"If he says to you, I will not go forth from you, because he loves you and your household, for it goes well with him to be with you; you shall take an awl and run it through his ear and into the door, and he shall be your servant forever; and thus also shall you do to your female servant" (vv. 16-17). This is an excellent type of us as slaves of the Lord Jesus. We love Him, we love His family, and, not wanting to leave Him, we tell Him that we want to remain in His service forever. Whenever we make such a free-will offering to the Lord Jesus, He will never reject it but will always accept it. Then He will run an "awl" through our "ear," representing us, and into the "door," representing God. The ear thus becomes one with the door, and there is much traffic between the ear and the door. From that time onward, our relationship with the Lord is one in which we have a listening ear. We are at the door, waiting to hear the voice of the Master and to serve Him.
All the full-timers have had their ears "awled" by the Lord. We may say that they have had their ears "nailed" to the doorpost. Now there is a hole in their ear. This hole is not for an earring (something for beautification) but for service, which requires a hearing ear. If we have a hearing ear, nothing will keep us away from our Master.
As the Slave of God, the Lord Jesus had His ear run through with an awl (Isa. 50:5). On His ear there was a hole, so between Him and God the Father, whom He served, there was a thorough traffic. The situation with us should be the same.
For a Hebrew servant to be his master's servant forever meant that he gave up his liberty and no longer had any freedom. At the end of six years, the servant was free to go, but once he decided to stay and had his ear run through with an awl, he would never again have the freedom to leave. I can testify that, as a servant of the Lord, I consider myself as having no freedom and no future. In a very real sense, I am "finished," for my ear has been nailed to the doorpost of my God. I hope that the young ones will have this kind of feeling about themselves and that they will say, "I belong to the Lord Jesus forever. My ear has been nailed to His doorpost, and I have given up my freedom."
"You shall not view it as a hardship when you set him free; for he served you for six years, saving you double the wages of a hired hand, and Jehovah your God will bless you in all that you do" (Deut. 15:18). The masters might have felt that they had lost both the cost of buying the servant and the servant himself, and this could have caused them to be sorrowful. Therefore, Moses, an old man who surely knew human nature, charged the masters not to view the release of a servant as a hardship. They were not to be greedy or sad but happy, realizing that the servant had saved them much in wages and that Jehovah their God would bless them.