We are called the servants or the slaves of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
In the New Testament, the Greek term “dulos”
which means slave is used to speak of His servants.
For example in Ephesians
6: 6 , the Greek word “dulos” or slaves is used to denote the “servants
of Christ”.
We all know that we are set free by Jesus Christ
from all bondages of slavery.
If we all are free from slavery, what kind of
slaves are we to Christ?
The intention of this discussion is to find our
correct position as slaves of Christ.
Let us draw our attention to three passages: Deuteronomy 15: 12-18; Exodus 21: 1-11 and Leviticus 25.
All these passages are about the Sabbatical year,
the Jubilee year and the freedom declared to a slave from the debt and bondage.
A description of the sabbatical year is there in
all these three passages and the Jubilee year is narrated in Leviticus 25
We are bringing together all these three passages
for this study.
A detailed study of the Jubilee year is available
in our video channel: youtube.com/thenaphtalitribe.
The video is titled: The
Jubilee Year.
I recommend you to watch that video also along
with this.
It will surely help you to understand better both
the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee years.
Details narrated in that video is not repeated in
this video.
The Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year are years
of freedom from slavery.
A Jubilee year is an year of redemption from all
debts
It is an year of restoration of Land which is
protection, prosperity and rest.
The Jubilee year also has provisions to cancel
debts and declare freedom to slaves.
An Israelite may become a bonded servant or a
slave to another under different circumstances.
A farmer may go into debt because of a poor
harvest.
He cannot pay back the creditor and has to sell
his land to the creditor.
In worse conditions, the farmer may not be able
to sustain himself or his family.
And he sells himself as a slave to the creditor.
The last extremity of an insolvent debtor, when
his house or land was not sufficient to cancel his debt, was to be sold as a
slave with his family.
There are circumstances that the debt of a Hebrew
slave is beyond his capacity to pay back.
The creditor does not get his money back and the
Hebrew slave has to serve him lifelong.
To avoid a lifelong slavery among the Israelites,
God instituted the law of Jubilee Year.
There is a provision in God’s law for their
freedom without paying back the debt.
All their debt will be cancelled.
Every Israelite is free-born.
But every Israelite is a bonded servant of God.
And so God has prohibited permanent slavery of a
Hebrew.
A slave cannot serve two masters.
So a man sold to slavery may redeem himself by
paying back the debt to the creditor.
He can pay back as money or work.
Even if they cannot pay back the redemption
price, they obtained freedom, either after six years from the time of their
sale or in every seventh year, that is the Sabbatical year.
In the year of Jubilee, all slaves were
emancipated.
As it is mentioned above, every seventh day
is Sabbath day for Israelites to remember that God created the whole universe
and everything in it.
It is a day of rest.
Every seventh
year is a Sabbath
year.
This is also a day of rest.
The land in Israel lies fallow throughout the
year.
Every fiftieth
year comes after seven Sabbath years.
This is celebrated as Jubilee
year.
A Jubilee year starts on the Day of Atonement by
blowing a distinguishable trumpet.
That is, after the people made an offering for
their sins and made right with God, the Jubilee year starts.
The Jubilee year is an year of freedom.
Three things happen in the Jubilee year:
1.
A Sabbath or rest to the land.
2.
Redemption from slavery
3.
Restoration of the land.
In
addition to this a special event that may happen in the sabbatical year and the
Jubilee year is described in Deuteronomy 15:
12-18 and Exodus 21: 1-11.
The Study
Here
is a presupposed condition of a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman working as a
slave.
He
or she has been working under another person as a slave for the last six years.
It
is said that in the seventh year - that is in the Sabbatical year - he or she
must be set free.
Deuteronomy 15:12 "If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a
Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year
you shall let him go free from you.
The freedom of slaves or bonded servants is
described in the Leviticus 25 also.
The freedom of slaves happens in the Jubilee year
also.
As it is said above, the Jubilee year comes after
every seven Sabbatical year.
The regulations for sabbatical year and the
jubilee year are the same.
In the Jubilee year, not only that the slaves are
free but their land which was sold to a creditor is also redeemed or returned
freely.
