1 Chronicles 21:1 states: “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel.” This did not go over well with God, and he let David know this. So, in verse 8 David says, “I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt for doing this foolish thing.” Previously though, in the book of Exodus, God had commanded Moses to preform a count (census) of the people just before the building of the Tabernacle. What was the difference?
For David it was a statistical analysis, of sorts, for political command and control purposes. In Exodus, though, each member of the nation came before Moses and Aaron to be recognized as an individual of personal worth and assigned their liturgical duties. One count divided people up into manageable cohorts and one prepared individuals for proper worship.
Fast forward to 2010. I was at a conference, at St. Mary’s University, on using statistics to develop and manage governmental social policies. The speaker, using lots of graphs, spoke about, “how statistics shows us this, how statistics allow us to develop that and how statistics gives us policy feedback, etc.” At the question-and-answer session an elderly nun got up to the microphone and said, “Very nice presentation young fellow, but never forget that statistics are just stories with the tears wiped away!” A hush came over the place. Truth had just been spoken.
We live in a world that has succumbed to the Davidic temptation of counting people for purposes of power. In this data-driven domain when your tears are wiped away so is your face. You are treated as a faceless avatar for the identity group you have been selected for. By design, you as you, are unrecognizable!
The Mosaic census counted individuals not as mere placeholders but as unique persons, each given their purpose by God. Moses was following the example of God himself, “The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Exodus 33:11. We hear in church about “having a personal relationship with Jesus”. In John 15:15, Jesus says, “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” Face to face is the posture of openness and intimacy.
This adds a new slant on the phrase, “to save face”, (to preserve our dignity). We need to be aware of and learn to deal with the actively depersonalizing forces that surround us and take to heart the injunction of 1 Corinthians 16:13 to, “Keep alert, stand firm in your faith”.
Image credit - Wikimedia
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