Hammurabi’s and Moses’ codes both explicitly state that their purpose is to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land to prevent injustice. The difference between the two codes – and this is huge – lies in the contractual nature of Hammurabi’s Law vs the covenantal nature of the Mosaic Law. Human nature is such that powerful rulers, whether a theo-cracy – rule by the gods, or aristo-cracy – rule by the aristocrats, over powerless masses inevitably overrides the contractual agreements.
The Greeks recognized this problem when they replaced their kings with new forms of government. First came Demo–cracy – People Power. In Athens, all male citizens were eligible to participate in the city’s governing assembly. Obviously, this only works in small city states, and most of all, worked because anyone who didn’t fit in was eliminated by ostracism – a legal procedure by which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. Execution was also used to keep the status quo from being disrupted by new ideas, Socrates being a famous example.
Socrates’ student Plato conceived The Republic, from Latin rēs (“thing”) + pūblica (“public”), literally “the public thing”, defining the novel plan of rule of the people by using representatives in an organized political system famously implemented by Rome (hence the Latinized name) and subsequent Western nations including the United States of America. Plato also emphasizes the rights of the people through detailed expositions of political and ethical justice.
The ideal Republic comprises three social classes: rulers / currently called the Legislative and Executive Branches, guardians /Judicial Branch, and producers / not represented in governmental decisions. (There is no place for persons who do not produce anything for the state.)
Corresponding to the three social classes are the three parts of the individual soul, which must be Good and Just for this macro system to work.
- reason that desires truth and goodness
- spirit preoccupied with honour and values
- and appetite with curbs on food, drink, and sex.
This is basic Humanism, the belief that humans have the innate power to overcome the essential hormonal and neurological drives of the human body and soul, in total opposition to the laws – unalterable physical reality created by God.
Hammurabi’s Laws assign socially approved / disallowed behaviors and punishments.
And here is where the Mosaic Law – the Melchizedekian covenant of dominion over sin and death – absolutely did not plagiarize the Code of Hammurabi – a contract.
The Mosaic Law deals with the cause of destructive behavior, not just its effects, and prevents, not just punishes, social damage through its demands on personal and national holiness.
“the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good…but I am carnal [flesh, hormonal and neurotransmitter-driven]…
what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good…For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not….
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death…?
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but…[mind] the things of the Spirit [of God in us].” (Romans 7, 8:3-5)
Hammurabi or the Supreme Court of the United States or any other leadership forum can’t simply arbitrarily call into existence the rightness or wrongness of actions. Just like defying laws of physics will inevitably cause destruction, so too breaking laws of human nature will inevitably lead to destruction.
For example, Hammurabi’s code imposed a fine on anyone who caused a pregnant woman to lose her child, while the Book of the Covenant required a life for a life, not only recognizing but teaching the sanctity – and value – of life.
“After nearly thirty years, the data suggest that abortion has been anything but good for the United States.” The economic consequences alone are that abortion (the modern clinically approved manner of child sacrifice)
- reduced the size of the economy,
- undercut one main cause of the American economy’s current dynamism: innovation,
- reduced the standard of living of the average America household
- is single-handedly responsible for anticipated imbalances in the Social Security retirement system,
- is perhaps the single largest American economic event of the past century, more significant than the Great Depression or the Second World War.
“the analysis warns that if it continues unchecked, legal abortion will progressively erode both America’s relative economic importance and her average absolute standard of living.”
Another example of the impossibility of reversing a law of nature by decree is the massive numbers of innocent deaths by AIDS caused by unlimited political support of homosexuality. See relevant post for details.
The Code of Hammurabi is interested only in the free men class and gives special protection to the middle and higher social classes of Babylon…the lower classes, the wardu (slaves) and the mushkenu (free person of low estate) have no such protection. Taking the life of your own slave was no-one’s business but your own, and taking the life of another man’s slave might only bring a fine.
The Melchizedekian Covenant, defined in great detail in the Mosaic Law, protects the disenfranchised members of society, regardless of their place or rank in society,
There is a sharp contrast between contractual laws simply cursing the unrighteousness and covenantal blessings giving second chances, between the contractual goal for longevity of the king and prosperity for the nation’s elite class through exploitation of the working class and the covenantal goal for equality and elevation of all through eternal unity with Almighty God.
And in this life, the Mosaic Covenant provides a far better quality of life for its subjects than any contract nation.
- There is one day out of seven free from labor as opposed to the Egyptian, Roman and French Renaissance Republics’ one day out of ten,
- as well as one full year’s vacation out of seven,
- redistribution of resources to those unable to provide for themselves via a low ~22% income tax,
- and periodic elimination of debt.
- ensuring equal distribution of resources to all subjects, with no wealthy elite gaining power over the impoverished.
The presumption here is not that loans are made to exploit commercial opportunity, but rather to avert disaster. Indeed the Mosaic law encourages such lending: “If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him what he needs.” (Deut. 15: 7-8, NIV)
Compare the assurances of debt relief in the Mosaic Covenant with the Mesopotamian reactionary debt release practices during crises.
In Hammurabi’s time…The peasantry was provided with land…tools, draught animals, livestock, and water for irrigation, so that they could grow food…they had to pay to the State as rent…When the harvest was poor, they accumulated debts. If peasants were unable to pay off their debts, they could also find themselves reduced to the condition of serfs or slaves…after 1400 BC; inequality increased and intensified. Land was taken over by big private land-owners and debt enslavement became commonplace. The ensuing centuries…have evidence of violent social struggles between creditors and debtors.”
Contrast with the oversight and restrictions placed on leaders in God’s kingdom.
“Now the sons of Eli [chief priest and judge over the kingdom of Israel] were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD. And there came a man of God unto Eli and said unto him… Wherefore… honourest thy sons above me, …thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them.” (I Samuel 2:12-36)
“And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue:” (I Samuel 13:13-14, Acts 13:22)
The common feature between the two types of agreements is the eternal condition of the spiritual life of the ruler.
- In contractual paganism, the ruler obeyed the demands of the god who experienced “life” by indwelling him – in short, demon possession – maximizing the quality of life of the god by plundering the lives of his worshippers. Can we not recognize this down through the ages by the exorbitant lifestyles of the rich and famous extracted by extortionate policies against the masses?
- But under YHVH’s covenant, Melchizedek Adam lived on in the DNA of the Order of Melchizedek through a dynasty of heirs culminating in The Seed of the Woman who achieved eternal life through union with God for ALL kings AND subjects in his kingdom by gathering the people in, not an insurrection, but a resurrection.
To determine the type of any nation, we only need to measure the morality of the ruler and the welfare of the people in action, not words. What is America in 2025?
Kingdom Come 