Where Praising God Comes Natural!
In today's world, where millions of children are being kidnapped and sold into slavery and used in sweatshops and as sex slaves and servants and for any other reason, this verse deals the consequence that such sin should incur.
12 He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
13 And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
14 But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
15 And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
If you kill someone, you must die. Period. But, if you are acting in self defense, the sentence is still death, but God will provide a place of sanctuary for you. If you stay in the place that He has given for you as a sanctuary, you may survive. If you leave that place, the judges can take hold of you to exact punishment for your crime.
This is only good for self defense, not for sneaking up on someone and executing them.
And, you better NOT kill your parents for ANY reason.
God has provided us a sanctuary in the Lord Jesus Christ today. As long as we abide in Him, our sins -- our CRIMES -- are forgiven!
Exodus 22:
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.
In Biblical days, sons and daughters were treated differently. If a man had children, he had servants for life.
If a man had a son, he had someone to leave his inheritance to. He had hope for the future of his family.
If a man had a daughter, he had a treasure that he could invest in. He could trade her for favors and connections that could benefit his family's future.
At any rate, the patriarch of the family ruled over his progeny. It didn't matter what country he lived in, his family was his to rule over and control. If you want to hurt a man, destroy his family.
Now days, at least here in the United States, things are different. The government has done everything possible to destroy the authority a family has over an individual. This may, at first glance, seem like a good thing in some ways, but is it how God intended it?
In this case, if a man owed a debt and decided to sell his daughter to the person he owed the debt to, then his daughter "belonged" to the person he sold her to for life.
She would be used in any manner a master saw fit to use her. If the master did not get on well with her, the man had the option of buying her back, but the master could not sell her to another nation. If the man did not buy her back, the daughter would have to suffer her fate in the master's hands, and that may not be good. So daughters who were sold into servanthood were taught from an early age to be the best servants they could be for anyone to avoid any future problems for the family.
If a master bought the daughter and then introduced her to his son for a future union, he was responsible to treat her as if she were his own daughter, not a servant that he gave away.
If the master chose to sexually use her, she was then to be treated as his wife. And if he married someone else, he was still to treat her as he would a wife, providing for her and allowing her to raise her children by him.
If a master buys the daughter of a debtor, and he doesn't sell her back to her father, give her to his son, or take to him as a wife, then she is to be set free to survive on her own. This can be a tricky situation for women, who only had one way of surviving back in those days, unless they begged on the streets and were able to somehow buy property of their own, which was mostly impossible.
In our neck of the woods, buying and selling servants is not allowed. So, if we were to edit this to our standard, here is how it would look:
If a man owed a debt but could not work for it, he could offer to let his daughter work out the debt for him.
If an employer accepted that offer, he could not contract her to another employer in order to work out his OWN debt. And, if a man were to somehow come into some money and was able to pay off his debt, she would be free from her contract.
If she and the employer's son fell in love and got married, she would not be under contract any longer, and she would then be a part of the employer's family.
If the employer married her, then he would treat her with the respect any wife deserves.
If the employer was not pleased with the work she was contracted to do, then he could tear up the contract and no one would owe him anything. At any rate, it is up to the employer whether to accept the deal.
Remember, servants aren't slaves. Servants are those who are working to pay off a debt. Or, servanthood can be voluntary.
God calls all of us to serve. We will never be able to pay off the debt that Jesus paid, which is why Jesus paid it.
In this case, God is speaking of those who are working to pay off a debt.
Any debt owed must be given six years work to pay off. In the seventh year, the servant is to be released, nothing owed. Free.
So, if someone is working for you in order to pay off a debt, you must NOT make him work more than six years for it. You must pursue the payment for six years, after that, you need to forgive whatever debt is owed over that and let him have piece of mind.
Exodus 21:
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.
Back then, marriages were assigned. If they weren't assigned, there were traditional steps that had to be taken in order to occur. In this case, if a servant was already married, and he enters into servanthood, then his whole family is entered with him. When he leaves, his whole family leaves with him.
However, if he decides to marry his "boss's" daughter, then he cannot take her away from her family. He is married into that family for life. If he leaves, he leaves on his own. Whatever family he builds with his employer's family, he leaves behind. OR, he can stay and be part of that family for life.
Families are called to serve each other. It is your DUTY to serve your family first and above all!
“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”
