EXODUS: The Lord God Gives the Law on How to Treat Servants and Slaves; “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom."

“Build for me an altar made of earth, and offer your sacrifices to me—your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats, and your cattle. Build my altar wherever I cause my name to be remembered, and I will come to you and bless you. If you use stones to build my altar, use only natural, uncut stones. Do not shape the stones with a tool, for that would make the altar unfit for holy use. And do not approach my altar by going up steps. If you do, someone might look up under your clothing and see your nakedness." (Exodus 20:24-26 NLT)

The Lord God pays attention to every detail, and His instructions always takes into consideration things we don't even consider. In the previous lesson, we studied, And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.” (Exodus 19:9) His purpose for speaking to Moses was to explain, "...to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” (Exodus 19:3-6)

In preparation of making the children of Israel a special treasure to Him above all people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, He gave them ten commandments: 1. “You shall have no other gods before Me. 2. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image... 3.  “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,... 4. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 5. “Honor your father and your mother,... 6. “You shall not murder. 7. “You shall not commit adultery. 8. “You shall not steal. 9.  “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 10.  “You shall not covet..." (Exodus 20:1-17)

Now, in order for the children of Israel to obey His voice and keep His covenant, the Lord God would explain specifically many of His laws, starting with how to treat servants, starting with males servants. “These are the regulations you must present to Israel. “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave, he shall leave single. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife must be freed with him. (Exodus 21:1-3 NLT) 

“If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave and they had sons or daughters, then only the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. But the slave may declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I don’t want to go free.’ If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will serve his master for life. (Exodus 21:4-6 NLT) 

Seven is a very meaningful number to God. On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:2-3) After the Lord God sealed Noah, his family and the animals in the ark, And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. (Genesis 7:10) There are so many more examples of the significance of seven that we have studied so far and will study going forward.

Jacob served Laban seven years for Rachel to become his wife, after serving seven years previously for her, but being tricked by Laban and receiving Leah as a wife first. After earning the right to have Rachel, Jacob still served Laban another seven years. At the end of that time, Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.” (Genesis 30:26) This is the same principle the Lord God is teaching the children of Israel. Yes, it may be necessary to have slaves and servants as we will find out more about why in future lessons regarding planting and harvesting, but by the seventh year, they should be allowed their freedom, if they choose to leave.

“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not satisfy her owner, he must allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. But if the slave’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave but as a daughter. (Exodus 21:7-9 NLT) 

“If a man who has married a slave wife takes another wife for himself, he must not neglect the rights of the first wife to food, clothing, and sexual intimacy. If he fails in any of these three obligations, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:10-11 NLT)

Two things: first, we can not get offended by the phrase “When a man sells his daughter as a slave,..." The exact same thing happened when the Lord God said, “If you buy a Hebrew slave,..." In order for anyone to be bought, they had to be bought from someone, and more than likely their parent. These arrangements were more like entering into contracts of agreement for working for a period of seven years. The parents would receive money to help their situation and the master would receive a laborer.  However, when the period of time was up, the male servant was free to leave, but the female servant's parents or another Hebrew would have to buy her back again.

The second thing is God does not approve of a man having more than one wife; Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24) Christ Jesus reiterated this when He said, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6) Yet again, this is contractual. If the slave’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, but then later the son decides he doesn't want to marry her but takes another wife for himself, he still has to keep the requirements of the marriage contract with the slave wife. 

God is making it very clear that being married and consummation are two separate issues. We would use the phrases engaged and then married.  The engagement period with God is just like being married, because the man has agreed to take the woman as his wife. The Apostle Paul explained it, Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But even if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. (I Corinthians 7:27-28) 

The woman is called the man's wife, even though they have not consummated the marriage yet. Just like Joseph and Mary, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. (Matthew 1:18-19) Joseph was considering putting Mary away secretly, not wanting to make her a public example; but the slave owner's son would have been putting away the slave girl publicly by taking another wife, while betrothed to the slave girl. Both relationships, Joseph with Mary and the slave owner's son with the slave girl, were not consummated yet, but still considered marriages by God.

But back to the issue of being a slave or in servitude to another person, that is nothing new.  The difference between what most of us know about slavery today is that people were not treated like people but like animals, instead of being treated like they were entering into a labor contract.  That is not what the Lord God intended. Remember, the children of Israel became slaves to the Egyptians, and were treated very similar to what we know about slavery in recent history.  However, the Lord God was commanding something totally different and humane.

We all have been a slave to someone or something in our lives.  We would say we are an employee, under contract to work for an employer. But more importantly, ...though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:17-18) Just like the slaves are set free after period of time, we too have been set free from sin by God, through faith in Christ Jesus. But we're not totally free, because now we're slaves of righteousness.

I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:17-23) AMEN!