The Atonement Money

The first instructions about giving that God gave to his people in the Old Testament concerned the atonement money.

Then the Lord said to Moses, '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. 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. All who cross over, those twenty years old or more, are to give an offering to the Lord. 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. 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.' (Exodus 30:11–16)

One price for all

Every Israelite man and woman who was twenty years old or more had to give a half shekel to the Lord to atone for their lives. We're not told why atonement money was only required from people of that age group. We know that military service began at the age of twenty in Israel (Numbers 1:3), so perhaps God regarded twenty as the age of maturity and accountability. Neither is it certain how much a half shekel was worth in those days. My own opinion is that it was worth a substantial amount because God said that the poor were not to give less than that.

Both the rich and the poor paid the same. That's unusual, because giving in the Old Testament was normally on a proportional basis. Tithing was proportional: those who earned more, gave more; those who earned less, gave less. But not so with the atonement money: that was the same for each person, and there was a reason for it.

To atone means to make amends for wrongdoing. 1 John 2:2 says that Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Jesus, by his death, has made amends for our wrongdoing.

The atonement money was the same for each person because Jesus paid the same price to atone for the sins of the poor man as he did to atone for the sins of the rich man. The price was the shedding of his blood on the cross, for without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22).

Ransomed lives

Exodus 30:12 says that the atonement money was a ransom for their lives, and yet Psalm 49:7–8 says that no man can give to God a ransom for a life, the price is too costly. So why was it commanded?

The Old Testament is rich in symbolism. God commanded, under the Law, that animals should be sacrificed regularly for the sins of the people, and yet Hebrews 10:4 says that the blood of animals cannot take away sins.

Those sacrifices pointed to the fact that one day the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Lamb, would be shed for the sins of the world (John 1:29). In the same way, the payment of the atonement money showed that one day a price would be paid (by Jesus) to ransom our lives.

Jesus said, in Matthew 20:28, that the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many. A ransom is a sum of money, or other payment, that is made to secure the release of a prisoner.

Have Christians ever been prisoners? Yes we have! Galatians 3:22 says that the whole world is a prisoner of sin. Jesus, by his death, has ransomed us from our captivity to sin. He has paid the price that's set us free! We are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:6); we are now free to live the life that God wants us to live.

And finally, the atonement money was a one-off payment because Jesus only suffered once (1 Peter 3:18a) to atone for our wrongdoing.

Protection from the plague

Exodus 30:12 also says that if each person paid the atonement money, then no plague would come on them when they were numbered. That means that if they hadn't paid the atonement money (which symbolized them accepting the atoning work of Christ), a plague would have come upon them from the Lord.

We're not told what kind of plague it would have been, but the Book of Revelation describes the plagues that God is going to bring, in the last days, on those who have not accepted the atoning work of his Son. They will be punished on earth by a series of plagues, as the Israelites would have been punished, by a plague, if they hadn't paid the atonement money.

God is consistent in his dealings with man. 'I the Lord do not change,' he says in Malachi 3:6, and the way he dealt with his people in Exodus 30 is prophetic of how he will deal with mankind at the end of the age—with those who do not embrace the atoning work of Christ.

Used in his service

One aspect of the atonement money we haven't considered is what was done with it. God commanded that it should be given to him, but he didn't need it for himself. The half shekels (which were made of silver) were melted down and molded into the silver bases that supported the Tent of Meeting and into the silver hooks and bands for the posts of the courtyard (Exodus 38:25–28).

With only a few exceptions, what was given to God in the Old Testament was used to perform his will. That should also be true in the New Testament. God doesn't need our money for himself today, any more than he did 2,500 years ago. Everything we give to him now should be used to do his will on earth: to take the gospel to the nations; to provide financial support for those in full-time ministry; to provide for the saints who are in need, and to give to the poor.

Michael Graham
October 2005

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