Atonement Money

Atonement Money
Words of Faith 2-24-2023
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2023
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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Exodus 30
[11] Then the LORD said to Moses, [12] "When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the LORD a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them. [13] Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the LORD. [14] All who cross over, those twenty years old or more, are to give an offering to the LORD. [15] The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the LORD to atone for your lives. [16] Receive the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the Tent of Meeting. It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the LORD, making atonement for your lives."

Moses was instructed early on regarding a form of taxation. When the census was taken, there was to be a payment to the Lord. Each Israelite who was 20 years old or more was shared in the cost needed to maintain the Tabernacle and the sacrifices there.
This was regarded as much more than a civic duty. This was considered to be a ransom. The payment would guarantee protection from plagues. This was also considered atonement or a covering for sins.
This payment amount for each adult male, whether rich or poor, was a half shekel. This was about 1/5 of an ounce of silver. The gerah was a Babylonian measure of weight. This practice would later become the Temple Tax in Nehemiah 10:32. We hear the practice described in the time of Jesus as an annual tax. "After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, "Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?" (Matthew 17:24)
The word atonement or ransom means "to deliver or redeem by a substitute." Ransom is something that is paid to provide for the release of someone who is held captive. As Christ-followers we celebrate that Jesus paid our ransom to free us from sin, death, and hell. The system of sacrifices was part of the first covenant. This was a substitutionary atonement to cover the sins of the people. Each day a young bull was sacrificed as an offering for the atonement of sin (Exodus 29:36a).
Jesus satisfied all of the requirements of the law once and for all. The writer of Hebrews describes it: "He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant" (Hebrews 9:12-15).
In the book of Romans the Apostle Paul makes it clear: "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4).

Thanks be to God for His great grace and mercy that Jesus gave Himself as a full and complete sacrifice for us at the right time. Thanks be to God that He has offered full atonement for our sins and made the way for us to enter into his throne of grace. In Jesus' Name.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2023
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2023 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.