Churches do pay taxes, Delbert, the same way you and I do. Everyone who works for a church pays income tax.
In other taxation respects, they are like all other non-profit organizations, so if you have something against that, you should likewise have something against United Way, Easter Seal, Goodwill, Etc, Etc., and all of the foundations set up by the Rockefellers, Kennedys, and other wealthy people, many of which pay their workers and executives far more exorbitantly than most churches do.
You asked, why would God not want a priest to be a cripple? He was, through the law, teaching them that only the best is acceptable to him. That is part of God's nature. He has very good "taste." But he was using what is visible, external defects such as lameness, to illustrate what really matters, which is what is inside, in the heart.
That is explained in other parts of the Scripture.
The same principle applied to animal offerings. If a Jew wanted to offer an animal in sacrifice to God, it had to be the best of his flock, not the lame ones or sick ones that had little marketable value.
We can all understand that. Is it really a show of love, to give someone a gift, if we give it because we are just trying to get rid of it?
Even though a priest physically qualifies for the office, there were none who were perfectly qualified, because all have sinned. They had to periodically offer sin offerings, to symbolically, ritually pay for their own sins. But the Scripture says that the animal sacrifices were only a sign pointing to what Jesus would be doing for us and that the blood of those animals could not pay for sins, but was only to teach them about the necessity for what Jesus would do.
The whole point in all of this is to teach us that we need help, that none of us, no matter how free of faults, is perfect and therefore acceptable to God, who only accepts what is absolutely perfect.
The only one God accepts, as is, is Jesus. Jesus paid for our sins and all our faults, so if we accept this form of "Governor's Pardon" for our sins, as God has laid down the terms, then he credits us with the sinlessness and perfection of Jesus, gives us full access to the unlimited account of Jesus' righteousness, since otherwise we would have no righteousness of our own that could even approach being what is acceptable to God.
John |
