“A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.” Leviticus 27.16

Wherever money comes into use, greed is a common temptation. The love of money is a root of all evil, especially when men are able to manipulate prices to their advantage and at the expense of their neighbor.

God understands this tendency in us, and, in ancient Israel, He “fixed” prices in order to discourage creed, encourage productivity, and sustain a sound currency. Most of the transactions among the people of God in those days were probably of the nature of bartering, since, for the most part, households were fairly self-sufficient. There was a currency, however, based on the shekel, the value of which was pegged to gold and silver, according to measure.

Further, the standard for currencies, and for anything traded where currency was the measure, if not the medium, was maintained among the religious leaders of the community (Ex. 20.13; Lev. 5.14, 15; Num. 3.47). Prices were fixed by the standard of the currency and determined, for everyday comparison, by harvests: so many homers of seed would be worth so many shekels (Lev. 27.16). And that also meant that prices were held stable by the policies of land use commanded in the Law of God (Lev. 25.13-17).

Such an approach to guarding prices and values will not sit well with our capitalistic economy and its hunger for credit and debt. But there are principles here which we must try to understand. In our lifetime we have seen fluctuations in prices and values, decline in the value of money and property, and a great deal of uncertainty about the economic future of the nation. No standard exists for our currency except what the people are willing to believe at any given time. Whatever we’re doing to navigate the ship of the American economy, it is beginning not to work. It is time for clear-thinking Christians to ask what it would mean for prices and the economy as a whole today to come under the authority of God’s holy and righteous and good Law.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.