Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“You yourselves recently repented and did what was right in my sight by proclaiming liberty to one another, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name; but then you turned about and profaned my name when each of you took back your male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them again into subjection to be your slaves.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, July 21, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Slavery is completely acceptable in the Bible. But some slaves, particularly those from within the community, had rights. And when King Zedekiah proclaimed liberty to all Hebrew/Judean slaves, everyone said, “Yes, Sir, Zedekiah, Sir!” and freed them. Aaaand then took them back by force. God was not pleased.
It makes me think of our history with slavery in this country. How the Emancipation Proclamation freed our African American siblings from slavery, and then their rights were taken away through Jim Crow, forced labor in prison gangs in coal mines, and today in mass incarceration. How the Voting Rights Act of 1964 protected the right of our African American siblings to fully participate in government, only to have that Act pared back in the last decade to allow for discriminatory voting practices in many communities, to try to squelch those freedoms. How we bait and switch, appear to follow the law and then flaunt it, continue to find ways to oppress BIPOC folks in order to maintain our wealth and power. Frankly, it’s flagrant and disgusting. Can anyone think for a single moment that this is okay with God? Yet people still use the Bible to justify this sort of thing. May we listen to Jeremiah about this, please.
What is my role in changing systems that continue to oppress my BIPOC siblings?
