Images are powerful. I recently purchased a two-drachma coin. It’s framed, it’s in my office and I look at it every time I’m at work. Here’s what it looks like:
Matthew 17:24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” 25 “Yes, he does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?” 26 “From others,” Peter answered. “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27 “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
I'm reminded of many things when I look at that coin every time I'm at my desk. I’d like to share five thoughts with you:
🔑Revelation and provision are linked.
Peter received provision he didn’t previously have - not through conventional methods - but through Christ’s revelation.
✅Provision: the action of supplying something for use.
🔑Revelation and freedom are linked.
Peter was once led by Christ to leave fishing for good - which he did. He is now told to go and fish - the very thing he had left behind. Freedom doesn’t come by memorizing the law - it comes by knowing Jesus.
✅Freedom: the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved.
🔑Revelation and synergy are linked.
How was it, that the right fish, was at the right place, at the right time, to bite on the right bait? By revelation.
✅Synergy: the interaction or cooperation of two or more agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.
🔑Revelation and philanthropy are linked.
Peter didn’t just pick up a two-drachma coin - he picked up a four-drachma coin. He paid his own tax and Jesus’s tax.
✅Philanthropy: the desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed especially by the generous donation of money to good causes.
🔑Revelation and personality are linked.
The instruction wasn’t to go and do something that requires a skill that Peter didn’t possess. Peter had experience in fishing. “God doesn't want all of Him and none of you. He had that before He created you. He wants all of Him in all of you.” - Alan Scott
✅Personality - the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.
Happy fishing🐟