January 10, 2022
Yahweh, I surrender. It’s my 2 something (stop trying to fall back asleep) wake up call. I’m up. It’s funny, I keep thinking I would fall back asleep but I never do until we spend time together. My current favourite song is playing, “Wait on You” Elevation Worship. Thank you for new mornings. It may be easy to assume I’ll wake up everyday because of your promises but everyday is another opportunity to get it right. To spend time with you. To do what you’ve called me to do. I am truly thankful for it. Each new day.
Yahweh, I need help curbing my imagination/daydreams. The good news is that they’re no longer pessimistic in nature, but it also feels like I’m trying to mentally predict how you would work in this life you’ve given me and I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to limit you and honestly I want to experience surprise. I know I’m weird. I need to know how to wait on you in anticipation without over anticipating and predicting how.
Worship While Waiting
Exodus 22:1-6 – The Lord continued, “Here are the legal decisions to be used by the Israelites: “Whenever you buy a Hebrew slave, he will be your slave for six years. In the seventh year he may leave as a free man, without paying for his freedom. If he comes to you by himself, he must leave by himself. If he comes as a married man, his wife may leave with him. If his master gives him a wife and she gives birth to sons or daughters, the wife and her children belong to the master, and the slave must leave by himself. But if he makes this statement: ‘I hereby declare my love for my master, my wife, and my children. I don’t want to leave as a free man,’ then his master must bring him to God. The master must bring him to the door or the doorframe and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his slave for life.
CONFESSION: Yahweh I’ve always had problems with these parts of your word. It’s difficult to read: to fathom, because you just rescued your people from 430 years of slavery and yet instructions are being given about slaves? WTH?!! And I know that I may never know why. But then I think about my African ancestors who were brought here as slaves, it bothers me because it seems like something that should not be even tolerated at all. And it’s hard to reconcile that with the God that I know.
Yahweh I need your guidance. It’s not good enough for me to only read and learn from the “good” parts of the Bible. But I need your help to understand, not necessarily the why, but what I can learn about you and how to live from it.
SIDEBAR: The idea of the blog just keeps running in the back of my mind. But Yahweh, I need to focus on you. Let my words be a true reflection. Thank you.
Hebrew – e-bed : Servant
Modern definition: a person who performs duties for others, especially in a house on domestic duties.
Bible definition: to keep or hold; properly one that waits. A person that attends another or who is employed by another and is subject to his command.
What a difference translation makes!! The word from Hebrew translates to servant NOT slave. It’s a derivative of the vet “BD” which means “to work”, but differs from a hired worker – “sakar” to hire.
Lost in Translation.
It might just be that I have a different personal application to slave than to servant. Seeing the translation as “servant” instantly shifted my perspective. Slaves are forced. Servants are voluntary.
Exodus 1:11-14 – 11 So the Egyptians put slave drivers in charge of them in order to oppress them through forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh. But the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they increased in number and spread out. The Egyptians couldn’t stand them ⌞any longer⌟. So they forced the Israelites to work hard as slaves. They made their lives bitter with back-breaking work in mortar and bricks and every kind of work in the fields. All the jobs the Egyptians gave them were brutally hard.
Hebrew word: taskmasters (and not slave masters)
I’ve always believed that words AND comprehension of those words were important. Thank you for this understanding. There’s still a lot more to understand, but it’s a solemn reminder of how careful we ought to be with the words we use. And also to take the time to understand what is actually being said by someone else. Yahweh, as I go through today, I pray for your understanding. Your discernment. To understand what is said. To discern the true meaning and not just what I “think” I hear. Help me to take the time to develop that understanding. So that it’s more than just the words they say, but what they truly mean. Let my words be true.
It’s a lot to unwrap and I’ll continue to do so. Thank you for your understanding.
