Exodus 30:11 ¶ And the LORD
spake unto Moses, saying, 12 When thou
takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they
give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them;
that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. 13 This they shall give, every one that passeth
among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary:
(a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering
of the LORD. 14 Every one that passeth
among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an
offering unto the LORD. 15 The rich
shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they
give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls. 16 And thou shalt take the atonement money of
the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a
memorial unto the children of Israel before the LORD, to make an atonement for
your souls.
An
important thing to note here is that the ransom for a man’s soul was paid to
the Lord.
…then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the
LORD…
The Anglican clerics, Westcott and Hort, who were mainly
responsible for the Revised Version of
the Bible put forward the error that Satan was such a powerful entity, almost
an opponent to God, that Jesus paid a ransom to him at the Cross. This is
absurd as you can see as ransoms are paid to God.
Job 33:24 Then he is
gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have
found a ransom.
Psalm 49:7 None of them can by any means redeem his
brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
Matthew 20:28 Even as the
Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his
life a ransom for many.
1Timothy 2:5 For there is
one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 6 Who gave
himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Christians have granted too much power and authority to Satan who
is subordinate to God. He can do nothing without God’s permission and the book
of Job says he must operate under the limits set by God. In the Persian
religion there was a good god and a bad god; Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. This
eventually resulted in the heresy put forward by the Iranian teacher, Mani,
called Manichaeism of a very clear black and white universe where bad things
that happen and good things that happen are clearly separated into the realms
of distinct entities.
However, the Bible teaches God’s absolute sovereignty throughout.
There is nothing that He did not either cause to happen or permit to happen for
reasons He shows in Job we may never know on this earth. Our duty is to trust
Him. Satan is wholly subordinate to God’s will and can do nothing that God does
not permit. This is very difficult for Christians who have grown up in pagan
Christianity where non-Christian ideas like Greek philosophy, are mingled in
with Bible truth.
No ransom is now or was ever paid to Satan. That is heresy and
blaspheming God’s sovereignty. Satan does not have a position where he can
demand a ransom, nor is he ever said to request one.
Notice verse 14 about the twenty-year age mark. We often talk
about the so-called age of accountability when before, a child is “safe” and
not in danger of spending an eternity in God’s wrath, and after, when unless
you accept God’s free gift of salvation in Christ you are judged and condemned
as a sinner.
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