True Servanthood

What this episode covers

Old Testament Reading The Old Testament reading is Exodus chapter 21, verses 1 through 11, Exodus 21, one through eleven. And this is the inspired, the inerrant and infallible word of God. Let’s hear God’s word. Now, these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years and in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single. If he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters and he shall go out alone. But if the slave plainly says, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him to God and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl and he shall be his slave forever. When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people since he has broken faith with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing without payment of money. New Testament Reading And now turn to Mark’s gospel, Mark chapter 10, verses 42 through 45 for the New Testament reading. Mark 10, 42 through 45. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. The Fine Print of God’s Covenant You may turn back to Exodus chapter 21 for our Sermon Text this morning. Today, we are beginning to look at what you might call the fine print, the fine print of God’s covenant with his people Israel. The major aspects or parts of that covenant have been made very clear. The Lord has promised to his people, Israel, that he will be their God. And by his loving them, by his hearing their cries, by redeeming them from their bondage in Egypt, God has made them his people. And the Lord has made his commandments very clear to the people of Israel. In fact, he has made them terrifyingly clear. With his own voice that thundered from the top of Mount Sinai, with his own finger by which he inscribed the words of the Decalogue upon the tablets of stone, the Lord has given to the people of Israel his 10 commandments. And he has told the Israelites what they must do to be faithful to this covenant that he has brought them into. They must keep his commandments, keep his law. But now the Lord has called Moses back up to Mount Sinai. And with our passage this morning, he begins to give to Moses all kinds of laws and instructions dealing with the day-to-day lives of the Israelites as they were going to live together as a nation, as a society. So he says in verse one of chapter 21, now, these are the rules that you shall set before them. And these rules begin here in chapter 21, verse one, they go all the way to the end of chapter 23. And these are the rules that I’m calling the fine print of the covenant that God made with Israel. And that’s because these rules are very detailed. And if I may say so, with all due reverence to the word of God, when we come to these various laws and rules, we find them to be a bit tedious to read. I imagine it’s about here in Exodus that a lot of people

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