We tend to register for lots of things in life. I remember going to the post office at age 18 and registering for Selective Service, meaning I was eligible for the military draft. Never called, but it made for a thoughtful signature on the form.

We register our vehicles, we register to vote, newly engaged couples register for wedding gifts. I might register a complaint at times. And apparently I’m registered on a number of sales lists. I get marketing emails and texts and calls for phones, golf gear, auto services, travel and restaurants. It’s a bummer being on the wrong list.

In the wilderness the Lord asked Moses and Aaron to take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by the father’s houses, all in Israel who are able to go to war.

Moses and Aaron set about registering the fighting men, eventually reaching a total of 601,730. Then a chilling reminder of an earlier registration: But among these there was not one of those listed by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had listed the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said of them, “They will die in the wilderness.”

The Lord kept his promise. The entire generation who rejected the Him at the edge of the promised land all those years ago died off (except Caleb and Joshua, of course), just as the Lord predicted.

Which underscores the point—it’s a bummer being on the wrong list.

Numbers 26 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Tiffany Tertipes