It also comes as quite a shock to some people that slavery still exists today!
The Anti-Slavery Society contends that there are some 200 million people in the world today who are living and working in circumstances that can only be described as slavery. This figure is far higher than when slavery was abolished in the second half of the nineteenth century!
In some countries there are slaves who are owned by slave masters who have inherited them via a debt carried over from their deceased parents and grandparents. They earn no money, so they can never pay off these illusory debts. In remote parts of the Philippines children are born into slavery and whole families are traded for as little as 60 pounds. For as little as the price of a replica shirt you can actually buy a person in some parts of the third world!
One of the most vivid images of redemption in the Old Testament concerns the purchase of a slave by a close relative. This kinsman-redeemer would sometimes travel long distances in order to rescue one of his cousins, aunties or uncles from a life of bonded slavery. He would approach the slave master, cash in hand and buy the person back. This is the root meaning of the word redeem.
In football famous players are bought for millions of pounds and are then paid millions of pounds by the clubs that employ them. Perhaps we could say rather provocatively that the kingdom of God has indeed come when wealthy footballers spend more money on releasing slaves than buying Ferraris.
God’s Law is still enormously relevant to our modern world. Obedience to this law would bring shalom to the world. Shalom is far more than peace and absence of conflict; it is wholeness, completeness, perfection and security in every area of creation, in every area of personal, social, intellectual and artistic life. And in the wholeness and flourishing of shalom, all these areas of life are inundated with joy and rejoicing.
Picture a world where everything functions beautifully and according to God’s will. That’s shalom. It wouldn’t be so bad, would it?
Israel was supposed to be a land filled with kinsman-redeemers. Israel was called by God to make his presence visible, magnetic and tangible. Israel had the task of making God feel at home on the earth. God wanted to live with his human creatures and walk in the cool of the day with them. God was nostalgic for the old days when he talked face to face with Adam and Eve. The God who is normally invisible longs to become visible (flesh and blood) and broadcast the good news of his kingdom loud and clear to anyone who might listen.
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