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GOD REVEALS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS TO SET SLAVES FREEEXODUS 21:1-11INTRODUCTION There is a very common plot line in many of our favorite movies and stories. It goes like this: A person with a vision and a passion to accomplish some great feat chooses a collection of misfits and incompetent people and against all odds forms them into a winning athletic team or fighting force or music group. A few movies I can think of that follow this plot line at least in part are, “The Mighty Ducks,” “Hoosiers,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” "The School of Rock, and “A League of Their Own.” Many of you can probably think of others. The members of the team or unit or group are not chosen because of their greatness or goodness but they become great and/or good by submitting to the discipline and rules of the coach or commander or conductor. They are “chosen ” in spite of who they are and then through submission to the leader and his plan they overcome their deficiencies and attain greatness. Their greatness is then due to the wisdom and leadership of the leader, not their own innate ability. The leader gets the glory; the members get the joy of belonging to the winning team. While you cannot push the analogy completely, there is a sense in which we ought to think of God’s relationship to the nation Israel in this way. God says on numerous occasions that he did not choose Israel as his people because of who they are but because of who he is. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation was an idol-worshipping pagan when God chose him and called him to leave his home and go to a land he would show him. Jacob and his sons are violent, deceitful, lust filled men. Israel while living in Egypt worshipped the gods of the Egyptians. One of the main themes from Genesis 12 through Exodus 20 is that God has made these people, his people, by grace, not because of who they are or what they have done. God’s commitment to Israel is never based upon Israel’s obedience but always upon God’s commitment to his own nature. He has made a promise to make the descendants of Israel into a great nation and to bless all the nations of the world through Israel and he is going to fulfill what he promised, in spite of Israel’s sinfulness and willful disobedience, not because of Israel’s obedience. When God gives his law to Israel on Mt. Sinai it is in one sense the disciplines and the rules by which Israel will become the great nation that God has promised them they will become. His promise to them is that if they will do what he says, then they will become a successful and great nation. If they will follow his instructions they will live in abundance in the land he is going to give them and all the surrounding nations will admire them. Just like with Adam and Eve, if you obey you will live, if you disobey, you will die. However, unlike our movies and stories where the misfits attain greatness by obeying the coach, the story of the OT is that Israel, like Adam, never becomes the great nation they could become because they never do what God says to do. In the end God destroys them as a nation because of their failure to do what he says. These laws reflect the greatness and the goodness of God, not of Israel. This is why the entire Bible describes God’s law in such extravagant and glowing language. God’s law is the revelation by God to his chosen people of how they should live as a great nation. It describes for Israel, as a nation, how to attain the greatness of God. As Paul says in Romans 7:12, echoing the language of the OT and of Jesus, “So then the law is holy and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” The problem is never with God's law but with those whom he commands. However, as I attempted to make plain last week, this law that God gave on Mt. Sinai he gave to Israel, not to us. These great and good laws are given to the nation Israel on a temporary basis for particular reasons. They fulfilled a temporary purpose in the ongoing process of God’s saving his people. We are not to read these laws as if we are part of the nation of Israel and obligated to obey them directly. Rather, we are to read them in light of the fact that the main to which they refer is the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. There are two ways that these laws functioned for Israel that they yet function for us. First, these laws revealed Israel’s sinfulness and they reveal our sin. These laws condemned Israel for their sin and they condemn us for our sin. Second, these laws revealed to Israel the glory of the Messiah who was to come and his salvation and they show us the glory of the Messiah who has come, Jesus Christ, and his salvation. In addition, these laws do embody God’s moral will as conditioned by the particular relationship God had with Israel and the particular purpose Israel fulfilled in the history of God’s saving his elect people. That means that while these laws inform Christian ethics and conduct, they are not for us to obey literally. They help us to think wisely about what it means to love God and to love our neighbor by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. My outline this morning is to answer the following four questions: How did this law function in Israel? How does this law condemn them and us? How does this law reveal Christ and his salvation to them and to us? How does this law inform Christian