Just Laws for a Fallen World: Labor Laws

We are back in our series in the book of Exodus.

So if you would please turn in your Bibles to book of Exodus.

If you don't have a copy of a Bible, you could raise your hand

and one of our greeters will bring you a copy you can use while you're here.

Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's word.

Heavenly Father,

in my own strength I am not up to the task of preaching your holy and authoritative word.

Please empower me by your spirits this morning

and incline all of our hearts and ears to you

so that we may see the wondrous things in your law.

So that we may see how your word points to Jesus and his gospel.

So that we might be built up as your people

and made more like Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer.

Please do all that

in your sovereign grace.

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Please stand for the reading of God's word if you are able.

I'll be reading from Exodus chapter 21

Exodus 21:1–11

verses 1 to 11.

Exodus 21 verses 1 to 11.

Exodus 21:1–11

Now these are the rules that you shall set before them.

When you buy a Hebrew slave,

he shall serve six years

and in the seventh he shall go out free

for nothing.

If he comes in single,

he shall go out single.

If he comes in married,

then his wife shall go out with him.

If his master gives him a wife

and she bears him sons or daughters,

the wife and her children shall be her masters

and he shall go out alone.

But if the slave plainly says,

I love my master,

my wife,

and my children,

I will not go out free.

Then his master shall bring him to God

and he shall bring him to the door

or the doorpost

and his master shall bore his ear through

with an owl

and he shall be his slave forever.

When a man sells his daughter as a slave,

she shall not go out as the male slaves do.

If she does not please her master

who has designated her for himself,

then he shall let her be redeemed.

He shall have no right to sell her

to a foreign people

since he has broken faith with her.

If he designates her for his son,

he shall deal with her as with the daughter.

If he takes another wife to himself,

he shall not diminish her food,

her clothing,

or her marital rights.

And if he does not do these three things for her,

she shall go out for nothing

without payment of money.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

Please be seated.

We've been away from the book of Exodus

for a little while

because of Advent and Christmas

when we're in the book of John.

So let me just remind you

where we left off in our series.

We just finished going through

the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20,

the Ten Words,

or the Decalogue,

the words that Lord Yahweh himself

spoke to his people.

And after the Ten Commandments,

it says in chapter 20,

verses 18 to 21,

that the Israelites were afraid

and trembled as they saw God appear

and speak from the heavens,

from the thunderers and flashes of lightning.

And so they stood far off, it says,

from God's revelation of himself, appearance.

And they said to Moses,

you speak to us,

and then we will listen.

But do not let God speak to us,

lest we die.

And so that's kind of where we left off.

Because of this,

Moses then leaves the people behind

and then draws near to God alone,

starting in verse 22.

And then the Lord addresses Moses individually

and instructs him

what he should relay to the Israelites

when he returns to the camp.

And so that's where we are.

And what follows is Moses' instruction,

the instruction that he received

from the Lord individually,

that kind of fleshes out

the Ten Commandments in greater detail.

And Exodus 24, 3,

so this whole section lasts

from 20, 22 to 23, 33.

And after this section,

which is known as the Book of the Covenant,

Exodus 24, 3 refers back to these

as the words of the Lord

and all the rules.

So to give you an example

how these flesh out the Ten Commandments,

for example,

the Sixth Commandment of the Ten Words

said you shall not kill.

But what if you kill someone accidentally?

What if you injure someone in a brawl

and that person dies a few days after the fight?

Are you still responsible for that person's death?

What if the ox you own gores and kills someone?

Are you still responsible for that person's death?

What if the fight is between a master and a slave?

What if, you know,

who is the master still responsible?

What if there's collateral damage?

So all of these kind of practical questions,

these next few chapters of Exodus answered.

Similarly, the Eighth Commandment says,

you shall not steal.

But what if the owner of the property

catches the thief who has broken into his house

and gets into a tussle

and unintentionally strikes him dead?

Is he liable for murder?

What about letting your ox

kind of wander into someone's field

and eat the grass there?

Is that considered stealing?

So all of these complex and practical questions

are answered in Exodus 21 and following.

So if the Ten Commandments were a flyover,

the 20-22 to 23-33 are the rules and the words

where the rubber meets the road.

