Deuteronomy

The Charitable Society

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: 49-110

Genre: Talk

Track: 049

Dictation Name: RR187AA49

Location/Venue:

Year: 1993

Let us worship God. This is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us. Having these promises let us draw near to the throne of grace with true hearts and full assurance of faith. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning oh Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God unto whom all things are open, from whom no secrets are hid, whose power encompasses the great and the small and whose mercy exceeds that of our imagination. We come to Thee asking Thee to work in us that which is well pleasing in Thy sight. Fill us with Thy spirit, give us grace to love Thee, to serve Thee and in all things to be faithful unto Thee. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture this morning is from Deuteronomy 15:12-23. Our subject: The Charitable Society. Deuteronomy 15:12-23.

“And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.

13 And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:

14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.

15 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day.

16 And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee;

17 Then thou shalt take an aul, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever. And also unto thy maidservant thou shalt do likewise.

18 It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest.

19 All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep.

20 Thou shalt eat it before the Lord thy God year by year in the place which the Lord shall choose, thou and thy household.

21 And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God.

22 Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike, as the roebuck, and as the hart.

23 Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water.”

The book of Deuteronomy as by this time you can see is in some respects not only to some nation but the heart of the law. It gives us so much on not only what God expects of us but on how we are to deal one with another. It has been at the same time a central target of the modernist critics. Even though it is our Lord’s favorite book, the one He used most of all, they decry it as somehow not authentic, certainly it could not have been written by Moses they hold and it was probably the last of the Pentateuch and later then some other books of the Bible, most of them in its writing. They hold it was not too long, just a few centuries, before Christ when Deuteronomy was produced! They refuse in any way to recognize this as valid. This is true of Catholic and Protestant scholars alike. In fact yesterday I was reading in one large volume by a Catholic scholar who was very emphatic about the non-authentic character of Deuteronomy. First it could not be Mosaic, second it was of late writing and therefore superior somehow in its moral content, and then third whatever it was it was nothing for us to pay much attention to. But it it’s the word of God. And what we are told in this passage is that God declares that no covenant man could be enslaved. Covenant faith also meant freedom in due time for an alien. The text is concerned with bond servants, these to be male and female, a man could be sentenced to bond service to make restitution for an unpaid debt or for a theft. Now remember those who could be sentenced to bond service were not criminals in our sense of the word. Any man who was a habitual criminal had to be executed. If the man to whom the sentenced man owed money needed his due gold or silver payment at once he could then sell the man’s labor to someone else and so collect his money.

The first verse makes this clear, if someone be sold unto thee. Such a service could be up to six years, a release was necessary on the seventh or Sabbath year. At times a man would find himself unable to make a restitution for debt, either with cash or with [unknown] or with bond service because it would mean his loss would increase, he would have to leave his property and work. In such as case according to Exodus 21:7-11 he could send his young daughter to be a household servant to pay off the debt that way. She could not be used as a field hand and her life was one very strictly protected by law. At the year of release such bondservants could not be sent away empty handed. They were after all to be members of the family. They were to be given of the man’s produce in substantial forms such as livestock, wine or grain. The value of a bondservant was greater than that of a hired worker because the bond servant during his or her stay was a part of the family. Hired hands work by the hour, members of the family work when there is work to be done not by the hour. The basis for such legislation is plainly stated in verse fifteen, the people are told to remember their redemption form Egypt by God’s sovereign grace. Having received grace from God we are to manifest it to others. This is the foundation of the truly charitable society according to God’s law. Since we all have received in some way God’s grace and mercy we must all be God’s instruments of mercy to others. The reminder here is of God’s work, for us it is salvation, His salvation, through Jesus Christ and this is the foundation of a charitable society. This law existed in the colonies but in time it deteriorated as bond servants were sold to anybody, not just to Christians.

The bondservant in a godly family was a member of the family. It was thus possible and not uncommon for a man who had a good master to choose to remain with him. His ability to survive on his own might also be limited. At the conclusion of his time of service he could ask to remain as a permanent servant member of the family. If so he had to undergo a ceremony marking his status. His ear was pierced. Now this is an ancient mark of subservient and protected status, both subordinated and protected. Women have worn earrings to show they are under a man’s care and protection and very costly earrings have been a way of showing the wealth of their man. A permanent bondsman would show by his pierced ear and an earring his subordination to his master. Two ears were pierced for a woman and one for a man. The ear because it’s the organ of hearing represented and represents still obedience. In the Code of Hammurabi, law 282, we read if a male slave has said to his master ‘you are not my master’ his master shall prove him to be a slave and cut off his ear. This was an ancient symbol and not a very gracious one in other cultures. The ear was pierced against the door of the house, this meant that as the pierced ear bled on the door way it established a covenant whereby he became a member of that house and family. Even before such an event the man who is a member of God’s covenant is described in verse twelve as thy brother. If the bondservant chose to leave when his debt was worked off he was to be sent away liberally provided with various goods. The master was required to endow such persons generously. Thou shalt furnish him liberally, verse fourteen reads, but it’s a Hebrew idiom meaning thou shalt make him a necklace which could be read literally as for women, or non-literally for men.

