Ancient Liberty

As we enter this Fourth of July weekend I thought it might be inspiring and instructive to remember the greatest story of liberty in human experience. Ah – 1620 and the Pilgrims you suppose? Maybe the late 1600’s under Cromwell and the Glorious Revolution? Or 1776 with the Patriots? There are so many possibilities but no, instead I take you back, way, way back nearly 4000 years to the time of the Judges. You remember, those Biblical Judges we heard about in Sunday school. There were 13 of them spanning 400 years. Some were heroes and some maybe not quite so heroes, those Judges. I have been thinking about them for a long while. Let me explain why you should care.

The historic period of the Judges was the first government God established in Israel after they entered the Promised Land. Here it was. After all the 400 years in Egypt as slaves and 40 years wandering in the wilderness God finally parted the Jordan. If Egypt was the thesis on slavery then the Promised Land was to be the anti-thesis of liberty. Israel did not enter the new land empty handed either. They had plundered Egypt when they left taking cart loads of jewelry and clothes. More importantly however, was the law of Moses, God’s law, that they had received and been taught during their tramping about in the desert. This was God’s law of liberty for them and it was about to be implemented more fully in the land God gave them. This was the test so to speak although it was not God or His law being tested. God’s law required no test and was never defective although sinful men are.

Now, the form of civil government for God’s people (the redeemed are still God’s people) had already been established in the wilderness. They had been given a system of judges, a multi-tiered court system, to ensure justice. There was no parliament, no Congress, no capital buildings with officials sitting to make laws. The law had already been established at Sinai. New law was not needed. Rather, God had given them judges to decide the application of the law, determine justice, and pronounce sentences. The law was there. All they had to do was obey it and use it.

Over the four centuries that Israel lived under the Judges we read of many eras of falling away and then restoration toward faithfulness. With each judge comes the story of a return to the God of their fathers, thirteen revivals; More revivals than were experienced under the next 1,100 years of kings and foreign exiles. It was also more national revivals than our nation has experienced in our nearly 400 years since the Mayflower landed. While sinful men strayed into many sins yet God’s system of law and governance protected the nation from internal tyranny and abuse until their first king, Saul.

Think with me about the level of freedom experienced under this Biblical system. For one thing there were no taxes. When we study taxation in the Scriptures we search in vain for the tax code of Moses. There was no tax code. This was possible because there were also no government agencies to support, no jails to pay for (crime was punished by restitution or other means), and no standing army to support. It is interesting to note that there was no civil penalty for failure to tithe. God might get you but the state would not. There was no draft. Honest private money, usually in silver, was available. The weight measure for that honest money was found at the temple which is why there are several references to ‘the shekel of the temple’. Land taxes were non-existent and land ownership for families was absolute. There was no king or central power. God promised to be the defender of the nation as long as the people were faithful.

These are powerful concepts for our nation today. At the beginning of the 21^s century we find ourselves oppressed on every side by endless government statutes, failed central programs, and debts that appear unpayable. Millions of us are asking with principled concern, ‘what has become of our freedom’?

The libertarians want us to believe that we can regain our liberty through implementing their lawless humanist ideals. The progressives want to keep increasing the power of the central authorities. The conservatives are all over the map with ideas about using the military to bring liberty to the nations and insisting that ‘it’s the economy stupid’ (a line invented by James Carville ironically enough). So, here we are. How do we actually obtain the liberties our forefathers experienced?

I know the enemies of the church make sport of trying to hang placards describing only evil and oppression around the necks of our people. However, when we study what God has actually taught in His word the truth is shined on those lies. The greatest long-term liberty ever experienced by any nation on earth was in Israel under God’s law and His judges. Nothing else equals it, our own history not withstanding. God’s law is the eternal ‘law of liberty’ to use Biblical phrasing. As God’s people, (‘…a royal priesthood and a holy nation…’ Exodus 19:6, 1 Peter 2:9) we may expect to find liberty as our countrymen always have. It is best discovered back under God’s law and God’s forms for government. This ancient path is the only road to liberty.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach