HEBREW WORD STUDY – LOOK UP – TISA’ ETH ROSH  תשא את רשה  Taw Shin Aleph   Aleph Taw   Resh Shin Hei

Exodus 30:12 “When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the LORD, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them.”

Some days I can spend hours reading through Scripture, reading passages over and over, passages I have read all my life before I find something that really resonates with me.  I guess to put it spiritually finding a passage that I believe the Holy Spirit quickens my spirit and says: “Here it is, now dig and discover a deeper message than that which appears on the surface.”  In most cases there is no real message on the surface and I have to dig to uncover it.

My father used to tell a story about when he was growing up in the hills of Missouri on a small farm.  One day a stranger came passing through.  This farm was way off the beaten track and rarely did a stranger venture onto the property.  But this stranger seemed to be on a mission. He cut off a branch from a certain fruit, that took the shape of a fork, like a divining rod.  He put a silver dollar on the tip the rod and began to walk around the farm. Suddenly the branch began to jerk away.  My father said he held it and he could feel the pull of the branch. Following the pull of the branch they came to a large tree that had a canoe paddle carved on it. The rod began to bob up and down.  The stranger said that there was silver buried next to the tree. He then left and my grandfather, uncle and brother began to dig and dig.  They hit a rock and my grandfather said: “Ah there is nothing there, just the ravings of crazy old man.”   There had been stories of a rich widow who buried silver in that area, but the rock was just too much to excavate and the whole thing sounded a bit fishy so they gave up the task.  My father said, however, that somehow he felt if they just were able to lift that rock they would find the silver buried under it. We made many trips to the old homestead in search of that silver. It was sort of a family bonding thing, I guess. We even took a metal detector but never found any trace of silver. 

I think of that story whenever I search through Scripture and find nothing that really resonates with me.  When I am about to quit, I think: “Perhaps, I just need to look under a rock that may be blocking that special message from the Holy Spirit.”

Reading Exodus 30:12 I struck such a rock but I was convinced the Spirit of God was prompting me to keep digging and this is what I found. It was this sentence: “When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number.”  What caught my attention was the previous verse 20:11: “And God spoke to Moses.”  That word spoke is not ‘amar, simple conversation, it is the word devar, that is God speaking from his heart. 

Then it says: “When you take the census.”  This is really an awkward statement in Hebrew.  In Hebrew it reads: “Ki tisa’ eth rosh.” God could have used other words that would not be so awkward.  You see it literally reads: “When you lift the heads (of the children of Israel).”  I have no doubt that Biblical grammarians have figured out how those words become “When you take a census” and I accept that rendering.  What bothers me is why take something so simple and put it in such awkward language.   

There is a very good reason, because these words have a much deeper meaning. This is especially true when you put it into its context. You see, the instruction to count the people appears at a very pivotal moment in Jewish History.  They had just committed a grievous sin worshipping a golden calf. This, just 30 days after they received the command to have no other gods before God Jehovah, they break this first commandment. 

The people were instructed to being a half shekel of silver to be used in a wide scale count to finance the communal sin sacrifices to be offered in the Tabernacle.  This was the beginning of the process of returning to God and repairing that breech in their relationship with Him.  All were to give the same, half a shekel.  Half to show that you are not alone in this and everyone rich or poor was to give the same to show there was no respecter of person when it comes to sin. 

This first thing they were instructed to do was to “lift up their heads.”  The very first thing that must be done when you come to God, whether it is as a new believer accepting Jesus as your Savior or returning from having back slidden, the first thing you must do is look up. 

David said in Psalms 3:3: “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” This was during a very trying time in David’s life when his own son staged a coup and David fled from the throne for his very life. Here he is a failure as a king, as a leader and a father.  Yet, God caused him to look up and see the mercy and forgiveness of God. 

No matter what comes into our lives, the first thing we must always do if we seek help and deliverance from God is to look away from the problem, look away from how impossible the solution may seem, look away from the mess we created and just look up to where we will find His mercy and grace. 

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