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An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Teachings
This sermon is titled "Case Law." It's on Exodus chapters 21-24, with a focus
on Exodus 21 verses 1-11. It's in the series Exodus, Yahweh Rescues. It's the tenth
message in this series. This was preached at the Olathe campus on August 3, 2025.
What was interesting about this sermon was its topic, and so the sermon was really to teach
about what case laws are in the book of Exodus, and how we should interpret them and read them,
and how they are relevant to today. Because we are a Christ community, we picked one of
the hardest texts to do that with, which is the opening case law in chapter 21, which is a case
law on Hebrew slavery. It was a tough topic to address, and for me, I was addressing it at a
campus that was not my usual campus. And so it was really tough, but in the end, I think it went well,
and I got a lot of good feedback that was not bad feedback, so that's good. So enjoy this message,
if you can, on slavery. Good morning, church. My name is Matt Netherton, and today's
scripture reading is from Exodus chapter 21, verses 1 through 11. These are the ordinances that you are
to set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for six years. Then in the seventh,
he is to leave as a free man without paying anything. If he arrives alone, he is to leave
alone. If he arrives with a wife, his wife is to leave with him. If his master gives him a wife,
and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children belong to her master,
and the man must leave alone. But if the slave declares, "I love my master, my wife, and my
children. I do not want to leave as a free man," his master is to bring him to the judges and then
bring him to the door or doorpost. His master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve his
master for life. When a man sells his daughter as a concubine, she is not to leave as the male
slaves do. If she is displeasing to her master, who chose her for himself, then he must let her
be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners because he has acted treacherously
towards her. Or if he chooses her for his son, he must deal with her according to the customary
treatment of daughters. If he takes an additional wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing,
or marital rights of the first wife. And if he does not do these three things for her,
she may leave free of charge without any payment. This is the word of the Lord.
Well, good morning, church. My name is Jacob Nanny. If we had not had a chance to meet yet,
I'm the pastoral resident at our Shawnee campus, and I'm super excited to be here
with you all this morning, even though Pastor Jonathan gave me a pretty hard text to preach on.
Hope you enjoy your vacation, Jonathan. You know, I have to be honest, as I was preparing for this
message, I was wondering, like, what, how do I get you all to feel tension that we can resolve
in this morning's sermon? And I think the passage creates enough tension.
Like, that's a, that's a hard passage to preach on. I think I heard some of you after this reading
this morning say, "Thanks be to God." Like, are we allowed to say that this morning? This is a
hard text. Is God condoning or even encouraging the practice of slavery that's cost millions
their lives? Was God for slavery, the type of slavery that happened in the U.S. just 150 years
ago? These are hard passages to read in the 21st century, and they're even harder to apply.
How do we read these passages? How do we apply these passages? Friends, these are not the types
of passages that make it onto cute coffee mugs. I mean, could you imagine sitting at someone's house,
having a calm conversation? They kind of sit back in their chair and sip their mug, and their mug
says, "When you buy a Hebrew slave, he used to serve for six years." Like, I would exit that
house as fast as possible. It's a weird verse to put on a mug. Please don't do that, because these
are not fun passages. These are hard passages, and rather than display them publicly on t-shirts or
mugs, we have a tendency to want to forget they even exist. And as we navigate case laws like this,
we're faced with the question, "How do we respond when God's words strike us as morally
or culturally outdated?" How do we respond when God's words strike us as morally or culturally
outdated? And that's what we're going to seek to answer today. We're not going to be able to answer
every question or get to every tension, but there are two errors that we should avoid when we're
looking at passages like this. And the first error is explaining a way to text without honestly naming
the difficulties. This is a temptation that a lot of us have, including me. We'd rather not deal with
texts like these. We'd rather say this is the Old Testament. Things are just different now in the
New Testament. But if we dismiss this text because it makes us uncomfortable, we miss the fact that
God's Word is relevant for all ages, and that there is good truths here. And the second error we must
avoid is dismissing the text without honestly attempting to understand its context. This is a
temptation that those skeptical of the Bible have. Some might look at this passage and dismiss it,
and perhaps the Bible as a whole, because it does not fit their cultural context. We can't do that.
