It was necessary every so often to take a census of the people. It might, for example, be necessary to determine the number of men in the army. But the process was fraught with danger from a faith point of view because the people might well take confidence in their numeric strength. This was the problem when David arranged an unauthorised census and brought a plague upon the nation (2 Samuel 24). To offset this, a seemingly strange but effective ritual was established. Every person counted had to symbolically buy his life back from God. This reminded the people that they only existed as a free nation because God had called them out of Egypt. It was because of his faithfulness to his covenant promise that they had become a great nation (Genesis 12:2; 15:5). The money was not a means of buying one’s forgiveness but a “memorial” that reminded the people that they had been redeemed by God to belong to him. The amount was not large and was to be the same for all to demonstrate the equality of all people before God. God knew the things that would be likely to bloat the pride of his people and cause them to forget their debt to him. So, he built constant reminders into their life. Pride will naturally grow if we do not intentionally do things to diminish our conceitedness. Don’t let your heart set its own course. Build constant reminders into your life of your indebtedness to God for everything.
Ask God to keep you humble and grateful.
Read Exodus 30:11-16