conduct and ethics? How did this law function in Israel? We cannot even begin to think about how this law relates to us without first understanding how this law applied to Israel as God’s redeemed nation, living in the land of Canaan. The first task that faces us in correctly understanding what these laws mean for us is to understand what they meant for Israel. For most of us, when we read these laws we are embarrassed and/or confused by them. There are at least three things that these verses seem to, if not endorse, at least tolerate that we have a difficult time squaring with what we believe about God and his moral will. First, these commands describe how to treat slaves. They don’t forbid slavery, which is what we assume is God’s moral will. Second, v. 4 appears to endorse men abandoning their families and leaving their wives and children in permanent slavery. That just sounds cruel. Third, v. 10 appears to tolerate polygamy, which, on the basis of Genesis 2:24 & Jesus' teaching on marriage is contrary to God’s will. How can these be good laws that reveal a perfectly holy and righteous God’s moral will if they condone such apparent immorality? As we think about how these laws function in Israel we will understand the greatness of these laws and not be embarrassed by them. The first thing to notice about the slavery discussed in these verses is that it is voluntary slavery within the nation of Israel (v.2). The slavery discussed here is when an adult Jewish man sells himself as a slave to another Jewish man or when a Jewish father sells his minor daughter to another Jewish family. This is not referring to the kind of slavery that was practiced here in the U.S. prior to the civil war or the kind that is now going on in Sudan. That kind of slavery is talked about in v. 16 of this chapter. “Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death.” In other words, the capturing of Africans to be kept as slaves or to be sold as slaves was condemned by God and all who participated in that slavery ought to have been killed. The slavery addressed in vv. 1-11 is of a different sort because first of all it is voluntary. This slavery is entered into because of economic distress. There were basically three scenarios by which Jewish people became the slaves of other Jews. First, an adult, either a male or female, would get so far into debt that there was no way to pay off the debt and continue to eat. In that case the indebted person would sell himself or herself into slavery, usually to the person to whom they owed the money, in order to pay off the debt and so that they could keep eating because their master would now feed them. If there were no opportunity to sell yourself, then you would die of starvation and exposure. It would be like if you were so far in debt that your entire paycheck had to go to pay the debt, leaving you with nothing to live on. This slavery was meant for the welfare of the indebted person and for the protection of the rights of the lender. The second way a Jewish person could become enslaved was when a father would sell his daughter to another Jewish family. We’ll see in a minute that this was done for the benefit of the daughter. The third way that this slavery was entered into was if someone stole property and was caught. The law required that the thief pay restitution by returning what was stolen plus four or five times more (cf. 22:1). If a person got caught stealing and could not pay the restitution he would be sold into slavery to pay off his debt. The second thing to notice about this slavery is that it was temporary. It didn’t matter how much the debt was, no adult male (or adult female according to Deut. 15) could be kept for more then 6 years. The slave’s debt would be considered paid in full at the end of the six years, regardless of how much was owed. Then according to Deuteronomy 15 & Lev. 25, when the slave was set free the master was to provide him or her with food and livestock in accordance with the abundance that God had given to the master. No slave was sent away empty handed. The point of this slavery was to preserve the life of the indebted person or thief and prepare him to live as a financially secure free person. There appears to be, in v. 4, a very cruel exception to this law. If a man is given permission to marry a fellow Jewish slave by his master then when he is released from his slavery the wife and children remain the property of the master and cannot go with the now freed slave. The only way the man can remain with his family is to become a permanent slave of the master. What is going on here? Remember, the primary aim of this slavery for the enslaved person, is to free a man from his debt and give him the training and the resources to make it on his own, as a free person. The husband is freed, with resources given by the former master with the goal that he becomes financially secure and then is able to redeem his wife and children. You have to remember that the wife is in slavery herself due to some sort of financial debt or obligation and so the free husband works to redeem his enslaved family. It is a temporary separation. Again, if the man loves his master and his family he can freely choose to remain as a part of his master’s household as a permanent slave. This is voluntary and protects and provides for the indebted person and his family. When the man is set free he, along with his wife, can decide which would be better for them: to remain permanently