It's still not intended to be exhaustive,

but it is representative.

And it is specific enough to set precedents

and patterns for God's people to follow.

The Ten Commandments,

together with these more detailed rules,

compose what Exodus 24-7 refers to

as the book of the covenant, as I mentioned.

And there are a couple important things,

general principles about the book of the covenant

that I want to mention before we start.

First, the book of the covenant teaches us

that this book is covenantal.

God's word is covenantal.

It's not just a compendium of laws to follow.

It's a relationship-forming

and covenant-forging document.

It's meant to bring us into relationship with God,

to worship him and to love him

and to walk with him.

That's what the Bible is.

So when you read your Bible in the morning,

you're not just checking off a box.

You're checking in,

in a relationship you have with the Lord.

And this is important

because if you don't have a right relationship with God,

you can't live rightly in society

or relate rightly to your neighbors.

Think about it this way.

If you worship money or success rather than God,

you will trample upon others to get ahead.

You will not love your neighbor as yourself.

If you love sex or pleasure more than God,

you will use and manipulate

and abuse others to pleasure yourself.

If you worship a tribal God

or an ethnic God or a national God,

then you will seek the interests of your own tribe

at the expense of others.

It will cause division.

It will not help you to love your neighbor as yourself.

Only when you worship the one true God

who has commanded us to love him with our whole heart

and to love our neighbor as ourselves

can we truly embrace all of our neighbors.

This is why a just society can only be established

on the foundation of true worship.

That's why the Ten Commandments begins with worship.

The second thing that the Book of the Covenant teaches us

is that God cares about all of life.

The nitty-gritty details of this passage

shows us that God is not bored with our day-to-day life

and he just pays attention to us on Sunday mornings

when we're worshiping him

and then rest of the week he turns away

and doesn't really care about what happens.

That's not what God is like.

He cares about our day-to-day life,

how we behave, how we speak, how we even think.

And so this is a challenge to us.

Some of us have a minimum requirement attitude

when it comes to following God.

If God's law doesn't speak specifically

and explicitly about something,

well, then I'm off the hook.

I can do whatever I want in that arena.

That's not how we live.

We flirt with sin and we skirt the edges of permissibility.

But instead of doing that,

we should have a maximal obedience mentality

and bring the whole of Scripture to bear

on every aspect of our lives.

We should try to live at the center of God's will

instead of skirting the edges of permissibility.

In August of this year,

a man who was hiking in Cannon Mountain, New Hampshire,

died because he went off trail

and fell off a steep edge of a slope.

Sin brings death and separation from God.

And God has given his word to protect us

and guide us to keep us within his covenant.

So why would we flirt with death?

Why would we want to get as close

to the edge of the precipice as possible?

Instead, we should keep our eyes fixed

on the trail markings of God's word

and keep on the path right on the center.

Over the next four or five weeks,

we'll go through these rules and words

of the book of the covenant.

And I've entitled this mini-series

Just Laws for a Fallen World.

And as we're going through it,

I want you to keep a few things in mind.

One is that these laws were given

to govern a sinful society.

So there are concessions to human wickedness

that do not reflect God's creation ideals.

For example, in Matthew 19,

when the Pharisees asked Jesus

why he prohibits divorce when Moses permitted it,

Jesus answers,

because of your hardness of heart,

Moses allowed you to divorce your wives.

But from the beginning, it was not so.

So in God's creation ideal,

there would be no divorce at all.

But because of the hardness of human heart,

Moses gave concessions in the law of God

to govern a sinful people.

Similarly, in our passage this morning,

there are provisions for slaves,

although it's a very different kind of slavery

than what we're familiar with in our history.

Nonetheless, this is still not part

of God's creation ideal.

There are no slaves in the Garden of Eden.

There are no slaves in the new heaven and new earth.

But in a fallen world where the ground is cursed

and there is pain in our work,

as it says in Genesis 3,

some people fall into poverty

and are reduced into servitude.

This is not God's ideal,

but these legal provisions exist

as a safety net for people

who fall into those conditions in this world.

