A New Genesis
Numbers 26:1-2
After the plague, the LORD said to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron, the priest, “Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers’ houses, all in Israel who are able to go to war.”
Aren’t you so encouraged to know that even when the LORD starts over, He never starts from scratch? He always has a remnant of genuine followers who seek His face above the din of Shittims. Even when it seems like the whole of society has run after the Baals, even when the church buildings have been turned into nightclubs, even when the echoing sounds of revival worship get replaced by the sounds of riots, even when the battles that made a difference to history are behind us, won by our forefathers, even when the story of arks and mountaintop theophanies and Red Sea crossings and giant-slaying shepherds and angel choirs seem to be drawing to a slow, uninspiring end—like a car on the autobahn that’s run out of gas—God once again calls for a new census of fighters, a new generation of fathers and mothers, a new guild of artisans and entrepreneurs, a new and novel and every-bit-as-vital commission for a new age!
How many times throughout history should God have just destroyed everything and started back at square one? He could’ve created a thousand Adams and a thousand Eves until He found two that would be faithful. Why save Noah and his family from the flood, knowing that Noah would run to the bottle in his depression anyway? Why keep going with this caravan of run-of-the-mill, status quo, petulant, free- will human beings who chronically revolt? The same reason He hasn’t thrown in the towel on you and me even though we’ve given Him countless reasons to do so. Because He’s a God of second chances, not second guesses! And one thing we will never be to a perfect God, even in our prodigality, is a mistake.
God is taking a census in 2024, inviting faithful men and women to take their stand in the sacred fight, to cross the seas, to fight the giants, and to place their flags in the ground, marking this place in time as His domain. Oh that we would be counted in that number today!