A lion may trap a gazelle and a fox may catch a rabbit, but only because they are more powerful and know how to lie in wait and stalk.  Trying to trap God is not a bright idea!  He is infinitely more powerful and knows every ambush (the Old Testament is full of such stories)!  Yet (so called) clever people still think that they can put God in a box and ship Him out of their lives: they want to find a reason for unbelief.  Such people gain popular credit and sell books by the truckload; but they are transparent and nakedly destitute before their Maker.

So when the religious and political elite came to corner Christ, they used flattery (although, in fact, it was all true). However, it was flattery because they did not believe the truth in what they said.  It is always good to ask a question in order to learn; but it is cynically insincere when the motives are corrupt. Seeking the truth is not just a matter of questions, but the reason behind them.

The question was to trap Jesus.  If Jesus said it was right to pay the hated tax, then the religious leaders could incite the people to support their efforts to kill Jesus – perhaps the mob would stone Him to death.  If He said that it was not right to pay the tax, then that was treasonous – an insult to Caesar for which the Roman occupying forces would execute Him. How long did they spend designing this infallible (so they thought) masterstroke to destroy Jesus by His own words?  But had they realised that He was God in a human body, they would have fallen on their knees begging for mercy, as many Jews did on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:36-38).  They had all the evidence of Christ's divinity, but they had already made up their minds to ignore facts in favour of their prejudiced assumptions.

So, today, many will throw a smokescreen of questions to deflect their conscience from responding to what they already know.  Prejudice does not melt away with knowledge; the clever people are just more inventive in their deviousness.  Prejudice against God only melts when we submit to the truth.  Romans 1:20 says that everybody has enough information to know that God has all power and authority - so nobody has any excuse not to submit to Him.  Neither does any believer have the right not to align themselves with Jesus Christ as their Lord (Philippians 2:9-11).  If we know the truth, we should share it with people who are trapped by lies because the truth sets people free (John 8:32).  Do not fear the people who are trapped, because the Holy Spirit will give you words of truth to say (Luke 12:4-12).