Exodus 21:6

Bring him to the door. Upon the slave’s resolution not to go free, the master was to bring him before the “judges” (literally, “unto God”), who, as representatives of God, dispensed justice and served as witnesses to legal transactions such as this. Boring the ear through to the doorpost, thus attaching him physically, as it were, to the house, made him a permanent inmate of the household, marking him as such as long as he should live. The pierced ear testified to the pierced heart. The sign of slavery became the badge of love.

So it was with our Lord as the suffering “servant” (Isa. 42:1; Isa. 53:10, 11), who for the love He bore His earthborn sons and daughters (Heb. 12:2, 3), was highly exalted (see Phil. 2:7-9; Heb. 5:8,9).

For ever. From ‘olam, literally, “hidden time,” that is, time of indefinite duration. Its limits are either unknown or not specified, and must be determined by the nature of the person, thing, or circumstance to which it is applied. In the absolute sense, as applied to God, ‘olam, “everlasting” (Gen. 21:33), means “eternal,” for God is eternal — without beginning or end. In a more restricted sense the resurrected saints enter into ‘olam, “everlasting life” (Dan. 12:2), which, although it has a beginning, is without end, owing to the bestowal of immortality. In a still more limited sense, ‘olam can have both a definite beginning and a definite end, either of which may be uncertain at the time of speaking. For instance, Jonah was in the belly of the fish “for ever” (Jonah 2:6) because at the time he did not know when, if ever, he would get out again. In this case “for ever” turned out to be only “three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17).

Our English words always and forever do not of themselves imply time without beginning or without end. It might, for instance, be said of a man that he always lived in the valley of his birth. The fact that eventually he died there in no way invalidates the statement that he always lived there. Similarly, at marriage, husband and wife promise to be true to each other forever, meaning so long as they both shall live. If upon the death of one the other should remarry, no one would accuse him of breaking the vow made at his first marriage. It is no more justifiable to read into the Hebrew word ‘olam more than the context implies.

As for the slave, he had already served his master for a definite, limited period of six years. Now, by his own choice, he was to begin a term of service of indefinite duration. Obviously, the agreement would terminate at least with the death of the slave, which event could of course not be predicted. This indefinite term of service is therefore appropriately described as ‘olam, which would here be more accurately rendered as “in perpetuity.”

Translators of the LXX rendered the Hebrew word ‘olam as aion, its Greek equivalent. What has been said of ‘olam is equally true of aion. The attempt to determine the length of time involved, or to assign to the person or thing described the quality of continuing endlessly, on the basis of ‘olam or aion, is entirely unjustified. In each instance, the duration of ‘olam or aion depends solely on the context in which it is used, particularly on the nature of the person or thing to which the word is applied.