A proper meeting, a meeting that is living, rich, and balanced, is one in which each one pays the half-shekel. But the situation today is that certain rich ones may put in millions of shekels, whereas most of the Christians do not pay anything at all. This is the situation of today’s Christians, and it may also be the situation among us.
I am concerned that in the meetings the leading ones are paying too much. If the leading ones pay too much, they will kill the meetings. On the other hand, many of the saints may pay less than a half-shekel, and some may not pay anything. Whenever you come to a church meeting, you should put in your half-shekel. This is not a great requirement. Actually you need to pay just a half-shekel, yet this half-shekel is a full payment and a complete unit, for it is ten gerahs and one bekah. I long to see meetings where all the saints pay the half-shekel.
Recently I have been deeply bothered by the matter of overpayment and underpayment in the church meetings. With the exception of the Lord’s table meeting, in most meetings some pay too much—more than a half-shekel—and others pay too little—less than a half shekel. Of course, we cannot blame those who spiritually are under the age of twenty for not paying anything. A group of those who pay too much tax may function like a corporate pastor, and the rest of the attendants may be like laymen. This kind of situation bothers me. This is not the Lord’s recovery, and this is not the census for the formation of the army.
We all need to grow and experience Christ to the standard required by God. Then the half-shekel must be weighed not by our own balance but by the balance in the sanctuary. For this reason, in verse 13 the shekel is called the shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel weighed according to God’s holy standard. At the least, we need to experience Christ to the extent that we have enough silver to pay our spiritual poll tax for the census, for the draft.
If we all pay the half-shekel in each meeting, how strong, living, rich, uplifted, excellent, and wonderful our meetings will be. Again I say that those who are very young in the spiritual life are not required to pay the half-shekel. Spiritually speaking, they are children or teenagers. It is normal to have such young ones among us. But all those over the age of twenty are required to pay the half-shekel. This is for the formation of the army.
When the army goes forth to fight the enemy, we do not send the toddlers, school-age children, or teenagers. Rather, we would keep them safe and protected at home. Those who are twenty and upward, however, must go forth to fight. Actually, every meeting is a fight. We need to realize that every meeting is a fight for God’s move.
By now we should be clear that the propitiation silver is for the building up of God’s dwelling place and also for the move of God’s testimony. Eventually, as we shall see later on, after God’s dwelling place had been built, the propitiation silver served as the maintenance fee.