And what we see when we read this text faithfully and we avoid these two errors, what we see is that
Yahweh's case laws, these case laws reveal His care for human flourishing in a shattered world.
God's laws reveal He cares, even when those laws and those words seem culturally or morally
outdated. And Yahweh has been showing this type of care since the beginning of our summer series in
the book of Exodus, this summer going through the Exodus account. And in the beginning, He revealed
His care to Moses and to Israel when He commissioned Moses in the burning bush to lead
Israel out of Egypt. He revealed His care when He overpowered and overruled and judged the false gods
of Egypt that were oppressing Israel. And He revealed His care when He led Israel through the
Red Sea out of enslavement to the Egyptians. And now, here, Yahweh is revealing His care
and instructing His people on how to live in a shattered world. And these laws He's laying down
are for their good. These laws are for their flourishing. And we're not going to go through
every one of these laws. There's simply no time to cover four chapters in one 30-minute sermon.
Instead, we want to pick a case law that reveals God's care but also instructs us on how to interpret
hard biblical passages. So what do we do here at Christ Community? We picked one of the hardest ones.
Thanks again, Pastor Jonathan. And Nathan's back from sabbatical, but he's no help today.
Hand this one off for the resident. But before we understand how this reveals God's care for
human flourishing in a shattered world, we must first understand how the culture is ever changing
and the culture in those times is different than our own. And without explaining away the text
or dismissing it because it doesn't fit our expectations, we have to understand it in an
ancient Near Eastern cultural context and how that culture is much different than our own culture.
And we have to remember that the Bible was written for us. The Bible was written for us,
but it was not written to us. It was not penned to people here in Kansas City in 2025.
And so with that in mind, there's one thing that we have to first understand,
and that is case laws. Exciting topics. There's two different types of laws in the Old Testament.
The first law is an apodictic law. And what you should think of when you hear the word
apodictic is the Ten Commandments. These laws are usually concerning moral or religious
issues, and these laws are the "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not" laws in the Old Testament.
And they carry with them, if they're broken, a punishment of death.
And the second type of law is a caustic law or a case law. And case laws are conditional if-then
structures. They establish hypothetical situations and they prescribe a certain action to take
should such a situation occur. And what's important to remember here is that case laws
are concerned with typical problems that emerge in society. So apodictic laws are absolute laws. They
don't do this and do this laws. Case laws are conditional. If this happens, then do this.
And many of the laws in Exodus are case laws. They are if-then laws. They describe what we should do
when faced with certain situations. But it's also important to remember that case laws are not
case laws are not blueprints for building the new heavens and new earth. Case laws are not
blueprints for building a utopia for God's people to live in. Instead, there are rules for human
flourishing when God's people are faced with non-ideal circumstances. Case laws are rules for
human flourishing when God's people are faced with non-ideal circumstances. And so what is the
non-ideal situation in this passage today that this case law is seeking to address? It's poverty.
It's as if God is saying there will be some among you who are facing poverty, who are going hungry,
who are nearing death if they don't get food and they don't alleviate their debt.
So Exodus 21 2. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve you for six years and in the seventh
year he is to leave a free man without pain. And the word "slave" here in this passage is a Hebrew
word "avet". And many translations translate this word as "slave". Some translations translate it as
"servant". And what "avet" is getting at and what I want you to think of when you hear this word
"slave" in this specific context is debt servitude. Debt servitude. Debt servitude was a way for the
people of Israel to avoid poverty. It was Yahweh's laws for debt servitude that are oriented towards
human flourishing. The goal was to prevent poverty but also to prevent the exploitation
of meaningful work. And Hebrew debt servitude was much different than the race-based slavery that
plagued this very nation just 150 years ago. Race-based slavery existed for economic exploitation
but Hebrew debt servitude existed to help people out of debt and to avoid poverty altogether.
Race-based slavery enslaved individuals for life with little to no chance of ever
being free whereas Hebrew debt servitude set limits on how long someone could be a slave.
When you buy a Hebrew slave he's to serve for six years and in the seventh he is to leave as a free
man. The involuntary kidnapping of free peoples fueled race-based slavery in the U.S. and beyond
but Old Testament debt servitude condemns man stealing, condemns kidnapping on penalty of death.
