Bondmen and Bondmaids by Leo

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 18, 1862

Bondmen and Bondmaids.

By Leo

(Concluded.) 1. God designed to make of the Jews a numerous, wealthy, and powerful nation. To secure this they must occupy a productive country, which he gave them,

described as "a land flowing with milk and honey." It was necessary also that they should be kept from being mingled with other nations, either by emigration to other countries, or by a large influx of strangers, who should not become identified with their religion and nationality. It was necessary to keep them a distinct people. Further to secure this end, their lands were secured forever, beyond their power to alienate them, so that every Jew was a freeholder in fact, or in prospect. A foreigner could not become permanently possessed of their lands, and could obtain a lasting interest in them only by becoming incorporated with some branch of the Jewish family, for which provision was made. This separating and signalling the Jews had reference to the execution of God's plan of redeeming mankind, for which it was a preparatory step. So far all is plain and will not be disputed.

2. The proposed position of the Jewish nation, with the means employed to secure it, the inalienability of their lands, tended to produce certain incidental evils, and a want of an element essential to the greatness and independence of any people, viz., a numerous and well-sustained laboring class, beyond the actual proprietors of the soil. A freehold interest is the greatest interest, and the cultivation of the soil is, and ever must be, the basis of all other great interests, yet there are other great interests that must be sustained. The circumstances of the Jews tended to produce a want of such a laboring class. A few of the influences tending to produce this want shall be named.

(1.) They were all land owners, and none need therefore engage in other pursuits than cultivating the soil, unless reduced by misfortune or bad economy. This would produce but very few mechanics and laborers to be hired.

(2.) Such was the richness of their country, so great the productiveness of the soil, that a large amount of labor could be expended with profit to the land owner, while the fact that every one was a land owner tended to render such labor difficult to obtain. In every prosperous community there is needed many more laborers than actual land owners, some must operate as mechanics, some as merchants, some must cultivate the lands of the unhealthy and widows, some must labor as additional helps to those who cultivate their own lands, and others will be needed as domestic help, commonly called servants.

(3.) The religion of the Jews required them to devote a large portion of their time to its special duties and exercises, rendering more laborers necessary to accomplish the same amount of labor in a given season. Every seventh year was a Sabbath the whole year. This was one seventh of all the time, and if averaged among the seven years, would be to each year just equal to the weekly Sabbath. For proof of this seventh-year rest, see Lev. xxv, 3–7. Next was the weekly Sabbath, every seventh day. Ex. xx, 8–11. This was another seventh of their whole time. Then there were three annual feasts; the passover, which lasted seven days; the pentecost, or feast of weeks, which lasted seven days; and the feast of tabernacles, which lasted eight days. For proof of these feasts see Deut. xvi, 3, 10, 16; Ex. xii, 3, 6, 15; Lev. xxiii, 35, 36, 39, 41, 42. See also Josephus, book iii, chap. 10.

Their national feasts were held in one place, the place which the Lord chose, which was Jerusalem, and thither the tribes went up to worship. Ex. xxiv, 23; Deut. xvi, 16; Luke ii, 41, 44. This required long journeys on the part of many, as Joseph and Mary went one whole day's journey homeward before they missed their remarkable son, so large was the company returning from the feast. More time must have been spent in the necessary preparations and journey than in the feasts themselves. The feasts together occupied twenty-two days, which gives the following result: The seventh year rest is equal to one weekly Sabbath, or fifty-two days in a year. To this add the weekly Sabbath, fifty-two days per year more, making one hundred and four days. To this add the three annual feasts, together occupying twenty-two days, making a total of one hundred and twenty-six, which is five days more than one entire third of the year, occupied in religion. To this might be added the time consumed in going and returning, as above supposed, and other feasts that might be pointed out, as every new moon, and special occasions by which it would appear that one-half or more of the time of the whole male population was occupied with religious matters, but it is not necessary to press these additional matters, as it would cumber my page with many references to establish the several points. I have shown positively that over one-third part of their time was occupied by religious matters, and that is sufficient for my argument. This must have required an increased number of laborers. It should be remarked that all that class of servants which some suppose to have been slaves, were required to observe all these feasts and Sabbaths.

It may be asked how it could be expected that they should become great and wealthy, with a religion laying so heavy a tax upon their time. The answer is plain, in the words of the Lawgiver himself. "And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold we shall not sow nor gather our increase; then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years." Lev. xxv, 20, 21. While they obeyed God, the shadow of his wing protected and blessed their whole land, but when they sinned and lost the divine blessing, without an abatement of their religious taxes, they felt them to be a burden. The system was not adapted to the whole world, embracing all countries and climates; and it was established by God only as a preparatory step, to last until the time of reformation, when they should pass away with what Paul said: "a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." But while the system lasted it had to be made consistent with itself, and if one part tended to produce incidental evils, they had to be overcome by the operation of some other part. One evil we have seen was a want of a sufficient number of laborers. This would naturally and mainly result first, from the inalienability of their lands, making all the Jews land owners; secondly, from the same fact tending to prevent other people from settling among them on account of their not being able to obtain a freehold estate; thirdly, from their religion, which consumed so much of their time; and fourthly, from the danger to their whole system which would arise from allowing laborers from other nations in sufficient numbers to become resident among them, without being naturalized and brought under the controlling influence of their laws and religion. To overcome this difficulty, the celebrated law was introduced, now under consideration, authorizing them to obtain servants from the Gentiles. "Thy man-servant and thy woman-servant shall be to thee from among the Gentiles. From them ye shall procure a man-servant and a woman-servant." The law has two faces to it, and removes two evils at once.

