In Mark 10:45 we are told that
“For even (Jesus) the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and
to give His life a ransom for many.” Every one of us can become a child of God because of Jesus
Christ who gave His life as a ransom for our life. Clearly, the Bible teaches us
that our salvation was brought about because Christ paid a ransom to rescue us.
So, many of us think that this theme of redemption is only taught in the New
Testament. But the truth is that in the teaching of the Tabernacle, we also
find the theme of redemption. So Exodus 3:11-14 read, “The Lord also spoke to Moses,
saying, “When you take a census of the sons of Israel to
number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to
the Lord when you number them so that there will be no plague among
them when you number them. This is what
everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel
of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as
a contribution to the Lord. Everyone who is numbered, from
twenty years old and over, shall give the contribution to the Lord.”
Taking a census is a common thing. Most democratic
nations would take a census before their election to ascertain who has the
right to vote. Here we see God telling Moses what to do when he conducted a
census or a head count. Notice in verse 12 that that headcount was only taken
for the sons. In other words, they took a census only for the males. It was
undertaken to ascertain the number of men they could muster for battle. That’s
why verse 14 stipulates that only those 20 years and above could be counted.
They were counting the men who were old enough to fight.
It is interesting to note the particular way God
wanted the census to be taken. First, all the men of Israel were gathered in
one place. Then they would be counted one-by-one. A person being counted would
move to join a pool of people that had already been counted. Soon, there would
be two groups of people: one for people who were counted and one for those yet
to be counted. And as a person was being counted, he would move across to join
the pool of people who had been counted. And as he moved to join the counted
group, he would pay half a shekel made of silver. The shekel was called
atonement money in verse 16. It was not a coin but a unit of measurement they
paid. So, by the time everyone had been counted there would be a big pile of
silver belonging to God. The collection was to be used for the service of the
Tabernacle. They were essentially used to maintain the silver foundation
which was used to hold up the poles of the Tabernacle. Every time the
Israelites saw the foundation, they remembered that their house of worship
rested on the price that was paid for their redemption. The failure to pay the
ramson was severe. He would be afflicted with one of the plagues that God had
sent to afflict the Egyptians in order to free them. Taking a census
without paying the ransom was a risky business.
Why was the ransom known as atonement
money? For, after all, no one could pay for his sin or salvation. Their
acceptance by God was not based on the half a shekel each of them paid. It was
based on the blood of the sacrifice. God called them atonement money because
they paid to rescue themselves from the punishment of the plague. It also
served as a reminder to them that they belonged to God. The atonement
money also serves to remind us that we are not our own we are bought with a
price. For us, the price for our ransom is not gold or silver but the precious
blood of Christ. By His death on the cross, He paid to own us. We belong
to God two times over and He owns us. First, we are His by creation and then we
are His again by redemption. We owe all that we have and are to Him. Hence, we
must live for Him and not as we like. Our worth is found on the fact that we
belong to Him, and apart from Him, we don’t worth much. We know how much God
values us when we see the price He has paid for our redemption. No one will
ever be able to measure the degree of God’s love. All we know is that He has
proven it by sending His Son to redeem us by His death. Our worth is not
measured by what we have and own, our worth must be seen in the light of
Calvary. For we are all equally worthless without Christ!
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