Exodus 30:11–16

Hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions is for every day you and I we get together We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year You and I this year 2023 We'll get through from Genesis through Leviticus. So glad to be with you this morning when we have some coffee We'll pray and we'll get into the ransom money. I Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. And Father, we pray now that as we read your word, that you would please bless us by it. Help us to understand it. Help it to work in our hearts. In Jesus's name. Amen. All right. So we are at Exodus chapter 30. We're going to read 11 through 16. Here we go. Then the Lord spoke to Moses.
When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord. When you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them. This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel is 20 geras. The half shekel shall be an offering to the Lord. Everyone included among those who are numbered from 20 years old and above shall give So everyone from 20 years old and above shall give an offering to the Lord. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel.
When you give an offering to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves and you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting. that it may be a memorial for the children of israel before the lord to make atonement for ourselves well we need to ask ourselves a what's this about b what's the best versus summarizes and c what are we called to do about this so what's this about Well, this is there's going to be times in which there's going to be censuses taken But there's really only two reasons in the ancient world for censuses to be taken either for recruiting for war or taxes for getting money and the Lord is saying that when this happens Moses you better be awfully careful about it, right because it's really easy for people to want to Trust in the size of their army.
It's really easy for people to want to Build up their own storehouses and oppress the people with oppressive taxes anything You better be careful that you're doing this for the right reasons. So every time you do this When you're going out for this full volunteer army that Israel was and you're going to you're going to have a census It's going to cost the people You can imagine a scenario in which there's Israelite families, when their boy turns 18, that their dad gives them a 20-gara coin, a six-gram coin, and half a shekel, and says, someday, son, when you're 20 years old or more, this is for you to enlist in the army. When they take that census, when it's time to go to war, keep this in a safe place, because you're gonna need to use this. because this is what you were going to have to pay.
So they actually had to pay to go to war. That money went straight to God. It went straight to the service of the temple. This was money that when they're to cross over, it's literally this idea of they're enlisting in the army. They're going to, okay, I'm going to serve. This is a voluntary way, but they better be careful about this.
Because it's the Lord who protects their lives. And this idea that everyone has to pay the same amount, whether they're rich or whether they're poor, is that there's an equality in Israelite society. And when it comes to God numbering all the men, all the fighting men 20 years and above, like these censuses would be, this is this idea. That it's the Lord who is going to care for them, it's the Lord who owns them, it's the Lord who determines the war. And so this money is essentially saying this idea of propitiation, right? That God would not be angry with them for the war.
Now we saw this go badly in David's life when he wanted to number the people in 2 Samuel 24. And even Joab tries to stop him, right? Don't do this, right? This is not a good thing. And well, David goes through with it and the Lord does what he said here. Or he gives David a couple different options. You got a plague, an angel, or your enemies.
Either way, because the leader of God's people failed and numbered them for his own pride and to see how big his army would be, now the people are going to suffer. and David realizes how foolish this was. And notice in that story in 2 Samuel 24, there's no mention of the ransom money. The people, David especially, was not seeing God as the head of his people caring for the army. David saw it as himself.
And so this whole section is about when they take these census for numbering the people, They better not get used to this, and this better be a very thoughtful and rare occasion in which they would number the people. So that's what this is about, but what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I think in my Bible, I would have underlined verse 15, The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when you give an offering to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves. I probably would say that, but that really didn't get at this idea of census, so maybe I would also underline verse 11 with it, or sorry, verse 12 with it. What would you underline in your Bible?
Well, last seek calling. What are we called to do? How does this point us to Jesus, right? Well, one, I would say in many churches today, well, there's a whole bunch of ideas here, right? But in many churches today, people get really hyped up about numbers and they want to count all the people and stuff. Stop it. Don't be all about the numbers in the church. Be about the people themselves.
But I would also say that this idea, even more importantly, is tied to this idea of Christ and our redemption. The words here used are so clearly Christological that it's the ransom, it's the redemption, and it's the atonement. And all those are used for how Jesus redeems us.
Jesus buys us from God's wrath. Jesus is the one who made atonement for us that we would be made right with God. Jesus is the one who ransomed us from the sureness of death. It is Jesus Christ who is our ransom. See that God did not ransom us from his wrath. He did not redeem us from his wrath with silver or with gold. but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
And so we look to Him, knowing that we deserve these plagues, knowing that we deserve this death, knowing that the pride of our own hearts is to go and do whatever we want, to fight for our own lusts and desires, but the Lord has bought us for Himself. Propitiation has been made, and we have peace with Him, and He watches over us.
So look to Him, look to Christ, your ransom. God has paid His own price for your heart. to follow him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the ransom price that has been paid in Jesus Christ. And we pray, Lord, that we would follow after you. We pray, Lord, that you would give us faith to walk in your ways in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.