Week 8 Deuteronomy 1
After Mount Sinai Moses began adjudicating the Sinai laws single-handedly but eventually he realized it wasn’t a one-man job. So he delegated judges who were responsible for subgroups of people – smaller units of 1000s & 100s & 50s & right down to groups of 10.
I got out a calculator. The military census in Numbers said there were about 600,000 men in camp. That meant 60000 judges for groups of 10 & 12000 for 50s & 6000 for 100s & 600 for 1000s. Total = 78600 judges (minimum) (a lot of judges).
With 78600 assistants to help apply the 700 or 800 laws Moses’ labour shortage was solved.
But then the supplementary question cropped up: can my 78600 helpers do the job properly? Answer: not necessarily. Judges are people too. So Moses also introduced a multi-point Character Assessment Test.
It wasn’t about whether the guy was a team-player or had a good sense of humour. Moses’ judges had to have wisdom & good judgment & life experience & impartiality & resistance to influence & reverence for the Lord & honesty & immunity to graft.
Good laws + good-quality judges = an effective legal system.
Good laws + derelict judges = a degraded legal system.
Moses’ laws were good in the abstract. But how real-life-effective were they? About as effective as the character quality of the 78600 judges that adjudicated them.
Note: see Deuteronomy 1:9-18 & Exodus 18:13-27