Slavery



Gen 47:19  What use are our bodies and our land if we stand here and starve to death right in front of you? 	

	Trade us food for our bodies and our land. We'll be slaves to Pharaoh and give up our land--all we 	

	ask is seed for survival, just enough to live on and keep the farms alive." 

	

	What does it mean to be a slave and how does someone become one? We are so influenced in our 

perspective of slavery by early America and the slaves brought from Africa. This slavery was a bondage 

imposed upon these people without right or choice. They were captured from their homelands, put in chains, 

and forced to do manuel labor for their masters. This condition was so deplorable that we fought the Civil 

War to abolish it, with many people of various races giving their lives. 

	There is another condition of slavery, however, that is shown in this passage from Genesis. This was 

the time in Egypt of drought after seven years of plenty. Joseph had stored up grain to prepare for this time 

and was the only source of food for the people. Requiring payment for the food, there came a point when all 

money and material goods of worth were exhausted. Their land was even given up and they had nothing left 

to offer but their very lives in exchange for the substance that would make possible their survival. Slavery 

became a choice for them, their lives as the last possession of worth that could be offered in exchange for 

life's requirement. Although they were not captured and placed in confinement, the possession of their time 

and energy was no longer theirs to manage or control. This is something to which they gave themselves 

willingly in order to insure survival. 

	In this second form of slavery there are elements to which we can relate in our relationship with our 

Father. For anyone that would make a choice to receive Jesus as their Savior this is a choice very similar to 

that made by the people in this story from Genesis. To truly give up one's own life and receive the heaven Life 

substance, there has to be a realization that the only thing you possess that is of value to Him is your heart 

and your life. All the material and physical things you might think you possess will not purchase the slightest 

morsel. Although the choice is ours to make, it is the only choice that will insure our survival. Like those who 

chose to become slaves to Pharaoh, though, in our willingness to submit to His control over our lives, we get 

entrance and access to the richest treasures and resources of heaven. We step from a world that is void of 

anything of real value or substance to a realm that knows no limits in its abundance. And then, for us, this 

King goes beyond just allowing us to live as a servant in His kingdom, He actually makes us a child and heir of 

it. 

	While this choice is one that is made at one point in our lives and brings us into this covenant 

relationship with God, the choice to present our lives as a living substance to Him is continual as our every 

moment can be submitted to Him in exchange for the substance of life. There is a constant exchange that is 

totally up to us- our life for His. It will never be our accomplishments or the material things we acquire that 

qualify as legal tender in this exchange, our life alone, in complete submission, is the only thing of value. In 

worship of our Father there is always an offering of His Life, but it will ever require the presentation of our own. 



2/5/04