Exodus 21:5–6: “But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 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.”

Many are shocked to discover that human slavery is still going on in the 21st century. It is wholly repulsive, and we have a responsibility to pray and work toward its removal from the earth. But the slavery allowed under Jewish law was very different. It was actually a provision to take care of people in a harsh world that had no form of social welfare system.

In that day, a farmer who lost all his crops in a bad year and couldn’t pay debts would be in dire straits. His family might even starve if he had inadequate stores of food to feed them. But this provision of the law made it possible for him to sell himself into slavery to pay off his debts and gain a new start. This law guaranteed a new start, because the terms of slavery were limited. He could serve for 6 years, but in the 7th year, he had to be freed.

Here is where a beautiful spiritual picture unfolds. Suppose after the 6 years of serving as a slave were over and freedom was given, that man didn’t want to leave? What if life was so good in his master’s house that he didn’t want to go back into the harsh world and get beat up again? This law allowed him a choice. He could choose to remain a slave under the care of his good master and not be forced to leave. He was legally free to go but also could choose to stay in the house. If he made that choice, there was a little ceremony they would perform together to make it official. The master would bring the man before the local judges and together they would tell them of the slave’s decision to stay with the master out of love. The slave would state his desire and then the master would stand the slave up against the doorpost of his house. He would take an “awl” (like a nail), and he would drive it through the lobe of the slave’s ear and into the doorpost. This ceremony of piercing his ear would seal the agreement. The slave would be a free man but a committed slave of love for the rest of his life. The psalmist David suggests in Psalm 40:6 that God desires that of us: that we would be a people who would take the freedom He offers, and then use it to walk with Him, and “serve Him forever.”

“LORD, we choose to walk with You, as Your bond slave in love today.”

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Exodus 21 KJV

¹ Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. 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 by 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 aul; and he shall serve him for ever. ⁷ And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. ⁸ If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.  ⁹ And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. ¹⁰ If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. ¹¹ And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. ¹² He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death. ¹³ And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. ¹⁴ But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. ¹⁵ And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. ¹⁶ And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷ And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.  ¹⁸ And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:  ¹⁹ If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.  ²⁰ And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.  ²¹ Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money. ²² If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her , and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine . ²³ And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, ²⁴ Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. ²⁶ And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake. ²⁷ And if he smite out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake. ²⁸ If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit. ²⁹ But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. ³⁰ If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him. ³¹ Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him. ³² If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. ³³ And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein; ³⁴ The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his. ³⁵ And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide. ³⁶ Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.