The four slave-drivers:
- The flesh (food, drink, sex, possessions, pride)
- Money
- Time
- Sin
How the slave-drivers work together:
It all begins with being made a slave to the flesh by our parents right from the womb – eating and drinking the tastiest foods and drink, endlessly, for pleasure. Being handed toys and possessions, endlessly, from the earliest age, leading to coveting all the worlds’ possessions and envying others. Constantly being told to want to be “the best” at everything you do (pride).
The harsh slave-driver of the flesh whips and beats you to be covetousness and envious of fleshly pleasures, and it turns into greed and selfishness, which then enslaves you to the slave-driver of money, whipping you to make more and more of him to spend on your fleshly pleasures.
The slave-driver of money works hand-in-hand with the slave-driver of time, who whips you to work faster, harder and longer to earn more of his partner – money – to spend acquiring the other slave-driver’s demands – fleshly pleasures. Being a slave to time ends up making work utterly miserable. And some people are even enslaved to money in a way where they’d rather make themselves miserable just so they can squeeze every last penny’s worth out of whatever they spent money on, rather than just tossing it away (examples: Food – they’d rather eat expired food and risk getting violently ill then throw it away. Products – they’d rather continue to use an insufficient product that brings them frustration just to get their money’s worth. Excursions – they’d rather be miserable going somewhere and doing something just to get their money’s worth.)
Planting seeds of eating and drinking for pleasure, and the seeds of gaining many possessions and beauty, and the seeds of pride in career, athletics, creativity, intelligence, etc. raise up the thorny trees of the lust of the flesh, eyes and pride of life, and only ever produce the rotten fruits of chaos, depression, anger, stress, panic, worry, fear, anxiety, nervousness, bitterness, etc. Eating these fruits will only ever make you sick with misery and destruction (metaphorical mental destruction and literal destruction in hell).
There is no way around this: money naturally creates an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class:
The upper class gets richer and richer, oppressing the poor to earn more money for themselves to spend on their fleshly pleasures. Yet for all of it, they can never understand why they have all the worlds’ goods, yet are still so miserable. The answer: because the fruits of the trees of the flesh are rotten.
The middle class is a slave to the flesh, never content – on the cusp of riches – always desiring more fleshly pleasures, making themselves twice a slave to time and money trying to work their way to riches, saddled with credit card debt, never content.
The lower class is a slave to the flesh as well, but is oppressed and beaten down constantly by bills, and become angry and bitter at the world that they can’t possess the things the rich do, so they end up turning to all sorts of wickedness to numb their pain – drugs, alcohol, sex, crime – becoming the “low life’s” of the world.
The harsh slave-driver of sin whips us to do just that – sin. Now sin can appear sweet and fun for a brief moment, but if you follow it down the rabbit hole of how it actually affects you, you will find that planting the seeds of sin raises up a thorny tree that also produces nothing but the rotten fruits of chaos, depression, stress, anxiety, fear, worry, nervousness, panic, anger, bitterness, envy, etc. These fruits make you sick with all sorts of misery and destruction (metaphorical mental destruction and literal destruction in hell).
In our heavenly Father’s house, we are no longer slaves. We are free from the harsh slave-drivers of the flesh, money, time and sin. We plant the seeds of faith, holiness, humility, submissiveness, obedience, slowness, quietness, love, mercy and forgiveness, which raises up the tree of life that produces all sorts of wonderful fruits and peace and joy, which gives us “life” – metaphorical and eternal.
The Jews in Egypt (a symbol of the fallen world) became slaves of the harsh slave-drivers of time and money, being whipped by the slave-drivers to work longer, harder, faster to build the pyramids. And our Lord redeemed them and freed them from the slave-drivers, brought them out of the world (Egypt), and immediately sought to open their eyes and teach them His ways on Mount Sinai, and bring them into a land of abundance, peace and rest (a symbol of heaven on earth). But many of them rejected Him (didn’t believe), rejected His ways (with sin and rebellion), and rejected His land (they rather would have gone back to the slave-driving world of Egypt). Thus He kept them in the desert for 40 years until that unworthy generation died out. He eventually brought the new generation into His land (Israel), and sought to be their Leader and King, but they rejected Him and wanted a human king. He then sent them their Savior the Christ, but they rejected Him and crucified Him. So He went to the gentiles who would accept Him, bringing salvation to not only the Jews – but the entire world. And the Jews to this day, 2,000 years later, even after bringing them back into their land again and protecting them, still reject Him. Then there will be great Tribulation on the earth for seven years, where a remnant of His lost lambs – the Jews – will finally accept Him and His ways found in this epistle. He will protect them through the Tribulation, and He will come back for them, throw them over His shoulders and bring them into His thousand year Millennial Kingdom of peace and rest. And they will be His people, and He will be their God and King.
The evil powers in this world are as such:
- Satan.
- Satan’s demons.
- The 4 slave-drivers of the flesh, money, time and sin.
- The evil people of this world (Satan’s children).
God’s current people in this world – saved and unsaved alike – do not fit in, and are abused and crushed by these evil powers in the world.
On the one hand, God’s people are like a little lamb alone, lost, afraid, twisted up, trying to forge his own way in the world because he has no good shepherd to lead him or take care of him.
On the other hand, God’s people are like a beaten and abused dog, abandoned in a kennel, left alone without any love, without any trust, frightened to death of anyone and everyone, sitting in the corner of his kennel with his lips snarled.
The good Lord leaves His place in His Father’s Kingdom, travels to the dark, cloudy, dirty world, finds the alone, broken, scared little lamb, picks him up, throws him over his shoulders, redeems him from the slave-drivers, adopts him and brings him back to His Father’s Kingdom. He sets his new little lamb down in a beautiful, lush green pasture to rest, and sits down next to him with a smile, opening his eyes, untwisting him, bending him back into shape. He leads his little lamb beside still, pure water to have a refreshing drink, and brings him under his roof to rest at night.
The good Lord then leaves His place in His Father’s Kingdom again, travels back to the dark, dingy world, finds the alone, scared dog curled up in the corner of his kennel, and gives him a little good food. Then He gives him a little more food, and a little more, until the scared dog opens up a little to Him and allows Him to pet him. After much gentle, soothing petting and love, he gently takes the dog into His arms, brings him out of the kennel, redeems him from the slave-drivers, adopts him and brings him back to His Father’s Kingdom. He sets his new doggy down in the lush green field next to His little lamb to lie down together and rest. He sits down next to them with a smile, and they quietly enjoy each other’s presence in peace, just staring at the beautiful mountains of heaven in silence for hours. And so it will forever be – the Lord their leader and good shepherd, and they His healed, redeemed children, never to cast them back into the world.