Out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

 Good morning. Remember that Paul is talking to Timothy, the pastor, not to people in general, to which he had written in other letters: all who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against. Here he is giving Timothy the reason why they should not rebel or just go through the motions of serving their masters. It is not an approval of the institution of slavery, but what the Christian slaves’ response to it should be. Christians received enough flack for their beliefs; had they come out against slavery at that point in time, it would not have done any good and would have created more opposition. Also why didn’t Paul admonish Christian slaveowners to free their slaves?  We also don’t know why people were in slavery. Were they taken by force like those centuries later from Africa, or were they something like indentured servants, who because of economic reasons were slaves? The Old Testament in the book of Exodus even talks about the regulations for Hebrew fathers selling their daughters to others, sounding as if it were OK. Unfortunately the Bible was used to “prove“ that it was OK to have African slaves. Father give the reader the wisdom of what to do in the next stage of his/her life.