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Since the article “The Parable of The Ant” received a favorable response, I thought it might be beneficial to share another parable that was related at the recent Spring Camp Meeting of the Creation Seventh Day Adventist Church.
In the time of slavery, a man went to the market and purchased a slave. The slave was taken to the man’s home, at which point he expected to be put to work, hard labor in the fields. Instead, the man sat the slave down and fed him, gave him good clothing, and a bath. The man then said, “I bought you from the market, but you are now free. You are free to go.” The slave was understandably confused, so he repeated, “I am free to go?” The man replied, “Yes.”
The slave asked, “Didn’t you purchase me to work for you? Are you are just letting me go?” And the man said, “I purchased you, but not to work for me. You are free to go.” The slave thought about his unusual circumstances for a long time. Finally, he replied, “Where else can I go? You have treated me well. You have provided for my needs, and you have given me my dignity and my freedom. Where else could I go, what place could I find, where I would be treated so well?” He concluded by stating his resolution, “I will stay with you, and serve you, for the rest of my life.”
This, to me, illustrates better than anything I had ever heard, what it means to be a servant of Yahweh, a slave of righteousness. Many in the world may look at us, see that we are doing all these works: Keeping the Sabbath, paying tithe, working with employers regarding the observance of New Moons, and say, “Oh, can you believe how deeply these people are bound up by the rules of their religion?” But we are like that freed slave, who committed to serving a Master because of love, and having never been so free in his life as when he was working for someone that had given him liberty.
Have you been set free from the bondage of sin? What do you tell people that the Savior has done for you? Our testimonies do matter. They change the people who hear us in ways we might not realize, and those with a testimony like that of the freed slave have a powerful, powerful work to do to bring people closer to understanding the mind of Christ, and the salvation that He has given to us at His own infinite cost.
David.