Have you received your census form yet? A few days ago we received ours. As I looked it over I found the questions to be those I expected. Name? Birth date? How many live in your house? Married or single and ethnic background? As we participate in the 2010 edition, I wanted to discuss some biblical considerations linked with this topic because I haven't heard anyone talking about it. So consider with me The Lords' warning and  instruction for His people as they prepare to participate in a census?

The census David ordered Joab to take (1 Chronicles 21) resulted in the wrath of God coming on Israel! 70,000 perished! The outbreak stopped because David purchased Ornan's threshing floor, built an altar and offered the oxen as a sin offering. The tally was stopped before it was complete and the number never recorded.

Why would this census trigger such loss? After all, The Lord instructed Israel to take a census before. (Numbers Chapters 1, 4, and 26).  Where did the idea for David's census come from? 1st Chronicles 21:1 reads: "Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel."

The concept of a census didn't come from satan, but satan knew if God's people failed to practice God's instruction for participating in a census it presented an opportunity to accuse them before God.

In Exodus 30:11-16 we read: "When you take the census of the children of Israel then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord  that there may be no plague among them. Everyone who is numbered shall give half a shekel. This shall be an offering to the Lord. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and it shall be 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 yourselves."

The silver collected was not to atone for sin. The shed blood of a spotless sacrifice is the price of forgiveness for sin.  According to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. Hebrews 9:22  Murderers, thief's, liars, idolaters and others who sin are required to bring blood, not silver; to atone for their sin.  Yet here in Exodus and again in Numbers, silver is called for.

Numbers records Jehovah trading the firstborn of Israel for the Levites. The Levites were then to be His possession. The numbering was so precise that even their cattle were numbered. The first born were found to be 273 more than the Levites so the Lord said:  For the redemption of the two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who are more than the number of the Levites, you shall take five shekels for each one individually; you shall take them in the currency of the shekel of the sanctuary, the shekel of twenty gerahs. And you shall give the money, with which the excess number of them is redeemed, to Aaron and his sons." Numbers 3:46-48  

Neither the Levites, the firstborn, nor those counted in a census were atoning for sin with silver. God's scales were being balanced. David and Joab failed to collect the half shekel redemption fee from those numbered and gave satan legal ground to accuse Israel. This was the reason for the plague.  

There are many reasons we should pay attention to these things but we only have a few minutes. So I'll keep it brief.

Let's not fall into the same trap David did by giving the devil ammunition to use against us.

Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another. "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Ephesians  4:25-28

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:2-3)   NKJV

What is a half shekel anyway?  In searching the web I found answers ranging from 6 to 10 grams. This page, http://begedivri.com/shekel/SagesQuestions.htm seems the most authoritative and the one I used. At the bottom of question 12 it says... "We have established that the Half-Shekel today is 7.8 grams of .999 silver."   7.8 grams equals .275136 oz. Silver closed at 17.88 an ounce on April 2, 2010. .275136 X $17.88 = $4.919 or we can say a half shekel is worth $4.92 at this price. This allows 3 people on a 1 oz silver bar with $3.12 left over.

At the time this law was given, the silver would have been given into the tabernacle to make implements used for ministry; bowls, trumpets, ladles ect. Today, no tabernacle exists! It's my opinion that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If there were to be a plague how many doctor visits or prescriptions could we buy with $4.92? We looked for a ministry that was doing kingdom work and gave it there, knowing they would put it to good use.