I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.

     This passage starts by describing how the tribes of the people of Israel would camp and their marching order. It describes how God gave the Israelites a very careful order as they traveled through the wilderness. The passage goes on to give the enumeration of the males in the tribe of Levi one month old and older (the Levites has not been included in the earlier census of fighting age men). Once they were counted, the clans of the tribe of Levi were assigned tasks regarding the care for the Tabernacle. Finally God told the people of Israel that their firstborn sons belonged to Him since He had spared their firstborn when He struck the firstborn among the Egyptians. However, the Levites would be dedicated to God’s service to redeem the firstborn sons of the rest of the Tribes.

     When Jesus returned to the Temple, the religious leaders came up to Him and demanded to know by what authority He was acting (in particular, they were asking by what authority He had driven the merchants out of the Temple). Jesus responded by asking them where John’s authority to baptize had come, from heaven or from man? They gathered together to discuss the possible answers. They realized that if they said it was from heaven, they would have to explain why they did not follow his teaching. On the other hand, they were afraid of the reaction of the crowd if they said that John was acting on mere human authority. So, they answered that they did not know. Jesus replied that since they did not answer His question, He would not answer theirs. The implication that Jesus’ authority to do what He had done came from the same place that John’s authority to baptize would not have been lost on the crowd (nor on the religious leaders). Jesus then goes on to tell a story about tenant farmers who, rather than pay the landowner what they owe him, kill his son when he is sent to collect the rent. The religious leaders realize that this story is directed at them and wish to arrest Jesus but they are afraid of how the crowd would react.
     In order to set Jesus up so that they can arrest Him, the religious leaders sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod to ask Him a question. They start by stating how trustworthy they think Jesus’ teaching is and how He teaches the way of God truthfully. They then ask Him if it is right for the Jews to pay taxes to Caesar. This is a clever trap. If Jesus answers that it is wrong to pay taxes to Caesar, they can claim that He is preaching insurrection and have the Romans arrest Him. If on the other hand, He says that the Jews must pay the tax, He will lose credibility with the people and they will be able to accuse Him of supporting idolatry.
     Jesus recognizes the trap and quickly shows them to be hypocrites. He asks them to show Him a coin used to pay the tax, which they quickly produce. This shows the crowd who these questioners really are. The only people who would have been carrying such a coin would have been people who conducted a significant amount of business with the Roman forces in Judea. Jesus then asks them whose image and title are stamped on the coin, to which they reply, “Caesar’s”. These two things together stamped on the coins proclaimed Caesar’s divinity. Jesus is pointing out that carrying this coin is implicitly accepting Caesar’s claim of divinity. He then tells them to give to Caesar that which rightly belongs to Caesar and to God what rightly belongs to God. Many in the crowd would have remembered the question about Jesus’ authority and would have realized that these men were part of the same group. The men who had questioned Jesus’ authority were revealed to consider Caesar as the source of their own authority to determine the answer to religious questions.
     The question that this passage raised for me is this: in what way may I be guilty of carrying “Caesar’s coin” into God’s Temple? In what ways am I guilty of accepting the authority of government (or other forms of Man’s claim to divinity) in place of God’s?

     Clap your hands and shout for joy. Don’t be afraid of making a fool of yourself. It is time to praise the Lord and let the world know that we believe in His might. The Lord Most High is awesome, in both the current usage of being really neat and in the original usage of being awe inspiring to the point of causing fear. We should joyfully praise Him because He rules over the world and nothing happens that is not according to His plan.

     Today’s proverb makes a good point. The wicked will indeed see their fears come to pass while the godly will see things work out according to their hopes. Sooner or later, everyone will face troubles. The wicked will be swept under by the storm, while the righteous, who have built their lives on a solid foundation, will weather the storm.