It’s census time! And who doesn’t love a good census? I actually get a little giddy when it comes to censuses (censi?) because censuses are where we get A LOT of historical information. If you’ve ever been part of a national census, you know that they are HUGE and necessary efforts that help preserve a ton of information for our ancestors. Censuses are awesome, and according to God, necessary.
If you’re not into the censi, you probably aren’t looking forward to diving into the Book of Numbers. Don’t fret, dreading one! Numbers is about way more than numbers and counting people. It’s about establishing a lineage that even you and I have a place in.
Also, as we begin, I want everyone to just be aware of our timeline. Since we read Numbers directly after Leviticus in the Bible, it might seem like we’re just trudging right ahead from where we left off, but notice verse 1 of Chapter 1: “A year after Israel’s departure from Egypt … “ This puts us right back to when the Israelites finished the Tabernacle at the end of Exodus. So, God is still working in the same journey here. He’s just breaking down a different leg of the project in the Book of Numbers. As you read, remember that while all this counting and listing is going on, the Israelites also are making their way across the desert, caravanning with a Tabernacle that houses God in tow. Their government is being set up. Their religious ideals and rituals are being established. Their neighborhoods are being organized. They’re a working, revolving, functioning community … on the move! It’s really an incredible picture, especially when you think of the numbers that we’re given at the end of Chapter 1, and 603,550 was only the number of men older than 20 able to wield a sword. We can probably triple (?) that to get a real picture of how large the Israelite community was and how organized it had to be in order to function efficiently.
Writing prompt: censi
It’s make up a word day! I’ve always said that if a word makes sense and people understand it, it should be viable. The English language has some doozies of fun words, plays on words and words that should exist but don’t. Take your mind off numbers today and write about quirky words. It’s what we do! (Censi is actually a Latin term, so I didn’t totally make it up, but censuses is the more popularly used plural of census.)
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