“…you shall take five shekels per head; you shall take them according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel of twenty gerahs)… Numbers 3.47

The Law of God thus intended to guard the economy it outlines against inflation and deflation of the currency by requiring that all trade should be in proper currency of precious metal according to a fixed weight and universal standard. Currency was not the only – and perhaps not even the most common – medium of transaction. There was undoubtedly more bartering than actual exchanging of currency in the economy of ancient Israel, but even that, as we shall see, was regulated according to fixed standards.

A just economy requires a stable currency – money, the value of which can be relied on in every transaction, generation after generation. It is therefore unjust, according to God’s Law, to enact policies that manipulate the value of currency on nothing more than the fiat declaration of the powers-that-be. Printing money just because we “need more money” is not a policy the Law of God would condone. Nor is basing an economy on paper money thus circulated without proper backing.

The Law of God requires, for a just economy, the conservation of wealth, and the proper stewardship of all property, that policies should be enacted which preserve the value of the currency, according to fixed and reliable standards of weight and measure. Any policies which threaten the stability of currency should be carefully controlled if not outright opposed.

T. M. Moore

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