Servant
Hebrew #5650 - ‘ebed - עבד
Greek #1397 - douleia - δουλεία
Definition: (1) someone that serves others, (2) one that performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer
Other words: bondservant, slave, bondage,
- Bereshith (Genesis) 18:23
“So he lifted his eyes and looked, and saw three men standing opposite him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, ‘יהוה, if I have now found favour in Your eyes, please do not pass Your servant by.’”
douleia
-Shemoth (Exodus) 13:3
“And Mosheh said to the people, ‘Remember this day in which you went out of Mitsrayim, out of the house of slavery. For by strength of hand יהוה brought you out of this place, and whatever is leavened shall not be eaten.’”
-Proverbs (Mishle)
“Do with Your servant according to Your loving-commitment, And teach me Your laws. I am Your servant – make me understand, That I might know Your witnesses.”
-Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 41:8-9
“’But you, Yisra’ĕl, are My servant, Ya‛aqoḇ, whom I have chosen, the descendants of Aḇraham who loved Me, whom I have strengthened from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest parts, and said to You, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not rejected you.’”
-Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 44:21
“’Remember these matters , O Ya‛aqoḇ, and Yisra’ĕl, for you are My servant! I have formed you, you are My servant, O Yisra’ĕl, do not forget Me!’”
-Romiyim (Romans) 8:15
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’”
- Galatiyim (Galatians) 5:1
“In the freedom with which Messiah has made us free, stand firm, then, and do not again be held with a yoke of slavery.”
What is a servant? Abraham humbled himself before Yahuah, calling himself His servant. Yisra’ĕl, too, was a servant—enslaved in Mitsrayim. But through the Passover Lamb, Yahuah redeemed them, freeing them from bondage. Likewise, we are no longer slaves to Mitsrayim or to sin, but through Messiah, we are free to choose servanthood to Yahuah.
There are two paths in servanthood: either one remains a slave to sin, or one becomes a willing servant of Yahuah and His people. As Messiah declares in Matthew 6:24:
“No one is able to serve two masters, for either he shall hate the one and love the other, or else he shall cleave to the one and despise the other. You are not able to serve Elohim and mammon.”
Yahuah, with a mighty hand, delivered Yisrael from slavery in Mitsrayim—not merely to set them free, but that they might serve Him in love and obedience. Throughout the scriptures, Yisrael continued to walk away from Yahuah and be slaves to something else, even though they weren’t physically slaves in another land. Coming out of Mitsrayim (these are my thoughts) Yisrael was redeemed and free from sin because of the Passover Lamb that was slain from the foundations of the earth. But then, when they built the golden calf at Mount Sinai, they broke Yahuah’s covenant and needed another sacrifice. They needed to repent, turn back to Yahuah, and again choose the freeing way of being His servant.
These words go right along with that last scripture I mentioned from Galatians,
“In the freedom with which Messiah has made us free, stand firm, then, and do not again be held with a yoke of slavery.”
Shaul, the writer of Galatians, called the people of Galatia to walk as children of Elohim, and not turn back to the weak and poor elementary matters in which they were enslaved.
Let us be careful not to become enslaved to sin or even doctrine, and let the Word of Truth define itself as it should.
Choose Yah! Choose obedience! Choose LIFE!
JS