Second, these are rules and regulations

that are historically and culturally situated

for Jews living in 15th century BC

in the ancient Near East

under a theocratic government.

So we can't lift these laws out of context

and apply it straight to our 21st century AD

American context.

Nevertheless, there are principles of justice here

in all these passages that are timeless and relevant.

And then third,

because we are regularly bombarded

with unsubstantiated claims

about how regressive and barbaric the Bible is

and especially the Old Testament is,

by osmosis we sometimes assimilate these suspicions

and a sense of embarrassment

about passages like this,

about God's word.

And we come to a section like this

warily and sheepishly.

But such thoughts and attitudes,

I want to exhort you,

are not fitting.

It's unbecoming of our faith

in God's holy and authoritative word.

I want to challenge you this morning

as we explore these rules

that govern Israel as a society.

Approach the text with faith,

seeking comprehension,

instead of with suspicion,

seeking corroboration.

Instead of playing a game of gotcha

with God's word,

listen and read with humility

and seek to trust and obey.

When you do that,

you'll be struck by the wisdom

and justice of God's laws.

That was a longer than usual introduction.

But let's jump into the text,

Exodus 21, 1-11.

This passage deals with the proper treatment

of Hebrew slaves.

And it teaches us that

as those who have been redeemed

from our harsh slavery,

we should treat every laborer

with human dignity.

I'm going to talk first

about verses 1-6,

which talks about the servitude of labor,

and then about verses 7-11,

which speaks to the servitude of marriage.

But before, just notice,

take a scan the passage, your page,

and notice where this passage is situated.

There are several laws,

sets of laws that are addressed here.

Here we find the laws, labor laws,

and then we find after that,

personal injury laws,

in verses 33 to chapter 22, verse 15.

And then, you know,

we find property laws.

Sorry, property laws is the,

later on, 21, 33 to 22, 15.

And so, notice that these laws

about Hebrew slaves

are first not found in the section

dealing with property.

Because the Bible sees slaves as humans

and not as property,

as things to own.

Now, it says in verse 2 to 3,

when you buy a Hebrew slave,

he shall serve six years,

and in the seventh,

he shall go out free for nothing.

If he comes in single,

he shall go out single.

If he comes in married,

then his wife shall go out with him.

Whenever we hear in English

the word slave or slavery,

we have a visceral reaction to it

because we automatically associate it

with the transatlantic slave trade

and the kind of slavery

that our country was involved in.

But immediately in these verses,

we see that the slavery in view here

is very unlike the kind of slavery

that we know of.

Why?

Because there's a defined term limit.

Right from the onset

of one's own subjection to slavery,

there's a limit.

The Hebrew slave was to serve six years,

and in the seventh year,

he goes out free for nothing.

No payment or redemption price necessary.

Unlike American chattel slavery,

where slaves were considered

permanent movable property of the owner,

a Hebrew slave was guaranteed manumission

in the seventh year.

This goes beyond our passage,

but if you look ahead a little bit

in verse 16,

it gives us another important detail

about slavery in Israel.

It says,

whoever steals a man and sells him

and anyone found in possession of him

shall be put to death.

This verse explicitly prohibits

it prohibits enslaving someone

through trafficking and kidnapping,

which is what the transatlantic slave trade

was all about.

In fact,

it specifies that Israelites

cannot even be found in possession

of a slave that someone else kidnapped.

So if you were found with the slave

in your possession under your authority,

you were punishable by this law.

Both the seller of kidnapped slaves

and buyer of kidnapped slaves

were sentenced to death.

Furthermore,

slaves,

according to the Bible,

were protected from abusive treatment.

So later in 26 to 20,

verses 26 and 27,

it says that if the master

damages a slave's eye

or knocks out his tooth,

the slave was to go free.

Not only that,

a runaway slave

was granted refugee status

all throughout the land of Israel

because the Bible assumes

that a slave would not run away

unless he was mistreated.

Deuteronomy 23,

15 to 16 says this,

you shall not give up

to his master a slave

who has escaped

from his master to you.

He shall dwell with you

in your midst,

in the place

that he shall choose

within one of your towns,

wherever it suits him.

You shall not wrong him.

