Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—but my ears you have opened—burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. – Psalm 40:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 30, 2019): Psalm 40

In the ancient world, people would become slaves for many reasons, and one of those reasons was purely economic. Slavery has not always been an abuse of a people group like it was with black slaves in North America. In many areas of the world, slavery was also an option to pay off a debt. If a debt was incurred, the debtor, if he could not repay the debt, could enter into a contract to live as a slave for his creditor for a limited period, instead of a monetary repayment. It needs to be understood that, often, the slave in the ancient world also become part of the family. Where a hired worker could be let go during an economic downturn, a slave was guaranteed his employment and would continue to repay the debt that he owed. His food and lodging were guaranteed to him as if he was a son. This is the reason that the youngest son in the “Parable of the Lost or Prodigal Son” argues, at the bottom of his experience, that maybe his dad would accept him as a hired hand. The hired hand, and not the slave, was the lowest worker on the farm priority list.

But there were times when the slave would work off the debt, and not want to leave the family. Life as a slave, living with the family of his creditor, was better than living on his own. In the family environment, the slave experienced love and respect in a way that they had never known on his own. And if the slave owner were well respected, that respect would extend to the family and slaves. In these cases, the law provided for the slave's ear to be pierced, forever marking him as the slave of his former creditor. The term used for this piercing was “opening the ear.”

David uses this slave language in Psalm 40. He says that “my ears you have opened.” David knows that God does not want his sacrifices and offerings. His predecessor Saul had excelled at the practice of sacrifices and offerings, and yet God had rejected him. David was going a step further, committing his life, all of it, to his God. David would give God his obedience over and above his sacrifices and offerings. But more than that, by having his ear opened and entering into a slave relationship with God, he was entering into a commitment to walk with God for the rest of his life, just one step below family.

In the Christian Testament, Paul offers the same concept, but in an even more intimate way, when he says argues that “in love [God] predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves (Ephesians 1:4b-6). By adopting us, God has “opened our ears” and indicated that we are his, forever.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 53