Exodus 21:1  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:
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.

The nation of Israel had been around now for several hundred years. However, they had never been in the place of governing themselves. They had been under Egyptian rule for about four hundred years. Now they were on their own, but they needed to learn the importance of following God’s laws. The Egyptians had pagan laws. Some of their laws may have been good because man has a conscience. There were aspects of the Egyptian laws that were not good. They did not have respect for life. They thought nothing of killing babies if they thought it was for their benefit. They were cruel to those who were their servants. They treated the Hebrews very cruelly. They tried to keep them from being able to advance themselves.
In Canada we have very oppressive laws as well. We do not respect babies in the womb. We rename them and call them a fetus and thus it becomes an impersonal “thing”. We “dispose” of many babies and this is not a good thing. In fact it is a wicked thing that has brought the wrath of God upon our nation. We also are becoming more and more oppressive toward those we do not agree with. We witnessed this during the wuhan virus. The governments were demanding that people wear masks and social distance. Families could not get together. Funerals could not be conducted properly and weddings were very restricted. Even church services were not to be held openly. We have turned away from God for sure.
In our text, God continued to give judgments to the nation of Israel. If they wanted to be successful as a nation, they needed good laws. God is the God of order. His order is good for man. As we see in the Old Testament, God had a way of teaching the nation how to deal with their finances. Not everyone will be successful, financially. Some people do well and others struggle. Sometimes the struggle is due to mismanagement but other times it is to help us to learn how to help one another. There was a place for servants. However, the servant needed to be treated with respect. If he found himself in that position, his master needed to understand that he did not own the servant. He could keep him for six years and then he needed to let him go free for nothing. The servant had paid his dues. He needed to be treated as a free man at the end of that period.
If the man came as a single person when he became a servant, then he could go free by himself at the end of his time. If he was a married man, then his wife needed to go free with him. The master could not use the wife as a lever to try to keep the man longer.
If the man came as a single man but was given a wife during that time of his servanthood, then the master still had some hold over the wife and any children that came into the picture during that time.
The Bible has many illustrations of how God sees marriage. Sin has corrupted that view for man, but God’s way for marriage has never changed. God has placed so much emphasis on marriage that he uses it as a picture of His gift of salvation.
When a man and a woman love the Lord, they will love one another with a permanent love. When a godly man and a godly woman get married, that marriage will last the lifetime of that couple. That is a Biblical fact. There are far too many marriages, where the couple has claimed to love the Lord, but their marriage fell apart. The root cause of that failure is that the couple failed to receive the love of God in their hearts and thus they could not love one another as they ought to.
According to God’s Word, a single man could become a servant for another man. That master could also have a single woman as his servant. By the grace of God, that male servant and that female servant, could be drawn to one another in love. The master could see that and he could arrange for them to be married. That is always the right way to deal with this. A man and a woman who just move in together is never God’s will.
When that male servant chooses to marry a woman while still a servant, he must understand that his six years may expire before that of his wife, who is also a servant. He must also understand that he is free to go at the end of his six years. However, according to God’s Word, there is another law that comes into play when that male servant chooses to marry a woman while under servanthood. He has bound himself to his wife in that time, and that is of greater consequence than his freedom as an individual. He has bound himself to that woman for life.
Biblical marriage is not a game. It is not an experiment. Biblical marriage is always between one man and one woman in the presence of the Holy and Just God. Marriage should never be entered into lightly. There has to be more to marriage than physical attraction, or convenience. When a man is considering marriage, he must understand that he is planning on joining in a relationship that has only one exit and that is death. The woman also needs to understand that. There are couples who have understood this and they have killed their spouse. That is not according to God’s will. The death needs to be at God’s hand, not man’s.
It is also clear from the Bible, that God will never lead a divorced person into a new marriage as long as their spouse is still alive. God calls that adultery. There are divorced people who have gone to some religion and convinced the pastor or some other religious person to conduct their wedding. That does not make it right in God’s eyes. We have the Word of God. God is very clear on this matter. As we already mentioned, God has chosen to use marriage as an illustration of His gift of salvation. God’s gift of salvation is not temporary. It is permanent. Saved people can make that gift look quite bad at times.
Lot is described as a just man and yet Lot’s life is not one that we should try to copy. Abraham made a mess of marriage but the Bible calls him “a friend of God”. David was given a very prominent place in the Scriptures and yet he made a mess of marriage as well. God gave us those examples to help us to learn how important it is to submit to Him at all times. He did not give them to us as loop holes to use to justify sin. The Bible shows us that those Old Testament failures came with a great cost.
In our text, we see that a godly husband would need to choose his course at the end of his time as a servant. A godly husband would not walk away from his wife and children. We see that there was a way to deal with this situation in a godly manner.
In verses 6-7 we see that the man could bring this matter before his master. The master could then bring this before the judges and the man would be brought to the door and his master would bore his ear through with an aul. This man would become a marked man and he would give up his right to be a free man for life. He chose to love his master and his wife and children more than his own personal freedom. This was a serious decision that he was making.
The picture here is of more than just a physical marriage. The picture here is that of salvation. The Biblical fact is that in salvation the repentant sinner becomes a servant of God. He is “married” to God. He turns away from his own selfish “rights” and submits himself to God. He can do this because the love of God is given to him in salvation. He is a changed person from the heart outward. Biblical salvation is so much more different than what the majority of professing Christians believe today. Biblical salvation places the repentant sinner into the Father’s hand. He is kept safe in that hand. He does not just have a home in heaven when he dies. He has a life from the moment of salvation.
In marriage, a man and a woman choose to give up their individual “rights” for the good of this new union that they are forming. It is essential for that couple to build that union under the direction of the love of God. We are emotional beings and we can develop strong “feelings” toward another person. A man can assume that he is in “love” with a certain woman and they can pursue a life together. They can get married, but if their relationship is not built upon the love of God there will be bumps in the road that they cannot resolve. That marriage may end up in divorce or some other form of separation. If that marriage was built upon God’s love, it would last and not just endure for the lifetime of that couple. That marriage would grow in love for God and for one another. It would be a testimony of the love of God that is shed abroad in the heart of the saved person.
God has given us many illustrations in His Word of how His blessings work. The male servant in our text needed to make a choice. If he married while a servant, his wife and children were under a master. He knew that when he chose to marry her. He was bound by that law.
In salvation, a man must understand he is choosing to put himself under a new Master. That Master is God. Under that Master, he will know blessings he could never have anywhere else. He will understand that and he will not want to get out from under those blessings or that Master. He will purposefully and thankfully submit to this Righteous Master. Nothing this world has to offer is worth more than knowing and serving the true God.
The many who fight against this fact, have accepted the lies of the god of this world, who has blinded the minds of those who do not believe in God. That is why they fight against the true God. They cannot see the glorious light of the Gospel because they have chosen to remain in the lie of the devil.
We have the ability to see that and we have the ability to change our course in life if we will listen to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and be saved. That will change our outlook on life. That will set us at liberty with God. Be sure you choose wisely in life.
Pastor Bartel