The Laws of Offerings


Sermon by on February 6, 2008 Numbers 28:1-31

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Wednesday Evening
February 6, 2008


Numbers 28:1-31
Numbers — With God in the Wilderness:
“The Laws of Offerings”

Dr. J. Ligon
Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with
me to Numbers 28, as we continue our way through this great book. A couple of
weeks ago, we were looking at the long list of names of the heads of families of
the tribes of Israel recorded in the census in Numbers 26, and we noted that
among other things the names and numbers were listed there for the purpose of
land inheritance. Even though the children of Israel weren’t yet in the Promised
Land, but were in fact camped outside of the Promised Land in Midian getting
ready to go into the final battles that would lead them into the possession of
the Promised Land, already God was getting an indication by His own direct
command of the size of Israel for the apportionment of that land.

It was another way yet again that God would impress
upon His people that He was going to fulfill the promise that He had made to
Abraham four hundred and thirty-something years before: He was going to give
them a land flowing with milk and honey. And even though He had made that
promise — and forty years beforehand the people of God had doubted whether He
could fulfill it — He had marched them all the way through the wilderness, He
had been with them every step of the way, He had guarded them against their
enemies, and now He was going to take them into the land. And He was making
preparation to give a just apportionment of that land to His people once they
were in it.

Then we studied that strange passage in Numbers
27:1-11 about the daughters of Zelophahad, and we encountered (in that seemingly
obscure passage pertaining to, of all things, Mosaic inheritance law…land
inheritance law) a story about unmarried daughters who, under Mosaic Law to this
point, were not covered in the provision for land inheritance. If there were no
sons in a family, then the land of that family passed on directly either to a
brother or to an uncle, and then on to the next nearest male kin of the land
holder. And these daughters of Zelophahad come to Moses, and they say, ‘Moses,
we’d like you to consider our situation. If the land is given to the next male
kin of our father’s family, then our father’s name will disappear. We want you
to consider allowing us to inherit, and we trust the Lord to give the right
answer.’ And so Moses inquires of the Lord, and the Lord says something
extraordinary. Do you remember what He says in Numbers 27? I don’t think there
is a passage like this anywhere else in the Bible. The Lord responds, “The
daughters of Zelophahad are right.” And the Lord God changes the inheritance law
of Israel. Not because the daughters of Zelophahad came and said, ‘Look, even
the pagan cultures around us allow unmarried daughters to inherit.’ They didn’t
appeal to the culture around them. They appealed to the justice and the kindness
of the living God, and the living God showed His justice and kindness in
response to their obedient trusting, coming to the mediator, Moses. And so they
were given the inheritance coming so their father’s name would continue on in
the land. It’s really an amazing passage.

And then, if it can get any more amazing than that,
in the very next passage, in Numbers 27:12-23, we found out that though all of
those heads of families are going to inherit land in Israel, and even the
unmarried daughters of Zelophahad are going to inherit land in Israel, Moses is
not going to inherit land in Canaan. In fact, Moses isn’t going to go into the
land of Canaan at all, because Moses had been disrespectful to the Lord God in
front of all of Israel at the waters of Meribah. And God in His just judgment
told Moses that he could look at the land. He could see it, but he was not going
to enter it. He was going to be gathered to his fathers just like Aaron before
the children of Israel entered into the land. It’s quite an extraordinary
passage, this section that we’ve been studying.

Well, tonight we come to a section of laws. And I
think one of the very reasons that we come to a passage like Numbers 28, with a
series of seemingly obscure laws about offerings and sacrifices, and scratch our
heads, is that we don’t understand the centrality of worship in God’s plan.

As we look at this passage, let me give you a
little bit of outlining to help you follow along.
In the first two verses of
Numbers 28, an overarching statement is made by God pertaining to all the
various appointed offerings, and then in verses 3-8, the daily offerings are
described. In verses 9-10, the weekly offerings are described. In
verses 11-15, the special offerings of food and drink are described that
take place monthly
. And then in verses 16 to the end of the chapter, the
yearly offering or sacrifice that occurs in the Passover, the
Feast of the Unleavened Bread, is described. And so various time-sequence
related offerings or sacrifices are described in this passage.

