Proverbs 29:12 “If a ruler pays attention to lies, all his servants become wicked.”
Proverbs 28:5 “Evil people do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand everything.”
Proverbs 28:16 “A leader without understanding taxes his people heavily, but those who hate unjust gain will live up longer.”
It was Thomas Jefferson who said: “Let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” We live in a fallen world and our Founding Fathers knew that when they put our Constitution together to make sure that by following the Constitution the citizens would be protected from the basic human nature of man.
At the Constitutional Convention a question that our Founding Fathers had to answer, and that no political scientist in any age had been able to answer with complete satisfaction was: “How can you have an efficient government but still protect the freedom and unalienable rights of the people?”
Our Founding Fathers knew the frailty of human nature and after 200 years of American history we see the wisdom of the Founders. Today we see many unconstitutional actions that have taken place and being justified because it was for “a good cause.” It was Rahm Emanuel, while in the White House as the Chief of Staff in the Obama administration, who said that every crisis should not go to waste. It was Thomas Sowell who brought out that it’s through crisis – created or imaginary – that government increases its authority. It is through these crises that the solution is another government department. George Washington said: “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence – it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant in a fearful master.”
So the Constitution was so defined by our Founding Fathers that any public official would be able to serve at his upmost ability, but at the same time be restrained by the Constitution in regards to any mischief. Even today we find our political leaders straining at the Constitution in order to be free to do what they think is best, but Proverbs reminds us that there is a way that seems right to man but it leads to destruction. (Proverbs 16:25) Human history fully demonstrates the wisdom of this verse. The Founding Fathers knew that the leaders are not angels but fragile human beings.
This is why the Constitution is not what some call “a living document which can change with the times” because the Constitution was designed to control something which has not changed and will not change – namely human nature.
Our Founding Fathers knew that there was the danger of losing our Constitutional Rights. They also knew that the erosion would not come all at once but through a progressive erosion and Madison warned us that this danger should be wisely guarded against. He went on to say that when it does begin and we see that our rights are being taken away that we need to act immediately. However, there are so many rights that we do have that it has been hard to keep track of them all, but the one that he warned us against the most was our property rights. (A book that has just come out called LIVE NOT BY LIES a manual for Christian dissidents by Rod Dreher brings forth how soft totalitarianism is taking over America. It is a good read).
We all must realize that the cost of freedom is eternal vigilance.