Series: Exodus
Title: The Willing
Servant
Text: Exodus 21: 1-6
Date: November 11,
2018
Place: SGBC, NJ
We saw in Exodus
19-20 a type of God using the law to bring his elect to behold our sin in the
face of God’s holiness to bring us to cry out for Christ the Mediator.
Then God declared
they could only come to God through a
blood sacrifice sanctified upon the altar—picturing the only way a sinner
can come to God. We come through faith
in Christ the Lamb whose blood put away the sins of his people and made his
people righteous by establishing the law on our behalf. We come through faith in Christ our Altar who
sanctifies us and makes all our worship and service accepted of God.
Next, God begins to give judgments (civil statutes) to
Israel. These judgments typify the Lord
Jesus Christ. These statutes show us how
Christ served God for his people and established the law for his people.
The first of these judgments is concerning the servant. God provided civil laws for men who fell into
debt or committed crimes. They could be
bought as servants to pay off their debts.
But God also provided laws governing how long their masters could keep
them serving and when they were to be set free and how they were to be treated
and provided for. We see two things in
that: one, we see what a gracious, good
God we have and, two, we see how sinful natural man is that we needed laws to
make us to do what God commanded.
Proposition: But as we see in our text, this judgment shows us how
Christ brings his people to not need any law like this at all to make us
willingly serve him—we do so from the constraint of Christ’s love for us
because he is such a good Master.
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.
Subject: The Willing Servant
First and foremost, this servant, who loved his master
and loved his bride and children so much that he voluntarily made himself a
servant to his master forever, typifies the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first five books of the Bible written by Moses along
with all the prophets, even all the scriptures, are concerning Christ Jesus the
Son of God. On the road to Emmaus, after
Christ had arisen from the dead, he opened the scriptures to two of his
disciples, Luke 24: 27: And beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, he expounded unto them in all
the scriptures the things concerning
himself. We have seen that all
the scriptures speak of Christ haven’t we: we saw Christ in creation, in the
animals God slew to make coats of skins for Adam and Eve, the woman’s seed,
Abels’ offering, Noah’s ark, in Joshua, on and on and on and now, in this
willing-bondservant we see the Lord Jesus Christ.
CHRIST WILLINGLY
BECAME GOD’S SERVANT
Exodus 21: 2: If thou buy an
Hebrew servant…
The Hebrew
servant in our text initially became a servant involuntarily through some fault
of his own. But the Son of God from the
beginning voluntarily took the form of a servant.
Philippians 2: 5: Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7: But made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
As he promised in
covenant with the Father in eternity, when the time came, the Son of God—God of
very God, equal with the Father—willingly took
the form of servant. God said he would
do so in the prophets,
Zechariah 3: 8:…behold, I will bring forth my servant the
BRANCH.
Isaiah 52: 13:
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and
be very high.
Isaiah 53: 11: He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be
satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he
shall bear their iniquities.
Then when Christ
walked this earth, he said,
Luke 22:27: For whether is greater, he that sitteth at
meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as
he that serveth.
When he took the form of a servant, it was voluntary. Emphasize the word “give” in the following
verses.
John 6:51: I am the
living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he
shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will
give for the life of the world.
Joh 10:15: As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the
sheep….18: No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
Ephesians 5: 25:
Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it.
Our Savior illustrated his willingness to serve us unto
the death of the cross that night he washed the disciples feet. Oh, believer, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Don’t you want to serve Christ your Master by
serving your brethren in the earth? I ask
the Lord to enable me to serve him and serve you in whatever way he would have
me to do it. It is not through the
hearing of the works of the law but through hearing of his work, like we see
pictured here, that we are made willing servants of our good Master!
CHRIST SERVED FOR HIS PEOPLE
Exodus 21: 2: If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve:…
The Hebrew servant sold himself because of poverty or
crime so he was to serve for six years.
Six is the number of man—the number of incompletion and failure. Therefore, six years was the length of time
God said a man was to be in servitude (Rev 13: 18). That pictures us—we sold ourselves because of
our crimes and our poverty.
But Christ came willingly to serve in place of his people
to establish the righteousness of the law for his people before God, which none
of his people could ever do!
Daniel 9: 24: Seventy
weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the
transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for
iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision
and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Matthew 5: 17: Think not that I am come to
destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18: For verily I say unto you, Till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law, till all be fulfilled.
From his birth throughout his days as he walked this
earth, the righteous Servant served God the Father, his Master, perfectly
without sin. In everything he did, he
was about his Father’s business. He
healed the sick, fed the hungry, established his church, fulfilled all that was
written and kept the law perfectly for his people. Christ was the obedient servant of God, even
unto the death of the cross.
CHRIST WOULD NOT GO
OUT FREE
Exodus 21: 2…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.
