Numbers 1: Why Counting Counts

The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.” -Numbers 1:1-2

Modern churches often overemphasize the importance of numbers, especially attendance. In response, younger evangelicals tend to downplay the importance of numbers at all, focusing instead on traits such as authenticity and community. But the Bible makes clear counting counts. In fact, there’s an entire book in Scripture devoted to counting. We call it Numbers.

Numbers 1 begins with a census of the nation of Israel. We are told, “The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: ‘Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.'” This only included males 20 and older from all of the tribes except the Levites who were considered set apart and were not counted. The total was over 603,000 people.

A conservative estimate would therefore place the total Israeli population, including Levites, women, and those under 20 years of age, at well over two million. Two million people walked out of Egypt. Four million feet walked through the parted Red Sea. Two million mouths ate manna each day in the desert. Two million souls experienced the power of God at Mount Sinai.

These number matter because they show the power of God and the glory of God. When we count, let these areas be our focus as well.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.