So not only did the Bible

not expect well-treated slaves

to run away,

it expected that some

would want to remain

a slave of the master forever.

So there is a process

that's defined

in verses 4 to 6

for a slave who insists

on remaining

in the service of his master,

even after the six years

of service is up.

As you can see

from these details

and provisions,

this so-called slavery

in Israel was nothing

like the institution of slavery

that we are familiar with.

It's a sad historical reality

that some so-called Christians

were complicit

in our nation's sin

of enslaving black people

because if they

had only went

to the actual passages

dealing with the treatment

of slaves,

they would have seen

how plainly their practice

was out of line.

To give you an example

of how weak

the pro-slavery argument

by so-called Christians were,

Josiah Priest's book,

Slavery as it Relates

to the African Race,

defends slavery

using Genesis 9,

where one of Noah's three sons,

Ham,

is cursed for staring

at the nakedness

of his father.

Priest argues

that Ham,

whose descendants

were the Canaanites,

he was cursed.

He says that Ham was black

when there is

absolutely nothing

in the text

that remotely suggests that.

How can Ham be black

if his biological brothers

Sham and Japheth are not?

It makes no sense.

That's how flimsy

the argument

for pro-slavery argument is

according to these

so-called Christians.

In contrast,

there were Christian abolitionists

back then

who made substantial

and robust

biblical arguments

like George Bourne

who wrote

The Book

and Slavery Irreconcilable,

and by the book

he means the Bible.

George B. Cheever

who wrote books

like God Against Slavery

and The Freedom

and the Duty of the Pulpit

to Rebuke It

as a Sin Against God.

He wrote another book

entitled The Guilty of Slavery

and the Crime of Slaveholding

demonstrated from

the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.

I love the title

of the sermon,

or it's not a sermon,

a speech he gave,

The Fire and Hammer

of God's Word

Against the Sin of Slavery.

Those who used the Bible

to justify the kidnap-sourced,

racist, abuse-laced,

and greed-driven slavery

from the 16th to 19th centuries

did so not because of the Bible,

but in spite of the Bible's

clear teaching against it.

They did not submit

to the will of God

revealed in Scriptures.

They arrogated the Scriptures

for their own agenda

and incorrectly

and inappropriately used it

to justify their sinful,

selfish desires.

This is a cautionary tale for us.

We need to make sure

that the way we are

wielding Scripture,

the text of Scripture,

is not merely a pretext

for our own agenda.

Are you actually submitted

to the Word of God?

Or are you superimposing

the spirit of the times,

the prevailing opinions

of the day,

your own priorities

and preferences

upon the Word of God?

So if slavery in the Bible times

was not like the slavery

in our day,

then what was it like?

The slavery in view here

is more like

the medieval indentured servitude.

Usually, the Jews

sold themselves

or their family members

into slavery

due to financial crisis

of some kind

because of their dire poverty,

because they can't provide

for their own family,

or because they have accumulated

insurmountable debt.

In a society

that did not have

state-funded welfare programs,

this was the way

that Israelites

took care of

the poorest

and most vulnerable

members of their society.

When the poor

entered into this form

of indentured servitude,

they were guaranteed

employment and provisions.

It's not all that different

from modern-day

contractual employment.

For example,

Boston Red Sox,

all-star shortstop,

Xander Bogarts,

maybe you guys

don't know about him.

He just signed

an 11-year,

$280 million contract

with the San Diego Padres

last month.

To be sure,

Hebrew slaves

didn't get paid that well.

Some of them

were pretty well off,

but probably not

that well off.

But it's similar

because the owner

of the San Diego Padres,

he's called an owner,

Peter Seidler.

He owns the entire team

and all of its players.

He owns the rights

to Xander Bogarts

for 11 years.

That's a lot more than six.

And so that Bogarts

is legally forbidden

from playing baseball

for anyone else

unless Peter Seidler

decides to sell his rights

to another owner.

It's not all that different.

And some slaves

back in the Old Testament times

did actually accumulate

quite a bit of wealth.

For example,

in Genesis 13-2,

it says Abraham

was very, very rich

in livestock,

in silver, and in gold.

He was the top 1%

of his generation.

