The Census Tax

 

 

Exodus 30:11-16

 

October 22, 2024

 

The Census Tax

The Lord said to Moses,  “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them.  Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord.  Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord's offering.  The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives.  You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.”

 

What is a Census, and why did God require it of the people of Israel?   A census is used for many reasons today, to have a count of the people in a nation, to gather information, population count, but was that what God was requiring them to do? 

 

You may have noticed the requirement was for 20 years and up, for rich and poor, the same amount.  I believe that it served two reasons, first and most important, as a reminder of who they were and who God was.  It reminded them of slavery and freedom, of a God who was the giver of life to them, and death to the army of Egypt.  So first and foremost, a reminder that God is the only God, and they are the created.

Second, to provide for the priest and those who minister before the Lord.

What should you and I regurgitate from this? Could it just be “It's not about us,” we are the created and God is the giver of all that we need.  But our flesh desires so much more; we are often drawn by the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.  It is common to all people, not just people who are blind to the ways of God.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

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