365 Reflections

Numbers 1:44–46 (ESV)  These are those who were listed, whom Moses and Aaron listed with the help of the chiefs of Israel, twelve men, each representing his fathers’ house. 45 So all those listed of the people of Israel, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war in Israel- all those listed were 603,550. Let's dive into Numbers. To be honest, I'm kind of happy to be past Leviticus. That was tough. Numbers opens with a census of the men able to fight in Israel. This is a nation that went to Egypt 70 in number. They have come out 400 years later at 600k+ men 20 years old and able to fight in war, not including the younger men and all the females. This nation has become enormous in an incredibly short amount of time. Possibly 2.5 million people from 70 in 440 years (if you include the wilderness wanderings). Now, lets address something that keeps coming up in commentaries and in Biblical archeology studies. People usually discredi...

Exodus 30:11–14  (ESV)   The Lord said to Moses, 12 “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. 13 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 . 14   Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the LORD’s offering. Exodus moves from describing the Temple, all it's instruments and designs to the census tax upon those 20 years old or more.  The people of Israel were to know that they were worth something. They had to give a ransom each for their lives whenever they were counted by God's leader. What's also interesting is that the money came into the tabernacle as a sort of tax. They brought the value of their lives to the tabernacle wh...