Jubilee is an year of restoration of freedom and
land to the slaves.
So Jubilee is a larger picture of freedom or
redemption and restoration.
Since everything that happens in the Sabbatical
year happens in the Jubilee year also, we can well assume that what happen to a
slave in the sabbatical year happens in the Jubilee year also.
The longest period of slavery for an Israelite is
six years.
The term six years is to be understood as
referring to the sabbatical years.
For let a man come into servitude at whatever
part of the interim between two sabbatical years, he could not be detained in
bondage beyond a sabbatical year.
So that if he fell into bondage in the third year
after a sabbatical year, he had but three years to serve; if the fifth, but
one.
The
seventh Sabbatical year and the fiftieth Jubilee year were years of Redemption
and Restoration for all salves in Israel.
And
God instructed the masters not to send away a slave empty handed.
The
master should supply him liberally from his flock, from his threshing floor,
and from his winepress.
God claims His right to institute rules and
regulations on the Israel community on the basis that He redeemed them from the
slavery of Egypt and restored their land in Canaan.
Israelites came out of Egypt into freedom with
great enriched spoils of gold and silver received from their Egyptian masters.
So in gratitude to God, who brought them out of
Egypt with gold and silver, they should not send their slaves empty from their
master’s house.
The
important event in the redemption process comes in Deuteronomy
15: 16
Here
it is presupposed that there are two types of masters: one is a cruel slave master and another is a loving slave master.
The
cruel slave master has been treating the slave harshly.
Life
under this wicked master is hard, poor, unsecure and restless.
The
sole aim of the cruel master is to steal, plunder and kill.
It
is a miracle that the slave lived so long.
Now,
before we move forward let us understand that redemption or freedom slavery is
only a change of masters.
Redemption
is freedom from the slavery of a cruel master into the slavery of a loving
master.
That
is why Israelites are called God’s bonded servants or slaves.
Leviticus
25:55 For the
children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out
of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (NKJV)
Israelites
were redeemed from the slavery of the Egyptian slave masters into the slavery
of the loving God.
This
change of masters is very important.
There
is the second kind of master who is loving and caring.
He
understands and cares.
He
treats the servant not as a slave but as a freeman.
That
is though he is a slave, he enjoys freedom in its fullness.
This
is defines our relation to our loving master, Jesus Christ.
The
law and regulation of God concerning slaves that have to be observed in the
Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee year are applicable to both these masters.
The
Sabbatical year and the Jubilee year declare freedom to all slaves.
A
distinguishable trumpet sounds in all provinces of the land announcing the freedom
of slaves.
This
is the moment the slaves have been waiting to run into freedom
All
their debts are cancelled, their land restored and freedom declared.
What
would the slaves under the above mentioned two types of masters do at this
historical moment of the trumpet sound, is the key to this study.
Surely
we know that the slaves under the cruel master would jump and shout in joy and
run out into his freedom.
He
won’t wait to say ‘thanks’ to the cruel master.
He
will never come back or at least he would prefer never to come back.
The
second type of master, who is kind and loving also declares freedom to all his
slaves at the same trumpet sound.
He
sends them away with a portion of all his wealth.
There
is no strings attached, the slaves are free indeed.
But
the slave does not want to go.
He
is reluctant to leave the loving master.
He
loves his master and his household so much.
He
has never enjoyed so much care and protection from anywhere else.
So
he decides to stay back with his master.
The reason for
wanting to stay is his love for the master.
And
if the slave prefers to stay back, the master should not sent him away but
accept him as a servant forever.
A
ceremony follows to declare him as a bonded servant forever.
Deuteronomy 15: 16, 17
16 "And
if it happens that he says to you, 'I will not go away from you,' because he
loves you and your house, since he prospers with you,
17
"then you shall take an awl and
thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever.
Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.
Exodus 21 adds one more details to this
ceremony.
Exodus
21: 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. (NKJV)
The
Hebrew word used for ‘judges’ in the above verse is “elohiym”, the same word
used for the Almighty God.
