Now, he has an interesting way of paying it here, because he sends Peter to go to the
sea and cast a hook.
And he basically tells him, the first fish that you catch, when you open its mouth, you're
going to find a coin in its mouth, and that's going to be the amount that you need to pay
for both me and you.
Both of our taxes are going to be covered with one coin, okay?
Those were the good old days.
So you say, well maybe it was a gold coin.
A gold coin couldn't even cover my taxes, or yours most likely, right?
Because, you know, what's the price of gold, fifteen hundred bucks, fourteen hundred bucks?
Well, most people are paying more than that per year.
But much more than that, usually, if you include FICA and everything else.
But anyway, this is symbolic because of the fact that fishing in the Bible represents
evangelism.
Because if you remember when Jesus calls his disciples, they're fishing, and he says, come
with me, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
And so fishing in the Bible is an analogy for winning people to Christ.
And so when he sends them and says, you know, go cast a hook into the sea, the fish that
first cometh up, when thou hast opened its mouth, you'll find the money.
You know, fish, they swallow all kinds of junk, right?
Have you seen these ads or documentaries that make you feel sad about the dolphins and the
tunas, and they get caught in those little six-pack, uh, you know those little plastic
things that hold a six-pack together?
You know, and they get stuck in that thing, and they're swallowing all kinds of trash
and junk, and they cut open a fish, and it's filled with, like, metal junk and plastic
and everything like that.
You know, well guess what?
Even back then, fish were getting stuck in things and eating weird junk, you know, because
it swallowed a metal coin.
But obviously God worked this out.
It's a miracle that Jesus could just predict, hey, you're going to go down there, you're
going to cast a hook.
The very first fish that you catch is going to be filled with junk, and it's going to
be the right junk.
It's going to be money to pay both of our taxes, okay?
Now the picture here is that if we go out and do the work of the Lord, which is the
spiritual fishing, the soul winning, God's going to provide our needs.
That's what we see.
God says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things
will be added unto you.
And what are all the things in the context?
Food and clothing and just our physical material needs, our daily bread, our food, our clothes.
God says if you seek first the kingdom of God, all these other things will be added
unto you.
So the picture here is that Peter, by doing the work of God, because obviously he's just
throwing a hook in the water, but the picture is soul winning.
You know, you go out, you serve the Lord, you win souls to Christ, and God provides
your material financial needs.
So a lot of people think, hey, I've got to put church on the back burner, I've got to
put soul winning on the back burner because I've got bills to pay and I need to get out
there and work.
But here's the thing, there are 168 hours in the week.
Plenty of time to make money in those 168 hours, and you know what, you ought to be
able to carve out some time to read your Bible, to pray, to go to church, and specifically
to get out soul winning.
You know, to get out soul winning every single week, knock doors, preach the gospel to the
lost, and you know what, you'll notice that God's going to bless you for doing that because
you're doing his work and he'll take care of you in the process.