Exo 30 Thoughts
The Census Tax
11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. 13 Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel[f] according to theshekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs),[g] half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord's offering. 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give theLord's offering to make atonement for your lives. 16 You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.”
I was casually reading this and was reminded the only time this passage comes up is when Jesus obliged in giving taxes.
But it’s interesting the things God spoke to me even in this reading which I wanted to skim over
Everyone had to pay half a shekel, no matter rich or poor
And it's not just a family paying for the family, but each individual had to pay
The purpose of the price is for atonement
Each individual, no matter their circumstances, needed atonement, and the payment represents the fact that all souls are equally in debt to God
But we've all been bought in one transaction, with the same payment, by the same Person
People are not worth more or less than me, even if their outer circumstances say otherwise.