Spiritual Driven Daily Devotions

THURSDAY, 19 JANUARY 2023

TEXT: Exodus 21:1-11

1. Then God said to Moses, “These are the other laws that you will give to the people:

2. “If you buy a Hebrew slave, then that slave will serve for only six years. After six years, he will be free, and he will have to pay nothing.

3. If he is not married when he becomes free, he will leave without a wife. But if the man is married when he becomes your slave, then he will keep his wife at the time he is made free.

4. If the slave is not married, the master can give him a wife. If that wife gives birth to sons or daughters, she and her children will belong to the master. After the slave is finished with his years of service, he will be made free.

5. “But if the slave decides that he wants to stay with the master, he must say, ‘I love my master. I love my wife and children. I will not become free – I will stay.’

6. If this happens, the master will bring the slave before God. The master will take the slave to a door or the wooden frame around the door and pierce the slave’s ear using a sharp tool to show that the slave will serve that master for all his life.

7. “A man might decide to sell his daughter as a slave. If this happens, the rules for making her free are not the same as the rules for making the men slaves free.

8. If the master who chose her for himself is not pleased with her, then he can sell the woman back to her father. If the master broke his promise to marry her, he loses the right to sell her to other people.

9. If the master promised to let the slave woman marry his son, he must treat her like a daughter, not like a slave.

10. “If the master marries another woman, he must not give less food or clothing to the first wife. And he must continue to give her what she has a right to have in marriage.

11. The man must do these three things for her. If he does not, the woman is made free, and it will cost her nothing. She owes no money to the man.

(Easy-to-Read Version Holy Bible)

TOPIC: THE BONDAGE OF LOVE

Today’s passage contains a provision for people who willingly want to remain in bondage, as slaves, out of love for their Master. It was a bondage of love because the Master had been so good to the slave and, consequently, the slave willingly refused freedom out of love for his gracious Master and Benefactor.

This is the kind of bond that we should actually have with our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ. Our depth of gratitude for what Christ Jesus has done for us, by saving us from our sins and His continual forgiveness of our sins, should be such that makes us want to willingly be in bondage to Him out of love and deep gratitude.

Like someone has remarked, “Make me Your slave, Oh Lord, so that I can really be free!”

QUESTION: How grateful are you to God for loving and saving you from your sins and eternal condemnation?

PRAYER: Oh God, I offer my body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing unto You, a spiritual act of my worship, in Jesus name, Amen.