Mushy Brains

Slavery.   We all condemn it, don’t we?   Here’s a passage from Exodus: “These are the ordinances you shall lay before them.  When you purchase a Hebrew slave,  he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he shall leave as a free person without any payment.  If he comes into service alone, he shall leave alone; if he comes with a wife, his wife shall leave with him.  But if his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children belong to her master and the man shall leave alone.  

If, however, the slave declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children; I will not leave as a free person,’ his master shall bring him to God and there, at the door or doorpost, he shall pierce his ear with an awl, thus keeping him as his slave forever.  When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go free as male slaves do.” (Exodus 21:1-7, Laws Regarding Slaves)

This is an example of how slavery can be justified by reference to a Biblical passage.   Today we find such ancient “laws” outlandish and repugnant, for example, “a man selling his daughter as a slave.”  But, throughout the world there are countries and locations where slavery is the norm.   Is this simply Old Testament thinking?  Consider the New Testament and Ephesians: “Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ.” 

There is much in the Bible to give us good guidance and what we would call morality.  However, there is much for us to question, and that’s good.  We are thinking animals with our God-given remarkable brains we must use through critical thinking. 

We should use our Bible to exercise our brains to do what is right and centered on Christ-like thinking.  To do otherwise is to have our brains become small and turn to mush.

Deacon David Pierce