And then we see

in Genesis 15-2

that before Abraham

had Isaac,

that the heir of his house

was Eliezer of Damascus,

his slave.

He was in line.

He was the heir apparent

to take over all of

Abraham's estates.

So some of these slaves

did quite well for themselves.

Or take the example

of military service nowadays.

My brother-in-law

serves in the Navy

and we like to tease him,

tell him that he's

a slave of the government

because the U.S. government

paid for his studies

at the U.S. Naval Academy.

And because he did

an extra stint here at MIT,

also paid for

by the government,

he owes them seven years.

I think actually maybe now six.

Six years of his life

in service to the U.S. military.

And it's not always

pleasant service.

He has to spend

seven months out of the year

in the cramped quarters

of a submarine.

And he lives

for all those months

apart from his wife,

my sister.

And so if he refuses

to do this service,

he has to repay

back to the government

every single penny

that they gave him

for all of his schooling,

which he obviously

cannot afford to do.

So he's effectively

enslaved to the government

for the next six,

seven years.

It's very similar

to the servitude of labor

we're seeing

in verses one to six.

The terms for

this servitude of labor

are very straightforward

unless the slave

has family.

And verses three to four

teach Israelites

what to do

in such cases.

It says,

if the slave comes in single,

he shall go out single.

If he comes in married,

then his wife

shall go out with him.

If his master

gives him a wife

and she bears him

sons or daughters,

the wife and her children

shall be our masters

and he shall go out alone.

So some of it's straightforward.

If he comes single,

he goes out single.

If he came with his own wife,

then he leaves with his wife.

But if the master

gives him his wife

and she bears him children

during his time of servitude,

then his wife and children

stay with the master.

Now, this seems wrong

to 21st century Americans

on several levels.

But that's because

we don't understand

ancient Near Eastern culture.

We need to remember

that it's the duty

of loving,

responsible parents

to provide a wife

or a husband

for their children.

For example,

one of my neighbors

is a Muslim man

from Saudi Arabia

and he told me proudly

about how his mother

went and picked

his wife for him.

He didn't even know

who she was

until they got married.

And they're still

happily married

and they have two kids.

And so arranged marriages

are not necessarily evil

if it happens

with the consent

of the parties involved.

And so in this situation,

by giving a wife

to his servant,

the master is acting

like a loving father

to his servant.

And also in the culture

of this time,

the man seeking

to marry a woman

had to bring

a costly betrothal present

to the woman's family.

The man seeking

to marry the woman,

what some people call

a bright price,

though I don't like

that expression

because it makes

the marriage sound

so transactional

and financial.

The betrothal present

was a pledge

of the man's

serious commitment

to marry the woman.

But the debt slave,

the indentured servant,

obviously does not have

that kind of money.

So it's a large sum

of money

and it's because

all the labor

that he's currently doing

is to repay his debts

so he can get out

of his slavery.

So this is very similar

to Jacob's situation

in Genesis 29.

He has no money

but he really,

really wants

to marry Rachel.

So what does he do?

He says,

I will work for you

for nothing

for seven years.

She's even more

than six years.

So he's basically

Laban's slave,

servant for that year

so that he could earn,

he could have

the money,

the wealth,

betrothal present

for Rachel.

And here in Exodus 21,

because the man

is already a debt slave,

he doesn't have the money.

That means the master

is responsible

for paying this betrothal present

for this female slave

that he's bringing

as a wife to his servant.

And so because

both the wife

and the children

she brings forth

are a value

that the master

provided for the servant,

he can't just

take off with them

until his wife's

six years of service

to the master

is also completed.

To illustrate,

if you get a job

as a field technician

for Comcast,

I don't know

if this is still true,

but they will give you

a service vehicle.

But when you quit

your job,

you have to return

the service vehicle

because it was given

for you

to fulfill

your responsibilities

and duties

for your job.

And so the slave likewise,

the servant likewise,

has to leave

his wife behind

and his children behind

until they themselves

are freed.

And so the man

has several options.

Option one is

if after he earns

his freedom,

he can stay

in the area

close to his family

and then when

their term of service

is over,

he can take them

and go wherever

he pleases.