Now this is not unusual in Leviticus or Numbers.
We’ve encountered already in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers passages like this
describing the offerings of Israel. What is interesting about this passage is it
is directed toward the priests, as to their duties in administering these
various sacrifices. So let’s pray before we read God’s word, and ask for Him to
help us hear it and benefit from it. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for this Your word,
and even as we come to a passage again in this great book which is seemingly
obscure, we ask that You would open our eyes to understand it, to behold it in a
way that we hadn’t before. And that You would cause us to bless You, and that
You would cause us to believe in Your word, and that You would cause us to trust
in Christ. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hear the word of God.

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Command the people of Israel and
say to them, ‘My offering, my food for my food offerings, my pleasing aroma, you
shall be careful to offer to Me at its appointed time.’ And you shall say to
them, This is the food offering that you shall offer to the Lord: two male lambs
a year old without blemish, day by day, as a regular offering. The one lamb you
shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; also
a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with a quarter of
a hin of beaten oil. It is a regular burnt offering, which was ordained at Mount
Sinai for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. Its drink offering
shall be a quarter of a hin for each lamb. In the Holy Place you shall pour out
a drink offering of strong drink to the Lord. The other lamb you shall offer at
twilight. Like the grain offering of the morning, and like its drink offering,
you shall offer it as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

“On the Sabbath day, two male lambs a year old without blemish, and
two tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with oil and
its drink offering: this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the
regular burnt offering and its drink offering.

“At the beginnings of your months, you shall offer a burnt offering
to the Lord: two bulls from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old
without blemish; also three tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a grain
offering, mixed with oil, for each bull, and two tenths of fine flour for a
grain offering, mixed with oil, for the one ram; and a tenth of fine flour mixed
with oil as a grain offering for every lamb; for a burnt offering with a
pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. Their drink offerings shall be half
a hin of wine for a bull, a third of a hin for a ram, and a quarter of a hin for
a lamb. This is the burnt offering of each month throughout the months of the
year. Also one male goat for a sin offering to the Lord; it shall be offered
besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.

“On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord’s Passover,
and on the fifteenth day of this month is a feast. Seven days shall unleavened
bread be eaten. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall
not do any ordinary work, but offer a food offering, a burnt offering to the
Lord: two bulls from the herd, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old; see
that they are without blemish; also their grain offering of fine flour mixed
with oil; three tenths of an ephah shall you offer for a bull, and two tenths
for a ram; a tenth shall you offer for each of the seven lambs; also one male
goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you. You shall offer these
besides the burnt offering of the morning, which is for a regular burnt
offering. In the same way you shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of a
food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It shall be offered besides
the regular burnt offering and its drink offering. And on the seventh day you
shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work.

“On the day of the firstfruits, when you offer a grain offering of
new grain to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation.
You shall not do any ordinary work, but offer a burnt offering, with a pleasing
aroma to the Lord: two bulls from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs, a year
old; also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an
ephah for each bull, two tenths for one ram, a tenth for each of the seven
lambs; with one male goat, to make atonement for you. Besides the regular burnt
offering and its grain offering, you shall offer them and their drink offering.
See that they are without blemish.”

Amen. And thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired,
and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts.

Now these instructions about offerings, similar to
instructions that we have encountered in Exodus, Leviticus, and previously in
Numbers — like in Numbers 15 — are given to us for a reason.
The children of
Israel are in Midian. For the first time in their existence (and you’re going to
see this in Numbers 31), they’re going to have enough cattle at their disposal
to be able to offer these offerings. The Lord himself had to provide the
offering for Israel to offer to Him, and after they defeat the Midianites, they
are going to have cattle galore. They’re on the verge of entering into the land,
and this system of sacrificial offerings could only be fully carried out when
the children of Israel were stationery, no longer nomadic in the wilderness
where they didn’t have at their disposal these kinds of animals and herds and
conditions. And so the Lord here naturally and logically, in Numbers 28, is
preparing the children of Israel to occupy the land.

There are many great lessons in this passage. You can
hear them echoing in repeated phrases. We could meditate the whole night long on
the significance of the phrase, “a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” We could
meditate on the fact that the daily offerings were to be offered — when? In the
morning and in the evening…morning and twilight. We could meditate upon the call
for the Sabbath rest and the holy convocation, the cessation of work. There are
so many things in this passage that we could fruitfully and profitably meditate
upon.

But I want to draw your attention to three things,
and let me summarize the outline of the message tonight with three
words–Worship, Sacrifice, and Jesus.
Because this great passage that we have
just read teaches us about worship, sacrifice, and Jesus. How was it that the
children of Israel were going to go into this land, a land filled with pagans
(Canaanites), beset on every side by false belief, by false religion, by
unethical practice, by superstitious ways, and retain the mind of God? Continue
in the pursuit of the one true God? Still seek fellowship with the one true God?

