Tag: slavery
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Welfare Without Hellfire: Wisdom From Proverbs 31 About Helping Those In Need Without Enslaving Them
In Proverbs 31, Solomon is not telling women how to be women of God. He is advising his own sons to look for certain character qualities in an excellent wife. He is passing on advice from his own mother, Bathsheba, and even using her as the example of an excellent wife. Solomon, I’m sure, has…
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Well Being Instead of Welfare- Exodus 21:12-36
God provides laws that carry punishment based on damages incurred by victims. If one person kills another intentionally, that person is to be killed. If it is unintentional, there is a way for that person to remain alive but be sentenced to a form of exile. Striking or cursing parents, an adult abusing his parents,…
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Initial Statements About Slaves- Exodus 21:1-11
God instructs Israel concerning slavery and the appropriate times to free slaves. I always found it difficult to recognize that God gave instruction concerning slaves. Like we just saw in Chapter 20, the Law is not the standard for ethics. The Law is meant to bring longevity and prosperity for Israel. Thus, some laws were…
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Daily Devotional: Exodus 1:1-22
Introduction The Book of Exodus comprises a story that continues from Genesis. While Genesis was the beginning of all things and Israel, Exodus is the outworking of God’s promise to Abraham—namely the promise to bless all nations through his descendants. In Exodus, Moses, the books author, is born and leads the Israelites out of Egypt.…
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Daily Devotional: Genesis 44:1-34
Joseph sets Benjamin up. Judah pleads for Benjamin’s freedom and offers to take his place—to be punished for wrong he did not commit. This is love. Joseph sees his brothers love sacrificially instead of deal selfishly with others. Love and entitlement are incompatible. Love garners self-sacrifice. Love brings about redemption. In this case, Judah offers…
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Juneteenth and the Gospel
The news of Republican, or National Union, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation reached Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 “the year of our Lord” and has been annually celebrated since. Juneteenth stands as a beacon to equality and freedom in the United States and has recently been designated a federal holiday. Juneteenth is inherently conservative, Christian,…
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Prostituting Jesus
A decent man would never use a woman for satisfaction and never care to know her. The modern-day sex trade is based on the willingness of one person to use another for his or her pleasure but never caring to know that other person. Many people do this with Jesus. They desire the benefits of…
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Dealing with Oppression? #racism #sexism
There is much in the world today that causes me to wonder why the people of God suffer while those who hate God continue to prosper. I remember the Israelites, as they were captive in Egypt. While Egypt, a people who despised the God of the Israelites, prospered, God’s people were subject to slavery.…
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Here a Slave, There a Slave, Everywhere a Slave Slave…
Slavery is contemporarily classified as a morbid evil that once permeated, and in many ways still persists in human civilization and this classification is true. It is true in the sense that African Americans should never have been treated as they once were. It is true in the sense that human trafficking is a vile…
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Freedom
Everyone wants to be free If freedom is committing one’s self to some other thing Then every person on the face of the globe is in slavery Some to politics, some to religion Some to science and others to reason We bind ourselves in relationships and in worldviews Making…