Why did God permit slavery in the Bible?

Why did God fall short of completely abolishing slavery?

The terrible atrocities of modern slavery is documented meticulously from International Justice Mission (IJM). Slavery is alive and thriving worldwide today and also is rampant in the United States.

Consider broader concept of weak people being taken advantage of by those with power, you will uncover horrible situations like Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and P-Diddy.

Shift gears and consider the pervasiveness of sex trafficking (a certain form of slavery), there are stories of horrific abuse.

The non-profit “Our Rescue” - which fights sex trafficking reports the following states: 100 Million Suspected Child Sexual Abuse Material files have been reported. $172.6 B was generated from forced commercial sexual exploitation annually.

Sick.

What is even darker, is that sexual exploitation is fueled by pornography. Pornography corrupts the viewer - inflaming an appetite that grows and an addition deepens.

As sexual additions deepen, it can sometimes fuel an appetite for more extreme pornography. Every person addicted to extreme pornography started with tame pornography. You do not have one without the other.

Pornography has provided income to those who create it. From adult film stars to people at home with a webcam. There is a massive economic system here that does not protect the poor and innocent.

Some illicit content is generated by parents who sell (sacrifice) their innocent children to the industry of child pornography and prostitution. They cash in while hurting those they should protect.

Sometimes the powerful enslave the weak and sadly the weakest people are children and those who live in areas with weak justice systems.

Why doesn’t God just end it all?

This darkness in humans should earn swift and accurate punishment, doesn’t it? What if true justice were enacted tomorrow by God?

God’s word warns that punishment is in route. It is on it’s way and you can take that to the bank. The Bible is very clear on it. (Check Out “The Day of The Lord” by Jason DeRouchie). A great day of reckoning is coming, but it hasn’t arrived yet.

Why hasn’t it come yet? The only answer is - I don’t know and God has his reasons. I will say God’s delay in exacting punishment is a grace to all people. We are gifted with more time.

What if God completely eradicated slavery that action also required that all adjacent sin must be punished?

As we transition from God “rightsizing” the world by eradicating sins like injustice & slavery, one must ponder the “supply chain” perpetrators. Should God also punish those who look at pornography? Does he also punish the company that runs the servers that host the pornography. Does he also punish the banks that facilitate the companies that run the sites?

Does he also punish members of the justice systems that allow perpetrators to continue. Does he also go easy on people who fail to step up stop such injustices? Does the neighbor who sees something fishy and fails to step out and step in?

What do you think?

It’s healthy to reflect and wrestle with the darkness of your own heart. Hopefully you are not enslaving others, but when you sin it most certainly affects many people and institutions. It corrupts your soul and often injures others.

Our personal sin is an ingredient to the wold’s problems. So often we are blind to the results and severity of our own sin. We should weigh the fair “payment” that we deserve from a Holy God.

God’s mercy gives us time to choose God and his way. The time he gives us is grace, even when we deserve his wrath.

A major theme of Jesus’ teachings is the Kingdom of God. God is developing a remnant people for his purposes. “A City on a Hill”. We shouldn’t only lament the darkness in the world, but first allow God to change us so we fight against darkness in our lives.

One aim is to trust the finished work of the Cross, which imputes the rightness of Christ in our lives. As we are gifted Christ’s rightnesouss, we wrestle with our flesh and war against our own sin.

Faithful Christians turn their attention to the kingdom of God and seek to be agents of change and redemption in this world while their ultimate allegiance is to the King of God.