Passage: Exodus 21:1-6

The Big Idea

Every good superhero has an origin story, and Jesus has hundreds of them hidden in the Old Testament. Here’s one. A Hebrew servant who had served his six years could walk away free. But if he loved his master, his wife and his children, he could choose to stay, and his master would pierce his ear at the doorpost, marking him as a servant forever. Jesus is that Servant. He fulfilled everything God required of a man and could have gone straight to glory alone. Instead, out of love for His Father and His bride, He chose the cross, and He will serve us forever.

Three Kinds of Law

“These are the judgments you are to set before them” (Exodus 21:1).

Many teachers divide the law of Moses into three parts:

Moral law: the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), for personal life.
Civil law: how the nation was to be governed (Exodus 21-23), for social life.
Ceremonial law: worship and sacrifice (much of Leviticus), for religious life.

Now we begin the laws for Israel’s society.

These were how the nation was to be governed.
We don’t live in ancient Israel, so they don’t apply to us directly.
But we’ll see their beauty and wisdom. They’re remarkably wise; any nation could learn from them.

Mostly, we’ll look for how these laws picture Jesus. The Holy Spirit inspired these Scriptures with Jesus in view. Jesus said Moses wrote about Him (John 5:46). Seek, and you’ll find. Knock, and the door will open. We won’t be disappointed when we look for Jesus.

The Servant (Exodus 21:2)

“If you buy a Hebrew servant…”

Jesus was the perfect Servant, and this law points straight to Him.

The Old Testament often calls the Messiah God’s Servant:

God promised to bring forth “My Servant the Branch” (Zechariah 3:8).
“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him” (Isaiah 42:1).
“My Servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted” (Isaiah 52:13).
“My righteous Servant will justify many, for He will bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11).

And the New Testament continues: Christ Jesus, though He was in the form of God, didn’t cling to equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in human likeness (Philippians 2:5-7).

“But isn’t it disrespectful to call Jesus a servant? He’s God! His glory has no limits.”

Jesus was exalted in heaven; angels covered their faces before His glory (Isaiah 6:2). Yet He chose complete dependence, perfect humility, and was made a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:9).

Becoming a servant didn’t make Jesus less honorable or valuable.
Calling Him a Servant doesn’t diminish His glory. It helps us understand His glorious love.
We naturally look down on servants. Jesus turns that upside down.

The whole Gospel of Mark shows Jesus as a servant. What does it mean to be a servant?

“I have come to do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:9).
As a boy: “Didn’t you know I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).
“I have come down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38).
“Even Christ did not please Himself” (Romans 15:3).
“Who is greater, the one at the table or the one who serves? Isn’t it the one at the table? But I am among you as the One who serves” (Luke 22:27).

Jesus chose this life. Who does that? Not the first Adam. Adam wanted to be like God. Jesus was God, and chose to serve.

Jesus never chose His own path, only the Father’s. Even when He was starving in the wilderness and the tempter reminded Him He could turn stones into bread, Jesus chose to serve, surrender, submit and depend.

Do you think you get to choose something different?

That’s the standard, and Jesus met it. We fail. Every son of Adam has chosen to rebel. On our own, we can’t serve God and don’t even want to. Yet that’s what God rightly asks. He owns us.

Six Years, Then Free

“…he is to serve you six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, paying nothing.”

Six is often associated with humanity in Scripture: man was created on the sixth day.
Serving God is what we owe Him: loving Him with all our heart, and loving our neighbor as ourselves.
We were created for this. Many people wonder why they exist. Here’s the answer: to know and serve God.
Picture the six years as the full service a man owes God. If he completes it, he goes free.

Jesus was the perfect Man. He served God perfectly.

He loved God with all His heart: what man owed.
He loved others as Himself: what man owed.
He lived the perfect human life. He said He came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).

“…in the seventh year he shall go free, paying nothing.”

After full service, the servant was free, and the master had no further claim.
Many Bible teachers see the Transfiguration as a picture of this moment (Matthew 17:1-8). On the mountain, Jesus shone with glory, and the Father declared, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus had fully satisfied everything God required of a man. In a sense, He could have walked straight into heaven’s glory then and there.
But He didn’t. Why? What could convince Him to stay and do more?

The Wife and Children (Exodus 21:3-4)

“If he came in single, he goes out single. If he came in married, his wife goes out with him. But if his master gave him a wife and she bore him sons or daughters, the wife and her children belong to the master, and he goes out alone.”

Jesus could have gone to heaven. But He would have gone alone.
He had no bride yet. And He knew this principle: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (John 12:24).
He could go up alone, or die and multiply.

