Musing – How do you treat your servants?

Hebraic Musing – How do you treat your servants?

At first blush that question of treatment of servants seems strange when slavery has been abolished in the U.S.  However, do we still have servants?  Over the years, those who serve us have sometimes been viewed as lower-class people.  In the USA we preach that all are created equal, but feelings of inequality or even superiority creep into our thought process when dealing with, for example, store clerks, waiters/waitresses, employees, laborers, inmates, those on welfare, those who don’t dress or look or speak like us, etc.

In Jeremiah 34:16 God found His people were not releasing their slaves in the Sabbath, seventh, year as commanded.  So he accused them as follows “each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.” NIV     This was an especially grievous charge against His people because in every annual Passover Seder they re-remember and thank God for releasing them from slavery in Egypt.  Of all people, they should have wanted to treat slaves fairly.  Similarly, we too need to remind ourselves of how God arranged for us to be freed from our slavery to sin.

Jeremiah continues with the Lord’s charge and decision in 34:17-18  "Therefore, this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom for your fellow countrymen. So I now proclaim 'freedom' for you, declares the Lord — 'freedom' to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.”   Exile was to be the discipline God will be imposing on His people.

In Jewish tradition, the first question we’ll be asked when we get to heaven is not “How much time did you spend studying the Scriptures/Bible?” It is not, “How much did you pray?”  It is not “What ministries did you do for me?”  What God really wants to know, first and foremost, is “Were you an honest person?”  That word “Honest” is a big, many faceted word!

For example, God wants to know if we were honest in business dealings.  I like to call it “taking Sunday into Monday.”  Most important to God, He wants to know how you treated other people honestly – people like those listed in the opening paragraph. Do we treat all those who serve us with kindness, dignity and respect?

Irene and I have had some really precious moments in restaurants.  When our food is set before us by the server they typically ask “Is there anything else?”  We respond with “We are going to pray for our meal. Would you like to join us?  What do you need?”  Most often we wind up holding hands and praying for and blessing our server and …!!!  

How we treat all others is of heavenly importance.

Points to ponder

What happens when we realize that God loves and cares for
that other person just as much as He loves us!

How can we leave the employee, cashier, sales clerk or waitress/waiter smiling?

God loves a cheerful giver. 

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd,                                  February 9, 2016