In antiquity some areas to this day women in particular would wear necklaces of jewels, gold and silver and also bracelets. In many parts of the world gold coins will commonly have a hole pierced in them because they have been used in that manner. They show that the man, their husband, is an important man and the interesting thing is that women can wear them freely in such cultures because they are made aware because the man is dangerous to tangle with. Well by analogy the former bond servant male or female would with what he was endowed with when he left demonstrate the wealth, liberality and grace of his recent master. Again in the early colonial period this was done and subsequently it was dropped as the requirement of faith was winked at. If the bondservant chose not to leave he or she thereafter was a member of the family for life. In case of illness or the infirmities of age they then received care as a member of the family. This meant that the choice of permanent bond servitude paid off with real benefits, mainly a life time of security. Its price was a loss of independence, the man lost his freedom to be a covenant freeman, he had no voice in the community of affairs, he was a subordinate not a freeman. The interesting thing is, is that whenever in history helping the poor has been separated from this fact of subordination and obligation you have welfarism as we do today. It creates a people with entitlements and no responsibility, it leads to the kind of anarchy that intrinsically marks the western world. The command in verses thirteen and fourteen to give liberally to the departing bond servant has also as its premise God’s ownership of all things. All that we have is God’s providence towards us. It’s his ordination and we are stewards before God not lords and creators. As a result God commands our use of all things including ourselves. Grace must govern us and through us all society.

It is a stupid and malicious error to see God’s law as punitive only. Among many other laws the laws of charity tell us that God’s grace is very much a part of his law. The charitable society denies neither grace nor judgment. Both are essential to a godly society. Consider the context of these laws. Someone has by means fair or fallow ended up in court. He is sentenced to bond service, the court does not wipe out his offense. Now such a servant he works off his debt or obligation and at the end of his service receives his freedom of liberal gifts if he has been a good servant from start to finish. This law sets forth both justice and grace. The two are thoroughly intermingled, the charitable society cannot exist if the claims of justice are denied and we see God’s remarkable ways even through these laws. Remember, too, that habitual criminals are executed; these laws are not concerned with them. In verses nineteen through twenty three we have the law of firstlings. At the time of the pilgrimage festival the firstlings would be eaten. In the wilderness the sanctuary was in the middle of the camp so the firstlings could be eaten on the eighth day. Now with Canaan ahead this would not be possible for those living at a distance and so we have these and related laws. Blemished animals were not to be taken to the sanctuary but be eaten locally according to verse twenty three. Both those who were clean and unclean could share the blemished firstling even as they shared the roebuck or the deer but neither could eat the blood. Since aliens would have no objections to the blood this meant on a man’s property and in his house his faith and his law governed the foreigner who is a guest. Such an alien could practice his faith at his house but not in the home of a covenant keeper. Now here again we have an aspect of law that we have set aside. It used to be a part of the common law that if you dealt with your employee honestly and fairly the state could not intervene. Your faith governed your practice, if what you did was wrong, criminally wrong then and then only could they come and say here in your work or in your plant or in your home you have abused, criminally abused your employee.

That was possible, but not if you required him to live according to your faith. He came to you on your terms, he could not overrule those terms. But now the state feels it can come in and no matter how fair or how just your terms are, over rule them, require you to hire people in terms of a quota, even though they do not meet the qualifications of employment. Here again the modern world has set Deuteronomy to one side. This is why the study of Deuteronomy is so important. We must revive its application. Let us pray.

Our Father Thy word is truth. And Thou hast spoken and now it is our obligation to hear and obey. Make us once again an obedient nation, a nation that does not usurp thy prerogatives but joyfully serves Thee. Grant us this in Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now? Yes?

[Question] I think the sufferings that we’re going under now to turn the nation to back under God’s law.

[Rushdoony] Yes, God has over and over declared in the law and in the prophets that He brings judgment and suffering to a nation in order to turn them back. If He did not it would mean He has given up on us. Yes?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] No men are either slaves to other men or to the state. And the most common form of slavery in all of history has been to the state. It’s been the most vicious form and yet there are no studies on statist slavery because we have been busy in the last century and a half worldwide in moving from private ownership to state ownership. And men until they are converted and become truly free men in Christ are going to be slaves. So if you abolish one form they’ll create another. That’s the way it has been throughout history. And yet we are given a dishonest history of slavery. For example, in book after book, article after article, slavery is treated as though it’s something Europeans and Americans have been guilty of. The fact is most slavery throughout history, the overwhelming majority has been in Asia and Africa and in the Americas, the Indians had slaves. We don’t talk about that anymore. Books that describe that have long since tended to be forgotten or either disappeared. Long before the Europeans began to export slaves to the Americas slaves were exported into various parts of Asia, into China, India and elsewhere. It’s possible that they reached many of the pacific islands, we don’t know that. But there are indications of it in some of the peoples. But in some of the older pictures of China you can see unmistakable traces or evidences of slave boys. A vast percentage of these were exploited by homosexuals and in many a country the kirks especially they would not allow any black slave girls, the children, to live. But the slave trade has been in the main overwhelmingly not European. But there are no books that will tell you that any longer. Yes?

[Question] About 1755 Virginia legislature outlawed slavery in the books, but the British sovereign who was there was getting kickbacks from it so he made …[becomes unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Any other questions or comments?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] It was Arabs and others who did most of the, all the exporting to the far east. Virtually all the slave trade which existed long before any Europeans saw these coasts of Africa or sailed to India or the Far East. The slave trade was an ongoing thing.

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] No Europe had some slavery, the Roman Empire had slavery, but under the influence of Christianity slavery disappeared from Europe, here and there there were small pockets, but slavery revived with the Renaissance. And with the discovery of the Americas in the sixteen hundreds it revived again after it had declined a bit. But in most instances the slave trade was promoted where there were fewer Europeans and they needed a lot of workers and that was the rational. Well if there are no further questions let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we thank Thee that Thy government shall prevail. And that our King shall rule over all. Teach us to so govern those things to so govern those things that are within our providence that we may further Christ’s reign over all things. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.