ation and faith can purchase nothing ; but only manifest our cordial acquiescence in the way of salvation provided for us.]
It will be yet further instructive to consider,
II. The use and application of the tax —
The tax was intended,
1. To obtain acceptance for the offerers —
[The very terms " ransom," and " atonement," clearly shew, that the offerers were considered as in a state of guilt and bondage : and they were warned, that, if they refused to pay " the atonement-money," they would bring upon themselves the divine displeasure g. It was certainly an aggravation of David's sin in numbering the people, that, while he gratified his own pride and creature-confidence, he neglected to honour God by levying for him the appointed offering : and no less than seventy thousand of his subjects were destroyed in three days by a pestilence sent from God. This may give us some little idea of the vengeance that will overtake those who despise the atonement of Christ ; and of the glorious deliverance which they shall obtain, who believe in him. The protection, the peace, the plenty, which his obedient people enjoyed in the wilderness, and their final possession of the promised land, represented the spiritual blessings which all " the ransomed of the Lord" shall eternally inherit.]
2. To convey instruction to the rising generation — [The money, we are told, was to be "a memorial unto the
children of Israel before the Lord." We read of different memo- rials in the Scriptures. The censers in which Korah and his company offered incense were taken out of the fire wherewith the offerers were consumed, and were made into plates for the covering of the altar, "to be a memorial, that none but the seed of Aaron come near to offer incense before the Lordh." The jewels and bracelets of which the Israelites spoiled the slaugh- tered Midianites were presented to the Lord, " as a memorial unto the children of Israel," that not one of their own army fell, though the whole Midianitish kingdom was utterly destroyed1. Now such memorials were the half-shekels at the numbering of the people : they served to remind the whole nation of Israel, that, as sinners, they stood in need of an atonement, and that none who consecrated themselves to the service of their God should ever perish. Such memorials too are all who now seek for mercy through the atoning blood of Christ. They are as lights in a dark world : they unwittingly instruct all around them : as Noah by building the ark " condemned the world," and tacitly admonished them of the impending judgments, so
e ver. 12. h Numb. xvi. 36 — 40. " Numb. xxxi. 48 — 54.