Old School: Part 3
April 23, 2023Pastor Patrick presented "Redemption" as the third of God's Old Testament promises (the four "I wills") in our current series, "Old School." A video of the message is here.
[Conversation Starters will begin again with the start of the next official life groups session this summer.]
There are three main Hebrew words used for "redeem": pada, gaal, and kapar. For a good description of these, read this article.
When "redeem" is in the English translation, most Torah Hebrew is referring to "buy back." For example, all first fruits must be returned to God in appreciation for Creation. Firsts are generally to be returned to God through sacrifice: first harvest, first borns in a flock, and first born children. Of course, it was never intended that firstborn children actually be sacrificed. Instead, a redemption process was used. The parents would "buy back" the child with a payment to the High Priest. The child was redeemed.
Joseph's brother, Judah, offered to redeem their brother Benjamin when the gold cup was discovered in Benjamin's sack. He offered to have himself enslaved in Egypt in return for releasing Benjamin. He attempted to redeem him. Fortunately for all, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers at this point, acknowledges their repentance, and all ends well for the family.
An Isaraelite could also redeem land for a kinsman who lost it for some reason (debt, for example). This involved two aspects. One, the kinsman had to buy the land, pay a price for it. Second, he had to hold and work the land and not return it to his kinsman (who had lost it) until a given time. The redeemer had to "pay a price" and "have power" over the land for a period of time. Messianic Jews see this is a foreshadowing of the price and power Jesus ultimately exercises to redeem us.
Bonus
At our Family Dinner this past Friday, we talked about slavery. I've covered to some degree what Torah slavery was all about (e.g. here).
Here's a broader Torah perspective. The Torah often chooses evolutionary change rather than revolutionary change. This is often wise. Consider in more recent history the revolutions that have led to catasrophe for the people. Not that the Torah doesn't take some revolutionary positions, as in decreeing human sacrifice is off limits and that God of the Torah is the one true God. There was no waffling on some positions such as these.
However, in other cases, the Torah went evolutionary. No outright ban, but rather a moral humanizing that would eventually lead to abolishment of some immoral behaviour. Slavery was one of these. Slavery was ubiquitous in the ANE, and remained so until only a couple hundred years ago when the first countries started banning it. Had the Torah tried to outright ban such a staple of ANE economies, it would have been laughed out of existence.
So what did it do about slavery. It established laws that made sure slaves were well treated. For example:
- A slave goes free at the 7th year or when debt paid, whichever comes first
- And when sent out, resources had to be provided
- MAY stay if he wishes (and did sometimes
- If runs away, no one may return him (Deut 23:15 or 16)
- The slave shall have Shabbat
- If you have 2 pillows, the slave gets one. If you have 1, the slave gets it
It's no accident that these slavery laws were delivered right after the Ten Commandments. Order and position is important in the Torah, and this placement indicates the importance put on humanizing and eventually extinguishing slavery. Sadly, the job of extinguishing slavery is still not complete. However, it is worth noting that it was predominantly Christian societies well-versed in Biblical teachings that started banning slavery (the first being England, France, and the United States in the 1800s).
Further, the Torah makes very clear how horrid slavery was in Egypt which was more akin to what we think of as slavery today. The Torah further makes it clear that we should never forget this, and act accordingly.
At our Family Dinner, I shared a 5-minute PragerU.com video that talks about slavery more recently and politically. It's here).
Also note that there is no Torah Hebrew word for slave as we know it. The Torah word is eved (עֶבֶד). It is translated both as slave and as servant. Abraham is described as an "eved of God." It's clear that eved can't be just what we think of as slavery today. The slavery side of the meaning is more like what we'd call indentured servitude.