25:39-43
We get more instructions on not exploiting the poor. An Israelite was not to enslave a fellow Israelite. Instead they were to be treated as hired workers. So they were not your permanent possession. Moreover, at the Jubilee they, along with their families, were to be released. The motivation for this is that they belong to God, they are His servants. So they must not be sold as slaves, and not treated ruthlessly. The poor are often exploited because they are considered to be weak and vulnerable, and of little or no worth. The Biblical view is that everyone belongs to God and therefore has inherent worth. As our society becomes increasingly godless this view increasingly breaks down. Perhaps the clearest example of this is abortion, where the life of the unborn is considered to be of no consequence.
25:44-46
While Israelites were not allowed to enslave fellow Israelites, they were allowed to buy slaves from other nations. They were allowed to treat these slaves as their property, even to the point of passing them on to their children. The prohibition on slavery applied only to fellow Israelites. There is no getting around the fact that we find this to be problematic. There isn’t a simple answer to this, though the conditions for the treatment of slaves under the Law was better than was the case among the nations. Taking a wider view, under the gospel there is neither Jew nor Gentile, so the distinction between Israelites and others vanishes, and all are to be treated the same.
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