By Ben Quine
**This article is part of a series written by Ben Quine that takes us through the whole of Scripture to discover how God set up an economy for His people, and how His timeless economic principles apply to us today.

Only one generation ago, before going on a long journey, it was important to first study a printed map to plan a route, get an idea of the distance and time required for the trip, and plan out any additional stops along the way. Nowadays, most people no longer consult paper maps. But maps have become more important than ever, and they are used by millions of people every day via phone mapping, navigational software, and GPS. Maps show us the best way to get to where we want to go. They show us potential dangers to avoid. And without maps we might get terribly lost or delayed.

This is also what God’s Word does for our life. It guides us to where we want to go. It shows us the best way to get there. It cautions us on dangers to avoid.

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. (Psalm 119:97-100)

David praises God for the wisdom contained in His law. By meditating on it, David has more wisdom and understanding than those around him. To paraphrase noted philosopher and theologian Dr. Francis Schaeffer, though the Bible doesn’t speak exhaustively on topics such as politics, economics, or science, we can be sure that what it does speak, it speaks with the truth and wisdom of Heaven. 

What Economic principles can we learn from God’s perfect law? Let’s look at the map God gave to His people… 

1. Property

Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. (Deuteronomy 10:14)

God, our heavenly father and the living Creator, is the owner of all things. We are merely His stewards, entrusted with caring for His earth.

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12:5-7) 

God set up the family as the preeminent institution (Genesis 2), and He gave the land of Canaan to His people, to be divided by families, to be their possession forever. 

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Among these the land shall be divided for inheritance according to the number of names.” (Numbers 26:52-53)

When Abraham’s descendants entered Canaan from Egypt, God gifted an inheritance of land to each family (with the exception of the tribe of Levi), ensuring that every person would have private property. This allows for the circumstances we saw in the life of the Proverbs 31 Woman in the previous articles: work hard to create produce and merchandise, sell that produce for an honest profit, invest and care for family, all while caring for the poor. 

And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan… In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property… The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land. (Leviticus 25:10, 13, 23-24)

The Year of Jubilee was instituted by God as an incredible, once-every-50-years holiday, where every family would return to the land of their inheritance.

In a primarily agricultural society (without a Jubilee), the long-term effect of selling the family’s land could be disastrous, as it would remove the main source of income, potentially devastating future generations. But under God’s Jubilee, even if an individual was forced to sell, the land was guaranteed to return to the family every fifty years.

God’s economic plan for His people served as a safeguard against the majority of land being owned by a small ruling class. This is the opposite of a medieval feudal system (where all land was owned by a handful of individuals and common people had no opportunity to EVER gain property). 

God’s system also guarded against monopolies. So we see that God doesn’t want power or property centralized into the hands of a few people.

2. Care for the poor

At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord’s release has been proclaimed. (Deuteronomy 15:1-2)

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:9-10)

The Law also prescribed that individuals should care for their poor neighbors: they should assist them monetarily (via no-interest loans which were forgiven every seven years), and leave portions of their fields unharvested. In God’s plan for His chosen people, He created a partnership where those in need would personally come and glean in fields specifically left for them.

God wanted every person to have the opportunity for this basic work so they could provide for their own family with dignity. 

So [Ruth] set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.” Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab… Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” (Ruth 2:36, 8–12)

As with Ruth, the poor gleaners would likely come face-to-face with the land’s owner. The example of Boaz is striking because it shows that when this law was obeyed, it provided natural opportunities to tell Gentile sojourners of the goodness of the Lord (Ruth 2:12). God created a system that was so generous, people couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you doing this??” and the answer would be “Because of how wonderful the Lord is!” Then God gets the glory.

The bedrock for these commands is love. Leviticus 19, much like I Corinthians 13, gives practical, descriptive lists of what love looks like. God’s love always seeks the best for another, and this economic and legal system is loving because it takes care of and provides for everyone involved. As Romans 13:8-10 says, love fulfills the Law because it does no harm to a neighbor. Adopting God’s economic plan is love in action!

3. Business 

“You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin." (Deuteronomy 24:14-15)

“No one shall take a mill or an upper millstone in pledge, for that would be taking a life in pledge… When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you.” (Deuteronomy 24:6, 10-11)

Deuteronomy 24 highlights how God commands businesses to safeguard the individual dignity of their people. He condemns denying a neighbor the ability to make or purchase food (i.e. taking their millstone), and protects against the shame of having a lender come inside their home (verse 10-11). He instructs that businesses are to be compassionate, that they are to show special concern for the powerless in society (sojourners, widows, and orphans), and that they are never allowed to oppress or cheat their employees.

You shall not steal. (Exodus 20:15)

God allowed tremendous freedom of business and freedom of markets, and He did not implement tariffs, taxes, or price controls on marketable goods. His only stipulation was that He required absolute honesty from His people in all their business dealings:

You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 25:13-16)

There is also a great emphasis in this law that Israel’s society be truly just one. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary uses these words to define Just: “what is morally right; upright and impartial in one’s dealings; equitable; fair; equal; right; true; correct.” 

In God’s society, wealth would not be given or taken by the government, and neither poor nor rich would be granted special treatment because of their economic status. Not everyone would have the same economic starting point, not everyone would end up with the same wealth, but everyone would have the opportunity to receive God’s blessings by following His laws. And everyone would be treated the same in court. Honesty, impartiality, and equality before God were the standards of the court system, for both individuals and businesses. And private property rights were highly guarded and protected. {See Answers for Difficult Days: Justice} 

God’s Word is our life map. God’s Old Testament Law is also a life map. In it, we see that God crafted an extraordinary economic system that was both moral and efficient. God promised that if His people strictly obeyed His rules, He would deliver them from poverty, generational debt, slavery, and servitude.

The book of Leviticus surrounds its teaching on love with God’s economic laws because they are a powerful illustration of love in action. When asked “Which is the greatest commandment?” Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19. He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:34-40). 

Next time we will look at the basic economic principles for government found in God’s Law. Stay tuned!

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ABOUT BEN

Connect with him at Cornerstone Curriculum

Ben Quine, the second son of David and Shirley Quine, was blessed to grow up with a Charlotte Mason/Dr. Schaeffer/Biblical Worldview education -- a tremendous gift! Through the years, Ben has served as a Cornerstone consultant, assistant, and co-author. He has written several Bible studies for the Answers for Difficult Days series, which equips churches to address the issues our culture is wrestling with today, from the foundation of Scripture. Ben is also the editor of The Worldview Library, editions of classical literature with student helps that afford the reader a deeper understanding of the concepts presented in each work.

Trained as a classical pianist and instructor, Ben is committed to inspiring his students with the love of great music and equipping them with the tools to perform at the highest level. This training has resulted in his students' successful performances from local festivals and competitions to Carnegie Hall.

Ben loves Shakespeare, Dickens, photography, listening to recordings of "the great pianists", running, biking, and spending time with his wife Julie and their three sons.