“Yes, he does,” Peter replied. Then he went into the house.
But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Peter? Do kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered?”
“They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied.
“Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free! However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin.Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”
But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Peter? Do kings tax their own people or the people they have conquered?”
“They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied.
“Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free! However, we don’t want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin.Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”
My Thoughts
If I had not written this out in long hand I would have totally missed these verses. But while writing them I so pondered the meaning of this story. So I went back to read over it a couple of more times. I even read it out loud to Robby. Then the meaning came to me... at least what it says to me.
First the temple tax was to take care of God's temple. That is important. Then here Jesus says that only the people that have been conquered (slaves) pay the taxes. Then notice that in their willingness to pay the Temple tax, that money was provided for them.
Good Kings took good care of their slaves. Really good care of them. In America when slaves were set free some slaves chose to stay with their former masters because their masters took so much better care of them than they could care for themselves because they were good masters, they were loving people. They had a love for each other.
Here is where I got to on this... When we love God, we chose to become a slave of God. By choice we are a slave of God. When we tithe that is a token we give to God saying that we are His. In return God, who is a good King, a loving Master takes better care of us than we could ever take care of ourselves... He even provides us with the money we need so that we can give back to Him with our tithes.
We never loose out by giving our tithes to God... it is a symbol to God that we love Him... it is our way of saying that we don't want to offend Him in any way. It is a way to say I am yours God I trust you with my life.
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