First, it renders the employment of Gentiles lawful, thereby supplying the demand for laborers, and thus increases the population. Secondly, it removed a temptation to which they would otherwise have been exposed, to oppress and degrade one another. Some in every community will be unfortunate or prodigal, and fall into decay, and become dependent. This is contemplated in the law. Verses 35, 36, 39, 42. Owing to the want of laborers and domestics, resulting as above, the wealthy might have been tempted to keep the poor down, for the sake of being able to obtain their services; but this the law prevents in two ways. First, it forbids it in so many words, and secondly, it opens another door through which servants can be lawfully obtained. Such servants were, by the very operation of that law, naturalized and became finally incorporated with the Jewish nation, and possessed in common with them all their civil and religious privileges and blessings. Thus did this law, which has been so terribly perverted and abused to make it justify American slavery, supply the land with labor, and at the same time naturalize the laborer to the nation, and proselyte him to the faith and worship of the true God.

But how were these servants obtained? Our translation says they were bought. If it were so, it would be clear that they voluntarily sold themselves, and used the price as they saw fit for their own benefit. Of whom else could they be bought, by men whose law provided that "he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, shall surely be put to death." Ex. xxi, 16. There is no law in all the book of God, by any provision of which, one man can get another into his possession to sell him in the market, without stealing. The law of the Jews punished the stealing and selling of men with death, and would he buy such stolen men? The right to buy involves the right to sell, on the part of him of whom the purchase is made. There being no way by which a man can obtain possession of a man to sell him but by stealing him, they could have been bought of none but themselves. It is true they might buy captives out of the hands of the heathen, but captives are stolen if held and sold as slaves. They could therefore rightfully buy captives only to free them, for as the captor has no title to captives, so he can sell none, and the buyer can buy none. If we understand by buying, merely engaging the services of men for a specified time for a valuable consideration agreed upon between the parties, the subject is all plain. Then might the Gentiles sell themselves to the Jews, or parents might sell their children to the Jews, by which they apprenticed them to the Jewish state as prospective citizens, and to the Jewish religion. I know not how Gentile parents could have done better by their children, it presented a brighter prospect than the sale of children does now in the human markets.

But we have seen that the word buy, in our sense of the term, is not in the text, that it is procure. Well, how were they procured? A Jew shall testify. Dr. Roy, in sending me the translation above given, accompanied it with the following:

"There is no word in the Bible for slave; a ebed is the only word to be found there, and means a hired man, servant, laborer, soldier, minister, magistrate, messenger, angel, prophet, priest, king, and Christ himself. Isa. lii, 13; but it never means a slave for life; for the law of the Sanhedrim forbids slavery.

"1. The contract was to be mutual and voluntary.

"2. It was conditional that the servant should within one year become a proselyte to the Jewish religion; if not, he was to be discharged.

"3. If he became such, he was to be governed by the same law, to eat at the same table, sup out of the same dish, and eat the same passover with his master.

"4. Finally, the law allowed him to marry his master's daughter. Prov. xxix, 21. Yankee in Sanhedrim."

This confirms the view I have given that the law presented a system of naturalization and proselytism. The circumstances of the case were such as to call for such a provision. In addition to what has been said of the necessity of some source whence laborers might be obtained, if we look at the condition of the Gentiles we shall see that their circumstances pointed them out as that source, under proper regulations and restrictions. They were generally inferior to the Jews in point of intelligence and civilization, and on the subject of religion they were in the darkest midnight, while the Jews enjoyed the light of heaven. They were divided into petty kingdoms, and were but little more than the servants of their kings, who wielded an arbitrary, if not an absolute, scepter over them. But moral advantages are above all other advantages, and these were found only in the land of Israel; over that land the wing of the Almighty was spread; there the angel of the covenant watched behind the veil, and the divine presence glowed upon the mercy-seat above the ark, and from that land alone the way shone clearly that leads to heaven. If David, who had danced before the unveiled ark, could exclaim, "I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness," to bring a Gentile from the darkness of idolatry to the tent service of an Israelite, where God's own institutions shone upon him, must have been a transition over which angels rejoiced. A position which would have been menial to a native Jew, was honor, exaltation, and even salvation to a Gentile, coming from the land of shadows and death.

To this must be added what we must suppose was the case, that numbers of heathen were attracted by the great fame of the Jews, that the report of what God had done for them, and of all the wonders he had wrought, and how he dwelled in that land, spread even among the surrounding nations, and that many resorted there, even to better their condition as servants. But it would not have been safe to have left these matters to regulate themselves, or to the will of each individual contracting party without the restraint of law, and hence all the laws regulating the subject of servitude.

The Jews were authorized to take the heathen that might come to them, on condition that they became proselytes to their religion, and then when they were fully inducted they became citizens, with all the rights of native Jews, and their children born in the land were regarded as native Jews. There can be no doubt many became proselytes by this system, which rendered the truth and altars of God accessible to the Gentiles even under the Mosaic system. And this proselyting the Gentiles was but the first fruits of their future grand gathering in Christ Jesus. And that Gentile blood was introduced into Jewish veins is evident; for David, the brightest lamp of the nation, descended on the side of his mother, from a Moabitess woman, who became a proselyte to the Jewish religion.—Leo.