Look at what Exodus 21 16 says, "Whoever kidnaps a person must be put
to death whether he sells him or the person is found in his possession."
The Old Testament system of debt servitude of slavery was vastly vastly different than the
race-based slavery we've seen. But why? It's because Yahweh cares about human flourishing
in a shattered world. But can we be honest? Sometimes difficulties remain. Like what about
female service? It seems that female servants after their years of service in some situations
don't go free. Or what about families? It seems that after seven years sometimes families are broken up.
These are hard things to look past. They're hard tensions in the text. But remember our two errors
to avoid. Just because we're not comfortable with them doesn't mean we should skip over them.
And just because we don't understand doesn't mean we should dismiss them out of hand.
With that said, understanding patriarchy in the ancient Near East makes sense of why some of these
laws are still in the text. Even if they make us profoundly uncomfortable. And for a deep dive on
this topic I would encourage you to read The Epic of Eden, a Christian entry into the Old Testament.
This is a book by Dr. Sandra Richter. In that book Dr. Richter explains that
resources and protection for women came through the male members of their family.
So in many ways the structures laid out in Exodus were to ensure the dignity and care for the women
of that day. And I can sit here and explain that at length for hours. I actually couldn't do that.
I would need more preparation. But even if I did explain for hours we would still perceive it as
incredibly difficult to swallow. We still feel discomfort. But why? Why in the modern world are we
so uncomfortable with passages like this? Or maybe a better diagnostic question is what happened
in the modern world and in human history that led us to be so uncomfortable with texts like this.
When this was the norm at some point in history. And the short answer to that is Christianity.
And yes it was so-called Christians who used passages just like this
to ensure that they could keep their slaves. To justify race-based slavery. But it was also
Christians who because of their Christian commitments and not in spite of them sought
to abolish slavery in the United States. In his book Dominion How the Christian Revolution Remade
the World, author Tom Holland traces western concepts of universal human rights, equality,
and dignity including the rejection of slavery in the west. And he traces these things not to
ancient Greece or enlightenment philosophy but directly to the teachings of Jesus and Paul.
Particularly Paul's words in Galatians 3 28 where he says there is neither Jew nor Greek,
slave nor free, male nor female. And here's what Holland says in this book.
Even if Christianity did not overthrow slavery immediately, Paul's injunction to treat slaves
rightly and fairly would soon be understood as a command to abolish the institution of slavery
entirely. Friends it's the foundation of the old and new testaments. The scriptures that Jesus
viewed as good that led and are leading to human flourishing in a shattered world.
Yahweh's case laws reveal that he cares for human flourishing in a shattered world.
And in this case law in particular he reveals his care that he cares about the dignity of his people.
So Yahweh's case laws demonstrate that no matter what position his people find themselves in,
rich or poor, they are full of worth and value. And now saying that Hebrew slaves are full of
worth and value might sound like an oxymoron. But remember the opposite. When grappling with these
remember the reality of what they would be faced with if not for Hebrew debt servitude and that is
poverty. But Yahweh's case laws reveal his care for dignity in a shattered world. He knows that
humans in his image are full of worth and value and so he provides for them a way to flourish
even if they're facing such dire circumstances, non-ideal situations like poverty. And in this
context in the ancient Near East the solution is slavery or more accurately debt servitude.
But here's a struggle. We want God to abolish this practice all together. We prefer that we come
post Red Sea crossing into Israel and see a society that has none of these injustices.
We actually grieve with the fact that God sets up laws on how to keep slaves. If we're honest we
want God to set up the new heavens and new earth right when he led the exodus out of Egypt and we
want that to happen here and now. New heavens, new earth with no pain and injustice. And so why
doesn't he do that? And I don't have the answer for that but I want you to want to invite you to
consider this. Consider our modern day. Consider our culture. Our culture is sometimes good,
sometimes it's bad and it's by no means perfect. Or consider our economy. Sometimes it's great,
sometimes it's bad, sometimes actually all the time it's not perfect. Or consider our systems,
the way we do things. Sometimes they lead to good, sometimes lead to bad and they're by no means
perfect. And imagine God stepping into 21st century America, right here, right now,
and he's coming to fix all these things. Would you want him to say, "Wow this is all a mess,
so let's wipe this slate clean, people and all, and start all the way over until we build the new
heavens and new earth the first time." Or would you want him to say, "This is all a mess and here's
what you can do personally to see that people are protected. Here's what you can do personally to
solve some injustice in this system. Here's what you can do personally to dignify those who are
vulnerable." You see I prefer the latter. Sometimes I prefer the latter, sometimes I don't. And part
of the reason that we prefer that God just sets up the new heavens and new earth now, if we're honest,
is because we don't want to get to work. We might be uncomfortable with the fact that God uses us,
you and me, as agents of change. This is what he's doing in his case laws. He's commissioning
his people to be agents of change, to dignify and protect the vulnerable.
