1.
Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
2.
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
3.
If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4.
If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.
5.
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
THE PREVAILING MOTIVE
‘The servant shall plainly say, I love my Master … I will not go out free.’
Exodus 21:5
John Wesley said truly that slavery is the sum of all the villainies. And yet servitude in an old Hebrew household must often have been a very happy experience. You recollect the picture of it, painted in this chapter. The seventh year, the year of release, has come. The serf may go out from bondage to freedom, but he protests with all the strength of his nature that he does not intend to do so; he means to serve his master to the end of his life. And the master, in token of this perpetual attachment of the slave to the home, nails his bondsman’s ear to the door-post. That is a window opened for you and me into the generosity and kindliness that must have been the rule in many a Jewish homestead. Is it not a parable of spiritual experience?… You love your Master. You cannot imagine a mode of life more joyous and free. What are some of the chains that bind you to the Lord Jesus Christ?
I. There is the Chain of Gratitude. Yours is the love of men and women for a Master who has paid, at the cost of His own life the ten thousand talents of your debt. You know where you met Him first. It was at the place, somewhat ascending, where stands a cross, and where, a little below the cross, there is a sepulchre. It was there He cast His spell about you. It was there you entered His household, and, because you entered it there, you intend to remain in it for ever.
II. There is another chain, the Chain of Reverent Admiration. You love your Master because He is the peerless Master, and, therefore, you will not go out free from His house. Where shall we find His like? If we leave His service, there is no other Prince or King who may be compared with Him; none so tender, none so wise, none so pure and spotless. The best rule for life is the rule that is embodied in a life. That is what Jesus Christ has given us. He goes in front of us along the road we are to walk. He has left us ‘an example, that we should follow His steps.’
III. The third chain is the Chain of Sympathy. We love our Master because we are devoted to the same purposes as those for which He lives. For the labour of Jesus Christ is not finished, now that He has gone into the heavenly places. What is His sorrow to-day? It is the sorrow that men and women and children should be ignorant of Him. What is His labour? It is the labour, by this agency and that other, to make them acquainted with His grace. What is His joy? It is the joy of seeing them gathered, from the east and west and south and north, within that city whose walls are Salvation and whose gates are Praise. And the same sorrow animates us, and the same labour prompts us to put forth our energies, and the same joy fills us with gladness.
IV. The final chain, the most marvellous in some respects of any, is the Chain of Union. We love our Master, we will not go out free, because the very life of our Master is throbbing and pulsating within ourselves. We are in the region of mysticism now, but it is the most glorious and most blessed mysticism. We do not simply listen to the teaching of Christ, as to a prophet, and go away and seek in our own wisdom and strength to translate this teaching into our life and work. There is something far better than that. Christ comes into us and abides in us. We begin to think the thoughts of Christ, because He is in our innermost soul. ‘Abide in Me, and I in you.’ Let me count it my pride and joy to be a bond-slave of the Lord! Not for six years shall my service be, and a glad release on the seventh; but gladly for all years, and release to be counted the most terrible of disasters. My ear to Thy door post, O Thou Most High!
Illustration
(1)‘My Lord hath met my longing
With word of golden tone,
That I shall serve for ever
Himself, Himself alone.
“Shall serve Him,”—and “for ever!”
Oh hope most sure, most fair!
The perfect love outpouring,
In perfect service there!’
(2)‘I cannot leave my Master;
His love has pierced my heart;
He binds me to Himself with love;
He will not let me part.
I love, I love my Master:
To Him alone I cling,
For there is none like Jesus,
My Saviour, Friend, and King.
I love, I love my Master:
I will not go out free!
He says His saints shall serve Him,
And that my heaven shall be.’
6.
Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
7.
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
8.
If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
9.
And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
10.
If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
11.
And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.
12.
He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
13.
And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
14.
But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
15.
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
16.
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17.
And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
18.
And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
19.
If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.
20.
And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.
21.
Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.
22.
If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23.
And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24.
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25.
Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
26.
And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.
27.
And if he smite out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
28.
If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
29.
But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
30.
If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
31.
Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
32.
If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
33.
And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein;
34.
The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.
35.
And if one man's ox hurt another's, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.
36.
Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.