And the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.’
“Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone. 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.
Comment: Above are two paragraphs. The first deals with worship and altars for sacrificing to God. The second is the beginning of discussing slavery.
Every religion has the concept of sacrifices or doing something to get right with God. This law says that nothing unless God made it is to be used as an altar upon which things can be sacrificed. In this paragraph we see several things, 1. God is not to be worshipped by an idol made to symbolize Him. 2. The altar upon which a sacrifice is offered is to be made simply of God made stuff, not human crafted. Thus it is to be of earth or un-hewn stones. The essence of sacrifice is the heart attitude of honest repentance, not the fancy way an sacrifice is made. This is frequently dealt with in the Bible, particularly in the Psalms.
Slavery is a nasty word in today’s society. And so it should be when it is a mercenary business and cruel. This form of slavery is evil. The Hebrew form of slavery, as presented here was based on a) debts paid off by work and b) social services, in other words if people were in great difficulty they were provided for by being the slave of a master who provided for him or I presume her.
Prayer: I don’t always understand what You command O Lord. But help me to obey, knowing that You have a good reason!
As I read it! 