Truth #316 - God is concerned about the heart of the relationship not the terms of it - Deuteronomy 13-15

Deuteronomy 15:12-17 (ESV Strong's)

“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.
And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed.
You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.
You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.
But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your household, since he is well-off with you,
then you shall take an awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave you shall do the same.

Truth:  God is concerned about the heart of our relationship with others, not the position of our relationship.

In this passage we have God's Word on slavery.   We may not like it and we may not understand it, but this is what God told the nation of Israel.   In the days of the Israelites, slavery was practiced as a part of almost all cultures.   It was a part of the depravity of man.  Man has a desire to assert their authority over others.   God is not necessarily condoning the practice.  This section is found in the section of this book on how to live "differently" than the world around you.   The way to live differently than the world around you would be to have no slave.   But, God did allow it, while at the same time telling the nation to treat the slaves like you would want to be treated ... not in a way to burden them.   He reminds them that they were slaves in Egypt and that slavery was hard.   God even states if your treatment of the slave is good they more than likely will want to become part of your family.   God's idea of how we treat others is less about the position and more about the heart and the care of others.   This is why God summed the law up into loving God and others like ourselves.  God is the one who sets the standard.  We are to treat others like God would.