Isaiah 56:6: “Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and taketh hold of my covenant;”

So my last study looked at the first condition to receiving joy from the Lord during a prayer meeting and that is to join ourselves with the Lord.   The next condition is to serve Him. When we talk of serving the Lord we think of being a pastor or missionary.  Some of us are charitable enough to say that cleaning the church building after a service is serving the Lord.  I agree that is ‘abad  serving the Lord.  However, the word used in this part of the verse for service is not ‘abad but sharath which also means to serve but as the Talmud teaches that there are no synonyms in the Classical Hebrew we need see the difference between these two words ‘abad and sharath. ‘Abad has the idea of serving in the sense or doing work for a master or employer. ‘Abad is often rendered as a slave. God is not calling us in this part of the verse to be His slave.

Sharath  which  is sometimes rendered as servant is really the word for minister.  Sharah is a level much higher than an ‘abad or slave.  It is the word used for Joseph who served Potiphar. Joseph was the chief servant who was loved and respected by his master. An ‘abad is often just be another mule to his master.  Ah, but a sharath is a beloved servant, sometimes a bond servant. You may take a whip and punish an ‘abad, but you would never think to whip or punish a sharath,  A sharath serves his master because he loves his master.

If Joseph was just an ‘abad to Potiphar he would have had Joseph executed on the spot when his wife said he raped her.  Instead he put him in the royal prison.  The royal prison was not a penitentiary it was more like a lock up until your case can be heard.  They did not have a writ of Habeas Corpus in those days.  They locked you up in a holding or detention cell until your case could be heard before the Pharaoh. Unfortunately Pharaoh’s are very busy people and conducting a hearing for some person accused of treason was not on his priority list.  Thus Joseph asked the cup bearer to remember him to the Pharaoh. In other words: “Would you tell the old boy that I am rotting away here in this prison waiting for my case to be heard.”  Actually, the royal holding cell was the best place to put Joseph.  Potiphar could not have set Joseph free because he was a slave accused of raping the wife of a government official. Even if he were set free he would still be a fugitive. Potiphar could have sold him but then his new master might not be so benevolent and besides with the accusation of rape on his head, he would not sell for much if at all. Yet, Potiphar had to do something as the wife of high official was crying rape.  By putting Joseph in prison rather than executing him or selling him off he was literally telling his wife: “I think you are lying and we will have a civil trial under Pharaoh where his case could be heard.  The point is that an ‘abad would never be given a fair trial, especially before the Pharaoh, but a sharath would be deserving of such high treatment.

When we serve God as a sharath we are not serving him out of duty or fear of punishment, we are serving Him out of love.  We serve Him gladly and joyfully and with that comes perks and priviledges. Years ago there was a television show called Family Affair where the British actor Sebastian Cabot played Giles French a Gentleman’s Gentleman.  He would just bristle when someone referred to him as a butler or servant.  He was a gentleman’s gentleman, a personal valet attending to all the personal needs of his employer.  He took great pride in his role.  It was not a job, it was not duty, it was a profession, a privilege to serve his employer.  He just did not do the things he was told to do like an ordinary servant an ‘abad. He looked for things to do, he looked for ways to help his employer and he did it with dignity and grace. If he ever brought any shame to his master he would die of humiliation. He would serve his employer putting the needs of his employer above his own.

That is the sharath, the service we have for God, we are God’s gentleman’s gentleman.  When God says in Isaiah that we will have joy in the house of prayer if we serve Him he is saying we will have joy when we serve him out of joy, we find our joy in our service to him just as Mr. French found his identity and his joy in just serving his employer Mr. Davis, even if it meant the distasteful role of being a nanny to his employer’s nephew and niece.

Now that I built you up let me tear you down, because next we read that we are to be His servants and here the word is, oh my gosh, ‘abad.  Yep, not only are we to be the trusted, beloved servant but the slave as well.  That would be almost contradictory except that this word ‘abad is preceded by the words to love the name of the Lord.  The word love is ‘ahav. The word name represents the reputation and the work that God does.  If we love his work and reputation we would willing to become slaves to God.  In a sense Mr. French was a slave to Mr. Davis. He was on call 24/7 and Mr. Davis could at any time terminate him from his employment. The word ‘ahav rendered as love is a human love, it is really the best we can produce in love. God can have a higher love, racham, but the best we can do is ‘ahav.  Thus if we really ‘ahav God, then we would have no problem lower ourselves to the level of a slave for the sake of the God we ‘ahav, love.  More than that.  A sharath is a high level servant, with lots of perks.  An ‘abad is the lowest level with few or no perks.

To be joyful in the house of prayer we must not only consider ourselves a sharath one of God’s gentleman’s gentleman with lots of perks and privileges but we must be willing to serve God as an ‘abad where we may not get paid so well, in fact we must be willing to throw that ten dollars in the offering plate and not get a hundredfold return, maybe no return at all.  In this country we are mostly sharath’s to God, we get many benefits from our service to God, but in many parts of the world there are those who are ‘abad’s who are tortured and die for God. Yet we all have one thing in common, we all ‘ahav love God. When our world collapses, we give everything away for the name of God and we get nothing in return and we may move from a sharath to an ‘abad, there is one thing that will never change, our love for God.