December 2, 2022

Passage Read: Exodus 27-30
Meditation Verses: 30:12,16

Thought

The Lord allowed for a census of the people from time to time, but whenever they were counted, they had to pay a half-shekel, to make atonement for themselves. If they didn't pay the ransom for their lives, they could be struck with a plague. When they were counted, they had to pay the Lord for their lives. Did David forget to have the people atone for their lives? Is that what angered the Lord when he counted the people? It wasn't that he was counting the people, but that he wasn't planning to have the people atone for their lives? The money went to the priests and Tabernacle, not to David, so it wasn't like he was trying to get richer. So with a census, the people were to remember that their lives were a gift from the Lord and pay a price to redeem or make atonement for themselves or pay a ransom for their lives. Their lives were not their own; they didn't deserve to live; they should have been put to death for all their sins.

Application

Every firstborn son belonged to the Lord and needed to be ransomed or redeemed at birth. But any time there was a census, all the people were again to make atonement for their lives, to redeem them, because they didn't deserve to live, but their life was an expression of grace and mercy from the Lord. A census brings that back into focus, that so many people are alive. They were not to be proud, as if their nation were so strong, but they were to be humbled and reminded that they lived by the grace of God, that not one of them deserved life. And everyone was equal, regardless of their prosperity. A rich man's life was no more valuable than a poor man's life.