Just like Adam:

Adam named the animals, and none was a suitable partner for him to love.
Where was Eve? In Adam, close to his heart.
God put Adam into a deep sleep (a picture of death), took a rib and formed Eve.
A bride came from Adam’s own wounded side.
Just as Jesus’ bride, the church, would come from His death, and from the wound in His side (John 19:34).

Have you noticed that Jesus first called His disciples “My brothers” on the morning He rose from the dead (John 20:17)? Through His death, He gained a family.

“I Love My Master” (Exodus 21:5-6)

“But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall bring him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.”

The servant, Jesus, says it plainly. He couldn’t be clearer.
“Because I love, I’ll pass up my right to go free. Instead, I’ll endure pain and serve forever.”

The servant had just earned his freedom, and out of love, he gave it up.

Now connect that with the Transfiguration. Not long after, as His final week began, Jesus said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:23-24).

A few verses later: “Now My soul is troubled. What should I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name!” And a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again” (John 12:27-28).

Why would Jesus lay down His life so freely, not even asking to be spared?
Love.
He loved His Father. He cared more for His Father’s kingdom and name than His own.
“I love my master.”

The law never required this hour of suffering. The cross went beyond what the law demanded of a man. It was the service of love, and it meant pain, pictured by the piercing of the ear. The piercing of the Lamb of God.

“His master shall bring him to the judges… to the door or the doorpost, and pierce his ear with an awl.”

There was public testimony before the judges, a painful piercing, and lifelong service.
Jesus stood before judges, was pierced, and now serves His Father, and us, forever.
The wife and children He loves are us, the church, formed from the wound in His side.

At the door.

The pierced ear at the doorpost showed the servant was now permanently part of the household.
In our picture, Jesus makes a way for us to become part of God’s family. He said, “I am the door” (John 10:9).
Just as the Passover lamb’s blood was put on the doorposts to protect the whole family.
A pierced ear meant complete surrender to the master’s will for life, just as the cross shows Jesus’ total surrender to His Father’s will.

Ears opened

“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require” (Psalm 40:6). The Hebrew literally speaks of ears “dug” or bored. Hebrews applies this psalm to Jesus coming to do God’s will (Hebrews 10:5-7).

God didn’t ultimately delight in animal sacrifices.
He delighted in His willing Servant, with pierced ears.
If only we knew how much that sacrifice pleases and glorifies God!
If only we understood the joy Jesus brought to His Father’s heart, and how God honors the blood Jesus offered!
We’d clothe ourselves in that blood moment by moment, and run into God’s presence just to see His delight as He looks on the precious blood of His Son, remembering His sacrifice and loving obedience, and extends all that acceptance to you.

Paul prays that we would grasp, with all the saints, how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and know this love that surpasses knowledge, so we may be filled to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:18-19).

Lord, show us today. Show us what Your blood has bought. Open the eyes of our hearts to know Your unknowable love.

Marked forever

The servant carried that hole in his body for life. Jesus showed His hands and side to Thomas after the resurrection (John 20:27). And in heaven, John saw Him as “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). The scars remain.

He Will Serve Forever

“…and he shall serve him forever.”

Look at John 13. Before the Passover, knowing His hour had come to leave this world and go to the Father, having loved His own, He loved them to the end (John 13:1).

The Last Supper speaks of His death: body broken, blood given.
Then Jesus rose from the meal, laid aside His outer garments, took a towel and wrapped it around Himself (John 13:4).
He rose, like His rising from the dead.
He laid aside His garments, like laying aside the limitations of His humble earthly life.
He took a towel and served.
He washed His disciples’ feet.
That’s what Jesus does to this day. He serves us. He provides everything we need. He cleanses us (1 John 1:7-9).

Forever? Even in heaven?

Jesus said that when the master returns and finds his servants watching, he will dress himself to serve, have them recline at the table, and come and serve them (Luke 12:37).

What will we need in heaven? Nothing.
But that won’t stop Him from serving His Father and bringing us joy.
Jesus will forever be planning our good and our joy. I can hardly take it in. He’s too good.
Let your weary heart drink deeply from these waters. The love of Jesus cures what ails you.

Grace Takeaway

Let’s pray the Spirit teaches us what this means. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” who humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross, and so God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name (Philippians 2:5-11). Jesus had earned His freedom, and He chose the awl and the doorpost instead, because He loves His Father and He loves you. He is the Servant with the pierced ear, and He will serve you forever.

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Awl You Can Handle: The Pierced-Ear Servant