God’s Welfare System
Deuteronomy 15:
11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.
What is the purpose of government? National defense? Law enforcement? Is that it? Ask many conservatives and they will say yes, that is all: the purpose of government is to protect life, liberty and property. Many of these same conservatives wax nostalgic over our nation's very Christian past, and claim that their views and our Constitution were inspired by the Bible...
Yet the Bible answers the question above quite differently! The Biblical Law provided for no standing armies, no police, and no jails. Law enforcement was a mix of blood feud, lynch mob, and impromptu town meetings. National defense resembled the gathering of a Wild West posse. The ancient Israelites were perhaps the only civilized people to practice anarcho-capitalism while surrounded by other nations. (The other examples I can think of were on islands.)
Though the ancient system paid no professionals to carry out the "core functions" of government as we know it, the Law did include an extensive welfare system. Israel was a welfare anarchy! Liberals and other leftists are entitled to a short neener dance.
But keep it short, because the Biblical welfare system was very different from the alphabet soup of do-good bureaucracies we have today. And the Biblical Law did contain a great many conservative and libertarian components. In fact, all political factions are entitled to a short neener dance when their opponents cite the Bible to bolster their case. And all factions should keep it short and humble themselves afterwards. For no significant modern political movement comes close to emulating God's example government.
And maybe they shouldn't. Ancient Israel was unique. The entire population of Israelites had witnessed divine intervention first hand, so mixing religious and secular law was just; all were believers and thus accountable. Today, not all are called to be Christians;; God forbids many from believing. Imposing Christian standards of morality is thus inappropriate. Furthermore, parts of the Biblical Law may have been specific to the ancient Israelites, who lived in a particular time and place. Some of the provisions may not be apropos even for practicing Christians today. For example, is pork forbidden to Christians or was it forbidden to the ancient Israelites because they lived in a dry climate? (Pigs cannot sweat, so they need mud wallows to survive the heat.) I leave it for you to decide. Personally, I have given up on pork just to be sure. Others argue for eating pork based on some New Testament passages.
That said, maybe, just maybe, politicians of all stripes should give the Old Testament Law a fresh look. The Bible describes a bureaucrat-free welfare system! Given how modern welfare states are going bankrupt, this information might well be useful. Even if the Law was particular to the ancient Israelites, it was meant to be an example of divine wisdom and justice for all nations, including ours today.
From Anarchy to Monarchy
Living without government is not easy. It requires civic virtue in great quantities to preserve order and defend the nation. Eventually, the Israelites tired of the responsibility that comes with freedom and demanded a king. The prophet Samuel complied, giving them a king, and a curse that rings true to this day:
1 Samuel 8:
10. And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.
11. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
12. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
13. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
14. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
15. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
16. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
17. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
18. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.
God's welfare system was hardcore. It was no mere safety net. It was far more than alms for the "truly needy." God's welfare system had features straight from the far Left wish list including:
- Worker safeguards, and workweek limits.
- Guaranteed food for all, including healthy hippies.
- Several exits from wage slavery.
- Rehabilitation for robbers.
- Support for unmarried mothers.
- Laws to disperse inheritances, to prevent the rise of aristocracy.
The Law of Moses could be quite lefty, but it was lefty in subtle and creative ways, not in the simplistic program-for-every-problem fashion favored by many in the modern Left. All this lefty goodness is found within a framework very conservative in the American sense: moralistic, nationalistic, propertarian, free-market, and low in taxes. Unlike today's welfare states, the Biblical welfare non-state encouraged thrift, enterprise, and family values. The result was a society in which all Israelites had a stake, and all were responsible for enforcing the law and defending the land.
At this point you might be wondering, "Why haven't I heard of this welfare system before?" My answer: you probably have heard at least parts, but your preacher probably breezed by many of them in embarrassment. The welfare system is buried in with the disturbing and politically incorrect parts of the Bible: the stonings, the thrashings, the slavery, the naughty bits. Nay, God's welfare system includes some of the embarrassing parts: slavery and polygamy were part of the system. So preachers downplay and politicians run away.
But since I'm not a preacher and I'm not running for public office, I can dwell on the barbarous and titillating passages in the Bible. It my ruin any future political career, but it may be worth a few links and Diggs today. The Old Testament Law features some serious sex fantasies for nerdy men who lack charm but are good at making money (Digg members!), as well as those good at fighting wars. As a result, the Biblical welfare system is evolution-compatible, more Darwinian than the prescriptions of modern Darwinists. I'm going to have some fun at the expense of those who would kidnap kids from Christian home schools to make sure they get their evolution lessons.
That said, we can glean plenty of politically correct prescriptions from God's welfare system, many ideas that are palatable to both Left and Right. I will throw in the barbarous bits to be complete, to keep you reading, and maybe attract readers who have written off the Bible long ago. But we need not adopt every idea within the ancient example. We are a wealthy society and can afford to be wasteful.
Now that I've hopefully piqued your interest, it's on to the study. For the next chapter we'll dispense with the boring feature: tithes. It turns out that tithes had very little to do with charity in Old Testament times. (Tithing as charity is a New Testament commandment as I show in The New Levites.) Then, in subsequent chapters we'll study the more subtle (and sometimes shocking) features of the ancient system, and possible ways we can make use of the underlying ideas today.
[2010 note: I am in the process of rewriting this series. Some of the promised chapters are still in draft stages.]
Copyright 2004,2010, Carl S. Milsted, Jr. All rights reserved.
