“If a man dedicates to the LORD part of the land that is his possession, then the valuation shall be in proportion to its seed. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.” Leviticus 27.16

Undoubtedly, within the economy outlined in God’s Law, “prices” could fluctuate somewhat, but probably not much. Since the value of money was rigorously conserved (as we have seen), just and honest measures were enforced, and sellers and buyers were expected to treat one another and all their neighbors with love, it’s hard to imagine that inflation would have been able to make much headway in the economy outlined by the Law of God.

The Book of Revelation notes the injustice of an economy which favors the wealthy at the expense of the rest of the people through the manipulation of prices (cf. Rev. 6.6). Such injustice would have been unthinkable in a society where the Law of God set the standards and parameters for economic activity. This was almost never the case in ancient Israel, which struggled throughout its existence to obey the Law of God; however, this fact should not be allowed to obscure the Law’s intention of ensuring stable prices on traded goods and services.

While we do not expect to return to a “grain-standard” for the American economy, still, we might give more thought as to what we can learn about maintaining individual buying power over time through a more careful examination of the principles of economic justice embedded in the Law of God.

Public policies must be pursued which will allow people to count on stable purchasing-power over time, and it is quite likely that the Law of God can help us to get beyond our current “profit, only profit” mindset to consider how matters of neighbor-love might become more a feature of our economic activity.

T. M. Moore

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