Musings – Are Payroll Deductions Biblical?

Hebraic Musings – Are Payroll Deductions Biblical?

In Biblical agricultural times, the fruit of their labor was the proceeds from the crops they produced.  And today we are encouraged by the Lord to share the fruit of our labor, or our “funds”, as “freewill offerings” to various causes – Welfare, Defense, Infrastructure, Care for the elderly, etc. 

However, today our labor is rewarded with paychecks with MANDATORY DEDUCTIONS taken out.  The government gets the “deductions” from our money by law, not by choice.  Is this Biblical? 

God tells us to “Give”; but our government “Takes”.  To what extent has the government usurped a relationship that God wants with His people.  Biblically, His people were required to invest the fruit of their labor by free will choices; then God saw their hearts and rewarded them according to their faith.  Today, the reward for freely giving is usurped by the government; and resentment replaces the spirit of freewill gifting.  Can we ever start viewing taxes as “Free Will Offerings”?   Let’s look at some specific examples:

Charitable contributions: (A.K.A. “Freewill Offerings”):  As a Christian I’ve learned to love and to freely give to those in need.  “If a man's gift is… contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously;” Rom 12:8   When I pay the taxes for welfare taken out of my paycheck, I am not a cheerful giver!  Portions of my tax money support welfare organization, programs, food stamps, etc.; and to top it off, some of those causes I do not approve of.  Didn’t God try to tell us it is our responsibility to care for those needs ourselves, directly?  “Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.  But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.”  1 Tim 5:3-4     Family responsibilities came first.  Gleaning was a classic form of sharing willingly from our abundance.  "'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.  Leave them for the poor and the alien.”  Lev. 23:22    How can this apply in our daily walk?

Retirement benefits:  Care and respect for the elderly was foundational. "'Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.“  Lev. 19:32    Biblical custom entitled the “Firstborn” to receive a double portion of the inheritance for a reason; the Firstborn was the one expected to care for the aging parents.  So the family, firstborn specifically, was responsible for the care of the elderly parents.  “He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has.” Deut. 21:17   And I suspect Biblical retirement had more to do with daily food and lodging rather than retirement to a cloistered “Old age community” away from the family.

Education:   God told the fathers “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deut. 6:6-7   So, Education was clearly the responsibility of the Father, shared with Mother.     Yes, I favor homeschooling and/or school choice with tuition paid directly.

Infrastructure & Defense:  Nearby roads were provided by the land owners and bigger projects by a local co-op arrangement.  Defense was provided for by the 2^nd amendment in our Constitution.  I concede that some infrastructure and National Defense can be a justified reason for Federal taxation.

Summary – Are we counting on the governments to be our provider, instead of relying love for our neighbor and on Jehovah Jireh?

 Points to ponder

How has reliance on the government led to the “entitlement” attitude?

Do you miss the joy of giving voluntarily with good cheer?
Or, can we learn to pay our taxes cheerfully? 

Are families today living up to their responsibilities to care for one another?

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” 

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                           August 29, 2017
Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage”  Weekly “Hebraic Musings”      www.InsightsByYosef.com

Musing - Should we say ‘Grace’ before or after the meal?

Hebraic Musing - Should we say ‘Grace’ before or after the meal?

Are we losing the art of family conversation around the dinner table?  Maybe family members, including children, could or should be taught to remain at the table until a formal end of the meal is established.  Have you ever felt the meal-time conversation was incomplete or dropped or ignored because somebody simply vanished from the table?  Worse yet, without excusing themselves! (That was a “mortal” sin when I was growing up!)

Related experience -- let me repeat the introduction to insight #53 from in my Hebraic Insights book.  We encountered an interesting difference between Hebraic and Christian customs when we dined with our group in a Tel Aviv hotel.  The maître d’ pointed out he knew we were Christians. “How did you know that?” I asked.  He pointed out that Christians pray before their meal; Jews pray after the meal.  I was wondering why, that is until studying the Christian mind-set the last few weeks.  Notice that Christian thinking feels a need to bless the food because it is physical matter and therefore providing physical pleasure and satisfaction.  So we must pray over it to make it okay to eat.  Hebrew thinking accepts that everything God created is for our pleasure.  It would therefore be an insult to pray before eating in order to sanctify the food.  It is already blessed by the Creator by virtue of the fact He gave it to us.  However, the Jewish-Hebrew mind-set wants to be thankful for the bounty, thus offering a prayer of thanksgiving after the meal.

The meal prayer that I grew up with was clearly a ‘before the meal” prayer.  “Bless us O Lord and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive, from thy bounty, through Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.”

The Jews are probably basing their after meal prayer custom on Deut.8:10 “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.”  NKJV

Maybe there could be another value to the Jewish custom?  Could it be that the Jewish custom offers a solution to truncated conversation at meal-time?

Suggestion – Establish a formal end to every meal and everyone is expected to remain till the end by labeling it “Grace after meals.” Even children can be taught to understand that leaving the table before thanking God is even worse behavior than leaving a meal without thanking their parents.

