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September 21, 2014 |
| God’s Economics | ||
In this time of economic trouble it seems there are almost as many views on the economy as there are economists. There is one economist though that I think deserves attention because of his foundation – Wilfred J. Hahn, an economist with a strong Christian perspective.
Though this lesson will touch slightly on the world’s current economic troubles, that topic is not the point of it. The lesson deals with the economic system that God commanded for Israel and the effects of following that system or not. The basis for the lesson will be Wilfred J. Hahn’s three-part series called Jubileum.
“In this 3-part series, our aim is to show just how wonderfully God has aligned the physical creation with His heavenly kingdom and work of salvation. Should His requirements of love, mercy and forgiveness not be practiced, the societies of mankind are designed to malfunction and self-destruct.”1
Wilfred begins with a powerful statement. We often think that God created things – things like animals, people, and planets – and we forget that God created the rules that determine how all the things work. Wilfred is making the point that God created the rules for functional societies. If we do not follow those rules our societies are destined for trouble.
“We are here more interested in the Bible’s view on these questions of wealth, the poor, forgiveness and God’s desired economy for mankind, not the secular theories of man. As it is, the field of economics and its myriad theories (which is a subject body that belongs to the humanities, not science) has yet to settle on a unanimous view. It should also be recognized that this field of “non-sciences” has had a terrible track record.”
Note that these words are coming from a man who makes a living as an economist.
It turns out that the basis for God’s economy is, as you might expect, love. Paul talks of the end-times as “being ‘without love,’ ‘unforgiving,’ instead characterized by the love of money and love of themselves (2 Timothy 3:2-3). That exactly describes the attitudes required to underpin an environment of economic oppression, high indebtedness and widening wealth skews. That day is here today. If anything (by at least some measures), these conditions are likely to get worse … and most certainly, much worse by the time the Tribulation unfolds.”
It turns out that God’s economy is neither Capitalist nor Marxist. “The essential points and attitudes to which we must orient ourselves in relation to wealth and physical possessions are found in the Bible. These were established long before Adam Smith or Karl Marx came along. To emphasize, Biblical ‘wealth theory’ cannot be disassociated from love and justice, and has no union with concepts of ‘self-interest’ (Adam Smith and later concepts of the ‘good’ of capitalism or affluence); nor associations with ‘envy’ nor covetousness; and more lately, the ‘good of greed.’”
“To be ‘relatively’ or ‘absolutely’ wealthy is not a sin (though it is also true that very few are capable of justly managing wealth). The Bible does not condemn the state of being rich; it rather indicts the elite rich that oppress their fellow mankind and take no concern for the poor.”
“Moses said to the Hebrews, “There should be no poor among you” (Deuteronomy 15:4), this being a command from God. Jesus said that He came to preach good news to the poor. (“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed”—Luke 4:18.) He also said: “You will always have the poor among you” (John 12:8), pointing out the unfortunate state of a fallen world.”
“A thorough study of the economic principles within the God-given laws to the Israelites of the Sabbath [Year] and the Jubilee Year reveals the intended “wealth distribution” that God had planned upon earth. It is not unreasonable to take instruction from these commanded ordinances of the Israelites as, after all, they were called to be a light to the world (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6).”
“But aren’t ancient laws and principles irrelevant today? No. Consider that God himself will again reinstitute these two Sabbath ordinances in the Millennium period. Think of it: when Jesus Christ restores all things (Acts 3:21), the Sabbath and Jubilee years will be practiced by the entire earth. Civil leaders today would then do well if they sought to pursue the same principles behind these two ordinances. Then, just what are these principles? We next need to examine the Bible’s teachings about the Sabbath and Jubilee Years.”
Wilfred is not Sabbath-observant in any way. After reading these articles many people accused him of that, but he denied it.
The Israelites observed the weekly Sabbath beginning shortly after leaving Egypt, even before the Ten Commandments were given. 40 years later, as they were about to enter the Promised Land “the seventh-day observance was extended to cover the land (Eretz Israel) in the form of the Sabbath Year. […] God said to Moses on Mount Sinai, “When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops” (Leviticus 25:2-3). It is in this ordinance that many other commands were embedded that related to wealth distribution and the economic life decreed by God to the Israelites. It is a most enlightening topic to study and brings us back to the main objective of this series.”
Now Wilfred gets into the details of the laws that God gave Israel as the foundation for their economy.
“God said through Moses, ‘At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts’ (Deuteronomy 15:1). As such, we see that a seven-year debt cycle was instituted. We can conclude that there was to be no such thing as perpetual debt: every Sabbath Year, debts had to be laid flat. Those who could not pay back their debts by that time were forgiven this amount.”
