Deuteronomy

Family and Trade

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: 94-110

Genre: Talk

Track: 094

Dictation Name: RR187AY94

Location/Venue:

Year: 1993

Let us worship God. Praise ye the Lord, praise God in His sanctuary, praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, praise ye the Lord. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God we rejoice in Thy mercies, Thy blessings, Thy providential care. We thank Thee that day after day Thy mercies are new every morning. Grant oh Lord that as we face a world of evil that our hearts be surely fixed upon Thee for our true joys are ever to be found. Make us ever mindful of the greatness of Thy government, Thy redemptive love and Thy providential care. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture Deuteronomy 25:13-16 and our subject: Family and Trade. Deuteronomy 25:13-16.

“Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.

14 Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.

15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

16 For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.”

This law is related to Leviticus 19:35-37 which reads:

“ Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.

36 Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am theLord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.

37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.”

Honest measurement in every sphere in goods, liquids, money and everything else are a matter of justice and of religious concern. All who disregard honesty in measurement are described as an abomination unto the Lord. They are like filth in His sight. These are as Hoppe pointed out trade laws. Trust is essential to community life and a failure in this sphere is deadly to a community. We forget that a fixed price is an achievement of Christian civilization. In other cultures notably the Islamic, a simple transaction involves endless haggling because there is a lack of fixed price. So whether it is a very large item or food or clothing whatever you are buying there is an endless haggling over prices because of a lack of a fixed price. A fixed price represents an adjustment of cost of production and the cost of marketing with a profit on both ends. Where haggling or dickering occurs there is a disbelief in the integrity of fixed prices. The loss of fixed prices is destructive to an economy. We are seeing what is happening in our world today as in one sphere after another haggling, bartering, dickering have replaced the fixed price. Consider what this will do if it extends to food stuff, clothing, and other things. Business does not flourish wherever the fixed price is gone. Together with a loss of fixed prices you begin to have a decline in valid measurements. The validity of pricing is undermined in other ways, by false weights.

One such false weight or measurement is paper money and debased currencies. It is false because it loses value. Before 1965 if you had a quarter in your pocket it was worth close to a quarter in silver, the difference between the value of the silver and the twenty five cent price on it was the cost of production. Now, a quarter is worth maybe a penny or two. False measurements lose value. Those who argue that the items purchased can also lose value fail to reckon that the loss through use is a legitimate economic fact where loss by inflation is larceny. When you pay for a car you are using it, it’s going to have wear and tear and decline in price but you gave an honest dollar for it or thought you did. But now the dollar that you gave and the dollar you receive in pay represent false measurements. God’s indictment of such practices appear in many verses. In Isaiah 1:21-22 the debasing of silver is termed by God the whoredom of the once faithful capitol. Amos 8:5 and Micah 6:11 speak of fraudulent measurements as wicked. In the twentieth century the modern state has legislated against false weights and measurements by business while its self-embarking on some of the most radical injustices in this sphere in the name of sound money, clean air, and a variety of other pretensions. The question is one of protection, how can society be best protected? By God’s law or man’s fiats? We have a long history of the sorry result of man’s unwillingness to trust God. Certainly trust in man has had evil results. Using divers results has reference to an ancient practice of using greater weights and smaller, depending on the circumstances, in other words, false scales.

Weighing some food when purchased, that is a calf or a hen, with a lighter weight means getting more than one paid for. Weighing with a heavier weight, one selling would bring in more money. Rather incidentally we learn that David as king introduced a standard weight to limit fraud and deception. This is reported in Second Samuel 14:26. We are told that all who use false measurements do unrighteously or do injustice. The earlier instance of this law, Leviticus 19:35-27 is at the conclusion of a passage, chapter Leviticus 19, in our bibles on sanctification basic to the life of holiness. It is measuring up to God’s standards in everyday life in the world of business and house hold affairs. The false doctrine of holiness or sanctification locates holiness in spiritual exercises whereas the law of God places it in the context of everyday life. Remember, holiness as God defines it means among other things just weights and just measures, very, very practical things. It should not surprise us therefore that some of the greatest Christian renewals and advances have had courageous and honest business men deeply involved. This is the way of holiness, it is practical, it deals with everyday life. People who put on a super pious front when they are incapable of honesty are not holy, they are evil. Lawlessness in this sphere is called an abomination unto the Lord. Samuel Raphael Hirsch, a Jewish commentator, in analyzing the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy 25:16 and Leviticus 18:27 concluded and I quote:

“The responsibility for sins against honest weights and measures is still greater than that for sexual immorality.”

