LIFE SCRIPTS

1 “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. 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.
Exodus 21:1‭-‬6 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.21.1-6.NIV.

The Lord set laws for servants and slaves…the bottom of the pyramid in our societies. People we rarely think of twice. Think about that household assistant, or that gardener or that farm hand. Servants seemed to have more rights and privileges in the old testament than some of them have today. Here, God makes it clear. Hebrew servants who’ve been ‘bought’ are to serve their masters for six years after which they’re to be set free with no strings attached. This was the precursor of the celebration of the year of jubilee. A year when disadvantaged people in society…the slaves, the indebted, the poor would be given a new lease of life. God is One who provides us with new opportunities to thrive however disadvantaged we are. Sin had disadvantaged us. And He brought Christ to free us and give us relief from bondage…from slavery. Slavery wasn’t necessarily a comfortable thing. Relief was on the way only if one chose to wait upon God. If a servant came married, then he would leave with family. However if the owner had given him a wife who bore him children, then he would leave alone leaving the rest of his family…a sad state of affairs to which the law placed an exception: if the man chose to remain for the sake of his family, then it would be for good. Though he had a choice to leave, the choice to remain would bind him. A servant was free to exercise freedom but also had the opportunity to take responsibility for his family. But remember that this was only if the slave wanted to remain with his master. Why would he choose to do so in the face of freedom? Because he had all along been treated fairly. This gives us a sneak preview into how God desires that we treat each other. If a slave chooses to remain a slave then no doubt that his master has been good to him. We are slaves of Christ because our Master has chosen to be good to us. Let’s also be good to others especially those at the bottom of the pyramid.