“Dignity for the Destitute” (Exodus 21:1–11)

“Dignity for the Destitute” (Exodus 21:1–11)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Sunday PM, August 12, 2018

Exodus 21:1–11 (NIV)
“These are the laws you are to set before them:
       ² “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. ³ If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. ⁴ If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
       ⁵ “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ ⁶ then his master must take him before the judges.  He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.
       ⁷ “If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. ⁸ If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. ⁹ If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. ¹⁰ If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. ¹¹ If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.

1. The Dignity of Financial Responsibility (Repayment of a Debt).

2. The Dignity of Freedom

3. The Dignity of Family

4. The Dignity of Fealty

5. The Dignity of Faithful Support (or, Fulfilled Promises).

Main Idea: Even those in the most desperate and destitute of situations are to be afforded dignity. Christian love demands that we treat with respect and dignity all people, even those in the most lowly of ranks and situations.