Point to Ponder

How can we sanctify the preciousness of a family breaking bread together?

Is dinner-time conversation an opportunity
for father to fulfill his responsibility for the child’s education?

“These commandments … Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deut. 6:6-7  NIV

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                               August 22, 2017

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”      www.InsightsByYosef.com

Musing – Where did Jesus see Himself in OT Scriptures?

Hebraic Musing – Where did Jesus see Himself in OT Scriptures?

After Jesus’ resurrection He was walking with two men on the way to Emmaus and “He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!’ …  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”   Luke 24:25&27  NIV     

Have you ever wondered what Jesus may have meant by “what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself”?   Since OT Scripture hasn’t changed much since Jesus’ time; was He reminding them, and us, of some of these anthropomorphic events?   (Anthropomorphic: having a human form or human attributes)

1.   Adam and Eve “…heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God…” or they tried to hide from Him. (Gen.3:8)  Do people try to hide today?

2.   Later, “The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent”  (Gen 18:1)

3.   When Abraham was about to slay Isaac, he was stopped.  “The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,” (Gen 22:15-16)  First the person is called “angel of the Lord” but then revealed as the Lord Himself.  This is not the only time this identification change occurs!

4.   Hagar was running away.  “Then the angel of the Lord told her, ‘Go back to your mistress…’” Then  “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," Gen 16:9&13

5.   And Jacob had a wrestling match at the Jabbok stream and “… Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.’” Gen 32:30

6.   Before giving the commandment tablets to Moses – “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement ….  But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.”  Ex 24:9-11   They saw God as a person!  And lived to tell about it!

7.   In Exodus 3:5 Moses met and talked to God in a “burning bush” encounter.

8.   Joshua was about to take Jericho when “… he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword…”   Fortunately this man, Adonai, was “For us and not for our enemies.”  Joshua 5:13-15

Was Jesus working “Behind the scenes” making appearances all along, before His birth in Bethlehem?

We have a sampling of what Jesus could have meant when He explained that He Himself was “:… in all the Scriptures….”  I wonder how many more such  ‘appearances’ are in the OT Scriptures?

The book “Standing in the Fire” by Tom Doyle contains testimonies of Arab Muslims converting to Christianity after seeing Jesus in either visions or in person.  Could Jesus still be making appearances today?

 Points to ponder

Is it difficult to see our Lord God as having been a man before the birth of Jesus?

I read that “no man can see God and live” but these men saw and lived???
Where and when did Jesus meet you?  Are you alive?

Was Jesus making appearances after His resurrection?
Is Jesus still making appearances today?

♫  I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today… He walks with me…♫

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                               August 15, 2017

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”      www.InsightsByYosef.com

Note – Inspired by Athol Dickson’s “The Gospel according to Moses” – Topic on page 230.

Musing – How Dare God Say that We Rob Him!

Hebraic Musing – How Dare God Say that We Rob Him!

Don’t we decide how much of our money to give in Tithes and offerings?    

How often have you heard a message on “Tithing” based on Malachi 3:7-8?  --  “Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord Almighty.   "But you ask, 'How are we to return?'     "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'   "In tithes and offerings.”  

Why does God accuse us of robbing Him?  Can that strong language be justified? 

Typical thought process says “I will decide how much of my money, time and oxen to give to God?”  And besides, didn’t God say he already has all the bulls, goats and cattle He needs in Psalm 50:9-10 – “I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.”  Is God really saying the “cattle on a thousand hills” are His?  If we truly understand who God is, then we realize He already owns everything, including the cattle we think belong to us.

In the OT, God commanded His people to bring sacrificial offerings.  “…you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the Lord.”   Deut. 12:11-12   Consider that our sacrifices came from God and belonged to God all along.  They never really belonged to them/us to begin with.  We are just returning them to the rightful owner.  So, whose money is it anyway?

It is not a matter of His ox and my ox; or His money and my money; or my car; or my child. 

Maybe we are like bankers holding His money in trust in our bank; and maybe the car in our driveway is really His, on loan to us.  Maybe we are like bankers, and with that in mind – when God asks to make a withdrawal from His account in our bank, do we have a right to refuse to return His money to Him?

We serve like bankers holding someone else’s money and goods in trust.  When a customer ask to withdraw from their account, a good banker says “Thank you for trusting your funds with us.”  No way should a banker be proud to have returned the depositor’s funds!  Or cattle, or car, etc.

 Points to ponder

When the Holy Spirit tells us to give something, do we have a right to say “NO”?

If a bank refused to let you withdraw your money, wouldn’t you say they “robbed” you?

Are we sometimes reluctant to return anything else He has asked us to give Him?

Do we treat all our time and possessions as loaned from Him?

♫  All to Jesus, I surrender, All to Him I freely give…  I surrender all… I surrender all…♫

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                               August 8, 2017

Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith” 
“Biblical Marriage”   Weekly “Hebraic Musings”      www.InsightsByYosef.com

Note – Inspired by Athol Dickson’s “The Gospel according to Moses” – quote on P.143 “Those sacrifices came from God and belonged to God all along.”