 12:43-45: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?sea... .

God condones bought servants which are different than hired servants because hired servants are not owned.

Answer 10

God does not support forced slavery, like with the Jews in Egypt or the slavery of African people or Asian slave labor.

Being a slave to God does not mean that He is whipping you and forcing you to do stuff for Him, God redeems people through Jesus Christ and then He grows us in holiness and we want to obey and be willing to die for Him because He first died for us even though we are not worthy of that because of our sins.

But back in the day, if you were homeless and someone took you into there home, it is expected that you work and contribute in some way in return for your stay there. Or if you owe a debt and you work for the person to pay it off, which is like an indentured servant. It's not forced slave labor.

Answer 11

He regulated it, not support it Just the same way the dmv regulates how you behave on the road.  "accept Jesus and live".

God loves you...God bless

Answer 12

God is not for slavery, this is why he took them out of Egipt, the Egipcians made God's people their slaves.

Reed your Bible!

Answer 13

Those people who put words in god's mouth and wrote the bible believes in slavery as long as the slaves are not Israelites. In their law given by Moses, the Israelites should only be treated as hired servant with fixed terms, but the Israelites themselves, after freeing from Egypt, can buy foreign slaves including foreign children borne in their lands, these foreign slaves were to be treated like property and can even be inherited to the children of the Israelites  (Leviticus 25:42-46).

Answer 14

Slaves bought by Moses became free.

Answer 15

Israel had slavery laws, given by God, like all there other laws, and listed in the Torah. They require that slaves be treated in a certain way and their term of service was temporary. Every seventh year, all slaves were emancipated, but they had the option to stay with a good master, if they wanted to. Slavery was universal in the ancient world, but not everyone treated their slaves with this kind of dignity.

It is even carried over to the NT. There was a runaway slave named Onesemus who fell in with St. Paul's crowd and converted to Christianity. Paul advised him to return to his master because it was the right thing to do, and even vouched for him.

Answer 16

Whitehorse: Wrong. Jesus speaks of slavery himself!

Wawys: You read YOUR bible. It mentions slaves so many times you can't miss it...unless you are selectively reading.

Love: Um...you were certainly allowed to beat your slaves for not doing as they were told.

Answer 17

the bibles just a book to me !!! follow it, learn from it, but its your heart that you should always ask, ! if you know somethings wrong, its wrong for you, but may not be to others

Answer 18

There are heaps of worse regulations about slavery in the bible.

The fact is that, even in Jesus's time, slavery was still commonplace and accepted as a fact of life. Since God is merely a reflection of the social norms of the day - God did not denounce slavery.  

Answer 19

slavery gets **** done.