Lest anyone think that the Tabernacle worship was solely the domain of the priests, Exodus 30 brings the idea of sacrifice and participation to everyone’s doorstep with the institution of the census. This isn’t the only census—there are two in Numbers and one infamous one by David in 2 Samuel 22—but this is the first prescribed one from God.
(In fact, the one mentioned here in Exodus 30 as “when you take the census” is probably the same one actually carried out in Numbers. There is no record of Moses doing a census outside of those two in Numbers 1 and 26.)
The brief mention here in Exodus 30 makes sense from a canonical standpoint though, because God tells Moses to exact a “ransom” from each individual person during the census.
According to Exodus 30:13, each person is to give half a shekel. The rich do not pay any more, and the poor do not pay any less. Every single person above the age of 20 years old gives the exact same amount.
The focus in this Text though is not on the amount. Depending on the current valuation of silver, half a shekel (9.6 grams of silver) is worth anywhere from eight to fifteen dollars. The amount was symbolic; the fact that they gave it at all is what matters.
There’s a certain amount of beauty in this equanimity. For a brief second, when the guy next to you who has a net worth of $20 million (in today’s world) pays the exact same tax as the guy on the other side who can barely afford lunch at Whataburger, they are equal. There is no disparity in their lives.
Just like there is no disparity in our salvation, either. I wouldn’t classify myself as the worst of sinners, but I also wouldn’t claim that I’ve always been a model citizen, either. Like most, I find myself somewhere in the middle.
But the same blood that cleansed my sins also cleanses the sins of someone like Jeffrey Dahmer, the infamous serial rapist/killer that converted to God in prison, just weeks before he was killed. Few people in history have a track record like Dahmer’s, and yet we both can be forgiven through the same sacrifice of Jesus.
That may be an uncomfortable truth for many people today to recognize, especially when we’re so given to comparing ourselves with others. But just like the woman in Luke 7 that washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, it’s not always the “amount” of sins that matters, but our own understanding of our sinfulness before God.
Whether we realize it or not, all of us are separated from God by sin. Only His blood can bring us back.
