Mon.’s Devo - Counting the People

Read Ex. 30:11-31:18, Matt. 26:47-68, Ps. 32:1-11, Pr. 8:27-32 If you have ever wondered why David got in so much trouble for counting the people, the answer is in today’s reading. When they numbered the people they were to require half a shekel from each person twenty years old and up. If they didn’t a plague would befall them. It wasn’t that God didn’t like numbering the people because he instructed Moses to number them and no plague came. I guess it was understood they paid this half shekel. The whole book of Numbers is about the number of the different people in the tribes, but David got in serious trouble when he did it. Moses was instructed to number the people, David did it out of his own pride. A plague followed that killed many people. (I’m sure that threw his numbers off.) Numbering was like bringing someone to an account and the gold coin atoned for their sins like the blood of Jesus would later. Next, Moses was instructed to make a laver of brass which was a huge bowl for the priests to wash their hands in before and after the sacrifices. It was a picture of sanctification. It was brass to reflect the faces of the priests as they washed. They were to come face-to-face with their sinfulness and be cleansed in the holy water. In Matthew, the high priest of the day was charging The High Priest, Jesus, with blasphemy. In Psalms we read: Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not COUNT against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. Lord, when you count us we thank you that you count us through the covering of the blood. Help us to keep Your ways.