the half shekel

Read Exodus 30 (again) and Matthew 17

Each shall give this: one half shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less. From Exodus 30: 13 &15

We are all born into the world with such differences. As we get older, those differences generally get greater.What an article of faith it was for our American founding fathers to write and then to sign in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”

From this faith in the equality of all has sprung two American political philosophies. Liberals believe all children should be equally enabled so as to achieve whatever might be their dream. Conservatives believe that all children are equally capable of achieving their dream, if only they are not held back. Thus a liberal would provide training wheels for every bike so every child might be able to ride, while the conservative would pull the training wheels from every bike, for it is the training wheels that prevent every child from learning to ride.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never observed this equality anywhere. As a kid, I really wanted to be a good baseball player. I had several very helpful adults try to teach me how to keep my eye on the ball and how to hold a bat. I know they sincerely believed that any kid with the right coaching and the right encouragement could hit a baseball. But the only thing I could hit, if I was lucky, were foul balls.

I come from a really good Christian home. So does my wife. My kids all grew up at a Bible camp. And every night we read the Bible together and thought and talked about it together. Our three older kids are now married to godly spouses. So why did we get things so good?

I read about a man who loved the gospel and did wonderful work in bringing the Bible to millions of people throughout the world. But one day he was in a hotel in downtown Tokyo. He saw thousands upon thousands of people on the street below rushing about their business, and he cried out to God, “This is so unfair. Hardly one of these people has ever even had a chance to hear your beautiful good news of salvation.” At that moment, the Lord took away his voice and until the day he died, he was incapable of speaking above a whisper.

As Believers, we must believe the truth of the Scriptures. When we read, “God so loved the world,” we believe He so loved every single person who has inhabited this world equally, unequivocally.

The Lord required every Israelite, regardless of their differences, to pay the 1/2 shekel tax.Each person had to pay exactly the same amount. The Lord would not have made this requirement if it were not possible for each one to pay it. 

When Jesus came to our planet, He was absolutely unequal from everyone else. He always perfectly and precisely did the will of His Father. Yet, like every other Jewish man, He paid the ½ shekel tax and thus He identified with all of us on planet earth.

Every man who ever lived (except the Lord Jesus) is in debt to God by sin, and thus equally obligated to Him.  We all owe. We all must respond. All in the same way. By believing and receiving His Son. John 1:12

Question: Are we able to trust the Lord to be equally fair in His dealings with each person, regardless of their earthly inequalities?