So in this case,

obviously he wouldn't

be able to live

at the master's house

on the master's dime

because he's not

working for him anymore.

Option two,

after he earns

his freedom,

he can work hard

and save money

so that he can go

and redeem his wife

and children

before their time

of service is up.

Then he can take them

and go wherever

he wants.

Option three,

when the master

offered him a wife,

he could have said,

no thank you,

I will get a wife

for myself

after my time

of servitude is over.

He could have just

waited a few years

to get married

and avoided this

scenario altogether.

Option four,

he can stay

with his master

if he likes him

and commit to

lifelong service.

So it's not like

he doesn't have options.

And this fourth option

is specifically addressed

in verses five to six.

But if the slave

plainly says,

I love my master,

my wife,

and my children,

I will not go free,

then his master

shall bring him

to God

and he shall bring him

to the door

or the doorpost

and his master

shall bore his ear

through with and all

and he shall be

his slave forever.

This probably happened

more often

than we might expect.

If the master

cares about his servant

enough

and has good enough

of a relationship

with his servant

to get him a wife,

then it's probably

already evidence

of a strong bond

between them,

between a father

and a son.

And so there was

probably an implicit

expectation

that the servant

would stay

beyond this term

and that's probably

why this provision

is also here.

It's kind of like

when Tom Brady

was still here,

I don't know

if you guys remember

serving as a quarterback

for the New England Patriots.

He served

the New England Patriots

for 20 years

and he was a very

loyal servant

of the team,

of owner Robert Kraft.

In fact,

he always waxed eloquently

about how much

he loved the owner,

Robert Kraft.

This is what he said

on the radio in 2018,

New England Sports Radio.

Mr. Kraft has been

like a second father

to me in so many ways.

He's been part of

so many important events

in my life.

He was at my wedding.

I love him like a dad.

He's always around.

He does a great job.

There's a lot to manage

when you own a team.

There's a lot going on.

He gives contributions

to our team.

He provides great guidance

and leadership.

He really cares so much

about us

and provides us

with facilities,

all the food,

everything.

He's a very giving man.

He does a lot

for our community.

His foundation

does a lot

for our community

and I can't obviously

say enough good things

about him

and what our relationship

has been

and what it will

always be.

That's why

many years

Tom Brady

took a contract,

took less money

than he is worth

to stay with

the New England Patriots.

He stayed with it

for 20 years

and it was a fruitful

partnership.

They won six Super Bowls

together and made

a lot of money

until 2020

when he left.

Which I'm not

at all bitter about.

Anyway,

so if the slave

loves his master

and wife and children

and wants to stay

in servitude

to his master,

he can't.

The expression

forever

doesn't literally

mean forever

because neither

the master

nor the slave

live forever.

It just means

that there's no

defined term limit.

It's hard to tell

whether that means

lifetime of the master

or the lifetime

of the servant.

My guess is that

it is intentionally

ambiguous,

whichever occurs

first.

So if the master

dies,

the slave is

free to go

or if he dies,

obviously his term

of service is over.

And so in either case,

boring his ear

through with an awl

marks his servitude

because the ear

represents listening

and hearing,

obeying.

So if that's the

servitude of labor,

verses 7 to 11

speak of a different

kind of servitude.

It says in verse 7,

when a man sells

his daughter

as a slave,

she shall not

go out as

the male slaves

do.

Now, the idea

of a man

selling his daughter

as a slave

seems appalling

to us,

but this is not

the same thing

that happens

in countries

like Cambodia

and Bangladesh

and Pakistan

or another country

where sex trafficking

is an acute problem.

In those countries,

tragically,

sometimes poor

parents are

hounded by loan

sharks and pimps

into selling

their minor daughters

into slavery.

Those kind of

tragic situations

would never happen

under these

biblical guidelines

because these

rules are here

in place

to help

poor families

like that.

Rather,

what's in view here

is a poor father

who cannot provide

for his own family

and so he sells

his daughter to a man

not to be his

sex slave

but to be his

wife.

Let me prove

this point to you.

We know this

because the Hebrew

word translated

slave here

is not the same

word that is

translated slave

earlier in verse 1.

