Israel Heard the Ten Commandments 

Do not think that only Moses heard the Lord speak the Ten Commandments, but after reminding Israel of the Ten Commandments, Moses then said, “These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me” (Deuteronomy 5.22).

How awesome was that! The Lord both spoke the commandments so that Israel could hear them, and He Himself wrote them down so that they could read them, and now we can read them!

Great and awesome is our God! DR

Should We Pay Taxes? 

Do you mind paying taxes? If not, why not? Do you want to freeload off the government? If not, it makes sense to pay taxes, and Jesus shows that we should.

The enemies of Jesus wanted to hear Him on whether He thought they should pay taxes to Caesar. Here is the last part of the exchange, “‘Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?’ But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, ‘Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it.’ So they brought it. And He said to them, ‘Whose image and inscription is this?’ They said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ And they marveled at Him” (Mark 12.15–17).

You do not expect to rent a house without paying for it, because it belongs to someone else. Likewise, the money we use belongs to someone else, and if we want to use it, we have to pay taxes.