Well without agreeing with Hirsch there is a very important point to what he says because the bible compares the two. Sexual immorality and dishonest weights. Why? They are both called an abomination because sexual sins can pollute the family by among other things by making paternity uncertain or altered. Sins in the sphere of measurements have a like deadly affect. They pollute economic activity to produce a bastardized result. The two kinds of offenses are deliberately compared by the use of a common phrase: abomination to the Lord to call attention to their common evil nature. But the parallel does not end there. The commandment to honor one’s father and mother carries the promise of long life that thy days may be prolonged, we are told. And so too does this law require just weights and just measures. We must obey that our days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord our God giveth us. The functioning of life requires godly families and godly economic activity. Integrity in marriage and in trade is required. Lawlessness in these two spheres warps the whole of life. Proverbs 11:21 tells us:

“A false balance [or a balance of deceit] is abomination to the Lord but a just weight is His delight.”

In every sphere of life the standards must be from God and His law and every departure is a step towards the destruction of the society. False weights and false measures warp a society, they make the poor poor and they create a dishonest ruling class. The middle class is usually wiped out where dishonest measurements prevail especially with respect to money. To fight such injustices is usually beyond the means and ability of the victims. Justice in trade is therefore a matter of concern to all.

Money is the life blood of trade. Only occasionally do most people in their life time have contact with a court of law but all have daily involvement with trade. Shopping brings women into the world of trade regularly, anything which warps that realm whether it be fraudulent money, intrusive regulations and any other falsifying factor has an effect on the whole society. We live in families and we are a part of a trading world. The two realms can strengthen the social order or they can destroy it. Just think for a moment of how far we’ve departed from this sort of thing. Recall some of the TV commercials that we routinely hear, one comedian leaning over the window of a car asking a person ‘you’ve got a new car, did you buy it from so and so in this or that particular area? You didn’t! You mean you got taken, you paid the full sticker price?’ and he doubles up in laughter. Now, such advertising may be clever but it is evil because what it is telling us is that our civilization is seeking to destroy just weights, just measures. Instead of an honest price we have a variable price, a dickering price. It is routine now for almost all automobiles to dicker. Orientals are exceptionally good at this, Muslims insist on it and Americans now have become accustomed to dickering for a price. The fixed price is steadily being eroded. Whether in one realm or another in the bigger items it is disappearing. It will not return until we have a changed population. This kind of thing is called evil. When God calls anything an abomination we have better listen and obey. Let us pray.

Our Father, Thy law is the law of justice and we have in our pretended wisdom substituted our ways. Oh Lord God of hosts deliver us from ourselves, make us strong in Thy service and effective in Thy kingdom. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Question] I think a classic illustration of this is what is going on in the criminal justice system in this country with plea bargaining.

[Rushdoony] Excellent, yes. And the parole boards, a sentence no longer means anything when it is even given, so that a very high percentage, I’ve been told as high as 95 and 98 in some areas of all the sentences as a result of plea bargaining so that there is very, very little done in terms of what the law stipulates. So bargaining has replaced justice in the criminal sphere and it’s become so bad that it is now impossible in some areas to do anything any other way. Now I believe this year General Motors tried in California as a [unknown] to go back to a fixed price. It has not worked except for one of their models that has been in such heavy demand that it’s been impossible for people to dicker, they are too eager to get it and are in line to get it. But this business of dickering is destroying many a business. Yes?

[Question] Well the interesting thing to me is that the reason for this, I’ve wondered about this for a long time, and the reason is is that its driven by the desire of government to maintain itself in the face of declining bucket revenues, in other words, public prosecutors now have a fixed budget to operate on so in order to insure their own political future they want as many convictions as they can get for something.

[Rushdoony] Hmmm.

[Question] So justice never enters into it, whatever they can negotiate because of the cost of going to trial, the chance that they might lose, so it’s politically driven and economically driven, and the basic consideration is no longer whether or not justice is served.

[Rushdoony] Very, very important point, yes. They want to run on a good record even if it means people who should be put away permanently are going to be out on the streets very shortly. We are seeing the breakdown of law as a result. Any other questions or comments?

It is interesting that the word abomination is used to describe this sort of thing because abomination, a word that is no longer used except in the bible, has a connotation of something filthy, disgusting, reprehensible. In other words it’s not simply wrong; it’s beyond that in the realm of totally disgusting and filthy. Well, if there are no further questions or comments let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, it has been good for us to be here, we thank Thee that Thy word speaks to every area of life and thought. It holds forth the promise of justice, of holiness. Thou hast called us to be Thy people and Thou hast told us the way wherein we should walk. Make us zealous therefore in faithfulness and obedience to Thy word. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.