People like the power that goes with responsibility, but they dislike the responsibility that goes with power.

While God desires the greatest possible human liberty, it should be clear by now that He also holds us responsible for how we use that liberty. The personal liberty part we like, the responsibility part, not so much. That aversion to responsibility goes all the way back to the Garden.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Ge 3:8-13)

Note especially the response of the man, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” In other words, he is saying to God, at a minimum it is her fault and perhaps it is ultimately your fault because you gave her to me. The woman, of course, then tried to pass responsibility to the serpent.

Scripture is rich with examples of human attempts to dodge responsibility. Consider Aaron’s response for the Golden Calf.

And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” (Ex 32:21-24)

To paraphrase, “The people made me do it, and besides the calf just jumped out of the fire.” If it hadn’t been so calamitous, the whole incident would be humorous.

The flight from responsibility in asking for a king has already been discussed.

In God’s project of teaching human liberty, what provision has He made to develop responsibility and repress our propensity to prioritize self-interest and so act badly?

First, everyone is born into a family which is a part of a society. Human young have perhaps the longest period of dependency of any other organism. Babies, unlike horses, do not spring up and walk as soon as they are born. The lessening of dependency happens slowly over a period of years. During that time the child absorbs and is taught norms and rules. First, those of the family and then of the society. Because history is littered with dysfunctional families and societies, God gave rules, statutes and norms to His chosen people with the intention that they would form good families and a good society and that they would pass those benefits on to the rest of humanity.

See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? (Dt 4:5-8)

As previously discussed, Israel’s organization under the judges was tribal and hierarchical.

Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. (Ex 18:21-22)

The smallest unit in the hierarchy is the individual followed by the family. In the Torah, families are held responsible for their children.

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear. (Dt 21:18-21)

According to rabbinic sources, this was never actually done, but it served as a clear statement of responsibility. If the son would not take responsibility for his behavior, his family was to step in. Should the family fail in this and have to drag a reprobate child to the gates, it became the responsibility of the local elders to judge the case and that of all the men to execute that judgment. Authority and responsibility were kept at the lowest practical level. At the village level, presumably everyone knew the personalities involved and understood the situation.

The Torah principle is that if one wants good neighbors, he should be a good neighbor himself. Consider, for example, stray animals.

“You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother’s, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again. (Dt 22:1-4)

This principle extends even to those whom you despise.

“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him. (Ex 23:4-5)

In reading the Torah, it is remarkable how few actual penalties there are. Scripturally, there is no provision for enforcing the requirement to tithe. Similarly, failing to help your neighbor with his ox doesn’t list any sanctions. Most of the penalties are for offenses like murder, theft, adultery, idolatry – things that cause measurable harm to another or to the community. Presumably, the community developed ways of dealing with those who caused harm through negligent behavior – leaving a hazard such as an open pit or failing to build a parapet around the roof (Dt 22:8). One also suspects that the community would take note of those who would not set aside the tithe to support the poor and the Levites, but the overall ethos of the Torah is that liberty requires responsibility.

As a matter of biblical history, evading responsibility and ceding power to others was often the beginning of the descent into slavery. Indeed, the state has, at least since Roman times, always lured its citizens into bondage by offering to relieve them of some of the responsibilities inherent in being human. In Rome, it was bread and circuses that kept the populace more or less quiet in the face of massive corruption and tyranny. More recently the welfare state promises to provide such things as health care and a guaranteed minimum income to keep itself in power. Public corruption has become tolerable by the simple rubric of saying the other side is going to gut Social Security or impose work requirements on welfare or destroy public education. These and many more government programs. Each comes with a library of freedom limiting regulations.