This particular word

is used only

to refer to

female slaves

and there are

two Hebrew words

that refer to

female slaves.

The first word

is shifa

and refers to

a slave woman

or maid servant

who is sexually

out of limits,

off limits

and serves

exclusively

the woman

of the house,

a maid servant.

The second word

is ama

and it refers

to a slave woman

who is designated

to be a man's

secondary wife

or a concubine.

This is why

Sarai's maid servant

Hagar

is called

a shifa,

a maid servant

because she is

exclusively reserved

for Sarai

and it's not

until Sarai

gives her

to Abraham

as his wife

that she is now

available to Abraham

as a wife

and she did this,

Sarai did this

so that she might

have children

through Hagar.

Very similar

situation with

Leah and Rachel

and their maid servants

Zilpah and Bilah.

Now in contrast,

when a Levite

is traveling

through a city

with his concubine,

his secondary wife

in Judges 19,

he refers to

his female servant

as Amah,

not as a shifa

because she is

his wife

and the passage

calls the Levite

her husband.

Similarly,

in 1 Kings 1,

Bathsheba,

who is King David's

wife,

refers to herself

as an Amah,

not as a shifa.

I'm getting all

these details

to prove to you

that the word

translated slave

here refers

specifically

to a slave woman

who is designated

to be the master's

wife.

This is why

later in verse 10

it says,

if he takes

another wife

to himself,

he shall not

diminish her food,

her clothing,

or her marital rights.

This provision

for the event

that the man

takes another wife

confirms that

this female servant

is in fact

designated to be

his wife.

And this is

precisely why

it says in verse 7

that she shall

not go out

as the male slaves

do after six years

of servitude.

It's not because

she's a woman

and women

have less rights

than men.

It's because

she's not an

ordinary servant

but his wife

who has far

greater privileges

and responsibilities.

And that's why

if you look at

a parallel passage

to this

in Deuteronomy 15,

12 to 18,

it specifically notes

that both male

and female slaves

go free

after six years

of service.

it's only

the female slave

designated to be

the man's wife

that does not

go free

after six years.

So when a man

sells his daughter

as a slave

due to financial

hardship,

the family receives

money in lieu

of the betrothal present

and this obviously

helps the struggling

family but now

the daughter

is no longer

under the protection

of her father

and is potentially

in a vulnerable

situation

and that's why

God gives

these laws

for her protection.

verse 8

is one of those

guardrails.

If she does not

please her master

who has designated

her for himself

then he shall

let her be

redeemed.

He shall have

no right

to sell her

to a foreign

people

since he has

broken faith

with her.

The master

has designated

her to be

his wife

but sometime

after purchasing

her rights

he decides

that he no longer

wants to take her

as his wife.

In that case

he has no right

to sell her

to a foreign

people

but must let

her be

redeemed

by non-foreign

people

a non-foreign

family

meaning her

family

her kin

she was given

up by her father

to be his

master's wife

not to be

passed around

to other people

so if he

doesn't want

her for himself

then he must

let her kin

redeem her.

That's what

this passage

says.

In some cases

the master

might designate

the woman

not for himself

but to be

his son's wife

and that's

what verse 9

has in view

and once again

this shows

that this woman's

status is more

than a workslave

it says

if he designates

her for his son

he shall deal

with her

as with

a daughter.

If he gives

her to his son

as a wife

she should no longer

be regarded

as a servant

but as his

own daughter.

Just because

she came

from a poor

family

doesn't mean

that you can

treat her

like dirt.

She is

someone else's

precious

daughter

and now

it is your

job to

treat her

like one.

That's what

God says

here.

Then verses

10 to 11

provide guidelines

for it

for if and when

a man takes

an additional

wife.

While polygamy

is not God's

ideal as clearly

taught in

Genesis 2

24

it was already

a reality

in the ancient

Near East

and knowing

the hardness

of man's

hearts

God gives

this law

to govern

those sinful

people in a

fallen world.

It says

if he

takes another

wife to

himself

he shall

not diminish

her food

her clothing

or her

marital rights

and if he

does not do

these things

for her

she shall

go out

for nothing

without payment

of money.

