Tax Collector Strung Up by Flickr User Rosa Say, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
And why does everyone hate tax collectors? Could it be that most of them are focused on using the people’s hard-earned monies for personal or political benefit? Could it be that most of them represent governments and kingdoms that have far exceeded the boundaries for what part of your income tax they should claim? When those in the offices of tax collections, and those who make the rules about taxes and fees, can break the law and get away with it, who wouldn’t wish they were no longer part of our lives. When the whole situation becomes oppressive and no longer represents our best interest, maybe it’s time for another resistance like the famous Boston Tea Party. And, maybe it’s time to see how God did the same job.
In today’s reading from Numbers 31:25 through Numbers 31:41, the soldiers have arrived back at camp with all the spoils of war and with the unmarried girls whom they took as slaves from among the Moabite women. They give an account to Moses and Eleazar of all they have taken in, and God tells Moses how to instruct the leaders as to how the spoils should be divided.
God tells Moses to have the men split the take in two parts with half going to the soldiers and half going to the community of Israel. From the halves that go to the two sides, Moses is to levy a tax on all they have taken in, but the tax is different for the soldiers than it is for the people. The soldiers will pay God 1/500th of the take as a tax, and that portion will go to Eleazar the high priest. The people will pay 1/50th of the take, and that portion will go to the Levites for the care of the tabernacle.
You can read the portion yourself if you want to know the exact numbers of sheep, cattle, donkeys, and slaves the Moabites lost in their battle against Israel, but one detail gives God receiving only 675 sheep out of 337,500. Imagine the IRS only getting that much from the pocketbooks of the soldiers who fight to give them the freedom to keep their jobs. Instead, it’s the grateful business owners we see giving military discounts to our warriors and their families, while the government lets the wounded die in VA waiting rooms. What’s wrong with that picture? The government is no longer a government under God, that’s what.
While I know the “One Nation Under God” portion of our pledge was added after the fact, it represented the type of government and nation our forefathers set out to create. Oh how sad they would be now to see people fight over just the idea of quoting that statement, let alone of living as if they believe it. I want our nation to return to those roots, but it would require all of us to have lawful hearts that would drive us to being law-abiding citizens whether our position is citizen, President, or tax collector. Let us become lawful in our own lives, and let us pray for the once great United States of America to find her Godly roots before it is too late. Even if nothing changes, we can stand strong and in peace because we brought it in prayer to the throne of Yahveh. Amen.
July 8, 2014
Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) |
Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Godly roots, lawful, Numbers, Scripture, tax collector, taxes, Torah Portions, United States of America |
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Pretty Mosaic with Flowered Heart in the Middle
Genesis 18:19a has The Lord talking to the angels about Abraham and says, “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment.” (Complete Jewish Bible translation.)
The first time I read this Scripture, my only thought was, “Can God say this about me?” How blessed to have God testify to the angels that He has found a subject He knows well enough to know the subject’s future holds not only personal lawfulness but also that the subject will teach lawfulness to others.
Today, my husband and I were in our Torah studies in Leviticus. (We’re a bit behind in the actual portion we should be reading, but we don’t want to skip around and miss valuable information.) For a few weeks now, we’ve been reading about the building of the wilderness tabernacle (also called The Tabernacle of Testimony). As I was listening to my husband read the words about all the laws concerning the tabernacle, sacrifices, offerings, etc., I remembered the words I had read earlier from Genesis. Then, something hit me; these laws came well after God called Abraham “one who would keep the Way of The Lord” (aka law keeper). And then I questioned in my mind, “I wonder what ways and laws of God Abraham was keeping?” I understood, even as I asked, that Abraham was not keeping specific laws, but he was keeping a lawful heart.
So, here we are in our current society looking to create law after law after law. Now (in April 2013), the focus is on gun laws and whether they violate our country’s foundational Constitution. But the gun laws, like the many other laws constantly in motion or discussion these days, are just a thin bandage. They will not create the answer so many hope they will because they do not fix the real problem: they do not fix what causes the need for laws in the first place—a need that comes from a general spirit of lawlessness.