in the household of their master or for the husband to leave and become financially able to purchase the freedom of his wife and children. On the surface the selling of a daughter into slavery appears to be a wicked and cruel thing (v. 7). Immediately our minds are filled with thoughts of brutal and abusive situations. It also appears sexist as the female slave cannot be let go free after six years like the man can. However, the reason that a man would sell his daughter was so that she might have a chance at a better life. The father would be in debt and would not be in a position to take good care of his daughter. He is having a hard time feeding her and keeping a roof over her head. So he would sell her, using the proceeds to decrease his debt, while placing her in a better situation. The point of the daughter’s joining the other household would be for her own freedom and prosperity. These verses actually describe a form of arranged marriage, between a poor family and a wealthier family. If the daughter displeases the one who purchased her for any reason he did not have the right to sell her to foreigners but must permit her to be redeemed either by her family or by another Jewish family. If he is displeased with her he is condemned as a person who has broken his word. The daughter always ends up either living with her own family or married to a Jewish man. If the one who purchased the daughter decides that he wants her to marry his son then immediately he and his family are to treat her as a daughter in his family, that is, she becomes a free person. If he marries her, then she has become a free woman. Finally, if he marries this daughter and then marries another woman he is required to continue treating the daughter he purchased as a wife. If he refuses to give her what she is due, i.e., food, clothing and marital rights, then she is to go free, back to her own family without any payment at all. (God tolerated and regulated polygamy even though the OT makes clear that monogamy is his will. Like divorce he permitted it due to the hardness of the hearts of Jewish men.) I know this still sounds really weird to us but the thing we need to know is that the only secure place for a woman in this culture is to be connected to a household, to a family. There was no such thing as single women who were able to support themselves or single moms who could take care of themselves and their children. Women who were not attached to households were either terribly exploited or prostitutes. Again this slavery was meant for the benefit and protection of women and children, as well as protecting the legitimate rights of those who lent money. Why did God begin this first list of specific laws with a discussion of slavery? In Deuteronomy 15:12-18 Moses explains this slave law, forty years after first giving it to the people, to the next generation, the children of those he first gave it to. In v. 15 of that chapter he says, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. That is why I am giving you this command.” In other words these commands regarding slavery are given because God redeemed them from slavery in Egypt. In addition, the word translated “buy” in Exodus 21:2, “if you buy a Hebrew slave” is the same word used to describe how God “bought” Israel out of their slavery in Egypt to make them his people, his servants, in Exodus 15:16. The word that is translated “to go free” in the Hebrew is the same word that is used scores of times in the Exodus account to describe Israel’s going out free from Egypt. In other words , the slavery that Israel is to practice is a living parable of what God did for them as a nation. They were living in Egypt as an oppressed people with no way out. They could not buy themselves or save themselves out of their “impoverished” condition. So God bought them and made them his slaves so that they could go out as a free people into the land of Canaan. When God brought them out of Egypt, he loaded them down with all sorts of supplies so they could enter their free state with resources to maintain their freedom and not end back up in debt again. So this institution of slavery in Israel was modeled on and reminiscent of their salvation from Egypt. In addition, this slavery exemplifies the generosity that ought to characterize those who have been set free from slavery. How can you keep your fellow Hebrews in permanent slavery when you have been set free from slavery? The people ought to willingly set their fellow Hebrews free because they have been set free from their slavery. How does this law condemn them and us? This law condemns Israel because they did not obey it. God said to Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, about 1000 years after this law was first given that he wanted them to let all the Jewish slaves go free (Jer. 34:8ff.). The king and the people promised God they would do so in a public ceremony at the temple. Then they let all their Jewish slaves go free. However, a short time later they went out and enslaved them all over again. They went back on their word. Then God said through Jeremiah, “I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you. After he has served you six years, you must let him go free.’ Your fathers, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to his countryman. