Choose Servanthood!

We have to understand what God is talking about in Exodus 21 when he gave Israel rules for slaves. It was completely different from what we know from our own American history, and the word the Lord used in Exodus referred more to hired servants than to slaves. The horrors of involuntary slavery that is part of the shame of our past and that still exists in many places in the world today is never condoned by Scripture. In fact, that is clearly stated just a few verses later in the chapter when God says, “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.” Apply that to 1850 America and the one who sold the slave and the one who bought the slave would both receive the death penalty. And the slave would be set free.

Servitude in ancient Israel stood apart from other nations in three ways. It was voluntary, often entered into because a man wanted to get out of debt. It was temporary; the servant was released after 6 years. And it kept marriages intact. There is also a beautiful picture of something greater in these covenant rules for servants.

If a man served a master and his master provided a wife for him, at the end of his time of service, he couldn’t just take his wife and any children they had together: those belonged to the master. He could either go out and earn enough to redeem them, or he could offer himself as a lifelong servant to the master. I love the language of the servant in the text. He says, “I love my master, my wife, and my children.” Why would anyone sign up for a lifetime of serving another? Love. He didn’t say, “I love my wife and children and if the only way I can get them is to put up with the master and a life of servitude, then ok. I will have to do that.” No, his first statement is, “I love my master!” What kind of master would merit such an action? A loving master. A master who was gentle and kind and took care of his servants. In fact, he was a master who treated his servants just like family. 

When the man declared this kind of love, his master would “bring him to God.” Some believe this meant he was taken before the elders of Israel so they would know that this man was making a covenant before God and witnesses. That he was choosing this life. Then he was taken by the elders to the door or the doorpost of the master’s house and a sharp object, like an awl, was driven through his ear and into the door. He had his ear pierced to mark this blood covenant. The servant was now attached to the master’s house, and the earring he would wear afterward would signal to all who saw him that he had surrendered his life to another. He had chosen to serve because of his love.

Many believe David was thinking of this scene when he wrote this in Psalm 40: “In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open (pierced) ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’” David was confessing that his greatest desire was to do God’s will. He knew that a mere sacrifice could not substitute for an ear that was hearing and a heart that was obedient, fully surrendered to God’s will. David was offering himself as a slave to God.

David points forward to a greater slave, the one took the very nature of a servant, the one who was born in the likeness of God. The one who said he had not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. The one who humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because Jesus loved the Father, he laid down his life for his bride, his sons and daughters. You and me.

How could we trade away that love for anything else in the world? How could we serve anyone else but Jesus?