So, Abraham not only had a lawful heart, but even before there was a law given, God knew he would teach those of his household to keep the way (law) of God. Already, he was teaching others to have a lawful heart and to yield to the instruction of God from pure obedience. Later in Scripture, we will read how it was necessary to create a priesthood and over 600 Levitical laws to direct people because their hearts had become lawless. As many have noted about these laws, and even several laws of our land now, they come with a big dose of bondage.
However, just imagine if we all strived to keep in our hearts the laws of yielding to a Higher Authority. We would automatically think of others before ourselves. We would not require instruction to not lie, not steal, not cheat, not murder, etc. We would not purposely do things to others that we would not want others doing to us. And if everyone lived that way, we would not need any other laws either from God or from man.
There is freedom in having a lawful heart because it releases us from falling under the bondage and condemnation of many external laws. Though we will not be perfect until we get to Heaven, just as King David was not perfect and failed God multiple times, we can be called a people after God’s own heart. In that way, each of us will not only be able to say we know Him, but He can testify to the angels, “I know that one!”
April 21, 2013
Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) |
Bible Study, Devotion, Nonfiction | Abraham, after God's heart, Bible, biblical, bondage, condemnation, crystalwriter, freedom, God, Golden Rule, law, lawful, lawfulness, lawless, lawlessness, laws, legalism, obedience, Old Testament, Torah, wisdom, Yahveh, Yahweh |
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Crystal Writes A Blog 
Who Doesn’t Hate the Tax Collector?
Tax Collector Strung Up by Flickr User Rosa Say, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
And why does everyone hate tax collectors? Could it be that most of them are focused on using the people’s hard-earned monies for personal or political benefit? Could it be that most of them represent governments and kingdoms that have far exceeded the boundaries for what part of your income tax they should claim? When those in the offices of tax collections, and those who make the rules about taxes and fees, can break the law and get away with it, who wouldn’t wish they were no longer part of our lives. When the whole situation becomes oppressive and no longer represents our best interest, maybe it’s time for another resistance like the famous Boston Tea Party. And, maybe it’s time to see how God did the same job.
In today’s reading from Numbers 31:25 through Numbers 31:41, the soldiers have arrived back at camp with all the spoils of war and with the unmarried girls whom they took as slaves from among the Moabite women. They give an account to Moses and Eleazar of all they have taken in, and God tells Moses how to instruct the leaders as to how the spoils should be divided.
God tells Moses to have the men split the take in two parts with half going to the soldiers and half going to the community of Israel. From the halves that go to the two sides, Moses is to levy a tax on all they have taken in, but the tax is different for the soldiers than it is for the people. The soldiers will pay God 1/500th of the take as a tax, and that portion will go to Eleazar the high priest. The people will pay 1/50th of the take, and that portion will go to the Levites for the care of the tabernacle.
You can read the portion yourself if you want to know the exact numbers of sheep, cattle, donkeys, and slaves the Moabites lost in their battle against Israel, but one detail gives God receiving only 675 sheep out of 337,500. Imagine the IRS only getting that much from the pocketbooks of the soldiers who fight to give them the freedom to keep their jobs. Instead, it’s the grateful business owners we see giving military discounts to our warriors and their families, while the government lets the wounded die in VA waiting rooms. What’s wrong with that picture? The government is no longer a government under God, that’s what.
While I know the “One Nation Under God” portion of our pledge was added after the fact, it represented the type of government and nation our forefathers set out to create. Oh how sad they would be now to see people fight over just the idea of quoting that statement, let alone of living as if they believe it. I want our nation to return to those roots, but it would require all of us to have lawful hearts that would drive us to being law-abiding citizens whether our position is citizen, President, or tax collector. Let us become lawful in our own lives, and let us pray for the once great United States of America to find her Godly roots before it is too late. Even if nothing changes, we can stand strong and in peace because we brought it in prayer to the throne of Yahveh. Amen.
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July 8, 2014 Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Bible Commentary, Bible study, Complete Jewish Bible, Godly roots, lawful, Numbers, Scripture, tax collector, taxes, Torah Portions, United States of America | Leave a comment