I. Worship.
The answer in one word is: Worship. Worship is designed by
God not only to be an act of the highest privilege in which His people
entered into communion with Him
, but worship was designed to save Israel
from the world
.
And so it was perfectly logical for God to pause as
Israel was on the verge of going into the land of Canaan and to say to the
priests again, ‘Now remember: the daily, and the weekly, and the monthly, and
the yearly cycles of worship and offering and sacrifice are absolutely vital for
My people, for it is through worship that I will create them as a people. It is
through worship that they will experience communion with Me. It is through
worship that they will be protected from the world.’ And you ask me how are all
these sacrifices and offerings and such going to protect Israel from the world.
Well, think about it.

First of all, in all of these details — all of
these details
which are required for the children of Israel to approach the
living God — what message comes through loud and clear? Well, one message is
surely this: God is so important that all of these various minute and
expensive details are worth our attending to, because He is more important
than anything in this world
.

Think of the other message that comes through. The
other message is ‘Boy! God must really care about His worship, because He’s
given all of these details.’ And He’s not said to you, ‘Israel, you just figure
out how you want to worship Me. Any way that you want to worship Me is fine.’
No. He said, ‘Israel, you approach Me only in this way.
And again, by this the significance of God is emphasized.

And of course the reason that’s so important is, as
we’ve said over and over in our study of Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers, that
how you worship ends up determining who you are worshiping.
If you get to design the way you worship God, you
will eventually worship a God of your own design
. But if you
worship God in the way that God has appointed for you to worship, you will
worship the only true God — who appoints the way of worshiping the true God
.

And so again in the very act of worship, the children
of Israel have to learn to do what? To defer to God. ‘Lord, we just want to do
Your will. You tell us what to do, and we’ll do it.’ So their worship is a
response to divine revelation.

Now what does all this do? It protects Israel from
the world around them
, because the world around them was busily worshiping
God, but they weren’t worshiping the right God, and they weren’t worshiping
God in the right way, and their lives bore the marks of it
.
So God’s plan to save Israel from the world is through
worship.

Please understand that: that every time we gather
together under God’s word and read the Bible, and pray the Bible, and preach the
Bible, and sing the Bible, and see the sacraments administered as visible words,
God is creating us. He is making us into His people. He is, in the very act of
worshiping Him, solidifying in our hearts allegiance to Him. He is forming in
our minds what He is like.
He is teaching us to view Him as He is, not
according to our own opinions or perspectives. He is teaching us that He defines
himself to us. We don’t learn what He’s like from the world, and He’s making us
distinct from that world. That’s exactly what’s going on here, and this is why
it’s so important that again Moses will pause and repeat, by God’s instruction,
the rules about the offerings of sacrifices in Israel.

Worship was designed to save Israel from the world.
And again, these minute instructions about worship show its importance, and they
remind us of the function that it had amongst the people of God in the old
covenant.

II. Sacrifice
Secondly, if there is one hallmark in this passage about true
worship in Israel, it can be summed up in the word sacrifice. Sacrifice
is repeatedly featured in this list of rules about the offerings, because
sacrifice is at the very heart of true worship.

Did you count up what this would mean that Israel
would offer every year? Totally apart from the special offerings? Did you count
it up? OK, if you didn’t, let me tell you what it is: 113 bulls every year; 32
rams every year; 1,086 lambs every year; more than a ton of flour; and more than
1,000 bottles of oil and wine. And these are just the regular offerings.
These are not the special offerings. These are not the discretionary voluntary
offerings. These are not the special family sin offerings. These are just the
regular offerings — 113 bulls, 32 rams, 1,086 lambs, a ton of flour, 1,000
bottles of oil and wine. Over and over and over it is driven home that at the
heart of Israel’s worship is going to be what? Sacrifice. At the heart
of Israel’s worship is going to be atonement.
It’s absolutely essential to
Israel’s worship.

