IN GOD WE TRUST – INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE – THE FALL OF MAN:
IN GOD WE TRUST – INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE – THE FALL OF MAN: The Old Testament, The First Book of Moses called GENESIS, in Chapter 3 narrates the story about the Fall of Man. Hard Work, Toil, and Labor is the common lot of man and is the result of God’s Curse. Man is condemned to lead a life of bitter Servitude.
The Old Testament, The First Book of Moses called GENESIS, Chapter 3, verses 17-19, 22, and 23 narrate the story about the Fall of Man:
To Adam He said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it’,
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
You will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken,
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
It is not surprising to read in the Book of Psalms, Chapter 104:23: “Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening.”
The Book of Ecclesiastes records man’s grief and sense of disappointment that involves leading a life of Servitude and then die without claiming any benefit from all his labor. Chapter 1, verse 2 states the pain:
Everything is Meaningless
“Meaningless ! Meaningless ! ” says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless !
Everything is meaningless.”
What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
The Book of Ecclesiastes further confirms man’s agony in Chapter 2, verse 17:
“So I hated life because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.”
Man is condemned to lead a life of bitter Servitude; Hard Work, Toil, Labor is the common lot of man and is the result of God’s Curse. In practical terms, Labor refers to work performed to earn a wage. A characteristic of all kinds of Labor is that it consumes some part of the short days and short years of human life. Apart from making a living through Labor, man has to face the penalty called ‘Death’ which wipes out all the benefits earned or saved by living a Life of Servitude.
THE CONCEPT OF SABBATH YEAR – THE DIVINE LAWS OF MERCY AND GRACE:
In God We Trust – Involuntary Servitude: God reveals His Mercy, Grace, and Compassion by His Fourth Commandment, the Divine Law that proclaimed Sabbath and demands its Observance.
IN GOD WE TRUST – INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE: God condemned man for his act of Disobedience and at the same time instituted the Moral Principle of observing rest from all Work, Toil, and Labor.
The word ‘SABBATH’( Hebrew. Shabbath, Greek. Sabbaton ) describes the demand to desist, cease from all kinds of work and to observe rest as a Moral Principle or Duty. It is the weekly day of rest and worship of the Jews. The Fourth Commandment(The Book of EXODUS, Chapter 20:1-17; Chapter 34:1-5) enjoined Israel to observe the Seventh Day as a Holy Day on which no work should be done by man or beast. Everyone, including even the stranger within the gates, is required to desist from all work. It is intended to be a day of Blessing to man both physically and spiritually. However, it may be noted that this concept of rest as a Divine Rule of Law was instituted at Creation. God rested from his creative labors on the Sabbath Day. “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.” (The Book of Genesis, Chapter 2, verse 3) The Third Book of Moses called LEVITICUS, Chapter 23, verse 3 gives clear instructions about the observance of Sabbath Day as a Holy Day of Obligation: “There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is Sabbath to the LORD.”
THE SABBATH YEAR AND THE YEAR OF JUBILEE:
IN GOD WE TRUST – INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE: While man is condemned to toil until his death, God created a mechanism to provide physical rest to man and the Divine Law instituted the Principle of giving rest to both man and the Fields in which man has to Labor. There is hope of Deliverance and Liberty is proclaimed throughout the Land to all its inhabitants to consecrate the 50th Year as the Jubilee Year.
The Third Book of Moses called LEVITICUS, Chapter 25, verses 3 and 4 describe the Sabbath Year: “For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the Seventh Year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.” Verse 6 describes the rules about sharing food during the Sabbath Year without any sense of discrimination: “Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath Year will be food for you – for yourself, your manservant and maid-servant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land, whatever the land produces may be eaten.” Verse 10 further stipulates the observance of the Jubilee Year: “Consecrate the fiftieth Year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.”
THE SON OF MAN IS THE LORD OF SABBATH:
IN GOD WE TRUST – INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE: The Son of Man is the Lord of Sabbath. In the New Testament Gospels According to Saint Matthew, Saint Mark, Saint Luke, and Saint John, Jesus taught that the Sabbath was made for man’s benefit, and that man’s needs must take precedence over the Laws of the Sabbath.
In the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Chapter 12, verse 8 Jesus categorically affirms: “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Similarly, in the Gospel According to Saint Mark, Chapter 2, verses 27-28 it is mentioned: Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Jesus refused to let rules interfere with Compassion for needy people and insisted upon the correct interpretation of the Laws of the Sabbath to meet the needs of man for food and healing. It is in this context, I would like to study the US Labor Laws and the practices of its executive Department of Health and Human Services that impose Involuntary Servitude, Slavery, and Forced Labor upon temporary residents of foreign origin who labor on the US soil all their lives beyond the age of full retirement which currently stands at the age of 66-years.
