Exodus 21:1 – 6 “These are the ordinances that you are to set before them:
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. If he arrived alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrived with a wife, she is to leave with him. 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.
But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children; I do not want to go free,’ then his master is to bring him before the judges. And he shall take him to the door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he shall serve his master for life.”
Continuing with David Guzik’s commentary: Normally, slavery for the Israelites was:
· Chosen or mutually arranged.
· Of limited duration.
· Highly regulated.
c. He shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing: In all of the four above mentioned cases, the servitude was never obligated to be life-long. The Hebrew servant worked for six years and then was set free.
i. “He was, more properly an ‘indentured laborer’, bound for six years.” (Cole)
ii. “That this servitude could extend, at the utmost, only to six years; and that it was nearly the same as in some cases of apprenticeship among us.” (Clarke)
iii. G. Campbell Morgan, after looking at the laws regarding slavery, wrote: “A careful consideration of them will show that they abolished slavery, and substituted for it, covenanted labor.”
iv. “Henceforward the condition of slaves among the Hebrew people would be in marked distinction to slavery as existing among other peoples. It was the beginning of a great moral movement.” (Morgan)
d. If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him: At the end of the six years the servant went out with what he came in with. If the master provided a wife (and therefore children), the wife and children had to stay with the master until they had fulfilled their obligations or could be redeemed.
i. By himself: “Literally ‘with his back’, i.e. ‘bare back and nothing more’. The phrase is vivid and unique, but the meaning is clear. This provision may seem hard to us, but the wife was presumably a perpetual slave, and therefore the master’s own property.” (Cole)
3. (5-6) The bond-slave: a willing slave for life.
a. But if the servant plainly says, “I love my master”: If, after the six years of servitude, a servant wished to make a life-long commitment to his master – in light of the master’s goodness and his blessings for the servant – he could, through this ceremony, make a life-long commitment to his master.
i. This commitment was not motivated by debt or obligation, only by love for the master, and the good things that the master had provided for the servant.
b. His master shall bring him to the judges: This describes the public and recognized ceremony for recognizing a willing slave, one who had fulfilled his obligation yet still wanted to serve his master out of love.
i. “The ‘judges’ changed the slave’s status from temporary to permanent by a ceremony at the doorpost of the master’s house.” (Kaiser)
c. His master shall pierce his ear with an awl: In the ceremony, the servant’s ear was pierced – opened – with an awl. This was done in the presence of witnesses, and then he shall serve him forever.
i. It’s a remarkable thing to think of this ceremony being carried out. A servant said, “I know I have fulfilled my obligations to my master, and I have served what I have owed. Yet I love my master and am so grateful for what he has given that I will gladly obligate myself for life, not out of debt or shame or defeat, but out of love.”
ii. Psalm 40:6 later spoke of this ceremony taking place between the Father and the Son, where the Psalmist spoke prophetically for the Messiah: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears You have opened. Jesus was a perfect bond-slave to the Father (Philippians 2:7).
iii. “That awl represents the nail that affixed Christ to the cross, and we must expect it in every true act of consecration.” (Meyer)
d. He shall serve him forever: Jesus gave us the right to be called friends instead of servants(John 15:15). Yet the writers of the New Testament found plenty of glory in simply being considered bondservants of Jesus (Romans 1:1, James 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1, Jude 1:1).
i. Pagans had a custom of branding the slave with the name or the sign of the owner. Paul referred to himself as just such a slave in Galatians 6:17: From now on, let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Paul was a slave for life to Jesus.
ii. This is a picture of the sinner’s service of sin; there comes a place where the sinner, so filled with a love of his sin, seals his heart over to sin as his master.
iii. This is a picture of our service to Jesus.
· We have the power to go free if we want to.
· We must be willing to take the consequences of chosen service.
· We must be motivated by love for our Master.
APPLICATION: Today serving someone else is out of fashion! Companies that once engendered loyalty in their workers have betrayed workers, particularly older ones, forcing them out of the work force to avoid paying high benefits. One friend who headed the IRS Division for a major company went to work one day and came home pensioned and jobless at the age of 60. Workers have responded by withholding their best efforts, feeling that a company that would treat them shabbily is not worth it. But the fact remains that we are all serving someone or something.
Human beings can and will disappoint you! But Hebrews 13:5-6 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” God is the only One who is worth serving, the only One to Whom we can safely bond ourselves. Failing to trust only forces you to build your life on shifting sand. Why not trust the Maker of the Universe, who holds the stars in place and keeps all nature in His mighty Hand?
PRAYER: Father God, we are afraid! The people and things we have trusted to help us have failed us miserably! We long to relax and trust You, but we are fearful that You will fail us as well. Lord, give peace in the hearts of all who read this devotional and help them to completely trust You to guide them and protect them. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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