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. But now you turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become slaves again.” After this God says that he is going to destroy them for their disobedience. Quite clearly the Jewish nation deserved to be destroyed because they did not do what God commanded them to do, they did not let their fellow Jewish slaves go free as this law demands. However, how does this law reveal our sin and condemn us, since we do not have slaves, nor do we live in a culture where slavery is even permitted? The slavery that this law describes is an economic contract. The master gets to use the labor of the indebted slave for a fixed period of time. It is right for the master to obtain benefit from the labor of the slave to pay off the debt of the slave. However, it is limited in its duration. Therefore, it is morally wrong to continue to receive economic benefit from something or someone beyond the contracted period. A simple example would be when you rent a movie from the video store and are told it is due back at a certain time. When you continue watching it after it is due back, you are receiving benefit beyond the time you contracted and thus are sinning. Whenever you take more than you paid for, then you are sinning. The Jewish people did not release their slaves as God required because they wanted the economic benefit the slaves provided without having to pay for it. They were in effect stealing from them. We do the same thing when we make use of people and objects beyond the limits of time or quantity for which we have paid. All of us have taken more than we paid for and thus have broken God's law. Another way this law condemns us is when we think about what the law required of the indebted person. God takes debt serious. We have an obligation to pay back what we have borrowed. God’s commitment to repayment of loans is so great that he permitted people to enter into slavery in order to pay off what they owed. We need to take seriously the debts we owe to others, both the financial debt and the debt we put ourselves in when we sin against others. Going into debt beyond our ability to repay is a sin. While entering bankruptcy in order to gain time to pay off our debts isn’t sin, not paying back what we owe is a sin. Also, not asking others to forgive us our sins against them is sinful. We are obligated, as Jesus makes clear in Matthew 5:23-26 to seek to make things right with those whom we have offended. All of us are guilty of not repaying the debts we owe to others. All of us have refused to ask for forgiveness from those we have sinned against. In addition, this law points to the necessity of forgiving those who have sinned against us. We are to forgive our debtors, as Jesus taught in the Lord’s Prayer. Just as the masters had to let slaves go without having received full compensation, so we release the debts of others without their making it up to us. All of us have refused to let people off the hook. We have refused to let those who have offended us go free without paying all that they owe to us. How often have we refused to forgive others from our hearts who have asked to be forgiven because we don’t feel they were sincere enough or remorseful enough or had suffered our silence and disdain long enough? This law demands that we not require full payment before we let people go free. This law condemns us for not helping the poor and the severely indebted to develop the skills and obtain the resources necessary to live in a financially secure manner. We are indifferent and even hostile to the plight of the poor and of those who have gotten themselves into debt and offer them no practical help to turn around and become financially stable. We are not involved in helping thieves make restitution and learn to be contributing members of society. We let the government do it or send them to professionals. We only think about ourselves and pay no attention to the people around us who need our help. We have a moral obligation to be involved in helping thieves, the indebted and the poor to live financially secure lives. When we don't we are condemned by this law as sinners. How does this law reveal Christ and his salvation to them and us? In this law, Moses, according to Jesus in John 5, is writing about him and his salvation. The overall picture in this passage of how indebted and criminal people were kept alive, rescued from their helpless condition for the purpose of making them into secure free men and women is the gospel. This is a description of what happened to Israel and to what happens to every person whom Christ saves. All of us are impoverished and indebted to God by our own sinfulness. We have stolen his property and have no way to pay him back. So he buys us and makes us his slaves. Rather than justly requiring us to pay our debt, he pays off our debt by the life and the death of his own son. We become his possession so that we can become free from sin and death and hell and the domination of the evil one. He doesn’t enslave us to punish us but to make us truly free men and women. This is the language that is used all over the NT to describe what Christ has accomplished for us. This is the language of Romans 6. “We have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, slaves to righteousness.” Our slavery to God makes us free from sin and for holiness, from death and for eternal life. We are in this condition because of what Christ has done for us. It is because of our being united to him in his death and resurrection that we are set free from sin and become slaves to God. Sin is no longer our master because God through Christ has purchased us. We have been redeemed from wickedness and made into a people that are eager to do what is good, as Paul says in Titus. Another portrait of the salvation that we gain from Christ is seen in the picture of the poor daughter being purchased by the wealthy man in order that she might be married to his wealthy son. Isn’t that exactly what God the Father has done? We, the church, are the bride of Christ. God has given us to his Son as his wife. Jesus uses this analogy in several of his parables and it is a strong analogy in the book of Revelation. It is a dominant theme in the prophets of God’s relationship to Israel. God marries his people not because we are so attractive or have such a large dowry but he takes us as his bride even though we are the least and oppressed with poverty. He makes us into a beautiful bride. This is the same language as that of Ephesians 5:25ff where Jesus loves his church by dying for her in order to make her into a radiant and holy bride for himself. Finally, I agree with Philip Ryken in his commentary where he says that vv. 5-6 show us a wonderful portrait of Christ’s saving work. In these two verses we are told how a slave who loves his master and his wife and children enters into permanent slavery. It is because of love of master and love of family that this freed slave voluntarily becomes a permanent slave in a public ceremony in the presence of God. The ceremony requires the ear lobe of the slave being put against the doorframe of his master’s house and then it is pierced with an awl so that the doorframe is marked with the blood of the slave and the ear is marked with a hole in it. Why the ear? The ear is the most important organ in a slave because the slave hears his master’s commands and then obeys. What is most interesting is that in Psalm 40 David refers to this process in a passage that is then quoted in Hebrews 10 as having been spoken by Jesus. The passage goes like this: “Sacrifices and offering you did not desire but my ears you have pierced… Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’” In other words, who is this slave who, out of love for his master and for the well being of his family submits to permanent slavery? It is our Lord Jesus Christ who came into the world to perfectly obey his father so that he might live in permanent relation to us his bride and children. His body was pierced and his blood, like the blood of the Passover Lamb, was placed upon the doorframe so that we might live with him in the Father’s house. The freedom that we have obtained is at the cost of our dear Lord’s own life. That freedom is not freedom to do whatever we want but freedom to live as his bride and children. Dr. Ryken relates a story about Abraham Lincoln that captures the freedom that we have now entered into through Christ. Lincoln once made a visit to a slave market, “where he was appalled to see the buying and selling of human beings. ‘His heart was especially drawn to one young woman… She looked with hatred and contempt on everyone around her… The bidding began and Lincoln offered a bid and continued until he outbid all others. After paying for her she demanded with bitterness to know what he was going to do with her and he said, “I’m going to set you free.” “Free?” she asked. “Free for what?” “Just free,” Lincoln answered. “Completely free.” “Free to do whatever I want to do?” “Yes,” he said. “Free to do whatever you want to do.” “Free to say whatever I want to say?” “Yes, free to say whatever you want to say.” “Free to go wherever I want to go?” she added with skepticism. Lincoln answered, “You are free to go anywhere you want to go.” “Then I’m going with you!” she said with a smile.’ Whether this story is fact or fiction it shows us what it means to follow Jesus Christ.” He has set us free. Free for what? Free to go with him wherever he leads. How does this law inform Christian conduct and ethics? The ways in which this law condemns us also point to the ways in which it informs Christian conduct and ethics. We have been set free from sin by Christ so we can do the things I spoke of in that section. However, I do think there is a primary principle of Christian living that is revealed in this law. What would it require of a Hebrew slave owner to let his Hebrew slave go free? It would require him believing that belonging to God, having been set free from slavery himself and obeying God were superior and more necessary to his life than the need for free labor. Faith in the all satisfying supremacy of God and his salvation is the only motive that would enable a person to lose free labor. It would mean dying to economic benefit and gladly suffering loss for the sake of God and for the sake of his fellow Hebrew. Here is a portrait of Paul’s injunction in Galatians 5 that we are to “serve one another through love.” We willingly sacrifice our time, money, energy in order to meet the needs of other Christians in particular but all men in general. We are to be a generous people who do not keep track of how much we are giving in order to help others but who freely give because we have freely received. We forgive others, give up our time to help others because we are so amazed that God loves us and has forgiven us. We live as free men and women, free to give ourselves away in love to others because we are so astonished that we who deserve hell have been freed from sin and death. © Copyright 2006 John Swanson.
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