Someone I’ve been listening to a lot lately, and whose ministry I truly believe has been blessed by God, is Nate Sala of Wise Disciple on YouTube.
Nate used to be a debate coach, and the pastor of a church in Las Vegas, Arizona. The skills he brings to the table in his videos are just brilliant. I can’t overstate how gifted this man is, how his passion and his faith enlighten the way he helps those watching to grow in their faith as well.
A PASTOR REACTS VIDEO
Below is a video in which Nate states some really great points against the argument set by Sam Harris regarding slavery in Old Testament. Please listen very carefully to the way he lays out his counter points for Sam’s case.
DEPRAVITY OF THE HUMAN HEART
There’s something really important in what Nate says here that I took note of. He describes the way God wants to change our hearts from the bottom up. He wants our hearts to have genuine transformation, and the reason why He allowed slavery wasn’t because He liked the idea of humans owning other humans, but because He could see the depravity of the human heart, and how slavery without involving Himself could have been much more severe and out of control.
ANOTHER CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC
That, to me, sounds like a very patient, understanding God, as Nate pointed out. And on this same note, it reminds me of another passage regarding a different controversial topic, divorce—but it, too, is presented the same way.
In Matthew 19:8, Jesus says: “Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.”
This is very telling of the character and understanding of God. Like slavery, God does not take delight in the idea of divorce. In fact, God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). But instead of standing aside and letting humans do whatever they wanted with their relationships, He allowed regulations; if adultery was involved, there could be a divorce certificate. But it wasn’t God’s desire. It was God seeing in fullness the flawed nature of humans and allowing something undesirable to Him that would act as part of a long-term solution to the brokenness of the human heart.
NOT A MORALLY QUESTIONABLE GOD
Divorce was never something God wanted for us, just like slavery. And as Nate pointed out, the reason God has allowed some difficult-to-read passages has nothing to do with Him being morally questionable, it has to do with just how much He sees into the human heart from outside of space and time. He designed all of existence to work out as He planned they would before the fall, even knowing that the plan would take time and would mean allowing lifestyle choices like slavery and divorce in order to complete it.
LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS DON’T FINALIZE OVERNIGHT
It’s not easy to hear or read about slavery or divorce, especially from the Bible. But both are allowed by God within those passages. Like Nate said, slavery wasn’t around for the first humans, not for quite some time. Neither was divorce! This should tell us something about God.
Also, what we know it’s not telling us is that God is morally questionable. It’s that the human heart is indeed so broken, and only God understands us better than we understand ourselves, therefore the solution to a problem so complex and deep, takes time—and in that time, God has allowed slavery and divorce while He works on the core issue, which is not slavery, divorce, or anything on the surface.
It’s the heart.
The root issue of all the brokenness we experience is the essence of our heart being incomplete, which first began when we allowed Satan to manipulate us into thinking we could be like God without actually needing Him.
And like a door that’s been locked shut, the brokenness of humanity cannot be resolved without letting God in.
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