History shows that the Jews were subjected to many oppressions from Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians and in 4 BCE, the Jewish Jesus was born in Galilee under the imperial rule of the Romans whose rule I find being similar to Apartheid in oppression. While His disciples thought that He came to free them from the Romans’ oppression (Luke 24:21), instead, Jesus brought a better freedom and greater authority that overpowered and led the persecuting Romans to surrender and submit to the Jews’ God. Today, you and I, are God’s children through the Roman Catholic church but everything originated from one man, Jesus. How did He react to oppression? How do we apply His reaction principles in our daily oppressive environments?
Oppressive spirits’ goal is to oppress, depress, suppress, degrade, limit and impose hopelessness, unfruitfulness and guilt on us. These environments could be at home, work, relationships, community, psychological and even political. How do we overcome oppression by learning from Jesus’s principles?
Romans inflicted Jews wit tax as an oppression tool until the Jews rebelled to start The first Jewish-Roman War (66–70 CE) but how did Jesus react to tax? Jesus called Matthew, the tax collector, to be His disciple and He was criticized by Jews ( Mat. 9:10, 11:19 ) for eating and sitting with tax collectors because they were sin as sinners (oppressors). Jesus therefore did not discriminate tax collectors. He seems to see beyond what they do and He ministers to them as patients. Luke 15:1 NLT Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.
How did Jesus react to tax oppression itself?
Luke 20:22-25 NLT Now tell us—is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" (23) He saw through their trickery and said, (24) "Show Me a Roman coin. Whose picture and title are stamped on it?" "Caesar's," they replied. (25) "Well then," He said, "give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God."
When I read “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God”, I get an idea that “don’t give Caesar what doesn’t belong to Caesar” and “ don’t give Caesar what belongs to God”. By allowing people do cause damage to your life, you are giving them your life which belongs to God!
Brethren, let them have their promotions, let them have their maintenance money, Give Caesar his divorce papers, let them steal from your house, let the world have what belong to the world BUT do not give the world your wellbeing because you belong to God! Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God!
Give the past what belongs to the past but do not give the past your future! Your future belongs to God!
They may repossess your house and your car but don’t let these demons possess you! You are the temple of the Holy Ghost!
In fact, I am being too soft on these oppressing spirits, If the Romans of Jesus’s time used South African present currency, the imprint on their currency would not be Caesar’s face but faces of tigers, elephants, lion’s, buffalos… just beasts!
I therefore should be allowed to say: “Do not give the beasts what does not belong to the beasts!”
You don’t even sleep at night, worried about a beast with no feelings. “Beauty and the beast” is a fairy-tale; do not give your heart to the beast; your heart belongs to God!
There is a principle that I learn from Jesus in the following scriptures :-
Mar 7:27 NLT Jesus told her, "First I should feed the children—My own family, the Jews. It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs."
Mat 7:6 ESV "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
Brethren, you cannot take that which is Holy and is for the benefit of the Church (body of Christ) and give it to these Beasts! Your freedom has been purchased by a high price!
Do not let these beasts have your peace, do not let them have your joy, do not give Caesar your spirit, it belongs to God.
Joy and peace are fruits of the Holy Spirit and there is no room for these beasts in your heart and Spirit because…
Mat 22:37 NLT Jesus replied, "'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.')
Don’t even give them a fragment of your mind or soul by worrying or regretting or be depressed or feel low or hopeless. You belong to the LORD who watches over you (Psalm 121:5-6 NLT The LORD Himself watches over you! The LORD stands beside you as your protective shade. (6) The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.). Feed your mind, heart and Soul with the Word and live it like Jesus!
Since the devil can’t destroy you, he attempts to use pressure to get you to kill yourself through stress, fatigue and anxiety. Give the critics their stories to bluff but do not give them your ears, gifts and health that belong to God! Give your life to Jesus!
Your scriptures are taken absurdly out of context. I understand what you are trying to say. But your failure to expound your intent may cause another to stumble. Perhaps more research should be done. Rendering to Caesar is not wrong. You a citizen, a part of a growing country and our taxes are necessary. We must render as good and faithful servants of God, to give in a country that blesses us with running water, electricity and so forth. Do you think the roads you comfortably travel along are there by chance?
ReplyDeleteRendering to God is everything we have and everything we are. The picture you paint is that paying tax is "the devil taking from us". This is so wrong it makes me want to scream!
Please get right!
Nicky
Alison checked the post and mentioned that there are too many ideas and a reader would misunderstand the point as you did. I then edited and handed it over and she found it fine. So please forgive me if the message came out with offensive connotations. I even refrained from publishing part 2 because it was worse and needs more preparation work.
ReplyDeleteI did however make it clear that there is nothing wrong with paying tax and that according to Jesus we should pay tax. The message has nothing to do with our tax ethics. I could have used the cross instead of tax as one of the oppressive tools that the Romans used. I am trying to make a point that tax was just not tax but it had an oppression element into it ( it was excessive and that is how the Jews received it according to my research).The post is really about not allowing people to damage you when they try to. If I took your comments as an attack for an example, the lesson is that I should rather go and do more research and simplify/work more on my posts, instead of taking it personal and be angry or insult you or stop blogging or any other negative thing that would be giving Ceasar what does not belong to him. That is the morale of the post. Thank you for your comment though, I will be careful next time.