Slavery. Jeremiah 34:17.

In the Post-Enlightenment West, liberty means agency or self-determination, even when you use your liberty to bind yourself.

Let me explain: liberty means a landowner can do anything with his real estate. The owner is free to sell, to buy, to lease, to rent, to sell the underground minerals while retaining the surface, to lease the minerals, to own the surface while renting that surface to farmers in exchange for a share of the crops. Liberty means having the agency to dispose of your possessions without restrictions.

You know what else you can dispose of without restrictions? Your own labor. Or at least you could. Today there are rules governing the disposition of labor. But in the past, men had the liberty—the freedom—to bind themselves as another man’s servant for a period of years, usually in exchange for a loan or the payment of a debt, or to pay for passage to the United States. Others agreed to serve a tradesman as an unpaid apprentice in exchange for an education in a specific trade. But these systems led to abuses, and were thus outlawed. Today such arrangements are viewed as human trafficking.

At 12 years old, Benjamin Franklin’s father made him an apprentice to Ben’s older brother James so Ben might learn the printer’s trade. Unfortunately, though Franklin had proven himself an able reader and writer, his brother frequently beat him and he ran away at 17, breaking the apprenticeship and rendering himself a fugitive.

The people of ancient Israel were also free to bind themselves as indentured servants. And the system led to abuses then too.

What if the tradesman refuses to teach you the trade, leaving you to do grunt work all day?

What if he makes you work extra hours, or feeds you bad food or too little food?

What if he beats you?

What if he simply refuses to release you after the agreed-term is concluded? God is just and will not tolerate such abuses forever.

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God reminds Israel that they agreed to release their ‘bondmen’ every seven years. And Israel did release them. But then they took the people back and enslaved them again.

“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said,‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’ …” 

“Recently … each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.”

“Therefore, this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth” Jeremiah 34:13-17. 

People sometimes argue about whether the Bible supports slavery. They complain that the ancient scriptures do not condemn slavery strongly enough. But this was a world in which people considered some slavery or indentured-servant arrangements to be an acceptable option for a free man in need of money or training in a trade.

Just as today’s homeowner will give the bank a right to the house (a ‘security interest’) in exchange for a loan allowing the owner to purchase the property, so also the laborer of old might give an employer power over the laborer’s body in exchange for money, the payment of a debt, or the acquisition of a desired skill. The Bible’s position on slavery is better understood against this historical context.

However, when the people of Israel abused those with less bargaining power—whether slaves, servants, debtors, or foreigners, God punished the nation for its lack of mercy.

God cannot be accused of ignoring slavery. “You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague, and famine” Jeremiah 34:17.

Dear God, thank you that you are a God of compassion. Thank you for teaching us to treat others with mercy. Thank you for a legal system that enshrines justice and works hard to stop people from taking advantage of each other. Thank you for a legal system and a banking system that allows so many of us to afford college or trade school, houses, medical care, and so much more. May we grow more grateful every day.

AΩ.