How are you mirroring and reflecting God's care for the vulnerable? Are you working to dignify
and protect the vulnerable? If not, I encourage you to volunteer with one of our outreach partners,
and one of those partners you can volunteer with is Mission Southside. Mission Southside is a local
organization, local organization, that cares for the vulnerable, especially the economically
vulnerable in our neighborhoods. And partnering with them is a good way to care for those who need
help. Volunteering with them is a good way to show the care for the poor and the vulnerable,
just like Yahweh does. Yahweh cares about the dignity of his people. He cares about the dignity
of his people. But his care goes even further than that because Yahweh's case laws reveal his
care for justice in a shattered world. God is moving towards justice even when this world is far
from being whole. And God's move towards justice is a patient one. God is incredibly patient.
He's incredibly patient in meeting us where we're at and gently moving us towards greater
and greater conformity to goodness, to holiness, and to justice. And friends, sometimes that's
really hard. It's hard to be patient alongside God when the injustices of the world seem to be
in our faces at all times, day and night. But we must remain patient alongside God. We must remain
hopeful. We have to have a hopeful realism. We have to be hopeful that one day all things will be made
new when Christ comes again. But be real about the fact that that day is not right now. Hopeful that
everything will be restored, but today, in reality, I must get to work in helping the vulnerable.
We have to remain hopeful. And we also have to have a sense of proximate justice.
Dr. Stephen Garber gives a good explanation of proximate justice in an article titled
"Proximate Justice Again and Again." And there he says that authors like Wendell Berry taught him
that complex issues, political issues, social issues, economic issues, all these issues are
like marriage. We're all a part of the problem, and we are all a part of the solution.
And here's what he says. "The only way forward is to make peace with proximate justice.
It is a choice to make peace with something, something, something that is honest and true,
something that is more just and more merciful, even if it is not everything.
All or nothing never works. And marriages and friendships and the workplace and the church
and it never works in politics."
Friends, God has not taken all or nothing approach to justice in the way that we would want him to.
And honestly, neither should we. We see case laws like this, like Exodus 21, and with heavy hearts,
we want full, complete, explicit justice now. But that is not how Yahweh works. Yahweh's patient,
and in his patience, he reveals his care for justice one step at a time.
Again, God does not step into Israel's camp to take them out of the world
and to set them up in the new heavens and new earth. Instead, he steps in patiently,
and he patiently leads them on paths, paths of holiness, paths of goodness, paths of justice.
God has not taken all or nothing approach to justice. And in fact, doing so, for us to do so,
for us to chase an immediate all or nothing approach with justice is not sustainable.
Listen to what Dr. Garber says in another article. He says, "When we pray your kingdom come,
we're yearning for the way things ought to be. If we think that the lordship of Christ means that we
can settle for nothing less than explicit recognition of that claim, then we will never
be able to sustain the vocations that are required for meaningful political witness in the face
of the continuing injustices which come from the world, the flesh, and the devil."
Waiting for or working towards immediate all or nothing justice in this life is not sustainable.
You will burn out if you think that you can solve every problem for everyone now.
So what do we do? If we can't help everyone right now, what do we do? Well, what we can start with
is a philosophy of, "Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone." This is a leadership
principle I've been reflecting on, and I want you to chew on it right now. Because maybe you're here
today and you feel trapped. You feel paralyzed by the thinking, "I can't help everyone, so I'm not
going to do anything." Maybe you feel trapped when you think about this, and you feel trapped in
getting to work and offering dignity and protection and justice. You don't need to feel trapped.
