The weekly Torah Potion that begins tonight at sundown is often called the “Half-Shekel Offering”. It is from Exodus 31:11 where God called Moses to take a census of the people but NOT count the people. Instead, he is to ask everyone, both rich and poor, to bring a half-shekel to the establishing of the “Tent of Meeting” AKA God’s Presence in their camp.
Today, we must recognize that leaders can build institutions, but We The People must establish the heart, spirit, and Presence of God in the nation.
Exodus 30:11–16
[11] The LORD said to Moses, [12] “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the LORD when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. [13] Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the LORD. [14] Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the LORD’s offering. [15] The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the LORD’s offering to make atonement for your lives. [16] You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the LORD, so as to make atonement for your lives.” (ESV)
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