In 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made one of the most shocking economical decisions of any president in history. Through a series of executive orders and congressional resolutions, he took the United States off of the gold standard, which regulated the valuation of the dollar by measuring it up against the price of gold.
I failed economics in college. I’m not good at math. But even I can understand the impact of a decision like this. When you remove a standard of valuation from the economy, prices can and will fluctuate. There’s no focal point that keeps everything consistent.
That’s precisely what God wanted to nip in the bud. Leviticus has talked a lot about valuations and redemptions, so it makes sense that one of the very last things talked about in this book is a set monetary standard. And that standard, according to Leviticus 27:25, is the “shekel of the sanctuary.”
It’s important to point out that in ancient Hebrew finance, units of currency are often valued by weight. The mina, for instance, was somewhere around 1.25 pounds, whereas a talent was 75 pounds.
Those measurements were vital when figuring out the value across different precious metals. A talent of gold looked and was valued differently than a talent of bronze because gold is naturally heavier. That’s why the sanctuary shekel is valued strictly at twenty gerahs—roughly half an ounce, or 11-13 grams.
If the weight is understood, then what is the metal of the sanctuary shekel? While there seems to be some disagreement over the types of metal used, the predominant opinion is that it was made of metal. In Exodus 38:25-26, every one is numbered according the shekel of the sanctuary, and the metal that was used then is silver.
It may seem silly—or foolish, even—to have a set monetary standard in place for hundreds of years. After all, inflation is a real thing. Wouldn’t they want to change the valuation over time?
To that, I would answer with this question: Have you met the Pharisees?
These guys were masters of manipulating the Law for their own financial gain. They had no problem telling people to refuse taking care of their parents because that money would be better spent at the Temple (Mark 7:9-13).
The shekel of the sanctuary ensured that everyone paid exactly what was owed, and those who wanted to distort justice were unable to. It didn’t stem all the misdeeds of the ruling elite in the Jewish community, but it helped stave off a lot of potential religious theft.
