Debts owed
and remaining unpaid in Israel, sometimes resulted in the debtors becoming
slave servants to the creditor. While God allowed for this as an appropriate
way to repay what was owed, rules and laws were also given to the people to
control and limit the use, and avoid the abuse of slaves. Everything from the
treatment of the slave to the manner of their dismissal when the debt was
finalised, was legislated by God. Beyond the actual ‘lawful’ practice, God also
added an emotional and personal consideration to this aspect of Israelite life.
God appealed to His people to remember that they had all been slaves to the
Egyptians, had suffered at their hands, and that God had delivered them by His
might, and in mercy provided for them. Strangely sometimes we too can forget
where God has brought us from! There is often no greater critic of a sin or
conduct, than the person who was very guilty of the same thing at some time in
his past! We also can find it naturally easier, to shake our head or censure
conduct in others, which in various ways, upon scrutiny, can be found in our
own lives. Sadly we can to forget, the wrongs, errors and imperfections of our
own lives. For instance, it is easy when
we get older, to forget what we were like when we were younger, and how we too
may have failed in the same or similar things for which we now so readily judge
others or look ‘down’ on. Remembering where the Lord brought us from, what we
were, and how still on a daily basis, He lovingly and patiently deals with us,
may give us a little more latitude with our brother and sister, and help us
remain a little more patient, a little longer!
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion
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