Lift the Head
By Terance Clark June 7, 2025 7 Minute Read
Week 35
This Weeks Passage: Numbers 4:21 – 7:89
Psalms 147:4 says God “counts the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” Only what we value do we take the time to name. The book of Numbers is named due to the numerous counts that takes place. God takes great delight in counting His people, but counting people is also associated with God’s anger in scripture, so why the confusion? It’s a fascinating story so sit back and relax and let’s discover together the conundrum of the book of counting.
Counting the People
In II Samuel 24 King David takes a census of the people against the advice of Joab his army commander. After doing it, David expressed sorrow for the decision, confessing that he had sinned. He prayed to God and asked him to forgive his foolishness, but the next morning God sent the prophet Gad to him letting him know that judgment was coming and he allowed David to choose his fate. As a result seventy thousand people died over a three day period and David cried out to God on behalf of the people. God provided an answer as he told David to offer a sacrifice and the plague was stopped.
So why is counting okay in Numbers, but not later by the king? Let’s dig deeper. By the time we get to the end of Numbers there has been at least four times that Israel had been counted. Once when they were about to leave Egypt then again when every male gave a shekel to build the sanctuary, and two more times in the book of Numbers, so why is David punished and why hadn’t other kings counted?
Created in Gods Image
There are numerous Hebrew words that means to count, but interestingly none of them have been used in the books of Exodus or Numbers. Simply stated, counting people was a way of showing power in numbers. We count so that we can compare and determine our capacity to accomplish our goals whatever they may be. Whether it is to build something or to go to war. Counting is the measure that we use. Listen carefully, as God has a principle that He teaches throughout scripture that He stands opposed to that view. Every person has been created in the image of God and therefore each person has intrinsic value and no one person is better than the other. We are all equally created.
“No one person is better than the other.
We are all equally created.”
When you count people or take a census, you strip the individual from their God given worth and put them as part of the totality of a group. You start looking at people as numbers rather than who they have been created to be. Each one of us has great value and to lose even one of us is like losing an entire universe, that is why in so many of Israels battles not a single person was lost. God places great value on every single life and therefore it’s never okay to forfeit even one person. To God it’s never been about the numbers that is why He would ask Israel to fight battles with small numbers like Gideons three-hundred. He wanted them to understand and trust Him not numbers.
Learning to Value People
Moses was not directed to count, but instead he was instructed to “lift the head” of each individual. The scriptures in Exodus and Numbers differed from David by not using the word for counting, but instead God told Moses to “lift the head” of each individual. The meaning implied that as the leader he was to lift the spirits of each individual so that they could stand tall and know that they were loved, cherished and held special by God and not just a number. David like the worlds kings saw the people as numbers and counted them accordingly, and interestingly after this, the nation really never recovered. Even though Solomon had an amazing reign Israel really went into decline once David counted the people.
“The lesson of Numbers is that God counts us
as a gesture of His divine love”
When God chose Israel, He told them I didn’t take you because you were the largest, I took you because you were the smallest. As we close this weeks lesson I hope it has great value to you because we live in a time when so many are striving to be the largest and the most well known. The lesson of Numbers is that God counts us as a gesture of His divine love and that means to bring us close and reveal the great value we have to Him. Not because we are great, we are not, and that is the whole point. He loves us not because of what we can do, but because of who we are. Stop trying to prove your value, accept His gift. I just want you to know that He loves you and He cares about every aspect of your life, so, lift your head!
