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(The views expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Nehemiah 10:32–39, “Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God; For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law: And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the LORD: Also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the priests that minister in the house of our God: And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage. And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes unto the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure house. For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the corn, of the new wine, and the oil, unto the chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the porters, and the singers: and we will not forsake the house of our God.”
There had been a stage, not long before this new time of dedication, when the leaders of the province were extorting money from the poor people. Nehemiah, on the other hand, behaved with integrity and didn’t extort money. After this time of confession and repentance, the leaders, on behalf of the nation, dedicated themselves to ensuring that the New Temple was properly funded. It takes a lot of money to perform the ceremonies and procedures as required by the Lord so they established a secure way of funding this. They also understood that the properly qualified people, who were chosen by the Lord to run the ceremonies, needed to be properly remunerated as well. It would have been a breach of the spirit of the Law to allow the priests and their helpers to live in relative poverty while the people they were serving lived at a much higher standard. The Lord had already established this principle when the Law was first written down by Moses. The people who served the Lord in the Temple were well paid for their service and were able to live in nice homes and feed their families. On the other hand, it was not proper for the priests to become extremely rich while they exploited the poor people who just wanted to serve the Lord because they loved Him.
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