Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today, let’s unpack the Temple Tax

In today’s scripture, Exodus 30:11‭-‬16 (NLT), we read…
Then the Lord said to Moses,… “Whenever you take a census of the people of Israel, each man who is counted must pay a ransom for himself to the Lord. Then no plague will strike the people as you count them… Each person who is counted must give a small piece of silver as a sacred offering to the Lord. (This payment is half a shekel, based on the sanctuary shekel, which equals twenty gerahs.)… All who have reached their twentieth birthday must give this sacred offering to the Lord… When this offering is given to the Lord to purify your lives, making you right with him, the rich must not give more than the specified amount, and the poor must not give less… Receive this ransom money from the Israelites, and use it for the care of the Tabernacle. It will bring the Israelites to the Lord’s attention, and it will purify your lives.”

Exodus 38:25‭-‬26 (NLT) reveals the offering became known as the Temple Tax…
The whole community of Israel gave 7,545 pounds of silver, as measured by the weight of the sanctuary shekel… This silver came from the tax collected from each man registered in the census. (The tax is one beka, which is half a shekel, based on the sanctuary shekel.) The tax was collected from 603,550 men who had reached their twentieth birthday.

Nehemiah 10:32‭-‬33 (NLT) details some of the uses of the Temple Tax…
In addition, we promise to obey the command to pay the annual Temple tax of one-eighth of an ounce of silver for the care of the Temple of our God… This will provide for the Bread of the Presence; for the regular grain offerings and burnt offerings; for the offerings on the Sabbaths, the new moon celebrations, and the annual festivals; for the holy offerings; and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel. It will provide for everything necessary for the work of the Temple of our God.

Consider…
Yesterday, I discovered the Temple Tax for the first time, despite having read the story of Jesus providing two coins in a fish’s mouth for Peter to pay it. That made me curious about the origin of this tax, so I Googled it and found today’s first two passages.

A few things jumped out to me as I read today’s first scripture.

• It was referred to as a ransom or sacred offering
• It was to be given to the Lord
• Everyone was responsible for themselves
• It was meant to purify the life of the person giving and make them right with God
• It was a flat tax, meaning everyone was required to pay the same amount, regardless of income.
• It was to be used to take care of the Tabernacle/Temple, which was the dwelling place of God
• It foreshadowed the death tax Jesus would pay to make us right with God.

Let’s unpack my observations.

First, it appears to me that what God called a sacred offering, man made a Temple Tax. This almost sent me on my Malachi 3:10 scripture abuse soap box (Ken and Dana). But the Holy Spirit is producing the self control fruit in me, so I won’t go all the way into it. Suffice to say that it seems like many churches today, still make offerings to God more like taxes required of His people. Yet, Paul tells us God wants people to give as they have purposed in their hearts, not grudgingly or out of obligation (2 Corinthians 9:7).

God has consistently demonstrated He prefers ‘love offerings’ from the heart over tax payments from religious compliance. As I have cited time and again to all who will listen, God wants a relationship with us not a religion to Him. The heart in which we give our offerings, let’s Him know if we love Him or feel religiously obligated to Him. Uncle Reece sums up God’s perspective on our offerings well when He sings…
If I don’t have your heart
Nothing that you do for me
Really matters to me at all
If I don’t have your love
Nothing that you do for me
Really matters to me at all

God looks at our motivation, not our money, when it comes to our offerings.

The second observation is everyone was responsible for giving this offering to the Lord for themselves. That immediately sends me to Romans 12:1 that exhorts to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God! 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾. And in Colossians 3:17 we’re told to say and do EVERYTHING as unto the Lord. Both of these verses make me harmonize with Forever Jones…
There’s a voice that cries out in the silence
Searching for a heart that will love Him
Longing for a child that will give Him their all
Give it all, He wants it all
And there’s a God that walks over the earth
He’s searching for a heart that is desperate
And longing for a child
That will give Him their all
Give it all, He wants it all
And He says love me, love me with your whole heart
He wants it all today
Serve Me, serve Me with your life now
He wants it all today

The Temple Tax was supposed to be a sacred offering to God for His people to be cleansed and made right with Him. What seems to have gotten lost in translation, was God didn’t just want the shekel, He wanted what it was supposed to represent, hearts focused and desiring to be right with Him. So how much did and does God really want, ALL OF US!

A third observation which absolutely fascinated me was the tax was the same amount for everyone regardless of income. What a great example of God not showing partiality. That ran my mind to Galatians 3:28 (ERV), which states…
Now, in Christ, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or free, male or female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus.

You see by God not requiring a commiserate offering based on a person net worth, He demonstrated that everyone is worth the exact same amount in His eyes. And we know that because according to 1 John 4:9‭-‬10 (NLT), along with a host of others, our worth was the life and death of His only begotten Son. This is what John wrote…
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him… This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

It just occurred to me, God sending Jesus was Him offering us love and eternal life. That gives me a new appreciation for the importance of ‘love offerings’ to God. Just as He offered us love through Christ, He desires us to return a ‘love offering’ to Him by offering Christ’s love to others! 🤯 He says it in 1 John 4:11 (NLT)…
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

The more I think about it, the Temple Tax really should have been a love offering to God, because it was all about being purified and made right with Him. That seems more lovingly relational than religiously transactional to me. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

The last, and most mind blowing observation of all, was the fact that the Temple Tax was the same amount to be paid by everyone regardless of income, and that it was meant to purify and make an individual right with God. Y’all that’s the prototype of everyone being made right through Jesus Christ. Romans 3:21‭-‬24 (NLT) explains…
But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago… We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are… For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard… Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

What the law couldn’t accomplish, God’s love and grace did. I go back to my main belief about God, He always wanted and still wants a relationship with us. However, the Holy Spirit has corrected my belief. God doesn’t just want a relationship with us, rather He wants us to be in a RIGHT relationship with Him! With that, He made the Temple Tax or sacred love offering make sense.

God used the Temple Tax to remind the people that He wanted them to be in right relationship with Him. He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to make us right with Him.

Which brings me to my final thought and parallel, that Jesus is the one and only (same) offering that makes everyone who accepts Him, right with God. Hebrews 10:10 (AMP) explains…
in accordance with this will [of God] we [who believe in the message of salvation] have been sanctified [that is, set apart as holy for God and His purposes] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed) once for all.

We no longer have to pay the temple tax, because Christ paid our death tax. He paid it out of love, with His blood. And although we don’t have to pay the temple tax anymore, He still wants the sacred ‘love offering’ He originally sought. He wants us to give our love and lives to Him freely and cheerfully given. We do that by sharing His love with others generously, freely and cheerfully, just like He has shared His love with us.

And with that, this week’s Kingdom focus on taxes has been submitted for Him. 🗃

Today’s song is…
Have Your Heart

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)