Exodus 30:11

And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Continued his discourse; or, there being some intermission, reassumed it: saying; as follows.

WILL you kindly open your Bibles to Exodus 30, for I must commence my discourse by expounding that passage. When the account was taken of the number of the children of Israel, the Lord commanded that every male over 20 years of age should pay half a shekel as Redemption money, confessing that he deserved to die, acknowledging that he was in debt to God and bringing the sum demanded as a type of a great Redemption which would, by-and-by, be paid for the souls of the sons of men. The truth was thus taught that God's people are a redeemed people—they are elsewhere called, "the redeemed of the Lord." If men reject the Redemption which He ordains, then they are not His people, for of all His chosen it may be said—"The Lord has redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he." Whenever we attempt to number the people of God, it is absolutely necessary that we count only those who at least profess to have brought the Redemption price in their hands and so have taken part in the Atonement of Christ Jesus. David, when he numbered the people, did not gather from them the Redemption money and, therefore, a plague broke out among them. He had failed in obedience to the Lord's ordinance and counted his subjects, not as redeemed people, but merely as so many heads. Let us always beware of estimating the number of Christians by the number of the population of the countries called Christian, for the only true Christians in the world are those who are redeemed from iniquity by the blood of the Lamb and have personally accepted the ransom which the Lord has provided—personally brought their Redemption money in their hands by taking Christ to be theirs and presenting Him, by an act of faith, to the great Father.