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 (Leviticus 25:55). It wasn't just that the Lord moved them from Egypt to the promised land, He had brought them out of the cruel bondage of slavery. What is  physical under the Old Covenant has spiritual application under the New. And those who are not in Christ are in bondage to something that is not God. In particular,  before conversion we were all slaves to sin. But then “having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:17, 18). The point is that we are either slaves to sin or we are slaves to righteousness. True freedom is about being set free to choose to do what is right.

Paul could describe himself as a bond servant of Jesus Christ (i.e. Romans 1:1). So what is a bond servant? A Hebrew slave could go out free after seven years. But if he said “I love my master, my wife, and my children,” then he could choose to stay with his master as a bond servant. There was a ceremony where they would bring him to the judges, and to the doorpost of his masters house, and his master would pierce his ear with an awl. He would then be his servant forever (Leviticus 21:5, 6). A bond servant then, is one who chooses to serve his master, and this is what Paul calls himself. This picture of who a Christian is, is a far cry from the practice of some who seek to use Christ as a fire escape from hell, and then turn round and live unchanged lives.

Paul put it this way “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound” (Romans 6:1). “You are not your own, were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in you body” (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). The price of course was Christ's sacrificial death on the cross. Some might object that Christ calls us friends not servants. But is it everyone that He calls His friends? Well no, there is a condition to be fulfilled “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 15:14). And He tells us of the specific aspect what it means to be His friends as opposed to being His servants. It is that “a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (verse 15). Yes we are His friends if we do what He commands, but we must not take this casually or loose our sense of reverence. It is the creator of the Universe  with whom we are friends, and He is Lord, and He will still discipline us when necessary (Hebrews 12:6). But in the meantime, in saying that we are His friends, He is giving us permission to ask Him what He is doing in situations that concern us.

Father, You work in ways we cannot see, and You have promised to make roads in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. And You ask “Shall you not know it” (Isaiah 43:19). Thank You Lord for the reassurance of what You were doing in my situation, even as I asked You this morning. And I praise and thank You in Jesus Name Amen