p. 220 | Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · July 16, 1896

THE GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL.

[Present Truth, London, Eng.]

The government of ancient Israel, when it came up out of Egypt, was a theocracy, that is, a government directly ordered by God. There was no legislative department. There were even no legislators. Moses himself, their chief and leader, was not a legislator. Moses never made a law. The so-called “Laws of Moses” were received by him directly from God. Moses had no voice in making them. He had no option as to the enforcement of them. Moses was not a “law-giver,” he was a receiver of the law, and that only. God alone was the law-giver.

The seventy elders were not a legislature. They never made any laws. Moses and the seventy elders were commanded to administer and enforce only the laws which God had given them for Israel. As regards this the directions

were explicit to add nothing to them and to take nothing from them.

The history of the appointment of Moses is given with unmistakable clearness in the third chapter of Exodus. “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Behold when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, ‘The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His name? what shall I say unto them?’ And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” Exod. 3:6, 10, 13–15.

This leaves no room to mistake by whose appointment Moses came to occupy the position which he did in reference to the Jewish people.

But later there were associated with Moses the seventy “elders.” Who were they? They were actually the elders,—the aged men,—those who by patriarchal right were of authority in their families. From among these the seventy were chosen. Remember it was not the selection which made them “elders.” They were selected from those who were ready the elder,—made so by the course of years, not by election.

But by the authority of whose word, and how, were they chosen? To learn this definitely read Numbers 11:16, 17, 25. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and I will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders; and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.”

Now in all this neither Moses, nor the seventy, nor the people, had any sovereignty whatever. None of them had any part in enacting the laws. They were not consulted in the least as to what laws should be enacted or how they should be enforced. The sole part they played was to promise to obey. This was just as true of Moses and the seventy as of the people at large. The legislative power centered in God alone. In the latter period of the history of Israel, when they were given kings, it was not the people who chose their king. God himself selected, crowned, and deposed the men who ruled over Israel.

Under the theocracy, however, the management of civil and religious affairs was kept entirely separate. God chose the priesthood himself, and cut them off entirely from any authority or influence or participation in the affairs of civil government. So, now, if those who would imitate a theocracy in these days would strive to be at all true to their copy, they should separate entirely the religious from the secular, in their governmental methods.

But the first essential would be for all who rule in the name of God to be appointed directly by him, and not by their own ambition, or by birth, or by the voice of the people. Then it is also just as essential that they should not be lordly men of haughtiness and might, but meek, and humble, and obedient servants of their Lord and his people. Such was the government of Israel as anciently established. Where is the possibility for such another on the earth? There is no such possibility, and there will not be until Revelation is fulfilled and “all things are made new.” Then Christ himself will reign and our daily prayer be answered, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”