In the seventh year—the number of perfection—the servant
had an option. He could go out free. If he was married when he came into servitude
then his wife could go out with him. But
if his master had given him a wife and she had bore him children during his
time as a servant then the wife and children must stay with the master. But the servant had the option to go out
free.
When the soldiers
came to arrest our Savior and Peter cut off the soldiers ear, Christ told
Peter, “Don’t you know that I could go
out free?”
Matthew 26: 53: Thinkest thou that I cannot now
pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of
angels?
But look what he said
next
Matthew 26: 54: But how then shall
the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
God the Father whom
he served had given him “a wife and sons
and daughters.” In eternity, God
gave him his elect bride, the church, God’s elect sons and daughters. If he had gone out, without going to the
cross, he would have gone out by himself.
But the willing, righteous Servant said, “I love my Master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free!” Christ loved God the Father perfectly:
with all his heart, soul, mind and body and strength and he loved his bride—all
God’s elect children—as himself. So he would not go out free
Oh, “the love of Christ that passeth knowledge!” Brethren,
aren’t you thankful that “having loved
his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end!” (Jn 13: 1)
So what was done next?—"Then his master shall bring him unto the
judges.” Though the earthly judges Christ faced were crooked unjust judges,
the service our Substitute accomplished for God and his people was in
accordance with the perfect righteousness of God, the Judge of heaven and earth.
The innocent Lamb of God was made to
bear the sin of God’s elect so that when God poured out justice on him, it
would be right! The chief manifestation set
forth on the cross is not the innocence of our Substitute—though in himself he
remained holy, uncorrupted—the chief manifestation set forth on the cross is
the righteousness of God. (Rom 3:
26) If a man thinks it is right for a
judge to punish the innocent then let him maintain that Christ was not really
made sin but merely treated “as if”. If
a man thinks it is right for a judge to clear a wicked man then let him
maintain that Christ did not really make his people righteous but God merely
treats us “as if.” But if a man knows it
is right for a judge to only punish the guilty and only clear the righteous then
let him maintain, as the scriptures plainly declare, that “he hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.”
“He shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door
post;” Everything Christ accomplished was done openly publicly
for all to see. God commanded that in the mouth of two or
three witnesses every word must be established. ( Mt 18:16)
“and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul;” His master opened his ear and marked him so that everyone
knew he was the willing bond servant of his master. Our
Lord Jesus, the righteous servant of God, himself, gives the best commentary on
this:
Isaiah 50: 5: The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear,
and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. 6: I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. 7: For the Lord GOD will help me;
therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be ashamed. 8:
He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand
together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. 9: Behold, the Lord GOD will help me;
who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a
garment; the moth shall eat them up.
Christ was God’s obedient servant as he bore the sin of God’s elect and
the curse due unto our sin, until justifice was satisfied for all his people. Then he cried, “it is finished!” All the debt his bride and his children owed
to God was paid in full. He made full
restitution to God on behalf of his people.
“and he shall serve him for ever.” Since
Christ highly exalted God, God highly exalted him by raising him from the dead
to reign forever.
Philippians 2: 8: And
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. 9:
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
every name: 10: That at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth;
CHRIST SERVES AS MASTER OF HIS PEOPLE
Now, our Lord Jesus
Christ is Head and Master over his church.
He is bringing this word to each of his people in spirit and in truth.
He comes to us who
sold ourselves into the slavery of sin, where we were served in bondage for 6
long years and finds us incomplete, frustrated, and in bondage! But through this gospel he declares the 7th
year has come—the year of jubilee. The
Spirit declares in our hearts that because Christ paid it all—we are free to go out free without money or
price.
Not only this, when
the master set his servant free, God’s law demanded the master must do
something else. He must provide all
things for his servant.
Deuteronomy 15: 13: And when thou sendest him out free
from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: 14: Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy
floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath
blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
Isaiah 40: 1: Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. 2: Speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double
for all her sins.
Christ not only paid
our debts, he robed us in his eternal righteousness, eternally justifying
us. He not only sanctified us by his one
offering on the cross, by the Holy Spirit he creates a new man in us which is
perpetually, eternally holy. By Christ’s
double gift, we can never come into debt again!
When he reveals this,
every true believer says, “I love my
master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:” In accordance with God’s holy law, before
the just Judge, with an open confession of Christ before all, we declare that
Christ has opened our ear and we are willing to serve him forever! “I am
his and he is mine!”
When religious men
hear us declare that we are not under the law in any shape, form or fashion
they do not understand. But as the
apostle Paul clearly declared and as we see pictured in our text, Christ makes
us willing in the day of his power by his love for us. Therefore, all who believe on Christ serve
him, not by the restraint of law but by the constraint of his love, not because
we have to but because we want too. He
is a good master and serving him is not a burden at all. His love and goodness toward us has made us his
WILLING bond servants.
John 8: 36: If the
Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Amen!