Deut. xv. 16, 17. And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee, (because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee,) then thou shaft take an aivl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever.
THE work of redemption was typified, not only by stated proclamations of liberty every fiftieth year, which was called the year of jubilee, but also by provision that all Hebrew servants, for whatever cause they had become bond-men, should be libe- rated from their bondage after the expiration of six years. But it would sometimes happen that a person might be so well pleased with his situation as not to wish to leave it, but to prefer it before that to which he was entitled. For such cases particular provision was made by God himself ; and a very singular rite was appointed for the ratification of his purpose : on declaring before a magistrate that he chose to continue his master's bond-servant, his master was to bore his ear through with an awl to the door or door-post; and the servant could never afterwards claim his liberty till the year of jubilee.
We should not have ventured to annex any great importance to this ordinance, if the inspired writers themselves had not led the way. But we apprehend that they refer to it as a type ; and in that view we conceive it deserves peculiar attention. We shall endeavour therefore to point out to you,
I. Its typical reference —
It is well known that our Saviour, as Mediator between God and man, was the Father's servant3: in this capacity he set himself wholly to do the Father's willb; and never for one moment admitted so much as a thought of relinquishing his service, till he could say, " I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do."
Let us briefly notice this at the different periods of his humiliation —
[At his incarnation. — When the fulness of time was come, and the season had arrived when he must assume our fallen nature in order to execute the work assigned him, though he must empty himself of all his glory, and leave his Father's bosom, and " make himself of no reputation, and take upon him the form of a servant," and be " made in the likeness of sinful flesh," and bear all the infirmities (the sinless infirmities) of our
a Isai. xlii. 1. John xii. 49. b John iv. 34.