‘Awl’ Inspiring Devotion

The Old Testament law allowed for an Israelite to own a fellow Hebrew as a slave [Ex 21:1-6, Deut 15:12-17]. However, it was required of the master/owner to release and grant full freedom to the slave after six years of service. In addition to granting him freedom, the law required the former slave owner to ‘furnish him [the released slave] liberally from your flock and from your threshing floor and from your wine vat’ [Deut 15:14]. The slave was not released empty handed but was to be liberally provided for by his former master.

Most of us have such an abhorrence of the idea of slavery that we cannot imagine a slave declining his/her legally required right to freedom from his/her master. However, the law specifically recognized that there may be some slaves who have grown to love their master with such devotion that the slave would prefer to decline the otherwise compulsory grant of freedom, declaring :’I will not go out [i.e. leave] you’ [vs 16]. Moses says sometimes the slave declines his freedom ‘because he loves you [ie the master] and your household, since he fares well with you’ [vs 16].

Several new testament apostles refer to themselves as slaves or bondservants [same Greek word-doulos] of Christ-e.g. Romans 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1, James 1:1, Jude 1. Paul also refers to some of his co-workers as fellow bondservants or slaves of Christ [e.g. Col 1:7, 4:7, Phil 1:1]. They apparently viewed themselves as owned by Christ-and rightly so since Paul says each of us has been bought with a price-“or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? for you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. [I Cor 6:19-20]. “You were…redeemed with precious blood,…the blood of Christ [I Pet 1:18-19].

Christ freed us from the dominion of sin, Satan, and spiritual death: “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” [Col 1:13]. We have been freed from our former enslavements, our former ‘masters’-Satan, the world and our own ‘flesh’ and now are owned by a new Master-God Himself.

Most of us in the West, focus on, and even presume upon our own political and economic freedoms, maybe unconsciously, until those freedoms are threatened. But Do we love our ‘freedoms‘ more than we love the One who gave His life to free us from our enslavement to sin and the fear of death? [Heb 2:15]

Like the emancipated Hebrew slave described in Deut 15, have you firmly decided you will ‘not go out/leave’ your new Master-Jesus? Has your love for Him who bought you with His own blood, grown to such depth and reality that you wish to serve Him the rest of your days, knowing that with Jesus as your Master, you will also surely ‘fare well’ [Deut 15:16]?

If the slave opted to decline his grant of freedom and stay with his master, Moses instructed the master to …”take an awl and pierce it through the ear [of the slave] into the door frame, and he shall be your servant forever” [vs 17]. The slave carried a scar, a symbol via a hole in his ear, of his love and devotion to his master. But 2000 years ago “He [Messiah] was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities” [Isa 53:5]-a one of a kind, never to be repeated purposeful piercing, for the redemption of humankind.

Has the awesome, sacrificial love of Christ for you prompted within you a heart response that says: “I love you Master. I fare well with You. I will be your devoted servant forever“?

CJS

For more on this topic see: https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/why-did-bondslaves-have-their-ear-pierced/