SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/12/2022 9:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Principle Discussed”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
17:25b-27a
Message of the verses: “And when he came
into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, "What do you think,
Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from
their sons or from strangers?" 26 And upon his saying,”
We can be assured that because of the omniscience of
Jesus that he knew exactly what Peter was going to relate to Him about the tax.
When
Jesus spoke to Peter to tell him what He wanted him to do, what Peter was
thinking is not indicated, but perhaps because of all the miracles Jesus
did while Peter was with Him, that he just thought that this would be another
one of them. Now as far as the fact that
Jesus was going to pay the tax, even though Peter knew who He was, we have no
idea about what he was thinking about.
John
MacArthur writes “Using a method of teaching common in that day and beneficial
in any day, Jesus answered Peter’s unspoken question by first asking a question
Himself. Addressing Peter by his original
family name, Jesus said, What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect
customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?’”
Many countries in that day had a leader, and when
that leader died then one of his family would take over the leadership of that
country. This is what happened after
David became king, and it extended all the way until the Southern Kingdom went
into captivity in Babylon. The point is that the family of the leader certainly
did not have to pay taxes, unlike the people who are elected to office in our
country who are supposed to pay taxes.
Now the taxes that are spoken about in this section were customs (levied
on goods) and poll-tax (levied on individuals).
The
question that Jesus gave was rhetorical, and the answer was obvious. It would not make sense for a father who was
the leader to make his children pay taxes.
I
desire to finish this section in our next SD.
11/12/2022 9:20 AM
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