What does Israel learn from this? Well, Israel
learns, for instance, we’re alive because of sacrifice. We deserve to be
judged, but God has accepted a sacrifice in our place.
Just as He spared
Isaac and substituted that ram in the thicket, so He has spared us. Just as that
lamb was slaughtered on the night of Passover, and the angel of death passed
over us because of the blood shed from that lamb smeared on the doorposts and
lentils of our houses, so also in these sacrifices we are spared. We’re alive
because of sacrifice. And the children of Israel could say, ‘You know what?
We’re in the land because of sacrifice. We deserve — all of us — we deserve all
of us to be dead out there in the wilderness, dead out there in the desert. But
because of sacrifice, we’re alive and we’re in the land. We’re recipients of
God’s promises because of the sacrifices. We wouldn’t be alive to receive God’s
promises were it not for the sacrifices. We’re forgiven because of these
sacrifices.’

Notice how over and over God presses home that
sacrifice is at the heart of true worship. Why? Because the children of
Israel would have to recognize that sacrifice reminds us that something’s wrong.

It reminds us that there’s something wrong. You wouldn’t sacrifice if everything
was right. There’s something wrong. And the something that’s wrong is us:
we’re sinners, and we’re trying to commune in worship with the holy God.
And we can’t do that apart from sacrifice, and it reminds us that there’s
nothing we can do to restore that fellowship
. Only God can appoint and
provide something to restore that fellowship
.

It’s so interesting, isn’t it, that God not only
commands the sacrifices to be given, but He will eventually provide for Israel
the animals that will be required to offer these sacrifices. He had to give them
both the instruction for the sacrifices and the animals for the sacrifices. They
couldn’t produce that on their own. They were totally dependent upon God. And so
the children of Israel not only learned that there’s something wrong — their sin
— and it requires a sacrifice, but that God provides the sacrifice. He provides
the way that they can come back into His fellowship. So Israel learns a
huge lesson from this: that communion with God requires the shedding of blood in
a sacrifice for atonement for sin.

III. Jesus.
But there’s one more thing that this passage teaches us. It not
only teaches us about worship; it not only teaches us about sacrifice; it
teaches us about Jesus.
Because in these very instructions — did you catch
them? — in these very instructions, Israel was also learning another message,
and that was that these animal sacrifices by themselves just won’t do.
Because guess what? We can offer them today, and they need to be offered again
tomorrow. And we can offer them this week, and they need to be offered again
next week. And we can offer them this month, and they have to be offered again
next month. And we can offer them this year, and they have to be offered again
next year.

In fact, the author of Hebrews, in Hebrews 10:1-4,
tells us that the people of God learned from the repetition of these sacrifices
day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, that the
blood of bulls and goats cannot forgive sins
. And therefore, they pointed
to the only sacrifice that can.

That’s why when John sees Jesus coming he says,
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who comes to take away the sin of the world.”
That
is why every believer’s heart ought to fill up to overflowing in gratitude,
because now suddenly all of those offerings which were ineffective in cleansing
the conscience of the offerer, in forgiving the sin of the one who participated
in the sacrifice…all of those come to fruition in the one whose death brought
about the forgiveness of sins.

That’s why it’s so beautiful…the phrase that’s
repeated in the book of Hebrews that “once for all” He made sacrifice for sin.
And consequently, no sacrifice remains that needs to be offered, because He has
in himself provided the final, the real, the only sacrifice that’s acceptable to
the living God. No, even the very repetition of sacrifices in this passage and
others like it in the laws of Moses point us to the ineffectiveness and the
shadowy prefiguring nature of these sacrifices that point to the real, the only,
the one sacrifice that’s offered in Jesus Christ.

This passage teaches us about worship, and it teaches
about sacrifice as at the very heart of worship. And then it reminds us that
the reason there is no bloody altar in this building, and the reason that there
is no weekly sacrifice offered in this building Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day as
we gather together
is because one offering has already been made that has
covered the sins of men and women and boys and girls from every tribe and tongue
and people and nation
–a multitude that no man can number – of all
those who trust in Jesus Christ, and they are completely forgiven.

And so sacrifice is at the heart of our worship too,
even though there is no blood administered Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day here.
Because the blood has already been shed in Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice is
why we are able to commune with the living God tonight…next Lord’s Day…and
forever.

Let’s pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank You for pausing to
record again the laws of the offerings of the sacrifices that Israel would have
to give to You. We thank You for the lessons of this passage, though we’ve only
scratched the surface. We pray that we would rely only upon the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and that we would presume to bring no other sacrifice: not
what our hands have done, O Lord, but only what Christ has done. He has provided
the basis of our everlasting communion with You. Grant that we would receive and
trust in Him alone. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Would you stand for God’s blessing.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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