Moses and Conservatism

There is a lot of discussion about politics going on right now because of all that has transpired in our country over the past year. Many of us have grown weary of hearing about it. I had a conversation with a guy the other day about Christians and Politics. I mentioned that I am a Conservative when it comes to politics because I am a student of the Bible and a born again Christian. He mentioned that he is just a Christian and was not concerned with politics. I am not a huge political junky like some are but I do follow politics because I believe that politics is a battle of worldviews in the public square and the worldview that dominates impacts me and my neighbor. I believe in and try to live by the Biblical principle of loving my neighbor as myself. Whatever the dominant worldview is in my country will impact me directly as well as my neighbor. Biblical Christianity is a worldview and I believe it is the best worldview so in the battle of worldviews that we call politics, the Biblical, Christian worldview must have a place at the table. Both of my grandfathers fought in the South Pacific to hand the torch of freedom to my parents, who in turn, handed that freedom to me when I won the lottery by being born in the United States of America. I want to preserve that freedom and one of the ways that I can do that is to vote. Voting is a huge privilege that comes with great responsibility. Most humans throughout history never had the opportunity to vote for their political leaders. I do not take that privilege lightly. When it comes to voting, I look to people who have Conservative values since I am voting for a person who represents me in the political realm. I believe that Conservatism is a Biblical value and I want to demonstrate that in this article by taking a look at the religious and political leader Moses. I believe that he taught Conservatism because he learned it from God, directly.

In order to explain this, I would like to take a look at the ancient book of Deuteronomy, written over 3,600 years ago. I truly believe that the Bible is ancient wisdom for our modern times.

I need to define what Conservatism is before we jump into the Biblical text. The word conservative comes from the English verb to conserve. This word comes to the English language via the Old French word conserver. This Old French word stems from the Latin verb conservare. This Latin word is composed of two other Latin words com which means to join together with and servare which means to keep watch over or protect. A conservative is someone who joins with others to keep watch over and protect something. This idea goes back to the book of Deuteronomy which, as I already mentioned, is over 3,600 years old.

I. Moses was taught by God

The idea of Conservatism begins with God. Moses did not invent the idea. He simply received it from God and lived by it.

“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, (Deuteronomy 6:1)

Moses was not a natural leader. In fact, unlike most of today’s politicians, Moses did not want the job of leading the people. He tried to run away from it. He came up with excuse after excuse when God called him. Moses needed to be taught how to lead the people and God was willing to train Moses on the job. God delivered the principles of leadership to Moses via His Holy Word. Moses was to receive the principles of leadership from God and then preserve or conserve those principles as he lived out his daily life. As I mentioned earlier, conservatism did not originate with Moses. It actually originated with God. This is the pattern that the Lord laid out for leadership. That pattern in the form of the principles found in the Word of God was to be conserved by Moses, followed by Moses, and then passed on to the people. Moses was obedient to the Lord. This is one of the reasons why Moses is know to us today as a “friend of God”.

II. Moses taught the people

Moses did not waste any time taking the principles of the Word of God to the people.

“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it,
so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
“O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. (Deuteronomy 6:1-3)

The people also learned Conservatism from Moses which means they actually learned it from God. The people were to take what they learned and apply it to their daily lives. Conserving what the Lord had given to them was a sign of respect for God. The people were not progressively making up their own principles to live by as they saw fit.

14 “You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you,
15 for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.
16 “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah. (Deuteronomy 6:14-16)

The people of Israel were warned to stay away from progressively adopting the principles of the people around them because those principles would cause them to turn away from God. Instead, they were to conserve what had been handed down to them all the days of their lives. These principles given to them by God were going to cause the children of Israel to prosper like no other time in their history, as long as they conserved those principles. The prosperity was going to bring a dangerous temptation and set it before them.

“Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build,
and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,
then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)

As the people would begin to prosper, there was going to arise a danger, the possibility of forgetting the Lord who caused all of this to happen and cease to conserve the principles given to them by God. Instead, they were in danger of falling into progressivism, that is, progressively making up their own principles to live by as they saw fit, usually borrowed principles from the people around them.

Do you see any parallels to today in this scenario laid out in Deuteronomy 6? I sure do. It was not enough for the people to conserve these principles. They were to pass these principles on to the next generations to conserve as well.

III. The people were to teach their children

As the old saying goes, “the children are the future”. Since this is a reality today just like it was over 3,600 years ago, we need to take a look at the pattern laid out for the parents and grandparents in Deuteronomy 6.

so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
” You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the LORD our God commanded you?’
then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. (Deuteronomy 6:2, 7, 20-21)

The people were not to outsource conservatism to someone else. They could not hire Moses as the religious and civics teacher for the children. Moses taught the people and modeled conservatism for them and then they were to teach their children and grandchildren. The parallels are striking. Today, we are to learn to conserve the principles found in the Word of God and model them to our children. We are also to teach conservatism to our children. As a society, we have learned to outsource everything. We pay pastors to teach our children the Bible. We pay school teachers to teach our children civics. We hire coaches to teach our children the Biblical principles of teamwork, fairness, and sportsmanship. Those are not bad things but, according to God’s model in Deuteronomy 6, as parents, it is our job to teach our children to conserve the principles found in the Word of God. Progressivism is the motto of our modern world. Conservatism is seen as archaic and outdated. We have strayed away from the pattern laid out in God’s Word and we wonder why it seems like our country is falling apart. In fact, Deuteronomy 6:14-15 warns us of what will happen if we abandon conservatism and embrace progressivism.

“You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you,
for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

There is a reason that it seems like we are coming apart at the seams as a nation. We are experiencing the anger of the Lord. Is there hope for us? Yes of course and that hope is also found in the principles laid out in God’s Word.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9)

God wants us to come to our senses like the prodigal son in the Bible. He hit rock bottom and then he came to his senses and decided to return to the Father.

What about you, my dear friend, are you conserving the principles handed down to our current generation in the Word of God? Or, have you bought into the progressive lie that we can make up our own principles? What do you need to do? If you have bought into the lie of progressivism, you need to repent and return to the principles found in the Word of God. What are you passing on to the next generations? Are you modeling conservatism or something else? What legacy are you going to leave for future generations? May the Lord help us understand the great need we have to conserve His Holy principles that He has handed down to us in His Holy Word!