A Servant's Heart and a Dreamer's Vision
5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
7 For, ebehold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and fmade obeisance to my sheaf.
8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and gthy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
7 For, ebehold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and fmade obeisance to my sheaf.
8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and gthy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
SERVANTS FOR LIFE
In God’s sight, greatness is marked by a humble, servant’s heart
3. The servant’s heart (3:12–13)
Exod. 21:5, 6
SERVANTS FOR LIFE
Even though we are not bound to follow the Old Testament slave laws today, they teach us practical principles to apply at home and at work. They also provide wonderful pictures of our salvation in Christ.
The Book of the Covenant showed how a servant living with a bad master could be redeemed and go back home. It also showed how a slave without any prospects could gain her freedom by marrying her master’s son. These narratives ought to sound familiar because they are both part of the gospel story. We were born as slaves to sin, tyrannized by the cruel mastery of the devil. But when Christ was crucified, he paid the price to redeem us, and now we are free to go back home to God. To tell the same story a different way, we were all alone, living without hope. But when we came to God, he engaged us to marry his one and only Son. Thus the Bible describes the Church as the bride of Christ. We are married to the Master’s Son. These are two examples of how the law of Moses points us to salvation in Christ.
But perhaps the most beautiful picture of the gospel comes from the law’s special provision for a slave who wanted to enter his master’s permanent service. God said: “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” (Exod. 21:5, 6).
It must have been a remarkable occasion. After six years of labor, a slave decided that rather than going free, he wanted to continue to serve his master. Some masters might take advantage of this law by forcing their slaves to keep working. In order to prevent this, there had to be a public ceremony. First the slave went before the elders to make a formal declaration of his desire to keep serving. The Bible literally says that the slave must be taken “before God,” meaning in this case his representatives among the spiritual leaders of the covenant community. Today we would say that the slave made his declaration “before God and these witnesses.” The declaration had to be emphatic. The Hebrew idiom could be translated like this: “If the servant truly declares …” There could be no doubt as to the man’s intentions.
Once the servant had made his declaration, everyone went to the doorpost of the master’s house, where a sharp object was driven through the slave’s ear. This was symbolic. The ear is the most important part of a servant’s body. He has to hear before he can obey. By having his ear pierced, therefore, the servant was making a public commitment to do what his master said. The doorpost was also symbolic. Not only did it serve as a place for driving the awl, but it also showed that the servant was now attached to his master’s household. The doorpost was marked with the blood of a covenant between master and slave.
This form of servitude was totally voluntary. Anyone who saw the servant’s earring would know that he had chosen to serve. But why would anyone make this choice? What could persuade a man to renounce his freedom and remain bound to his master? The answer is love. The slave who had his ear pierced swore an oath of allegiance: “I love my master” (Exod. 21:5). His servitude was not a form of tyranny, but a voluntary act of love.
This raises a further question: What kind of master would deserve so much love? The master who deserved to be loved was a good master. He took care of all his servant’s needs. He was also a kind master, one who treated his servant like a friend. And he was a generous master: He had his servant’s best interests at heart. In a word, he was a loving master, and thus it was only natural for his servant to love him in return. Rather than looking for freedom somewhere else, the servant had found it in his master’s house.
This special provision of the law has much to teach us about our relationship to God. David wrote about it in one of his psalms:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but my ears you have pierced;
burnt offerings and sin offerings
you did not require.
Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—
it is written about me in the scroll.
I desire to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.” (Ps. 40:6–8)
According to David, pleasing God means more than simply offering a sacrifice for sin. It also means doing what God says, obeying him the way a servant obeys the master he loves. To illustrate this, David referred to the ancient custom and compared himself to a servant who had his ear pierced. He had learned to hear and obey, offering himself in loving service to God.
This is the only way for us to find true freedom: not by serving ourselves, but by choosing to become servants of God. “I run in the path of your commands,” wrote the psalmist, “for you have set my heart free” (119:32). We are loved by the best Master of all. He takes care of all our needs. He does not treat us like slaves, but more like friends. He always has our best interests at heart. If all this is true, then why would we want to serve anyone else?
But there is more. We serve a Master who has made himself our slave, taking on the very nature of a servant (Phil. 2:7). This is the story of our salvation, that the Son of God “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This means that the words of David are really the words of Jesus. David was standing in for the Messiah, who lived in a way that said to his Father, “My ears you have pierced.… ‘Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’ ” Jesus always chose to do his Father’s will. We could even say that he is the servant who declared, “I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free” (Exod. 21:5). Out of his great love for his Father—and for us as his bride, his sons, and his daughters—Jesus bound himself to God’s will, even when it meant suffering and dying for our sins. The greatest service of all was his death on the cross.
If a servant loves a master who takes care of him and treats him like a friend, imagine what a servant would do for a master who saved him, and at the cost of his own life! We are loved by such a Master. Why would we ever want to serve anyone else, least of all ourselves? What we ought to do is give ourselves entirely to his service. We ought to make a public declaration of our allegiance to Christ. We ought to listen to his Word and obey his voice. We ought to say, “I love my Master, and I want my heart to be bound to him forever.” Service to such a gracious master is not bondage but freedom. As Ambrose rightly said, “That man is truly free … who is entirely God’s.”7
But there is more. We serve a Master who has made himself our slave, taking on the very nature of a servant (Phil. 2:7). This is the story of our salvation, that the Son of God “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This means that the words of David are really the words of Jesus. David was standing in for the Messiah, who lived in a way that said to his Father, “My ears you have pierced.… ‘Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’ ” Jesus always chose to do his Father’s will. We could even say that he is the servant who declared, “I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free” (Exod. 21:5). Out of his great love for his Father—and for us as his bride, his sons, and his daughters—Jesus bound himself to God’s will, even when it meant suffering and dying for our sins. The greatest service of all was his death on the cross.
If a servant loves a master who takes care of him and treats him like a friend, imagine what a servant would do for a master who saved him, and at the cost of his own life! We are loved by such a Master. Why would we ever want to serve anyone else, least of all ourselves? What we ought to do is give ourselves entirely to his service. We ought to make a public declaration of our allegiance to Christ. We ought to listen to his Word and obey his voice. We ought to say, “I love my Master, and I want my heart to be bound to him forever.” Service to such a gracious master is not bondage but freedom. As Ambrose rightly said, “That man is truly free … who is entirely God’s.”7
His heart was especially drawn to a young woman on the block whose story seemed to be told in her eyes. She looked with hatred and contempt on everyone around her. She had been used and abused all her life, and this time was but one more cruel humiliation. The bidding began, and Lincoln offered a bid. As other amounts were bid, he counter-bid with larger amounts until he won. When he paid the auctioneer the money and took title to the young woman, she stared at him with vicious contempt. She asked him what he was going to do next with her, and he said, “I’m going to set you free.”
“Free?” she asked. “Free for what?”
“Just free,” Lincoln answered. “Completely free.”
“Free to do whatever I want to do?”
“Yes,” he said. “Free to do whatever you want to do.”
“Free to say whatever I want to say?”
“Yes, free to say whatever you want to say.”
“Free to go wherever I want to go?” she added with skepticism. Lincoln answered, “You are free to go anywhere you want to go.”
“Then I’m going with you!” she said with a smile.8
Whether this story is fact or fiction, it shows us what it means to follow Jesus Christ. Anyone who trusts in Christ for salvation has been delivered from sin and death. Now we are free. Free for what? Free to say, “Jesus, I’m going with you!”