Not Fair

Exodus 29-32

The Lord instructed Moses that whenever he took a census of the people each man who was counted must pay a ransom for himself so that a plague would not strike the people. Almost as though it were a pride penalty... when your pride gets to be so great that you want to count how many of you there are, then every man must pay the ransom. The ransom is one-half shekel of silver, the rich may not pay more, nor may the poor pay less... those are God's commands. It is not always about fairness. Sometimes there is a penalty to be paid by all... not proportionately, but by the whole community. Perhaps that was partly to ensure that the pride of the leader... wanting to know how great his empire was... would be countered by the realization that if not everyone could meet their obligation, that a plague would strike the people and make the kingdom smaller.

Too often we look for simple answers to life's problems. I've read several blog posts recently that tackle real world problems and honestly seek solutions to resolve hunger, education, and housing issues (for example) but too often their solutions seem rooted in secular ideology that fail to address the root causes. God doesn't have that problem. He sees the roots, the trunk, the branches, and leaves. He sees it all... and creates fairness out of it his way.