Matthew 17:24-27
After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, "Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?" "Yes, he does," he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. "What do you think, Simon?" he asked. "From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes--from their own children or from others?" "From others," Peter answered. "Then the children are exempt," Jesus said to him. "But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours."
Did the Lord Jesus Christ order Peter to take the four-drachma coin out from the 'shark's mouth, since he was a fisherman? No! Why did the Lord Jesus not have this precious coin in his pocket instead? Why in the mouth of a fish? Why not from the shark's mouth, instead? What was He trying to teach us here? Why the children were exempt? Who are these "children"? Who are the "others" he was referirng to? Why take it from there and pay the taxes? Wasn't the money that really mattered to the temple-tax collectors? What else was in their mind? Did they consider the truths He alone could teach, the miracles He alone could perform? What was wrong with this temple-tax collectors? Why were they behaving in such a lowly manner? How do you respond to people who can't see anything beyond money in their lives? Are we only being demanded the temple taxes today? Do they really care about the spiritual state of believers? Comparably small and insignificant passage of truths as many would say, but yet we have so many questions to answer?
More questions. Do you mean to say that the Lord Jesus Christ did not even bother about having money with Himself in His pocket? In fact, we never saw Him giving money the same glory we give it today. He never boasted that He had more money than anyone. Never!. We never saw or heard Him boasting about His riches on Earth, even though He had created all things and all things were created for Him. When we see Him doing this act of collecting the money from the mouth of the fish, it tells us that everything was created for Him and by Him. How did He know the fish had the exact coin needed for them to pay the taxes when He was far away from the lake? Why did He make Peter do the job of taking the money out of the mouth of the fish? This same Peter, when he met the crippled beggar at the entrance of the temple later in the book of Acts, he said with John the other disciple to him; "silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I giveth unto you, in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk and the beggar did walk again. The temple tax-collectors, what else could they see? Don't tell me these temple tax-collectors could not have noticed the same beggar at the entrance? They were beggars themselves how could they have asked another beggar? What's on the mind of the beggar all the time? Money, same thing here for the tax-collectors. Are they any different? Only the title of their jobs.
We see the Lord Jesus Christ showing no respect for the same things they showed for. Go get it from there as though ordering Peter to pay by working for it with his fishing skills but why for Himself too. He wouldn't want Peter to pay for Him too. The message: Today, we see people worshipping money instead of God or worshipping money as their God. As though, everything would depend on money. The world was the same from then, but today they boast too much about it. Especially the greedy and the covetous who enjoy seeing more and more people made poor, especially "others" but not their own "children".But, God is more powerful than man. He will reverse the situation for them so that they and theirs learn their lesson well when their turn comes. There is nothing the LORD cannot do. We see here that the Lord Jesus Christ can do anything beyond human understanding and imagination.May we learn this truth and fear and have reverence for the LORD always.
Deutronomy 10:12-22
And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations--as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigners residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
How do you circumcise your heart today? By choosing to put to death the sinful nature of the Devil in you.How do you love and serve Him with all your heart today? By obeying everything Christ had commanded. By being led by the Spirit of God to do that. In which way, all these are for your own good? For the eternal formation of the divine nature of Christ in your born again spirit. You cannot do this in your own strength. You have to fully depend on God the Holy Spirit who dwells within you the moment you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for all your sins as a perfect sacrifice on the cross at Calvary. There is no other way you could come to God except through His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. By believing, loving and obeying Him alone through the leading of God the Holy Spirit on Earth, you will come to the heavenly Father. Through Christ now, you have become a new nation. A holy nation. a people belonging to Him and for His praises and glory.
