I LOVE MY MASTER
I LOVE MY MASTER
“I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free” (Ex. 21:5)
The history of slavery is as old as mankind. Egypt as you recall, made slaves of the entire Hebrew nation. When Paul was preaching some estimate that up to 40% of the population of Italy were slaves. According to Global Slavery Index there are an estimated 40.3 million slaves in the world today. The International Labour Organization estimates that 26% of modern slaves are children. While slavery is “officially” abolished it still exists. The 10 most egregious slave holding nations today start with N. Korea where over 10% of the population is enslaved. Then follow Eritrea, Burundi, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Mauritania, S. Sudan, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Iran. These slaves are not only made to work, but often sexually exploited and sometimes even put to death so their organs can be harvested. In Iran women and girls are sometimes smuggled across the border to be sold.
The Hebrew word translated as “servant” in Exodus 21 is “ebed”. It can be translated as either “slave” or “servant”. The Bible refers to two kinds of slavery. First the slavery of law, and second the slavery of love. The Hebrew law was quite generous to slaves by comparison with other nations. In many nations slavery was for life, but no slave could be kept by a Hebrew for over 6 years. Sometimes it was less as slaves were automatically set free during the year of Jubilee. “If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave. He is to treated as a hired worker or as a temporary resident among you; he is to work for you until the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:39,40).
Our text, however, provides an exception to freedom. The slave has an option. He does not have to go free. He can declare: “I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free, then his master must take him before the judges. 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!”
The underlined words state the obvious. The slavery of love is more demanding than the slavery of law. Jesus made this clear in the Sermon on the Mount. The Law said do not murder, Jesus said do not be angry. The Law said do not commit adultery, Jesus said do not look at a woman with lust. The Law said do not break an oath, Jesus said do not swear at all. The Law said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but Jesus said that when someone strikes you on the right cheek turn to him the other also. The Law said love your neighbor and hate your enemy, Jesus said love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Please note that the “Golden Rule” is immediately followed by reference to a narrow road and a narrow gate: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and may enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matt. 7:12-14). What God has joined together, man should not separate (Matt. 19:6). Please consider that the narrow road and the narrow gate represent the Golden Rule. To love your neighbor as yourself is so difficult that it requires help from the Holy Spirit. No matter how hard we try, man cannot produce fruit! The Holy Spirit, however, can produce fruit. In this regard we are told that the “Fruit of the Spirit is love” (Gal. 5:22).
The Bible does not say that “God is law”, but it clearly states that God is love: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved god, but that he love us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 Jn. 4:7-12). “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 Jn. 3:16).
LET US THERE LOVE GOD AND PUBLICLY COMMIT TO BE HIS SLAVE FOREVER!