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Who Shall Issue the Law?

“Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast spoken [is] good [for us] to do. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes. And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear [the causes] between your brethren, and judge righteously between [every] man and his brother, and the stranger [that is] with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; [but] ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment [is] God’s: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring [it] unto me, and I will hear it. And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do.” Deuteronomy 1:13-18.

This is a conversation Moses had with the Israelites. It’s a retelling of what happened many years before after he had told God that the people, their number and their problems, were too much for one man to take care of. For several reasons, the modern idea of the independent judiciary makes little sense in a secular humanistic culture. Neither do Moses’ words about fearing God in order to issue just judgments. Moses’ words are rejected by modern man, and an independent judiciary falls apart if there is no authoritative law to which the judiciary must submit.

But in a humanistic culture, a law above and authoritative upon man is a contradiction to the terms of the civil covenant because the god (man) cannot be commanded. The god must command. The idea of a prophet from God (Moses) teaching rulers the law they are to enforce is the ideal, but modern man does not even consider that possibility. It cannot enter his mind because it contradicts the very basis for his society, at least, his view of what society should be. Today, only men may be gods and decide good and evil for themselves – just as the serpent/dragon told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The result is always death in such a culture.