“Pierce my ear, o Lord, my God. Take me to Your door this day. I will serve no other god. O Lord, I’m here to stay. For You have paid the price for me; with Your Blood You ransomed me. I will serve you eternally; A free man I’ll never be. So, pierce my ear and pierce my heart. Claim me for your house above. Yours, and never to depart; forever bound by love. Ever bound by love.” (Pierce my ear; Steve Croft & Matthew Bassford)
The beginning of Exodus 21 are God’s instructions to the Israelites about keeping slaves. About verses five and six is what the above song is written.
“But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever.” (Numbers 21.5-6)
Romans 6.16-9 states, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slave of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”
We are slaves to “whatever overcomes [us]”, 2 Peter 2.19. I may have my own ideas, but I have learned enough to know God has my best intentions in mind. And I want to “dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life” (Psalm 27.4)
Piercing the ear is the idea God ratified (many nations practiced ear piercing to show ownership) but there was a difference. The willing person was taken to a man of God to confess their desire to stay with their master. Then the master would place his mark on his person (pierce the ear). Likewise, all who come to God, confessed their sins, can be His, forever.