#181 Which Slave are You

“These are the laws you are to set before them:

2 “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. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him.4 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.

5 “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him before the judges.[a]He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

7 “If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. 8 If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself,[b] he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. 9 If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. 10 If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. 11 If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money. Exodus 21: 1-11 NIV

Here Moses further expounds upon the law as pertains to the treatment of others. Many will see this only one way and these verses are part of the scriptures I would often raise as token against both Judaism and Christianity. A lot has been written on the subject of slavery, and in the old Testament it is apparent that it was a method often used in correlation with debt. Jacob voluntarily enters a similar pact with his uncle in order to gain his wife, but Laban is not an honest man, and this servitude is extended beyond the agreed time. Here is a video dealing with some of the context of slavery in that time:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgO2gu_GkPk 

As always with scripture, there appears to be more, and one grows rather fond of the word foreshadowing. It is not any man or woman that enters this world free. All are born slaves to sin, but how unfortunate that this goes unnoticed by us.  But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.…Romans 6:17-19

The customs have changed much over the years, but the borrower is still servant to the lender, and our word should mean something to that end. We have a system now that down plays all these things and I myself am guilty, but we also have a system as Christians, where we are bought out by a price. Those of us, who have freely received, ought to also freely give. God has given me much, but if I open my eyes, then I shall see that it all really belongs to him, and that only an ungrateful servant would want to lord over another. This is why we forgive, this is why we are not so easily provoked, this is where we lay down our lives and take up Christ's.