Servant Rules
Exodus 21: “Now these are the judgments
which you shall set before them: 2 If you buy
a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out
free and pay nothing. 3 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. 4 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. 5 But
if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I
will not go out free,’ 6 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.
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GOD continued HIS conversation with Moses by giving a
mindset of how to treat people. The deeply engrained mindset of Egyptian
slavery was being addressed.
My Observations:
- GOD
is compassionate, loving and caring, so HE views servants as help versus
the way humans view slavery.
- GOD
has expectations that employers treat all hired help with care.
- GOD
gave freedom as the goal.
Egyptian slavery was cruel, self-serving and quite
demeaning. Pharaoh saw himself as a god, which bred the thought of ultimate
power. With ultimate power, came ultimate corruption. BUT GOD hated this
cruelty. HE also knew that some people would not be able to own land and manage
animals.
These people would still need to work, but would be unde4r
the care of those who would have their own places. GOD expected everyone to
help in sustaining life. Some people would become servants voluntarily. They
would not be servants forever, unless there was an agreement.
I believe GOD’s expectation was for the hirer to help those
who would become servants with a plan to be able to sustain themselves. The
rules would protect innocent women and children from abandonment.
This set of rules would only be temporary, however, the
heart of caring for people would always apply. GOD would eventually say that
the law would be fulfilled by loving one another.
Challenge
- Why
does GOD remind Moses about the rules of servanthood?
- Have
you ever felt that your employees or servants need to serve you forever?
- How
are you setting people up for success to be free as GOD wants them to be?
