Exodus 30:11 - Meaning and Application

Some have noticed that the repeated words, “The Lord spoke to Moses,” here and later (Exodus 30:17, 30:22, 30:34), suggest that God did not give all these commands to Moses in one long message on the mountain. Instead, there were likely many pauses, giving Moses time to write down what he heard or at least to fix it firmly in his memory. In a similar way, Christ taught his disciples little by little, as they were able to take it in.

Moses is here told to collect money from the people by a head tax, one set amount for each person, for the service of the tabernacle, the sacred tent where God met with his people. He was to do this when he counted the people. Some think this applied only to the first census, when the tabernacle had just been set up, and that the tax helped make up what was still needed for finishing the work, or for starting the tabernacle service. Others think it was used again whenever there was a special need, and every time the people were counted, and that David sinned by not requiring it when he numbered the people. But many Jewish writers, and others following them, think it became a yearly payment, though it began when Moses first counted the people. This was the tribute money that Christ paid so as not to offend his opponents (Matthew 17:27), even though he also showed why he could have been excused.

The amount was half a shekel, about fifteen pence in our money. The rich were not to give more, and the poor were not to give less (Exodus 30:15). This showed that rich and poor are equally precious to God, and that he does not favor one person over another (Acts 10:34; Job 34:19). In other offerings, people gave according to what they could afford. But this payment, called the ransom of the soul, had to be the same for everyone, because the rich need Christ just as much as the poor, and the poor are just as welcome to him as the rich. Both helped support the temple service because both had the same share in its blessings. In Christ and in his ordinances, rich and poor meet together, and the Lord, who made them both, and the Lord Christ, who redeems them both, is the source of their common hope (Proverbs 22:2).

The Jews say that if a man refused to pay this tribute, he was not included in the atonement. The money was to be paid as a ransom for the soul, so that no plague would come among them. In this way, they admitted that their lives came from God, that they had deserved to lose those lives because of sin, and that they depended on his power and patience for every day they kept breathing. So they honored the God of their lives and begged him to keep back the plagues their sins deserved.

The money collected was to be used for the tabernacle service (Exodus 30:16). It was used to buy sacrifices, flour, incense, wine, oil, fuel, salt, priests’ garments, and everything else needed by the whole congregation. Those who enjoy the blessing of God’s tabernacle among them should be glad to help cover its costs, and should not resent the necessary expenses of public worship. In that way, we honor the Lord with our wealth and count it the best use of money when it is spent in God’s service. Money cannot pay for the soul’s atonement, but it can be used to honor the one who has made that atonement, and to support the gospel through which that atonement is applied.