EXODUS 20 – Ten Commandments
Regarding general conduct, civilization and socialization, there is a great slogan in the western hemisphere, and it is the rule of the law, as a categorical imperative.
It is like a religious belief that till the principle of the rule of the law prevails, the democracy is sound.
However as some religious belief is closer to a mere myth than anything else, this great slogan is also closer to a pious wish than to a real principle which should be observed or even maintained by any means. Although it sounds very great, but it is such a general statement that it technically means almost nothing or worse, because there is a pivotal question orbiting it, which keeps haunting for long millennia. Rule of the law, but what law?
Of course that in the USA, this law is supposed to be the constitution. In the British Islands that is the British Common Law in general, and other countries they have their own legislation as well.
It happened to hundreds of thousands of farmers in America in the late XIXth century and in the first half of the XXth century that they received a letter from the tax agency that they are behind in paying their taxes and that is the last warning before the foreclosure.
Those taxes were raised insanely high as a deliberate measure by the tax legislation in order to take the lands from the farmers by administrative tools. In the late XIXth century the manufacturing in the USA grew exponentially and it was not enough anymore that they freed the formerly owned slaves into the employment slavery, they needed more enslaved workers in their factories, which sprung in the cities across the countries. The farmers became homeless and landless and were forced by elevated taxes to scramble into the cities and sell themselves to the factory owners.
Some farmers sued the government, protests were held, some of them even tried to defend their land by rifles, nonetheless all resistance were crashed, because that was the rule of the law. The same happened in England hundred years earlier. This procedure was not really unknown in the history, moreover it happened everywhere and almost always.
Imagine the about 2600 years ago Greece where originally they had a free-farming society, and the land was distributed among tribal and clan lines to each family.
However quite soon the organized military power started to demand taxes from the farmers. First they demanded a proportion of the crops. When the year was good the proportional part of the crops sent as taxes were rich. In a bad year of drought or other problems, when the yield of the land was poor, the proportional amount of the crops sent as taxes were also way less than usual. However the armed and organized power was not happy with the lower amount, they did not care the devastating weather or any excuses, they began to demand taxes in silver and gold coins, regardless of the quality and the quantity of the harvest.
In a good year the farmers were able to pay, but in bad years they went bankrupt because of the tax level. In ancient times in Greece if you were not able to pay they not only confiscated your land, but also they sold you and your family into literal slavery.
Within decades most lands landed in the hand of a handful families and two-third of the population were sold into slavery. At that time that was the rule of the law, the rule of the bad laws.
The same happened in Rome and almost the same within the Frankish empire glorified in the very person of Emperor Charlemagne in the year of 800 AD.
Nothing is new under the sun, thus when Thomas Jefferson whished to see a free society of free farmers, his vision proved to be a utopia in America, because the new mighty eventually took away the farmlands from the majority of the farmers. It was just a matter of time by the help of the rule of their law, of course by the help of the rule of the bad law they created, exactly for this purpose.
The Bible says that nothing and nobody is good or good enough except God, thus the good law must come from God, and it can not be a result of earthly legislation or reforms or amendments, because they are just not good enough. Just as Moses told to the Israelites around 3300 years ago that “ Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” There are a lot of commandments, but they can be summarized in the Ten Commandments.
But what does the Bible says about the land?
First of all, it says that all land belongs to the Lord. God, as the Creator is the only owner of the land. We are caretakers and gardeners. Maintaining the ultimate ownership of the Lord, the Land of Israel was allocated to the twelve tribes of Israel as tribal property, and within the tribes the land was allocated to the clans and the families. Although there were some selling and buying of the land, eventually the land was not for sale, because the Law of Moses says that regardless of the paid amount or the selling price, the buyer of the land must have returned the acquired land to the original owner without any further reimbursement in every 50th year, in the so called Jubilee year. All strayed lands had to return to the original owners according to the original allocation following tribal and clan lines.
This biblical rule practically aims to prevent the greedy and the mighty to grab the land from the tribes and the clans. The Bible is also utterly against slavery, stating that whosoever is sold to slavery must be freed in every seven years without any excuse or reimbursement to the owner. The rule aims to prevent systematic slavery as it existed from Babylon through Egypt and Greece, everywhere, except in the Land of Israel. The Bible is also not only against usury, but utterly against any interest rate, and against of using financial tools to take advantage on the people.
The only good laws are those that are at least parallel with the Ten Commandments, with the intention of the Bible of keeping people free of slavery and poverty, out of greedy wars and unfair taxation.
In a summary we are able to state that what is fair, it must be legal, what is unfair that must be illegal.
However when legislative bodies all over the world are mostly hijacked by group interest, lobbies and power circles, the military and industrial complex, the mega-banks and the stock manipulators, when the aim of the civilization is so declared as profit maximizing economical growth, then everything is possible, any diabolic scenario or evil outcome. It is pivotal to have good laws, because otherwise everything can go south. When the laws are good, we must abide the law, when the laws are bad we must resist the bad laws, and do the right thing.
What is right or wrong, what is the right thing, God tells us explicitly, as it is written by Moses: “Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the midst of the land where you go in to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who shall hear all these statutes, and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." May the Lord help us understand from the Bible, what is the difference between right and wrong, good laws and bad laws, and help us do the right thing always aiming the better future of the next generations and the greater glory of our Creator Sky God, whose name we bless in Jesus by the Holy Spirit, AMEN.
