Video Sermons Book of Deuteronomy

A Willing Slave: Deuteronomy 15:12-18

Dec 04, 2022

Summary of Sermon

In this chapter, we will explore the idea of slavery. Slavery has been common to all people throughout history. Every group has had slaves and has been enslaved. We know the Jews were enslaved in Egypt, they in turn had slaves. In the West Indies where I grew up, there were many White slaves, called indentured servants, long before there were Black slaves there. The ownership of slaves was a fact of mankind and so the Lord set up boundaries for how one was to treat slaves. Here in Deuteronomy God established rules for owning slaves once the Jews had entered the Promised Land.

Today we will look at two categories of slaves that are described here. If one goes back to Genesis 14 and 15, you find that in one case, Abraham (Abram) was able to raise 318 men to fight in getting Lot back once he was kidnapped. We are told that these me were Abram’s servants. In Genesis 15, Abram loved the servant so much that he intended to leave his considerable fortune to his senior servant. Abram had slaves; servants born in his household that he treated as family.

Taking on a slave and their treatment, Deuteronomy 16: 12-15

People call fall into slavery in a number of ways. We're told in the Bible that the ‘borrower is a slave to the lender’. In our modern time, we can see how easy it is for people to fall through the cracks. The reality is that people can fall into hard times very easily. Well, this is the very situation that the Lord is laying out here. One of the fellow Jews has fallen on hard times and they ‘sell’ themselves to someone who can pay off their debts and then they have to work the debts off.

They were only to work for 6 years or to the end of the current 6 years and then be freed at the beginning of the Sabbath year. All debts were to be erased and that person could begin anew debt free. This was an awesome arrangement. It is even further we know to the Jubilee year when all lands returned to the owners thus every generation got to start with all of their stuff in place. True poverty could only last for 50 years.

Once the debt was paid or the 6th year was up, the slave owner was to let the slave free, but he was not allowed to send them away empty-handed. They were given food, livestock and wine to go away with. They were not just cut loose and left to make their own way. They were given some provisions to make a new start.

The Bond Slave, verses 16-17

This is an important person in the scriptures. This bond slave paints us a picture of Jesus and in the New Testament, we see the slave is translated from the word ‘Doulos’. This word is defined this way, “a slave, a bondservant, one who is in a permanent relation of servitude to another”. God lays out for us what was to happen, the slave would be free, and this was a choice made of his/her free volition. No debt and no coercion were to influence this decision. The slave chose to stay with the family and once this choice was made it was until death. He/She was then taken to the seat at the gate, the local government, and had their ear bored through with an awl, then the slave would wear the mark of the family for life.

Jesus is a bond slave. He came and died for us for love and of His own free will. He was not coerced and God the Father did not make Him come. In Psalm 40: 6, we see this verse, “6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.” Notice the phrase, ‘mine ears hast thou opened’, this refers to the awl opening a hole in the ear lobe. In Isaiah 50: 5-7, we see this as well, look and see the phrase ‘God has opened my ear’,” The Lord GOD has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. For the Lord GOD will help Me; therefore, I will not be disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. God opened and bored a hole in Jesus’ ear when He became a bondservant and willingly died for us. Notice the description of what happened to Jesus at the crucifixion.

In like manner, we are to be bondservants. We are to freely of our own will come and want to be servants out of love for our Lord and Master. The apostles and writers of the New Testament referred to themselves as bondservants, see Romans 1:1, Galatians 1:1, 2 Timothy 1:1, James 1:1 and Jude 1:1. These writers all introduce themselves as ‘Doulos’, bondservants. This is the New Testament word for what we are speaking about today. The apostle Paul talks about ‘bearing the marks of Jesus, see Galatians 6:17, 17 From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Paul was a bondservant for the Lord Jesus and he bore in his body the marks of serving Jesus. Jesus too, bore in his body the marks of his loving servitude, see John 20:27, 27 Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe. Jesus still bears the marks of His love for God and us. When we see Him in heaven, we will see these marks. Remember that He was showing his marks to Thomas after the resurrection.

Are you and I bond servants like Paul and Jude were? Are we bond servants like Jesus was? Do you bear in you the marks of serving Jesus? Are you a child of God?