Wilfred does not mention it in his articles but there is an additional aspect of this law – it is not to be used to determine whether to lend. For example, if the debt cancellation year is one year away and a man wants to borrow some money for a year, the lender is not to consider that the loan might not be paid back on time and therefore be cancelled. The borrower is also not to consider the debt cancellation year and use it to his advantage.
“We can imagine just how different our economies would be today were this same convention applied. There would be no massive accumulations of debt as we see in our time. […] However, the point to note is that whenever speaking of debt, it must always be remembered that it is only one side of a two-fold condition. After all, for every debtor there must also be a creditor; there must be someone that has the monetary capital to lend in the first place, as “for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor” (Isaiah 24:2). […] Therefore, when indebtedness soars, it is most always associated with a rising imbalance in wealth distribution.”
“Anyone familiar with the board game Monopoly will have observed that one person usually ends up owning all the property. When that happens, the game is over and a new one must be started. Effectively, the Sabbath Year served to slow this “winner take all” tendency of human economies, and moreover would reset the game every 7 years. With a Sabbath year being observed, the development of wealth imbalances and economic inequality would be restrained, though likely not entirely eradicated.”
“Industrious and entrepreneurial people would still be rewarded for their efforts. Individuals could still become wealthy. All the same, under this God-given 7-year debt cycle, it was much less likely that an oppressed class of indebted and poor could emerge. However, even this 7th year Sabbath was insufficient to complete God’s outline for economic fairness on earth. One more ordinance was commanded: the Jubilee Year.”
“’Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.’ The 25thchapter of Leviticus lays out a detailed set of rules how the Jubilee Year was to be observed. Following is a partial excerpt:
The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property. If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other. You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops. Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 25:11-17)
“In effect, every 50 years, a new round of ‘Monopoly’ was decreed. Property was restored to its original owners. The year prior (the 49th year being a Sabbath Year), all debts would have been laid flat as well. The main difference of the Jubilee Year as compared to the Sabbath Year, was that land was returned to the original tribe and family and indentured labor (slavery) was broken. Together, these two Sabbath ordinances (both the 7th Sabbath year and the Jubilee Year) ensured that freedom, wealth distribution and incentives for production and income stayed in balance.”
“Were the principles behind these two Sabbath years observed today, our current globalized world of money would not be so dangerously imbalanced. Effectively, the maximum present value of any debt could only be worth 7 years of interest payments and principal repayment. If one bought a piece of property […], its maximum worth was the collective crop output of 42 years. (50 less eight Sabbath years). As the Jubilee Year approached, the value of any land held by a non-family stakeholder would effectively fall to zero by the end of the 48th year. There was no basis for debt becoming a major asset of wealth, thereby ultimately facilitating an ultra-rich class as we again see today. To illustrate this point in part, consider that more than half the value of securitized assets in the world right now are forms of debt.”
“The Jubilee Year ensured another benefit. There would be no permanent indentured slave class – either individuals or nation states. The maximum period of slavery could only be 50 years. As such, at least once in each person’s lifetime, one could be saved from slavery. All could be saved. Poverty, therefore, had fewer tendencies to fester as an intergenerational problem.”
“Alas, the Israelites fell out of the practice of honoring the Sabbath and Jubilee years. Before long, they disobediently again chose to ‘work around the clock, 24-7,’ instead of allowing God’s creation to rest. Prophets were sent to warn them of the consequences (i.e. Jeremiah and Ezekiel). Eventually, the Sabbath became nothing more than a ritualistic nuisance. Amos revealed the attitude of those times: ‘When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat? —skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat’ (Amos 8:5-6).”
Wilfred tends to lump all the Sabbaths together and that shows up here in his selection of a quote. The Israelites are complaining specifically about the weekly Sabbath and one of the annual Sabbaths in this quote. But I’m sure they would have complained the same way about the 7th year Sabbath and the Jubilee Year.
“In time, God punished Israel and Judah for not observing this ordinance. The 70-year captivity in Babylon was directly proportionate to the number of Sabbaths that Judah had not observed for the previous 490 years, as Moses had warned (Leviticus 26:34). ‘The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah’ (2 Chronicles 36:21).”
“Will God also judge the rampant commercialism and economic injustices observed in the world today? The Bible says yes. Mankind’s systems will be brought to naught. What we also do know is that Israel has yet to fully atone for its broken Sabbaths. Referring to the current dispersion period of the Jews and the yet-coming Tribulation period, said the Lord,
I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it (Lev 26:33-35).”
This theme of a Sabbath for the land appears in other places, as seen below from Leviticus 18.
24 “‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 […]. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. (Lev 18)
What themes do you see in Wilfred’s essay? Love, forgiveness, rest, faith
1 Wilfred J Hahn, Extracted from Eternal Value Review, Issue 4, Volume 14, June 2011 www.eternalvalue.com