I Will Not Go Free

 

But if the slave plainly says,

‘I love my master, my wife and my children;

I will not go out as a free man,’ 

then his master shall bring him to God,

then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost.

And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl;

and he shall serve him permanently.

Exodus 21:5-6

 

In Exodus 20 God delivered the Ten Commandments to the nation of Israel. Now for the next several chapters God is going to break it down for them. He is going to deal with that “gray area” our flesh likes to find anytime we have a set of rules before us… you know… the “well, what if’s”.

The next few chapters give us some of the ordinances of God. Ordinance in Hebrew is mishpat and it means the act of deciding a case, judgment, process, procedure, litigation, sentence. These are the “if this happens then do this” things that God is laying out for the nation of Israel. They are quite simple and clear… that’s the way our God works. We are generally the one’s that complicate things.

Today we are going to look at the ordinance concerning the Hebrew slaves. You see the Hebrews were never to stay slaves again. Yes, if they fell on hard times, then there might come a time that they needed to sell themselves into slavery, but only for six years. On the seventh year they were to be set free.

There was one exception.

Many times while in his slavery a man would decide he loved his master and the life that he had as his slave. In this case the man would come to his master and choose to serve him out of his freedom instead of being forced to out of his debt. When this would happen, the master would take the man and pierce his ear with an awl. This act would put a hole in the man’s ear that would never close showing that this man had chosen to serve his master of his own free will.

This is a beautiful picture of our Savior.  Our Savior was free in every sense of the word. He had all freedom, all power, all authority yet He chose to come and to serve us out of His freedom.

 

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served,

but to serve,

and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Mark 10:45

Our Savior was pierced by the Master as He willingly laid aside all His rights and glory in order to serve mankind. He offered His life as a ransom to be used by us to meet our deepest needs… redemption, reconciliation, forgiveness, salvation… He was not forced. He did what He did out of His great love for us. He did what He did to set us free… even when we didn’t realize we were enslaved.

Likewise, now in our freedom it is time for us to turn and choose to serve Him in our freedom.

  Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law 

through the body of Christ,

so that you might be joined to another,

to Him who was raised from the dead,

in order that we might bear fruit for God.

Romans 7:4

Yes you were set free from the Law, from sin, from death, from the power of the flesh. It is for freedom that you have been set free in Christ…

But the question is, now in your freedom do you choose to be enslaved again?

But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God,

you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification,

and the outcome, eternal life

Romans 6:22

In your freedom is when the choice is yours… it is here where it begins to count. It really has nothing to do with the being set free… but everything to do with how you choose to walk in that freedom.

While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee.

 As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; 

and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  

When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” 

And as they were going, they were cleansed. 

Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back,

glorifying God with a loud voice, 

and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him.

And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered and said, 

“Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? 

Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” 

 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

Luke 17:11-19

Oh Father,

I thank You for my freedom. In Christ I am free, free indeed. I pray that in my freedom I will always be obedient to Peter’s charge in 1 Peter 2:16, “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.” The only way I know to thank You for my freedom is turn around and give my life back to you… willingly… because I love You. My life is Yours. You are my Adonai.

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen