Exodus 21.2-6 If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. 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. If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.
If a Hebrew slave had fulfilled his six year term of service, he had the option of being set free in the seventh year. But, if he loved his master, he was brought to the judges, who then took him to a doorpost, and pierced his ear with an awl, signifying that he belongs to his master forever. In others words, I’m yours! Is that not the only proper response to the gospel of Jesus Christ when illuminated by The Holy Spirit? I’m completely Yours, Lord Jesus. Redemption is all about ownership. It is a message of the exclusive rights that a master has over his subjects. But it’s not a forced submission. It is a submission that a servant has that is rooted in love for his master.
Today, you must decide afresh whom you will serve. Jesus said that you cannot serve God and mammon. In other words, you cannot serve God with a divided heart. You are either all in, or you are all out. To be a slave in those days was a sign of freedom, not bondage. Bondage was the consequence of self rule. A person’s true freedom is only found in Christ. Ironically, the 40th Psalm, which is one of the Messianic Psalms, refers to this freedom as it relates in Jesus Christ’s submission to his Father.
Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”
Jesus knows best. He is our example of walking with The Father. To follow Jesus fully means to be willingly and lovingly submitted to The Father’s will for our life. The only place of freedom this side of Heaven is when The Lord pierces our hearts with the revelation of His love, and we respond by saying, I’m Yours, Lord Jesus! Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
