February 27

Exodus 21:2 (NIV)
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.

Servanthood or slavery is a touchy subject in this society because of our frame of reference for slavery. Our reference is stealing someone from his homeland and forcefully bringing him to America to then be treated worse than cattle. Slavery or a bought servant came about from two main instances in Bible days. The first is when you had a war and won. When you won, you indentured the people to serve you. Sounds messy, but it makes sense to not let them grow in strength to come back and overpower you. You won the war so that gives you the right to make them servants. (Think about this spiritually).

The other way slaves were bought and sold is if they were in debt and unable to pay, or they were unable to make a living for themselves. There is so much to say about this but the point for today is that when you get into debt, you become a servant (slave). It is only recently that you were released from your obligations to do what you said you would do. Our society has gone nuts because people don’t have to “pay” for what they do. I am not talking about just money, I am talking about consequence. There are consequences to things and Americans have to start facing it. The problem for us is that we are already under spiritual consequences and we don’t even know it.

Romans 6:16 (NIV)
16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

We are not people who don’t understand the grave consequences of giving ourselves to the “stuff” of this world. Keep yourself from slavery friends – don’t sell yourself into servitude. God has such wonderful plans and promises for you. Don’t settle for anything less.