By Edward Poynter (1836-1919)/Wikipedia/Public Domain
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Hi my name is Dean Smith and today I want to talk about taxes which have been the bane of human existence for thousands of years.
As long as there are governments, which we need, we will have taxation. But when governments start wasting money or taxes become too high, people will get upset and even rebel.
Sometimes it is done discreetly, like in 1696, when England’s King Henry III came up with the idea of a window tax.
The tax was easy to calculate as a tax collector only had to stand outside a home and count the windows.
In response, people began bricking up their windows because windows could increase a person’s house tax by 400%. The tax was referred to endearingly as ‘daylight robbery.”
At other times, we have seen serious tax revolts, such as the Boston Tea Party. In 1773, Americans boarded a ship in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea off of a ship to protest Britain’s tax on tea.
Though there were many underlying issues, the Boston Tea Party is considered the catalyst for the American Revolution and America’s break from Britain.
But what many people don’t realize is that excessive taxation was also the catalyst for two major Biblical events.
Israel’s Exodus out of Egypt
The first involves Israel’s Exodus out of Egypt, which may come as a surprise to many.
The Hebrews had been invited to live in Egypt when Joseph was second in command a few centuries earlier. But that all changed when a new king or Pharaoh came to the throne in Exodus 1:8.
This new Pharaoh oppressed the Hebrews. He appointed taskmasters over the Hebrews and a forced them to perform hard labor. In Exodus 2:11-12, we read how Moses killed a taskmaster who was beating a Hebrew.
Up to this point life had been comfortable in Egypt for the Hebrews, but now they were desperate to leave and were finally only allowed to after God judged the country with ten plagues. While, we typically look upon the Hebrews as slaves, a strange incident takes place in Exodus 10:24 that paints a slightly different picture.
After the ninth plaque of darkness, the Pharaoh said the Hebrews could leave, but they had to leave their flocks behind. Though they were prevented from leaving Egypt, you don’t typically think of slaves having flocks and herds, but the Hebrews did. So they weren’t slaves like we typically envision them today.
You see in ancient times, people. typically paid their taxes in one of three ways. It was paid with money—silver and gold or with goods like grain and livestock, or through actual labor, where they would give their time to work on government construction projects.
This is how the Hebrews were being taxed in Egypt. They were being forced to take time away from raising their livestock or growing crops to work on pharaoh’s building projects.
So when the Pharaoh ordered the Hebrews to collect their own straw for making the bricks (which up to this point the Egyptians had provided), this was essentially a tax increase because the Hebrews would have to spend more of their time working for the pharaoh.
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak. Because of this abusive level of taxation, the Hebrews were now desperate to leave. God heard their pleas and used Moses to deliver them out of Egypt.
In some respects, it’s not really all that much different today. In 2024, Tax Freedom Day in America fell on April 17th. This means that the average American worked the first 107 days of the year just to pay their federal, state and local taxes.
Another way of looking at this is that Americans are working about 30% of their working day, or nearly 2.5 hours, for the government. Sure you may not be baking bricks under the hot Egyptian sun, but you are still working for the government.
In Canada, Tax Freedom Day fell on June 13 in 2024. Yes, nearly 45% of the average Canadian’s income goes to just pay their tax bill. Now to be fair, these taxes also pay for their medical care.
When Israel Split into Two Nations: Israel and Judah
The Bible’s second major tax revolt took place when Israel split apart into two nations, Israel and Judah.
Back in 2013, archaeologists discovered a palace and tax collection building in the city of Shaarayim, that belonged to King David.
It’s a bit ironic because it was the tax policy of David’s grandson that ripped Israel in half, forming two nations — Judah and Israel.
The problems started when David’s son Solomon became king. He undertook massive building projects requiring him to raise taxes to pay for them.
Though Solomon constructed the temple, it was not a major expense as King David — who was forbidden from building it — had already gathered most of the material needed for and had even arranged for some of the workmen. We see that in 1 Chronicles 22:2-4.
