Exodus 21: The Law as Lubricant, The First Declaration of Freedom

Exodus 21: The Law as Lubricant, The First Declaration of Freedom

"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." (Exodus 21:2, NIV)

If the Ten Commandments (chapter 20) are the constitution of God's people, then the civil laws beginning in chapter 21 can be understood as the implementing regulations that apply that constitution to the concrete circumstances of life. The vertical covenant made with God in chapter 20 now permeates the horizontal relationships between person and person, and between person and property in chapter 21.

Remarkably, the very first word of these relational regulations concerns the liberation of servants. Why, among countless legal provisions, must slave liberation come first? Hidden here is the profound intention of the Lawgiver. Israel was enslaved in Egypt until just moments ago. The fact that the first law they must practice is "releasing brothers who have become servants" reveals that this law is not merely a tool of governance but a joyful response to the grace of the Exodus. The law, aside from regulations concerning God, is essentially a "law for protecting the vulnerable."

We often misunderstand the law as a rigid, suffocating mechanism. However, the law in this text never stifles people. The law is like lubricant poured between the rough gears that mesh together. The freedom that comes in the seventh year after six years of labor—this "rhythm of rest"—is a Sabbatical Space that God has granted as margin between the tight cogwheels of life.

This law declares: "In God's created world, there can be no eternal bondage." This great charter of freedom, which extends through the Sabbatical Year and the Year of Jubilee, demonstrates that vertical love for God is completed in horizontal liberation toward neighbors. The spirit of the Ten Commandments rises toward heaven, but its roots extend to the ground where they break the iron shackles fastened to the ankles of the lowest and most despised servants. The law is not bondage, but the first step toward freedom.