Morning Musing: Exodus 21:20-21, 26-27

“When a man strikes his male or female slaves with a rod, and the slaves dies under his abuse, the owner must be punished. However, if the slave can stand up after a day or two, the owner should not be punished because he is his owner’s property. . .When a man strikes the eye of his male or female slaves and destroys it, he must let the slave go free in compensation for the his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his male or female salve, he must let the slave go free in compensation for his tooth.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the charges leveled against the Scriptures by critical scholars and skeptics is that they condone slavery. To a certain extent, this is an argument from silence. Because none of the various authors ever explicitly say slavery is wrong, and because there are several passages (like this one) in which the instructions assume on the existence and even continuation of the practice, therefore, they collectively support it. There are several reasons why this argument is flawed. LEt’s talk about some of them and what to do with what we see here.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 21:1

“These are the ordinances that you are to set before them.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Sometimes rules make sense. I think about classroom rules when I was in grade school. Don’t talk without raising your hand. No running with scissors. Keep your hands to yourselves. Sometimes, though, rules need a little more clarification. How about what counts as traveling in basketball or pass interference in football? The Ten Commandments are pretty clear, all things considered. But they don’t cover everything in the kind of detail that would help us avoid lots and lots of questions about exactly what to do and what not to do in order to stay right with God. As a result, this next part of our journey has lots of rules. We’ll unpack them as we go, but let’s start here by looking at the big picture for a few minutes.

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