Exodus 30:11-16--The Census Tax

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 according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), 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 the Lord'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.”

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The key idea in this whole section so far has been atonement.  Did you know that God instituted a tax (I think it's probably better to look at it like a "ransom" or "bounty") that was for the purposes of atonement?  We've already studied this idea when it comes to redeeming the firstborn male that opens his mother's womb, but this time is different.

God said that every time there is a census, that a ransom must be paid for every life so that no plague will befall the people.  Why?  Because God knew the hearts of the people and the kings and we will see later that David fails in this and the plagues that God promised here came upon the people, but God made David choose the plague that would come upon them.  (See 2 Samuel 24)  The hearts of men are wicked and they like to count their numbers and rely upon themselves instead of God.  By paying a ransom for their lives, the people would remember that it was God who provided for them and protected them the entire time from the last time that they were counted in a census.

We even see this "poll tax" addressed in the New Testament in Matthew 17:24-27 where it had turned into the "temple tax."  These tax-collectors, probably not seen as evil like the ones who collected the taxes imposed on the people by Rome, approached Peter and asked him a question to trap him and Jesus--"Does your teacher not pay the tax?"  (See Matthew 17:24-27).

Jesus uses it as a teachable moment to let His disciples know that this tax was imposed by God as the King of Heaven and that as the Son of God, He would be exempt from any taxes imposed by His Father.  Such is the practice of earthly kings to exempt themselves and their families from such taxes, polls and tribute, because it would simply be taking money out of one pocket and putting it into the other.  Jesus then makes the point that the sons (and daughters) of the king are free.  While it may not have been clear to the disciples at the time, Jesus probably was also including them as adopted sons and daughters of God, though it is doubtful they understood that at this time.  That probably came after the Holy Spirit came and opened their eyes and started to cause them to remember everything that Jesus had taught them, reveal the gospel in the Old Testament to them, and to lead them into all truth and inspired some of them to write the books of the New Testament where they definitely do talk about being sons and daughters of god by adoption.

However, Jesus still had the tax paid in a miraculous way so that there would be no judgment brought against Peter.  Peter had been put in a bad situation and while he had no obligation to pay the tax, God still provided the means for him to pay the tax both for himself and for Jesus so that there would be no offense.  Also, don't use this teaching to say that Jesus said that Christians don't have to pay taxes imposed by the government--He says quite the opposite when confronted in a different situation about paying taxes to the Romans.

The tax was not overly-burdensome and was approximately two days' wages.  While it was called an "offering to the LORD," it was not a freewill offering as I mentioned before.  It was a flat tax that everyone rich or poor had to pay and no one could pay the price for anyone else--"The rich shall not pay more, and the poor shall pay no less."  The purpose of the tax was to pay the expenses of the Tabernacle and later the Temple  We see by the time of the Babylonian captivity that the Temple had quite a large treasury because of the collection of these taxes and other compulsory offerings like it (the redemption of the firstborn son, the tithe, etc.).  It is from money such as this that the religious leaders would pay the blood money of "twenty pieces of silver" for Judas to betray Jesus.

I believe that God uses this census as a way to continue to show that He is keeping His covenant with His people.  See the book of Numbers specifically where a census is taken at the beginning of the book and then a different census is taken towards the end of the book (Numbers 1 and Numbers 26).  God was faithful to bring Israel through their time in the wilderness.  They started with 603, 550 men of fighting age (men who would have paid this tax).  Since the Levites were exempted from the tax and did not go to war and would receive no inheritance of land, they were not included.  We see after the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness that the census for the new generation of fighting-aged males excluding Levites was 601,730.   A difference of only 1,820 fighting-aged men.  That's amazing for spending 40 years in the wilderness and coming out basically with the same population that they entered the wilderness.  God will similarly use this census and tax at various times in Israel's history to show that no matter how bad things have gotten, He is still taking care of them--for instance, Nehemiah will re institute this tax when the people return from captivity which will not only help to rebuild the temple, but serve as a way to reassure the people of God's faithfulness through all generations.

To return to the original thought of this blog though, the thought of "redemption"and atonement was to always be on the minds of God's people, whether it be because of the census tax, the blood sacrifices, or the redemption of their firstborn.  God put the gospel into their lives in so many different ways and Jesus would pay the high price of redemption and atonement for all of His people--the ones which the Father had given Him (see John 17).  Hallelujah, what a Savior!