Series: Exodus
Title: The Law of the Maidservant
Text: Ex 21: 7-11
Date: November 18, 2018
Place: SGBC, NJ
Again, we see the hardness of sinful man’s heart and the
goodness of God to regulate it and set bounds.
A man who fell in poverty would sell his young daughter. Yet, to protect the young daughter and her
reputation, God gave statutes concerning how she was to be redeemed and how she
was to be treated by her master. In
addition to protecting the daughter, God gave us a very beautiful picture of
Christ’s redemption of his bride. In
that, we see God’s wisdom to overrule the sin of man for his own glory.
Subject: The Law of the Maidservant
Proposition: As a maidservant was redeemed and betrothed to be
married to her master, so God’s elect—the daughter of Israel—was redeemed by
Christ and is betrothed to be married to our Master.
Exodus 21: 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.
DEBT BY
THE FATHER
Exodus 21: 7: And
if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant…
We see how we came into debt unto God
pictured in that the debt of this daughter was due to her father. The daughter did not do the works that put
her in debt. It was her father’s
mismanagement. Yet, her father’s debts were her debts and put her in need of
redemption.
As we have seen in Romans 5 and in Genesis, all
men became guilty and are born with a corrupt nature and in need of redemption
due to our father Adam’s sin. We did not
do the works to transgress the law by our own hands. But the debt is really ours because God says
we were really in Adam and we really sinned.
Romans 5: 12: Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned:
Sin has made us absolutely, thoroughly,
incapable of doing the things necessary to save us. We contribute nothing to our regeneration, nothing
to our justification, nothing to our preservation, nothing to our resurrection,
and nothing to our glorification. The
works are all of God in Christ Jesus.
Whatever we do, it is the direct result of
what Christ has done for us. We believe
but only because we are regenerated, given faith and made willing by Christ our
Head through the Holy Spirit. We rest in
Christ from our works of righteousness, but only because he brings us to see he
is all our righteousness/justification. We
persevere in faith but only because he preserves us. We will arise from the dead but only because
he resurrects us. We will enter into the
glory of our Lord but only because he glorifies us. All the praise and honor goes to our Lord
Jesus Christ, God our Savior.
REDEEMED BY ANOTHER
Exodus 21: 7: And
if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the
menservants do.
In order to take care of the debt the father
could sell his daughter meaning she was redeemed by another. But she was not redeemed to be a servant. She was redeemed to be the bride of her
master or her master’s son. In verses 8
and 9, we find “[the master] betrothed
her to himself…And if he have betrothed her unto his son…”
Betrothal was somewhat like
engagement in that the two were to be married in the future once the daughter
was of age. Yet betrothal was binding
like marriage. The man who bought her entered into a covenant with her
father, espousing her to himself and promising he would marry her. The redemption money ratified or guaranteed
the marriage. So the
maidservant was not like a manservant. She was to be treated as the bride of
the master who bought her out of poverty.
That is a very beautiful picture of what
Christ did for his people. God’s elect
is the daughter—the daughter of Israel. In eternity, Christ entered covenant with God
our Father betrothing us to himself, promising to marry us in the future. And that covenant is a binding, everlasting,
covenant. Therefore, on the cross,
Christ paid the redemption price—his own precious blood—and purchased his bride
to himself. Therefore, when he calls us
to faith, we are not treated as servants but we are provided for as the bride
of Christ.
FULL
PROTECTION AND PROVISION
Exodus 21: 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.
When the master redeemed her then he became
responsible for her full protection and provision or else his name and his word
would be ruined. If the master decided
he would not marry her after betrothing her to himself then God commanded that
he must let someone else redeem her. The master was to fully
protect her reputation and chastity by providing her the opportunity to be
redeemed so she could be someone else’s bride. But he had no power
to allow her to be redeemed by a strange
nation—this included a Gentile but it also included anyone in Israel
outside her own tribe. If
the master did not marry her, even though he allowed her to be redeemed by
another, God declared he dealt
deceitfully with his bride—so his name and his word would be ruined.
Furthermore, if the master betrothed her to his son
and the son took another wife, in addition to her, he had to fully provide for
her in every way a wife was to be provided for.
Remember, betrothal was binding as marriage. God knew
the hardness of man’s heart who would take multiple wives. In doing so he would kick his first wife out
and not provide for her, while he took another wife. So God
provided a law to protect the bride.
In all this, we see a picture of the security
of Christ’s bride. When God our Father
chose his elect to be a bride for his Son, he attached his own name and his
word to her guaranteeing her full protection and provision as his bride.
Hebrews 6: 17: Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of
promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 18: That by two immutable things, in
which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and
stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil 20: Whither the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Christ’s bride—each elect,
redeemed child of God—is his own body—"the
fulness of him that filleth all in all.” (Eph 1: 29) Therefore,
God’s own name and reputation guarantees our welfare because God will not allow
his name to be ruined. Christ will never
be displeased with his bride. Our
Master fully protects our reputation and chastity by keeping us through the
gospel as a chaste virgin unto Christ. Christ shall never allow us to be
redeemed by a strange nation—we are
God’s Israel. It is because Christ came
to glorify his Father’s name not ruin it by dealing deceitfully with his bride. He will
never take another bride that he might shower us with not only food, raiment and housing but with all spiritual blessings.
FREE WITHOUT MONEY
Exodus 21: 11: And if he do not these three unto her,
then shall she go out free without money.
If the husband failed to do any of these then
the husband was to pay all her debts and the bride was to go out free without
price with no debts.
When God the Father chose his elect to be his
Son’s bride and Christ entered covenant betrothing us to himself, Christ alone became
responsible for all our debt. The law of God looked to him alone. Though
Christ honored the law in every way, he restored for his bride that which he
took not away. (Ps 69:4) Christ paid it all in full.
Ephesians 5: 25…Christ also loved the church, and gave
himself for it; 26: That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word, 27: That he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and
without blemish.
When he comes in the power of his gospel, he
says to those who are his, “Ho, every one that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and
eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Is 55: 1) Sinner, come to Christ.
He is an honorable Husband who fully provides all for his bride.
Amen!