The Sacrifices (28:1-31)
Neal Pollard
Crucial to the people’s impending conquering of Canaan was seeing to their spiritual welfare. Their priests had to make “a continual burnt offering every day” (3). The Hebrews writer references this and the events of Numbers 29 (9:6-7), with his point being that Christ appeared and “entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (9:12). So, while they were about to inherit the land promise made to Abraham (Gen. 12:7), they would still have to make these continual sacrifices to atone for their sins.
Think of all the death, the blood, the time, the inconvenience, just to cover their daily, weekly, and yearly sins. We’ve never had to live that way. We don’t have such a graphic reminder under Christ, but a chapter like Numbers 28 can help us put the seriousness of sin into proper perspective. The Lord says, “You shall be careful to present My offering, My food for My offerings by fire, of a soothing aroma to Me, at their appointed time” (2). Specific offerings, a specific way, at a specific time. God is a God of details. It matters.
1. The daily burnt offering (2 male lambs, one in the morning and the other at twilight, with the grain offering and the drink offering (1-8)
2. The sabbath day offering (2 male lambs, with grain and drink offering)(9-10)
3. The monthly burnt offering (2 bulls, 1 ram, 7 male lambs of specific age and without defect, with grain offering and drink offering, and one male goat)(11-15)
4. The annual Passover offering (14th day of 1st month followed by a feast week, no work the first day, an offering of 2 bulls, 1 ram, 7 male lambs, 1 male goat with grain offering and drink offering)(16-25)
5. The annual Feast of Weeks offering (offer first fruits of new grain plus 2 young bulls, 1 ram, 7 male lambs, and 1 male goat with grain offering and drink offerings)(26-31).
Doing the math, that’s a lot of time, expense, trouble, and inconvenience. How long before this got to be laborious, before the people lost sight of the seriousness of their sin in the chore of bringing these animals and the food and drink offerings over and over again?
I see a couple of challenges for us: (1) Appreciating the sufficiency of Christ’s one-time sacrifice and the better covenant, (2) Keeping focus, with gratitude, on the Lord during the Lord’s Supper each week, and (3) Living daily with the knowledge that we’ve been so favored by God to be in Jesus Christ. How will this change our relationship with God each day and our sense of urgency to share this with people whose sins are not covered by the blood of the Perfect Lamb?
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