Fifties and Hundreds

Moses chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves (Ex 18:25-26).

The Law of the Somalis describes a justice arrangement that is remarkably similar to the arrangements described in Exodus and Deuteronomy.

I was struck when reading about this that a biblical system of justice will not work in Western Society, because urbanisation, industrialisation and the democratic state have destroyed the extended families and tribes that still function in many other parts of the world. In the western world, the fifties, hundreds and thousands no longer exist. All we have is millions loosely attached to the democratic state, with nothing in between.

Before Gods justice system can be restored, the fifties, hundreds and thousands will have to be restored to Western culture. In my book Being Church Where We Live, I describe how Christians can build real community by choosing to buy houses and live in the same locality as other members of their church.

Church is something we are, not something we can attend. To be the body of Christ in the place where we live, we must live close to the rest of the body. Our Church should be a central part of our being, so we must belong where it is.

Each Church should be attached to a particular locality, so there can be as many Churches as there are different localities. Ideally, there should be one Church in each location and each location should have one Church. To have a number of different kinds of church in the same locality is inconsistent with the New Testament.

Radical Christians should begin being the fifties and thousands back into our culture. If a group of Christians establish a beachhead in a neighbourhood and win many of their neighbours to Jesus, they are establishing a fifty or a hundred. If this process is repeated, it will eventually become a thousand. God’s system of justice could gradually be established in these neighbourhood communities

Neighbourhood Christian communities will become the fifties, hundreds and thousands that are the western equivalent of the extended family and tribe.