Good Slavery and the Jubilee?

Leviticus 25:47-55 "If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's clan, ⁴⁸ then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired servant. ⁵¹ If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. ⁵² If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. ⁵³ He shall treat him as a servant hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. ⁵⁴ And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. ⁵⁵ For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

The laws of slavery in Scripture are nothing like the kinds of slavery that we have heard about in the American past or in modern Africa today. Today, slavery is in all cases, a very grave concern for all of us to consider. It cannot be tolerated.

Thus, when we come to this passage in Leviticus, one must be a little curious as to why slavery was sanctioned in Scripture. In all of its cases, slavery was a result of becoming poor. One can only imagine what kinds of situations caused this terrible bankruptcy to overcome this man and/or his family. Perhaps his crops failed for a number of years. Perhaps he made a poor trading decision. One can imagine. In Leviticus 25, there is a thorough discussion of the Jubilee year (hayovel). In the Jubilee year, property is redeemed. In other words, if a family plot of land was sold, either to a fellow Israelite or a stranger in the land, the plot was returned to the family of inheritance. Thus, each Israelite was guaranteed his perpetual inheritance, in theory, forever. (Obviously, the commandments about whose inheritance land belong to which Israelites today is impossible to determine.) The purpose goes beyond just a financial means of protection; it also is a means for families to reconcile, for the families to come back like some sort of a year of family reunion. However, not only is the land redeemed, but so are the Israelites who have become slaves.

This chapter is very explicit about how Israelites were to treat fellow Israelites. Lev. 25:39 explicitly states that a fellow countryman is to be treated not as a slave, but as a "hired servant" (v. 40). Even so, in the year of Jubilee, his property is returned to him and he is reunited with his whole family. The purpose of this temporary "slavery" is to illustrate redemption. That redemption could be brought about by a kinsman redeemer (v. 49). On one hand, this illustration serves as a word-picture of what Messiah would one day do for all of mankind. On the other hand, the more practical application, both for the Israelites and us today, is that G-d puts the responsibility of helping the poor, especially the poor relatives, onto one's family. There is no welfare system, no clothes closet, no food pantry. Not only that, but poverty was only temporary, for in the normal life span of every person, there would be at least one jubilee year. G-d purposefully built into the Torah, "the do-over" button.

However, there is a particular case that required a very particular resolution: What would happen if an Israelite had become the legitimate slave of a stranger in the land (ger). Consider the implications of what this means. In the Artscroll Chumash, Sforno consider this situation to be very bad indeed. It is assumed that the ger is automatically considered an idolater. Yet, in other places, the ger is translated to mean "a proselyte." (Tim Hegg does a very good job explaining why associating ger with "proselyte" is achronistic, meaning the term and concept of full proselyte, a Greek word, is a 2^nd-3^rd century CE rabbinic concept, and not used in this way in the Torah nor the 1^st Century CE. See "articles" at www.torahresource.com .) The point here is that a "stranger-in-the-land" living in Israel would not necessarily be a pagan, as is presupposed. In fact, it is unlikely that this is the case at all, since the Torah binds the non-Israelite to also treat the Israelite as a "hired servant" (v 53). Furthermore, the other Israelites are to pay attention to make sure that the Israelite is "not treated with severity (v 53). Finally, the stranger-in-the-land is obligated to release the Israelite at the year of Jubilee. Based upon these statements, it is more likely that the "stranger-in-the-land" abides by Torah and is included amongst those in the land.

There is a greater significance here that can be alluded to by Paul and James in the New Testament. Romans 1:1, "Paul, a bondservant of Messiah Yeshua…" In Phillipians 1:1, "Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Messiah Yeshua…" And finally, James 1:1, "James, a bond-servant of G-d and of the L-rd, Yeshua Messiah…" Is it possible that Paul and James understood their status as slaves to Messiah in the context of a slave, but only until a type of "Jubilee year" which would then set them free? Yeshua says something about being a servant/slave in Matthew 20:26-28 "It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Later, Paul says, 1 Corinthians 7:21-22 "Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ." Of course, in the first century context, the Roman style slavery is not to be confused with the Torah-style slavery. There was no Jubilee in the Roman context. Yet, in all of these cases, there seems to be a promise of release. While it may seem to be oxymoronic, slavery to Yeshua the Messiah is actually freedom.

Now consider a mind-set today. Though many of us consider ourselves "free," we are in fact more slaves today than in many other times in history. People are enslaved to jobs, to credit cards, to bad family situations, to drugs, to alcohol, to the internet, to playing games, to their cars, to the government social programs, and on and on that list can go. Yet, what if we were to leave all of that alone and become bond-servants of Yeshua only? What would that look like today? What is certain is that one day, there is a final Jubilee, a year of release. Even though Paul, Timothy, and James considered themselves bond-servants to Messiah, it seems implied that they knew their service was temporary. In 2 Timothy, Paul refers to having "fought the fight, having finished the race, and having kept the faith." Our prayer should be similar. Let us endure until the end. Meanwhile, let us put ourselves in the position of a slave, for Yeshua and for each other. What better way to show our love for one another than through being one another's servants.