Today's Scripture Reading (December 21, 2021): Numbers 26
The familiar opening to the Christmas story begins
with the words,
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a
census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This
was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of
Syria.) And everyone went to their own
town to register.
So Joseph also went up
from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of
David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married
to him and was expecting a child. While they
were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in
cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available
for them (Luke 2:1-7).
There are actually
several problems or things that we can't understand about this biblical census.
Historians can find no record of a Roman census during the period of time in
which we believe that Jesus was born. The census under Quirinius, at least the
one that we know about, happened a decade after the birth of Jesus. But records
are sparse, and there might be things that we just don't know.
But possibly a bigger
problem is the reason behind the command that everyone would return to their
ancestral home. Censuses were conducted for a purpose, and Rome conducted their
censuses to ascertain that they received the appropriate tax required from the
people. But there is no overt reason why someone would have to return to their
ancestral hometown for this kind of counting to exist. We are missing
something. It is a mystery of Christmas for which we might never find an answer,
except to acknowledge that God manipulated world events so that the prophecies
of the past concerning the Messiah might be fulfilled.
As Israel closes off
their time in the wilderness, God instructs them to take a count of the people.
The express purpose of the census was not because of taxation but rather so
that the land could be divided up appropriately among the tribes once they
entered the Promised Land. The purpose of the census was to ensure that the
tribes with the most people received the most land and the least populous tribes
received the least land.
But the Levites were
not to counted. The express reason given in this passage was that the Levites
would not receive a land inheritance. Instead, the Levites would be distributed
among the tribes, like seasoning in a meal. They would bring with them the
flavor of God so that it could live among the people.
There was also a
secondary reason for excluding the Levites. The census would give the
approximate fighting strength of the nation, but the Levites would not be part
of that fight. Their purpose lay along a different path. Moses counted the
Levites, all 23,000 of them. But that number was excluded from the national
census because it did not impact the reason for the counting in the first
place.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Numbers 27
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