a quick thought about Hebrew slaves Exodus 21:2-6

An interesting thing I learned this week, in regards to the law of Moses, is found in verses 2 through 6 of exodus chapter 21. The verse says the following:

“2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

3 If he came in aby himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.

5 And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.”

Pervious to reading this I did not know that A the Hebrews had slaves that were Hebrew or B that being a slave in some cases was voluntary. When I first read verse six I was confused and did not know what to think of part with the ear and the awl. In the manual it explains these practices in more depth as follows”

“His ear was then to be bored with an awl against the door or lintel of the house, and by this sign, which was customary in many of the nations of antiquity, to be fastened as it were to the house for ever. That this was the meaning of the piercing of the ear against the door of the house, is evident from the unusual expression in [Deuteronomy 15:17], ‘and put (the awl) into his ear and into the door, that he may be thy servant for ever,’ where the ear and the door are co-ordinates.” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary, 1:2:130.)”

I had never before understood this practice. It is both symbolic and ceremonial, but it also seems to have the practical advantage of denoting the slaves situation within the context of the law of Moses. Since everything that that the Lord creates is created both physically and spiritually given that the law of Moses was authored by the Lord, I began to wonder what the spiritual reflections of this law might be. Or in other words I began to wonder what lessons could be gained on spiritual matters from this practical commandment. The conclusion I came to is that we are all like a servant when we are baptized. as we serve the lord we come to love him even more deeply then what led us to baptism. When we are truly converted we make covenants with the lord that further bind us to him and increase our commitment to him. In a way this is like getting our ears pierced with an all. We are stating to the lord that we never want to leave him and that we want to serve him forever.