Day 71

These are roaring off quite nicely now. Onto business then,

Today’s readings

Leviticus 25:1-26:13
Mark 16:1-20
Psalm 33:1-11


The law that we read today is really complicated it seems and revolves mostly around property. Now the simple explanation in all of this is that God didn't want His people ot become obsessed with property and the things that they owned but to realise that everything they had came from Him and so they shouldn't guard it jealously. He also tells them that living by His laws means they will propser as a nation. So much of our faith revolves around us rather than us wanting the best for the world. In fact there are loads of times coming up where this promise is highlighted by the Israelites forgetting God and getting themselves into trouble.

Now there is a problem bit in here. I'd heard this passage referenced previously when my Mum was involved in the Jubilee 2000 campaign and I understood it to be about the end of slavery. But the passage does clearly say that it's ok to have slaves if they're foreign. Yikes... Let's think of the context though. Again, this is a people who are isolated and have no community. They'd be tired and fed up and would probably be thinking about taking slaves like they saw the Egyptians do to them. Now I think the easy way out here is to see how this law has changed with the removal of God's people just being the Jews and actually being all humanity. It's impossible to buy a slave who isn't a member of God's chosen people now. But that still leaves us with a real quandry here which I don't think I have a solution for. How can God ok the sale of children into a life of slavery?

Ok I've done some reading around and found this pretty handy thought out response on the internet amongst a bunch of idiots like me just wailing what they think :

The Bible acknowledged the slave’s status as the property of the master (Ex. 21:23; Lev. 25:46),
The Bible restricted the master’s power over the slave. Ex. 21:20).
The slave was a member of the master’s household (Lev. 22:11)
The slave was required to rest on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10; Deut. 5:14)
The slave was required and to participate in religious observances (Gen. 17:13; Exodus 12:44; Lev. 22:11).
The Bible prohibited extradition of slaves and granted them asylum (Deut. 23:16-17).
The servitude of a Hebrew debt-slave was limited to six years (Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:12).
When a slave was freed, he was to receive gifts that enabled him to survive economically (Deut. 15:14)

So slavery was happening and God had already given specific rules as to how they Israelites should treat their slaves. I think God understood the way that the world worked at that time and realised the sacrifices that needed to be made so that His people could be settled and then His plan continued. God is continually working against human free will in order to see His plan come to fruition and so must work within the confines of our own sinful choices sometimes. That's a challenge to me. My own sin contributes to a society and a culture that God must work within in order to make people understand and see Him.

The heavy stuff continues as we go into the New Testament with Mark's account of Jesus' ressurection. Well, it might be Mark's or it might have been added in later but remember folks; the Bible is God inspired, not God written and it's important to remember that humanity's messed up brains were involved in writing it. Just look at the original ending of Mark's gospel. The women are running scared after hearing that Jesus has been raised. What a fantastic cliff hanger! But seriously, that sort of reaction is fascinating to me. How many people do we know who reject Jesus because they are scared of the impact His truth would have upon their lives and their understanding of how the world should work. People will still hear the truth but run and hide from it. Small side note, I've written a 2000 word essay on verse 17 alone with the handling of snakes being a sign that some churches take literally. Interesting if completely potty belief which clearly ignores how the Old Testament refers to snakes in place of Satan or demons and remembering that Jesus speaks to His audience in ways they understand, it's pretty clear He's not instructing them to go pick up a rattlesnake to prove how holy they are.

Finally our Psalm reminds us again of the power of God and the reliability of His plans. He has done and continues to do great things and if we work ourselves and, more importantly, with each other then great communities and countries can be built.

That's your lot. Onto the next one...