The sum of a congregation of people.
For some reason we feel that filling out a census report is a violation of our privacy. But the fact is, a census is nothing new. They have been around since the beginning of time. It was a way of keeping track of a person’s genealogy. With one nation conquering another it became harder and harder to keep those records intact. During the time of the Bible, the government stepped in and began a census so they could get all the taxes they could, listing everyone and where they were born, including their children. Without meaning to, they began helping people, tracking their origins.
The newest craze in today’s society, is to trace where they came from, relying on 23&me, Ancestry, Family Tree, etc. They can track a person’s origins back to a beginning, or a reasonable facsimile. My question is, once you learn where you came from, what are you going to do with that knowledge? I have seen people get very excited about past generations, without respecting the very people who gave them birth. I have no problem researching a family and its origins, without neglecting what is right in front of our faces.
The lineage of Christ has been painstakingly recorded. We know the make-up of each generation, till His death. But wait, a whole new generation is recorded in the Lamb’s book of life. Each and every name carefully inscribed for all of eternity. And because I choose to be a child of Christ; (by asking him to come into my heart and forgive my sins), my name is listed there in bold letters. (Probably in gold, since they pave the streets with the stuff!) I know, without a shadow of a doubt what my genealogy is; I am a daughter of the KING!
As parents it is important for us to teach them about their family, both here and their heavenly family. To know where they came from, and better yet where they are going. Let them know that they can be royalty if they want to be!
We as authors love to reunite long-lost family members. Better yet we love to introduce them to family they didn’t even know they had. It is an old story; like Joseph and his coat of many colors! And we thought we were so clever!
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;
Numbers 1:2
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
Luke 2:1-3
For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.
II Samuel 24:2