There Is A God Ch 4

The Law of Israel, known as the Mosaic Law, was given to the ancient nation of Israel by their Creator and God. Superior to other ancient laws of that time, it was equal to, and in many respects superior to, the laws of nations today.

The Mosaic Law introduced a form of government calculated to cultivate the spirit of liberty, equality and accountability. Ancient histories of other nations and rulers show no parallel. In every case, rulers of other nations sought their own aggrandizement and greater power. Even when rulers aided in establishing republics, it appears, from subsequent events, that they did it through policy to obtain favor with the people and to perpetuate their personal power. Furthermore, those republics did not benefit the majority, but rather a minority who had the privilege of citizenship, while the remainder were slaves or people with fewer rights.

The Mosaic Law was supreme over all Israelites. No ruler or privileged class was above the law of the people, nor could any deny the legal rights of the people. Mosaic legislation focused on promoting universal happiness and tranquility more than any other constitution, either ancient or modern.

The judges were charged to impartiality: “...Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger [foreigner] that is with him. You shall not respect persons in judgment; but you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s [Law]....” Deut. 1:16-17.

All the laws were made public, unprecedented for that time, preventing designing men from successfully tampering with the rights of the people. In order that the poorest and most unlearned might not be ignorant of them, it was the duty of the priests to read the laws to the people periodically. Deut. 31:10-13.

The Ten Commandments enjoin a code of worship and morals that strikes every student as remarkable. Not even the great empires of Babylon, Greece, or Rome contain laws of such nobility. As noble as the Code of Hammurabi, the ancient Babylonian Law, was, the Mosaic Law was superior. Hammurabi’s Law itself was nobler than the code of laws of the other ancient nations. Even so, the benefits of Hammurabi’s Law were only for a minority who were privileged with citizenship.(1) The Law of Moses benefited all Israel.

Most noteworthy was the impartiality between the rich and the poor. They both received the same judgment. This is a continual refrain throughout the Mosaic Law.

An Unprecedented Economic System

The laws of the most advanced civilization in this 21st century do not equalize the rich and poor in accountability and benefit before the civil law. Absolutely no distinction was made by the Mosaic Law.

Property Rights Protected by Jubilee Laws. Israel’s economy was premised on an ideal that has never been equaled. Not only did every family own an equal portion of land, but there were built-in provisions that any property loss would be only temporary. Talk about an impossible dream! This is an impossible dream for nations of our day.

The Jubilee system of laws was unique in that it prevented the accumulation of massive wealth by a few to the detriment of the many. Every fiftieth year—the Jubilee year—there was a restoration. All men are not “created equal.” Some are more inherently astute in financial matters than others. Some have great ambition—others have little or no ambition, due to no fault of their own. The Jubilee system challenged the astute and ambitious to use their ability to accumulate wealth, but it limited their personal mass accumulation and prohibited passing on of this wealth by inheritance, which is so conspicuous in our day.

Israel had an agricultural economy. Land was the most important commodity. For 49 years, ambition was allowed to accumulate as much land as possible. But in the 50th Jubilee year, the land was restored to its original ownership. During the 49 years the land was strictly evaluated in price according to the number of years before the next 50th Jubilee year. The closer to the 50th Jubilee year, the lower the land value. Price gouging in any form was unlawful.

Naturally, those less astute in the production of their land found themselves more easily in debt. They could sell themselves in servitude to the debtor, but laws prohibited their abuse during this servitude. All such were freed and their debts cancelled every seventh year or during the Jubilee Year according to whichever was designated by Ex. 21:2; Lev. 25:39-42; Deut. 15:12-14.

This prevented the evils of ancient Rome, where land was the property of the state, or the feudal system in medieval Europe, where the land belonged to the king. No other national law has ever been enacted which so carefully protected the people from the dangers incident to some becoming very poor and others excessively wealthy and powerful.

Laws of Debt. The people were taught to consider each other as brethren and to act accordingly. They were to assist each other without compensation and to charge no interest from one another. Ex. 22:25-27; Lev. 25:36-37. Loans based on inordinate economic compensation, comparable to second mortgages, were not to be insolently or ruinously exacted. Deut. 24:6, 10-13, 17-18. All debts to Israelites were to be released in the seventh sabbatical year. “There shall be no poor among you.” Therefore, everyone that was capable of lending to his neighbor was required to help him economically. A blessing was promised for obedience, and a punishment for refusal to lend. The economic system provided that just payment would follow. Deut. 15:1-11.

Taxation. The taxation by tithe (ten percent of one’s increase) was certainly the most lenient and considerate that has ever been adopted anywhere. It precludes the possibility of attempting to extort from the people contributions beyond their power. Even this exceedingly mild taxation was not enforced, but was to be paid as a voluntary contribution. No threat bound the people to make contributions—all depended upon their conscientiousness.

Loving and Merciful Provisions for the Poor

Provisions for Poor, Widows, Orphans, and Aged. Can you imagine a society with no hunger, and no beggars or homeless? A society where there is free food for the poor and all animals? No welfare, social security, food stamps or soup kitchens? Where women, voluntary bondservants, deaf, blind and the aged were treated with dignity?

