March 14, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Numbers 26:1-65; Mark 11:1-26

Weekly Memory Verse: Romans 6:23

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters,

Numbers 29 (NASB95)
¹ ‘Now in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall also have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work. It will be to you a day for blowing trumpets. ² ‘You shall offer a burnt offering as a soothing aroma to the Lord: one bull, one ram, and seven male lambs one year old without defect; ³ also their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the ram, ⁴ and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs. ⁵ ‘Offer one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you, ⁶ besides the burnt offering of the new moon and its grain offering, and the continual burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings, according to their ordinance, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord. ⁷ ‘Then on the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall humble yourselves; you shall not do any work. ⁸ ‘You shall present a burnt offering to the Lord as a soothing aroma: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs one year old, having them without defect; ⁹ and their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the one ram, ¹⁰ a tenth for each of the seven lambs; ¹¹ one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement and the continual burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings. ¹² ‘Then on the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work, and you shall observe a feast to the Lord for seven days. ¹³ ‘You shall present a burnt offering, an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to the Lord: thirteen bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old, which are without defect; ¹⁴ and their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths for each of the two rams, ¹⁵ and a tenth for each of the fourteen lambs; ¹⁶ and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering. ¹⁷ ‘Then on the second day: twelve bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old without defect; ¹⁸ and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance; ¹⁹ and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings. ²⁰ ‘Then on the third day: eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old without defect; ²¹ and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance; ²² and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. ²³ ‘Then on the fourth day: ten bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old without defect; ²⁴ their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance; ²⁵ and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering. ²⁶ ‘Then on the fifth day: nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old without defect; ²⁷ and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance; ²⁸ and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. ²⁹ ‘Then on the sixth day: eight bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old without defect; ³⁰ and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance; ³¹ and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offerings. ³² ‘Then on the seventh day: seven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old without defect; ³³ and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance; ³⁴ and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering. ³⁵ ‘On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly; you shall do no laborious work. ³⁶ ‘But you shall present a burnt offering, an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the Lord: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs one year old without defect; ³⁷ their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bull, for the ram and for the lambs, by their number according to the ordinance; ³⁸ and one male goat for a sin offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering. ³⁹ ‘You shall present these to the Lord at your appointed times, besides your votive offerings and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings and for your grain offerings and for your drink offerings and for your peace offerings.’ ” ⁴⁰ Moses spoke to the sons of Israel in accordance with all that the Lord had commanded Moses.^[1]

Whew!  I realize that this was a heck of a chapter.  The first day of the seventh month was New Year's Day, (The Bible Knowledge Commentary).  The new year was started out with blowing trumpets to announce the coming of the new year.  It was also introduced with enormous sacrifices that are described in this chapter that lasted through the majority of the month.   

Three festivals are described in this chapter, New Years, verses 1-6, the Day of Atonement, 7-11, and the Feast of Tabernacles, 12-40.  The new year started with a festival of the New Moon, at the beginning of each month, God set up a plan so that the people would know that it was time to worship Him.  This is in contrast to the pagan community who also had great festivities on the New Moon.  God took what the world used as a reason to use a festival as a reminder to worship Him.

The seventh day of the Festival of Tabenacles is interesting  because of the number seven compared to seven bulls and fourteen male lambs.  All speaking figuratively of completion, and of perfection.

On the eight day, an entirely different attitude took place, it wa a solomn assembly.  It was also considered to be a distinctly different festival.  Check out this note:

“eighth day. Though this day was properly a distinct festival, and esteemed the chief or high day of the feast, yet fewer sacrifices are appointed for it than for any of the foregoing seven. On every one of them two rams and fourteen lambs were offered; but on this day there were but half as many; and whereas seven bullocks were the fewest that were offered on any of those days, on this there was only one. At this feast there was an extraordinary ceremony of which the rabbins inform us, namely, the drawing water out of the pool of Siloam, and pouring it, mixed with wine, on the sacrifice as it lay on the altar. This they are said to have done with such expressions of joy, that it became a common proverb, “He that never saw the rejoicing of drawing of water, never saw rejoicing in all his life” (Mishnah, “Succah,” c. V. sec. I). The Jews pretend to ground this custom on the following passage of Isaiah (Is 12:3), “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation;” and to this ceremony Jesus is supposed to refer, when “in the last day, the great day of the feast, he stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (Jn 7:37, 38): thereby calling off the people from their carnal mirth and festive and pompous ceremonies, to seek spiritual refreshment for their minds.”^[2]

I realize that this chapter can be a little difficult but it goes to show the importance that God place upon the temple sacrifices.  One other thought that I had on this chapter.  The Priest or High Priest had to hand pick the sacrifices that were offered before the Lord.  They had to be without blemish and perfect in every respect that they could judge by their abilities.  Considering that thought, it was necessary for a priest to inspect and place his stamp of approval on a sacrifice that was offered for the sin of men.  Now take that principle and look forward to the New Testament.  Jesus was the lamb that was slain for the atonement of our sin.  He was selected by the Father who chose Him as the firstborn of all creation.  Jesus had to be offered up and committed to be sacrificed by the High Priest in order for the sacrifice to be legitimate.  He was selected and chosen for death by the High Priest and that decision was ratified by the priests in the Synagogues, after that, the people were drawn into the decision in order to validate that this man certainly qualified to die.  Jesus was chosen as a sacrifice according to the rules of the Old Testament Law.  Just a thought.

Here is another note that I found interesting:

“These things ye shall do unto the Lord in your set feasts—From the statements made in this and the preceding chapter, it appears that the yearly offerings made to the altar at the public expense, without taking into account a vast number of voluntary vow and trespass offerings, were calculated at the following amount:—goats, fifteen; kids, twenty-one; rams, seventy-two; bullocks, one hundred thirty-two; lambs, 1,101; sum-total of animals sacrificed at public cost, 1,241. This, of course, is exclusive of the prodigious addition of lambs slain at the passover, which in later times, according to Josephus, amounted in a single year to the immense number of 255,600.”^[3]

The term “feast of booths, or tabernacles is not explained in the scripture.  The reason for this is that  they were dwelling in booths during this festival, similar to their dwelling in booths during the exodus.  According to Nelson’s Bible Dictionary these booths were constructed of palm and willow trees which were similar to the temporary shelters or “tabernacles” that the Jews constructed during their journey across the desert.  This was the most expensive and most extravagant of the sacrifices, some feel that that is because it was in the fall, and at the end of the harvest.  God wanted them to immediately give their firstfruits to Him, which is the reason that this is such a demanding festival.  God is first in everything, remember, it is all about God, not about us.

I am going to close here, I missed a few things in this chapter and hope that if you are willing you will be able to fill in the blanks.

Father, as we consider the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, I ask that each of us will realize the importance of the Old Testament sacrifices in understanding just what Jesus did for us.

In Him,

Joe Turner.