Instead, do for just one person what you wish you could do for every person. This principle reminds
me of a story I heard a long, long time ago about a boy who finds some starfish on a beach. Sounds
weird, I'm going somewhere with it, I promise. A boy walks up to a beach and he sees a bunch of
starfish, thousands and thousands and thousands of starfish on the beach. And he notices that they're
all alive still, many of them are alive still. And so he gets to work and he picks one up and he
throws it back into the ocean, picks another up, throws it back into the ocean and continues
this work all day. And finally a man comes up and says, "Why are you throwing these starfish back?
You can't possibly save thousands and thousands and thousands of these starfish. What difference
can you make?" And the boy kind of stares at the man and he reaches down to pick up another starfish
and he throws it back out into the ocean and he says, "I just made a difference for that one."
Are you making that type of difference?
Even if it's just for one person, don't trap yourself. Don't be moved to inaction by thinking
that you cannot get to work until you help everyone. Because if you think that way you'll help no one.
Do for just one person what you wish you could do for every person. That is where meaningful
work is done. That is where meaningful work takes place. And this is the same task that was charged
to Israel in this case law, to patiently one by one help those who are vulnerable. And their charge is
your charge. And so as you go forward in holiness and goodness and in justice, have the same patience
that Yahweh reveals in this law, that it takes one person at a time. And take heart in the fact that
one day all of this will be made new and that patient and faithful work will be rewarded.
Even though it's agony now, it will turn into glory. And C.S. Lewis hits on this in his book,
The Great Divorce. He says, "We misunderstand the impact of that future glory when all things will
be made new." Here's what he says, "That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal
suffering, no future bliss can make up for it. Not knowing that heaven once attained will work
backwards and turn even that agony into a glory." You see, we often miss that Yahweh's case laws,
they point to redemption. They point to how the world ought to be. And when we miss that,
we miss the fact that Yahweh's case laws reveal wisdom for living in a shattered world.
Yahweh's case laws reveal wisdom for living in a shattered world. So how then shall we
live in light of all these things? How do we apply this passage, even when it's hard?
What are wisdom principles we can apply to our mundane worlds now? How do we live? Thank you
for asking those three questions. I'd be happy to explain them to you this morning.
First, we need to listen. We have to listen. We have to carefully listen to and understand cultures
that are not our own. That's a hard task for us. And when we come to hard passages, we have to
listen to cultures that are not our own, which means grabbing a good study Bible, as well as
some other resources, to really understand the passages, good resources that will transport you
back in time to understand those cultures. We have to listen. And for this morning's passage
in particular, I really recommend to you Paul Copan's books, "Is God a Moral Monster?"
and "Is God a Vindictive Bully?" These are great books. They're really accessible books
that helped me a lot in sermon preparation, and they'll help you understand this passage.
But second, we need to look. Look for points of contact with our culture and God's character.
God's character is always shining through the text. God's character is always shining through
the text, and so we should be looking at how God's character meets our current cultural challenges.
Look through the scriptures to understand how we can move toward greater justice for the vulnerable
in the here and the now. Look to God's character in the scriptures to see how you can care for
the unborn, for the immigrant, and for the poor among us.
Listen, look, and finally and most importantly, we need to live. We must live with a trust in Jesus,
and Jesus who is the ultimate embodiment of God's character. Jesus who fulfilled and completed the
law. Jesus who shows us the standard of love on a wooden cross. Jesus who took all the shards of our
shattered world into himself on the cross and through his death and resurrection began the
patient process of making all things new. Live with a trust in Jesus who is our hope
and who is our comfort. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for revealing your care for human
flourishing in this shattered world. God, even when it's hard to understand, your case laws show your
care. They show your character. Thank you for giving us, your people, wise instruction through
your word. And Jesus, thank you for stepping into our shattered world and absorbing its sharp and
painful edges so we might find healing, restoration, and redemption. Thank you for opening the path
toward the new heavens and earth. And spirit, give us strength to dignify the weak and vulnerable.
Grant us patience to pursue justice one step and one person at a time. I pray you confront
us with unmistakable opportunities to act as your agents of change. Do that today,
tomorrow, and always. We pray in the name of the triangle. Amen.