The common law made no distinction between classes and was not a respecter of persons. The treatment of servants, strangers, the poor, widows, orphans and the aged was the subject of special legislation. Injured bondservants were freed, and thus protected from physical abuse. Strangers were treated by the same laws as Israelites, who were reminded of their experiences of slavery in Egypt. The needs of widows and orphans were to be particularly remembered with kindness, lest the Israelite’s own wife become a widow and his children become orphaned. The blind and deaf were to be cared for and respected. The elderly were to be honored and respected—a far cry from the nursing homes, orphanages, and mistreatment of the physically handicapped today. Ex. 21:26-27; 22:21-24; 23:9; Lev. 19:13-14, 32-34; Deut. 24:14-15.

Because the Law recognized “...the poor shall never cease out of the land,” corners of fields and gleanings in vineyards were left to provide free food for the poor, persons of broken fortunes and even the beasts of the field. Lev. 19:9-10; Deut. 15:11; 24:19-22. The poor could come on a farm field to eat a meal and take enough, but not more, to feed his family. Deut. 23:24-25. Wages were to be paid daily. Lev. 19:13; Deut. 24:15.

Bondservants. Israel’s bondservants were not slaves in the accepted sense of the word—in fact, the Mosaic Law forbad them to be treated as slaves. The Hebrew bondservant was freed at the Sabbatical year and provided with necessities. His wife and children went with him if they with him came to his master. He had the option to be in perpetual servitude. This proves that the conditions of the bondservants were more than tolerable. Ex. 21:1-6; Deut. 15:13-18. If a bondwoman became a wife of a master, and he divorced her, she could not be sold as property, but was given her freedom. If ill-treated or maimed, a bondservant was to be freed. Ex. 21:7-9, 26-27; Deut. 21:10-14. The power of a master was humanely limited. Death of a bondservant was punishable. Ex. 21:20.

Foreigners and Aliens. Nations surrounding ancient Israel conquered enemies and took slaves. The women were most unfortunately abused. Under the Mosaic Law, foreign women could only be taken into bondage for the purpose of marriage. If the master divorced her, he was required to give her freedom. In its regard for the rights and interests of foreigners, aliens, and enemies, the Mosaic Law was thirty-two centuries ahead of its time. The laws of many nations today do not equal in fairness and benevolence. Protection and kindness towards foreigners was considered a sacred duty. Ex. 12:49; 22:21; 23:4-5; Lev. 19:33-34; 24:22.

Animals. Even the animals were not forgotten. Cruelty to animals as well as to human beings was strictly prohibited. An ox must not be muzzled while threshing the grain for the good reason that any laborer is worthy of his food. Even the ox and the ass must not plow together, because so unequal in strength and tread, it would be cruelty. Their rest was also provided. Deut. 22:10; 25:4; Ex. 23:12.

Justice in Criminal Law

Can you imagine a society with no prisons, no police force, no lawyers? Ancient Israel had such a remarkable system of law that guaranteed the rights of all.

Distinctive Features of the Mosaic Law:
Theocratic Character

The government instituted by Moses differed from all others, ancient and modern, in that it claimed to be that of the Creator Himself. The people were accountable to Him. The sheer nobility of these laws proved that their author was, indeed, a just, righteous, loving and wise God—not a fabrication invented by selfish men for their vested interests. Israel’s laws emanated from the true God and were in perfect harmony with what reason teaches us to expect would be God’s character.

Peculiar Character of Righteousness and Love

The most important purpose of the theocratic nature of the Mosaic Law was to inspire the people with the goodness of God and to minimize selfish interests. The Law was to elicit extreme admiration and reverence for God, which in turn was to inspire emulation of these ideals. If every Israelite could act just like God, what a peaceful and loving society it would effect. The desired effect was to cause every Israelite to realize the intrinsic value of his neighbor to God. Consequently, he would love his neighbor as himself, that is, have the same interest in the neighbor’s well being as in his own. Actions were rewarded and punished with great minuteness and strictness, and that according to the standard, not of their consequences, but of their intrinsic morality.

Balance of Powers Sternly Checked

Unlike the customs of the surrounding nations, the Mosaic Law limited the rights and the privileges of the priests. They were given no civil power whatever and wholly lacked opportunity for using their office to impose upon the rights or consciences of the people.

Israel’s form of civil government was a republic whose officers acted under divine commission. By the establishment of the hereditary priesthood with the authority of the heads of the tribes and the subsequent sovereignty of the King, it provided a balance of powers, all of which were subordinate to the Mosaic Law.

Despotic power was forbidden. The King’s power was limited by the Law. Deut. 17:14-20.

Republican Economy

The whole territory of the state was so distributed that each family had a freehold (property), which was intended to remain permanently the inheritance of that family and which, even if sold, was to return at stated periods to its original owners. Since the whole population consisted of families of freeholders, there was no minority class of nobility as practiced in Europe for many centuries, often in spite of mental and moral disqualifications. Lest some conclude the tribe of Levi was an elevated class, the priests and Levites were solely ministers of public worship, whose economics were dependent on the voluntary taxes of the people.

What superlative could one use to express the sheer nobility of the legal system of Israel in contrast to other nations through the centuries, and even today? Man with all his selfish and vested interests could not have been the creator of these laws. They reflect not man but the wisdom and righteousness that could only be possessed by a divine God.

Yes, there is a God and how thankful we are that he is a God of supreme justice, love, wisdom, and power.