When I read in the bible about how God deals with slavery and polygamy, and other sins, I have to stop and think. I sometimes wonder why He hasn’t spent more time condemning those things. It almost seems like He has just gone along with it—tolerated it. From the beginning of time it seems that slavery has occurred, and all through the Old Testament most men have had more than one wife. And divorce was also rampant. It wasn’t until Jesus came along in the New Testament that polygamy and divorce were dealt with. But even in the New Testament slavery was still an issue—still something that seemed to be excepted as normal (Eph. 6:5-9; Philemon).

Well, I don’t know what to say, except that from the beginning God gave man free will—the freedom to do as he wished. And God rarely intervened, except in the flood, and also when He directed Israel to wipe out the evil nations (by Joshua’s leadership).

But it is interesting how God has worked within the evil world system to bring testing on His people in order to discipline us. And we are commanded to live in this world without complaining so that we may appear as shinning light in the world (Phil. 2:14-15), and be a pleasure to God.

In regard to slavery, it has seemed that God hasn’t said much about it, except how masters ought to treat slaves and how slaves ought to please their masters (Eph. 6:5-9). So, even after Christ, slavery seemed to be excepted, but something that should be regulated or made acceptable —more like a boss and an employee.

But that certainly wasn’t how it has been—all the way into the 60’s in our country (USA). And it has taken a long time to change it. Even now there is still so much tension between whites and blacks. And what’s going on now with this Black Lives Matter movement is not helping. It seems to be just stirring up more bitterness.

I sometimes wonder why God didn’t put a stop to slavery from the start. Surely, He saw what would happen and the racism. But, like I said, that’s not how God chose to work. He gave us free will; and He also gave us the ability to ask for His help. We should do that. We should be constantly praying and asking Him to help us with our tendency toward racism. Instead of all the riots and the terrible BLM speeches (with awful language), made to stir people up to do horrible things, Christians should meet together to pray, and then be obedient in however He directs.