So if he

chooses to

take another

wife

he must

not reduce

his concubine

his secondary

wife's food

clothing

or marital

rights.

Marital rights

probably refers

to the wife's

right to sleep

with her husband

and bear

children

in his name.

The possibility

that a man

might deprive

his wife

of marital

rights

reminds me

of the sad

situation

in Genesis

30.

Some of you

might remember

this where

Leah

Jacob's wife

barters

away

mandrakes

which were

herbal medicine

that was

believed to

help women

bear children.

She barters

away the

mandrakes

for the right

to sleep

with her own

husband for

one night

because Jacob

was also married

to Rachel

and Rachel

was his

favored wife.

So it seems

like the situation

was that he

was not sleeping

with Leah

at all

and sleeping

every day

with Rachel

and depriving

her of her

marital rights.

And so here

he's saying

that the master

may not do

that.

So if you

withhold any

of these three

things from her

food,

clothing,

or marital

rights

and the right

to bear

children

comes with

that because

women in

those days

were considered

honor to be

able to bear

children

and depriving

her of that

would have

been a great

disservice to

her.

If you deprive

the woman

of any of

that,

then she

shall go

out for

nothing

without payment

of money.

So by this

point,

hopefully you

have a better

understanding

of what slavery

among the

ancient Israelites

looked like,

but you might

still be wondering

what all of

these laws

have to do

with us

since we

don't have

any servants

or slaves.

How does

this passage

apply to us?

This passage

teaches us

that God

cares about

justice,

about giving

people what

is due

to them.

We might

not have

servants,

but some

of you

do have

people who

report to

you,

who work

for you,

people who

are under

your authority.

And if you

do not,

you might

in the future.

This passage

teaches us

to love

such people

as our

neighbors,

to treat

them well,

men like

sons and

women like

daughters.

Don't think

of them as

pawns you

can sacrifice

to advance

your own

agenda.

Don't think

of them

as workhorses

that you

can drive

and drive

and drive

until they

drop.

They are

humans,

not tools.

Give them

their fair

wages and

reasonable

hours.

Implement

policies that

give what

is due

both to

the employer

and to

the employee.

Invest in

your workers.

Don't exploit

them just

because you

have the

power to.

But there's

another layer

of meaning

in this

passage also.

the reason

why laws

about slaves

occupy such

a prominent

place in

the book

of the

covenant

right here

in the

beginning

is that

the Jews

themselves

were once

oppressed

as slaves

in Egypt.

So this

is God's

way of

telling them

don't treat

anyone

the way

you were

treated as

slaves in

Egypt.

Notice

also that

the rules

governing

slaves begin

and end

with the

provisions

for when

they go

free.

verse 2

it says

when you

buy a

Hebrew

slave

you

shall

serve

six

years

and

the

seventh

he

shall

go

out

free

for

nothing.

A

nearly

identical

expression

is found

in

verse 11

and if

he does

not do

these

things

for her

he

shall

go

out

for

nothing

without

payment

of

money.

In

both

cases

of

servitude

there

is a

movement

toward

freedom.

There

are

provisions

for

freedom.

In

all

cases

except

for

when a

servant

woman is

taken

was

required

to

free

the

Hebrew

slaves

after

six

years.

And

this

begs

the

question

why?

The

answer

is

given

in

a

parallel

passage

in

Deuteronomy

15

12

to

15

it

says

if

your

brother

a

Hebrew

man

or

a

Hebrew

woman

is

sold

to

you

he

shall

serve

you

six

years

and

the

seventh

year

you

shall

let

him

go

free

from

you

and

when

you

let

him

go

free

from

and

out

of

your

wine

press

as

the

Lord

your

God

has

blessed

you

you

shall

give

to

him

you

shall

remember

that

you

were

a

slave

in

the

land

of

Egypt

and

the

Lord

your

God

redeemed

you

therefore

I

command

you

this

today

the

reason

why

God

commands

the

manumission

of all

Hebrew

slaves

in

the

seventh

year

is

that

all

Israelites

were

once

slaves

in

Egypt

but

God

already

redeemed

them

he

already

paid

the

ransom

price

for

their

freedom

and

because

God

has

purchased

them

for