Exodus 30:16

_AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING,_ When thou takest ... Moses did so twice, and doubtless observed the law here prescribed. The tax was not levied from women, minors, old men (Numbers 1:42; Numbers 1:45), and the Levites (Numbers 1:47), they being not numbered. It is evident that this taxing implies the taking of a census, for otherwise the impost could not have been collected (cf. Exodus 38:25). Since the people were divided into a distinct classification by tribes and families, the means of procuring a muster-roll were at hand; and from Moses' familiar acquaintance with the Egyptian practice of keeping an exact registe

11-16 The tribute was half a shekel, about fifteen pence of our money. The rich were not to give more, nor the poor less; the souls of the rich and poor are alike precious, and God is no respecter of persons, Acts 10:34; Job 34:19. In other offerings men were to give according to their wordly ability; but this, which was the ransom of the soul, must be alike for all. The souls of all are of equal value, equally in danger, and all equally need a ransom. The money raised was to be used in the service of the tabernacle. Those who have the benefit, must not grudge the necessary charges of God's public worship. Money cannot make atonement for the soul, but it may be used for the honour of Him who has made the atonement, and for the maintenance of the gospel by which the atonement is applied....

THE RANSOM OF SOULS. - Exodus 38:25. On comparing these words with those of Numbers 1:1, we may perhaps infer that the first passage relates to a mere counting of the adult Israelites at the time when the money was taken from each, and that what the latter passage enjoins was a formal enrolment of them according to their genealogies and their order of military service. A RANSOM FOR HIS SOUL - What the sincere worshipper thus paid was at once the fruit and the sign of his faith in the goodness of Yahweh, who had redeemed him and brought him into the covenant. Hence, the payment is rightly called a ransom inasmuch as it involved a personal appropriation of the fact of his redemption. On the word soul, see...

EXPOSITION THE RANSOM OF SOULS. The various commands given with respect to the tabernacle and its furniture would necessarily involve a very considerable outlay; and it was important that Moses should receive directions as to the source, or sources, whence this expenditure was to come. In Exodus 25:2, one source had been indicated, viz; the voluntary contributions of the people. To this is now added a second source. On occasion of rite numbering of the people—an event which is spoken of as impending (Exodus 25:12)—Moses was told to exact from each of them, as atonement money, the sum of half a shekel of silver. The produce of this tax was to be applied to the work of the sanctuary ...

AND THOU SHALL TAKE THE ATONEMENT MONEY OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,.... The half shekel, the ransom of their souls: AND SHALL APPOINT IT FOR THE SERVICE OF THE TABERNACLE OF THE CONGREGATION; for the building of the tabernacle, for the repairs of it, and for the sacrifices offered in it; particularly we find that this first collection this way was appropriated to the silver sockets of the sanctuary, and the vail, for the silver hooks, and for the pillars, Exodus 38:27: THAT IT MAY BE A MEMORIAL UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL BEFORE THE LORD, TO MAKE AN ATONEMENT FOR YOUR SOULS; to put them in mind that they were sinners, that their lives were forfeited, that a ransom price was given and accepted of God, that hereby atonement, in a typical sense, was made for them; and this was before the Lord, as a token of their gratitude to him, and of their acknowledgmen

CHAPTER 30 THE ALTAR OF INCENSE AND THE WORSHIPPERS _ 1. The altar (Exodus 30:1)_ 2. The atonement money (Exodus 30:11) 3. The brazen laver and the unction of the Spirit (Exodus 30:22) 4. The incense (Exodus 30:34) This is a beautiful chapter, filled with blessed lessons. We have before us instructions concerning true, priestly worship. The brazen altar was of shittim wood, but this altar is of shittim wood covered with pure gold. The altar of brass tells of the work of Christ on the cross when judgment fell upon Him. There we learn in faith that our sins and guilt were fully met. The golden alta

EXODUS 30-31. P S. PRIESTLY SUPPLEMENTS. These two Chapter s form an appendix to Exodus 25-29. The golden incense altar finds no place in Exodus 25 or Exodus 26:33 or Leviticus 16 (where the annual rite of Exodus 30:10 is ignored). Instead we hear of censers in Leviticus 16:12 and Numbers 16:6 f., while the great altar in the court is called the altar, as if no other were recognised. Similarly Exodus 30:30, requiring the unction of Aaron's sons, betrays itself as later than the series of passages in which the High Priest alone receives it, being often

TABERNACLE. tent. Hebrew. _'ohel._ App-40....

_for the service_, &c. i.e. for the maintenance of the daily worship in the Tent of Meeting, the morning and evening sacrifices, &c. The reference cannot be to the work of _erecting_the sanctuary; for (1) the injunction is general (_When thou takest the sum_, &c.), not specific (_And thou shalt take_, &c.); and (2) even supposing it were specific, the first census according to P is the one in Numbers 1, which (_v._1 compared with Exodus 40:2; Exodus 40:17) took place a month _after_the sanctuary was completed and put up. _be a memorial_, &c. to keep Jehovah in continual remembrance of the ransom which had been paid for their lives: cf....

DISCOURSE: 102 THE ATONEMENT-MONEY Exodus 30:14. _Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord: the rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement-money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls._ IT is always profitable to mark the accomplishment of the divine promises, that, from discovering the faithfulness of God, we may learn to acknowledge his providence, and depend upon his care. He had promised to Abraham, that “his seed should be as the stars of heaven for multitude:” and, tho