Good morning my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
If you are a parent or grandparent, reflect for a moment on how you have tried to teach your children or grandchildren about LIFE... how to make decisions they won’t regret; how to discern the difference between what is right and is wrong regardless of popular or political opinion; how to discern any distortion of truth; how to identify people they can trust; how to deal with someone who has disregarded morals, ethics and even God?
Or perhaps you have spent time in a culture with values very different from yours. How did you handle the culture clash, how did you resolve the dramatic differences between what you thought was right and what the people of that other culture thought was right? Finally, have you ever spent much time in anarchy or social chaos where there seems to be no moral right or wrong, no mutually accepted order?
Yesterday I left you with 1 million people standing at the foot of Mount Sinai at a critical moment in human history. The Hebrew people, whom God had rescued from slavery in Egypt, made a choice that day, which would cast a dark shadow upon many generations which followed them. The people backed away from God! They refused God’s invitation to come close and more fully engage a relationship with Him. Instead they urged Moses to go up the mountain and meet with God and then come back and give them a report of what God said, and instructions about what they should do in response to what God told Moses!! Look at the world around you, even your own extended family… do you see the evidence that WE have done the same thing? And what can you identify are results from people backing away from God?
So Moses went up the mountain to meet with God. God had just concluded giving the people what we know as “The 10 Commandments”. (Exodus 20) 10 foundational principles for living life in a God honoring way. No human ears had ever heard such remarkable, life guiding statements, much less proclaimed by the voice of God Himself! These were slaves and the only law they had known was Egyptian slave law which was simple… they had no rights, no voice, no vote. Their value was their work production and their slave masters defined for them what life was for each day. But now God had rescued these 1 million Hebrew slaves from their slavery and God had told them they were HIS people, His treasured possession, a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. (Exodus 19:4-6)
In the days following their dramatic rescue, these Hebrew slaves were trying to figure out what God meant by those outrageous statements of new identity! These ’10 Commandments’ were the first major step in understanding God’s definition of how life should be lived. Next, as Moses and God met up on Mount Sinai, Moses heard a much fuller, much more detailed description of how God wanted these Hebrews to live, to shape their society, and to teach their children. Moses recorded what God told him in Exodus 21, 22 and 23.
These 1 million Hebrews spent several months at Sinai, learning from God what it means to be God’s people. They received from God instructions on everything from diet, to family structure, to civil law and order, to an entirely new system of worship. All of these instructions were intended to shape a society different from any other society in the world, and it’s all built on a morality Holy God Himself defined. May I urge you to read through Exodus 21 today, realizing this was 3500 years ago? Consider every statement as a step in shaping a God honoring society in a wicked, barbaric, lawless world.
You’ll notice the very first issue God deals with is slavery! That’s because it was widespread, all over the world at that time and it was the only thing these Hebrews knew! Then as now, employment was essential to the economy of every nation. Some people worked for financial payment, others for trade of goods or services, and others for room and board. In Exodus 21 God begins with two radical concepts. Listen to the record: “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.” (Ex. 21:1)
This would be similar to a person signing a six year employment contract in our day. From day one, both employer and employee know this is a limited time but binding commitment. So it was with this new, God designed, Hebrew version of slavery. By the way, the slave owner was responsible to provide housing, food, medical care, safety, and even clothing for the slave. The slave was responsible, in return, to provide reliable, obedient work, under the instruction of the slave owner. Do you see the mutually beneficial relationship? But not for a lifetime… only for six years! Why? God’s design was that the slave would be learning a trade and developing skills as he worked, so after six years he’d be able to live on his own, raising his own family and providing for them without indenture to a slave owner.
But what if during those six years a very special relationship of trust, respect, admiration and mutual benefit developed between slave owner and slave? What if they both felt there would be greater advantage of staying together than separating after six years? For these special situations, God introduced the concept of “bond servant”. God explained it to Moses this way: “But if the servant declares: “I love my master… and I do not want to go free,’ then the master must take the servant before the judges. He shall take him to the door post and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.” (Exodus 21:5,6)
It should not be difficult for us to imagine this. As the slave owner and the servant stand before the judges and both make their statement of intention to remain together even though the year of emancipation has arrived, and also their intention to make it a life long relationship... If the judges saw integrity in them and approved, the servant’s ear was placed on the door post and an awl and hammer applied to the earlobe, so a hole would result in that ear lobe. A hole large enough that it would never grow back, and thus for the rest of his life that person would be seen as a ‘bond servant’. A person who had been given their freedom, but chose to stay and serve their master for life!
May I ask, do you see yourself as a ‘bond servant’ of God? Did you know that Jesus saw Himself that way? Jesus came to earth in full obedience to His Father, Almighty God, and Jesus accomplished the deliverance plan for any and every person from our sin condemnation, but it required His sacrificial death and resurrection! The Apostle Paul was so awed by what Jesus did that he wrote this to the Christians in Philippi: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness… He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:5-8)
In response to this, and Paul’s deliverance from his sin and pride, Paul’s life priority became his relationship with Jesus as a ‘bond servant of Christ” for the rest of his life! (Romans 1:1; 6:16-22) Paul’s way of saying ‘thank you’ to Jesus living as a “bond servant”. Paul was convinced his purpose in life was following the leading of the Holy Spirit to daily do whatever God led Paul to do which would bring glory and honor to Jesus, his Savior, and accomplish God’s purposes in Paul’s generation wherever God led Paul in the world.
Now let’s pause right here. Of course when Moses was receiving this incredible new model of servanthood from God, he had no idea there would someday be someone very much like him called the Apostle Paul. But after their life changing encounters with God, BOTH Moses and Paul lived the rest of their lives as ‘bond servants’ of God. Consider your life. What are your priorities, your non-negotiables, your passions, your hopes and dreams. What shapes your choices, your decisions? WHO is the most important person in your life? By the end of your lifetime, what do you hope your life will have been all about? One day in the future, when you and I stand before God to give account for our entire lifetimes… what will matter to us then? Here’s a song to help us consider our lives as ‘bond servants’ of God and servants of each other…
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 21.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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