I’ve had a busy afternoon and evening so I’m just getting back to this. I’m just wanting to point out a couple of things.
Exodus 30:13-15
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when
thou numberest them.
This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel
is twenty gerahs, an half shekel
shall be the offering of the LORD.
Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD.
The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when
they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.
- This is the Old Testament origin for the Temple tax spoken of in the New Testament that Peter was paying.
- The LORD gave this instruction to Moses
- Every man owed the tax when he turned 20 years old
- It was a ransom for their soul.
- It was to be paid with a shekel that was produced apparently by the sanctuary.
- This money was to be an offering to the Lord
- It was to make an atonement for their souls.
This whole passage is about money that the LORD commanded his people to bring to the Temple as an offering for the atonement of their souls.
1 Kings 7: 36,37.
For on the platesof the ledges thereof, and on the borders thereof, he graved cherubims, lions, and palm trees, according to the proportion of every one, and additions round about.
After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure,
and one size.
This passage above is about King Solomon and how he graved images on furniture and fixtures to go into the new temple to be used for service by the Priests. From your argument
@Herbie, this would have no other possible result than to make the Temple desecrated, and totally unable to be utilized by a Holy Righteous Perfect Sinless God. And yet in the next chapter, we find an entirely different picture.
1Kings 8:10 &11
And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place
,that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
So the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord that had all of these graven images inside of it. And the LORD commanded all his men at the age of 20 to bring money to his house to atone for their souls.
This is highly contradictory and unreconcileable from the perspective you present. However, when you look at the passage that you are basing all of this upon, the issue is not that images were graven, but that graven images would be worshipped or served as God
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of
any thing that is in heaven above, or that
is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth:
Thou shalt not bow down thy self to them, nor serve them:
Until you can find the scripture that equates money as being intrinsically evil or sinful, rather than the love or worship of money, your interpretation and application will fall flat due to inconsistencies within your perspective. To fulfill all righteousness, Christ by law at the age of 20 would have had to provide a half shekel temple tax to the Temple.
Every man was required by Torah to pay this. It could not be paid by another for him. And yet this was not sin! Why? Because Christ, just like every other 20 year old man making atonement for his soul, did not bow down themselves to the half shekel, nor did they serve the half shekel.
I could go on, but this should be enough to convince you to reevaluate?