That
is the presence of judges is the presence of God.
The
slave is brought before God, because it is a solemn ceremony where the
permission and blessing of God is necessary.
It
is a covenant between the master, the slave and God.
The ceremony is very significant.
It implied that:
·
Thereafter he is closely attached to
that house and family.
·
He was bound to hear all his master's
orders, and to obey them punctually.
·
It is a sign to the truth that from
love to his master he has voluntarily submitted to continue through life to
work for his master.
The fastening
of the ear to the door represents him as becoming a member of the household
forever.
He is
permanently adopted into the household.
Galatians
6:17
From now on let no one trouble me, for
I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. (NKJV)
This is the wonderful relationship that could
have been built between a master and a servant.
Hereafter he
is not a slave who is sold for debt, but a free slave who has willingly
submitted to the Lordship of a loving master.
He is no more
in debt but redemption and restoration is made.
But he decides
to submit everything to the protection and care of his loving master.
He finds the
truth that the Lordship of the master is true freedom.
In those days free
slaves could hold high and privileged positions and be seen as one of the
family.
They are
assigned minimal duties in the household.
Abraham’s
servant Eliezer is a good example.
·
Eliezer was
Abraham’s free slave
·
He was the
steward in the family.
·
He was
supposed to be the heir to Abraham’s wealth before the master begot a son.
·
He was
entrusted with the important duty of finding a bride to the master’s only son.
New
Testament
1
Corinthians 7: 22 For he who is called in the Lord while a slave
is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave.
(NKJV)
What Paul says is that we are freeman and a slave
in Christ at the same time.
In the New Testament significance of the type
described in Deuteronomy 15, there
are both the masters.
We were sold into the slavery to a cruel master,
that is satan.
Sin caused a big debt into our life that no man
can ever pay a ransom for redemption.
All our joy, peace, health, relationships,
material wealth and all were sold to the cruel master.
We lived as slaves and perishing under the
cruelty of the evil master.
We were wondering who will pay for freedom.
Then a close relative to us having blood relation
to us except that of sin came and paid the debt for our redemption and
restoration.
The ransom for our souls was paid by His blood.
Jesus is our Sabbath, our redemption, restoration and rest.
When the gospel is clearly preached, the acceptable year of
the Lord, the Jubilee year is proclaimed.
With the announcement of the gospel of the Kingdom of God,
the year of release of our debts, of the deliverance of our souls, and of rest
in Christ started.
The trumpet of the Jubilee is freedom to all mankind.
All humans are free to leave our cruel slavish master and
go into full freedom.
That is what gospel means.
We, as Christians understand redemption in a different way.
We know that there are no strings attached to our freedom
declared by the gospel.
But we also knows that being under the Lordship of our
redeemer is better freedom.
Our redeemer Christ is a good, caring and loving master.
The choice is ours.
There is no force used by the master.
We willingly go to the loving master.
We confess our love for Him and willingly stay back to Him.
Then the loving master will take us to the Judge, the
Almighty master.
We are judicially declared as a slave of the master.
And
the master puts His mark upon us.
Thus it becomes a permanent relationship.
So we are slaves of Christ, not out of force or fear.
We are slaves to Christ not because we owe Him a debt.
We are slaves of Christ because we love Him and understand that life
under His Lordship is protection, prosperity and rest.
We are not sold to Christ but willingly submitted to Christ.
We have submitted ourselves to Christ as His slaves because Jesus is
the only loving master we can find in this world.
We are not slaves in the ordinary sense, but we are free salves.
Let me conclude with
few more sentences.
As a free slave, we
bear the mark of Jesus Christ.
This is a privilege
to a slave.
All those who see us
understand that we are a special slave of a loving master.
Nobody wants to go
away from the master.
Slavery under our
master is real freedom.
And because of this
special mark of the master upon us we are bound to live honoring our master.
Our life must be an
honor and witness to our master.
Our master is a holy
person; so we honor his holiness.
Our master is a
loving and caring master; so we should witness His love and care.
So live a holy life
witnessing His love to the world.
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