Opinions on the Torah law are polarized. Some ignore it completely. Others woodenly apply every law. Many will consider the religious laws to show how they relate to Christ and others emphasize the moral laws, such as the prohibition of coveting, applicable because they reflect God’s character that never changes.
All sides miss the larger picture by fixating on the details, in other words, they miss the forest for the trees. God’s wisdom is displayed more in the structure of the Torah government than in the detailed cases, as wise as they are. For government, God gave Israel no human executive, legislature (which in Moses’ day was the king), or taxes. He gave Israel only judges, chosen by the people, to adjudicate the civil laws.
A government existing without a legislature or king to fabricate legislation? The thought terrifies Christians today. How will we know what is legal and illegal?
Bruno Leoni, an Italian philosopher of law who influenced the Nobel winners F. A. Hayek and James Buchanan, agreed that God was wiser than humans almost 3,500 years after the law. In his book, Freedom and the Law, Leoni distinguished between law and legislation. He argued that no group of politicians are wise enough to plan for all contingencies that a law might affect when writing legislation. He compared legislation to a centrally planned market under communism.
Leoni said legislation is uncertain because it changes with the whims of legislators. He might have added that Adam Smith pointed out that businessmen buy politicians cheaply, so legislation usually reflects the will of the highest bidder.
Law, Leoni argued, is discovered by judges settling conflicts among people over long periods of time. Judges discover what is a commonly accepted solution to disputes by studying previous decisions and their results. If there are no disputes, there is nothing to discover. Leoni argued that good societies need law but must keep legislation to a minimum to have freedom and justice without lawlessness. Law takes the long run into consideration and changes slowly. Law provides certainty about what is right and wrong so people can plan, knowing they won’t break the law. Legislation is arbitrary and capricious, changing with political winds and making planning more difficult. Leoni wrote,
“My earnest suggestion is that those who value individual freedom should reassess the place of the individual within the legal system as a whole. It is no longer a question of defending this or that particular freedom—to trade, to speak, to associate with other people, etc.; nor is it a question of deciding what special ‘good’ kind of legislation we should adopt instead of a ‘bad’ one…. It is a question of deciding whether individual freedom is compatible in principle with the present system centered on and almost completely identified with legislation. This may seem like a radical view; I do not deny that it is. But radical views are sometimes more fruitful than syncretistic theories that serve to conceal the problems more than to solve them.”
In the Torah, God gave the common law in commands such as “Thou shalt not murder” and “Thou shalt not steal.” Then in the rest of the civil law, he gave cases as examples for applying those laws. For example, fraud in the form of unjust weights and measures is a type of theft. Prohibiting the muzzling of oxen while treading the wheat applies to paying laborers for their work. Criminalizing the mixing of wool and linen when weaving cloth is another example of fraud and theft.
Most people will disagree, but God and Leoni demonstrate the greatest wisdom regarding governments.
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