“But if he says to you, ‘I don’t want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your household, and because his life with you is a good one; then take an awl, and pierce his ear through, right into the door; and he will be your slave forever. Do the same with your female slave.”-Deuteronomy 15:16-17
From verse 16, we are presented an interesting situation whereby an indentured servant decides he does NOT want to be freed when the Sabbatical or Jubilee cycle ends.
Instead, he decides he wants to remain in service to his master forever.
The first thing I want to make clear is that contextually speaking we are talking about an Israelite servant who is in service to an Israelite master here.
Second, when the servant tells his master he wants to stay with him, he is to be branded with a special mark that indicates he made a free decision and was not forced into the matter.
As believers, there is some important spiritual symbolism here that I want to make sure you catch.
I’m talking about the difference between forced servitude versus one offering him or herself up voluntarily.
The first situation of forced servitude represents our bondage to sin and the devil BEFORE we are saved.
The second situation represents a picture of how we are to serve our Father in heaven AFTER we are saved.
One relationship is filled with bitterness and sorrow while the other is filled with joy and gratitude.
Finally, there is some interesting symbolism shown in the piercing of the servant’s ear.
In the ancient world, the ear was a symbol of obedience…
…because it was with one’s ears that a person LISTENED and then OBEYED.
Recall that this is the very definition of the word SHEMA which is normally translated as “hearken” or “listen” in our Bibles.
The SHEMA does not mean to sit back on your sofa and chomp on potato chips while listening to a lecture with a ridiculous beatific smile on your face.
It is a vigorous proactive verb that means to sit up, pay close attention to what you’re being told and then get your butt up off the coach and as NIKE says “Just do it”!
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