Our text this week, Exodus 21:20-27, after regulating slavery and clarifying murder, God continued to clarify what is lawful slavery. Not slavery where the person is owned, so it is still murder to kill a slave but it is not unlawful to beat a slave with the rod. If the slave is laid up but is not killed, then the loss of the slave's labor is the punishment for the excessive use of the rod. God's law also protects the defenseless. If a child in the womb is harmed, the guilty party is to suffer the same harm. God laid out His general equity of punishment. Eye for eye. Tooth for tooth. Life for life. With a slave, who is also in a vulnerable position, if the master acts in such a way not to chastise them but to be violent toward them and there is measurable damage, the slave is to go free. Our society is so much about pain avoidance. The focus of God's law is avoidance of permanent damage. If the goal is pain avoidance, there is no limit to the laws that you can pass including those against microaggressions because someone's feelings were hurt. God's role for the civil magistrate is much more constrained. You must see damage.
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