Solomon conscripted the descendants of all these people remaining in the land—whom the Israelites had not destroyed—to serve as slave labor, as it is to this day. – 2 Chronicles 8:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 13, 2016): 2 Chronicles 8

Maybe one of the more disturbing developments in the past 50 years is our willingness to walk back into a slave state. Slavery has a different look in the 21^st Century, but it is still slavery. It is one of the reasons why there is turmoil over the existence of illegals in American culture. The problem is not necessarily the Illegals themselves, but that they are a source of cheap labor that we do not want to give up. Essentially they have become the poster images for modern day slavery. But it doesn’t just stop there. Income inequality and massive personal debt load on people of the lower economic strata have essentially developed a new class of slaves. We may not serve just a single master, but we serve just the same. For many of us, in various parts of the world, to get sick for any extended period of time means to end our dreams and the repossession of our assets. If we stop playing the game then we might as well die. Too many of my friends have given up on dreams like retirement because they can’t afford to stop working. The upper classes thank us for our persistence; our work and our money make possible their extravagant lifestyle. Essentially, that is just another picture of modern day slavery. We work, but not for our own advancement. Today we are enslaved by low wages and high debt. And the fruit of our labor goes to someone else.

Slavery has been a constant in human history basically because it is to the advantage of someone in power. And so they work to keep the slaves. And this is an interesting viewpoint with which to view the American Illegal immigration debate. The real reason why some don’t want to do anything about it is because they are, or their friends and constituents are, essentially, the slave owners. They don’t want anyone to take away their cheap labor.

Solomon enslaved thousands of people. Originally he conscripted them for the building of the Temple. But when the Temple was complete, he refused to release them. They became the servants and waiters for the wealthy class. They were the slaves of the culture.

James Burton Coffman, among others, has argued that this was the real longing of Israel for centuries afterward – to return to the days of Solomon when Israel had her slaves. And it was one of the real reasons why Jesus message ultimately fell on deaf ears. Jesus was not going to work toward that goal. In fact, everything that Jesus and the Early Christian Church did was to work against that goal, and toward a recognition that we are all equal, regardless of skin color or any other device that we might use to separate ourselves. This is the real power behind Paul’s words - There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). The divisions don’t exist. We are still all one.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 127 & 128