Rather it was Solomon’s other construction projects that included a new palace that was the root of the problem.
Solomon was not content to live in his father’s Jerusalem Palace and built a massive new building to house his 700 wives and 300 concubines.
To give you an idea how massive this building was, it took seven years to build the temple, but it took 13 years to construct Solomon’s new palace.
It was built largely due to Solomon’s marriage to the daughter of the Egyptian pharaoh. It proved controversial. People in Israel were obviously questioning the outrageous expense, because Solomon was forced to publicly justify it.
Here is the new release that Solomon sent out justifying it. Well, he didn’t really send out a news release, but there was pressure on him and he needed to explain the expenditure:
11Then Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house which he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy where the ark of the Lord has entered.” (2 Chronicles 8:11)
Because she was Egyptian, Solomon said she couldn’t live in David’s palace because the Ark of the Covenant had passed through it.
Reading between the lines: his Egyptian wife obviously hadn’t converted to Judaism. 1 Kings 11:1-5 tells us that most of his wives didn’t in fact they influenced Solomon in his idolatry. The Egyptian princess was undoubtedly demanding a room where she could worship her Egyptian gods.
Solomon argued that her presence in the old palace would desecrate this sacred ground. So he needed a new fancy palace, with all the trimmings, complete with Egyptian gods and all paid for by the taxpayers of Israel.
In reality, the old palace was just to small and Solomon wanted bigger and more grandiose digs and needed to find some way to justify it, so he blamed one of his wives.
You can imagine this did not go over well with taxpayers.
Aside from this notorious project, Solomon constructed numerous other building all requiring tax payments and forced labor.
We actually have a reference to this in 1 Kings 9:15-17, we read:
“Now this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon levied to build the house of the Lord, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.” (I Kings 9:15 NASV)
Did you notice how the writer of 1 Kings stated that the forced labor was “levied” for construction projects? Levied refers to taxation. People’s time was taxed in the same way as their income.
This was no different than what happened in Egypt. They wouldn’t work full time on the projects as they still had to earn a living, but the amount of time that the men were forced to give was obviously a major irritant.
When King Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king. We read in 1 Kings 12 that he was aware resentment was brewing in Israel over his father’s burdensome taxes.
Rehoboam consulted with his father’s advisers and they told him in verse 7 to reduce the tax burden. But when Rehoboam’s young friends said raise the taxes, They said ‘we need more taxes’, because they wanted to pay for their lifestyle, Solomon’s son took their advice instead.
Rehoboam said, “‘Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions’” (v 11).
This was a direct reference to the Israelis being forced to work on government construction projects and Rehoboam was saying if you think my dad was bad, just wait to see what I have in store for you.
Like they did in Egypt, Solomon’s taskmasters or construction supervisors used whips to punish workers considered slacking off. They had a different breed of tax collectors back in those days.
Rehoboam added that his taskmasters would be using scorpions instead of whips. The tax burden would become painful and torturous.
His refusal to reduce taxes resulted in Israel being split into two nations, Judah and Israel, through a rebellion led by Jeroboam.
Render Unto Caesar
While there is potential for taxes to be abusive, they are also necessary and the issue of taxation pops up in the New Testament. The Jews hated paying the Roman Poll tax. The pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking in Matthew 22:17, if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar.
Notice how they worded it. Did the Jewish law require them to pay the tax? If Jesus answered yes, they could accuse him of being a Roman sympathizer and no better than a hated tax collector. If Jesus said no, they could go the Roman authorities and accuse Christ of being a rebel.
Jesus asked for a coin with which they paid the tax and then asked whose image was on it. When the pharisees answered Caesar’s, Jesus said that they should render onto Caesar what was Caesar’s and unto God what was God’s. It was not an either or question, the Jews had an obligation to both human government and to God.
Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will talk to you again.
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