Singers

Singers

Singers were like the heralds of the king who announced his will but in God’s kingdom the people were originally the princes of Israel for there was no king. The heralds or singers carried the message from public servants but the decision was carried back from the people to those servants. There was no authority for proclamations to the people. Ezra 7:7 "And there went up [some] of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, ..."

Passover messengers who could be called singers, were sent from Jerusalem with an “issued proclamation” demanding the temple tribute, which could only be paid with the temple coin, the half-shekel. The money-exchanging porters, bankers, a.k.a. money-changers, would have their “tables” set up across the country to make exchanges for those coins, which, for a short time, would be in high demand and exchanged at a premium.

“On the 25th of Adar business was only transacted within the precincts of Jerusalem and of the Temple, and after that date those who had refused to pay the impost could be proceeded against at law, and their goods distrained, the only exception being in favour of priests, and that ‘for the sake of peace, lest their office should come in disrepute.'”

There were several different forms of this word translated into singer, sheer or shuwr. These were identical with shoor which meant to travel, journey, go [through the idea of strolling minstrelsy]; Minstrels sang and recited poetically because it was easier to remember messages and communications accurately. They were the newsmen or heralds of official business.

The singers were commonly travelers because they had to deliver the news and messages all around the kingdom of God in order to keep the people informed.

The Singers had gone from being the messengers of the people to being the Heralds of the ruling elite. They were able to do this because the people became slothful and, as a result, centralized the right hand of government. That strong right arm of an aberrant kingdom became the enforcing arm of the uncharitable left, to the oppression and corruption of all.

“And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.” John 2:16

The Temple was a national bank for the Kingdom. The coin in Judea was minted in the temple. The temple was the center of the legal, monetary, and welfare system of the government. Coinage should be in the hands of the people, but it is part of the job of the Church to preach a system of honest weights and measure and, through its system of singers or heralds, the Church should notify the people when unlawful money is put into circulation.

The Church is not like the banks of the world or the treasuries of the gentiles. They do not demand deposits, store wealth, nor charge usury. They are to assist in the circulation and distribution of the love and freewill offering of charity of the people.

As the ministers of the Kingdom, they provide a system where by the people may aid one another so that they do not have to turn to centralized systems of usury and subjection. They are not a central depository but a network. They must warn the people when dangerous practices creep into society.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house. You will not take from a man’s household or any portion of his home.

You shall not take from your neighbor’s house by threatening to take it by force if he will not pay you or your rulers usury, no matter what benefits it may bring you.

This would include free schools for your children, police or fire protection or any service where your neighbor is forced to pay and deprived of the choice to give. Nor shall you desire or hope to take any part of benefits that are financed by such coveting systems.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor any portion of the labor of his servants, nor any part of his assets, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. All that is your neighbor’s is his and you or your servants, either public or private, will not take anything that is your neighbor’s without his desire to give it to you freely. You shall not draft his sons or force his daughters to labor for you or for your elected agents, nor shall you desire or hope to take any part that is your neighbor’s.

This is what happened when men chose a centralized ruler, or king, in the days of Samuel. God and 1 Samuel 8 warned us that this is what will transpire if we reject God and choose to have men rule over us and be our lawmakers. Men keep returning to the same error and the solution never changes either. Christ showed us, but so did prophets like Nehemiah.

“And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding; They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;” Nehemiah 10:28 29

Nehemiah and the people returned to the precepts of God and separated themselves, being different from the nations of the earth, as Jesus also said. With understanding and right knowledge, they gathered with their brethren and contributed willingly to the altars of God, as we see the first century Church doing. They forsook tribute and did not impose a tax but said that they alone would charge themselves to contribute. This is the Kingdom of God and the subject of what the Church should preach.