Daily Bible Reading Saturday 22nd August 2020
by William Moody
Numbers 15:1–21
Laws About Sacrifices
15:1 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you, 3 and you offer to the LORD from the herd or from the flock a food offering1 or a burnt offering or a sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or at your appointed feasts, to make a pleasing aroma to the LORD, 4 then he who brings his offering shall offer to the LORD a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah2 of fine flour, mixed with a quarter of a hin3 of oil; 5 and you shall offer with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, a quarter of a hin of wine for the drink offering for each lamb. 6 Or for a ram, you shall offer for a grain offering two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil. 7 And for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 8 And when you offer a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, to fulfill a vow or for peace offerings to the LORD, 9 then one shall offer with the bull a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with half a hin of oil. 10 And you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
11 “Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram, or for each lamb or young goat. 12 As many as you offer, so shall you do with each one, as many as there are. 13 Every native Israelite shall do these things in this way, in offering a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 14 And if a stranger is sojourning with you, or anyone is living permanently among you, and he wishes to offer a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, he shall do as you do. 15 For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before the LORD. 16 One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.”
17 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 18 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land to which I bring you 19 and when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a contribution to the LORD. 20 Of the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution; like a contribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it. 21 Some of the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD as a contribution throughout your generations.
Footnotes
[1] 15:3
Or an offering by fire; so throughout Numbers
[2] 15:4An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters
[3] 15:4A hin was about 4 quarts or 3.5 liters (ESV)
We return today to consider the children of Israel in the wilderness. It will be 40 years before the children of Israel will enter the Promised Land, yet even now Moses is being told about the offerings the people have to make when they enter it (v1-4). The message is clear, to be part of God’s chosen people, to be a resident in the Promised Land, sacrifice must be made for your sin.
The purpose of these sacrifices for sin is to please God (v7, 13). God’s perfect justice has to be satisfied and it can only be satisfied through a sacrifice exactly carried out as God decrees. God and not man decides how God’s wrath is satisfied.
It doesn’t matter who the person is, an Israelite or an alien, the same sacrifices for sin have to be made (v13-16). All these sacrifices were pointing forward to Jesus who said that he was ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life” and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14 v6). We need to be confident in the message of the Gospel and confidently proclaim Jesus and His death as the only way of salvation and to enter the Promised Land.
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