“And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the nearest kinsman of his clan, and he shall possess it. And it shall be for the people of Israel a statute and a rule, as the LORD commanded Moses.’” Numbers 27.8-11

In the economy of justice outlined in God’s Law, property – thought of principally in terms of land – was considered a familial rather than merely a personal trust.

All property was understood to have been bestowed by the Lord for the use of individuals in meeting their needs, serving their families, and contributing to their communities and the national weal. Property – even, in those days, in the form of foreign slaves (Lev. 25.44-46) – was to be passed on to one’s family upon one’s decease. Families would then continue the stewardship of their property in line with the requirements of justice.

In this economy of justice, no role was envisioned for civil government in the transfer of property from one generation to the next, except to see that lawful heirs received what was lawfully theirs. Heirs could appeal to civil authorities to resolve disputes over inheritances, as we see in Ruth 4, but the idea that the powers-that-be should be able to commandeer a portion of the proceeds or net worth of an estate for their own purposes, no matter how these may have been intended, would have been regarded as a form of thievery by ancient Hebrews.

We seem to know intuitively that it is not right for government to steal from the property of families. We pay lawful taxes to support our government’s needs in serving us, but, if the Law of God were followed, we would not allow government to include in such taxes a “take” of a family’s inheritance.

Thus, in our day people rely on carefully crafted wills and trusts to keep the State from seizing part or all of the inheritance they leave behind upon their decease. Estate taxes are a measure of the State’s sense of its ultimate authority to determine how best to allocate private property, whenever and wherever it can. They represent a usurpation by the State of the authority of families and, ultimately, of God.

T. M. Moore
 

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