SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/14/2022 11:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Provision Delivered”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
17:27b
Message of the verse: “go to the sea, and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a stater. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.”
I guess my first thoughts are to go fishing where
Peter went and maybe I will find a fish with money in it.
The Bible doesn’t tell us of any other time that Jesus
provided tax money through a miracle, and I don’t remember that He ever paid
this tax before, so I have to believe that it was a set up by the Jewish
leaders. As we look at this occasion,
however, the miracle reinforced the point that He was the Son of God and had
the right with perfect impunity to refuse to pay the tax if He had chosen to do
so. Jesus agreed to pay the tax entirely
on His own divine choice.
Jesus told Peter to go to the sea, and it would have had to been the Sea of Galilee which Peter was surely familiar with, but Jesus did not tell Peter exactly where to go, as this must have been up to him. He was told to throw in a hook, but he was not told to put any bait on it, so I suppose that he just threw in a bare hook with no bait. Jesus tells him to take the first fish that comes up. Then when you open its mouth, you will find a stater. Then he was told to Take that and give it to them for you and Me.”
John MacArthur writes “Because there was no
two-drachma coin, it was customary for two Jewish men to pay the tax together,
using a stater, which was equal to two didrachma. The coin Peter found in the fish’s mouth was
the exact amount needed to pay the tax for Jesus and himself.”
We have talked about what the tax was suppose to be used
for, the Temple services, we can believe it is for certain that the
hypocritical and corrupt Jewish leaders misappropriated a large part of what
was collected. Kind of sounds like the
leaders in our country at this time, the hypocritical ones. MacArthur adds “It is even more certain that
the taxes Jesus paid to Rome were used for many ungodly and immoral
purposes. Most of the Roman tax
collectors were traitors to their own people, and the taxes they extorted from
their fellow countrymen not only were excessive and unjust but were used to
support the occupying army, the pagan rulers, and even pagan religions.” Yes it sounds like our country at this time.
Now we want to begin to talk about what this section
means to believers today, as we will see it is clear as a believer is obligated
to fulfill his duties as a citizen of this world. Although his ultimate and eternal citizenship
is in heaven and the governments of men are all in varying degree of
corruption, while he remains on earth he is also under obligation to human
government. Except when it would cause him to disobey God directly, he is
bound by divine law to be subject to human law.
In our next SD we will look at some things that Peter
wrote when he wrote his first epistle as he no doubt remembered this incident we
are looking at today.
11/14/2022 11:28 AM
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