What follows is the biggest slap in the face for atheism and agnosticism, especially for all those who blithely describe the bible as a book of fairy-tales and Easter bunnies.
Centuries before the Roman Republic, which quickly yielded to the
empirical pretensions of Julius Caesar at the Rubicon, God’s people made a sea-change
in near-east political thought.
All the neighboring city-states and proto-nations had an arbitrary
approach to such things.
That was true of the feudal system. Until then, villages lived in
blissful isolation, self-reliant on their own butcher, baker and candle-stick
maker. They would trade to meet any shortages.
That was all great until wild hoards landed along the coast and went on
the rampage, to rape, kill, steal and destroy in their quests for power.
The terrified villagers looked for refuge and gained it at a cost, when
powerful landlords coopted them in return for protection-a-la-mafia. That
converged into powerful kingdoms.
Monarchic rule was still happening until the 17th century,
when Charles 1 lost his head to a proxy-king, at the dawn of a democratic and
constitutional world order.
Throughout history, a standoff raged between the will of individuals or
of the few, and the greater will of the many. Democracy balanced that, but
entrenched rule of the many by the few.
Only sporadic moments of enlightenment contrast the dark demarche of
history. William Penn earned a rare salute from Voltaire for the constitutional
model that he applied to Pennsylvania and which later informed the US
constitution.
Out of that grew a state where everyone and every class, subscribed to the
absolute authority of the constitution. The separation of constitutional
pillars or estates, ensured that no one party could usurp that model and brought
the accountability needed for sustainable development.
Another remarkable exception was the work done in the 15 years that Kemal
Attaturk ruled Turkey. Although as Muslim as his countrymen, he insisted on a
secular state and founded a constitutional republic that escalated Turkey into
NATO, the UN, the G-20 and potentially the EU.
Well, the bible predated all of that. Hence my opening comment. The ten commandments
were never regulatory in scope, they were constitutional and fundamental, as in
the ground-rules that constitutions have also tried to be.
It was elegantly reduced to ten broad principles and, to satisfy the judgment
of history, was chiseled into stone, as the cornerstone of the Mosaic dispensation.
Two sets of regulations derived from the fundamental framework – the ceremonial
and the civil laws. The Sadducees naively saw the regulations as sacrosanct,
but the Pharisees rightly perceived the degree of flexibility afforded by the fundamental
laws.
The result was an oral tradition that expanded and adapted the model to
changes in society and the world around them – just as constitutions do in
contemporary society.
The Decalogue was utterly sacrosanct and it still stands, unchanged, to
this day. Compare that to the 30 or so amendments to the US model over 200
years.
It led to three pillars of government – the judge, or later, the king
who had civil jurisdiction, the priests who had jurisdiction over a fiercely
demarcated domain, the temple, which, as for DC, transcended all the tribes.
The Prophets, like the press of today, made up the third pillar.
The constitution, or covenant as it is better named, was above all. Contrast
that with the way that so many in power now usurp their constitutions and
assume to be Lords of all, when in fact they are servants and custodians of the
covenant or constitution with which they are entrusted.
Now consider what happened with Jesus. The old model failed because of
human folly, as has been true of contemporary dispensations. Thus, a new model
was needed, but in truth God only ever had one model in mind. The Old was a
necessary pathway to the New.
To enable it, God distanced Himself from the direct intervention in the world.
He imposed the same rule on his nemesis, Lucifer. He entrusted the founding of the
world to His son and gave it autonomy, which extended to the self-determination
of nations.
He also spent 4,000 years preparing a sacrifice to underpin the new
constitution. That entrenched a concept of sin and righteousness, to give weight
to all that followed.
The refinement of Christ’s bloodline ensured that he qualified by birth,
but a wilderness trial allowed Satan’s “congressional committee” to rigorously
test and validate Him, followed by further qualifications by a Jewish Sanhedrin
and a Roman court.
In every possible way, Jesus was found to be innocent of His own death
but in every other way, worthy as the ultimate sacrifice under Jewish law.
When offered, the judge, His Father, looked away and refused to accept
His son subjectively, but accepted His offering at arms-length, in terms of the
law.
When He was done, God accepted that sacrifice and, in response, Jesus
shouted “It is done”.
That covenant tore down the veil that precluded all access to the
righteous judge behind all of this, and, as such gave us legal recourse or, as
Hebrews 6:18 puts, “legal refuge”.
It is so resolutely founded, that actually, not even the judge in heaven
can change it, although as we now appreciate, the judge objectively stewards and tests the legal precedents thus made.
It means that I am accepted before God’s throne as a son, despite my
faults. Satan is the greatest witness to that, because for all his
objections, it remains valid. I am righteous before God, through the cross
and by virtue of what Jesus did.
I can now approach God’s court through prayer and be heard, by
relying on the witness of a wounded savior, the blood on the pleading
seat and the veil that tore when Christ was torn.
That is both legally robust and intellectually remarkable, but it
is also as removed from legend and fairy tale as east is from west. Glory to
God.
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