Deuteronomy 15:12-18

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at Deuteronomy chapter 15, 12 through 18. We're going to be looking at the laws concerning Hebrew slavery. So we got a big one in front of us. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you have given us your word. It's true, helpful, historical. Father, we pray that as we read it, your Holy Spirit would help us to see the principles of the law that were governing ancient Israel and how they are to apply to us today. Please help us, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Deuteronomy chapter 15, verses 12 through 18. Here we go.
If your brother a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman is sold to you and serves six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you send him away from you, you shall not let him go away empty-handed. You shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, and from your winepress. From what the Lord your God has blessed you with, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore I command you this thing today. And if it happens that he says to you, I will not go away from you, because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you. Then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also your female servant you shall do likewise. It shall not seem hard to you when you send him away, free from you, for he has been worth a double hired servant in serving you six years. then the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do. Well, we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? So A, what's this about? It's about if an Israelite, if a Hebrew, hires or buys a Hebrew slave, male or female, right?
There's a series of laws with this, right? This is one of the reasons why we sit here and go, hmm, maybe hired slavery isn't necessarily wrong, right? This is what we might call indentured servitude. This actually happened in the United States before we start bringing Slaves who were kidnapped from various tribes in Africa, a lot of intertribal kidnapping and warfare there, sold as forever perpetual slaves in the U.S. But before all that chattel slavery stuff happened, there was indentured servitude. There's actually primary sources in the U.S. about these things.
We'll get there some other time. But the point is, if they were to have an indentured servant, somebody who has sold their services to them as a hired servant, as a hired slave, they're only to do that for seven years. Notice the sabbatical period, just like they were to release the debts after seven years, so they're to release their slaves after seven years.
And when they send them away, They're to not be greedy, close-fisted with them. No, hold on. When you send them away, what did it say? When you send them away, you shall supply him liberally from your flock, from your threshing floor, from your wine press. In verse 18, it shall not seem hard to you when you send him away free from you. It's not a hard thing, right? They've given you seven years, they worked their tails off, bless them, send them away, right? The whole point of this is that if there is to be this slavery between the two of them or somebody hires themselves as an indentured servant, it better be with benevolent care.
Why? Because they were to love one another still. As Hebrew, loving Hebrew. recognizing that they themselves were redeemed out of Egypt. They were slaves down in Egypt. They remembered what the harsh servitude under the Egyptians was like, and that's not what was to categorize or to make it look like what was going on in Israel. No, if they were going to have this type of slavery, by the way, just because God allows these types of things, doesn't mean that he's saying, hey, this is always good all the time, right? No, he's saying, He's regular regulating what he knows is sinful in their hearts. They would want to abuse the system, want to be closed fisted.
They would want to be like the Egyptians. The only thing that makes them different from that is that they have the God of Israel who's giving them these laws, who has chosen them because they're righteous in and of themselves are naturally good to do these things. Actually, we're going to find out that the Israelites, as far as we know.
They never do this. Actually, they keep perpetual slaves. They don't celebrate the Sabbath year. Every seven years, they don't do it. The reason why is the Lord sends them off into captivity. And so this is this whole idea. And if a man is to take on a slave, he better be ready to support that slave for their entire lives. Because what does a slave have the option to do? If this is a good relationship, if the benevolence has been true, the slave is able to say at the seventh year, I don't want to leave. And the master at that point takes an all and puts a mark through his ear. showing that he is now a servant for life. And this is the desire of this servant.
Now, of course, this could be abused, and of course it would be abused. Every law can be abused. People always find ways around the master could force the servant and do it. Of course they could. But that's in the spirit of the law was meant to be that they would have a just society and that if a master truly was benevolent, if he truly was loving, if he truly did care for this man, then he would have to take care of him, his wife and any subsequent children the rest of their lives. Because that was the contractual agreement that he was entering into with them.
And so this is one of these difficult areas where as Americans we're like, oh, hold on, hold on. And it did get abused in Israelite life. And it would get abused in the American experience too. As indentured servants were brought over from Britain and not treated very well at all There's a whole bunch of letters or at least a couple I shouldn't say a whole bunch a couple that I've read myself where they say The African slaves are actually being treated better than we are right this during this transition point when they started bringing slaves into Jamestown So this is one of these ugly areas in American history But it wasn't meant to be this way in Israelite history.
It was meant to be a just society, a loving of Hebrew slaves, a loving relationship between a benevolent master who is mirroring God's loving care over us. Okay, that was a huge thing about a what's this about? It's a touchy subject, which is why we need to spend more time on it. But b what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I think verse 12 is probably, uh, what I would have underlined, but I think, uh, verse 15 or the second part of verse 14 and 15 is extremely important right there. He's to give him all this stuff from what the Lord your God has blessed you with. you shall give to him everything the master has is from god there to recognize that and then verse 15 you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of egypt the lord your god redeemed you therefore i command you this day right that's that's kind of the heart of this right the middle of the passage and then the heart of the master i have underlined in verse 18 so i got a bunch underlined probably verse 12 is the base meaning of this the root of it though is probably verse 15 so How does this affect us?
We don't live in a society with slaves anymore. But you do have a culture even today where people will sell themselves, their time, their energy, or working for companies. You enter into a labor agreement. Some people even sign year-long contracts or even multi-year-long contracts saying that they will serve.
The question is, if you are an employer or if you are a business owner or if you are a manager, do you do so benevolently? Are you a dictator at work or do you love people? Are you gentle or are you harsh? Do you mirror what God is toward you, toward those who work under you? Or do you use them, abuse them? Are the people who work for you nothing but tools for your advancement? Or do you truly care for them? And when it's time for them to leave, do you bless them?
I think there's all sorts of applications that could be made today, even though we may not be in the exact same type of environment. But we know that Jesus Christ has called us to love our neighbors as ourselves. And so if you were in their position, how would you want to be treated? How would you want God to treat you? And do you treat others that same way?
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you have loved us and cared for us. that you have now made us servants of Jesus Christ. And Father, we pray that we would stand before you ready to give an account even for those who are under us. We have loved them. cared for them and have not dealt harshly or unduly as dictators and tyrants. Please, Lord, let us follow you all the days of our lives in Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you love others as Jesus Christ has loved you. I'll see you next time. Bye.