Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleThe Law of The Maidservant
Bible TextExodus 21:7-11
Synopsis 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. Listen
Date18-Nov-2018
Series Exodus 2016
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: The Law of The Maidservant (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: The Law of The Maidservant (128 kbps)
Length 27 min.
 

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!