6/21/2008 11:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Laws about servants
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Exodus
21:1-11; Lev. 25:39-43; Deut. 15:12-18
Message of the verses: “1
¶ "Now these are the ordinances
which you are to set before them: 2 "If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall
serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without
payment. 3 "If he comes alone, he shall go out
alone; if he is the husband of a wife, then his wife shall go out with him.
4 "If his master
gives him a wife, and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her
children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone. 5
"But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my
children; I will not go out as a free man,’ 6
then his master shall bring him to God, then he shall bring him to the
door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he
shall serve him permanently. 7 "If a man sells his daughter as a female
slave, she is not to go free as the male slaves do. 8
"If she is displeasing in the eyes of her master who designated her
for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He does not have authority to
sell her to a foreign people because of his unfairness to her. 9
"If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her according
to the custom of daughters. 10 "If he takes to himself another woman,
he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. 11
"If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out
for nothing, without payment of money.”
“39 ¶ ‘If a countryman of yours becomes so poor
with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a
slave’s service. 40 ‘He shall be with you as a hired man, as if
he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee. 41 ‘He
shall then go out from you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his
family, that he may return to the property of his forefathers.
42 ‘For they are My
servants whom I brought out from the land
of Egypt
“12 ¶ "If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman,
is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh year you
shall set him free. 13 "When you set him free, you shall not
send him away empty-handed. 14 "You shall furnish him liberally from
your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give
to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.
15 "You shall remember that
you were a slave in the land
of Egypt
This
section is about slaves, but in reality the children of Israel were not suppose
to make slaves out of their own people, like they made slaves out of people
from other nations. There were many
slaves during this time and so God made laws so that these people were treated
humanly.
This
section speaks about male and female slaves from the children of Israel and one
of the most interesting parts of this section is when a male slave goes to
another child of Israel and stays with him for six years and then by law can be
let go, but the slave desires to stay with the person that he is serving so the
owner takes the slave to the doorpost of his house and pierces his ear. After that he remains in the service of that
person for the rest of his live, but not as a slave. If he was given a wife by the master and then
decides to leave after six years the wife and any children will stay with the
master, but the man may go free.
There were
different rules for male and female slaves, and if a poor man has a daughter
and wants to sell her to another person to be his concubine then she must stay
with that person as a kind of second wife to him.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can see that the slave that decides to stay
with his owner and has his ear pierced is like a bondslave to his owner and
that is what I am to the Lord Jesus Christ since He took my sins upon Himself
at the cross and then gave me His righteousness. Dr. Wiersbe points out at the beginning of
this section is his book that, “Justice is the practical outworking of the
righteousness of God in human history.”
God took my sins and put them on the Lord Jesus Christ while on the
cross, and therefore justice was served and then because that justice was
served God’s righteousness was given to me because the price was paid for my
sins. And because God’s righteousness
has been given to me I am free to serve Him as a bondslave of Jesus Christ.
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
- Trust the Lord in these uncertain times of financial problems and also health issues.
- Be yoked up with the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Trust the Lord to make a way to escape temptation and testing when it is too hard to bear.
- Give myself to the Lord for service and worship.
Memory verses for the week: Colossians
4:12-13
12.
Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave
of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring fervently for you in
his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of
God.
13.
For I testify for him that he has a deep concern
for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis
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