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. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
Exodus 21:2-4
Free for marriage:
Something here seems to contradict the will of Yahuwah concerning marriage. The command according to which they leave father and mother to make only one flesh seems to contradict the law quoted here. Marriage is a triple union, an alliance made between man, woman and Yahuwah. How can a third party have a say in such a covenant?
If he had a wife before he came, let him go out with her. The marriage being sealed outside his service beside his master, he has no right on this union. But if he married during his stay in the master’s house, the latter had given his agreement for this union to be scealed. In this case, he has rights in their relationship. Thus, the woman and the children possibly resulting from this alliance also belong to him. A similar situation appears in the case of the dead brother, when the Jew has the duty to breed a descent to his dead brother and must sleep with his sister-in-law in order she gets pregnant. There too, the child born of such a union is not attributed to his biological father, but is considered as the son of the dead one.
The Hebrew slave was someone who had committed a fault, having stumbled and having thus lost his fortune and all the property he possessed. The institution of slavery was an opportunity for him to get back on his feet and start a new life. He was given the opportunity to be welcomed at someone’s home where work, food and lodging were assured to him and his family. So he had a job, bread and a roof for a period of six years during which he could raise the necessary funds to start a new life at the end of this period. The master was not a slave and the slave was not a slave in the sense we use this word in modern languages. It was rather a service that was dued to anyone who got in troubles so that he is not rejected to the street or even from the People.
The master was a member of the people on whom the blessing of the Almighty was visible and who had enough goods to be able to share with others, not for free, but in exchange for a well- defined job. It was almost a duty to help those who had paid their debt to the society but having nothing left to continue their independant life. This law prevents people from falling even deeper in poverty and finding themselves on the street or even worse. An unmarried man in such a crisis must be careful not to want to marry when he can not even afford to support himself. The goal must be to regain his autonomy and freedom, that he should raises the necessary funds to be able to found a family after his service is finished. Although if he cannot keep up without a companion even during this six-year period, he has the right to get married. The Almighty does not forbid marriage even in these cases but warns of their consequences.
But he must know that as long as he is not free, he does not completeley belong to Yahuwah either. Thus any covenant made between non-free persons will also remain under the power of the man to whom the spouses belong. This law is nothing but a security in order to prevent people unfit for marriage from making a wrong step.
This law is still relevant today. When we seek our peer as freshly converted and born again young believers, we must ask ourselves the question before Yahuwah whether we are ready for marrying or not. Are we completely free, or do we still have ties that bind us to our past? Are we still under the yoke of the family, of our mother, of our ancient traditions as religious as they may be, we always have our good ideas to which we are attached, our tastes which we would not get rid of for nothing in the world. In a word, has the handover of power into the hands of the Messiah been complete in all areas of our lives? Are we able to wait, or do the hormones controll our decisions? How far are we free from our own expectations? Because we have a very precise idea of how our companion must be from the inside as from the outside. How much diploma should he / she have and what should be his culinary or musical tastes. For a hasty union can be very fraught with consequences. An alliance passed under the yoke of a foreign power always brings an avalanche of problems. Because indeed, the master, who in our case is not a brother from our people who comes to our help as in the case of the Jewish master of the slave, but a malignant spirit willing and knowing how to harm us. Such an evil master will not fail to assert his rights over such a couple. He will do everything to destroy this union. Should we have the best good will in the world that motivate our action in order to fulfill one of the fundamental laws of Yahuwah according to which man and woman become on flesh, a rushed union will be for us a path strewn with pitfalls.
Of course grace can be obtained under such circumstances as well. For Yahuwah forgives our faults committed in unconsciousness. You can still implore for liberation if you united someone under the rule of a false master who holds your wedding hostage in order to go out free and purified like the people deliver from the hands of Pharaoh. But it is better to prevent such a situation and listening to the warnings that are proposed to us.
But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free, then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.
Exodus 21:5-6
Voluntary subjection
Wearing the earring is a pagan tradition very alien to Jewish thought. As with tattooing, all current forms of piercing are none other than the skin seals of idols and other foreign spiritual trends that rule over those who wear them. Many people voluntarily wear the label of the demons that are governing them. Skulls, snakes, scorpions, spiders and other beasts prefigure and prepare the world for the arrival of The beast in a kind of advent of the antichrist.
Yahuwah does not force anyone. He goes so far as to allow one to choose something other than Him and the freedom that follows. You are part of His people and then you fall. You’re sinking into trouble. Then, you get a chance to catch up and start all over again. This rehabilitation is a pre-established process with its precise stages as described in this commandment. If you decide to act otherwise, if you want to be satisfied with what you have during your rehabilitation and stay under the power of a man, you have the right to do so. But you must know that you will be no more than a bandaged bird that cannot fly on its own. You will not be placed in your ministry and your wife and children will not be yours. You will be a simple worker in the service of someone else, you will help in a ministry that will never be yours. This is how many believers find themselves stuck under a pastor, preacher or community. At best, your masters themselves are the faithful followers of the one and only Pastor, for thus your life as a believer will not be entirely vain. You will be a good assistant to their ministries that will have their germs, but you will not enjoy their fruits. By choosing this way, you will never accomplish the work that Yahuwah wanted you to achieve. He will be forced to find other servants who have chosen freedom to fulfill the mission that should have been yours.
I knew a man who found himself in a difficult situation after being born again. He was married to a non-believing woman. His marriage was sealed before he converted to the foreign yoke from which he had gone. His marriage was thus endangered. He said he could not stand his wife leaving him. After a while, the woman remained in the initial spiritual state without any positive change in the sense of faith. The man has disappeared and we never saw him again. He has abandoned the disciples’ path no doubt to have fewer conflicts at home and to keep the marriage going. A similar thing happened at home. His relationship with the woman was more important than his spiritual freedom. He went back to his old master’s house where the lobe of the ear was pierced so that everything went on as before. He may not have denied the Messiah, but he has indeed denied his power. He did not know how to wait for the denouement and to accept a possible divorce to see the conversion of his wife although nothing left to suppose that she would submit one day to the divine Will. He did not have faith that the Almighty could do the miracle of converting his wife or the miracle of freeing him from his lack in separation and giving him someone else instead.
I knew a man who found himself in a difficult situation after being born again. He was married to a non-believing woman. His marriage was sealed under an alien yoke, before he converted. His marriage was thus endangered. He said he could not stand his wife leaving him. After a while, the woman remained in the initial spiritual state without any positive change in the sense of faith. The man then disappeared and we never saw him again. He has abandoned the disciples’ path, no doubt to put an end to domestic conflicts in order to preserve his marriage. A similar thing happened to him such as it is described above. His relationship with the woman was more important than his spiritual freedom. He went back to his “former master’s house” where the lobe of the ear was pierced so that everything went on as before. He may not have denied the Messiah, but he has indeed denied his power. He couldn’t wait for the outcome and had little faith to accept a possible divorce or the conversion of his wife although nothing let us suppose that she would submit one day to the divine Will. He did not have faith that the Almighty could do the miracle of converting his wife or freeing him of her lack in case of separation for example by ginving him someone else.
According to the commandment of the Messiah, he did well by not leaving his unbelieving wife, so that she may have been sanctified through her husband. The fact that he disappeared and abandoned all contact with his brothers and sisters in spirit is a problem portrayed by this command.
Zeev Shlomo / 24.01.2014