A statistician deals with numbers. More specifically, a statistician deals with data and the numbers produced by that data.
Of course, the data the statistician works with is made up of numbers, but what a statistician really does is make sense of those numbers. How the statistician sorts and arranges the numbers determines what the numbers say.
For example, in medicine, the results of experiments, combined with available state of the art techniques, determine the newest medical treatments.
In the environment, the location and quantities of plants and animals—their total numbers—combined with pollution levels can determine the possible effects of pollution on human beings.
In industry, employee hiring practices and the quantity of the goods they produce are determined by the need for those goods. Again, it is all in the numbers.
It is easy for a statistician to present a certain viewpoint, simply by looking at the numbers one way versus another. Perhaps give the goods used by only a certain age group, rather than the population as a whole. Or rate medical treatments by certain regions of the country. Any variation will create specific—and flawed—results that only an expert could recognize as skewed.
The children of Israel had fled Egypt after 400 years of captivity. The Promised Land had been overrun during those years by competing groups of people. To regain their rightful inheritance, there were enemies to conquer and lands to divide. The book of Numbers is about upcoming war, for it will be war against the people of Canaan. Those who have usurped Israel’s inheritance will not want to let go willingly. The children of Israel had to be made into an army.
When the Lord—the greatest statistician in all history—spoke to Moses, telling him to number Israel, he was very specific about how to count the people. The data had to be skewed in favor of victory, not pride. The numbers had to reflect whether Israel could actually win her battles.
Numbers 1:42-43 is a good example of God’s thoroughness. God gave six qualifications that determined how the people were to be numbered.
Qualification #1 – All generations must be included.
Qualification #2 – They must be sorted by families.
Qualification #3 – Families were to be grouped by the house of the fathers.
Qualification #4 – They were to number them by their names.
Qualification #5 – Only those twenty years old and older were to be counted.
Qualification #6 – They must include only those who were able to go to war.
Verse 43 tells us that in the house of Naphtali, there were fifty-three thousand four hundred fighting men.
Yet, we know that there were many more people in the house of Naphtali, perhaps as many as two hundred thousand. However, the women, children, and those unable to fight were not counted.
Why?
The Great Statistician didn’t want to skew his numbers.
Sure, the house of Naphtali could have claimed two hundred thousand fighting souls, and that would have sounded impressive. Enemies would have cowered before the great army of the Lord.
However, would they have been able to back up their boasts and threats? Certainly not. The first enemy that came against them would learn the truth. Only fifty-three thousand of that vast horde could really swing a sword.
Do we do that sometimes, skew the numbers, in order to make our Christian faith appear stronger than it really is, so that we can boast of our prowess, and make claims against the evil one? Yet, when the battle becomes hot, our resources run thin, and defeat hounds our every step.
We need to find our numbers, to see where our faith really stands before jumping into battle with the devil. In Numbers, God did not really need to count his people, for he could have easily reached his hand and wiped the interlopers from Canaan in one fell swoop. However, would the children of Israel have learned to trust the Lord in all things if he had done so? Instead, God knew the lessons his children would learn when they let him lead them one battle at a time.
God can certainly wipe all our troubles away with the brush of his mighty hand. Yet, how would we grow to be like him if he did? We would be no more than spoiled brats, asking him for more and more treats, so that our pride might grow ever greater.
Rather, God wants us to fight those battles which are within our capability. Then he will step in at the opportune time, showing us that he really is in control, and that he is Lord of all.
So, we must count before we leap, find our numbers before we boast, and learn where we will come up short, for when we reach that point in our spiritual battles, God will be there to cover our lack.
When we know our true measure of strength, we can know where to let God take over.
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