Why did God allow slavery?
So let’s take a look…
In Genesis 15, Abraham was concern because he didn’t have descendants or sons to take over his wealth, so he assumed that one of his servants would be his heir.
But God told Abraham that he would have a son of his own, and promised him that he would have many descendants like the stars in the sky, but he warned Abraham that his descendants will be enslaved for 400 years in a foreign land, which would be the beginning of slavery in the Book of Exodus.
Now, we know God promised Abraham many descendants, but like always, God like to test our faith.
In Genesis 22, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, the son that God promised.
Abraham did what God asked of him with no hesitation, but he was stopped immediately before taking a knife into his son.
Abraham’s actions showed God that he feared him, and this pleased God. So in Genesis 22:17, God made a promise to multiply Abraham’s descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.
God says Abraham’s descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies.
With that being said, after Abraham descendants become free from bondage, they will go out and conquer land and hold enemies captive, turning them into slaves or servants.
So who are Abraham’s descendants?
It is revealed in Exodus 1:1 that they are the children of Israel who were in the foreign land called Egypt. They are the ones who would be held captive by the Pharaoh.
Here’s an important fact…
Before the Pharaoh became the new king in Exodus, there was Joseph, who was betrayed by his brothers, and sold as a slave in Egypt that was already ruled by a previous Pharaoh who has begun to favor Joseph, but the Pharaoh’s wife tried to lay with Joseph and lied on him, causing Joseph to be locked up in a dungeon. Later on the Pharaoh was having dreams that nobody could interpret, except for Joseph, so when Joseph revealed what the dreams were about, the Pharaoh was pleased and made Joseph the ruler of all the lands of Egypt.
(we can see that slavery was already a thing when Joseph’s brothers sold him off, but it seems as if slavery still started in Egypt)
So after Joseph died and all of his generations, his father, Jacob’s generation still reigned on and they multiplied all across of the land of Egypt, and so the new King of Egypt never knew Joseph.
The Pharaoh seen how mighty and fruitful the children of Israel were and this intimidated him, so he sent his taskmasters out to trouble them with their burdens, and soon causing the children of Israel to be in bondage or slavery.
Although heavy burdens were put on the children of Israel, they still multiplied and became fruitful, this caused the Egyptians to grieve. So that is when the Pharaoh ordered that all of the firstborn sons of the Hebrew women be killed, but the daughters could still live.
This goes to show that the Pharaoh wanted to mix his bloodline with the Hebrew women, to create mighty sons of his own flesh and blood.
This would be the beginning of slavery towards a nation.
So if we compared this to slavery that happened in the United States. It’s definitely safe to say that slavery was in fact raced-based, but not because of the color of our skin, but more of how strong our men were and in fact having good genes.