And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls. Jump to: Barnes • Benson • BI • Calvin • Cambridge • Clarke • Darby • Ellicott • Expositor's • Exp Dct • Gaebelein • GSB • Gill • Gray • Guzik • Haydock • Hastings • Homiletics • JFB • KD • King • Lange • MacLaren • MHC • MHCW • Parker • Poole • Pulpit • Sermon • SCO • TTB • WES • TSK EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE) (16) Thou shalt . . . appoint it for the service of the tabernacle.—It appears, by Exodus 38:27-28, that the silver collected by this tax, which amounted to above a hundred talents, was employed for making the sockets which supported the boards of the tabernacle (Exodus 26:19-25), and those of the pillars of the vail (Exodus 26:32), together with the hooks for the pillars of the court, their capitals, and connecting rods. Thus, so long as the tabernacle stood, the precious metal paid as ransom remained in the sight of the people, and was a continual “memorial,” or reminder, to them of the position into which they were brought by covenant with God.30:11-16 The tribute was half a shekel, about fifteen pence of our money. The rich were not to give more, nor the poor less; the souls of the rich and poor are alike precious, and God is no respecter of persons, Ac 10:34; Job 34:19. In other offerings men were to give according to their wordly ability; but this, which was the ransom of the soul, must be alike for all. The souls of all are of equal value, equally in danger, and all equally need a ransom. The money raised was to be used in the service of the tabernacle. Those who have the benefit, must not grudge the necessary charges of God's public worship. Money cannot make atonement for the soul, but it may be used for the honour of Him who has made the atonement, and for the maintenance of the gospel by which the atonement is applied.tabernacle of the congregation - tent of meeting, here and in Exodus 30:18, Exodus 30:20, A memorial unto the children of Israel - The silver used in the tabernacle was a memorial to remind each man of his position before the Lord, as one of the covenanted people. and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; for the building of the tabernacle, for the repairs of it, and for the sacrifices offered in it; particularly we find that this first collection this way was appropriated to the silver sockets of the sanctuary, and the vail, for the silver hooks, and for the pillars, Exodus 38:27, that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls; to put them in mind that they were sinners, that their lives were forfeited, that a ransom price was given and accepted of God, that hereby atonement, in a typical sense, was made for them; and this was before the Lord, as a token of their gratitude to him, and of their acknowledgment of the favour. EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES) 16. for the service, &c.] i.e. for the maintenance of the daily worship in the Tent of Meeting, the morning and evening sacrifices, &c. The reference cannot be to the work of erecting the sanctuary; for (1) the injunction is general (When thou takest the sum, &c.), not specific (And thou shalt take, &c.); and (2) even supposing it were specific, the first census according to P is the one in Numbers 1, which (v. 1 compared with Exodus 40:2; Exodus 40:17) took place a month after the sanctuary was completed and put up.be a memorial, &c.] to keep Jehovah in continual remembrance of the ransom which had been paid for their lives: cf. Exodus 28:12; Exodus 28:29, Numbers 10:10; Numbers 31:54. Verse 16. - The application of the "atonement money" is stated more distinctly in Exodus 38:27, 28. It was employed for the silver sockets that supported the boards of the tabernacle, and for the hooks, capitals, and connecting rods of the pillars which surrounded the court. Thus employed, it was a continual "memorial" in the eyes of the people, reminding each man of his privileges and duties Exodus 30:16This atonement-money Moses was to appropriate to the work of the sanctuary (cf. Exodus 38:25-28, where the amount and appropriation are reported). Through this appropriation it became "a memorial to the children of Israel before the Lord to expiate their souls," i.e., a permanent reminder of their expiation before the Lord, who would henceforth treat them as reconciled because of this payment. It was no ordinary tribute, therefore, which Israel was to pay to Jehovah as its King, but an act demanded by the holiness of the theocratic covenant. As an expiation for souls, it pointed to the unholiness of Israel's nature, and reminded the people continually, that by nature it was alienated from God, and could only remain in covenant with the Lord and live in His kingdom on the ground of His grace, which covered its sin. It was not till this sinful nature had been sanctified by a perfect atonement, and servitude under the law had been glorified and fully transformed into that sonship to which Israel was called as the first-born son of Jehovah, that as children of the kingdom they had no longer to pay this atonement-money for their souls (Matthew 17:25-26). - According to Numbers 1:1, Numbers 1:18, as compared with Exodus 40:17, the census of the nation was not taken till a month after the building of the tabernacle was completed, and yet the atonement-money to be paid at the taking of the census was to be appropriated to the purpose of the building, and must therefore have been paid before. This apparent discrepancy may be reconciled by the simple assumption, that immediately after the command of God had been issued respecting the building of the tabernacle and the contributions which the people were to make for the purpose, the numbering of the males was commenced and the atonement-money collected from the different individuals, that the tabernacle was then built and the whole ceremonial instituted, and that, after all this had been done, the whole nation was enrolled according to its tribes, fathers' houses, and families, on the basis of this provisional numbering, and thus the census was completed. For this reason the census gave exactly the same number of males as the numbering (cf. Exodus 38:26 and Numbers 1:46), although the one had been carried out nine months before the other. 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